Kimkim Trip Reviews for Colombia

What a memorable trip to Colombia, all thanks to the kimkim team!! We usually do not utilize travel agencies and pre-planned itineraries but I am very happy that we did. Couple of friends, my husband and I went on a 9 day trip to Colombia this April, and with our itinerary that kimkim help develop, we enjoyed a wide variety of Colombia - the city life, art history, coffee plantations, farm to table dining, Cocora Valley hiking, city revitalization, every day market shopping to cooking class... it all truly surmounted to an unforgettable experience. What made it powerful though, was the guides we were privileged to meet throughout our trip. Not only were they English speaking (shamefully, my husband and I cannot speak Spanish...), but most were born and raised in the cities we met them at. They were knowledgeable with their tours, but also willing to share their personal stories, giving the tours meaning, passion, hope, beauty. Jairo in Bogota was hands down exceptional and our undeniable favorite - such wealth of knowledge regarding Bogota and Colombia, but seemed so heartfelt and invested in giving us the most out of our day... also it may arguably have been the most delicious snack-filled day of our trip ;) (he apparently also does gastronomy tours!). I also appreciated Santiago's devotion to his and Colombian coffee, Sam's commitment to telling the horrid history, and now progress in communa 13, Diego's willingness to share his stories, opinions, thoughts, which in the end gave hope in human perseverance.

We loved Cartagena and Medellin and the surrounding areas. The tour guide we had in Medellin, was particularly outstanding - Juan Manuel, I think.

Laura was very responsive when any issues arose, and they were promptly fixed.

This was our 2nd experience with KimKim and we'll do it again!

My husband and I went to Colombia in February - Bogota, Medellin and the Coffee region. Kimkim helped us tremendously planning our trip. The hotels were great, the guides (Hector in Bogota, Santiago in Medellin and Milton in the Coffee Region) were fantastic - knowledgable, kind and always on time. We really wouldn't have gotten an understanding of the country, its people, its struggles and future without our guides. Our only hiccup was one guide didn't show to take us on cyclovia in Bogota. We were able to borrow bikes from the hotel (not super comfortable, but functional) and manage ourselves. Kimkim refunded that portion and apologized. We enjoyed very much the tours of both Bogota and Medellin - but the most beautiful area was the coffee region and the Cocora Valley. Los Nevados was very interesting too. I will definitely use Kimkim again - and think I'll get better at deciding how much to do on my own and how much to let them handle.

I traveled to Colombia solo and returned home to Seattle with incredible memories, thanks to the KimKim team. My guides were attentive, informative and very punctual. They ensured that I had a great time - I got to tweak the itinerary to best suit my interests. So I was off learning salsa one afternoon and traipsing through the streets of Cartagena the next. I got to see the incredible variety of birds that Colombia is famous for - from the Andean cock of the rock and the wax-eared parrot in Jardin to the birds endemic to Santa Marta. Yuliana was very good about making last-minute changes to my itinerary. My local guides in Jardin, Diego and Paula were a young, enthusiastic pair that shared my passion for birding. Erik Ramirez knew the birds of Santa Marta as well as he knew the people. I have pictures to prove it! The members of the Colombian Project were proactive and responded quickly anytime I had questions.
I wish I could have visited Tayrona National Park - but if I finish everything in one trip I wouldn't have anything left for the next time, right?
Thanks again for a memorable trip. My friends are visiting Colombia and you are guiding them too! I hope they have an incredible time too!
Vimla

Our guides Juan and Anna Maria in Medellin were great. So too was Balthazar in Bogota. A pleasure meeting them all.

What a brilliant trip. Jess did an amazing job planning it all. I don’t think we would have managed to do so many things without her support. Laura was our contact whilst travelling, it felt like having a local friend, someone watching out for you. Hotels were lovely, all small charming boutique places. Thinking back, my daughter and I really find hard to decide what we liked best because every adventure was unique and special. Definitely, go to Barichara, such a beautiful and tranquil place, on in the way there don’t miss to visit Las Gachas close Guadalupe, we had so much fun swimming in the river pools. Cartagena is my favourite place, if I’d plan the trip again, I’d spend more time there. My daughter liked floating down Palomino river best. Overall a great trip, lots of fond memories. Thank you Jess & Laura.

Yuliana was wonderful in helping plan this trip. There were a lot of moving factors and people to make it a bit complicated. We loved our hotel, Diez, in Medellin and really enjoyed our city tours with Santi through the Colombia Project. In Minca we stayed in a lovely hotel called Sweet Harmony and then went onto the El Doardo Reserve where Jarwen was our guide for birding. He was extremely knowledgable and the staff was excellent. The food was so tasty too! Finally in Cartagena we had Laura as our guide and she was great. We enjoyed all that we were able to see. The only downside was that we ended up rushing around a lot and some of our tours were cut short or ran longer because of timing. Financially, it can get a bit expensive, but if you want everything taken care of I definitely recommend using Kimkim!

