Kimkim Trip Reviews for Ecuador

This was, by far, our favorite hotel. Everything was exceptionally clean, the rooms were lovely, the AC was perfect, & the staff was friendly & helpful. We loved that we could take our breakfast outdoors. The patio & area by the pool & bar was lovely, & Denzel, the bartender, was the best. It was clear how much pride he took in his work & he made our evenings a lot of fun.

Although we were pleased to have AC, this was probably our least favorite hotel, although I can't entirely say why we felt that way. The location was great -- very convenient to shops & restaurants & the pier -- & the rooms were spacious. My room had an amazing view. The manager was surprisingly gruff when guests were asking for towels for the day. Although I was able to get some for the day, the manager refused to give them to other guests, saying that the tour boats were obligated to provide them -- but they did not. The to-go breakfast was also inedible & a lot of the baked items & breads were stale at the regular breakfast. I also ended up with ants in my toothpaste....

A great team & great service. Nice bar, too. We were definitely glad that we stayed here & not the lodge that was another two hours upstream. Although we had been encouraged to stay for 3 nights, I'm glad we only stayed two because I'm not convinced we would have seen much that was new with another day (& it was HOT & buggy). The food was decent.

Nice hotel, but nothing special. Not in a particularly interesting area, but it felt safe. The hotel does not have AC, which was fine in my room since my window didn't face the main street, but it was a problem for my daughter, whose room faced a busy street. Breakfast was good, though, & the service was great.

Not one of our best dinners. Decent, but not impressive. In retrospect, we should have planned more of our own meals, especially since I was traveling with people who were good at doing that.

I've already covered how we didn't do the experience that had been planned for us on this day & went to Papallacta instead of returning to Quito. I'm giving this portion of the day just 2 stars because the hotel arrangements for this evening frustrated me. One place in my detailed travel plan stated that we were going to be staying at a hotel at the airport on the evening between Yasuní & San Cristóbal. I didn't notice, however, that the actual hotel planned for this evening was in Quito. With an early morning flight, we saw no reason to be in Quito for the night, so I ended up paying an extra $300 to stay out at the airport. The travel document shouldn't have contradicted itself. That still bugs me. And even if we had gone into Quito for the afternoon (& dinner), staying near the airport made much more sense for this evening between the two major portions of our trip.

We did not need this activity. By the end, we were too tired to do a 90-minute round trip for a meal. Plus, the restaurants that had been picked for us were not up to the standards the foodies in my group had in mind. Fortunately, Sebastian was able to allow us to eat wherever we chose & applied the money I had already paid to the meal we chose to have in the hotel at the airport. I very much appreciated Sebastian's willingness to modify activities and, when possible, to apply funds for one activity to another activity. That was definitely concierge-level service.

Charles Darwin Station gets 5 stars, but the speedboat gets 1 star. I'm not sure there was any other way to get from San Cristóbal to Santa Cruz, however. It's a really long & grueling boat ride -- choppy, lots of fumes, cramped -- especially if you have someone with you who's prone to seasickness. The drive into the highlands was lovely, though, & it was fun seeing the Giant Tortoises. The food at the farm was also very good. Aside from the boat ride, my only complaints about the day were that breakfast wasn't really figured into a day that started very early (because the to-go breakfast was a thin slice of cheese between two small pieces of toast) & the day ended too soon. It seemed like there could have been recommendations for what to do in the afternoon (although we loved Santa Cruz a lot & found lots of interesting art shops to visit).

I'm not sure we did all these things this day & I don't know if we went to Tijeretas Hill at all. All I'm sure we did was snorkel & that was probably at La Lobería. The Interpretation Center was a definite waste of time, but the snorkeling was excellent. Our guide in San Cristóbal was Esteban & I would definitely say that he was the one guide that did not impress us. I understand that he had recently returned to work from a serious motorcycle accident, & he has my deepest sympathy for his injury, but it's odd to pair a guide who walks with a cane with a traveler who has emphasized how active & busy a trip she wants. We definitely had to slow our walking pace down for Esteban. In addition, Esteban was the only one of our guides throughout the trip who really struggled with English. We would ask him a question, & he would answer a completely different question. He did not seem to know as much about flora, fauna, and Ecuadorian history as, say, Francisco or Marcelo (our favorite guides).

