South America Trip 2023 - Why Chile and Argentina? So, back in the spring when Jason and I traveled to Africa (sans kids), our kiddos expressed their interest in international travel as well. This was always part of our big plan...show the kids the world...so we started to brainstorm possible trips.
Well, we started with Chile around Christmas in mind for a few reasons...
- not much of a time difference (jet lag for 6 is no fun!)
- I had not been to South America yet (Jason went to Chile for a friend's wedding many moons ago)
- kids would get to experience summer for the holidays since the southern hemisphere has opposite seasons (we loved this in Australia for 2 Christmases)
As I began to plan the trip, I looked at the map and realized how close we would actually be to Buenos Aires, Argentina, which got me thinking...I have an Argentine friend from high school who was an exchange student, and we've kept in touch through years. I sent him a message to see if he would be around the week after Christmas, and then our trip expanded to 2 countries. I consulted our friends with contacts in both countries, and put together a trip over winter break 2023 (kids did miss a week of school, but I always feel world experience is important!)
First things first - renew the kids passports! We did this in the summer (at a local library - amazing tip from a friend!) and got them in plenty of time, phew! While we haven't done international travel with kids since the girls were small, we have already done quite a bit of travel as a family of 6 - just around the US (and during a pandemic), so I do know to always expect the unexpected. I decided to try to keep this trip simple - one week in Chile, one week in Argentina, and narrow it down even further to one airbnb in each place so we don't have to move around much. *this was a different approach than Jason and I normally do - we have been known to pack things in and move around a lot (but that was sans kids)
I secured flights and found great locations in each spot for us to set up "home base" and then I pretty much left the details to be filled in once we arrived in country. Of course, I had some ideas of things to do, but it's easier to go with the flow and see what everyone is up for each day. After Thanksgiving, the kids switched our nutcracker countdown to Christmas to a countdown to the trip, and the anticipation grew...
Of course, my work was ramping up - how to pack for this trip? While I have a dream of doing a trip like this with a backpack/carry-on for each person - it turns out this was not that trip. However, I don't think we did too bad considering some of the factors I had to work into packing for this trip. We also lucked out and had a couple friends/neighbors volunteer to take us and pick us up from the airport, and it was so great to not have the extra stress of all that on the day of departure!
Finally the day arrived...time to fly south! First we had to fly to Miami, then get on an overnight flight to Santiago, Chile. We had games for the layover in Miami, snacks, tablets, headphones, and other things for the two flights. This round of travel was on Delta/Latin American Airlines - and we highly recommend both! Kids were thrilled with the screens in the seats for both legs, and we lucked out getting through all the security, customs, and baggage lines in the airports pretty quickly.
Stay turned for our arrival in Chile... 
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