Hi there!

I've been reading these forums with great interest. I love all of the great advice and ideas.

My husband and I both backpacked in Europe and Asia when we were much younger (!!!) and are therefore fairly experienced in budget travel. We haven't had a holiday in a long time due to budget constraints and we are definitely looking for good 'bang for our buck' but also someplace safe to expose our children to.

We have three children, ages 16, 13 and 10. We live in Vancouver, BC and we have been researching Central America as a destination to take our kids for an approximately 3 week adventure of backpacking around. Currently, we've been eyeballing Belize, Guatemala, Nicaragua or Costa Rica. We are thinking of March 2015.

Any advice or thoughts are welcome!

Thanks

We can help you better if you tell us your interests and the sort of budget you're thinking per night after airfare. My favorites are Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras. With 3 weeks you could pick 1 or fly into Guatemala and out of 1 of the others in order to add beach time to the end of your trip.

My photos with blog, travelogue, and review links on the main page of each collection are below in case you're interested - all my recommendations are embedded there.
Happy trails!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/staceyholeman/collections

Yes, sorry, I was unintentionally vague…. haha, I'm new to this

The kids would like some adventure and everyone wants to see monkeys and colourful birds We don't really dive but the Blue Hole in Belize (or some such snorkelling) made all of the kids excited.

As for budget, we're looking at maybe $350 per day, on average. Is that crazy? We are 5 people, so I know that we will need larger hotels (or two rooms), which is pricey but I also travelled Europe on $20 a day in my time, so $350 sounds like a lot. Haha!

Thanks for sharing your blog and photos, etc. They're all awesome and make me want to take a diving course!

Thanks

You'll get lots of monkeys in Costa Rica. If you want off the grid, the Osa Peninsula is really amazing. If you want more infrastructure, Manuel Antonio has beautiful beaches and lots of easy access to wildlife.

If you make it to Belize, there's amazing snorkeling at Hol Chan - lots of sea turtles, rays, nurse sharks, and colorful tropical fish.