Eurolingua Spanish Homestay - El Campello, Alicante

  Spain

• Alicante: 
Alicante
• Granada: 
Granada
• Madrid: 
Madrid
• Malaga: 
Malaga
• Seville: 
Seville (Sevilla)
• All Other Areas: 
Gijon,  Cordoba,  Oviedo

Dates: Year round

Description: One-to-One Homestays: Personalised one-to-one tuition, learning and living on a full-board basis in your tutor's private residence. Language immersion programmes available throughout Europe, Russian States, North America, Australia, New Zealand and the Caribbean. You share meals and all aspects of social and cultural life en famille in the country of your choice.

These Eurolingua Rapid-Results Language Acquisition Programmes are available all year and are suitable for students of any age (16 - 75 years) and language level (beginner to advanced). Ideal for personal interest, business, travel or examination revision purposes. All Eurolingua tutors are fully-qualified teachers and native speakers, experienced in teaching their mother tongue as a foreign language.

The unique Eurolingua One-to-One Homestay Programme will ensure that you make maximum progress in the shortest possible time, whatever your starting level, beginner to advanced. You live full-board in the home of your fully-qualified foreign language tutor, receiving 4 hours per day (20 hours per week) of individual language tuition, specifically adapted to your own level, learning pace and interests, whether for business or pleasure!! The rest of the time you benefit from lots of conversational practice by participating in the usual everyday family activities of your personal tutor and family and by meeting people in the local community. You may, of course, have as much independent time as you wish. You acquire an authentic accent, total confidence and real fluency in the language.

Highlights: Hobbies and Interests
Painting and art in general, walking, any water sports (fishing, swimming, kyacking, etc)

Excursions and Local Attractions
El Campello is a small fishing village located in Alicante with all sorts of possibilities, depending on the duration of the student's visit.

1 Week: Fish auction by the port, explaining and buying just caught fish.
Archaeological site: 'Los baños de la reina'. (The queen's bath), Iberian settlement considered one of the most important in the Mediterranean with some houses, warehouses, two temples & roman thermal baths. 'Casa de cultura' With a monthly programme that usually has live concerts, theatre or others. There is always an art exhibition. Mountain walks or beach walks, cycling, trekking. (Sierra Bernia, 1300 mts; Cabeza dór,1200 mts). All these activities are within walking distance.

2 weeks: Same as above plus. Castillo de Santa Barbara dating from the end of 9th century
Monasterio de la Santa Faz (Monastery of the Holy Visage). Inside of which, according to tradition, is one of the folds of the linen that Veronica used to wash the face of Christ on his way to Calvary, brought from the Vatican in the last third of the 15th century. MARQ Museo arquelógico Provincial (Archaelogy Museum). Palaeolithic, Iberian art, Roman utensils, Islamic treasures. This museum has an award of the best archaeological museum in Europe. Colección Capa, Spanish sculpture museum located in the castle. All these activities are within ten minutes by tram.

3 weeks or more: The same as before plus Palmeral de Elche, the largest palm tree plantation in Europe, listed as World Heritage. Tabarca Island, the only inhabited island in the Costa Blanca with a marine nature reserve and listed as a national Historic Artistic Complex in 1964. Mountains (Peñon de Ifach, Calpe; Font Roja, Alcoy). All these within 30 minutes by car or by boat.

As you can see there are all sorts of possibilities and combination. There is more to see and do here but I have made a selection.

Accommodation, Facilities and Local Area
Our home is located in the old part of a fishing village called El Campello, 10 kilometres from Alicante, south east Spain. It's a 100 year-old town house with four bedrooms refurbished keeping original features, like the stone walls, wooden beams and the stone fireplace that we light every day in the winter. It has a patio with a big barbecue, also on the ground floor there is the kitchen, dining room and a sitting room and a ensuite bedroom with a study area and a bathroom. Upstairs there are three bedrooms and a bathroom, study area and the two big terraces, most of this floor has a high ceiling with wooden beams. Being a stone house, it tends to be cool in summer and warm in winter, only needing the log fire to heat the house in winter.

Round the corner from the house and once a week there is a local market which sells a big variety of fruit, vegetables, local delicacy such as cured tuna fish (mojama), olives, dates, nuts, amongst other interesting goods. It´s only 5 minute walk from the house to the beach, library, Casa de Cultura, shops and other typical amenities of a Mediterranean fishing village including the fish market that takes place at the 'Lonja de pescado'. Extremely well communicated the village has a tram that takes you into Alicante, and only takes 15 minutes by car to the airport.

The historical importance of the area is shown by the first settlement dated back to prehistory, the Bronze Age. 'Los Baños de la Reina' is an archaeological site near the port where Iberian and Roman remains can be visited. The Barbary pirates also passed through El Campello, that is why a system of circular look out towers was constructed, helping to defend against the pirates.

El Campello with 23 kilometres of coastline offers the peace and charm of a town with a strong sea-going tradition, 250 sunny days a year with an average temperature of 19º. Only 20 minutes' drive (or a little longer by bicycle) there are mountain ranges with a variety of walking routes, fantastic views of the coast, and interesting flora and fauna.

There are also plenty of the more familiar attractions of the Mediterranean: long sandy beaches, small rocky coves, golf courses, lots of seafront restaurants and bars providing local fare. The village itself has a long pedestrianised promenade which is attractively laid out and not spoilt by seafront hotels, and the beach between El Campello and Alicante is an eight kilometre stretch of sand which is never packed even in high summer, and is a peaceful retreat out of season.

Places close by to visit include Elche with 'El Palmeral' declared 'Heritage of Mankind by Unesco, the largest palm tree forest in Europe; the island of Tabarca, which is a maritime reserve; Santa Pola salt flats with hundreds of flamingos and other seabirds, and the picturesque port of Villajoyosa.

The local area has lots of amenities of appeal to cultural tourists. Alicante has a Moorish castle which is converted into a modern art gallery with international exhibitions (mainly installations), and also 'MARQ' a prize-winning archaeological museum considered one of the major museums in Spain in its class. There is also the Roman site of the city of 'Lucentum' (incidentally one of the venues for the summer jazz festival). It also has the midsummer fiesta of San Juan, where the city streets are filled with 'Las Hogueras de San Juan', our local fallas (giant sculptures made of papier maché, wood, and other secret components which are burnt during the night of the 24 June).

El Campello itself has the summer fiestas of 'Virgen del Carmen' in July, patron of seamen, a lovely procession with the virgin in a fishing boat. and Moors and Christians in October, where the local population dress in medieval costumes and stage ritual battles and a dawn landing at the port.

Cost in US$: please refer to the Eurolingua web site

Experience Required: no

This Program is open to Worldwide Participants.

Participants Travel to Spain Independently

Typically Participants Work Independently

Application Process Involves:

• Written Application

Typically The Application Process Time is 2 weeks

Post-Program Services Include:

• Exit Debriefing Abroad
• Job and Internship Network

Eurolingua Institute's Mission Statement: The Eurolingua Institute provides group and individual customized tuition in modern languages, paid work experience programmes, internships, and unique immersion programmes living in the teacher's own home. The Eurolingua Institute currently teaches 11 languages at over 70 schools in 40 countries and at over 150 homestay locations worldwide.

Year Founded: 1993