Kimkim Trip Reviews for Costa Rica

We had an amazing time during our days in Costa Rica. Our local specialist, Diego, did an awesome job planning our trip, all our days and activities. Prior to going, he was always available and patient answering our questions and adapting the trip to our preferences and needs. We lost our connection flight and consequently our first day in Costa Rica, I alerted Diego and he was super fast in answering and adapting everything, and we ended up only missing a small activity at the first place we visited, Tortuguero. Regarding the trip itself, we fell in love with Costa Rica and had the time of our lives. All the activities we did were awesome and aligned with what we like. We had a mix of adrenaline, adventure and relax, which was perfect. We got to try things from zip lining, to rafting (which was our favorite thing), a night tour in the jungle, snorkeling and hot springs! Costa Rica feels like a country in the middle of an amazing jungle and Diego at Green World made sure we had an amazing experience. I would definitely recommend his services! All our guides knew what they were doing and we had a lot of fun. The hotels we stayed at were super nice and all activities we did were very well organized. Everything went smoothly and we didn’t need to worry about a thing, it was completely hassle free! Costa Rica blew our expectations and will forever hold a special place in our hearts.

Costa Rica is a true tropical paradise with an incredible flora and fauna. Our trip was filled with endless breathtaking views and experiences. And the people were incredibly friendly, courteous and helpful. Thank you so much to Alberto, all of our guides and drivers, and Kimkim for making our trip to Costa Rica so well-planned and smooth. Everything went according to plan. The communication with Alberto was without any problems, and he came up with a really nice itinerary for us after two days. He managed to squeeze in so much in just 10 days, but without it being too much. It was the perfect balance between activities and leisure. Our drivers David and Felipe, were exceptionally nice, and we had so many good conversations with them. Our other guides and drivers were all really nice and knowledgeable too. Our guide, Donald, in Monteverde's cloud forest was especially knowledgable and enthusiastic. He was also really good at spotting quetzals! Everywhere we went, the wildlife was in proximity: macaws flying by at breakfast, monkeys coming up to the pool, a beautiful blue bird joining us for lunch at the beach, snorkling and seeing reef fish and a turtle, passing by a crocodile in a river on our way back to the hotel from the beach.

We had a mid-range budget, and the hotels Alberto picked out for us were all great. We had big rooms/bungalows with two BIG twin beds. Hotel Lomas del Volcán in La Fortuna was particularly nice, and the food there was delicious. Hotel Nimmbú in Playa Carrillo (Sámara) was also beautiful, but the food could have been better. It wasn't bad, but it didn't quite live up to the standard that we expected from such a nice hotel.

We loved La Fortuna and its volcano. Monteverde was breathtaking and perfect to see from the horseback. The cloud forest there is also absolutely a must to see. It was perfect to end our holiday at the beach in Sámara, which was such a quaint little community with breathtaking and almost empty beaches.

We will definitely visit Costa Rica again! Also because we didn't get to see a sloth which we really really wanted to see :)

We really really enjoyed the trip that Olman set up for us! He listened to our needs and asks and executed everything so well!

Orlando, Alberto, Minor, Andres are just a few of the many great people/guides we met on our trip! Thank you so much to them.

The trip was great, we stayed at amazing hotels and had very good activities in general.

We stayed in an absolutely beautiful treehouse that was chosen by Diego.

I think the follow-up during the trip could have been better, and the details in the trip guide were not as accurate, for example, in one activity that included swimming it wasn't stated that we should have brought swimming suit!

Thank you kimkim and our guide Olman. We had a wonderful 10 days trip to Costa Rica. Our guide worked with us with in a very short period we had and planned any amazing vacation. We had the best hotels and best adventures. Just as we expected.

