Ecuador Galapagos Travels

We booked a one-week trip to Ecuador for 2 people through Kimkim, including Quito, a guided city tour, and 3 days in the Galápagos — and the entire experience was fantastic from start to finish.

Our trip planner was Alvaro, and honestly, working with him was probably one of the best parts of the whole planning process. At the beginning, we only had a very rough idea of what we wanted to do. We were still unsure about the itinerary, duration, budget, and how to combine mainland Ecuador with the Galápagos. Based on that very vague starting point, Alvaro created an excellent first proposal with a concrete itinerary and transparent pricing, which immediately helped us visualize the trip.

What impressed us most was how easy and pleasant communication was. Every question and every requested change was answered incredibly quickly and always very professionally. For example, our first proposal was above our budget, and almost immediately Alvaro sent us an adapted version together with clear explanations of what had been changed and why. It never felt pushy — instead, it felt collaborative and genuinely personalized.

The payment process was also very straightforward and reassuring (30% deposit first, remaining balance later before the trip).

Another thing we really appreciated was that Alvaro kept checking in with us before the trip started, asking whether we still had questions and making sure we felt prepared. He also introduced us in advance to the local Ecuadorian partner responsible for the on-the-ground coordination (Sebastian from Responsible Travel South America).

This was honestly what made the whole experience feel so special: everything was incredibly easy and digital, but still deeply personal at the same time. Even though everything was organized online, we always felt like we had real people taking care of us.

I can 100% recommend Kimkim, and especially Alvaro, for anyone planning a trip to Ecuador.

Our trip to Ecuador was truly the experience of a lifetime, and so much of that is thanks to the incredible care, planning, and support from Maria and Kim.

From the very beginning, Maria went above and beyond to help create an itinerary that somehow captured everything Ecuador has to offer. The trip was seamless, thoughtful, adventurous, and incredibly well organized across multiple regions, flights, boats, lodges, and experiences. Every detail felt intentional.

And Kim was simply exceptional. Knowledgeable, patient, kind, adaptable, and deeply passionate about Ecuador, its culture, wildlife, and people. She made every experience richer and more meaningful, whether we were exploring Quito, hiking near Cotopaxi, traveling the Napo River in the Amazon, or snorkeling in the Galápagos Islands. We always felt cared for, informed, safe, and genuinely welcomed.

This was not just a vacation. It was a beautifully curated experience full of adventure, perspective, learning, and unforgettable moments.

We are leaving Ecuador with full hearts and immense gratitude. Thank you, Maria and Kim, for helping create memories we will carry for the rest of our lives.

The entire vacation was very planned, ensuring that we covered all the sights at a decent pace. The local guides on each island were superb, helping us get the most of our trip. and giving us great insights That we had local support 24X7 was an added bonus! All in all, a great vacation and we look forward to our next vacation with Kimkim.

Our father daughter trip was fantastic. Alvaro was great to work with. He was so responsive and helpful to our individual wants and needs during the trip planning process. Yael greeted us with a welcome gift upon arrival in Quito and made sure everything was going well before our departure across the country.

Our itinerary was perfect and we feel very lucky to have had the guides we did. We had David for our tour around Quito. He was knowledgeable, helpful & paced the day perfectly. For the remainder of the trip we had Chris and he was so amazing. We would not have wanted to do the trip without a driver and Chris was exceptional in this realm. He was a very defensive and great driver on the chaotic roads. He was always one step ahead of the weather & road closures which made our trip so much more seamless than we could have hoped for considering we traveled during the peak rainy season. We had such a good time and kimkim made it an easy & relaxing process. Our itinerary was jam packed and we saw so much but we didn’t feel rushed at all. We feel like the trip was a bargain for all it included. Would definitely use kimkim again & we are hoping to do a Galapagos trip in the future!

Hotel Reviews

Swissotel Quito

Quito

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotel Sangay

Baños de Agua Santa

I would note, especially for American travelers, that this hotel has no air conditioning and no screens in the windows so getting airflow without getting bugs in the room was difficult.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Inti Sisa

Guamote

This was our favorite stay of the trip. The cultural experience and community outreach this hotel does are wonderful. My Dad and I bought so many gifts here from the shop & wish we could have gone to the local market! We just stayed on the wrong day.

Authenticity & Character

Location

I

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotel Victoria

Cuenca

The river view and getting to sleep with the sound of the water right outside our hotel room was a wonderful surprise.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Holiday Inn Guayaquil Airport

Guayaquil

Authenticity & Character

We don’t book airport hotels for authenticity or culture! Just practicality

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Immersive Cultural Exploration: From Riobamba to Guamote

Ecuador

The night before we got to wander around Baños and had a delicious dinner at the Italian restaurant in town. We started the day with a tour of waterfalls around the Baños area and then continued onto Guamote. Our only wish is that we could have gone to the market in Guamote but we were ther a day early!

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Discovering Cuenca's Charms: A Journey Through History and Culture

Cuenca

We loved Cuenca. It is such a beautiful town and we see why a bunch of expats have moved here! The tour was great and we got to see a lot in our day here. This is also where we did our cooking class instead of having it in Quito like the itinerary stated. It was a private cooking class at a very fancy hotel with a beautiful view of the blue domes! We could tell Chris had a good relationship with many of the vendors at the market & wish we had more time to sample things here but we didn’t want to eat anything right before our cooking class!

