Kimkim Trip Reviews for Costa Rica

This was a fantastic trip! Our family was in Costa Rica for 15 days in January 2020. Our local guide was Randall Jiminez, and he was great.

The whole KimKim experience was really easy to deal with. We established how long we wanted to go for, as well as a preliminary budget. Randall gave us some ideas to start with, as it was our first time in CR.

We wound up doing what we later found to be (from other travelers) a pretty standard sampling of CR. We started in Arenal, staying in La Fortuna, then moved to the Cloud Forest of Mote Verde, and finished up on the Pacific Coast, near Manuel Antonio National Park.

Almost all of our experiences were excellent. The highlights that we would recommend to others would be:
Arenal:
- Proyecto Asis rescue centre. This was one of the first things we did, and remained in our top 3 for the whole trip. If you do this, make sure that you do the volunteer feeding part - that was special. Carlos, our tour guide for this one, was nothing short of superb.
- Cano Negro: This is a must on any trip to CR. We took a bus up to the wildlife area at Cano Negro, and from there took a two hour boat tour along the river, very close to the border with Nicaragua. We saw sloths, monkeys, and more species of birds than I can count, including some very rare ones. Also saw Caimans, which were cool. Had one of the best Costa Rican meals on the way back (Cosado, which is typical. You have to try it).

Monte Verde:
- Don Juan coffee tour - amazing, very tasty all around. Coffee, chocolate, and cosado. Very informative!
- Zip line - super day, did bridges in the cloud forest and then ziplines through the trees.
- Monte Verde Park: This was not arranged by KimKim, but I highly recommend it anyway. Get a guide, either private or through the park. They know what to look for, and will help you immeasurably.

Manuel Antonio:
- a bit more tourist-y, but absolutely beautiful. We were in easy walking distance to the beach, and our hotel was great. We stayed at the Costa Verde hotel, which has several restaurants in easy walking distance. The collectivo bus is also easy and cheap, and I wish that we had used it more (the temps were 35+C every day we were there.
- a note of caution: The Catamaran Snorkling tour that we booked was really a booze cruise. Dance music and drinks were the focus, with very little time spent snorkling, and that required us to wear life vests (a number of passengers had indulged a bit). The cruise was well executed, for what it was, but it was not what we were looking for. In retrospect, we should have more clearly laid out expectations for this activity.

We will definitely visit CR again, and I would have no hesitation recommending KimKim, especially to first-timers. Pura Vida!

Thanks Randall!
Annie, Tom, and Joel

I had an amazing travel experience in Costa Rica! I was there for about a week and felt like I was able to see and do so much during my time there. During my trip I saw many different types of birds, sloths, monkeys, a Quetzal, and so much more. I traveled to San Jose, Monteverde, La Fortuna, and Arenal and saw volcanos, jungles and cloud forests. This was my first time booking with KimKim and it was relaxing to know that everything was booked and planned for by our travel specialist. Carlos my travel specialist did an amazing job booking and planning my entire trip. He even called me during my trip to check up on how I was doing. Everything ran smoothly and the guides were friendly and knowledgeable about the biodiversity in Costa Rica. My guides Jorge and Juan Carlos did an amazing job teaching me about their culture and traditions. I would highly recommend booking with KimKim as they take care of everything and you get to enjoy your vacation. Thank you Carlos!

Had an amazing time in Costa Rica! Loved all of our excursions! White water rafting on the sarapiqui River was my favorite! Hiking the 1968 lava field in Arenal was both amazing and disappointing as we weren’t one of the lucky few (per year! Haha!) to see a glimpse of the volcano’s peak. Ziplining in the cloud forest of Monteverde at sky adventures was an experience I will never forget because I was shaking from both fear, excitement, and the chilly temperatures. The Don Juan coffee/chocolate tour is a MUST DO for anyone in the area and definitely gives me a different perspective every time I bite into a Hershey bar not to mention the amazing coffee and cocoa butter. We had the best 3.5 hours of fun on the ocean king in Quepos and thanks to the 8 drink tickets, it’s a good thing we purchased the $30 photo package so we have some great memories of the beautiful sunset! Costa Rica was the most memorable trip I have ever had and I can’t wait to use kimkim for my next adventure.

