Benefits of staying with a host family

Experience Guatemala culture first hand while improving your Spanish

The benefits of a homestay – living with a Guatemala family – enables you to interact on a daily basis with your host family which helps to develop your comprehension and speaking skills. The SISAI families are carefully screened and their homes inspected by school staff to ensure peace of mind while taking advantage of experiencing the Guatemalan culture first-hand. Local families will provide you with a comfortable and clean private room (or shared for people traveling together), and three meals per day, 7 days a week. Most homestay families have WiFi throughout the house. If this is important to you, please let the school know for placement purposes. Homestays are an additional cost to the weekly tuition.

Traditional home cooking

The Guatemalan diet traditionally consists of locally grown, freshly harvested fruits and vegetables, accompanied by fresh-made corn tortillas and other staples.  The families will make any necessary effort to meet your specific dietary need such as vegetarian, vegan, diabetic, celiac, gluten free, or any other type of diet that you request.  Please let us know before you arrive what your dietary needs are.

Alternative Housing

APARTMENTS:

If you prefer to live in an apartment for long-term stays, SISAI will be happy to help you find a place in one of the neighborhoods near the school.  AirBnB has become popular now in Xela. You can find homes or rooms to rent, all furnished.

HOTELS:

The city of Xela boasts a wide variety of hotels in various price ranges. It is our pleasure to help our students to make contact with the hotels and assist in reservations if this is your housing preference. It is usually necessary for the student to provide a deposit in advance for the first night.

Photos of SISAI students with their host families