Seeds & Stories
A Family Immersion Programme on the Caribbean Coast of Costa
SEEDS & STORIES
A family immersion programme on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica
Sun July 26 – August 14 2026
Sun 1 Nov – Fri 20 Nov 2026
Sun 24 Jan – Fri 12 Feb 2027
Sun 25 Jul – Fri 13 Aug 2027
Three weeks · Ages 7+ · Maximum 12 · All costs included
Three weeks of immersive, community-rooted experience for worldschooling and travelling families.
This is not a holiday with educational extras.
It is three weeks of living fully and deliberately inside one of the most culturally and ecologically rich coastlines in the world. Side by side. Each day. Together.
Seeds & Stories is our family immersion programme on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. Parents participate alongside their children. There is no drop-off, no childminding, no version where one of you is present and the other is somewhere else. The whole family is in it and that is precisely the point.
Families who travel with purpose who want their children to learn from real people in real places, who want the shared experience to change something in their family not just their itinerary this programme was built for you.
What Seeds & Stories actually is
Place-based learning on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica
Seeds & Stories runs Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 1pm, across three weeks on the southern Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, one of the most biodiverse, culturally layered and genuinely undiscovered stretches of coastline in Central America.
Every day is different. Every educator is locally rooted. Every experience has been built from relationships that existed long before this programme did.
This is not educational tourism. It is not a cultural experience curated for visiting families. It is an immersive learning programme led by people whose lives are woven into this coast, and who have invited us into their world because we are already neighbours here.
Why the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica
Most families who research educational travel in Costa Rica end up on the Pacific coast. The national parks, the well-known surf towns, the tourist infrastructure that makes everything easy.
The Caribbean coast is different. Less visited. Less polished. And for the families who find their way here, often the most significant thing they have ever done with their children.
This is the ancestral territory of the BriBri Indigenous people a community whose relationship to cacao, to the land and to the forest goes back generations. It is home to an Afro-Caribbean community descended from Jamaican workers who came to build the railroad in the late nineteenth century and built something far more enduring a culture of food, music, language and belonging that exists nowhere else on earth.
It is also one of the most biodiverse coastal ecosystems in the region — coral reefs, sloth habitat, rainforest, botanical gardens and a coastline that is both stunning and in urgent need of the kind of stewardship our children learn to give it.
This is the classroom. There is no better one.
What a Seeds & Stories week looks like
Monday to Friday · 8:30am – 1pm · All costs included
Every day in Seeds & Stories moves through a different experience, a different place and a different educator. Nothing repeats. The programme is designed so that each week builds on the last. Children and families arrive as visitors and leave with a genuine sense of belonging.
Cacao — from tree to bar With Ancel, a cacao specialist whose knowledge of this plant spans its entire life cycle. Families trace cacao from the farm to finished chocolate learning the botany, the fermentation chemistry, the economics and the cultural history of a crop that shaped this coastline. There is no better cacao experience for children anywhere on the Caribbean coast.
Afro-Caribbean cooking and culture With Vic and Carling, two Caribbean chefs deeply rooted in this coast. Families step into a kitchen that belongs to real community. Vic, whose family has farmed this coast for over a century brigs dishes like Rondon, Rice & Beans and coconut milk made the way it always has been. Alongside him, Carling shares the everyday essentials, Patties, Empanadas, local drinks, and the small details that make this food unmistakably of this place. These are not a cooking classes, but a transmission of living culture.
With Carling a local Caribbean woman who has been cooking this food her whole life families learn tortillas, local drinks and treats, the small details that make this coast's food unlike anywhere else.
Conservation — the coastline and its creatures With Susana — nearly 40 years on this coast, conservationist and community member families study the coral reef systems, coastal ecology and the urgent, real story of what is happening to this coastline and what can be done about it.
With Olivia and the Sloth Conservation Foundation, families do real conservation field work whether tracking sloths through the forest canopy and recording data that contributes to actual research, or planting trees and installing rope bridges to protect sloth habitat. This is place-based learning at its most concrete.
Indigenous culture and ancestral knowledge With Juanita a BriBri Indigenous elder and storyteller families sit with knowledge that has been passed down through generations. Stories that exist only because someone chose to remember them and someone else chose to listen.
With Derek an Indigenous community leader whose roots in this land run deeper than any curriculum families participate in community service at his outreach centre, working alongside the people who built and sustain it.
The natural world With Kiawe at the botanical gardens and cacao farm, families learn to read a landscape — the names of plants in Spanish, in Bribri, in Limón Kreyol. The relationship between ecology, agriculture and the communities that depend on both.