Our local specialist, Randall helped to plan an amazing visit to Costa Rica that was just the right combination of relaxation and adventure! The adventure started in Rincon de la Viejo National Park for a great hike with Andre. What an amazing combination of landscape, forest, volcanic pools and an abundance of wildlife. Andre was extremely knowledgeable and a lot of fun! The next several days were all about relaxation in Playa Hermosa with stops in Playa Coco and Tamarindo. We then headed to Arenal for white water rafting, exploring the hanging bridges and lots of time in the hot springs. Magical is the best way to describe the experience and we had such a great time with Jairo and Koki from Wave Rafting and Christian on our tour through Mistico Park. It was our first trip to Costa Rica, but won't be the last. The Costa Rican people are so welcoming and friendly, many thanks to everyone for a memorable vacation!

Kim Kim was amazing. Very prompt in responding to our request. The bookings and hotels were just what we wanted and perfect for our family vacation. The only challenge we encountered was several of the guides only spoke Spanish yet were very helpful to try and accommodate our needs. Costa Rica was beautiful! Great family place to vacation.

Randall did a fantastic job setting up this trip for 2 couples. The hotels were top notch-Hotel Arenal resort- a very nice property with spacious rooms. Belmar Hotel-Monteverde great views, good food- an ecocentric property, very pleasant staff. La Mansion- Manuel Antonio- a nice property with great views. Staff are nice people but need significant training. The first room they wanted to give one of us had broken AC and a broken sliding door. It took some convincing to change rooms. Bar service made mixed drinks with little alcohol. Hotel Grano de Oro -San Jose nice hotel, fantastic food.

Private and semi private rides between locations were fine. Some Costa Rican roads are better than others. Kim Kim arranged four events. Christian of Pur Vida led us on a hike through Hanging Bridges and La Fortuna waterfall. He was a little rushed at Hanging Bridges. Overall a B+. Oscar of Monteverde night tours led us on a night hike.Nice job- we actually saw wildlife - A. Carlos of Monteverde Experts led us on a tour of the cloud forrest was exactly that a well spoken expert- A+. Our last experience was a boat ride in a mangrove swamp led by a man from Tuscane tours. He was young and let one patron orchestrate the 2 hour tour. It was very frustrating- grade of C.

Everything that Kim Kim set up went off as planned. They deserve an A+.

Adrianna was amazing throughout planning our trip.
Our drivers always arrived on time and ready to pick us up -- even for our delayed flight at the start of our trip!

All our guides were fun, exciting, and very knowledgeable.
Thank you Alfredo for showing us La Fortuna Waterfall and guiding us through the orchid path and bird-sightings.
Thank you Ignacio for a witty, wonderful tour through the Hanging Bridges and for spotting countless interesting animals.
Thank you Daniel for exploring Manuel Antonio Park with us and teaching us about the various flora and fauna.

We really loved the views of the Arenal Volcano and of course the warm beach waters that hug you as you step in. Best of all, the locals of Costa Rica are so friendly and helpful.

We booked the whole CostaRica 10 days tour through KimKim. The people who helped us with planning and while we were on vacation were extremely helpful. They answered all our questions and made several changes to the itinerary, activities, and hotels to accommodate us. The activities were planned well, the travel from one destination to another was nicely arranged. We stayed at three hotels - Hotel Arenal Manoa, Senda Monteverde and Shana at Manuel Antonio. The hotels Arenal Manoa and Senda were of luxury style. Senda's service was just extra-ordinary. However, the hotel Shana, its food, and its service are not of luxury caliber. My only suggestion is for the KimKim team to review this hotel before recommending it as a luxury option.

My family is a very active bunch and we love adventure and keeping busy. We certainly had all of this on our vacation. Randall listened to what we wanted, and was easy to contact regarding changes in plans and what we wanted to do. We spent the first half of our trip at La Fortuna and the second half in Manuel Antonio. Our accommodations at Manuel Antonio were fabulous, with outrageous views, helpful staff, spacious for our family of 6. I usually like to plan my own trips, but having Randall took a lot of the load off and it was nice having someone to help out when issues arose.

I was hesitant about using an online travel agent but Randall was great; arranging and rearranging the schedule and activities as our plans evolved. The trip to Costa Rica was fantastic and is the best vacation I’ve had, ever! There is such a lush concentration of plants and every kind of living thing. Our accommodations were all first rate, we particularly enjoyed the El Establo Hotel at Monteverde. We traveled Jan 1-Jan 13 and enjoyed excellent weather, were never rained on in the daytime. We had several nature tours and a fab zip line excursion in Monteverde. Check out one of our guides Instagram sites: Jpablo_cruz226. We also visited the Mt Arenal area and a memorable highlight for us was the river cruise on the Rio Frío in the Cano Negro reserve with guide Joudan, who was especially knowledgeable. All the transfers and flights that Randall arranged for us went off without a hitch; we found two of the drivers, Jose and Jorge most helpful and professional. We also had a rented car and adventures driving the winding bumpy roads. If we had been choosing our own vehicle it would have been under powered and wrong for the terrain; but with a good travel agent to help we enjoyed the ride! We also had a cool domestic flight in a teensy plane to round out our transportation experience. It was great to see the ocean, jungle, crop lands, and mountains from a birds eye view. Sansa Air was excellent.

