Salamanca lies on a plateau by the Tormes river and is one of the most spectacular Renaissance cities in Europe. Through the centuries the sandstone buildings have gained an exquisite golden glow which has given Salamanca the nickname "La Dorada", the Golden City. In 1218, Alfonso IX of Castile and Leon founded a university there. This makes it one of the oldest universities in Europe and has made Salamanca world famous. The city is large enough (180,000 inhabitants) to be able to offer the advantages of a real city, but at the same time it keeps the intimacy of a village.

In Salamanca, the inhabitants speak the "purest" Spanish in Spain – Castilian. For this reason Salamanca is enormously popular with people from all over the world who want to learn Spanish. Contacts are made easily. You don’t have to make a rendezvous as you are bound to see everyone in the Plaza Mayor, one of the finest squares in Spain and known as the living room of the Salamantinos. As there is such a varied range of nationalities, it is tempting to keep to fellow don Quijote students. Salamanca is however, a real university city, Spanish students are everywhere and you can go practically everywhere on foot. The choice is yours: there are plenty of places where only Spaniards go. The area around Salamanca also offers many facilities for cultural and sporting day-trips to villages, the mountains or to the many lakes.

The school in Salamanca is situated in the heart of the historic city center. The building is 100 meters from the renowned University of Salamanca and 2 minutes form the splendid and famous Plaza Mayor. The school is a recently restored 16^th century monastery. The modern materials used during the renovation are of previous centuries. You enter the school through a beautiful courtyard. This courtyard and the garden divide the school into two parts. In the first part you will find the secretariat and the office. The second part houses 11 classrooms; a recreation room furnished with a video, piano, hi-fi, etc., a library, a staff room and three offices.

don Quijote, In-Country Language Courses, Ltd., a relatively young but well known language school in Spain operates year round. While this progressive institute places high emphasis on quality, it also offers a casual and relaxed learning atmosphere within the walls of its schools. It functions under the combined talents of international management and all Spanish teaching staff. More than 10,000 people coming from 25 countries have learned Spanish with don Quijote schools.

The teaching staff are university graduates and native speakers with wide experience in teaching their language to foreigners. After the lessons, the teachers are also actively involved in the school's activities, help organize a variety of excursions, show what Spanish life is really like.