CR Trip

Costa Rica | Dec 29 - Jan 6, 2020

Randall, and the crew at KimKim did a great job in arranging a perfect trip to Costa Rica for our family. Randall was great in being flexible, and was accommodate all our requests in terms of the places and itinerary. He was very prompt in responding to the Emails, and providing the requested information.

I was amazed that they were able to pick the hotels that were just perfect for us for the location, for the most part. The hotels in Manuel Antonio (Karahe), MonteVerde (Ficus), and La Fortuna (Montana del fuego) were excellent. The location of the hotel (Sleep Inn) in San Jose makes it a little less desirable for families (I think). Overall, the hotels were great, and their location made it possible to explore the place, find nice local establishments for food (and shopping) pretty easy.

The private transfers from the airport, and between the hotels were really nice. The drivers (Alex from Coast-to-Coast travels, Nelson and Diego from RideCR) were on-time, pointed out local wild-life along the way, and stopped at great fruit stalls, or coffee places when requested. one of the travel companies, RideCR, had Wi-Fi in their vehicles, so that was specially appreciated! Overall, there was a clock-work like quality for the travel arrangements, which was really nice. The car-boat-car transfer from MonteVerde to La Fortuna was a great experience, save the terrible condition of the roads in MonteVerde.

The guides in our tours were very passionate about their country, and what it stands for in the world (in terms of ecology, climate change etc.), and were very informative. Specially want to mention Aaron in Manuel Antonio night walk, Froy on boat trip to Cano Negro, and Horatio in hanging bridges tour in MonteVerde, as they were fantastic. I have to mention, the best meal we had in our entire trip was a home cooked meal on the Cano Negro trip!

The tours we have taken on the trip were ranging from very good to excellent, with a couple of exceptions. The hanging bridges, and canopy tour in MonteVerde was fantastic. Boat trip to Cano Negro was up there, as well as the trip from San Jose to Poas Volcano etc. Night walk in Manuel Antonio was great too. The Kayak trip to Isla Damas was a bit of a let down, and more adventurous (or risky) than imagined. And the night walk in MonteVerde was Okay as there were a lot of people, and not much luck with spotting wild-life on that night.

The early start times (pre-8:00AM) for some of the tours were a little difficult for the night owls of the family, and could have been managed better, in general. Usually, the tour guides pick-up people from various hotels before the tour started, and depending on the hotel, the pick-up time could be really early. It might be better to organize that differently to have a little bit extra time in the mornings for all, for example, by transporting the guests from their hotels to a central location where the tour started or something like that.

Overall, it was an excellent trip. Kudos to the KimKim team for their help and organization.

S.