Ixchel Spanish School

Ixchel is based in the beautiful colonial era city of Antigua and is the best Spanish language school I’ve ever been to ( I’ve studied at five schools in the Uk and Spain). The teachers are highly competent, professional and friendly and speak relatively slowly with a neutral accent. The school offers accommodation with host families or in-house with all meals provided. It has a lovely vibe, good facilities and the catering is excellent. The one to one teaching experience is exceptional value for money. The weekends offer the opportunity to hike in breathtaking volcanic scenery. Spain would be a more obvious choice for students based in Europe (as I am) but given a month or more (or if you are passing through), studying in Guatemala represents much better value for money. I can’t recommend Ixchel highly enough.

I did two weeks of four hours a day with Aura and I couldn't be happier. Great teachers. Amazing school, supportive staff, enriching environment and I learned so much over the two weeks. They even provide daily activities and weekend excursions if you like. I started at intermediate and left high intermediate.

Highly recommend.

This school is exceptionally friendly and well organised. I lived at the school for a week and took four hours of classes each morning. My teacher Patricia was very helpful and I enjoyed our conversations and the grammar lessons. The school provides activities in the afternoons and I took a walking tour of the city, a tour to a coffee farm and a macadamia nut farm. I strongly recommend this school. It’s great to meet students from all over the world and Antigua is a stunning city to explore.

I just finished up four weeks of lessons at Ixchel, and it was a great experience!! My teacher was Brenda, she was so kind, patient, and helpful. I chose Ixchel because it was the most accommodating to my work schedule, they let me come in early (7-10 am) so I could start work on time each day. My Spanish improved significantly this month in Antigua, and I enjoyed my lessons with Brenda so much I will be continuing them online as I head back home. I liked the extra opportunities they offered each week to get to know more about the culture and the city of Antigua. I hope to come back again soon. Thank you so much to the lovely and helpful people at Ixchel, especially Brenda!

Had the best 3 weeks at Ixchel Spanish school! My teacher Elizabeth was so helpful and kind, she taught me so much and even helped with personal matters that I needed a fluent Spanish speaker for. The homestay at school, with Dina, is so welcoming and the rooms are very comfortable and have everything you need. I really like the atmosphere with all the other students and all the activities they provided for us. The terrace is particularly nice to do your homework and classes on. Overall a great experience and would recommend to anyone!!

Our family started our journey learning Spanish at Ixchel Spanish School in Antigua. We enrolled in a 5 days beginner classes with a schedule to meet our needs. My husband and I and our 2 daughters all thoroughly enjoyed our lessons with Angelica and Elizabeth and got an amazing kick start to our comprehension and confidence to converse.

Elizabeth made the lessons so much fun that children literally skipped to class. Angelica graced us with not only her intellect and ability to teach but also her good sense of humour and expressions that helped fixed in our minds the words and phases she taught.

We wish we had more time to enjoy daily classes at the school with these fun and capable women and the wonderful town Antigua is. In our short time the school have us a sense of purpose and belonging in this place.

If you are looking for a highly professional and well-run Spanish language school in Antigua, this is the one. I spent two weeks at Ixchel to improve my Spanish, which was already quite good. They can cater to both beginners as well as advanced students. My teacher was excellent and ensured that the lessons were both serious and fun. The school office was extremely helpful dealing with travel logistics, linking me into local tours and making recommendations about things to do and see in Antigua. They also have an excellent Spanish grammar course book, with lots of exercises, all of which can be accessed online. I would definitely return to Ixchel again to refresh or improve my Spanish. It could not have been a better experience!

I really enjoyed my lessons at Ixchel! The staff and teachers are all very friendly. The classes are one on one and my instructor Lu was really wonderful! She is really attentive and patient and makes sure you understand the material before moving on. She keeps conversation interesting and fun. I would highly recommend her to anyone who already has some knowledge of Spanish, like myself. I took lessons from Lu for about two months and there was a huge improvement in my Spanish and confidence in speaking.

I greatly enjoyed my time learning Spanish at Ixchel. I learned so much and Gilda was a professional and patient teacher. I
Enjoyed my lessons so much that I am interested in continuing with online classes when I get back home. I chose Ixchel because they were flexible and allowed me to pick an irregular amount of time for a homestay. My homestay experience was also great. I highly recommend Ixchel to anyone interested in learning Spanish while at Antigua.

I took 30 hours of lessons in one week and thanks to my teachers Hilda and Patricia, I feel much more confident in my Spanish. As a heritage speaker, I can speak the language but wanted to improve my grammar, reading, and writing. I also wanted to learn more about migration and Guatemalan history. Hilda and Patricia tailored lessons based on my interests and where I wanted to improve. My homestay homestay host, Dinah, was absolutely wonderful. I recommend staying with her if possible. She showed me some of Antigua's famous sites while working on my Spanish. I asked her if I can learn to cook a traditional Guatemalan dish and she took me to the market so we could buy the food and then she taught me how to prepare it all for dinner. She's a tremendous asset to Ixchel and was part of the great experience I had. Many thanks to my two teachers Hilda and Patricia and Dinah for an awesome experience!

