Learn Spanish in Cuenca: Accommodation
In Cuenca most students decide to stay with local hosts, though it is possible to also stay in apartments or local Hotels on request, if you’d prefer to do so.
Ecuadorian hosts/Private households
- Offered to students aged 18 yrs +
- Single rooms
- Full-board (breakfast, lunch & evening meal)
- One laundry wash offered per week
- Additional charge made for special dietary needs
Local hosts offer single room accommodation, half-board and a great opportunity to practise Spanish out of class and experience Ecuadorian culture first-hand. Allow for a daily commute to college of no more than 30 minutes walk, each morning to school. Staying with local hosts is a great way of enriching your Spanish language course in Cuenca. Hosts tend to be middle to upper class families, living within easy reach of the school/city centre. Each student has their own room (though you can request to share with a friend if you are travelling together). These days most of the hosts also offer wifi connection in their homes.
Studio apartments
- Offered to students aged 18 yrs +
- Single occupancy
- or double occupancy for friends or couples
- Self-catering
- Cleaning service
Private apartments for students who would prefer to live independently whilst studying in Cuenca, are offered within an easy walk of the school, in a residence located on the bank of the Tomebamba River. The building offers self contained studios; one bedroom/living room, fully equipped bathroom, kitchenette, internet access, cable TV and a phone.
2* Hotel
- Offered to students aged 18 yrs +
Just 12 minutes walk from the college. A restored colonial house with internal patios, with restaurant service and cafeteria, B&B basis. All rooms have en suite bathrooms, and cable TV.
Travel
Arrive: Saturday in Quito and fly on to Cuenca on Sunday
Depart: Saturday AM (from Cuenca)
Students generally fly to Quito International airport or Guayaquil International airport and then take the college arrival transfer service. We recommend you fly via a European hub (such as Madrid), rather than get caught up in US Immigration regulations (and queues).
College Transfer
The college will arrange for you to be collected on arrival at Quito/Guayaquil airport, transfer you to a Quito/Guayaquil Hotel for the Saturday night and take you back to the airport for your internal flight down to Cuenca and upon arrival in Cuenca, transfer arrange the transfer to your accommodation.
Cost for Transfer service shown in Course Finder.
Independent Travel
- Cuenca’s airport : Mariscal Lamar
Flight time from Quito: 35 minutes
Flight time from Quayquil: 20 minutes
Three internal airlines serve Cuenca – TAME and AeroGal fly to Quito and Guayaquil daily – while LAN Ecuador only fly to Guayaquil. If you arrive in Quito or Guayaquil on Saturday you will need to stay over night so that you can get your onward flight on Sunday to Cuenca. You can’t complete your long haul and internal flights on the same day – the timetables just don’t work!
You can travel by bus from Quito to Cuenca (but it’s a 10 hour trip, on not very good roads and we don’t recommend it).
