Family Air Miles Trip in December: please help me decide where to go
 

We've been carefully adding to our air miles on American Airlines and it looks like we have enough for our family of 4 to fly to one of these countries in December:
Costa Rica
Belize
Nicaragua
Columbia
Venezuela
Peru
Ecuador

Our 'kids' are 27 and 18. We like hiking, cultural activities (ruins, churches, cities, other cultures), food. I like snorkeling but others get bored or burnt at the beach so we can't do more than a couple days of that. We prefer to avoid tourist-heavy areas. Cost is a factor: I want it to be pretty inexpensive.

I picked up a stack of guidebooks at the library, read through trip reports (love all the great blogs w/ photos!) and would like some input now into what you've loved. After what I've read, Nicaragua and Peru sound appealing.

I went to Nicaragua last winter and loved it.......low cost, nice people, safe (except for Managua, the capitol), lots of history, ruins, churches,definitely another culture. I stayed in Granada, a great city, and did side trips from there. I'd really recommend Nicaragua.

I was also going to recommend Nicaragu if you are looking for a lot for your money.
Granada is only about a 45 minute drive from the airport. It a pretty little city. You can visit a town where they make pottery from there. It's really beautiful and I brought home as much as I could.
We also went to San Juan del Sur for a couple of days.We were able to go sailing for afternoon with Pelican Eyes. It was a great day and it was reasonable enough for just four of us to go. Beside the captian we also had someone who made us snacks. Delicious guacomole, ceviche and drinks were included.
We also went on a night adventure to see the turtles. You will have to check to see if they are laying their eggs while you are there.
How long is your trip?
You didn't mention Guatemala but that would be my first choice for everything you are looking for. Antigua is a great for culture, food and wonderful places to stay.
Elizabeth Bell offers some great tours from Antiuga. The city tour is wonderful and she also offers tours to go see the woman weaving. Through Old Town outfitters we were able to take a short ride to a coffee farm and music museum.
We also used Rhett from Mexcal tours for some trips around the lake.

Husband and I did Belize and LOVED every minute of it. Did both a short beach and water stay on QUIET caye caulker as well as 10 days inland, with ruins and canoeing and caves and TONS of howler monkeys!!!!!! Best experience of our lives!!! and not tooo costly.

Thanks all - for some reason Guatemala makes me nervous in a way Nicaragua doesn't. I think the recent news reports of a gristly message left in Guatemala City, coupled with what went on in the 1980's...makes me think of other countries first.

Like Nicaragua - I pored over that guidebook last night and Granada sounds like a good travel base. Did anyone go to the Caribbean coast from there?

I'm also thinking seriously about a Bolivia/Peru combination. That's my husband's top choice - he's a geologist - but may need to post on the SA forum for that!

Been to all the countries

www.visitperu.com nice choice for geology spectacular vistas

Bolivia not so much due to expensive visas for entry

so just do the Gringo Trail to MP in Peru...

on the down side beaches are not great water quite cold

December begins the rainy season so expect a bit of rain

in the mountains..

In CA it starts drying out in December

Belize better beaches snorkel ruins adventure

www.cozcorner-belize.com makes a nice base

or

Costa Rica for family adventure

www.arenal.net

www.hotelloslagos.com

www.manuelantoniopark.com

Peru for me unless aquatic sports are a big deal...

www.villasnicolas.com

adventures.worldnomads.com/destination/168/itinerary/23.aspx

simply amazing can be done quite cheaply...

qwovadis -
Peru is my top choice. I'm a little worried about the rainy season - how much will that impact vistas and hiking? Just a two hour deluge in the afternoon or will it rain all day?

Also - have you been to Nicaragua and how do you compare that to Belize?

Aquatic sports are not a big deal - the family much prefers hiking around ruins to snorkeling. Don't know why, but they do.

If you want to visit Costa Rica, it is fairly easy to see the "real" Costa Rica on a budget. However, you won't see the cultural/historical/ruins that you see in other countries. If you are interested in avoiding touristy areas check here:

www.ruralcostarica.com
www.turismoruralcr.com
www.tortuguerovillage.com
www.heliconiaslodge.com
www.samarabeach.com
www.cuajiniquil.com

Also look at Finca la Anita.

In a little meeting recently, we decided that a person could vacation in Costa Rica for as little as $30 a day which would include a place to stay and food and transportation by public bus and a few short taxi rides. This would not include any organized tours or admission to National Parks which is $10. Most budget minded people end up spending a little more than this but this is the bottom line.

