Chio Tabakman

We loved Isabella and Alexjandra as well as our driver. They worked hard to insure that we had a good experience.

I've worked with Chio from the agency and she has been really awesome.

My husband and I went to Colombia from 12/28 to 1/5/20. This was our very first time to South America and very first to Colombia. I was looking for tour guide and Kimkim.com came up in google search and I thought I'd like to try the agency. It was a such a good decision. After I contacted Kimkim, Chio got back to me within a day and she helped to plan our trip. I had very specific requirements for the types of the trips... read more

I've worked with Chio from the agency and she has been really awesome.

My husband and I went to Colombia from 12/28 to 1/5/20. This was our very first time to South America and very first to Colombia. I was looking for tour guide and Kimkim.com came up in google search and I thought I'd like to try the agency. It was a such a good decision. After I contacted Kimkim, Chio got back to me within a day and she helped to plan our trip. I had very specific requirements for the types of the trips I'd like to take and Chio was very patient working with me to come up with different versions of the trip, unless the 3rd version, we've decided to go to: Medellin and Cartagena. I couldn't be happier with our trip.

In Medellin we had a very active itinerary: Comuna 13 graffiti tour, waterfall repelling, paragliding, Medellin city bike tour, and finally a trip to Gautape on the New Year's Day. Everything was awesome. The highlight of the trip for us would be the waterfall.

For Cartagena, it was more relaxed. We visited Bazurto market with our local guide Carolina and had the BEST breakfast at her restaurant Ohlala. Then we went to the The Rosario Islands, which was just soso as the resort we went to only had a very limited beach area. But the lunch was awesome! :)

Overall, we had a wonderful trip! I am already planning to work with KimKim for our next trip to Argentina and Peru to hike the Inca Trail!

We had a super time and felt very supported. Chio was there for every little question I had! All the drivers, hotels and tour people were on-time and extra nice. I'm so pleased.

My husband and I travelled in Colombia with our four children (ages 11-15) and overall we very satisfied with the kimkim experience. The planning stage was fantastic-- I spoke with an agent in the US and also an agent in Colombia-- and it was very easy to come up with a specific itinerary to fit the needs and wants of my family. Our local specialist (Chio) was very responsive to my questions and requests and always responded in a timely manner.

For the most part, everyone involved in... read more

My husband and I travelled in Colombia with our four children (ages 11-15) and overall we very satisfied with the kimkim experience. The planning stage was fantastic-- I spoke with an agent in the US and also an agent in Colombia-- and it was very easy to come up with a specific itinerary to fit the needs and wants of my family. Our local specialist (Chio) was very responsive to my questions and requests and always responded in a timely manner.

For the most part, everyone involved in tourism who was recommended by kimkim (the drivers and guides for example) was excellent-- very professional and always on time. When we had drivers that did not speak English they let us know in advance and we always knew the specific itinerary for each day. The trip, in general, ran VERY smoothly. Over fourteen days there was only one mistake--- when we arrived at a certain hotel it turns out they had mistakenly booked us at a hotel with a similar name (which was not as nice as the one we were supposed to be in). As soon as we called her, Chio (and her supervisor Jules) immediately tried to rectify the situation-- we did have to spend one night at the wrong hotel but the next day they had us moved to a much nicer hotel and took the extra step of arranging for us a new itinerary for a "day at leisure" including a driver, lunch, and two excellent activities. They (Chio and Jules) kept in constant contact with us making sure we were happy with the new arrangements. (And I felt like they were truly sorry for the mix-up).

All in all I would definitely recommend kimkim-- it was VERY user friendly and our itinerary was excellent.

(If you are planning on going to colombia-- we particularly loved our Hacienda Santa Clara in the coffee region and our tour of Don Juan coffee farm, horseback riding in the cocora valley, EVERYTHING in Medallin, the beach and tubing in Palamino (outside Santa Marta), and our incredible hotel (the hyatt) in Cartagena.

Kimkim does make things much easier, but it's not the best option if you want to save money.

For flights and hotels, we saved more than $500 booking everything on our own.

Cartagena was great and it's the place I would have spent more time.

The guide in Medellin was awesome and explained everything we saw and asked about!

However, the guide in Bogotá was quite different. His English wasn't very good so it wasn't very easy to communicate. Perhaps this was the reason why he didn't explain... read more

Kimkim does make things much easier, but it's not the best option if you want to save money.