Every place we visited had its own special memories. The very first, Guachipelin, interesting as a working farm, complete with oxen team. We loved the freedom of walking to the beautiful waterfall onsite, made unforgettable partly because of the blue morpho flitting about!
Our driver Roy was very well spoken and knowledgeable, answering all our questions en route from Rincón de la Vieja to La Fortuna. Super food stop at Café y Macadamia.
Wildlife tours, especially the night one, were eye openers! Our night tour guide was so excited it was contagious. Finding a tiny hidden rufous-eyed green frog by its sound blew me away! The pit vipers were very cool too.
Canal Négra tour guide, Joe, was super keen and full of info.
Tabacón Hot Springs on a cool evening - heaven!
My personal fave was The Monteverdi Eco Lodge. We were offered a complimentary upgrade with a second floor balcony. Staff was super friendly and professional. Food was exceptionally fresh and tasty! The pool was beautiful and private and not busy at all during our stay.
Having a driver take us to and from La Fortuna made for a nice change of scenery and gave us lots of time to eat at Viquez Soda and walk around the town. ( check out the chocolate shop!)
The final five days at Tulemar and Manuel Antonio Park, were unforgettable! Beautiful gardens, old growth tree forest, hanging bridges, a glorious beach, and enough stairs and hills to get anyone in shape! Raúl, the concierge at our villa studio, was invaluable.
Almost forgot - The cooking class afternoon with Stephanie and our guide Henry, was great fun - and a whole new area for beautiful scenery!
Also, the coffee plantation tour with Andrès (at Don Juan)kept us engaged and laughing the whole while. Can he bring out the fun in everyone!
All in all,
Olman did a terrific job getting us prime accommodations in every location. The balance of tours, travel and chill time was good for us. Our first trip to Costa Rica! Hopefully not our last!
Many thanks to the Ticos and Ticas who made this trip so special!
PURA VIDA!

Adriana created such a memorable 2 week anniversary trip for us and will definitely use Kim Kim again for touring countries. The Costa Rican hospitality is so special, the genuineness of the people made all the difference at every place we stayed. We went from coast to coast experiencing such different environments and wonderful adventures. We decided to not rent a car ourselves and splurge on private transfers between the towns and we are so glad we did. It was a very surprisingly special part of the trip meeting so many more lovely people and made it zero stress. The boat transfer across Lake Arenal was like adding another adventure plus it cut an hour driving time! I was surprised by the quality of the guides we had at every location. The guides at Mawamba Lodge were incredible with their knowledge base of botany and zoology, Piedro took us on an unforgettable night hike. I was really hoping to see a sloth on the trip in their natural environment and we saw several in each location with the help from our guides from Mawamba, La Fortuna, and Monteverde. Really made my trip! We have had many discussions about our 'favorites' but it was too hard, it was that great of a trip - each place was so unique and special in different ways! My husband would say the top of the trip was the side striped pit viper in the cloud forest of Monteverde, that was exhilarating! Our guide was incredible at spotting such a variety of creatures after dark! Mine was one of our guides in La Fortuna pulling over on the side of the road as he spotted a sloth climbing in a tree, he got me some amazing pictures with the help of his binoculars up to my phone! Each place Adriana planned for us was so special and we loved ending at Jardin del Eden Hotel in Tamarindo, it was perfect for us. Small and intimate, just an amazing place to truly exhale and I came home just a noodle of relaxation! Looking forward to using Kim Kim again, they really catered the vacation to us and what we wanted and the result was a life lister vacation for sure! Thank you for the unforgettable experience!

Hotel Review

Jardin del Eden Boutique Hotel - Adults Only

Tamarindo

We loved the smaller more personal experience. Staff knew our names and were really attentive. The dining area was gorgeous and the food was really good. The day beds were awesome at the pool and the beach and never had an issue getting a great spot. The outdoor hot stone spa massage was excellent.

Tips for future travelers

I wish I booked less activities and spent more time enjoying their beautiful grounds.

Authenticity & Character

The grounds around the pool were gorgeous with iguanas enjoying the paradise.

Location

I loved being in a secluded area away from the noise but a short walk to the noisier beach area. I thought the beach access was perfect that way.

Staff

They were attentive at all meals, pool drinks, etc. Most made the effort to learn guests names and make it more personal.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Super clean.

