Costs

The program fee is $4,170 which includes:

✔️ Roundtrip international airfare to Nicaragua from the U.S.
✔️ Visa (if required)
✔️ In-country airport pick-up and drop-off with your group
✔️ Housing
✔️ WiFi
✔️ Three at-home meals/day (breakfast, lunch, and dinner)
✔️ Pre-departure + in-country training
✔️ Local support
✔️ 24/7 emergency assist line from ILP headquarters
✔️ International SOS membership
✔️ Hands-on education
✔️ Meaningful service opps

Additional items (like your passport and domestic travel to and from the U.S. group departure airport) and in-country costs (like vacations, shopping, and activities) are not included. See a more detailed list here. It depends on your personal spending habits, but most volunteers recommend budgeting around $1,500-3,500 for the semester to make the most of your time in Nicaragua.

We have custom monthly payment plans to help you make it work. That can be especially helpful if you’re saving up little by little, by working or doing fundraising.

An ILP Humanitarian Trip

This type of trip means that the kids you are working with come from very limited means and would not otherwise be able to afford this extra support and education provided to them.

The time you spend volunteering in this program is a free gift to the kids and they do not pay a fee to attend our English classes. Thank you for wanting to help our sweet kiddos in Nicaragua!

Is Nicaragua right for me?

Each location is unique and therefore has its pros and cons. What falls into those two categories will really depend on the person you talk to, but we’ve put together common complaints we hear most about volunteering here. Knowing the typical pain points that just come along with the experience will help as you consider which country is best for you.

Nicaragua isn’t perfect, but it does come pretty close. It’s a location where alumni tend to have high rates of satisfaction about the overall experience.

• Nicaragua is a humanitarian location which means teaching children with more difficult backgrounds.
• You’ll be going without some comforts from home. It’s a very hot and humid country, with just fans at home (and not A/C) to keep you cool.

About Your Group

This program has about 10 volunteers in a group which means you’ve got lots of new travel buddies! Our Nica program is the best fit for:

• Single females/males and married couples
• 18-about 25ish years old
• Volunteers from the U.S. and Canada
• No experience needed!

About Your Town

Volunteers are living in the colorful city of Granada! When we first started looking into opening a program here, we knew Granada was the perfect spot — the streets painted in bright colors make it a go-to for tourists. Plus, its location puts you in the perfect spot for so many weekend adventures: jumping into crystal lagoons, taking crowded buses to nearby cities, and trips to the beach.

You’ll be living in a house with other ILP volunteers, just a short stroll or even shorter bike ride from Granada’s downtown.

You’re going to love your new home, especially the hammocks in your open-air courtyard. From the street, an iron gate opens up to the big, open-air courtyard in the middle of your house: Picture a big rectangle with the outsides lined with bedrooms and other rooms, with that middle section acting as a courtyard (complete with lots of tropical plants that get straight sunshine … there isn’t a roof for the middle part of your courtyard).

Your bedroom doors will open right into that space, and some rooms (like the kitchen) aren’t fully enclosed, so you can just walk straight from the courtyard into the kitchen. There are places to hang hammocks between the bedrooms, so make sure to pack one up if you want some hang time.

These little reminders of your Central American home are all over the place, from the big mango tree that grows over the rooftop of your home to the sounds of the city easily heard outside of the windows.

Glimpse A Day In Nicaragua

Wake up in time to grab breakfast in the kitchen with your whole group. You all share a house in a local neighborhood, which is just a short walk from the colorful city center in Granada.

Also good to know? Housing in Central America is tight-knit and open-aired which means you’ll get very close to the 10ish people in your ILP group!

Along with your ILP roommates, get ready to share the space with a few friendly lizards, a couple of cats who like to hang around, and some creepy crawly bugs. One ILP volunteer here said to grab your phone whenever you hear a little scream: you can get the best videos of the semester when someone is trying to smash a centipede! Gotta love all those memories.

Your house is set up with your basic necessities, however, compared to the poverty you’ll see on the walk to school, things like running water and electricity for fans (welcome to life with no A/C) will seem like huge luxuries.

Alright, back to breakfast: You’ll be sharing meals with your group. Meals are made by a local who serves up classic Nicaraguan dishes. You can count on lots and lots of rice and beans at most meals (if not every meal), paired with fried plantains and fresh tortillas. We love our local cooks and they are be a big part of helping Nicaragua feel like home (we even refer to them as your little mamacitas for the semester).

The meals are an important part of your Nicaraguan experience. You’ll share big lunches (it’s the most important meal of the day) then join all together for a smaller dinner. It’s just like how the locals eat.

Along with the food, the people of Nicaragua lend so much to your experience. Nicaraguans are happy, so welcoming, and for most volunteers, are a huge part of their ILP semester in this country! We think you’ll love learning a bit of Spanish so you can chat to Mama Lucia about your day.

On your way to school, you pass happy neighbors and kids playing in the street who are waving and saying “hola!” as you pass.

In Nicaragua, you’re living right in the middle of two worlds. On one hand, you’re just a short walk to the bright and colorful downtown, filled with cafes and restaurants, but walk to where you teach, and experience some of the poorest areas in the country. Tin roof homes, dirt roads scattered with wandering roosters, and donkeys pulling carts are common to see in this part of the country.

After teaching finishes up in the early afternoon, the rest of the day is yours! Some volunteers say it’s more free time than they anticipated, leaving you time for joining in on a neighborhood soccer game, playing group games with other ILP volunteers, or walking to your favorite part of the city.

Your teaching days leave time to explore what Granada and nearby spots have to offer, but you’ll have lots and lots of places to choose from on the weekends and vacation days. Lucky for you, some of our favorite vacation spots are just a couple hours (or less!) from where you live.

Take a trip to dip in a nearby lagoon, trek to the top of volcanoes, or hang out on a string of beaches. All of this and more is so close to where you live.

For your vacation days, you’re also set. Easily, our favorite spot is the Corn Islands, found on Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast. Come for a beyond relaxing trip full of sugar-soft sand and sipping coconuts. It’s totally off of the typical tourist’s radar, so you’ll feel like you have the whole place to yourself.

But maybe you want to put a few stamps in your passport, too? Panama’s islands, Costa Rica’s adventures, and the secret swimming spots in Mexico are also options.

A difficult past has kept this adventurous country off the map for most tourists, but that’s slowly changing. We think you’ll love all the travel and adventure this country has to offer (without all the crowds and high prices you’ll find in other tourism-driven countries). Welcome to Nicaragua!

The Backstory Of This Program

In 2018, we got in touch with a native Nican who had spent much of his life between Nicaragua and the U.S. While creating a life for himself in the States, he still felt so connected to his home country.

He started an after-school program in an impoverished neighborhood outside of Granada with the goal of providing youth more opportunities — it became a place where they could go to stay busy, get help with their homework, and have positive role models.
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