All the drivers were great & right on time. They were also patient about waiting for us when they needed to do so. They were extremely helpful. Sometimes, though, we didn't really need car transportation in the Galápagos. We were happy to do a 5- or 10-minute walk on our own. We had traveled light so we could also easily do a half-mile walk with our luggage. If you're going to hike for 2.5 miles, you don't need a car for the .5-mile walk to where the hike starts.

The kayak trip was great. The walk out to the kayaks was lovely, too, although we should have been informed that we'd be walking probably 5-6 miles in total because, once again, some of us did not have the right shoes on for the distance. We saw a lot of birds, fish, & sea turtles & Tortuga Beach was a lovely place to kayak. I would give that activity 5 stars. We were less satisfied with the afternoon snorkel trip. The visibility & what we were able to see during the snorkeling was great, but the trip itself was not entirely great. First, there were too many people in the group (15) so the boat felt crowded, & too many of them had never snorkeled & weren't even capable swimmers. There was only one guide in the water & it was impossible for him to manage 15 people with varying abilities in choppy water. I've never been kicked while snorkeling so many times in my life. Plus, the guide didn't provide enough information as to where we would go once we were in the water, so everyone was a bit confused. There was also a weird occurrence when we got off the boat. Someone from the agency came to pick up our gear, but we didn't have any gear from a dive shop. All we had was what was on the boat & those snorkel masks were annoyingly cheap (no valves, poor fit) & we didn't even have flippers, which definitely would have been nice to have. Also, the hike to the lava formation was nice & the formations themselves were beautiful, but that spot was way too crowded for any swimming or snorkeling. We ended up at the bar along the way.

This day was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. We loved that there was a place where the divers in our party could dive but where those of us who could only snorkel could snorkel. The divers loved that they got two dives, thought they had a great dive master, & enjoyed what they could see (including sharks!). We all saw sea turtles, lots of colorful fish, &, of course, the ubiquitous sea lions. It was also great that we got outfitted the day before so we were prepared with well-fitting gear for the dive & snorkel trip. The young people also loved the chance to swim to the beach & have a little beach time. My daughter is an avid sheller & loved the shells she could find (but accepted that she couldn't keep them).

I'm going to use this space to address internal flights & our replacement activity for July 29th. First off, I was grateful that Alvaro took care of making the internal reservations, but I wish I had given him information about our seating preferences on airplanes. Also, it became clear that our afternoon activity was really something we'd already done -- i.e., a visit to Old Town with a food tour. Fortunately, Francisco recommended a replacement activity -- a trip out to Papallacta & the young people loved that. I know they love hot springs & massages, but I didn't know there was an option for that near Quito. Along the way, Francisco also gave the young foodies a chance to try some type of cane sugar cocktail & they enjoyed that a lot. My favorite part of the outing was the absolutely lovely 2.5-mile hike behind the Papallacta hot springs. I've already recommended Papallacta to my sister, who travels to Ecuador a lot, because her husband loves hot springs & massages. The kids loved the price on the massages.

The whole Yasuní experience was fantastic. We had two wonderful guides, Marcelo & Lucas (sp?), who worked hard to make sure we saw as much wildlife as possible. One highlight of the Yasuní trip was the sunrise bird-watching & the skill the guides had at finding birds, knowing what they were, & making sure we saw them. The canoe ride where we saw caimans & several species of monkeys was the other highlight, but we also enjoyed our visit to the women's cultural center. It was interesting to learn about the work the women are doing & aspects of Quechua culture, & the small shop was a terrific place to get small souvenirs. We all tried cooked palm larva (not as bad as beetles). I strongly recommend bringing along someone who is willing to eat raw palm larva, as that will entertain everyone. We had thought we were going to do something in the village at 4:30 am on our last day, but the guides didn't seem enthused & we were tired because the sunrise bird watch had been really early, so we skipped that. The lodge & the food were basically what we expected -- not luxurious, but fine. And the staff was incredible.