Activity Review

Coffee & Chocolate Tour

Costa Rica

We got an amazing guide that really made me appreciate the care and work that goes into making great beans. I was not a coffee drinker but am now! It was like going wine tasting. It was fantastic!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Thank you so much to the kimkim team and Alberto for organizing such an amazing trip to Costa Rica! We got to go to 3 amazing and beautiful areas ( Fortuna, Monteverde and Playa Carillo) and try a number of fun and exciting activities. Transports, transfers and activities were extremely organized and easy. We loved Rob our hilarious guide for the Pacuare river rafting and 1968 hiking tour in Arenal with Hansel through Desafio - just incredible. Playa Carillo was gorgeous and not crowded. We got treated extremely well by all guides and hotel staff. I highly recommend kimkim and Alberto. They made planning a breeze and we didn't have to worry about anything. We will definitely recommend kimkim to our friends and family and use them again as well. Pura Vida!

Everything was amazing !! From our drivers, to food, to the resorts, excursions, etc. everything was perfectly scheduled and prompt. Thank you!!!

I just wanted a getaway with my son and told Olman that I was interested in natural attractions. Olman did an outstanding job right from responding to all my questions, to picking up from the airport, the local hotels, guides, attractions, food arrangements and last but not the least Covid testing services for us to fly back to USA. I have nothing but praise for the way the tour was organized. I’m a pure vegetarian and Olman took care of that and provided guides who could speak English all the way. Outstanding trip filled with memories. Thank you Olman

This is my first time using KimKim. I was a little hesitant at first, but once I filled out the questionnaire and got matched with Green World Travel, we were in good hands. Our specialist was Diego and he was fantastic. He was very quick to respond to all of our questions and comments. The itinerary he planned for us flowed very nicely and all the activities were great. Starting off with our driver who picked us up from the airport Felipe. Felipe was great! We had a 3 hour car ride to Arenal, and during this ride he told us all about Costa Rica. It was a great introduction! After that we spent 3 days in La Fortuna. Diego suggested we go waterfall rappelling and zip lining; activities I would have never picked for myself. I am happy we did them. The rappelling was great and the zip lining was a true adrenaline rush. The companies Diego picked for our activities were awesome and their equipment was high quality. After La Fortuna we went to Tortuguero. This was the highlight for my trip. Diego picked out great accommodations (Mwamba). The wildlife in Tortuguero is fantastic and so were our guides from the hotel especially, Mariso. In Tortuguero we were able to see spider monkeys, white face monkeys, howler monkeys, and many other animals as well as see the sea turtle nesting which is a once in a lifetime experience. After Tortuguero we went to Puerto Veijo absolutely stunning beaches. There we went on a tour of Cahuita. This was the only hick-up of our trip because we were unable to snorkel because the ocean was too cloudy and rough. Diego and the tour company did a fantastic job of communicating with us the changes that were needed. Last and best activity we did was going rafting on the Pacure river. I highly recommend this activity had a great time and our guide Andres was fantastic! Throughout this entire experience the Covid per cautions were fantastic. Everybody was wearing mask and there were hand washing stations at every restaurant and every where in the hotels. I felt very safe. Diego was also very helpful in helping us organize our Covid test to come back into the USA. Overall, I would high recommend booking a trip to Costa Rica with Diego!

Adriana planned a GREAT honeymoon for us. She took our input and even gave us some recommendations of sights to see around Costa Rica. We will be recommending Kim Kim to our friends and family.

Diego and Green World Adventures did a great job helping us plan our honeymoon. We had an amazing trip to Costa Rica and Diego tailored our itinerary to exactly what we were looking for. In the process he was helpful in giving us all the information we needed to optimize our trip/timing and avoid travel pitfalls. He also coordinated all of our transportation and found amazing accommodations that were within our budget. During our travel we felt well supported and assured without the hassle or worry of conventional international travel. Finally, we were extremely impressed with the sustainability initiative as well. I would recommend Diego and or GWA to anybody thinking about traveling to Costa Rica.

