Who it's for
Best for
- Anyone who wants private lessons without the private-lesson premium
- Travelers who would rather book lessons and a bed in one place
- Surfers - the campus overlooks the Pipeline and Zicatela is a three-minute walk
- Loose itineraries: classes run seven days a week with flexible start dates
Skip it if
- Anyone booking in high season on the headline price - surcharges reach 50 percent
- Learners who need a guaranteed group size before paying - none is published
- People who want a certificate at the end - none is mentioned
The facts
- Where
- Puerto Escondido
- Class formats
- Group classes, Private lessons, City immersion, Online
- Delivery
- In person, Online
- Price
- USD 15/hour ($$) as of 2026-09-04
- What that covers
- USD 15 an hour for private lessons and USD 15 an hour for group lessons. Campus bungalows: USD 35 a night, 210 a week, 750 for four weeks; a cheaper tier at 20/120/420 and an upgraded one at 55/330/1155. Homestay with meals from USD 210 a week. The school states seasonal surcharges of up to 50 percent.
- Schedule
- Classes seven days a week, with flexible start and stop dates. Specific daily hours are not published.
- Languages
- Spanish, English (support)
Google 4.8 stars from 114 reviews, as we read it on Jun 7, 2026. That is Google's number and Google's reviewers, not ours — see the listing ↗
Our take
Running since 1999, and the only school here that publishes both rates and sets them the same: USD 15 an hour, private or group. That single fact reshapes the decision, because everywhere else one-on-one is the expensive option you ration. Add bungalows on the campus itself from USD 20 to 55 a night, a homestay from USD 210 a week, and a three-minute walk to Playa Zicatela, and it is the easiest school here to price a whole trip against. Watch the seasonal surcharge, which the school says can reach 50 percent.
How we know: Research-based, from the school's own site, cross-checked against its Google Maps listing as of June 7, 2026. Every price here is theirs, in US dollars, read on September 4, 2026. We have not sat in a class or stayed in a bungalow.
The full story
Start with fifteen dollars an hour, and note that it buys either a private lesson or a group one. Everywhere else in this directory a private hour costs two to three times a group hour, which is why most people take the group and hope the level fits. Here that trade-off does not exist: if you learn better one-on-one, you simply choose it. The school has been running since 1999 and the director holds a master's in Spanish language instruction - a thin biography, but a date - Oasis, up the beach, does not say how long it has been running at all.
It is also a place to stay, and the rates are public. Bungalows on the campus run USD 35 a night, 210 a week or 750 for four weeks, with a cheaper tier at 20 a night and an upgraded one at 55. A homestay with a local family, meals included, starts around 210 a week. Classes run seven days a week with flexible start and stop dates, so a trip that is not planned to the day still works. The campus looks over the Mexican Pipeline and Playa Zicatela is three minutes on foot.
Pin down two things before you send money. The school says prices carry seasonal surcharges of up to 50 percent, which on a four-week stay is the difference between a cheap month and an ordinary one, so get your dates quoted rather than assuming the headline rate. And no group cap is published anywhere - at this price the group is the obvious choice, and its size is the one thing that decides whether it works. Ask for the number.
The only school here that charges the same for a private lesson as a group one - with beds on site, three minutes from Zicatela.
FAQ
Do private lessons really cost the same as group lessons?
That is what the school publishes: USD 15 an hour for both. Of the schools here that publish both rates, it is the only one that sets them equal - everywhere else private runs two to three times group. If one-on-one suits you better, there is no premium to weigh.
Can I stay on the campus?
Yes. There are bungalows with private kitchens and bathrooms from USD 20 a night on the cheapest tier, 35 on the regular one and 55 upgraded, with weekly and four-week rates. A homestay with a local family and meals starts around USD 210 a week.
What is the catch on the prices?
Season. The school states surcharges of up to 50 percent at busy times, and it does not publish which dates those are. Get your specific weeks quoted before you plan a budget around the headline figure.
Is it close to the surf?
Very. The campus overlooks the Mexican Pipeline and Playa Zicatela is about a three-minute walk. Surf lessons and board rental are among the add-ons, alongside snorkeling trips and volunteering.
What else is included?
Cooking classes, Latin dance, artisanry, an orientation tour, and excursions to ruins, lagoons, an iguana sanctuary, a turtle museum and waterfalls. The school does not say which are free and which are paid, so ask.
What Spanish will you actually learn at Instituto de Lenguajes Puerto Escondido?
Coastal Oaxacan Spanish, plus the international surf-town accent layered on top of it.
The town runs on two languages at once. Away from the beach it is ordinary coastal Oaxacan Spanish, quick and clipped, with the same indigenous-language contact as the rest of the state. On Zicatela it is a floating population of surfers, and the Spanish that gets spoken there is a simplified trade register that half the speakers are also learning.
That is a real risk to name: the easiest conversations in Puerto are the ones that teach you least. If you come here to study, plan for where you will practice outside the classroom, because the default social setting is other foreigners doing the same thing.
That is the city, not the classroom. We have not sat in a class at Instituto de Lenguajes Puerto Escondido, so this is what the Spanish around it sounds like rather than a claim about how it is taught - and the words below are ours, from the dictionary this directory is a side effect of.
Slang you'll pick up there
Other schools to compare
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