** Update! Thank you all so much for the incredible advice. What we've decided to do for now is to plan a domestic trip to let our littlest Covid baby get his travel legs under him first, and then depending on how that goes, head for one of a few places in Central America. We're really grateful to you all for sharing your wisdom-of-experience with us. DMs are open to anyone not lining up to tell me to have fewer kids, childfree fanatics are blocked on sight! **

Hello, fellow travelers! My husband and I have a bad travel bug that was put on house arrest when my now 12-year-old was born, and after watching The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and ugly crying in my bathtub for the fourth time this year, we've decided we really need to let it out again as soon as the youngest one (now 9 months) is old enough.

We're based in Montana, are interested primarily in Latin America and Africa at the moment, and have several questions.

1. How old is old enough, for people who've traveled with an army of offspring? We're thinking 3 for maximum mobility and potty training.
2. What are the cheapest airfare options between the north/midwest US and either Latin America or Africa? We're not dead poor but are very much working class, and we're not prepared to drop 10k on flights alone. Also worth noting that my husband is 6'3", so really tiny cramped budget seating isn't really an option.
3. If you were insane enough to have four kids and wanted them to experience something awesome before they turn into vapid turd people who say things like "Why travel internationally when Vegas has everything anyway", where would you take them?*
4. Also, if you were sentimental enough not to want to leave any of those children behind in a foreign country out of sheer frustration and fatigue, what less obvious places would you avoid?

*If anyone names a single theme park, I will set a licensed Disney product ablaze.

**Editing to add that cruises are also off the table for environmental reasons.

***Editing again to give a huge thanks to everyone for their suggestions! Your tips have already cut what I expected to shell out about in half, and have probably saved us a ton of unnecessary stress. I wish nothing but happiness to all of you, except for the like four of you who tried to blame my uterus for climate change; to you four, I wish perspective and a full, satisfying day of touching grass. ♥️