Eduardo Celada

Eduardo and his company should never have been our travel specialist. We booked a trip to Belize and he is based in Guatemala. We had so many issues on this trip and I fault Eduardo and his lack of visibility and boots on the ground. It was our fifth trip we’ve booked using KimKim and it was by far the absolute worst. The others have been incredible. While Belize was incredible and we had a fabulous time, it was super stressful basically every day because something was messed up with our hotel reservation or the timing is outings or being double booked, etc.

Hotel Reviews

Ramon's Village Resort

San Pedro

Loved this hotel!!! The only complaint would be that they don’t serve hard liquor so no fun frosty cocktails while on the beach or at the pool. Otherwise - it’s perfect!!

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Falling Leaves Lodge

San Ignacio

The staff at Falling Leaves were incredible! And the restaurant was really great. The lodging varies and due to our travel agent screwing up our stay, we went from a pretty basic room to the honeymoon suite on our last night there. So I think it’s important to understand the different options when staying there. And it’s not true that it’s a 10 min walk to the city center. It’s a 30 min walk and all uphill on the way back.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Not close enough to city center

Staff

Staff was amazing!’

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Xunantunich Horse Backriding Maya Ruins Tour

Belize

It is a must do if you like horseback riding. Our guide were absolutely incredible - Jose and Hank. They were so attentive and always looking out for our safety. And the ruins were amazing! Loved everything about this excursion!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM) caves day tour

Belize

By far the most dangerous but coolest thing I’ve done in my life!

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Should’ve been more attentive given I fell and he had no clue.

Transport

Hol Chan/Shark Ray Alley - from Victoria House Resort

Belize

First of all - we stayed at Ramon’s where the excursion departed from. Again - complete sloppiness on the part of our Guatemalan travel specialist. And after I notified him of the issue he never clarified with Ramon’s so good thing I went early to check us in because they would’ve seen a transport to Victoria house to pick us up. Again, I’m sure we paid for that transportation that never happened. But the actually snorkeling was the best we’ve ever done. Or was incredible and the crew was awesome! Safest snorkeling I’ve ever done also! We saw sea turtles, nurse sharks, eels, stingrays, an octopus and sooo many more fish. It is a MUST!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Cacao Farm & Chocolate Making Tour

San Ignacio

I would’ve given this a 5 had we actually gotten what we paid for. We showed up at the cooking demonstration and were told they don’t do cacao farm tours and we would only get a 45 min cacao making demonstration. After I lost my mind with both our local travel guy and our one in Gautama la, after the demonstration we got taken to a random guys cacao farm. He couldn’t sprang English and we got eaten alive by mosquitos etc. it was not what we were expecting or what we paid for. Complete and utter disappointment. We totally got hoodwinked

Quality of Experience

Learned a lot during the cacao demonstration!

Guides, Drivers and Staff

The guy doing the demonstration was great!

Transport

Cooking Class at San Ignacio

Belize

It was absolutely fantastic! Cannot recommend enough!!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Transfer from San Ignacio to Belize City with Cave Tubing Tour en Route

Belize

While we LOVED the tubing experience, our driver and “guide” was a man of few words and didn’t speak English well. So it was not as great as it could’ve been. He didn’t tell us what we were doing to do and then after the experience, let us linger at lunch and we missed the 1:30 boat to Ambergris Caye and had to wait until the 3 pm - missing 1.5 hours on the island when the weather was awesome. He also didn’t tell us what we needed to do to check our bags for the ferry or get our tickets. It was an absolute disaster.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

We had an amazing time. All drivers & guides were perfectly on time. The acommodations were exactly what we expected.
Louis, our Guatemala Guide was fantastic. He gave us a great understanding of the Maya and Highland cultures.
Oliverio, our guide in Tikal and Yaxha had an immense amount of knowledge and experience. Our various activities were perfectly planned and executed.

Hotel Reviews

Black Rock Lodge

San Ignacio

Amazing food and super helpful staff.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Way out in the jungle. Beautiful setting along the river

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

La Fortuna Atitlan

Santa Cruz la Laguna

Wonderful place to explore Lake Attitlan Everyone is so helpful and friendly

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotel Posada del Angel

Antigua Guatemala

Great place to stay in Antigua. Amazing Staff, everyone was so friendly Breakfast was fantastic.

