Should I take a one week spanish immersion program?

[Cavesa]

Just one advice, if you travel to a country for one week or a short visit, is better to travel with a friend or family member. Do not travel alone, Just for safety reasons. If you are more familiar with the place and had made connections with locals, if there is a local person waiting for you and guide you, then of course, you can travel alone to your destination. I don’t think is a good idea to be talking to random people if you are travelling alone and you don’t know the area. For men and women, but specially for a woman.

This is certainly a piece of good advice in some places. But it also means ruining the speaking practice opportunities. Which returns us to the point of the one week probably being a great (and hopefully motivational) holiday, but not some sort of an immersion miracle.

[garyb]

Plenty people travel alone, be it for days or weeks or years, even women (and especially women, judging by my social circle, my experiences in hostels, and the blogosphere!), and have a great time with no problems. For sure you have to keep your wits about you and be aware of dangers and scams etc. but I'd never tell people not to do it. Of course, most solo travellers will stay in hostels and/or attend events aimed at travellers and/or go on group tours, rather than just talking to random people on the street or in a bar.

Travelling alone can however be quite lonely, especially if you try to make it an "immersion experience" since as we've discussed meeting locals is not easy and even if you meet people or have friends in a place they have their own lives to get on with. Personally if I'm going to a place where I don't know anybody, I'll usually choose a hostel where mostly English is spoken and I might get a chance to use my other languages if it's an option rather than spending all my time alone and only having superficial interactions with shopkeepers and waiters. I'll enjoy myself more even if it means a little less language practice. What can also work is staying in an AirBnB room with a local host, so if you're lucky you'll get some language practice and company but also have your own space, but that also has its disadvantages and as a resident of a city that has suffered a lot of adverse effects from AirBnB I'm not keen to give them my money anymore. I'm relatively introverted so can manage a few days of solitude, but after that it gets too much.

Anyway my point is that getting a perfect immersion experience is difficult and perhaps not even desirable, so you'll usually have to compromise somewhere.

[Lisa]

Traveling with someone - well, I'd speak english all the time... it would be the vacation, not about language. Been there done that.

Back in the 90s -- might have been safer, certainly in say Pakistan! -- I traveled alone quite a bit without difficulties, though not in actually dangerous places. And then, in many places I did meet up with other travelers. Anyone ought to have their wits about them anyway when they are outside their usual places. Traveling alone doesn't really appeal, though, agree with @garyb that it does get lonely; and when you're lonely it seems easier to gravitate to other travelers/people that share your comfortable language...

Whatever may be about the classes that the programs I'm looking at offer, they all seem to setup homestays which is probably as valuable as the classes.

[MorkTheFiddle]

Hmmm, maybe I went wrong somewhere. I traveled by myself to Spain and Germany and Mexico, though never for more than 10-14 days, never sought or even thought about hostels, mixed amongst the locals, butchered their language (though their answers always were in the TL, I never understood why), avoided sexual encounters (should I say that?) just because it seemed potentially too dangerous (yes, 14 days is a long time). Even though all my communication was strictly necessary stuff, I never felt lonely, probably because being in a totally new place gives me a big buzz. And I was always happy to get home.