Abbey Road Programs

Abbey Road was fantastic! The staff was great and went out of their way on many occasions. My Spanish teacher Alicia was one of the best Spanish teachers I ever had. I came back from Barcelona feeling confident in my ability to hold long conversations. I loved that we were in a classroom one hour and the rest of the morning the class was out experiencing and learning in a Spanish environment. The dorm was very nice and we enjoyed hanging by the rooftop pool. The food was amazing. We went to a large variety of restaurants and I was able to try a lot of new foods. Overall, the program exceeded my expectations!

My daughter (who is almost 16) did 4 weeks in Nice and described it as “the best summer of my life.” She learned so much, made some good friends (a few of whom she has spent time with here in New York after they returned from France), and loved the teachers and chaperones. Arthur, supervises the Nice program, and he was great. The program is very well organized. They go to so many cool cities, such as St. Tropez, Cannes, Monaco, etc. Her French improved so much, and her teacher at the high school is really impressed by her accent, comprehension, and expression. Each student had their own dorm room and bathroom, and other than the fact that it was very hot, Sophia never had any complaints. I had regular contact w Sophia while she was there, and I always felt she was safe. There are many structured activities (e.g. beach activities, roller-blading, sight-seeing), but they also allowed for unstructured time. They gave the students increasing amounts of freedom, once they feel the kids are ready. So in the evenings they could sometimes go out as a group, without a chaperone, and they would check in at the curfew time, to make sure everyone was back safe. I would highly recommend this program!

The Abbey Road program in St. Laurent was an awesome life experience for my son and we were thrilled with everything about the program. The family he stayed with was very nice. There was one other boy staying there with him (and a third for the last week). They often ate meals with the host family and interacted a great deal so that was helpful to his French language experience. Plus, his host mother was a great cook. They did have some independence, appropriate for teenagers, but it was always my impression (with the limited information you get from a teenage boy) that there was a lot of structure and guidance and it seemed to us that they were always safe and appropriately supervised. We were very happy with the French language instruction. They had a good amount of classes and, I think more importantly, they seemed to incorporate learning in every activity they did. For instance, when they went to museums the students had to find a work of art that they liked and then come back to the group and give a brief talk about it in French.Speaking of museums, they visited many and the trip had a good amount of cultural activities overall. The staff was good and, in particular, Anthony spoke highly of Vicky, the lady who led their program in St. Laurent. From start to finish the program gave a lot of guidance and communicated very well, including giving regular updates (in the form of a blog with pictures) of their activities. My husband and I highly recommend Abbey Road and thought it was worth every penny. It is a lot of fun for the kids but it is definitely not a party trip or even just a vacation trip.