Authenticity & Character

Location

A little away from the main traffic and downtown craziness.

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Cacao Farm & Chocolate Making Tour

San Ignacio

The farm visit was great.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Zip Line at Calico Jack's Village

Belize

Great experience, felt safe at all times. Very well maintained. Great rides through the jungle.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM) caves day tour

Belize

The most amazing place. A MUST see.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Tour Yaxhá Maya Ruins

Guatemala

What a fantastic place away from the main tourist path. We felt like we were the only ones there. Very well maintained.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Oliverio was fantastic

Transport

Explore Tikal National Park

Guatemala

Fantastic place and Oliverio was a great guide. Start early before all the busses from Flores arrive.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Tour the famous Chichicastenango Market

Guatemala

Great market, a bit overrun by tourists. Little side trip to the cemetery was great.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Car was "OK"

Boat Tour of Lake Atitlán Villages

Guatemala

Great tour of two of the villages around the lake. We should have done two days to get to see more than two villages. Luis was the perfect guide.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

The boat ride can get a bit bumpy at times.

Sip n' Cycle - Bike/Coffee Combo Tour

Antigua

Traffic was a bit scary when you are on a bike. Perfect amount of exercise. Not too strenuous.

Quality of Experience

Fantastic experience on the Coffee farm. The owner was so enthusiastic and friendly.

Food

Fantastic home cooked lunch and the best coffee.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Day Hike to Pacaya Volcano

Guatemala

Luis was a fantastic guide. Perfect for a one-day hike.

Quality of Experience

Food

Perfect little lunch on the volcano

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

We were very pleased with the arrangements in the end, although it took longer than expected to finalise the itinerary given that I'd already gone through it in detail with someone from KimKim. Eduardo was extremely helpful and went beyond the call of duty when we needed to change the itinerary after we'd started the trip. He arranged a couple of tours for us in Guatemala including a trip to villages near Antigua which was really enjoyable and the Acatenango volcano hike. We found that less enjoyable as we weren't sufficiently acclimatised and I've already suggested a night at higher altitude beforehand would have helped. When one of our crossborder transfers didn't go according to plan because the drivers couldn't contact each other Eduardo apologised and made sure we were compensated. The few problems that arose were, I think, largely due to the agency in El Salvador not communicating fully with him. Most of the drivers (and vehicles) were very good although we did have issues with the guy who took us from Lanquin to Antigua, overtaking on blind bends in zero visibility due to the mist. Most of the hotels were very nice and comfortable. Hotel Guayaha in Lanquin was a bit odd - lots of potential in a vast but empty room with nowhere to even dry towels! The staff at Hotel San Buenaventura were pretty miserable, unlike everywhere else, and there was no breakfast before 8am but the hotel itself was nicely located on the lake. Finca Tatin Hotel would have been much nicer if we'd had decent weather as it is all open air.

The trip was very well organized on short notice. I enjoyed the nature and the culture part of the trip. I would highly recommend it to those who would like a little adventure or relax and enjoy nature and old towns, like Antigua.

I have so many good things to say about this trip. Eduardo was great at planning with us and very communicative with us during the trip. We even had a problem when my girlfriend accidentally left her phone in one of the transport vans and arranged to have it se t on the next plane to get it back to us at our next location.

Josias was an amazing guide on both the day at Atitlán and on the Acatenango hike. He was great at both telling us stories of the culture and the area but also making it fun and lighthearted along the way. We can’t recommend him enough. In addition to a great guide the views of the Acatenango hike were once in a lifetime type experiences.

Kevin was a great local guide through all the villages around Atitlán and explaining the languages and the Mayan calendar. He took us to the Maximón house and gave us great insight into the local culture.

For our time in Tikal and Yaxhá Oliverio (Ollie) was so knowledgeable and added so much to the tours of all the ruins.

Fernando and Luis were great drivers and helped so much at the border crossing from Guatemala and Belize making it much easier than it might have been.

We loved the ATM caves and José was really great teaching us all the history of the Mayan use of the caves as well as all the geologic history of the caves, as well as all the flora and fauna on the hike.

