Who it's for
Best for
- Surfers who want structured Spanish rather than a phrasebook
- Anyone who wants lessons, board time and a bed booked in one go
- German employees on Bildungsurlaub - approval is per state and can lapse, so ask for the certificate
- Families - there is a kids' summer camp alongside the adult track
Skip it if
- Anyone who wants a school built around the classroom - the day here starts at the water
- Learners who need the price before making contact - none is published
- People who need a fixed group size or timetable confirmed in advance
The facts
- Where
- Puerto Escondido
- Class formats
- Group classes, Private lessons, Online, Kids & teens
- Delivery
- In person, Online
- Schedule
- Open 6:30 to 17:30 Monday to Friday, 6:30 to 14:30 Saturday and 9:00 to 14:30 Sunday. Lesson times themselves are not published.
- Languages
- Spanish, English (support)
Google 4.6 stars from 195 reviews, as we read it on Jun 7, 2026. That is Google's number and Google's reviewers, not ours — see the listing ↗
LGBTQ+ Google lists this school as LGBTQ+ friendly and a transgender safespace, with a gender-neutral restroom. Those are attributes on the school's own Google listing, not something we verified in the room - but they are the school's own public statement about who is welcome, which is worth more than nothing and less than a visit.
Our take
The most-reviewed of the Puerto Escondido schools listed here, and the one most honest about what it is: surf and Spanish sold together or separately, with accommodation bundled if you want it. The doors open at 6:30am, an hour that exists for the dawn session and not for a language class, and that ordering is the useful thing to understand before booking. Teachers are described as certified, levels run beginner to advanced, and a certificate comes with the Spanish programs. What it costs takes an email.
How we know: Research-based, from the school's own site and its Google Maps listing as of June 7, 2026. The school publishes no rates, so this page quotes none, and it does not name its founder or say how long it has been running. We have not taken a lesson of either kind.
The full story
Read the opening hours before anything else on the listing. Six-thirty in the morning is a surf schedule, not a language-school one, and a business that opens then has arranged itself around the water first. That is not a criticism, it is the correct design for this town, and it is why the packaging works the way it does: you can book surf only, Spanish only, or both with a room, WiFi, a pool and a kitchen included.
The Spanish side is more substantial than a bolt-on. Teachers are described as certified, the ladder runs beginner to advanced in private or group lessons, there is an online option and a kids' summer camp, and the programs issue a certificate at the end. The school also runs Bildungsurlaub programs, which matters if you are employed in Germany: it is the paid educational-leave scheme, and only approved providers qualify, so it is worth confirming the current approval directly rather than taking a webpage's word for it.
The structural risk here is scheduling, not teaching. A package that bundles surf, Spanish and a bed leaves the lesson as the only part with no fixed time attached and the only part nobody else is waiting on you for. Ask at booking whether your lesson times are timetabled or arranged week to week, because a flexible slot is the one that quietly disappears when the swell is good. It is a solvable problem, and much easier solved before you pay than in week two.
Surf and Spanish under one booking in Puerto Escondido - strong if you were going to be in the water at dawn anyway, and the wrong school if you were not.
What Oasis Surf & Spanish School actually looks like
Their own feed is the least filtered look at Oasis Surf & Spanish School you can get — the actual room, the actual teachers, the actual group on a Friday afternoon. Worth a scroll before you email anyone.
FAQ
Do I have to take the surf lessons?
No. Surf, Spanish and accommodation are sold separately or bundled, so a Spanish-only booking is available. Whether it is the right school for that is another question - the place is organized around the water, starting with a 6:30am opening.
What does it cost?
The school does not publish rates; the site sends you to a booking page for prices and availability. Instituto de Lenguajes, also in Puerto Escondido, publishes its full list if you want a number to compare against first.
Is the Bildungsurlaub approval current?
The school says it runs Bildungsurlaub programs. Approval is granted per provider and per German state and can lapse, so if your leave depends on it, ask them for the current certificate rather than relying on a website or on us.
Will I actually practice Spanish, or just surf?
That is on you and on how you book. Ask whether your lessons are timetabled or arranged week to week - a fixed slot is much harder to skip than a flexible one, whatever the surf is doing.
Do they teach children?
Yes - there is a kids' offer and summer camps, alongside private and group lessons for adults and an online option.
What Spanish will you actually learn at Oasis Surf & Spanish School?
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 Oasis Surf & Spanish School, 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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