Teen Summer Spanish Language Camp in Salamanca, Spain

I recently participated in a teen travel Spanish immersion course in Salamanca, Spain. Overall, the experience was positive, though there were areas that could be improved.

Pros:

Engaging Activities: The program included various cultural activities and excursions that were both fun and educational. Visits to museums, historical sites, and local markets enriched our understanding of Spanish culture.

Friendships: One of the highlights was meeting other teens from different parts of the world. The friendships and cultural exchanges we experienced were invaluable.

Overall Experience:

The teen travel Spanish immersion course in Salamanca was a worthwhile experience that provided a unique opportunity to improve my Spanish skills while enjoying the rich culture of Spain. While there were a few areas that could use improvement, the overall experience was positive and rewarding. I would recommend this program to other teens interested in language immersion and cultural exploration.

My experience with green heart travel was a great, seamless one. I suggest any parents who are worried about communication with their children to put their worries to rest, as it being my first time traveling alone, I found that there were even less issues then when I travel with others! Greenheart travel has done such a good job with organization, picking good host families, and immersing students into the culture and community without creating too much negative culture shock. I found that adapting to life in Spain became very easy when I learned from the language program. Overall, it was a beautiful experience I would definitely do again!

We were disappointed with our Greenheart experience.  We found communication very challenging. 
The complication arose when our 14 year old was left at the airport in Spain alone and no one was answering emergency numbers.  We paid an additional $75 fee for a chaperone to meet him, his flight arrived at 6am which was outside the "normal" time. We did not have an issue paying this fee, however when the chaperone failed to show our son called us.  At just after 1am EST (just after 6am in Spain) my husband and I called both the emergency phone numbers we were given, one in the USA and one in Spain.  The number in the USA was an answering service (much like a doctors after hour number) and the service said both people who were supposed to be on call were not responding.  As for the number in Spain no one was answering.  So neither of the emergency numbers we were given worked and our 14 year old son was 3000 miles away in a different country.  We entrusted our son's care with Greenheart and they failed.   We were given instructions on the exact meeting location and our son confirmed with Airport security that he was in the correct spot. We were told later that the chaperone went to the wrong location.   We finally were able to get through to Spain at 8:25 Spain time.
When I finally did connect with  Ana at Greenheart she apologized and said it was a good "learning experience" for our son and they would be refunding the chaperone fee.  However I followed up a week later she told me that they would not refund the fee as despite the fact the Chaperone went to wrong location he was there.  I had to send screen shots of my call logs to Emergency numbers and the length of time he was left alone to finally get them to refund this fee. 

We were stunned that no one bothered to answer the emergency lines despite knowing there were students scheduled to arrive.  We were also surprised that even though Greenheart had our sons cell number as well as ours they never shared this with the chaperone who could have just called us or our son when he was unable to locate him at the airport.
The other issue was what is promised on their website and what the kids actually get is not the same.  The greenheart website says:Students that arrive at the Madrid airport before 11am travel by train to SalamancaStudents that arrive at the Madrid airport between 11am and 4pm will take the group shuttle that departs after 4:00pmSince my son was arriving at 6 am I assumed he would be traveling by train to Salamanca, however I was told that he would have to wait at the airport until 4 pm (10 hrs of waiting) to depart by shuttle.  When I pointed this out, Greenheart finally agreed to coordinate two groups so that early arriving students didn't have to wait at the airport for 10 additional hrs.
As for supervision and host experience the kids are pretty much left on their own to do whatever they want.  The host family was very nice but there were a lot of people staying in their home, not all of them students,  it seems they also rented out rooms to travelers.  Greenheart also did not know who else would be staying with the host family which was not comforting.  The students were given keys and allowed to pretty much come and go.  Our son is used to NYC streets and is outgoing so he had fun exploring but if you are concerned with supervision there was not a lot.
The classes at Estudio Sampere my son enjoyed and I would recommend going directly to them and skip using Greenheart.
All and all it was a very disappointing experience.  Communication is too challenging. I realize that we all make mistakes but what is telling is how people respond when a mistake is made.
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I loved being surrounded by Spanish on the daily. And the classes in Spanish made it even better. It felt like every interaction was an improvement from the last. The teachers are kind and helpful, and I learned so many new things each day. They even helped with options on how to continue practicing my Spanish. The people in Salamanca are so friendly and the surroundings are beautiful. If you got lost or were trying to find out what you were supposed to be doing, you could ask essentially anybody, and they would be willing to help out. It makes you feel safer in the city too. I would recommend this trip to anyone, it's safe, easy to navigate (it helps if you ask the people around you), and has so many amazing sights. The museums are awesome and all the history is super interesting. If you want to practice Spanish and try something new, Salamanca is where you want to go.

I studied in Spain for 5 weeks during the summer and it changed my life forever. I learned so much Spanish, met incredible friends from all over the world and most importantly gained life experience that will help me forever such as not giving up when I tried something for the first time, learning how to take care of myself since my host mom was pretty much solely an in-home guardian and my teachers solely in-school guardians. I did always feel safe however and knew I could reach an adult at all times if I ever needed to but for the majority of my tile I was having to look after myself and keep myself entertained, engaged, and safe which has been immeasurably useful in my everyday life as I no longer feel nervous having to do anything alone. I also learned how to make the most out of every situation and find the silver lining in everything! My trip abroad was the best five weeks of my life. Of course I had my ups and downs (especially when I saw a cockroach for the first time since I live in Alaska and we don’t have any and of course it was in my room), but I learned from every experience and truly believe I became a much better person for it.

I would highly recommend the Greenheart Teen Language Camp in Salamanca, Spain. I attended for 6 weeks which was treat for truly learning the language. I had an amazing experience! While it was difficult in the beginning it ended up being one of the most rewarding experience. I learned more in 3 weeks than I did in 2 years of learning Spanish in school. The instructors were so wonderful and fun. You can walk everywhere and everyone does. It is such a beautiful city and evergone is so friendly.

Wow this has been quite an experience! I have to say Salamanca is one of the most gorgeous cities I have ever visited. I honestly loved everything in there - my host family, my roommate which became a very close friend of mine, the school, the fact that I improved my Spanish skills so much, the teachers, all of the people in the program, the city, the food - in one word everything. I have already been studying Spanish for 3 years but I have never had the confidence nor the chance to speak and practice it outside of my classes which was one of the main reasons why I joined this program. I truly gained more confidence in that department and when I visited Madrid right after my stay in Salamanca I had no problem with speaking with the locals which made me so happy. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and my stay there was very short. I would have loved to stay for at least 4 weeks, but since it was my first time traveling alone and joining a language camp in a foreign country I thought that 2 weeks would be an appropriate amount of time to stay there. I would definitely recommend this journey to everyone, especially if you are in high school and I am considering on returning next year.

Going to Spain was the one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I learned so much Spanish between my classes and host family that now, I feel much more comfortable speaking Spanish around native speakers. I made so many new friends from all over the US and Europe! I especially will remember how friendly and selfless everyone was. My host mom was always there and ready to help us with anything. The teachers were incredible and adapted perfectly to each student’s needs. I want to go back!