In Cate Caulker Ragga Sailong Adventures guided by our captain Keanu and Penny were awesome showing us the best spots and getting to swim along manatees, sharks, rays, fish and all the fish on the reef was so amazing. They also had great food and drinks including some amazing ceviche.

Overall we loved the trip so much and everyone we came across were truly wonderful and I felt so lucky to be able to see their world through their eyes a bit. The hotels, food, ruins, volcano hike, snorkeling and all the activities were second to none.

We had a great time with Tomas and Michael in Belize. The tour guide in Guatemala gave us a good suggestion to do the tour at 4 am instead of later in the day bcoz the temperature was very high ( 101) and that helped us a lot!
Overall a great experience!

Hotel Reviews

Jaguar Creek Lodge

Cayo District, Belize

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Staff is good but they can help with lugging the bags to the rooms especially if the room is far away from the reception. No one offered to help us

Cleanliness & Comfort

Jaguar Inn Tikal

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Issue with water supply and fan in the summer heat

Ramon's Village Resort

San Pedro

Paradise!

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Black Rock Lodge

San Ignacio

Best experience ever! The staff is fantastic and the hotel is so close to nature- great way to disconnect!

Authenticity & Character

Location

The location is beautiful but the 6/7 mile long road going to the lodge can be improved.

Staff

Best experience ever- everyone was super nice!

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Hol Chan/Shark Ray Alley - from Ramon's Village

Belize

Dream come true!

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Best staff - so helpful and made me and my daughter so comfortable

Transport

Canopy Tour in Tikal National Park

Belize

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Awesome staff

Transport

Explore Tikal National Park

San Ignacio

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

He charged us extra money for the 4 am tour

Transport

Cacao Farm & Chocolate Making Tour

San Ignacio

Very enriching experience!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM) caves day tour

Belize

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

He could have planned for the tubes to be at the cave and not for us to carry it along the way. We saw other guides doing that and even offering to take family pics - he didn’t even ask

Transport

Some of the hotels were substandard ... In particular Coban, Lake Atitlan and Antigua.. Rooms were dirty and internet was poor. We indicated that 3-4 star was acceptable but these hotels were more like 2 star by international standards.

Our first time in Guatemala was amazing and disappointing at the same time. The beauty of Guatemala surprised us with its mesmerizing volcanoes and lake Atitlan. The logistics left us puzzled at best. This is the first time a guide does not receive us at the airport. The only time with the trip planner Eduardo was the night before we departed after we had voiced repeatedly our concerns. We did not feel well informed of the plan. In fact the printout given to us by the driver upon arrival was not accurate or thorough. The culmination of the concerns was reached when a vehicle we were riding broke down and we could not complete our day of excursion. We wasted an entire day. For that we were reimbursed $287. We gave Eduardo a list of 12 points that we think will help improve his business. We are experienced travelers and we feel that amount we paid for this trip was not worth it at all.

Loved the authenticity of Coban.
Semuc Champey was great but we would have liked more warning/info about what the "water cave" experience was going to involve. This was complicated by the fact that the guide's English was inadequate.
Flores was lovely.
LOVED Yaxha - Guide Oliveiro was superb. Tikal also great.
Really enjoyed Rio Dulce, the hotel we stayed at (Tixal?) and the whole river experience. Livingston was very interesting. Great guide too - Fernando.
Best was the hot springs!! Great experience!
Chichicastanango was absolutely fantastic - the market! and the cemetary.
Lake Atitlan was beautiful. We loved the kayaking & hiking experience. The towns we visited were tourist-y (San Juan, San Pedro, Santiago) but the things we visited (chocolate factory, weaving cooperative, shaman house) were really! interesting.
We really, really enjoyed this trip - it exceeded our expectations.

Our trip was terrific and exceeded our expectations. With the itinerary that was created for us, we saw many different areas of the country. What we hope to have, on a trip like this, is a wide variety of activities and experiences. This trip delivered. We were in cities and villages; we saw nightlife and wildlife; we were on lakes, in mountains and in jungles; we hiked, walked, swam, motor-boated and kayaked ; we visited wide open plazas and packed markets; we explored centuries-old pyramids and temples and modern churches; we learned ancient customs and current practices. Our local guides, lined up by Eduardo, were knowledgeable, personable and flexible. And the people of Guatemala were friendly and welcoming. Definitely a great trip overall.