| Babylon Idiomas Costa Rica - learn Spanish in Costa Rica |
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the schools Babylon Idiomas offers you a choice of four amazing Spanish language schools in Costa Rica. You can enjoy all of our campuses during your Spanish course provided your minimum stay in a campus is two weeks and you plan your itinerary before you arrive: ARENAL PLAYA DOMINICAL TAMARINDO BEACH TURRIALBA DON'T KNOW WHERE TO GO? COMBINE SCHOOLS! |
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Adult programmes Facts: Individual
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| • | Intensive Spanish course (4 hours per day group course) |
| • | Airport pickup and overnight stay at our San Jose guest house |
| • | Routing and bus fare to your first school (does not include return bus trip or transportation between schools) |
| • | Internet access |
| • | Laundry service (Dominical only - host families do your laundry in Turrialba) |
| • | One mid-week 1/2 day adventure tour per week |
| • | One weekend full-day adventure tour per week |
Weeks: 1 – 52
Class Max: 6
Lessons per week: 20 Intensive English + 1½ day adventure tours
Lesson time: 52,5 minutes
Levels: All levels
Start Dates: Every Monday
Accomodation:
Host Family
Staying with a host family is a great way to learn the language and make new friends. all families are carefully selected by our school and they look forward to making you feel at home in our city and help you learn Spanish. You will have your own room in the family's house. You will have your own set of keys so you have complete freedom. Towels and linen are provided. All tax, electricity and water charges are included. You can receive telephone calls. Family homes are no more than 30 minutes away from the school by public transport.
Please note that 'family' may mean a single household as well and that no more than 2 other students could share the household with you and the family member(s). Please inform us about any dietary requirements.
Leisure
Our campuses in Costa Rica offer a mix of in-school activities such as dance classes and cooking lessons (at no extra cost) with a whole range of tours and activities that differ by school.
Here is a sample of some tour activities for the different campuses. Our schools organise one half day our each week and one full day weekend tour each week. These tours can be booked at the school or are already included if you booked the Deluxe Course. The tour schedule varies every week and is subject to weather conditions.
TURRIALBA
Rio Pejibaye Scenic Float Trip (Half day excursion)
Close to Turrialba, this gem of a little river features excellent tropical and rainforest canopy and water so clear it's almost blue in colour. There are a number of different access points near the school, which allow us the ability to tailor the trip to different groups. Some sections have class 3 rapids, whereas the Scenic Float Trip is a perfect activity for those who wish to go rafting, but do not want to deal with difficult whitewater runs. This trip offers excellent scenery, aquatic birds, and opportunities for clean water swimming. This is a wonderful way to spend an afternoon in a tropical paradise.
Coffee Adventure (Half day excursion)
We will show you, not only authentic local agricultural and sustainable forestry methods of planting and production in beautiful locations, but also take you back on a historical voyage way back into the cultural, agricultural and commercial past of this private farm and the petroglyphs discovered there. The Contreras Family has been farming for over 50 years in this area of Turrialba once known as the Eagles View (Barrio Colorado). Here they utilize nurse trees to shade the coffee, and grow a diversity of other cash crops to shield them from the risk of unstable coffee prices on the World market. This crops include wood trees, and fruit trees like bananas, plantain, lemons and citrus trees. We will discuss how he balances the harvesting of these trees to avoid damage to the coffee.
Horseback Tour to Laguna Bonilla (Full day weekend excursion)
Students are picked up in Turrialba Saturday morning and driven a half-hour from Turrialba to the remote village of Peralta. There they saddle up their horses at the Rain Forest World Banana Farm and ride down the abandoned railroad tracks of the famous jungle train. This will takes students through primary and secondary rainforests, past numerous bridges and even a long tunnel. After a couple of hours the tour turns up into the hills and soon arrives at the extremely remote and secluded Laguna Bonilla, a beautiful volcanic lake. There the tour will stop for an hour and half and students can swim in the lake and eat lunch. At the end of the day the driver will pick everyone up and take them back down to Turrialba
PLAYA DOMINICAL
Flight of the Toucan Zipline Tour (Half day tour)
This is the most exciting of the tours offered by Hacienda Baru. The group arrives to the reserve at 2:00 p.m., where they are geared up with harnesses and helmets. Then after a short hike up into the rainforest, you arrive at the first platform where you can launch yourself across the valley below. During the tour, your guides explain the flora and fauna of the primary and secondary rainforest around you, including the 150 year-old trees, sloths, and poison dart frogs you may encounter along the way. Recommended items: comfortable shoes for walking, camera, water, and insect repellent.
