Westminster School
March 2027
Key Information
This is Costa Rica and our dedicated Team
Seven days built around community service, Spanish immersion, and real cultural exchange in the Costa Rican highlands. Students live with local host families in Turrialba, work side by side with a rural Indigenous community on projects that last beyond the trip, and still get the adventure, with a rafting day and a canopy day in the wild Pacuare River valley. Sized around 15 high school students and a March window, and easy to adjust as the group takes shape.
Day 1 — Arrival
Welcome to Costa Rica. The group lands at Juan Santamaría International Airport, where our team meets you at arrivals and drives you out to Turrialba, home for the week. Students meet their host families, settle in, and share a first dinner together. A light orientation closes the day so everyone knows what the week looks like.
Day 2 — Spanish Immersion & the Village
The immersion starts right away. The community welcomes the group and students spend the day practicing Spanish in real conversations rather than from a textbook. We visit a local cacao farm to follow the full process from pod to chocolate, then a certified fair trade coffee farm to walk the plantation and see how a sustainable farm runs.
Day 3 — Hands-On Service
The first big service day. Working alongside people from the community, students take on a real project chosen with you in advance, the kind our groups have built over the years: bus stops, a community garden, reforestation plots, a soccer field, an indigenous shelter. It is hands on, it leaves something behind, and the families hosting the students are tied to the same community the work supports.
Day 4 — The Community Market
Students run a community market with clothing and goods they bring from home in good condition, everything priced at a dollar or fifty cents, and all the proceeds go directly to the local Cabécar Indigenous community. The community hosts the group afterwards for a shared celebration with music and food. Simple, powerful, and the day students tend to remember most.
Day 5 — Rafting the Pacuare
An active day in the Pacuare River valley, one of the most beautiful river settings in Central America. Students take on a guided whitewater run with our own guides, surrounded by dense jungle, howler monkeys, and toucans. Everything is optional and the day works just as well at an easier pace, with calmer sections and time at our ecolodge above the river.
Day 6 — Canopy & Goodbye Dinner
Back out to the valley for the adventure finale, a zipline course through the rainforest canopy and a waterfall stop to cool off. In the evening the host families and the group share a farewell dinner in Turrialba, the goodbye most teachers tell us is the hardest part of the week.
Day 7 — Departure
Last morning together. After breakfast and a final reflection circle, we say goodbye to the host families and drive to the airport in good time. Students leave with stronger Spanish, a real connection to a community they helped, and a week they will be talking about for years.
