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Skype user: Most students who decide to do a homestay join our Group 4 Spanish Course, or Private Spanish Lessons. Students preparing for their DELE Test are obviously recommended to do a family home stay as well. Although we do not have an unlimited pool of host families, we do have a significant database of families to choose from. It is very important that you complete our Total Immersion Pre-Program Interview as soon as you decide to study Spanish with us. In this way more families will be available and that will help us select the best family for you.
Description of our host families that provide home stays
It is somehow difficult to describe a typical host family as there is such a variety. Some are young couples without children, others have babies or teenagers. We also have single parents and couples whose grown-up children no longer live at home but come to visit once in a while and we even have families that have a set of grandparents living with them, which offer an amazing opportunity to learn even more about our past.
Our host families are middle class by local standards. A typical house will have a living room/dining room, a kitchen and bathroom and 3 or 4 bedrooms. There is often a yard outside which people use as an extension of the house. Air condition is not necessary because Boquete's temperature is naturally fresh. The standard of living in Bocas del Toro is slightly lower than in Boquete so expect houses to be humbler. As there are so many different types of host families we ask our students to fill out an Immersion Pre-Program Interview that will help us select the best family for them. We will do our best to choose the family that you are looking for.
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Most families are located within walking distance to our Spanish Schools (5 - 15 minute walk) and only a few of our host families homes are located in the outer parts of the town of Boquete and Bocas del Toro and require public transportation (never more than 10 minutes). The families that are a little bit further away have more up-scale homes and host couples or entire families. Several of those families can give you a ride at certain times of the day.
Facilities included with accommodation at a local host family
Each Spanish language immersion student will be given a private room and study area. Each bedroom is clean, well ventilated and illuminated. Upon request we can arrange a shared room suitable for couples with a private bathroom. Houses that can offer these facilities are usually outside of town within a 10 minute ride by public transportation.
Clean bed linen and towels are given on a weekly basis. Each house provides students with access to daily bath or shower and such is the hygienic custom in our culture. Each family has basic laundry facilities with detergent included and an iron. Students can use the family's laundry facilities if required at an additional fee of $5 per load. There are some families that volunteer to wash their "sons/daugthers" cloths. Like in any family: just talk and you will find out what's the norm in your new house!
Regarding meals, you can choose to have 1, 2 or 3 meals per day and we will select a family accordingly to your needs. Please read the right column of this page to know more about what type of food to expect in your homestay.
Feel free to specify these and/or any other requests trough our Immersion Pre-Program Interview and we'll choose a family just for you!
Spanish language students will be provided with a key to the house and will be allowed to come and go as the please. Our families really know how to look after our students and make them feel at home. Our immersion students are asked to be respectful with the family's customs and although the family will make them feel as comfortably as any other member of the family, we ask our students to remember that they are guests and to always think about how they would like a visitor to behave if they were the hosts. For example, there is no harm in arriving late on weekends, but families always appreciate if you let them know where you plan to be and at what time you plan to arrive because they will have concern of your wellbeing just as any good family would.
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Even if our families are not responsible for our immersion student's safety, they do feel as they are. It is a nice sign of gratitude and a polite gesture to make them feel at ease. In the case of our Spanish for Teens Exchange Program, host families do take responsibility for the wellbeing of their new son or daugther and daily curfews do take place.
Selecting your host family in Boquete and Bocas del Toro, Panama
Nowadays our Panama Spanish Schools have plenty of host families (our complete database has more than 80 host families). It all started out by knocking on stranger's doors when our Spanish school had just begun to receive its first students looking to live a Spanish Immersion Program. As time has passed by the word has spread out and now families refer new families and we even have families come to our Spanish school telling us that they would also love to have a Habla Ya student at their home.
Although we have many local families participating in our homestays we are always looking for more families. Now and then we do find a new family, enthusiastic about the idea of taking part of this beautiful cultural exchange program.