Cowboy for a Half a Day
For this visit to Rancho La Merced, you will learn to ride horses on the ranch driving cattle. Techniques are taught how rope cattle, tag a new calf, and check cow's heat cycle, and maintain the ranch. Things to bring: sunscreen, insect repellant, comfortable clothes you can get dirty, pants for riding, sneakers or boots.
Trip to Manuel Antonio National Park (Full day weekend tour)
Leaving at 7 a.m., you get to travel past private nature reserves and palm plantations north from Dominical to Quepos, possibly sighting monkeys, pizotes, or sloths up in the canopy. Then the ride continues to the park entrance, where a bi-lingual guide will help you spot all four species of monkeys found in Costa Rica with their telescope, along with identifying some of the ancient trees of the primary rainforest. After the approximately 3 hour hike through the National Park's well maintained trails, you get to relax on the amazing beach, check out the local artisan stands, or rent a kayak to paddle out to a uninhabited island before returning to Dominical at about 4 p.m. Recommended items: comfortable hiking shoes or sandals, swimsuit, sunscreen, and insect repellent.
ARENAL
Arenal Volcano Tour (Half day tour)
Hiking tour: Takes 20 minutes from the school to the Arenal Volcano National Park. The guide starts the tour giving a brief description of the area. There are different trails and the most interesting one is the old lava flows trail, where students can appreciate the vestiges of last eruptions. At almost sunset time, we walk into the primary and secondary forest trails to watch several animals of the area, such as: toucans, guams, white nose coatis, parrots, and more. Returning from the park, around 6:00, we stop in a special view point to admire the lava flowing from the volcano.
Rio Toro Rafting (Full day weekend tour)
Rio Toro is a pristine water river located one hour away from La Fortuna. This is a class 2 and 3 rapids river, so any experience is required. Birds and some mamals are easy to see on the border of the river. We enjoy the lunch in a beach river in the middle of the tour.
Canopy Tour and Horseback Riding (Full day weekend tour)
The adventure begins when you arrive at the stables and the guides give you an idea of your tour, then you get part of your equipment and you horseback ride for approximately 45 minutes. When we arrive at our destination, we give you the rest of the necessary equipment. We continue with a short walk through the transitional forest where a guide points out things that prevail in the rain forest. Some times it is possible to see several species of animals, such as white faced and howler monkey, rodents, snakes and a great diversity of birds.
About Costa Rica
Costa Rica is one of the most beautiful destinations in the world to learn Spanish. Costa Rica is the oldest democracy in Central America and a very safe country to travel. The citizens of Costa Rica call themselves “Ticos” and we like to think that that they are among the nicest people on earth. Costa Rica is famous for its ecology and it offers an amazing variety of scenery and activities. It has become one of the most popular destinations to learn Spanish. The combination of studying and activities is unbeatable. Costa Rica is a tropical country in the heart of Central America, wedged between the Pacific and Atlantic ocean with approximately 4 million inhabitants. Its capital is San José located in the centre of the country.
Costa Rica has a year round tropical climate with a dry season that runs from December to April and a wet season that runs from May to November.Flights and airports
The central international airport of Costa Rica is located near San José.
Student visa information
If you are a passport holder of any of the following countries, you can stay for up to 90 days without a visa: Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea (Rep. of), Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, USA and Uruguay for a stay of up to 90 days.
If you are a passport holder of any of the following countries, you can stay for up to 30 days without a visa: Antigua & Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Dominica, France, French Overseas Possessions, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Iceland, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya, Kuwait, Mexico, Monaco, New Zealand, Oman, Philippines, Qatar, Russian Federation, St Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent & The Grenadines, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovak Republic, South Africa, Surinam, Taiwan (China), Trinidad & Tobago, UAE, Vatican City and Venezuela
All other passport holders require a visa for entry. Please contact your local Costa Rican embassy or consulate for more details.