Daiana Andion

Chile 2019 - thank you to Daiana and all the drivers and tour guides who made this a trip of a lifetime. Hotel Ismael is Santiago is perfect. Matetic Winery is a must see. Atacama desert experience was beyond expectations. Judy

I liked that kimkim provides suggested itineraries. It helped me to decide what to do on my trip. It resulted in my choosing to start in Buenos Aires, going to Ushuaia and finishing up in Chile. This was my first time using kimkim, so I was unsure of the quality of the service I would be receiving but I was happy with how things turned out.

My reason for giving only four stars is that there was quite often a lag in communication. I would request something or ask a question, and... read more

I liked that kimkim provides suggested itineraries. It helped me to decide what to do on my trip. It resulted in my choosing to start in Buenos Aires, going to Ushuaia and finishing up in Chile. This was my first time using kimkim, so I was unsure of the quality of the service I would be receiving but I was happy with how things turned out.

My reason for giving only four stars is that there was quite often a lag in communication. I would request something or ask a question, and sometimes would only receive a response days later. An immediate response, such as “We got your question, please give us a few days to get back to you”. would have been helpful.

As well, a breakdown of the costs would have been helpful. I only received a total dollar amount with no idea of the costs for the individual tours and accommodations.

Daiana’s service was good. The tour companies she chose were excellent. The tour guides, Sandra in Buenos Aires, and Gabriel in Ushuaia were first class. Sandra spent more than a half day with me. She was flexible in that she was able to start the tour right away instead of waiting until the afternoon. She was very knowledgeable about the city, took me to places that matched my interests, and gave me good advice for the next day when I was on my own.

Gabriel of Nunatak was fantastic as well. I liked being in small groups, he was also very knowledgeable, and provided a good insight into life in Argentina. The lunches provided by Nunatak were very good as well. Daiana picked excursions for me that I found very pleasing. I was happy with everything that she organized.

Again, the area for improvement would be communication. The pickup in the airports were difficult as it took time before I was able to find my driver. Maybe I should be wearing a sign and stand somewhere near the exit of the arrivals area instead of trying to find the driver.

I had difficulty using the emergency numbers provided with my cell phone while at the airport. Nothing seemed to work. At the Buenos Aires airport, the number that finally worked was the one for outside of the city but still in Argentina. It would have helpful to know that at the airport, one should use that particular number.

In Calama, it was particularly difficult. The written instructions sent me to the wrong counter.
Transfer Andion had no idea who I was, and it was only by accident that I found out that arrangements had been made with another taxi service. As well, I didn’t really need a pickup as the resort I was staying in (Awasi) always comes to pick up their guests. I am not sure why Daiana was unaware of this and made these other arrangements.

Finally, on the day of departure for going back to Canada, the written instructions indicated my driver was to pick me up at 2:15 pm. His understanding was that the pickup time was 3:00 pm. Another communication breakdown.

So on the whole, the service was good, but I can’t give it an excellent rating because of these communication issues.

Thanks to Kimkim our W trek was amazing. Diana was fantastic in all sense. She responded promptly and made changes to our itinerary as required.

Only one suggestion, which is for fantastic sur, on day we could have stayed in Frances, day 3 Paine Grande which would have made things a bit better in terms of covering more.

We will definitely come back to Kimkim for our next Chilean and Argentina adventure

Thanks,
Pre and Elisabeth

This was a complete mess.
We were given no details regarding the tours beforehand. Only what time they began.
The paperwork said someone would be in touch to confirm our pickup time, etc. We didn't hear from anyone. I had to make an international call at midnight the night before to find out when we should be ready. When I inquired about a drop-off time, she couldn't tell me.
Then, we hated our guide (about 99% sure she was hungover). She threw up the entire first half of the tour, told... read more

This was a complete mess.
We were given no details regarding the tours beforehand. Only what time they began.
The paperwork said someone would be in touch to confirm our pickup time, etc. We didn't hear from anyone. I had to make an international call at midnight the night before to find out when we should be ready. When I inquired about a drop-off time, she couldn't tell me.
Then, we hated our guide (about 99% sure she was hungover). She threw up the entire first half of the tour, told us next to nothing about the places we saw. Then we were dropped off in town at the tour office, so had to walk back to the hotel. We only had about an hour and a half in between tours. The morning tour was so miserable, we didn't even go on the 2nd tour of the day.
We did however, stop by the tour office to find out what time our next morning pick up would be.
And lo and behold, we had the same guide. At least she was not sick the following day, but we were once again underwhelmed with her knowledge. We basically ended up eavesdropping other tours who had knowledgeable guides with interesting information.

Overall, our experience in the Atacama desert was underwhelming, which was extremely disappointing considering all the wonderful things we heard about it before going.