Best vacation ever! Many thanks to Natalia for planning us a wonderful tour of Colombia. We went to Medellin, Bogota, and the Zona Cafetera over one week. Everything was so smooth and seamless. All of our guides and drivers were on time (or early) to pick us up and were absolutely fabulous. We loved all of the hotels that Natalia selected for us, especially Patio del Mundo in Medellin. I can't recommend this trip, and Natalia, highly enough. Thank you!!!

What a fantastic experience from beginning to end!

In the initial stages I was connected with Nathalie, and after discussing my specific interests in Colombia via correspondence, she got back to me with an itinerary including additional suggestions that were welcomed and encouraged! After a little tweaking we had created a fantastic adventure through Bogotá and Antioquia!

Nathalie was always swift to respond with answers to my questions and even a couple weeks before the trip, she notified me that she’d be out of the office for a few days and put me in touch with Laura in her stead and Laura was equally as helpful!

Nathalie arranged all my transportation including airport transfers which was incredibly helpful and one less thing to worry about!

In Bogotá, I spent the day with Balthazar (a very smart and funny Rolo) starting at the Paloquemao market sampling a myriad of wonderful and delicious local produce and experiencing the calm chaos of one of Colombia’s largest markets. Ducked out of the rain into Cafe de la Fonda for some coffee and mate de coca and learned a little about coffee production in Colombia before ascending Monserrate and taking in the incredible view of Bogotá and beyond!

The following day was spent with Michael, owner of Bogotá Bike Tours in La Candelaria. We mounted up and traversed the city viewing some of the most incredible street art I’ve ever seen and Michael’s vast knowledge of history, politics and pop-culture and how it could be interpreted through the murals we were seeing was eye-opening on multiple levels!

Onto Antioquia! My first day was spent with Germán exploring Santa Fe de Antioquia including the historic Puente de Occidente bridge over the Cauca River! The beautiful churches and plazas of Santa Fe with it’s cobbled streets was a fantastic getaway from the city and Germán was knowledgeable and eager to show me it’s history and charm.

The following days I explored El Peñol, Guatapé, a coffee finca in Fredonia, Comuna 13 and downtown Medellín with Andrea. She was equally as knowledgeable and excited to share the highlights and history of Colombia with me. Climbing the 700+ stairs of Piedra del Peñol was exhilarating and the view from the top was incredible! I loved wandering through the vibrantly lined streets of Guatapé and seeing all the wonderful zócalos (bas reliefs) decorating each of the colorful houses!

We then traveled out to Cafe Luna Llena, a coffee finca in Fredonia, southern Antioquia. Where Gustavo Palacio completely schooled me on the coffee process in Colombia! From seed to cup, we walked the hillside noting coffee plants in various stages of maturity, I even planted one and picked some coffee beans myself! He covered the various drying processes and exported coffee versus the “Tinto” that is consumed by the majority of Colombians and how drastic the difference in quality is. So informative and interesting, this was was one of my favorite days in Colombia!

The next day we ventured to Comuna 13 and Andrea explained how the neighborhood has blossomed into the welcoming and colorful area it is today from a very poor and violent past. Vivid murals tell the story of its history and triumph with sweeping walkways and little cafés, peddlers selling handmade goods, ice cream and fresh juice it was a very cool experience!

We hopped a metrocable to get a nice aerial view of the cascading neighborhoods and jumped on the metro into downtown Medellín to see the hustle and bustle of it’s core and view the 23 sculptures of Fernando Botero in Plaza Botero!

This was such a wonderful adventure! Nathalie kept in touch throughout the whole trip and would check-in often to see how I was doing. All the drivers and guides were on time if not early and incredibly friendly and warmly welcomed me to their wonderful country!

I have nothing but good things to say about this country and it’s people and it’s all due to Nathalie! Thank you so much!

¡Hasta pronto!
Trevor

Communication with kimkim was easy. I receiver replays to my messages quickly and together we cooked up the best plan. The adventure to Colombia's Zona Cafetera turned out very nice, everything happened as planned.

Great trip that KimKim and the local team in Colombia managed to fit into my tight schedule. I had been worried that my short amount of time available would hinder my experience, but with the help of Laura and the whole Colombia team, I felt that I got a great view of the country in even just a few days. Everyone made my trip easy, smooth, and full of activities, even when a last-minute change had to be made. Great job! I plan to use KimKim for another trip in the future!