I stayed at Ixchel with a group from my university this week. Everyone was extremely welcoming. The facility is clean and beautiful with outdoor and indoor locations for the 1 on 1 lessons. The school is located near a variety of restaurants and coffee shops, but honestly I didn’t want to go eat anywhere else because the food served at the school was very good. Before this trip I had never eaten Guatemalan cuisine, and now it is one of my favorites. My teacher, Araceli, did a great job of assessing my current Spanish speaking ability and constructing lessons to help improve in weak areas. She was a delight to learn from and really helped build my confidence. The school hosts an optional excursion each afternoon guided by a Spanish instructor. It was great to learn about the local history and continue practicing Spanish during these excursions. I would absolutely recommend Ixchel to anyone looking to improve their Spanish while staying in a beautiful city.

The one on one classes at Ixchel Spanish School are absolutely invaluable. My teacher was Aura, who designed a lesson plan that suited my level and needs. Aura is a very good and patient teacher and even though I only did the classes for 5 days, I can feel that I’ve bettered my Spanish by studying with her.

Aside from the amazing lessons, I really appreciated the responsiveness of the admin clerks Belen and Lisa who organized my transportation to and from the airport. It was worth my while to just also do this pickup and drop off through Ixchel because while there’s other agencies that can offer this service, they all are similar in cost. If you want to be able to be picked up from your exact location, this is the way to go.

Lastly, I also did a homestay with Veronica. It was a private room, with a shared bathroom and 3x meals a day except for on holidays. Veronica and her family were very friendly and the rooms aren’t particularly anything special but it’s a place to rest.

Overall, really enjoyed my time with Ixchel, and especially thankful for my teacher Aura!

I had 5 days here to start 3 months backpacking central america and it's been a great decision. I've learned as much in a few days as I did in a year at school, and the teachers and staff in the school are very welcoming and professional. The accomodation and food are great and my teachers Angelica and Brenda have been amazing. I would reccomend Ixchel, especially to backpackers looking to get to a conversational level of spanish at the start of their trip.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Ixchel. My teacher, Maria was wonderful to work with throughout the week. I'm a beginning learner and she really improved my vocabulary and grammar knowledge. Throughout the lessons we worked on my conversational Spanish, while getting to know one another. She's a gem! I chose Ixchel because of their cultural excursions in the afternoons and went to the Iximche Mayan village one day, and enjoyed taking a cooking class from Lisa at the school, where she taught us how to make Guatemalan mole. It was delicious. I highly recommend Ixchel to anyone! I hope to come again some day.

I spent 3.5 weeks at Ixchel, and it was such a great experience! Everyone at the school is so kind and helpful, and they’ve created such a nice community for their students. My teacher was Lu, and she is knowledgeable, engaging, patient, and fun, and my Spanish improved quite a bit through my time at the school. Dina, our host while living at the school, is such a lovely and kind person as well :)

My boyfriend and I spent a week learning Spanish at Ixchel with Angelica and Paulina in 1:1 lessons. The school was lovely and small, and learning in the beautiful courtyard was calm and chilled. Our Spanish (and confidence) came on leaps and bounds (tenses!) and we felt like we learnt lots about Guatemala from these fabulous teachers as well as the language. The school were also super flexible as we needed to change dates and timings due to budget/rest of our trip. Totally recommend.

Im so happy I chose Ixchel school for Spanish lessons. The environment is very comfortable and peaceful. The staff is helpful, and accommodating. They arranged transportation to and from the airport. classes are immersion, one on one and my instructor Angelica was amazing. I am a beginner level student and learned a lot from her in just a few days. I highly recommend.

My whole experience at this school was amazing. Everybody linked to the school was so friendly and helpful at all times. My teacher, Marlon, was a pleasure to sit with for 4 weeks. Teresa and her family, my host, arranged through Ixchel, was terrific and looked after me incredibly well. Nothing was too much hassle, was always asking if I needed anything and cooked lovely meals. She would even pack breakfast for you if leaving early. I loved how the lessons were done in the garden and Marlon had bundles of patience with me. The school also arrange daily activities to help you get used to the area better. Would really recommend to anyone 👌

I have been studying at Ixchel for the last 4 weeks here in Antigua, and I had the most wonderful experience! After 100 hours of one-on-one classes the difference in my Spanish is astonishing! My teacher, Kelly, was incredibly kind and patient. She always created space for us to only speak Spanish in our classes, even from day one! She always kept the conversation about topics I was interested in and was so engaging. At the end of my 4 weeks I definitely felt I was leaving with a good friend. My last week I upped my classes from 4 hours a day to 6 hours, and so I had a second teacher, Lou, for the 2 extra hours in the afternoon. She had me laughing the whole time and spoke really slow and concise. She would tell me stories in spanish and I would be so excited that I could understand!
My partner and I also lived at the school for 3 weeks of our time in Antigua. The ladies in the office are extremely dialed. Before we arrived the office had amazing and timely communication. The school offered weekly activities to get to know the culture and other students, which was awesome. And to top it all of the building is absolutely stunning. It has a picturesque terrace, overlooking the archetypical active volcano Fuego!
All in all, I think you should go here (:

It‘s an awesome place to learn spanish. I wasn‘t able to speak spanish at all before coming to Antigua. Within one week I learned a lot which is useful for travelling in Guatemala. My teacher, Aura, was very friendly and motivating. Within the morning break it was possible to talk to other students and get to know new people. I would highly recommend to take classes in the morning and enjoy Antigua in the afternoon :)