Chile Self-Drive Tours

This was my first trip to Chile, and thanks to kimkim's assistance, the experience far exceeded my expectations. Lorena helped us with the planning, and especially our local guide in Puerto Natales—Jose—was truly outstanding. Every single day's itinerary was excellent; the nature, the people, and the food in Chile were all even more magnificent than I had imagined.

Let me start by saying how wonderful Marcela was. She replied almost immediately to any questions or concerns that we had...no matter what time of day or even on weekends. I can't say enough good things about her! She was sweet, attentive, and friendly whenever we contacted her. Muchas gracias Marcela!

At every hotel we stayed at, the staff was courteous and accommodating. The hotel properties were lovely. Breakfasts were delicious and so were dinners (when we ate at hotel restaurants.) I have to particularly commend Hotel Simple Patagonia. We arrived there on my husband's birthday and, at dinner, the staff presented him with an absolutely delicious chocolate birthday cake. (I'm sure Marcella was responsible for coordinating that.)

I also want to commend Hotel Ilaia in Punta Arenas. They were very accommodating in holding our luggage after checkout while we went on a city tour. We purchased food while on the tour and the hotel was very gracious in letting us use their dining facilities to eat our meal.

Guides for our excursions all spoke very good English and they were very knowledgable. The only caveat I have, is that some of the guides tended to walk very quickly and the slower walkers sometimes got left behind. And sometimes the guides would start their talks before everyone had caught up.

Marcela was outstanding with the planning and organizing the entire trip. No one could ever do better than her and she was also invaluable in helping to solve a couple of issues that came up during the trip, totally unrelated to the planning and booking. She was also very kind in organizing a Happy Birthday cake for me at the Simple Patagonia hotel. Was very much appreciated. All the hotels she picked were excellent and all the hotel personnel were very kind and helpful.

The arranged excursions were very good and the guides were generally very good, especially Dani and Felipe in the Atacama region and Nico in Patagonia and Jose Ike in Easter Island. On a couple of instances the guides took off ahead of the group and some of us were left behind and were not able to hear some of the information. When dealing with older folks the guides need to be aware that some folks don’t walk as fast as other younger folks.

All in all a great experience and worth a recommendation for anyone that wants to use kimkim to tour Chile.