Art, music and creative expression With Federico, families discover the music of this coastline —rhythm, instrument, song as cultural expression. With Andrew, children and parents create mixed media art that processes and celebrates everything they are experiencing.
Water and jungle safety With Mike and the Caribbean Guard team the local water safety and lifeguard organisation built by and for this community every family receives a thorough ocean safety session. The southern Caribbean coast is stunning and powerful. This knowledge is not optional.
Families also receive a jungle safety session how to move through wild spaces, wildlife awareness and what to do when the forest asks something unexpected of you.
“We weren’t just learning about Costa Rica, we were living within it — an experience that only the on-the-ground connections of the team could deliver. From working alongside Indigenous communities, to conservation projects, to food, language and shared reflection, everything felt meaningful and unique.”
What families say
“The rhythm of the days — learning, exploring, creating, connecting — flowed so beautifully it’s honestly hard to put into words. The educators guided through inviting and showing, not pushing. Children were included, respected and encouraged to participate in ways that honoured their curiosity.”
“I watched my daughter’s confidence in her learning grow again. Her curiosity sparked, her opinions strengthen, her friendships deepen. She felt safe to be both vulnerable and strong — and that absolutely came from the environment that was created around her.”
“I learned that I’m braver than I thought.”
What Seeds & Stories is designed to do
For children: To be known by educators, by peers, by a community in a way that school and tourism rarely allow. To do things with their hands that matter. To discover, through real experience rather than instruction, what they are capable of.
For parents: To learn alongside their children rather than facilitating from a distance. To have shared experiences that become reference points things your family returns to in conversation for years. To travel with purpose rather than simply with destination.
For the family: To arrive as travellers and leave as something more. The families who come through Seeds & Stories consistently tell us that the three weeks changed how they see each other not dramatically, but in the quiet, lasting way that shared challenge and shared wonder tend to do.
Practical information
Programme dates:
Sun Jul 26 – August 14 2026
Sun 1 Nov – Fri 20 Nov 2026
Sun 24 Jan – Fri 12 Feb 2027
Sun 25 Jul – Fri 13 Aug 2027
Duration: Three weeks · Monday to Friday
Hours: 8:30am to 1pm daily · Extended to 1:30pm on cooking days
Ages: Children aged 7 and above
Group size: Maximum 12 participants
Parental participation: Full — parents attend every day alongside their children
Location: Caribbean coast of Costa Rica · Puerto Viejo de Talamanca area
What is included: All programme activities, all educator sessions, all materials, all field trips, fresh fruit and water daily. No additional programme costs apply.
Language: Sessions are conducted in English. Some educators speak Spanish, Kryol and Indigenous languages — the multilingual environment is part of the experience.
What to bring: Sturdy shoes and sandals, sun hat, light layers, reusable water bottle, insect repellent, reef-safe sunscreen, light backpack, rain poncho. Full packing list shared on application. Travel insurance: Mandatory for all participants. Details shared on application.
Is Seeds & Stories right for your family?
Seeds & Stories is for families who want to be in it together. Parents participate every day, not as supervisors but as learners alongside their children.
It is for children aged 7 and above who are curious, open and willing to try things that feel unfamiliar. Children do not need to be fearless. They need to be willing.
It is for families who have chosen to travel with purpose, who want the places they visit to ask something of them, and who want their children to come home knowing something real that they did not know before.
It is not for families looking for a structured academic programme, a holiday with activities, or an experience where parents observe from the sidelines.
If you read that and felt something that is the sign worth paying attention to.
Investment
Seeds & Stories is priced
at $2,800 per person
We price thoughtfully for families early bird pricing is available per programme and families of three or more participants benefit from additional savings. Full pricing details are shared personally on application.
All costs are included in the programme fee. There are no additional charges for activities, field trips or materials.
We accept a maximum of 12 participants per programme. Every application is read personally by Claire or Sam. You will hear from us directly — not from a system, not from a team member.
Apply at the link below. Tell us about your family. We will come back to you with everything you need to make your decision
You can read verified reviews from our families at trustpilot.com/review/cacaocoastcr.com
Cacao Coast Classroom offers place-based family worldschooling programmes on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica.
Seeds & Stories is our three-week family immersion programme for children aged 7 and above, running in Puerto Viejo de Talamanca.
Our programmes include cultural immersion, cacao farm experiences for children, Coastal, Animal and Botanical conservation, Indigenous storytelling, Afro-Caribbean cooking.
We work alongside the El Puente, the Sloth Conservation Foundation, Caribbean Guard and Coral Conservation. Maximum 12 participants. Apply at cacaocoastcr.com.