Family Travel
Travel with ViviendasLeón gives you more than just insight into another culture, more than a community service opportunity. It gives families the opportunity to share an experience that is both profound and fun.
ViviendasLeón has been bringing student groups to Nicaragua since 2003. The students often come back feeling that their time in Nicaragua was life-changing. Because they experience a culture and economic reality that is often quite different from their own, students raise questions—about government, poverty, individual responsibility, want vs. need—that don’t have easy answers. When they return from their trip, the interest in these big questions continues, as does their feeling of being connected to something larger.
Wanting the entire family to be a part of such a meaningful experience, parents started asking us to provide a trip for families. And so we have!
ViviendasLeón offers a two-week family program (for parents and children ages 7-18) that has all of the aspects of our student travel program—work on an authentic rural development project, homestays, and excursions around Nicaragua—but are geared to the needs of a family and to a range of ages.
Family Travel Programs: 7-15 DAYS
Cultural Immersion:
get to know life in Nicaragua through homestays and daily participation on a rural development project. For example, families with young children can join community members in constructing and painting furniture for the elementary school and, later in the afternoon, join community children at the Madre Tierra Art Center in a “sharing our stories” theatre activity. Older children (13 and up) can participate in reforestation or developing community composting—all needs the community has in order to utilize their resources sustainably.
Homestays:
program participants stay with families in the city of León, the educational and intellectual heart of Nicaragua. Our host families have consistently won our participants' respect and affection for the warmth of care they provide. Evenings are spent at home with family members, or going out as a group to attend panel discussions with Nicaraguan community leaders or simply to hear live music, dance, and eat in restaurants. If your family would prefer, we can also arrange for you to stay at a wonderful local hotel we have used for many years: http://www.hotelbalcones.com/index_leon.htm
Language immersion:
Speaking Spanish is not a requirement for participating in any of our travel programs. That said, as most Nicaraguans speak only Spanish being in Nicaragua can give you an immersion into the language. Not to worry: all of the ViviendasLeón staff is fully bilingual and biliterate and at least one member of our staff accompanies travel participants at all times except at the homestay (or hotel); when not with the group, they can be reached by phone, day or night.
Diverse learning environments:
Families are also given the chance to experience local arts including a vibrant live music scene; sites of international historical/archaeological importance; local experts in everything from indigenous story-telling to US-Nicaraguan relations; excursions to rainforests of exceptional beauty and biodiversity, volcanoes, and beaches; and Nicaraguans, urban and rural, of all ages. Please note that excursions are determined based on the ages of the children in the group and interests of the families; for example, excursions for families with young children will be shorter in duration and require less travel time.
Down time:
We understand that families with young children need time for both structured and unstructured play and also plenty of “down-time.” We also know that what children see and experience in Nicaragua means there is a lot to process. We know this and build in both formal and informal opportunities for conversation and just relaxing as a family or with other families.
What’s included in our fees:
All lodging, meals, transportation in country, bilingual guides, project support, bottled water.
To learn about Family Trips, including a preliminary itinerary, scheduled for summer 2011, click here.
If you want to learn more about an aspect of our program, click on the topic below:
Projects
Homestays
Excursions
Travel FAQs: specifics about Nicaragua (weather, food, safety, medical, etc)