Me and my wife had a 12 days trip in Colombia, more specifically in the coffee region (Cauca Valley / Quindio), Medellin, Cartagena and Isla Grande. It was a lot to pack into 12 days, but Jess, our local expert from KimKim, managed to strike the perfect balance; it was a great mix of the things we asked for: adventure, coffee and food tasting as well as a bit of relax! We also had some bumps along the way (such as forgetting our mobile phone in a taxi), but Jess and her team managed to help us and fix things!

A few highlights:
1) Do visit the Cauca Valley and Quindio areas: beautiful villages, nature and obviously coffee. Also, if you plan to hire a tour guide you should really ask of David: he was the best guide we ever had, incredibly passionate and knowledgeable, as well as super friendly and fun.
2) If you love food, ask for a cooking class: Colombian food is superb, we did one in Cartagena at Oh La La and it was amazing.
3) If you love history, and want to know more about Colombia's own history, visit Medellin: Real City Tours and the Memorial Museum are a must.
4) If you love sea life, go to the coral reef around Isla Grande and ask for snorkelling or diving, there will be plenty of opportunities.

Thanks again to KimKim and all people involved in this great trip!

Jess did a great job adapting to our requests and providing great suggestions. We made some changes on the fly and Jess was able to roll with it and make our trip a delight. Jess even booked us restaurant reservation and was always available.
A couple of comments and suggestions.
The city tour in Bogata really works better if you start by going up to Monsarrat then venturing into the city.
A ceviche tour in Cartagena, which we heard about from other travelers at our hotel, sounds great and we suggest you folks add it to your options.
Medellin tour to Guatapa was great .
The rum tasting was a highlight, Abraham is a great guide to the world of rum. All of our guides, while all very different were great, informative and adaptable, not going from a script.
The transportation options were good, we never waited for a driver.
We handled most of our own hotel options, we liked both the Bastion in Cartagena and the Charlee in Medillin and would recommend both hotels.

Thank you Jess we had a great time.

Best Brian and Terri

I travel ninety-nine percent of the time independently and without the assistance of any organization or agency of any kind. I forgot how I stumbled upon Kim Kim but I thought the services looked so interesting and beneficial that I decided to take advantage of them.
Jess was very helpful and responsive to my inquiries. We also spoke by phone as necessary which was very helpful. The day she was not available, one of her colleagues was in touch with me by phone when my plane was delayed. I also appreciated someone keeping track of my trip.

I would have been curious to know what the breakdown of my expenses was. I know you get special rates but I would have liked to have known what they say are. The only breakdown was for the flights within Colombia.

I ended up needing a refund for one of my hotels since I was downgraded from a mini Suite to a standard room. That was taken care of very quickly so I'm pleased about that.

Just a minor comment about the website, I would suggest putting the countries you work in an alphabetical order.

I also was contacted by phone once from headquarters in Palo Alto. I forget why but I appreciated being able to talk to somebody there.

I've already shared with several people that I used Kim Kim to help plan my trip so I'm spreading the word about you and would definitely consider using you again.

And a personal kind regards to Jess!

One of the most memorable highlights of Bogotá was our trip to the market with German. We sampled some spectacular fresh fruit juices and ate delectable Lechones (whole pork stuffed with rice, peas and spices). We enjoyed the views of Bogotá from the vantage point of Monserrate. The food throughout Bogotá was varied and delicious.

In the Coffee Region, Jorge Sánchez expertly guided us along the trails of Corcoran Valley, Salento and a coffee plantation. The landscapes and cloud forests of Corcoran Valley were world-class. We were fortunate to see the Andean Condor, Colombia's national bird, gliding above the wax palms during our hike. What a treat!

We loved Cartagena and its vibrant culture. Alvaro toured us through the most important sites in the area and provided us with expert commentary and restaurant recommendations.

The hotels were all excellent and our guides were knowledgeable of the areas we visited. Kimkim really took the stress out of traveling. We'll definitely use them again!

We had a great trip to Colombia. Natalia was a very good coordinator. She was very attentive to our requests for changes to the itinerary, very responsive to requests we had before and during our trip, and very accessible when we needed her to both answer questions and to arrange transportation when our itinerary changed abruptly due to bad weather on Islas Rosario.

Our first guide in Bogota, Juan was also very good. He connected well with everyone in the family. We especially loved the tour he led us on through the market, tasting may different fruits and foods. That was a highlight.

Our second guide, David in Pereira, was equally good. He also connected with the whole family and was easy to talk to. He gave us a lot of insight into modern Colombia. We really enjoyed the hike among the Wax Palms.

We had a little less time with our third guide, Sergio in Cartagena but he too was excellent. He showed us places and offered us information and opinions about Cartagena and Colombia that we would not have gotten on our own. We even ran into a Colombian soccer great, Carlos Valderrama and Sergio was able to get him to take a photo with my soccer loving son!