It was an incredibly amazing treat to visit Costa Rica – There are so many wonderful things to describe I am not sure where to begin. First of all Costa Rica is in Central America with coastlines on the Caribbean and the pacific ocean complete with volcanos, rain forests and most impressively, Cloud Forests! My camera could not capture the unique view of the cloud forest – I will try to describe it: totally lush forests on the mountainside with the clouds visible and the trees up above the clouds! The air is thin because it is a high elevation. This is where the zip lining occurred. This is no ordinary zip line my friends! This is way up high and the lines are very long. I loved to hold on to the middle and turn around to look at the vastness of the cloud forest as I sped past. Again and again Zoila and I zip lined until there were no more lines

But woah! I am getting ahead of things!
We landed in San Jose and were picked up right on time and transported to our hotel. Early morning bus ride to the Caribbean coast to a village called Tortuguero; named because various sea turtles lay their eggs in the sand here.
We view the wildlife from the lagoons in the day time and at night I went out to the beach to view the giant greenback female turtle lay her eggs in the hole that she had dug and then she buried them with her back flippers. The poor girl was quite tired . We also saw a different turtle make her way back to the ocean; her tracks looking like a small tractor passed through. The next day back on the boat to traverse the lagoons – Lush is the only word that applies here if not totally peaceful and serene too.

W We stopped for lunch at this very picturesque stream.
I want to add that I tried new food and I did not have a bad meal once. The food is delicious! From this lovely place a van took us to the base of the Arenal Volcano where we stayed at the Casa Luna hotel and spa.

The volcano from our balcony at Casa Luna.

I am in the back of this raft on the right having a fabulous time!!

Jose was the captain of our raft and was tremendous! So much fun!

Continuing on – the next day I relaxed by the pool and swam laps while enjoying lunch poolside. Later we both had a really interesting chocolate and coffee tour of the Don Juan plantation We got to make our own flavored chocolate! That evening I pampered myself with an aroma therapy massage in the most sublime setting of one wall open to the lush plants with the sound of rain gently falling. Slept really well that night. Then we said fairwell to the volcano and the village of La Fortuna. Everyone was super warm and welcoming. Melvin, at the font desk was the best.

Another on-time transport to take us up to the Cloud Forest of Monteverde! Where I started my story.
An example of the lush path we walked between the zip lines

After the ziplining we visited the butterfly house and the habitat where they care for the sloths that they rescued. This is where I was able to obtain some photos you could actually see what they looked like instead of a bunch of leaves in the trees.

The fellow travelers I met along the way were also part of the benefits of this marvelous journey into Pura Vida – this is the saying heard everywhere which is loosely translated as live your best life and do not worry. Don’t worry be happy Here I was on a night walk with a young couple from Isreal. In Tortuguero a really fun couple from Barcelona. I saw birds and vipers, and spiders but my camera was quite lacking. The air was cool so my sweatshirt came in handy.
Beautiful final view of the cloud forest at breakfast and then we were picked up for the next destination: The pacific ocean and the Manual Antonio park. We were at a hotel where you could walk to the beach and the restaurant had a lovely view and the sound of the waves added to the ambiance. Andreana was my favorite waitress at this locale. I also swam in the ocean and their pool.

It is a very tough decision to decide what, out of all the truly wonderful things we did and saw, was the best, but I have to say it was the humpback whales! Zoila and I were picked up and taken to an office where we went out in the ocean waters and got on a boat to go out to see if we could possibly ee any view whales. And we did!! We saw a male, a female and her baby! Swimming together and surfacing near us then they would move away and surface a little ways out. We watched them for a very long time just transfixed with the sight – everyone yelling when we spyed them! Dylan our guide, was very informative about the whales, turtles, birds and the whole area.
Finally shopping at the marina in Quepos town prior to the transport back to San Jose to a totally modern hotel complete with room service. Then to the airport and home to Chicago. I wish everyone could experience the remarkable Costa Rica! Pura Vida!

