Child friendly destination?
 

We want to take our kids to somewhere in Latin America in late August/early September for about 10 days. Our kids will be about 10 months and 2.5 years. We'd like to avoid lots of flying time so we're thinking the northern parts of South America would be easiest - or somewhere in Central America. Our ideal would be a city by a beach from where we can take a couple of excursions to other cities. Where do you suggest? We've only been to Brazil and are not familiar with any other country in South America.

A few suggestions:

Costa Rica has it all, though not necessarily in one location; to get beach, city, jungle, etc. you'll need to stay in about three different areas, but easy to drive between.

Panama also has plenty of options, including great beach areas not far from the city.

Belize gives you beach and jungle, with plenty of excursions, but no great 'city' experience...

Buenos Aires is a fabulous city and very easy to get around, with a beach side trip to Punt del este in Uruguay and side trips to the cowboy country, etc., but a pretty long flight (9 hrs from MIA).

Great to get them started early; our kids are now teenagers and have been to 55 countries on all 7 continents...

www.spirit.com my fav usually can fly first class down

for less than coach out of Ft. Lauderdale...

www.hotelcaribe.com Cartagena for SA

beautiful historic nice beaches.

or

Costa Rica San Jose www.hotelvillacaletas.com for CA


2 super nice kid friendly places for you...

usually SA lots better rainwise than CA in August.

www.weather2travel.com Climate Guide.

Happy Hunting,

www.travelforkids.com good info...

Costa Rica sounds good for what you want. It may be a bit far, but we live in Santiago, Chile with our daughter, who is now 3. We moved here when she was 6 months old, and found it to be very, very child-friendly. Lots of parks, cafes with play areas, museums, and different things for kids to do. People love children here and dote on them, (especially if they're blonde!) and restaurants are very accomodating. Santiago is an hour and a half from the beach, but there are lots of beach towns (Vina, Algarrobo, Valparaiso, La Serena) to stay in.

Good luck with your planning. We have loved traveling with our daughter all over South America.