Overland central America with 4 kids and 3 dogs!

Seeking advice on traveling overland with dogs and children. We are leaving in three weeks for a six month sabbatical and adventure traveling by suburban. Our kids are 12, 6, 4, and 2. We welcome any advice and especially would love advice on border crossings, travel with the kids and dogs, and how to have positive inter-cultural experiences. We will be seriously budget traveling... cooking our own food and camping :)

13 years ago, August 8th 2010 No: 1 Msg: #117239 Delete Edit

rosetta star
rosetta rzany

N Posts: 7

Please share your suggestions, advice, and experiences. Anybody out there traveling with kids? Three dogs?

We are doing this in part to learn spanish and to remove our children from their "middle-class american" life style.

Meeting others, making friends, perhaps volunteering somewhere along the way... this is the stuff our trip will be made of. We have six months to live simply and have adventures.... Reply to this

13 years ago, August 18th 2010 No: 2 Msg: #117790 Delete Edit

matty1
matt

B Posts: 171

wow i cannot help because i have not been to central america yet, but please keep a blog sounds amasing :-) Reply to this

13 years ago, August 20th 2010 No: 3 Msg: #117909 Delete Edit

rosetta star
rosetta rzany

N Posts: 7

thanks.... two weeks till we go! we have our Spanish language disks, our mosquito nets, and were vaccinating the children.... Reply to this

13 years ago, September 15th 2010 No: 4 Msg: #119151 Delete Edit

deleted_49612
deleted_49612

D Posts: 24.6K

Hello Rosetta 😊

How is your trip going? I only travel with one kid and that even has its challanges. As Matt asks, yes it will be great if you keep blogging, and maybe tell us here on this thread what it is like travelling on a budget adventure with the kids and dogs, if you have time. And, what advice would you give to others considering doing what you are doing. ie The dos and donts.

Mel Reply to this

13 years ago, September 15th 2010 No: 5 Msg: #119177 Delete Edit

rosetta star
rosetta rzany

N Posts: 7

Well, we are still a week and a half away (my family is great at many things, realistic timelines is not one of them!) the plan has changed somewhat, we have decided to leave the dogs. A somewhat heart breaking decision, but we are renting our house to friends and they begged us to leave them, so they stay together, and they stay at their own house, im still not feeling right about it, but the more research we did the more it seemed dangerous for them.

And we have given our self a destination. We will only be traveling for about four weeks, and then we have rented a cute house in Nicaragua to live in for a few months. We will be focusing on homeschooling, spanish, and learning the ways of the area.

So as it stands right now, we are leaving in a big 1987 suburban, diesel, 4x4. A roof rack full of our household goods, caped by a red canoe, and strapped down tight. We will drive from Asheville NC, to Brownsville TX, and cross there. We will travel along the gulf, and from there.......... follow our hearts.

We had to wait for the kids to get booster shots, and leaving our businesses for so long required a bit more preparation than we thought. So our house is rented out begining Oct1st, and then we have no where to go, but traveling!

I've been reading a book called "Adventuring with Children", very inspiring. We just have to have plenty of snacks, water, and stops. Oh and lots of good humor! We go camping in Canada every summer with the kids, and have a couple of times taken extra kids along (this year there were two, two years olds on board!) I have this idea that in a way things get easier with multiple kids. People treat you differently, the kids entertain each other, the parents are out numbered so it is a kid trip!

If you find my adventure interesting, here ia a blog from my friend Nikki who has been traveling east side with 3 boys for some months: http://eastsidecurry.wordpress.com/ shes been quite an inspiration to me, a kick in the pants to just go ahead and do what we want!