For flights and hotels, we saved more than $500 booking everything on our own.

Cartagena was great and it's the place I would have spent more time.

The guide in Medellin was awesome and explained everything we saw and asked about!

However, the guide in Bogotá was quite different. His English wasn't very good so it wasn't very easy to communicate. Perhaps this was the reason why he didn't explain much of the things we were looking at during the tour. He'd just say that X thing was the most important. There was a moment where I asked about Monteserrate and he gave the wrong timeframe of the photo I was referring to.

When we went to the Gold Museum, he took us only to see basically 2 things which he said were the most important and didn't explain anything about why they were important.

We stopped by to grab a bite and agua de panela at La Puerta de la Cadetral and we paid for his food as well (which I didn't know we were paying for). He took the receipt after I paid.

The tour included Museo Botero, but we walked pass by it and didn't stop.

The tour was supposed to last 8 hours, but he said we were done a bit after 1 PM.

The trip was great and we enjoyed it.
Chio was very good all the way and was very responsive to our needs and did her best to solve any problem we had.
I have an issue, however with the team that designed the trip. Here are some points:
The transport company in Medallin was bad. Out of the three trips with them there were two problems. On the second one, they simply sent the driver with the wrong name, as a result, he ignored our sign and it caused delay.
The trip to Nuqui was good, but we... read more

The trip was great and we enjoyed it.
Chio was very good all the way and was very responsive to our needs and did her best to solve any problem we had.
I have an issue, however with the team that designed the trip. Here are some points:
The transport company in Medallin was bad. Out of the three trips with them there were two problems. On the second one, they simply sent the driver with the wrong name, as a result, he ignored our sign and it caused delay.
The trip to Nuqui was good, but we should have been informed in advance that the Nuqui airport may be closed for any period due to simple weather problems like fog, which is very likely.
We were told that we can take a trip to some water falls on the second day, but found out that on that day, which was Jan 1, that trip cannot be taken.
Jacob Tal.

I recommend the Kimkim team in Colombia without reservations. We had a fantastic trip and I could not have asked for a better agency to work with.
In terms of the initial planning, they patiently helped me through deciding whether to go to Colombia or Peru, which areas to cover, and worked with me through my endless questions and changes. Lisa and Chio worked out an amazing itinerary for our family based on our stated interests, and changed it with only a few weeks to go when it turned out... read more

I recommend the Kimkim team in Colombia without reservations. We had a fantastic trip and I could not have asked for a better agency to work with.
In terms of the initial planning, they patiently helped me through deciding whether to go to Colombia or Peru, which areas to cover, and worked with me through my endless questions and changes. Lisa and Chio worked out an amazing itinerary for our family based on our stated interests, and changed it with only a few weeks to go when it turned out that we could not easily get the appropriate vaccine to visit the Amazon. I had been a little distressed at the need to change the plans at that late date, but they quickly came up with a revised itinerary and I think it turned out even better because we had one fewer plane flight that way within the country.
Chio and Jules answered every question I had after arrival with patience and frequently checked in on us. Jules brought us to our hotel late at night upon arrival in Bogota and made several good suggestions for the rest of the trip. I was really impressed with Kimkim's organization, planning, and the guides they chose in each location were fantastic - very nice, fun, comfortable to be with and knowledgeable, and patient with our attempts to speak and understand Spanish, which made the trip so much more fun and intimate. I really felt like we (me, my husband, and early twenties daughters) got so much out of the trip when with the guides, particularly in Bogota, on our hike in Tayrona Park, and our visit to La Boquilla fishing village. We also really loved going to Minca and staying in the mountains, and the hotel near Tayrona was spectacular. On the way from Minca to Cartagena, a long drive, we were a bit nervous about a country-wide protest's impact on our ability to get through (though sympathetic to the cause), but we had a fantastic driver with whom we had many good conversations and he took great care of us, in addition to being such a sweet and interesting person. We really learned a lot on this trip, stayed in some lovely places, saw varied terrain, and thoroughly enjoyed our stay. Thanks so much to Kimkim for this experience.