Randall went above and beyond with helping to plan our trip to Costa Rica. He responded quickly when we had questions, and customized our trip exactly how we wanted it. Once we arrived, everything was as planned and on-time. Airport pick-up, hotel pick-ups, tour guides were punctual, friendly and knowledgeable. The tour of La Fortuna volcano was informative and very enjoyable. The guide included the history and educational aspect of the area which we appreciated. The hot springs were an awesome experience to end the night. The white water rafting day trip was one of the best experiences. Our guide, Roberto was absolutely the best. He was very thorough with the safety precautions and made sure we were confident with the directions before we went out on the river. He was also great at navigating us through the river and even helped us to catch some surfing on the rapids! It was quite an impressive experience. Not to mention the food everywhere we went in Costa Rica was delicious. We most definitely recommend using the kimkim team to help book a trip to Costa Rica. Especially if you want to see and travel to different sites. Without Randall's assistance, it would have been tough to navigate on our own. Also, Christopher (the emergency contact) came through when we weren't sure about how to get our COVID test prior to departure. He immediately responded and helped us to get things taken care of in a timely manner. We are very grateful for the kimkim team.

WOW! I usually am anti-have someone else plan your vacation, but Randall and KimKim really changed my mind on this. Myself and 3 friends were planning a trip to Costa Rica and after a couple weeks of self planning we realized how difficult it was with our busy schedules and the intricate logistics of seeing both coasts. Randall was able to fit in exactly everything we wanted and made all the right decisions when it came to travel days, transfer drives and hotel choice. No question I would use KimKim again, I think it made our experience so much better. It also took all of the stress out of weeks leading up to the trip and all at a very affordable price. Couldn't recommend them enough!

This is one of multiple trips that I've planned through KimKim, and I'm pleased as I've been every time prior. Adriana was very patient and helpful with planning the itinerary and making necessary changes throughout. She was also very communicative, even during our actual trip, as was the owner of the tour company. We ran into a few unexpected glitches, and everything was handled appropriately and quickly. Costa Rica was great, and I'll definitely be using KimKim again to plan future trips. I tell everyone about them! Thank you KimKim, Adriana and everyone involved in helping to make this a memorable trip for me and my significant other!

Our trip was great and Adriana was extremely responsive and helpful with all our requests! Amazing time in Costa Rica!

Going through KimKim was a great idea. Everything was seamless. The hotels were wonderful, especially Poco a Poco and Costa Verde. Randall (from KimKim) made himself available to us for anything that came but, but it all went perfectly so we didn’t need to reach out. I am really happy with how the trip worked out. He even made sure we had all our covid travel documents and testing in order. Made it much easier. :)

We spent the first two weeks of August in Costa Rica. We organised the trip through the KimKim platform which connected us with Olman at the local Amazilia agency. Within a few hours of submitting our request, Olman provided a full program for our trip, across 14 days, 5 regions and 10+ activities. He also helped us with changing some of the hotels and experiences, based on the research we had done online. The KimKim platform was super easy to use, both in terms of the detailed information of the trip, and a chat interface to communicate with the agency. Most of the activities booked were with high-end suppliers (there is a ton of choice for activities in Costa Rica, so it pays to have a local expert), with only one being sub-par (the trip to Irazu)

During the trip, Olman was there to help us at every inquiry, and was genuinely easy to work with and responsive within a couple of hours. There was a couple of miscommunication issues with the local activity suppliers, and they were resolved to our satisfaction both times.

One major area of improvement I suggest is for Olman / Amazilia to provide transparency regarding the activity supplier. In all cases, the supplier was listed as Amazilia, when in practice the activity was subcontracted to a local supplier. That meant we weren't able to research the activity supplier online (and choose a different one, as we did with hotels in some cases). It also meant that we couldn't identify the supplier in case there was a mixup, as there was such a case in the kayak tour in Tamarindo.

Overall, I would highly recommend the KimKim platform and Olman at the local Amazilia agency. We were able to organise a trip on very short notice (practically 2 weeks before), with local expert knowledge. Some transparency on the local activity suppliers used would have made it a 10/10.