This day was a little confusing. The day turned out great, but it was another day when I wasn't sure what the options were or how to choose between them. The butterfly garden & bird sanctuary were amazing & fun. The drive out to Mindo was lovely. I thought we were going to go tubing, but we ended up zip lining at the recommendation of our guide & I guess that was okay. At first, I thought we would have time for both, but that didn't work out. We should not have tried to squeeze in the chocolate factory, as we didn't really have time for the tour. Instead, the guide suggested that we use the $40 allotted to purchase chocolate & souvenirs. Since I didn't know what else to do, we did that, but I wasn't really happy spending $40 that way. And since we did the upgraded zip line, I had to spend $40 there. I would have preferred the $40 to be applied to the zip lining (which was great, even though it was not, as billed, a way to see birds or wildlife). I also want to mention that Francisco was a fabulous guide. The young people in my group especially loved him. He was fun, funny, knowledgeable, made great suggestions, & recommended little add-ons (especially opportunities for my young foodies to try local foods) that were great. His English was outstanding, too. Since we had basically done the post-Yasuni afternoon on our first day, he also gave us a great recommendation for that afternoon -- Papallacta.

We enjoyed the view of the city & the ride up in the cable car. This is one activity, though, where we would have benefited from having more information. Alvaro made it sound as if it was an easy hike. It was, but only because we barely hiked, as we weren't prepared for the altitude or the distance. I would have liked to have hiked farther, but since Alvaro made it sound as if it was a short hike (which it definitely didn't need to be), I didn't have my walking sticks with me, & the kids didn't have the right shoes. In addition, had I thought about the altitude, I would have asked for this activity to be scheduled for day 2 to give us a chance to adjust to the altitude. Once we finished the hike, it didn't make sense for us to go to the park (which didn't look terribly interesting when I finally googled it) because we needed to eat. So we ended up going to Old Town, which was great -- a nice lunch, a tour of the churches (the Basilica was stunning), and then an artisan market. I needed to have looked at activities in more detail before I left for the trip, but that was hard to do. Overall, I would say that I asked Alvaro various times how long activities would take & when we would start & finish the day, & I didn't get enough information from him to be helpful. Also, on this day, I had asked Alvaro to make reservations at a specific restaurant & discovered that he hadn't done it -- & that he hadn't done so for subsequent evenings, either. That turned out not to matter much, but it did bother me that he said he would do that & didn't.

This was a bit tough - some of the seatbelts didn’t work in the minibus and it is quite a dangerous drive. I think there could be an option available for a private car instead of the bus. Someone at the lodge had done this (of course it is more expensive) but it might be a possible add on, just because the driver is quite tough in the bus.

Nice private guide who picked us up from the boat and took us there. Again it meant we could fit more in and was great having someone meet us.

Mateo was a great guide

Within walking distance of coast.

Loved our guide because he was passionate about the Islands and what we should expect to see. The crew was always helpful.

Within walking distance of town center.

Thankyou so much to Stalin and Byron who made sure our visit was the best it could be. Thankyou for making sure that we were placed in the right company

A special thank you to Stalin & Byron, our amazing guides during our stay at the awesome Tucan Lodge. Lodgings, food, walks, canoe & village trips all incredible!! Muchisimas gracias ☺️

Great stay here overnight en route to the Ecuadorian Amazon. Enormous portions served amongst the cute animals for lunch and dinner Highly recommend

Pat & his wife provide amazing hospitality & genuine conversation We loved staying there

The river view and getting to sleep with the sound of the water right outside our hotel room was a wonderful surprise.

This was our favorite stay of the trip. The cultural experience and community outreach this hotel does are wonderful. My Dad and I bought so many gifts here from the shop & wish we could have gone to the local market! We just stayed on the wrong day.

I would note, especially for American travelers, that this hotel has no air conditioning and no screens in the windows so getting airflow without getting bugs in the room was difficult.

The airport hotel was extremely convenient. The shuttle was efficient and got us to the airport quickly. Guayaquil airport was small and easy to navigate & security lines were quick.

Unfortunately, due to weather & road closures, we didn’t get to do Cajas but that was in no way our guide or KimKim’s fault. We loved the mango & chocolate hacienda. I would note that it isn’t mango season so we just did the chocolate experience which was wonderful. The family that ran it was so great. Jamil & Estefano were very knowledgeable and we loved making our own cacao drink & chocolate bars.

We loved Cuenca. It is such a beautiful town and we see why a bunch of expats have moved here! The tour was great and we got to see a lot in our day here. This is also where we did our cooking class instead of having it in Quito like the itinerary stated. It was a private cooking class at a very fancy hotel with a beautiful view of the blue domes! We could tell Chris had a good relationship with many of the vendors at the market & wish we had more time to sample things here but we didn’t want to eat anything right before our cooking class!