Look here, also - www.costarica-nationalparks.com The National Parks are wonderful and some of them feature rustic lodging.

Where are you flying from? It will be difficult to get 4 rt FF tix to Belize or CR in Dec unless you have enough miles for anytime awards. (which can be a waste of miles unless you fly Business class)

It was fairly easy for me to get economy low season awards for 3 to Venezuela and also to Buenos Aries, Argentina. I'd imagine that Nicaragua would also be easier than more high profile tourist destinations. Good luck, sounds like Nic is an interesting place, I'm going to check it out myself now....

Thanks hsmithcr - great links.

Hi fishee - Seattle. I've checked the ff availability. We'd be leaving 12/9 or so, back just after Christmas sometime. It's about 52,000 miles per ticket with those dates.

Of your list, I've only been to Peru and Nicaragua. I can say that I enjoyed both of them, but in many ways, they're hard to compare. Nicaragua to me seemed like more of an immersion, less tourist savvy. Peru of course is very tourist aware. Peru seems to me to be focused on it's pre-colonial past, which makes it unique. Nicaragua I wouldn't say has a "theme" like that, but has what I think is some spectacular colonial sights, particularly Granada, yet still lives in their colonial shells. In Granada, you're much more likely to see someone rocking on the porch of their colonial home in the evening than say, a gift shop. Not tha Granada doesn't have some of those. It's just that most colonial cities have far more. And Cuzco is lousy with them.

But then Cuzco isn't just a colonial city either... and there's Machu Picchu, a wonder of the world. And Ollantaytambo and the Sacred Valley, which I enjoyed a few days there as much as the trip to MP.

What I looked at in using miles is what it would cost me to go there on my own dime. As it happens, we used the FF miles for Peru and bought our own ticket to Nicaragua. Because Nicaragua was cheaper, making Peru a better value for the miles. Of course, it's only a good value if it's somewhere you really want to go, right?

Thanks Clifton -
I'm starting to lean towards Nicaragua simply because the ff availability to Peru or Ecuador might not work with my son's school schedule. I can't afford a trip right now (college is looming!) without using our ff miles.

I am very lucky to have visited all the countries on your list except Nicaragua, and have traveled with teens (using mileage) to CR, Ecuador and Belize. You can't go wrong with any of them, but I think Ecuador or Peru would work best if you're not really beach people. Cartagena, Colombia is also back on the radar of savvy travelers - a great beach/colonial city combo.

Rose - we spent most of our time in Granada and surrounds and enjoyed. One place I had research about extensively but we didn't end up making it to was Ometepe Island, the volcano island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. We ended up unexpectedly spending a lot of time more time than we'd planned helping out at an orphanage in Granada and so dropped some overnighter plans.

I wouldn't want to recommend someplace I haven't actually been, but try googling Ometepe if you're into unique spots. I thought it looked fascinating and thought it might not have come up in your reading yet.

We've visited Belize, Honduras, and Guatemala over and over. You can check out our photos and travelogues here if you're interested:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/staceyholeman/collections
Happy trails!
Stacey

<i>I've checked the ff availability. We'd be leaving 12/9 or so, back just after Christmas sometime. It's about 52,000 miles per ticket with those dates.</i>

Have you actually seen <u>available</u> seats for your dates? There's a huge difference between "here's how many miles it will take to go to X on these dates" and "here are available seats to X for these dates". My suggestion is to start immediately trying to book your tickets. The whole choice of where to go may be a moot point. You may not find available seats for your dates to all the locations you are considering. Once you find available tickets, you need to grab them. They can be gone in a matter of minutes. Anyone who uses FF miles to travel will tell you, that you don't really have the luxury of finding seats, then considering locations, then going back and finding the seats still waiting. Hurry! Hurry!

TC, The OP is traveling on AA, and their site does show up-to-date availability...plus it's always (surprisingly) relatively easy to get award tickets to Latin America from the west coast. It also sounds as if she's using "fly anytime" awards, which are pretty much always available.

Agree with crosscheck. Unlike Europe or Asia routes, I've never had a problem finding "last minute" award flights on AA to Latin America, even the more restrictive levels.

Rose, if you are still leaning towards Nicaragua why not combining your trip with a visit to Costa Rica. Granada is 2 1/2 hours from the border and San Juan del Sur 1 1/2 by car. You will be entering in Guanacaste, Costa Rica's driest province. For information click here for the offical site of Guanacaste, Costa Rica http://www.guanacastecostarica.com/. Just a thought. Costa Rica is Pura Vida! Josta