I saw a TikTok about Lake Atitlan Spanish School in San Pedro La Laguna, Guatemala — people in the comments were saying it was one of the best things they had EVER done. The old Hannah would have never voluntarily gone to school while on vacation, but this is sabbatical Hannah! She’s different! I took the plunge on Christmas Day and reserved two weeks of lessons in January 2024.

Spanish lessons

The benefit to learning Spanish in Guatemala — and specifically at Lake Atitlan — is that the locals tend to speak slowly and clearly (unlike Cuba, SHEESH!). There are SO many Spanish schools around Lake Atitlan with great reviews so it was really hard to pick one. I had narrowed it down to Lake Atitlan Spanish School and Community Spanish School, but I ultimately chose Lake Atitlan Spanish School for its central location in San Pedro and photogenic lake views.

I signed up for two weeks with four hours of 1:1 instruction per day (20 hours per week). Most people do 4 hours daily on a Mon-Fri schedule, but you could do anywhere from 3-6 hours per day and also do partial weeks.

Pricing: I paid Q1080 (quetzales, the Guatemalan currency) for each week of class, which is about $140 USD. That’s just $28/ day for 4 hours of private instruction, plus after-school activities, coffee and tea, and a hot snack during your break! SUCH GOOD VALUE. See the school’s current pricing here.

I told my teacher, Lencho, that I wanted to focus mainly on conversation and less on reading/ writing, so we spent most of our lessons just chatting in Spanish about our lives.

One of my sabbatical goals was to improve my Spanish so I could have better chats with my El Salvadoran neighbor, Josme. We speak Spanglish to each other but it felt like it was time to level up my Spanish game. So Lencho and I also practiced conversations I might have with my LA neighbor, Josme… it was basically like an episode of The Rehearsal. “Hola Josme. ¿Usted ve hoy mi árbol de aguacate?” Translation: Hello Josme. Did you see my avocado tree today?

After my first day of class, I texted my bilingual bestie, Molly, that I was pretty sure I was going to be fluent by the end of my two weeks. Lesson learned: though speaking Spanish ~6 hours per day for two weeks will definitely improve your skills, it will NOT make you fluent.

The teachers do assign homework every day. My homework was usually just verb conjugation worksheets, but I also had to write a couple stories from scratch which DEFINITELY stretched my skills. I wrote about my pet spiders, because… ¿por qué no? One of my housemates was a doctor and was aiming to get her Spanish-speaking qualification at work, so she spent a LOT of time doing homework and studying. But another one of my housemates was just there to learn some basic Spanish before traveling throughout South America, so his homework was pretty easy. You get to choose your own adventure!

The school randomly assigns you either morning or afternoon classes. Despite not being a morning person, I actually preferred the morning classes because it gave me the rest of the day off and enough time to explore some nearby towns on the lake. If you do the afternoon classes, it would be difficult to check out another town on the lake and get back in time for class BUT the benefit to these is that you’re already at school for the after-school activity each day (see ‘School Activities’ section below).

Homestay

I opted for the homestay in Lake Atitlan so that I could get the ~full immersive experience~. I highly recommend doing the homestay! It’s arranged by the school and is a great way to meet other students, learn about the local culture and traditions, and practice your Spanish. My host dad, Luis, made my experience so wonderful.

Pricing: I paid Q1080 ($140 USD) per week for a private bedroom and bathroom, including 3 meals a day. The cost covered seven nights of lodging (typically starting on Sunday) and six days of meals.There are no meals provided on Sunday, but there are so many excellent restaurants in San Pedro that it was no problem. See the homestay’s current pricing here.

My particular homestay’s set-up was SWEEET because there were four bedrooms in their own separate wing… on a lakefront property… with a farm… right next to a yoga studio. I really hit the jackpot here. The house was about 25 minutes walk from the school which seemed annoying at first, but I actually ended up loving it because I got so many steps per day. My room was cozy with all the essentials — a bed, desk, chair, and en-suite bathroom, with towels and linens provided.

Mealtimes were a huge highlight of the homestay — both for the food and the silly Spanish conversations. We ate with our host, Luis, who made an incredible variety of meals with veggies straight from the farm. He made fresh juices every day for lunch too. TBH I was worried about the homestay since I’m a secret picky eater but it was not a problem because Luis was such a good cook. The food definitely varies between hosts and it sounds like we just got lucky.

Luis’ granddaughter, Lissy, joined us for dinners most nights and would quiz us on what we learned that day. On my last night, Luis surprised us with frozen chocolate bananas. We spent the evening making silly videos and learning the Spanish words for everything in Lissy’s sticker collection. She liked to joke that my hair was gris (gray) because I was old. I MISS HER MEAN JOKES! I was really sad to leave the homestay!

Lake Atitlan Spanish School Activities

Most of the school’s activities are included in the tuition. The activities change every week but when I was there they had lectures, a game night, salsa classes, a walking tour, a tamale class, and a chocolate workshop. The activities are all optional but they’re a good way to meet your fellow classmates.

I skipped the lectures (SHOCKER), but went to almost everything else. The games night was really useful for meeting people and practicing Spanish. I was hesitant about the salsa class (because I hate touching strangers LOL) but I went both weeks and it was really fun! At the chocolate workshop, we got to sample each of the ingredients at various stages of the chocolate-making process and could buy some of the gazillion flavors of chocolate at the end.

I did the Rostro Maya hike (Indian Nose) but with someone else’s host family and not with the school. See my review of the Rostro Maya hike here. It was incredible and definitely worth the 3:30am wake-up call. I skipped Chichicastenango Market because I only had a small backpack without room for souvenirs and I knew I’d buy too much stuff if I went there. See my San Pedro La Laguna post for more fun things to do in San Pedro.

Sample Daily Schedule

• 6:58am - wake up (this was originally 6:30am, but inched closer and closer to 7am as the days went by)

• 7:00am - breakfast at homestay

• 8am-12pm - class (with 15 minute snack break around 10:30am - snack provided by school)

• 12:30pm - lunch at homestay

• 1:00pm - FREE TIME —> hang out at Sababa pool, do homework at Orbe Cafe, take a lancha (water taxi) to San Marcos, etc.

• 5:00pm - school activity

• 6:00pm - play pool at Alegre or watch the sunset at Sublime

• 7:00pm - dinner at homestay

• 8:00pm - FREE TIME —> do homework, shower, etc.

• 11:00pm - lights out

School & Homestay Doggies

Look at these cuties! There were street dogs everywhere in San Pedro, but many of them belonged to families and just cruised around the town during the day with their doggie friends.

I would recommend this Spanish language immersion experience to anyone! It was such a nice experience and I left with new friends, much better Spanish, and some really lovely memories. I really hope to go back to Lake Atitlan someday soon for another week or two of classes. ¿Por qué no?