We loved Ingapirca and are very glad we got to go. It is a beautiful ruin!

The night before we got to wander around Baños and had a delicious dinner at the Italian restaurant in town. We started the day with a tour of waterfalls around the Baños area and then continued onto Guamote. Our only wish is that we could have gone to the market in Guamote but we were ther a day early!

We broke up our waterfall tour & our Amazon tour to the local community. This day we visited the local indigenous community & got to go on a waterfall hike. Michaela was our face painter as well as our waterfall hiking guide and she was great. The lunch they made for us was delicious and we even had their pet monkey make an appearance! We then got to go to Yanacocha which is an animal sanctuary for animals rescued from the black market or who were orphaned and aren’t able to be released back into the wild. It was great to see them all treated so well!

This was a beautiful stop & we are very happy we got to see it!

We got to see a ton for only being in the city one day.

Our flights got in too late to do anything in the city this day. Our driver picked me up because my flight got in 5 hrs before my Dad’s and then he went back for my Dad which was greatly appreciated and gave me time to settle into the hotel & grab dinner instead of sitting at the airport for 5 hrs.

Exhilarating trip to Rainbow Mountain. Highly recommend taking the optional motorcycle trip up the mountain

Amazing trip and our guide was fantastic

Puerto vida meal is comparatively small and not a lot going on so this is probably one of the premier hotels there it was clean comfortable the staff was accommodating

Hotels right in the center of keto and the Old Town so it's very convenient that way it's an old building much like Old Town you would expect the only downside that I had was there's a lot to gate to get out in caseville fire could have been problematic

The owner of the hotel was super accommodating worried about us making all of the connections and whatnot call people just super helpful

The service is great the hotel is a lovely location and the owners are super friendly they go out of their way to make you feel comfortable

I guess it's a hotel The cottages are really very nice when we were there was not a high concentration of people so it was very quiet also something I really appreciate they're very authentic they're in the rainforest but easy enough to walk to the pads are well done the food is great the service was very good and it was just a fun place to be

I'd pretty much give it up snorkeling by the time we got here my partner was much into it but I did talk to a nice young German guy who had eardrum problems and couldn't snorkel so that part was really worthwhile. You get a whole different perspective no

I would have to characterize this is a low quality adventure essentially a paddle around the narrow Bay or a small Bay there are things to be seen lots of turtles some penguins but all in all you're out in the hot sun and open Kayak it wasn't my favorite

A great Beach although some of the locals did refer to it as torture Beach the water was very nice at the equator hot hot hot sun very little shade on the trail but still very nice trail as a person who passed us commented Camino del Diablo

Probably could have avoided this activity a Long Walk 3% up to the top end when you get there there's civista but not much in the Vista but it is hot

Lots of huge tortoises the one right at the entrance at likes the bananas that are hanging up will follow you around if you're wearing bright yellow shoes he's pretty sure that those are bananas so that was a good time lots of tortoises they're just doing tortoise like things

A strangely compelling place it's very out of the ordinary not what I expected at all and I really enjoyed it

A lot of sea lions everywhere but they had decent restaurants and certainly an experience of different types of people's and whatever bingo game on a Friday night sea lion in the middle of the plaza experience

Water clarity was not particularly good the day we were there so it was kind of disappointing I'm not a huge fan of snorkeling but you didn't really get to see very much because of the water clarity issues

So much more at the equator than you could ever even consider second time I've been there and they have added the actual equator center not just the monument that was apparently a bit off .

Another two and a half hour boat ride back up the river it had rain so there was quite a bit of log and debris floating in the river luckily the captain of the boat was able to avoid at all

Given the altitude changes in keto and the steepness of the hills we were somewhat concerned about the bike trip it turned out to be kind of a highlight actually we went to the serpent house in the park and an open air fruit market that was truly great the guides were both very good and it turns out they had the pretty flat route

Two and a half hours up the river a clay Bank to unload on and a muddy trail to get to the lodge it was an adventure the little electric carts that they use have no suspension but it was all just really worthwhile

I enjoyed the women's Center and the experience that we had there the way that the fires were built the cooking the food bits it was all very interesting the night walk was dark and wet the day we were there but that's kind of what the rainforest is about

The clay elixir something everybody should probably experience at least once the parrots are truly showing their their own behaviors

This hotel is fine. It's clean and newish, and is what I would expect from a hotel by the airport. It served its purpose well (a place to stay before catching a flight). They also had an airport shuttle, which was appreciated.