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.

OUTSTANDING TRIP

Our trip was fantastic, and was extremely well planned and well executed. Every excursion was exactly what was promised to us. Alex was truly outstanding. Will definitely use KimKim again, and would use Tachiz travel when we return to Costa Rica.

My family of four (two grown daughters, my wife and I) just returned from a 10-day trip to Costa Rica. KimKim was very easy to deal with. Adriana was our main contact, but when she was off Olman responded and helped us with our arrangements. Both were knowledgeable and helpful and worked as a team. We spent 3 nights in Playa Flamingo (near Tamarindo), 3 nights in the Arenal area (near La Fortuna) and 3 nights in Manuel Antonio (near the national park). We had lots of adventures, but also found the trip very relaxing. We did not rent a car. KimKim arranged for our transports. I'm sure this is much more expensive than renting a car, but as first time visitors to Costa Rica, we were concerned about road conditions and getting around. We observed some other travelers having trouble navigating, but they all seemed to get where they were going eventually. The drivers were always prompt, friendly and pulled over to show us things, especially when they knew areas where sloths or crocodiles were typically spotted from the road. (Special shout out to Jonathan who was our driver on three days.) Having drivers definitely made it a stress-free vacation. It would have been helpful to have a car in Playa Flamingo as there were other beach towns just far enough away that you need to drive and it was not certain that we could get taxis back. We took a Catamaran sunset cruise with Panache sailing. The guys working the cruise were great and friendly. You stop and snorkel but it was not good snorkeling. We heard there was much better snorkeling spots back in Playa Flamingo, but you're really there for the cruise which is very relaxing (even though it felt like there were too many people on board). We stayed at the Lost Iguana in Arenal. Very very nice. It's remote and in the rain forest. Highly recommend. It's a 30 minute drive to La Fortuna. We just took all of our meals at Lost Iguana. We did the SkyAdventures zipline. Very thrilling experience. Even though we were scared to death by the heights and the speed, we highly recommend. Another highlight was the farm tour and cooking class as Vida Campesina. My family likes to cook. It was a fun, informative and delicious evening. We did a "hike" to the La Fortuna Waterfall. It's not a hike. You walk down steps to the waterfall. It's beautiful and we swam in the very cold water, but you don't need a guide for this. If you have a car, just drive there, pay the entry and walk down to see the waterfall. We went to the hanging bridges, which is set up like an amusement park. That was initially a turn-off, but once in we really enjoyed the walk through the rain forest, the views and bridges. If you go to the Manuel Antonio national park, you could skip the hanging bridges and do something more adventuresome. We stayed at the Mariposa Hotel in Manuel Antonio. It is perfectly located at the top of the mountain with great views (amazing sunsets every night), and walking distance to the best restaurants we ate at in Costa Rica (Emilio's Cafe, Agua Azul and Milagro). We only ate breakfast at the Mariposa. Breakfasts were nice at both hotels. We went into the National Park with a guide. You must have a guide or you won't see anything. They have special scopes and spot things animals that are camouflaged or too high up in the trees to see with the naked eye. Don't be turned off by the crowds. It's good to have a few guides around because they tell each other what they have spotted, so you are bound to see more things if there are other guided groups in the area. We spent a few hours at the Playa Espedilla Sur (beach) in the park. Great beach, but beware of the animals. The monkeys come down and try to steal from the tourists, we also saw a raccoon try to do the same. We also did the boat ride through the Damas estuary to see the mangroves. Very relaxing. We used Aventuras Tropicales. It's a family business. At the end you eat a home cooked lunch of typical Costa Rican cuisine at their home. The boat ride feels like the Disneyland Jungle Cruise. We saw many birds and some monkeys, but mostly it's just a relaxing cruise. We don't regret doing it, but it's not very adventuresome. Younger kids might get very bored very quickly. Note, the weather forecast often showed rain, but it mostly rained at night or while we were driving but never rained during any of our activities. Not sure if that was typical or we were just lucky, but the point is not to fret over weather. I'm sure we paid a premium to use KimKim's services, but we think it was worth it as they made it a seamless process and the result was a great time had by all. We would use KimKim again. Many thanks to Adriana and Olman.