Our transportation was always very punctual and comfortable. The drivers were generally good.

Our hotels were also mostly excellent. The Hotel de la Opera in Bogota figured out it was my wife's birthday and left a nice piece of cake in our room. A very nice touch. WE loved the setting of the Hotel Sazagua, we loved the location of the Hotel Bantu, and we felt the service at all these hotels was excellent. The only hotel we didn't just love was the hotel Majagua on Isla Rosario. It was a bit expensive, the service was okay but it felt like we were being sold something the minute we stepped off the boat. It was also very windy. I did appreciate that they got us back to the mainland safely because the weather turned bad and it threatened to keep us there and possibly miss our plane the next day.

All in all, it was a memorable trip. Thank you.

Kimkim made my trip to Colombia so memorable! I spent 12 days there, and everyday went smoothly & I had great experiences with all guides/tours. I couldn’t have asked for a better experience. The local guides were very knowledgeable & friendly, tours were super fun & organized and the hotel provided by Kimkim was exceptional. I would trust Kimkim to plan any of my future trips. They really take the stress and anxiety out of planning trips so you can just enjoy and relax. My favorite parts of Colombia were definitely hiking the cloud forest in Salento, the city bike tour & hiking Monserrate in Bogota, the walking tour of Medellin, and roaming the streets of Cartagena. Would definitely return. Thank you :)

The trip we experienced had some wonderful highlights. However, the hiking on the second and third days, was not properly described. This created a dangerous situation in which my wife was hurt. She had to stop hiking. The only way she got out was on horseback. Luckily, she has experience riding and the farmer who owns Jordan finca was skilled at guiding the horse down 10k of extremely steep, rocky paths and then through 5k more of just wet, slippery paths to safety.
Specifically, the description of the second day: from Petosi to Jordan is very misleading. The description says: "you will arrive at Jordan farm by "mid-afternoon." The hike is 22K! The second half starts with slippery, muddy trails and quickly turns into steep rocky pathway for about 5 miles. It took us 11.5 hours to complete. A group of younger hikers did it in 10 hours. What's so crazy is that the third day continues with 6.2 more miles of steep, slippery rocky paths. So no way could Carol, who twisted her knee on the 22k leg complete the hike back to the road.I have hiked 100s of miles. Really (Wonderland Trail completely in 8 days, the Superior Hiking Trail, Pukasqua, etc.) If this trail had an accurate description I would not have taken my wife (who I clearly described as 73 years old and normal fitness) on this trail. I'm not asking for a refund, but days 3 and 4 were a frightening and extremely unpleasant experience for me and bad for Carol too, because the safety of my wife was at risk.
If you do not change the descriptions of these days, I will spend time and effort to expose the carelessness of your agency. Check with the guide Freddy if you think any of this is innacurate.
GOOD STUFF: Our guide Freddie Cardona (I will check on his last name) was excellent and was invaluable in getting Carol through this dangerous situation. The bike riding day was great fun. The Cocorra valey was beautiful. The packaging lists were accurately and helpful. Both hotels were nice, with Quo in Manizales having an excellent room and exceptionally helpful staff.
The score for Cami is based on the description of the hike, not on her being helpful.
I guess the bottom line is that what could have been a great trip was ruined by an innacurate description of the risks. Fortunately Carol got by with a very sore knee. Take the hike yourself, then write the description. Explain that this hike is appropriate for experienced hikers who can handle 22K of steep, rocky, muddy pathways that can be trecherously slick, at altitudes over 10000 feet.
Finca Jordan is lovely. Finca Petosi is a pit. Dirty, toilets withot seats that are barely clean. The owners of both fincas were friendly but Mary Luz at Jordan is an exceptional host, as was her husband Mario.

We had a great 4-day trip the Amazon region of Colombia. Our full-time guide for our trip was Odin and he was simply amazing. He was very attentive to our bilingual needs, since half our group only spoke English and the other part spoke mostly Spanish. Odin and every other guide was extremely professional and punctual for both the walking tours and the tours that required a boat ride. The Calanoa lodges where amazingly comfortable and well surpassed our expectations. The food was delicious, we tried a variety of local fruits and dishes that would compete with anything served from a high end restaurant. Booking with Jess from kimkim.com was smooth sailing. We simply gave her our information and the activities we where interested in doing and she booked everything from the pickup at the airport till the drop off at our final destination. Will definitely be using this service too book future trips.

Mairesol was our guide both days - to Guatape and the coffee plantation. Both days were great!
We loved climbing the stairs of El Penol and it was followed by a great meal, away from other tourists too!. The visit to the coffee farm was great. The views were tremendous and the food and coffee was tops.