We stayed here one night and it was not enough. Everything about this place was wonderful! Our room was cozy and well-appointed. There were fires being tended in every room, the staff was incredibly friendly and the food was delicious. I went on one of the self-guided walks and it took my breath away (I don't mean the altitude). The paths are easy to follow and the views are stunning. I absolutely loved everything about Hacienda El Porvenir.

The grounds are beautiful, and the pool was great. Our room was comfortable - it was not modern, but we weren't expecting that. But, the hotel was a 5-minute drive from downtown Banos on a busy road - next time, I would prefer lodging downtown because it's a walkable place. The restaurant was not great. The food was okay, at best. Also, the entire restaurant staff was wearing clear plastic masks - I appreciate the effort to by hygienic, but those clear masks get wet from breath/spit and it's unattractive to look at. Also, since they only cover the mouth they aren't actually preventing the spread of germs.

Stunning hotel, very modern and clean. The restaurant has views of the city, and the breakfast spread was fantastic!

This was very fun, but it may have been a bit much for us after a very long day of sightseeing (I was with my 2 kids, ages 16, 13). But the food and conversation was nice. I could have used a glass of wine with dinner but was told I couldn't have one - otherwise, all good!

This was amazing! They let us gallop, and lent us ponchos and chaps, which greatly improved the experience. Our photos from this activity are amazing - kids and I on horses w/ a view of Cotopaxi in the background.

The hike on the volcano was amazing. We did not make it all the way to the Refuge b/c it was a very cold and windy day and we were suffering the altitude, but it was SO BEAUTIFUL! I want to go back already. Not to miss.

This was very fun, for me and my two teens (16, 13). There wasn't a lot of detail provided going into it, but we felt safe and ready for what was to come. The final descent was INCREDIBLE. Highly recommend.

Fantastic! This place was great. As advertised. My two teens also loved it.

Jose took us around the city and it was nonstop fun the whole day. I appreciated Jose's vast knowledge - from the town's history to which vendors we should buy from. He brought his brother to drive the car so that we didn't waste any time looking for parking.

The biking was great insofar as I was sick of being in a car, but we were on the rode with the cars on a busy highway so it was a bit uncomfortable at times. My kids (16, 13) didn't love this.

Great way to experience the Galapagos in more personalized way. There was a total of 14 passengers on our boat. The rooms were small but you don't spend much time there anyway. The common area where you dine and gather was comfortable. David, the bar tender and waiter was amazing. He did everything he could to make sure you had everything you wanted. The excursions and snorkeling allowed everyone to see all the amazing wildlife.

A beautiful destination in the Amazon Rain Forest. Food was excellent. Gregorio our tour guide went out of his way to be sure we saw as much of the wildlife and beauty he could find. Accommodations were exceptional

Located in the center of Quito, this hotel provides everything a traveler could need. Staff is friendly, excellent drinks at the bar and spacious, clean rooms.

Long day driving around. Cuicocha Lake was underwhelming but it was a nice place to get out and stretch. Enjoyed stops along the way for native treats. Could have spent more time at the market. Lunch at old estate was a nice surprise

Chocolate tasting, tour of old town

Crane views, Piranha fishing, indigenous village

Hiking and tower views

Beautiful accommodations in the heart of the Rain Forest. We watched squirrel monkeys jump from tree to tree right from the back deck of our room

No issues

Could have stayed closer to the airport for this brief overnight stay

This was our favorite hotel on our trip. We could see the sunsets from the hotel. Everything was clean and well run. It was very close to the the waterfront and we could walk to the piers for trips and easily walk to the shops and restaurants.

This was a great comfortable hotel in Mindo. The food was wonderful. The view from the dining area allowed for watching birds and even bats at night. There was easy access into town to shop and eat. It was a delight to stay there.

This was the best day for birdwatching to see the Condors. the Carunculated Caracaras, Andean gulls, and a variety of the other birds. The variety of higher altitude hummingbirds was impressive. Also enjoyed seeing the fox and deer.