Which Spanish Language Program Abroad?

We tried to do this last summer and it was really hard to find something that wasn't in Spain and we really wanted to stay within our general timezone for remote working. There were some schools that looked OK in Playa del Carmen, Mexico and then we found the Green School in Antigua. It's still geared towards International Students (Cambridge Certified), but it's on a coffee farm, in Spanish, etc. and they have a summer program. We didn't want to drive, so stayed in an AirBNB near there in Antigua (look up "Tom's Apartments") it's walking distance to the school but a little far out of the City Center, which was fine if you are staying longer term and remote working. It was affordable and definitely livable for a longer stay. So even though we ended up still going to the area, we didn't end up even enrolling in the camp at the Green School because they always posts the summer schedule super late (like spring I think) and the dates are always in July, not June (as far as I know). It's really stressful not having your summer nailed down until spring since everything here books so early. Also, they were inflexible on letting you go for certain weeks and not others- I think you have to commit to the whole thing. Still, this was by far the most viable option I found after a ton of research in Central and South America (even looked in Argentina at their "winter camps" over summer). Mexico City would be my top location, but I didn't see a lot there and what I did see was geared towards sports. Eager to see on this thread if anyone else has found anything else. 

This is from my experience… most schools and camps are bilingual. I have yet to find an environment where the school or camp is100% in Spanish. It’s important for me for my son to be in environments where he’s learning Spanish too. Expats cater to expats and lots of them don’t even try to learn or speak Spanish. 

A coworker recently told me about a camp in Pueblo that her kids went to. Based on the prices it didn’t seem like it was catering to foreigners. 

Have you considered Puerto Rico?

There are plenty of summer camps with local children here. The farther away you are from San Juan and Rincon, the more Spanish speaking they will be, and the cheaper they will be. The camps geared towards mainlanders will have mainlander prices, but the local camps will be quite reasonable. My child attended an almost 5 week long baseball summer camp that was about 4 hrs/day and we paid $350 for the whole thing (including lunch, camp shirt, and baseball cap). Another camp that was held at a school was $85/week, lunch included, and every Friday was some sort of fun day (riding the trolley, someone set up a jumpy house and pop corn and cotton candy machine, etc). 

If you need ideas of where to look, you can contact me. My child's Spanish definitely improved by going to camps with the local kids. The trick is to find one that doesn't have too many English speakers, or else they'll tend to want to just speak English with each other.  

We have done this for a different language in past years, and continue to do this. It's an invaluable experience for the kids, for all kinds of language and cultural reasons. Maybe start by looking at local public school calendars - something education ministries may post. For example, if schools in Spain close in mid-June, camps for locals are likely to operate starting in in late June, and teachers and aides are also likely to be available then for babysitting. Schools in Argentina, conversely, may be in session for all of June, so trying to sign up your kid for a month of school, rather than camp, may be the way to go. We've found that American camps book much earlier, and have websites, and are much more formal, than camps abroad. We have shocked camp directors by trying to connect before April or May. We have arrived early in June only to find out schools are still in session and there are no camps. That said, informality, and low fees, can work to your advantage. We have sometimes paid  "for the whole month" or even "for the whole summer", and still paid less than what a week would cost here. We have negotiated for kids to arrive an hour early for "private lessons"  - i.e. extra hours of loose supervision in the local language.  We've found that there's always something for younger elementary school kids during school breaks, but in some remote locations, older elementary kids roam or help adults, making camp unnecessary and thus unavailable.