CPI - Centro Panamerico de Idiomas

Over 3 months, I enjoyed myself immensely in this program. I went not knowing hardly a single word of Spanish, and my first tica family were the most welcoming, and ended up helping me through the hard parts of learning a new language in a foreign country.

The fact that this school had three campuses was a huge draw, and ended up being pretty fun.... I got to experience three very different climates/sub-cultures of the country and the change-up in teachers was welcome as well.

All this being said, you find out that the school only pays their tica families a tiny fraction of what you pay to attend, and at least when I attended (2006), I found out, well into my pre-paid courses, that I could have done a similar language trip, for half the cost, in Nicaragua. Safety-wise, this may be a better option, but if I had to do it all over again, I probably would have shortened my coursework with this program, with only stays at their Heredia and most of the time spend at their Monteverde campus, and then have transferred to another part of beautiful Central America.