Authorized IB World School in Tamarindo offering the IB Diploma Programme with project-based learning.
Journey is the IB option in Tamarindo proper, and it leans hard into where it is.
Their line is "where the Pacific meets the classroom," and it is more literal than most school marketing: they use the tide pools for marine biology and the tropical dry forest for environmental studies. Kids learn about an ecosystem by standing in it.
Pre-K through Grade 12, bilingual in Spanish and English, taught as an IB World School. The Middle Years Programme is at candidate status. Their approach is project-based, drawing on Reggio Emilia, Social-Emotional Learning, Conscious Discipline and Restorative Justice.
The accreditation list is genuinely long — International Baccalaureate, Costa Rica's Ministry of Public Education, Middle States Association, the UNESCO Associated Schools Network, and the Council of International Schools. Middle States is the one that makes a transcript legible to a US admissions office.
Families who want IB, are set on Tamarindo, and like the idea of a school built around the place rather than one that happens to be located there. If your kid is the sort who learns by doing, this is the closest fit on the coast.
The campus is a pavilion structure — smaller and more open than CRIA's 32 acres. That is a feature for some families and a dealbreaker for others. Go look.
Journey is northeast of Tamarindo centre, out toward Villareal — not in the middle of town. From most Tamarindo houses that is a short run. From Langosta or south toward Pinilla, add real minutes.
Drive it at 7am on a weekday before you decide which side of town to buy on.