Liz Karen L. Jihuallanca

First of all, this our 2nd time to use KimKim for a trip. They certainly have made traveling more enjoyable, and in actuality, cost efficient!
We were working with Liz Karen for quite a while. She is knowledgeable about the various options for a Cusco trip which helped us make our decisions.
Since we started many months prior to traveling, we really appreciated Liz Karen’s patience and creativity. We end up with 9 iterations of our trip, and she helped with all the information we needed to have a good trip.
When we finally arrived, our in country help was Oscar! That guy is really patient, but I also think he knows how to build in the perfect amount of time for each of the outings. He kept us on pace, especially with our reserved luncheon at Ollytantambo and with the rather complicated 2 day trip for Machupicchu with buses and trains and other hotels, he made it easy. He really allowed us to enjoy ourselves and masterfully moved us around. To where we needed to go at what time we needed to be there.
We had a 6 day trip from USA, all in Cusco/Aguas Calientes area. With 11 people including 2 grandparents and 1 grandchild, the private tours and travel were of necessity, and here is where KimKim does so well. That’s the really service we appreciate because we get to enjoy the trip and the sights!
We stayed at Tika Wasi in the San Blas area of Cusco, which was a perfect funky hotel with nice courtyard area and the surrounding area is comfortable and plenty of food alternatives.
Definitely want to make sure you are acclimated to the altitude as not sure we could’ve done machupichu in the 1st couple days, pretty rough already.

Hotel Reviews

Tika Wasi Casa Boutique

Cusco

Very nice comfortable boutique in San Blas. Breakfast was good, along with the courtyard area. No televisions in rooms, which is nice to have, but then again we were so tired that probably didn’t matter. The staff was friendly, knowledgeable about the area, and even helped me fix one of our luggage zippers!

Authenticity & Character

Location

Right at the edge of the area. Far enough away from noise and hustle, yet close enough that we could walk everywhere

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Pucara Machu Picchu Hotel

Can’t beat a hotel right downtown, such convenience.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Explore Machu Picchu & Return to Cusco (Private Guided tour in Machu Picchu)

Peru

We simply travel to go find out about places, so we certainly got out fill of being in the area long enough, but then to add this really awe inspiring mountain top city basically in the middle of nowhere was simply breathtaking. Not to mention the climb up to go down to the part of the circuit 2A we went on. Oscar was helpful getting us around as he did all week.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Private tour to Pisac: Andean Animals

Cusco

This was pretty neat, and really helped us understand where we were geographically: very high up in the Andes! So awesome! Was cool to see the local animals and birds, and see the countryside.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Private Half-Day Walking Tour: Sacsayhuaman, Cusco City & San Pedro Market

Cusco

This was basically filler and a get to know the area excursion. I think our group was too big to make it special, as no one paid much attention and went off on their own anyway.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Private tour to The Sacred Valley: Maras, Moray & Pachamanca

Peru

Basically it was all about the Pachamama, as we are a family that loves to eat. Learning a bit more about the indigenous culture, in that setting at El Albergue was fantastic. The distillery and the coffee roasting facilities were a nice surprise.

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Andriel was an amazing guide through the sacred valley.
I appreciate the KimKim team for organizing everything, booking all transportation, checking into our flights for us, etc. it made travel worry-free.
The itinerary was spot on.

It was a lot of travel to go back 500 years in history to Machu Picchu but I will never forget it.
I especially liked how knowledgeable our tour guide was of the history of Machu Picchu and was easily able to answer all of our detailed question
Booking me in the hotel on the square in Cusco was great as the view of the square ( spent hours people watching) and the Christ Statue glowing at night overlooking the city. Later touring Pukamoqo hill, a place that was already considered a spiritual site by the Inca civilization I was very interested in learning it was donated to the city in 1945 by Palestinian Arabs who migrated to this part of Peru as a refuge after the Second World War.
I loved the ancient Andean sacredness that was prevalent all around the country
Thanks for the opportunity to briefly experience the culture and want to go back for more in depth indigenous food and cooking classes.

Fantastic trip! Liz helped me put together a custom trip tailored to our wishes and found ways to keep the costs in check with our budget. In addition, the two times we had questions while on the trip, Lizbeth was incredibly responsive and assisted us immediately. We enjoyed visiting Arequipa, Colca Canyon (which included a homestay with a lovely couple), Cusco, Ollantaytambo, Rainbow Mountain, Machu Picchu and Lima. In each location, we enjoyed tours - some private and some in small groups. Our tour guides, especially William in Cusco, Jaqueline in Machu Picchu and Julie in Ollantaytambo were fantastic and went above and beyond by sharing additional information about Peru, it's culture and people. We learned so much from each one. Our biggest highlights were Machu Picchu - seeing 3 different circuits as well as the Inca Bridge and Huayna Picchu Mountain hike - and Rainbow Mountain. We'd highly recommend working with Kimkim, Andean Travel Experience as they did an awesome job!

Guides Daniel in the Amazon, Nataly in Cusco and Javier in Machu Picchu were all exceptional. Highlights for me were the stay in the Amazon, with the wildlife sightings and cultural experiences, and our day in Machu Picchu, being in the citidel and then hiking to the top of Waynapicchu. Unforgettable. I also loved the Urban Cooking Experience with chef Patrick in Lima - wonderful!

Liz Karen, from the start, was wonderful at helping us plan our trip. It started out with just information gathering for two, to a well planned down to every detail trip for 8. Her speedy response to our questions, her suggestions for where to stay and what to do, her scheduling of planes, vans and boats to get us around the country were perfect. Lizbeth was our trip contact if we had any questions while we were in Peru and she never let us down!
The Pacaya Samiria Lodge on the Amazon was a unique experience and may not be for everyone (no hot water, limited electricity) but we all LOVED it. Daniel, our guide, took us hiking in the forest, swimming IN the Amazon, fishing for piranha's, seeing: pink dolphins, owl monkeys, black collared hawks, egrets, an anaconda, toucans, three other types monkeys, too many birds to list, and so much more. Meeting the locals and seeing the sun set over the Amazon…I could just go on and on. The Sacred Valley portion was guided by Natalie and again more experiences that were beyond our imaginations. Lovely farm to table lunch that was prearranged. The traditional Pachmanca in Ollantaytambo was delicious.
The hotel, Aranwa, was fabulous!
I would recommend a day there just to relax in the middle of your journey. Off to Machu Picchu, the bucket list item on the trip, and another great guide, Jacquelyn, friendly hotel and great restaurants to be found.
Cusco! Natalie, once again, showed us the sites and did not disappoint. Foodies will love this town. Mother Earth changed our trip to the Rainbow mountain area into a lovely day with the locals in the snow. Our guide, Yari did her best to show us the unique terrain, animals, and ancient ruins. Over all this was a trip we will talk about for ever!

The trip overall was incredible! It was so easy to navigate so many things, and would have been incredibly challenging to coordinate ourselves. We would use KimKim again.

Activity Review

Urban Kitchen Experience

Lima

Patrick and his assistant were incredible, welcoming, and honestly it was some of the best food we ate on our entire trip!

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport