Kimkim Trip Reviews for Argentina

My triplet sisters and I had a wonderful 40th birthday trip to Argentina. We wanted to prioritize Patagonia, so Emilce arranged for us to visit Buenos Aires, El Calafate, and Ushuaia. Some highlights included the stunning Perito Merino Glacier, El Chalten hiking, and sailing the Beagle Channel. We had one mishap where a driver didn't show up to take us to the BA airport and one of us almost got bumped from the flight, but Emilce, Clementina, and Fernando were all very apologetic and refunded the difference for the transportation. After that incident, Clementina sent us our boarding passes ahead of time so that we wouldn't get bumped again - a thoughtful gesture! All of our guides were great and the team was very responsive. Even though food poisoning took us out for one day, we were overwhelmed and amazed by the beauty, food, culture, animals, and people. I hope to be back one day!

Hotel Review

Huinid Obelisco Hotel

Buenos Aires

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Review

Minitrekking in "Los Glaciares National Park"

El Calafate

Absolutely once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

I had a great experience with Kimkim thanks to Leandro. I had to book all the details of a trip to El Chalten and El Calafate within 24 hours of take-off during high season. There was very little hotel and tour availability, and the these destinations and tours also can require a significant amount of complicated ground transportation, with required tour guide coordination to allow entry into Glacier National Park. Leandro was able to get me a private room in each location, and book me with an amazing all-day mini trekking tour of Perito Moreno Glacier, complete with crampons and mandatory tour guide for glacier trekking, along with all necessary bus transportation to the destinations. I tried booking hotels last minute from the US while at the airport but many El Chalten hotels don’t have self-booking enabled on their websites. I first left a message for Kimkim Sunday night as I was about to board my flight to Buenos Aires from JFK. By the time I landed in EZE Buenos Aires, Kimkim had connected me to Leandro and he had already worked out 90% of the details of my trip. Working with Leandro was such a relief and allowed me to enjoy my very short last minute trip stress-free and to the fullest.
Highly recommend.

Hotel Review

Hotel Lunajuim

El Chalten

Great place to stay. Kind of rustic rooms as are most places in Chalten. They offer great support services for hiking (helpful trail reviews and guidance/suggestions of best trails for the day given erratic weather conditions) and they offer a packed lunch service which is great if you’re on the go and don’t have time to grocery shop. Wifi is insufficient during wind storms (super frequent) and also when the hotel is full (afternoons and evenings after hiking). Wifi is ok early AM and late night when people are offline and on nights when it is not extremely windy. Very nice lobby with bar.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Review

Minitrekking in "Los Glaciares National Park"

El Calafate

Great tour! Fun on the ice with great guides.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Emilce and the entire team of guides in Argentina, provided me with a wonderful experience.
I will return soon and plan on utilizing their services again....

We were supposed to go on an Antarctic but our cruise was canceled on the day of departure. KimKim helped us build a replacement trip on very short notice to salvage our vacation. Thank you.

Activity Review

El Chalten Full Day, Free time

El Calafate

Everything was very smooth and went perfectly. No issues throughout the entire trip due to the great planning from the travel team. Fernando and Mathias were particularly helpful, knowledgeable, and very friendly. Would highly recommend.

Emi is nothing short of a ROCKSTAR! Even with the time zone difference (prior to booking), she considered every detail when crafting this special trip, despite limitations of COVID. All the hotels I stayed in were super clean and literally in the center of town, so venturing out on my own for dinner or to explore neighborhoods was super easy.

By far, Salta and Mendoza will forever be stained in my happiest memories. From the seemingly endless Salt Flats, hiking in San Lorenzo, lively squares of downtown Mendoza, beautiful mountain views in Cafayate and Purmamarca to the delicious empanadas and peaceful horseback ride at the ranch, this trip was everything I hoped for and more. Thanks so much Emi and KimKim for ending my 2021 adventures with a bang!

Hotel Review

Hotel Raices Aconcagua

Mendoza

The hotel was located mere steps from one of the larger squares and walking distance to shopping and very good restaurants. At night, I felt very safe walking about and the hotel is just outside a bus stop, with buses running very frequently. Despite COVID, there was a decent selection of pastries and juices for breakfast, but no eggs or anything like other hotels I had stayed in. My room on the 8th floor was very clean and offered an AMAZING view, plus the floor was very quiet at night. The elevators are a little slow at times. The front desk was very attentive upon check-in and even went as far to help me make an appointment with a nearby business for a service. If in Mendoza again, I would absolutely consider them for another stay!

Tips for future travelers

No.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

The staff was very helpful and spoke very good English if your Spanish is not so fluent.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Fresh towels were provided daily. The safe was functional and locked/unlocked very easily by setting a code. Also the windows open with a latch to enjoy some fresh air if you want.

Activity Review

Full day to Salinas Grandes (Purmamarca)

Salta

The mountain views were breathtaking! The time spent at the Salt Flats was truly a highlight of the excursion.

Quality of Experience

The people of Purmamarca were so kind and very gracious and getting to taste llama was surely a surprise!

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Our guide was full of knowledge about the history Jujuy, Salinas Grandes and the Salta area that I definitely learned more than I would have just trying to visit the area on my own. Great driving through the winding roads in the mountains and was happy to help us take photos.

Transport

Driver picked me up about 10 minutes past my initial pickup time but it seems that no one in Argentina is ever really on time.

We had the PERFECT honeymoon trip. It was a long one- 16 days/15 nights- so Emilce was absolutely instrumental in helping us craft the trip and making sure everything was organized and stress free for us. She was patient and responsive, and all of her suggestions for excursions were spot on for what we wanted to do- from a tango show, to hikes in Patagonia and Iguazu, to wine tours in Mendoza. It was amazing how hassle-free it all was- people were there to pick us up and drop us off at each airport and take us to all of our activities- we didn’t even really have to think! Plus, every guide we had was so knowledgeable and friendly- and so excited to use their English as we were the first Americans they’d had since the pandemic restrictions lifted. I absolutely recommend working with Emi- and visiting Argentina!!

My husband I are traveled to Argentina for our honeymoon and Emi helped us plan the perfect itinerary. Emi had great suggestions for our getaway, and accommodated all of our requests. Unfortunately the end of your trip was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and we had to return home sooner than anticipated, but we were able to enjoy the time that we had. We thoroughly enjoyed our private tour of Buenos Aires with Federico, our private tour of the Brazilian side of Iguazu Falls. Mendoza was the highlight of our trip. We loved all of the hotels that Emi booked/suggested for us. We were only able to spend one night in El Calafate, and unable to do any of our planned excursions in Calafate/Chalten, but we will be back! Emi stayed in constant contact with us after COVID-19 travel restrictions started being implemented, and even gave us her personal phone number. We highly recommend Emi if you are planning a trip to Argentina!

Erin was wonderful to work with for this trip! She was extremely helpful with planning everything and making a trip that included what I was looking for and in the budget I was working with. She was very patient with me and answered all questions that I had along the way.
The times in Torres de Paine was amazing, with great weather and beautiful views. Perito Moreno glacier was also amazing!
I was thrilled with my trip. Thank you again to Erin for all your work in helping to make it happen!!

Macarena was professional, flexible and responsive. Quick follow up is very important to me when planning a trip.
Her suggestions made my trip special: cooking class, wine tour and Termed hot springs I would not have found.

We had an enjoyable time in Buenos Aires and the Iquazu Falls. Emilce had done a wonderful job for all the transfers between places and the pick ups were on time. Also thank Federico who was so wonderful in guiding us thru the city of Buenos Aires. We learnt a lot about the political background, history and cultures of Argentina. We really appreciate his service. The hotel which Emilce arranged in BA was really good. However we were not very happy about EcoIguazu's tour on the Argintina side. I was not sure about it was the S American Trip's role or the EcoIguazu's role. The guide for the Iguazu Falls on the Argentina side was not good. His didn't understand our questions very well and was not organized at all. Wasting time in making decision what we should do next. I felt so sorry for the tour members who had paid for the boat ride but no seats for them after all. I still wonder how it can happen if they have arranged the boat ride few months ago and still no room for them on the day. Other than that, I enjoyed my trip in Argentina very much. Oh, I forgot to mention about the tango show and the Argentine Experience. Both events were excellent. We enjoyed them very much. Thank you Emilce again for the arrangement. Will recomment KimKim to my friends.

Overall we had a really positive experience using KimKim. As two people who don't speak much Spanish, we found their services to arrange tours and transportation to be a huge benefit in making our travel throughout Argentina easier. We were thankful for Virginia's responsiveness and recommendations.
We especially loved El Chalten and Los Glaciares National Park. We only had one small tour/transportation hiccup but Virginia responded right away and came up with a solution quickly.

This is my first time using the services. I had Virginia as my agent and I was very happy with her. Things were planned last minute and somehow everything worked out. My highlight was the stay at the Mercure Hotel in Iguazu. I did not do any research at all and I was blown away. Thanks Virginia and KimKim for making dreams come true!!!

Emilce was very responsive and gave us great service. The trip itself was very enjoyable. the only wrinkle was that we had expressed an interest in hiking anddespite the fact the south of Argentina has lots of great hiking, the "hiking experiences" were mostly bus rides to scenic places.

Both Axel (who handled planning before we left) and Jesus (who helped with logistics and last minute changes once we arrived) from On The Go were fantastic - always super responsive, flexible and keen to make our trip absolutely perfect for us. Despite our regular flip-flopping in terms of requests!

Our trip to Argentina was absolutely fantastic - hotels, day-trips and logistics were all wonderful. Using Kimkim and On The Tour made everything very straightforward and we benefitted from excellent local knowledge. The overall price was also very reasonable.

I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending to others.

I loved the visit to Iguazu falls from both Brazil and Argentina sides and the Tango night show which introduced me to Argentinian culture. The tour guides Gustavo and Maria on the Iguazu trip were phenomenal. Muchas Gracias

Macarena did a wonderful job of working with us to get our trip to Buenos Aires and Ushuaia just perfect for our family. While we enjoy taking tours, we like to have free time to wander. Macarena was able to give us the perfect amount of both.

Each day we had some free time to wander, or relax from our tours. We thoroughly enjoyed Laura on our BA and Tigre tours. She was informative, helpful, and delightful to spend time with. Highly recommend her.

While we would have never booked the Argentine Cooking experience or the Tango lesson and dinner, we were so happy Macarena put those in for us. It was great dining with travelers from around the globe, learning about the culture, food, mate, tango, etc. So happy they were included in our itinerary.

And while it was fun exploring BA, we thoroughly enjoyed being in Ushuaia. What a fabulous place. The highlight of our trip was the penguin boating adventure. The weather was absolutely perfect and it was wonderful seeing the landscape of Argentina and Chile.

The tour of Tiera del fuego park was great fun. And we were glad to have a personal guide. She was great! So informative, accommodating and professional. Felt like we really clicked with her.

We loved the Arakur Spa and Resort. Sitting and looking out the windows at the bay and town below was wonderful. Each afternoon we would go to the pool area and hang out. It was great fun being outdoors with the wind blowing, but warm in the pool.

There were some issues with Arakur, though. We were in Ushaia while it was very warm, and the AC did not seem to work in any of our rooms. We kept asking about it, but they told us "it is very slow." I would have preferred them to tell us "we really don't have AC, so it is best to open the windows," which we did open the windows.

Also, we ate at the lobby bar each day for lunch and service was extremely slow. I understand relaxing and not being rushed, but the service was terribly slow. Food at the lobby bar, restaurant and New Year's Eve gala was fabulous!!!

The new year's eve party was loads of fun. A great way to start the new year and decade.

Additionally, Macarena was on vacation during our trip, so Ludi stepped in and made sure we had everything we needed once we arrived in Argentina. The change from one agent to the next was seamless.

Highly recommend both!
Great time!

Wonderful! Plain and simple, our trip to Argentina met and exceeded my expectations. The planning and the execution was nearly perfect. The guides could not have been more informative and accommodating. Gabie, in Bariloche was simply amazing! Her background and knowledge was very impressive. In summary........Viva Argentina!

We just returned home from a 10 day trip to Argentina, visiting Buenos Aires, Bariloche, and Mendoza. From the beginning to end, starting with the planning, guides, accommodations, and even to our drivers who could not speak English but smiled trying, it was a memorable experience.
Thank you.

The trip to Argentina was incredible! Such convenience of having all of our transport coordinated for us. We loved the tango dinner show experience and our tour of Buenos Aires was fantastic. They accommodated the needs of my kids by scheduling us an earlier dinner tango show and a van service for our city tour which made sightseeing much easier for our family. Everything coordinated for us in Iguazu was excellent as well. I really liked Say Heque which was the tour company in Argentina that they used. Our tour guide Laura was friendly, warm, knowledgeable, and her English was perfect. I really liked the games and kid facts she incorporated into the tour. My only suggestion for improvement for Kim Kim and for Mery would be that they should recommend “kid friendly” itineraries and time schedules from the beginning...I really had to specifically ask for this rather than our agent suggesting things from the start. My experience using in Kim Kim for my trip in Ecuador was different in the sense that right from the start they made sure we had everything booked that was kid appropriate. No big deal this time around, as Mery was happy to help and was very flexible, and overall everything was excellent!!! Thank you!