A language stay in London with a private teacher is the most direct way to make progress in English: you live in your teacher’s home, you take one-to-one lessons tailored to your level, and you practise English from breakfast to dinner, in a real London home. You are the only student: no other speakers of your language around you, no student residence, and the whole city to practise in with your teacher.
Here, English doesn’t stop at the end of the lesson: it carries on at the table, on the Underground, at the market with your teacher. It is the format I recommend to anyone who wants to make progress in one or two weeks, adults and teenagers alike.
Why choose London for your language stay?
London, for a stay at your teacher’s home, is first of all a city that is easy to reach (from Paris it’s just 2 hours 15 by Eurostar, no flight needed), where there is always something to do, and where the English you hear is the English of shops, museums and everyday conversation.
There, English never runs out, because every outing with your teacher — a market, a museum, a neighbourhood — becomes an hour of conversation that nobody prepared. You stay with them in a neighbourhood where Londoners live, not in the bustle of Oxford Street: that is where you speak English from morning to night without thinking about it. And the programme is built on your goal, whether it is general English, professional English or an exam to prepare.
If you are still hesitating between several cities, my guide to the language stay in England compares the destinations — but London remains one of the destinations most requested by the people I work with, and for good reasons.
How does the stay at your teacher’s home in London work?
You stay with full board at your English teacher’s home, in London or its inner suburbs, and the one-to-one lessons take place in their home. You choose the intensity: 10, 15, 20, 25 or 30 hours of lessons a week, set before you leave according to your goals.
Your teacher assesses your level before you leave and builds a programme for you alone: grammar, conversation, the vocabulary of your job, exam preparation. Meals are taken with them and their family, and they are often the best hours of conversation of the day. The 10-hour option is combined with general activities or accompanied cultural visits, to practise outside the house; and for those who want immersion without formal lessons, there is a format built around shared everyday activities.
If you want to look into it further before deciding, I have written a complete guide to language immersion: how it works day to day, and how quickly you make progress.
A London host family like no other
Your host family in London is your teacher’s family: that is the big difference from a traditional language stay. In traditional formats, the host family provides the bed and the school does the teaching — two separate worlds, and often several foreign students under the same roof. Here, the person who hosts you is the same person who teaches you, and you are their only student.
Your teacher knows your recurring mistakes because they have dinner with you, they adapt the next day’s lesson to the previous evening’s conversation, and they correct you kindly in real situations — ordering in a restaurant, asking for directions, discussing the news. The teachers who host at home are selected and used to having guests: you are their guest.
What can you visit during your stay in London?
Cultural visits are decided directly with your teacher, depending on where they live, what you would like and what is available. London offers an almost endless choice, and some of the finest museums in the world are free there:
You already know the monuments by name: the Tower of London, Westminster, St Paul’s, Buckingham Palace, the London Eye. What changes is visiting them with someone who tells you about them in English, who makes you ask for your ticket again when you weren’t understood, and who then takes you to the British Museum or the National Gallery to have the lesson in front of the display cases — entry is free. The rest of the time, it is the neighbourhoods you explore on foot, from Covent Garden to Camden or Portobello, and everyday life: the local market, a match, the neighbourhood pub. These are often the best conversations, and the only memories people talk about when they get back.
Who is this language stay in London for?
This format is for anyone who wants to make progress quickly, without wasting time: adults, seniors — and teenagers, hosted on their own in their teacher’s family.
People come to London for different reasons. Those who work in English take one or two intensive weeks, often with the vocabulary of their sector — finance, law, health, commerce — and the city lends itself to it. Those who are a few years older come for the comfort of being looked after and to choose their own pace, with an attentive teacher whose only student they are. Students and young professionals prepare for an international exam, a job interview in English, or brush everything up before moving abroad.
If there are two of you wanting to go, I recommend the same week but each at your own teacher’s home: two in the same house slip back into their own language as soon as it is easier. You meet up in the evening and each of you goes home with your own progress.
Prices and formats of your language stay in London
The price depends on the intensity of lessons you choose (10 to 30 hours a week), the length of the stay and the options (cultural visits, sport, professional vocabulary). Everything is included in a single rate: accommodation at your teacher’s home, full board and one-to-one lessons.
A personalized stay according to your goals
Prefer to focus solely on individual lessons? Our "Lessons Only" programmes offer personalized tuition without accommodation at the teacher's home.
Stay at the teacher's home
- Full-board accommodation with daily one-to-one lessons
- Total immersion in the teacher's daily life with cultural activities
- Rates from £880 depending on the chosen programme
*With the 10-hour option, the week also includes General Activities and/or Cultural Visits.
⚠ For a student under 18 staying at the teacher's home, General Activities and/or Cultural Visits go with the lessons.
These are indicative starting prices and may vary.
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Ioana’s advice
For London, I almost always recommend the format with accompanied cultural visits: free museums like the British Museum or Tate Modern are very good places to have a lesson, and a visit with your teacher’s commentary in English is worth an hour of textbook. And if you’re only going for a week and coming from Paris, take the morning Eurostar on the day you arrive: you won’t lose your first day.
And if London’s pace isn’t yours, the same stay at a teacher’s home exists in Oxford and in Brighton.
FAQ: your language stay in London
How much does a language stay in London cost?
The rate is all-inclusive (accommodation at your teacher’s home, full board, one-to-one lessons) and varies with the intensity of lessons and the length of stay: see the prices section above for the detailed formats.
What is the ideal length for a language stay in London?
If you can, go for two weeks: the first is for daring to speak, the second for settling what you have learned. That said, one intensive week (25–30 hours) already gives clear results for a specific goal — an interview, a presentation — and stays of three weeks or more suit exam preparation.
Is one week in London enough to make progress?
Yes, as long as you choose a high intensity: in one week you speak English from morning to night, in lessons and outside them. London’s advantage for short stays, if you’re coming from Paris, is the Eurostar: no time lost on transfers, and you are at your teacher’s home on the afternoon you arrive.
Do I need to speak English before I go?
No: since the lessons are individual, all levels are accepted, from complete beginner to advanced. Your level is assessed before you leave and your teacher builds the programme from there — nobody will ask you to keep up with a group.
Can two of us go, with my partner or a friend?
Yes, and what I recommend is going the same week but each at your own teacher’s home: you study separately and tell each other about your day in the evening. Two in the same house slip back into their own language as soon as it is easier, and the week loses its point. When I have your dates, I look at what is free for two.
Can my teenager go on a language stay in London on their own?
Yes. They are their teacher’s only student and they live with the family: it is the alternative to a group or campus stay. Up to 18 their afternoons are filled, with activities or visits; up to 16 someone collects them at the airport, unless you travel with them; and under 13 there is always an adult at home. You know whose home they will sleep in before you say yes.
Where exactly do I stay: central London or the suburbs?
At your teacher’s home, in a residential neighbourhood of London or its inner suburbs, well connected to the centre by Underground or train. You live in the London that Londoners know, and you go into the centre for the visits.
Ready to go to London?
Tell me your goals, your dates and your current level: I look for the London teacher who suits you best and send you a proposal with no obligation. Contact me today.
If London feels like too much, the same format exists in Surrey: the county just to the south, half an hour away by train, where you find the countryside while staying close to the airports.