In order to be able to choose the best host family for you, just fill out our Total Spanish Immersion Pre-Program Interview. After choosing your host family we will get back to you with a complete description about them.
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We always visit and interview each family before accepting them and monitor the quality of their hospitality through routine visits, phone calls and student's feedback.
Starting and Finishing Dates for family home stays
Students should try (the emphasis is on the word try... it's not mandatory) to start their home stay on the Saturday before their Spanish course begins. BUT IF THEY CAN'T, NO WORRIES... WE ARE VERY FLEXIBLE! Once Habla Ya has the student's arrival details, a pickup is arranged. For Boquete we can pick students up at the airport or at the bus station in David. In Bocas del Toro we can pick students up at the dock or at the airport. After the student is picked up, a short visit to the school takes place (as long it is open) and afterwords, they will be taken to their host family.
If students plan to arrive between the Monday and Friday before their course begins we ask them to please let us know in order to make sure that their intended host family is available beforehand (another student might still be at it). And if students intend to arrive on the Sunday before their course begins, we also need to know their arrival details to David so that we can arrange their pickup.
If students were to arrive to David or Bocas del Toro out of office hours (before 8 a.m. or after 5:30 p.m.), a pickup can also be arranged for an additional $10 on top of the home stay setup fee. Otherwise you will have to arrive to your host family's house on your own (you will be given your host family's address!). If on their first day in Boquete or Bocas del Toro, you arrive too late (after 8 p.m.), you might have to spend that night in a hotel or hostel of your choice (again, we can help!). With certain host families it could not be considered polite to start an Immersion Program so late a night.
Once they know, students should inform us about their travel arrangements and estimated time of arrival to David or Bocas del Toro as this will avoid the family having to wait at home unnecessarily. Families also like to receive their new family member with a special meal so they highly appreciate knowing when you intend to arrive.
Please remember to specify all these details in our Pre-Program Interview but if you still don't have your exact travel details, don't worry: we will ask you and remind you to give them to us because we need to know them =), but it's better if you fill out the interview as long as you already know the weeks in which your Spanish Immersion Program will start and end because in that way we will be able to reserve the most adequate host family for you.
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Home stays usually begin on Saturdays at noon. If you plan to arrive before Saturday (or on the Sunday before your course begins) or if you would like to stay for more days after your course has ended, please let us know about your intentions so that we can plan ahead of time taking into account host family availability or any other arrangments needed to be made.
Cost per Week for Home Stays with a Local Family during your Spanish Course
The cost given is as PER WEEK of accommodation with a local family. Prices are shown in U.S. dollars. We normally place only one student with each local family (unless it's a couple or family traveling together). We do this to "force" you to speak Spanish.
The "number of students column" refers to arrangements for couples and families or friends traveling together who wish to be placed within the same local family. Children receive a special discount when they stay at a home stay with their parents:
- children 4 years old and under have a 50% discount
- children 5 - 12 years old have a 25% discount
- children 13 and above pay the full rate
Rates per Week for Home Stays with Local Host Families
| # of Students | without meals | 1 meal per day | 2 meals per day | 3 meals per day |
| 1 | $125 | $150 | $165 | $175 |
| 2 | $225 | $275 | $315 | $335 |
| 3 | $325 | $375 | $425 | $475 |
| 4 | $400 | $450 | $500 | $550 |
| each extra student | $95 | $105 | $115 | $125 |
SIGN UP NOW & REGISTER NOW FOR A FAMILY HOME STAY... »
Each family home stay has a $50 setup fee that includes pickup in David (either at the airport or bus station) and transportation to the student's host family house in Boquete, or pickup at dock or airport in Bocas del Toro, and the processing of your Immersion Pre-Program Interview and the selection of your host family. If students arrive to David out of office hours (before 8 a.m. or after 5:30 p.m. then the pickup can be arranged for an additional $10). Students who are also going to volunteer, only need to pay one setup fee (the volunteering setup fee: $50 for students, $75 for non students). Laundry facilities can also be used for a $5 fee per load of cloths.
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