South America

South America is the continent where children are most obviously welcome — in restaurants late at night, in queues, in strangers’ conversations. Family life happens in public here, and arriving with a toddler makes you part of it rather than a problem to be seated at the back.

Altitude is the one thing to plan around. Cusco, La Paz and Quito all sit high enough that children feel it, and the usual advice is to arrive low and climb slowly rather than fly straight in. Give the first two days to doing very little. It is not lost time, and it makes everything after it work.