A Blog.....hmmmmm....maybe... my facebook page is half me and half my business, so a division might be a good thing, untill then... rosettas kitchen @facebook is my main public life

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13 years ago, September 15th 2010 No: 6 Msg: #119181 Delete Edit

deleted_49612
deleted_49612

D Posts: 24.6K

Thanks for the report, Rosetta 😊 Reply to this

13 years ago, September 21st 2010 No: 7 Msg: #119459 Delete Edit

Gloria C
THE JOURNEY

B Posts: 12

Hi. I drove from Connecticut to Nicaragua with my teenaged daughter and then lived there for almost 2 years. Make sure you have the title to your car and make LOTS of copies of this title. Also, make lots of copies of everyones birth certificates. Every border you come to will takes hours to get through, but with the copies already made, it will save some time. Not taking the dogs is the best idea. You would need paperwork for the dogs through the borders and every country has different laws about bringing in pets and it would take FOREVER to get through every border, until you found the right person to slip $50 dollars to just to let you through. Also, my Labrador got meningitis and was blind for the last 5 years of her life (she almost died of the disease). You will have to buy car insurance for every country you go into. Even if you are only in that country for a few hours. Fortunately, it's not that expensive...$12.00-$30.00, but it just takes more time to get through the borders. You can stay in Nicaragua for 90 days before having to leave for 3 days so you can come back again, but if you have an American car with you, it can only stay for 30 days legally before having to be out for 3 days. If this sounds complicated, please read my blog for more info.
Have fun,
A. zudro Reply to this

13 years ago, September 21st 2010 No: 8 Msg: #119461 Delete Edit

rosetta star
rosetta rzany

N Posts: 7

I can't wait to read your Blog! Reply to this

13 years ago, March 17th 2011 No: 9 Msg: #131435 Delete Edit

cr expat
Laurel Harry

N Posts: 3

It can be really hard to find hotels in Central America that will accept pets, but I found a few in Costa Rica that were really really pet friendly:

http://www.suite101.com/content/pet-friendly-hotels-for-a-costa-rica-vacation-a231522 Reply to this

13 years ago, March 18th 2011 No: 10 Msg: #131560 Delete Edit

rosetta star
rosetta rzany

N Posts: 7

We did it! I am home now.....
I ended up driving home with the kids and dog alone. My husband had to fly back and i was worried at first but it was an awesome trip. I never did blog 😞 travel with kids and lack of internet at our house there stopped that. if anyone wants to see my photos please find them on facebook- my name there is rosettastar or rosettastarshine

so many people said i couldn't do that with four kids.... it was awesome! even driving all the way home alone with them!

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13 years ago, March 22nd 2011 No: 11 Msg: #131744 Delete Edit

deleted_49612
deleted_49612

D Posts: 24.6K

I ended up driving home with the kids and dog alone.

Well done with that! I travel in Asia sometimes with my daughter, and have been doing so since she was 5, so im aware of what travelling with kids involves. But, I only have one and no dog, so it has to be easier for me.

The big question: Would you do it again?

Also, would you post here what you would consider the main challanges of your trip were, and if there is anything you would do differently next time. Reply to this

13 years ago, March 22nd 2011 No: 12 Msg: #131751 Delete Edit

rosetta star
rosetta rzany

N Posts: 7

I would totaly do it again! And i also would love to travel across India (i did it very young with no kids) again with my whole little tribe.

Main challenge for me was language, i was learning the whole time but if we got of "tourist towns" and more off the beaten path less people understood less of my horrid spanglish.

For me the traveling without my husband was also very hard in the beginning, not so much the technicalities, but just we had never been apart in 8 years and i was sad every evening.... heart sick... 😊 But the flip side was that it was a very good exercise for me to "try on" my independence "bad ass" pants again.... i came home stronger, smarter, and more confident. So all in all i really am grateful for the experience.

Dealing with four kids, driving in a developing nation, i focused on meeting their physical needs. Water bottles full, cooler with food (we lived on re-fried beans and flour tortillas), giving the kids as little sugar as possible (really in a vehicle all day you can tell if they eat sugar!), hand sanitizer, and run around time. I left the keeping busy, or not, and bickering and such to them. If it got out of hand i would pull over and sit........ they hated it! would only take a sec before i'd hear "OK Mom, were ready to go now" from a totally silent back seat.

We always stopped by a reasonable hour, and i held very little expectations about what a day might hold or how far we would make it. If we saw a perfect stop we stopped, if the car needed something we'd stop, we just played it by ear every day. The whole experience was sooooo good for me and my kids. My oldest and i had had lots of history of bickering more than ithor of us liked, sort of a "teenager/parent" relationship thing.... this trip cured it!

I cant wait to do something like it again!!!! (but im thinking South East Asia.......)

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Overland central America with 4 kids and 3 dogs!