Our guides were awesome, such a fun and easy experience. It was a breeze

Our family (3 adults) really enjoyed our first trip to Costa Rica. The process of planning the trip with kimkim was very easy and convenient, and our specialist Yenyi was always very responsive and helpful with our questions.

Overall, we had a great time on our trip. We went to Arenal and Monteverde (one of our guides described it as going from the rainforest to the cloud forest), which were unique and beautiful. Our accommodations were wonderful, especially our stay at Tabacon resort in Arenal - which has the best hot springs facilities in town (the town is famous for the natural hot springs due to the nearby volcano). We ended up going to the hot springs every day! Our hotel in Monteverde - Fonda Vela - was also nice, although it was definitely a bit outdated (especially the bathroom) and they were actively doing construction during our stay (a bit dirty and loud at times), but our room had a beautiful view of the forests and Pacific Ocean.

Out of all of our activities, some of the highlights were zip lining in the cloud forest (10 different lines) and the nocturnal nature tour (we were able to spot snakes, birds, and unique insects in the complete dark with our guide). We also really enjoyed our Rio Celeste day trip - unfortunately the trip itself was cut short due to heavy rainfall closing off half of the park (and the river was brown instead of blue), but our guide Michael was so amazing he really made it a fun and educational trip (teaching us about local plants and insects), and the lunch was good too.

The parts we didn't enjoy as much/some issues:
- Our local tour operator was late several times and did not give us notice. For our boat ride, we waited 30 minutes in our lobby; the tour operator did not contact us, we had to ask the hotel to call them to see when they were arriving.
- The description for "Arenal to Monteverde by boat" is extremely misleading. The kimkim page described it as 3.5 hour boat ride, in reality it was a 40 minute boat ride followed by a 2 hour car ride on extremely bump roads.
- The La Fortuna Waterfall tour was also a disappointment. It was billed as a half-day tour, but the tour itself was only one hour (you climb down the steps, see the waterfall, then climb up the steps). We had to leave the hotel at 7:30 AM, the drive was an hour round trip, and the tour was an hour. We had to wake up so early but then were back at the hotel by 9:30 AM. Our tour guide didn't really explain anything to us, and towards the end he was rushing for us to leave even though the tour was much shorter than we anticipated.

Issues aside, we did have a wonderful time in Costa Rica. The majority of our guides were awesome and super knowledgeable. The accommodations were great and everything was nicely organized. We loved the food and the friendly people everywhere.

The team at Kimkim put together a fantastic itinerary which checks every wish box of our dream vacation. Thank you, Thank you!

I would definitely take their service for our next vacation.

Randall did an excellent job and listening to what we were looking to for for our vacation. He put together a great vacation for us! We did whitewater rafting, tubing, horseback rides, zip line and repelling, catamaran and hiking tour. These excursions were fun, breathtaking and outstanding. I would highly recommend him for anyone planning a trip to Costa Rica! Thank you Randall!!!

Planning the trip with Kim Kim was excellent. I appreciated the advice that allowed us to customize a tour in a new country to us that allowed enjoyment and comfort for our group from age 12-84. The efforts from our advisor was excellent and the execution of the plans was flawless. We had one hitch that was taken care immediately with our KimKim rep, Yenyi- right away after one email.

We especially enjoyed the Hotel Ficus for its views in Monteverde and excellent staff support. The sloth tour with Daniel at Arenal was a highlight in Christmas Day. And while the rooms are simple at Hotel and Villas Huertes the staff and groundskeeper, Alberto, were amazing. That team and especially the maintenance of the pool, landscaping and environs made that simple hotel an excellent choice.

Surfing with Iguana Surf in Tamarindo was a great experience and introduction to the sport.

By far, the best travel company i’ve ever dealt with. My wife and I had a really great experience.

All the events were great and the accomodations were good. They planned the trip I wanted though it was a little too packed- almost stressful. That's on me though. The other thing was I had said that I didn't know how releastic it was for me to do all three things I wanted and was worried about logistics. I think they could have gotten me my itinerary a little sooner and if I knew that some days I would be in the car 5+ hours in a day I would say why don't we skip that. They did help me make changes on the fly however. And I also should have told them that I didn't want to wake up at 5AM on vacation. I guess that's on me too but I would think they could have said- hey if you want to do this, you have to get up at 5. I would have said no thanks.