Adventure Education Center
Learn Spanish with AEC in Costa Rica
Our knowledgeable and experienced staff is committed to helping you develop your language skills while creating an unforgettable cultural immersion experience. Our priority is providing exceptional service and showing you all that Costa Rica has to offer.
AEC can create the Spanish Program of your dreams!
Our Learning Centers
AEC Costa Rica has three unique locations, including Arenal, Turrialba, and Tamarindo, that showcase the diverse beauty of Costa Rica.
We are the region’s most diverse and unique Spanish language institute and it’s our goal to provide quality Spanish programs for all ages.
Over 70 Years of Experience
Our Program Coordinators have over 70 years of collective experience creating and organizing adventure Spanish programs and travel guidance.
Before starting their unique Spanish Immersion programs in Costa Rica in the early 2000’s, Our founders Walt, Jeff, and Rich (who are also brothers) worked together as a family travel agency in the Central Sierra Nevada’s of California specializing in the area of outdoor adventures like whitewater rafting, rock climbing, repelling, zip-lining, and horseback riding among other high-adventure outdoor activities while acting as the bonafide international travel specialists of their local area of around 3,000 people.
As the internet began to effect small town, rural travel agencies, the brothers began to specialize in organizing adventure programs in Costa Rica while combining them with the Spanish classes they took to learn while living there periodically. By the mid 2000’s, the three brothers found themselves running Spanish Immersion programs in multiple locations throughout Costa Rica, with a large group of Spanish teachers and several hundred Spanish immersion students each year.
Although Rich has passed on, Walt remains in Costa Rica directly ensuring things go right on the ground for Adventure Education Center with his specialized service and advice navigating Costa Rica while Jeff works with the US side of the business custom tailoring each visit to the needs of each client.
Rich sadly passed away in 2019, but if we included him today in the “years of experience” factoid above, we’d have around 120+ years of experience in the language immersion industry.
Our Philosophy
We believe in the power of learning through immersion. There are a lot of ways to learn a new language, and we’ve found that immersing ourselves in the Spanish world, here in Costa Rica, to be strong in a magical way. No other place on Earth offers the same perfect combo of natural beauty, unlimited wildlife, and unlimited adventure to make learning Spanish a true action verb like Costa Rica does.
By immersing yourself in a Spanish speaking country you can challenge yourself to live the life of a Spanish speaker by applying the Spanish learned in a classroom to real life situations, with real life feedback.
You aren’t speaking Spanish for your teacher anymore. When you are immersed you are speaking to navigate, survive, and thrive in a new environment.
