Your parador (inn) becomes home for the week, but Puerto Rico becomes your classroom. With a small group of just 15 travelers, which includes two personal bilingual guides, we’ll venture beyond the typical tourist experience to discover the people, traditions, flavors and places that give Puerto Rico its soul.

CULTURE | Experience Puerto Rico, Don’t Just See It
Learn the stories behind the island as you explore historic communities, mountain towns, family-owned businesses and places most visitors pass by. Step into Puerto Rico’s Afro-Caribbean heritage through bomba and plena, meet local artisans, experience traditional foods, explore a working coffee hacienda and discover the traditions that continue to shape Puerto Rican life.

CONNECTION | Put Your Spanish Into Practice
Before we ever leave home, you’ll learn practical conversational Spanish designed specifically for the experiences ahead. Then comes the fun part: using it. Order your own café, talk with a market vendor, ask an artisan about their work, introduce yourself to someone in a town plaza, speak with farmers and shopkeepers, and discover what happens when you make the effort to communicate in someone else’s language.

SERVICE | Leave Puerto Rico Better Than We Found It
One of our most meaningful experiences will be giving something of ourselves. Depending on the needs of our Puerto Rican community partner, we may spend time with children, support an educational project, read or share activities with students, help with a school or community project, or serve alongside a local organization.

ADVENTURE | Discover the Puerto Rico Most Visitors Never See
Leave the tour-bus version of Puerto Rico behind. Travel from the coast into the mountains, down winding roads and through small towns. Explore hidden beaches and natural landscapes, visit coffee country, discover local food stops, walk historic streets, venture into caves or forests when appropriate, experience rural communities and follow roads that make you wonder, Where in the world is she taking us?

This isn’t about checking Puerto Rico off your bucket list. It’s about knowing it differently when you leave. You’ll learn, taste, listen, serve, explore, speak Spanish, meet people you never would have met on your own and experience Puerto Rico not simply as a tourist, but as a traveler invited a little closer.

Included in every ALMA journey are conversational Spanish lessons given before departure, practicing together at the parador, and then having intentional opportunities to use it with Puerto Ricans throughout the island!