All of our guides were exceptional! Lina in Bogata, Mauricio in Villa de Leyva, Natalia in Pereira, Daniel in Medellin, Juan in Tayrona Park, Carolina for the cooking lesson and Ingrid in Cartagena. The guides were all very knowledgeable and obviously proud of their wonderful country.
We enjoyed all of the things we experienced. A couple of things that stood out were the visit to the coffee farm that was run by women, the visit to Bazurto market with a local that knows her way around. We... read more

All of our guides were exceptional! Lina in Bogata, Mauricio in Villa de Leyva, Natalia in Pereira, Daniel in Medellin, Juan in Tayrona Park, Carolina for the cooking lesson and Ingrid in Cartagena. The guides were all very knowledgeable and obviously proud of their wonderful country.
We enjoyed all of the things we experienced. A couple of things that stood out were the visit to the coffee farm that was run by women, the visit to Bazurto market with a local that knows her way around. We also enjoyed the physical beauty of all the different areas of Columbia and being able to do a bit of hiking.

We confirmed our 4 region trip a couple weeks before leaving for Columbia. Our initial consult with Lisa proved quite helpful in narrowing down the regions and activities we wanted to experience. We then were contacted by Chio who handled booking the schedule and was in contact with us throughout the trip to check that everything was going well. All of our drivers and guides were amazing - on time, super friendly and helpful for our family of 4 (mom/dad/2 older teens). Lina in Bogota... read more

We confirmed our 4 region trip a couple weeks before leaving for Columbia. Our initial consult with Lisa proved quite helpful in narrowing down the regions and activities we wanted to experience. We then were contacted by Chio who handled booking the schedule and was in contact with us throughout the trip to check that everything was going well. All of our drivers and guides were amazing - on time, super friendly and helpful for our family of 4 (mom/dad/2 older teens). Lina in Bogota provided in-depth historical context, local and urban insights to our visits to Monserrat, city walking tour (Botero, etc.), and Salt Cathedral. Jasmine was delightful when we visited the woman-owned coffee farm and guiding us hiking thru the Corcora Valley wax palms pointing out local plants. Jose guided us through the dense jungle on our hike through La Tayrona pointing out animals and local plants along the way to the secluded beach (super refreshing swimming in the clear, blue water). Braulio greeted us at our last stop in Cartagena - he is a wealth of historical, urban, and cultural knowledge -- we toured the city with him 2 afternoons. And we have to mention Carolina - probably one of the most eye-opening / moving experiences of the trip where she took us early morning to Bazurto Market and then to her restaurant (Ohlala) for cooking/eating. The boutique hotels were comfy. Meals were delicious - ginormous portions were the norm! The warm hospitality we encountered from the people we met throughout the 4 regions we visited was amazing! We will definitely visit the country again.

Chio was very responsive and accommodating. This was our first time to Colombia so it was great to obtain his guidance and recommendations. All of our booked guides were professional, knowledgeable and fun! Our favorite parts of the trip included the cooking class in Cartagena, the hike in Tayrona and our glamping stay in Minca. I would definitely recommend booking with Chio and KimKim if its your first time to Colombia. Having the accommodations and transportation booked for you in advance was a must! It added a lot of ease to the trip. Can't wait to go back!

This was our first time using kimkim and I am very happy we did! We made a short fuse decision to tack on a family vacation to my business trip to Colombia, and Chio put together a great itinerary for us on very short notice (less than 2 weeks). Responses were prompt and we didn't have any issues during our 10 day vacation.

Highlights of the trip for us include the private graffiti tour in Bogota with Anna, Guatape day visit near Medellin and the cooking class in Cartagena. But all of it... read more

This was our first time using kimkim and I am very happy we did! We made a short fuse decision to tack on a family vacation to my business trip to Colombia, and Chio put together a great itinerary for us on very short notice (less than 2 weeks). Responses were prompt and we didn't have any issues during our 10 day vacation.

Highlights of the trip for us include the private graffiti tour in Bogota with Anna, Guatape day visit near Medellin and the cooking class in Cartagena. But all of it was great. We all really loved Bogota and Medellin the most. Cartagena old town was beautiful but a bit too hot and touristic for us.

My only complaint was that it was probably more than we needed to spend, but that's on me since I didn't allow time for back and forth planning/optimization. We had private transport to go almost everywhere, but it was easy enough to get around by secure taxi. Oh...and the Hotel Du Parc in Medellin had the smallest water heater ever and we could only get one shower at a time. All small things. Overall we had a fabulous family vacation in a country that I never had really thought about visiting. We all loved Colombia!

Lisa