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Cuenca - Cajas National Park - Cacao & Mango Hacienda - Guayaquil

Cuenca

Unfortunately, due to weather & road closures, we didn’t get to do Cajas but that was in no way our guide or KimKim’s fault. We loved the mango & chocolate hacienda. I would note that it isn’t mango season so we just did the chocolate experience which was wonderful. The family that ran it was so great. Jamil & Estefano were very knowledgeable and we loved making our own cacao drink & chocolate bars.

Quality of Experience

Food

The lunch we had at the hacienda made by the family was one of our favorite meals of the trip. It was delicious.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Connect with your flight to Galapagos

Ecuador

The airport hotel was extremely convenient. The shuttle was efficient and got us to the airport quickly. Guayaquil airport was small and easy to navigate & security lines were quick.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Welcome to Ecuador: Let Your Adventure Begin! (Transportation Service)

Galapagos Islands

Our flights got in too late to do anything in the city this day. Our driver picked me up because my flight got in 5 hrs before my Dad’s and then he went back for my Dad which was greatly appreciated and gave me time to settle into the hotel & grab dinner instead of sitting at the airport for 5 hrs.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Colonial City Tour, Cooking Class & the Middle of the World Monument

Quito

We got to see a ton for only being in the city one day.

Quality of Experience

We did a ton in one day but it didn’t feel rushed. We truly feel like we got to see the highlights of Quito!

Food

The breakfast that was included at the hotel was fantastic & David chose a wonderful lunch spot with a view with great local fare for us to try.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

David was great! Extremely knowledgeable, friendly & kind. He was also friends with so many people at the different stops that it made our day even easier than expected!

Transport

David’s car was very clean & he was a very good driver who tailored our day around the traffic.

Quilotoa Lagoon - Baños

Ecuador

This was a beautiful stop & we are very happy we got to see it!

Quality of Experience

Food

Chris chose a great restaurant by the lagoon for us to have lunch.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

A Full-Day Amazon Experience from Baños!

Ecuador

We broke up our waterfall tour & our Amazon tour to the local community. This day we visited the local indigenous community & got to go on a waterfall hike. Michaela was our face painter as well as our waterfall hiking guide and she was great. The lunch they made for us was delicious and we even had their pet monkey make an appearance! We then got to go to Yanacocha which is an animal sanctuary for animals rescued from the black market or who were orphaned and aren’t able to be released back into the wild. It was great to see them all treated so well!

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Guamote - Palmira - Ingapirca - Cuenca

Guamote

We loved Ingapirca and are very glad we got to go. It is a beautiful ruin!

Quality of Experience

Food

We loved our lunch near Ingapirca at Posada Ingapirca.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Alvaro was very helpful in planning our trip and connecting us with in-country people who managed our itinerary and made sure we got to each stop. Transportation was seamless and someone was always waiting for us with our name on a sign so we could quickly negotiate airports and hotel stops. We also had knowledgeable and English-speaking guides at key points of interest. Our favorites were the tours of El Cajas National Park near Quito, Ecuador and Machu Picchu and Rainbow Mountain in Peru. Highly recommend

Activity Reviews

Hiking El Cajas National Park (self drive)

Ecuador

Amazing trip and our guide was fantastic

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Day Trip to Rainbow Mountain - Vinicunca

Peru

Exhilarating trip to Rainbow Mountain. Highly recommend taking the optional motorcycle trip up the mountain

Quality of Experience

Food

The stop for breakfast and lunch was great. Well equipped for travelers and great food.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Our trip to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands was amazing and all thinks to Karla! She was able to tailor a custom experience for our family of 5. We have a 5 year-old and up and people with varying levels of interests and abilities and Karla was able to craft the perfect blend of adventure, animals and culture. She was also extremely responsive along the way. Anything we needed to know or figure out and she was able to get it answered immediately. I highly recommend working with her and wouldn't hesitate to do so again.

Maria José with Kim Kim deserves an 11 out of 10. Logistics for our trip where we went to four islands in four days were extensive and it went off without a hitch. Any question we had she was on what’s app replying immediately. Our flights, boats, tours and transfers were always great and always on time.

Also in the planning part of the trip we told her what we wanted and in two emails had the perfect trip where she really helped us cover all of the activities, all of the islands and all of the animals we wanted to see — and because of her we were able to fit it into four nights without sleeping on a cruise ship.

We’d never used Kim Kim before and didn’t know what to expect, but as extensive world travelers MaJo’s work was so impressive and it was at a very reasonable price. Don’t risk your once in a lifetime Galapagos trip - use MaJo!!!!

Hotel Reviews

Plaza Luna Suites

Puerto Ayora

Clean, great service, and so well kept…best of the three hotels we stayed in during our trip.

Authenticity & Character

Owner lived on the grounds her entire life and treats it like she cares about the property and guests!

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Spotless and up to date!

Albemarle

Puerto Villamil

The hotel we stayed at on Isabela Island was awesome, mainly due to its location right on the water. Although it's a bit weathered from being so exposed to the elements, it offers an amazing view which we really appreciated.

Activity Reviews

Kicker Rock: A Snorkeling Adventure

Isla San Cristóbal

Amazing snorkeling and great lunch on the boat. The guide was great. Hammerheads, turtles, blue footed boobies, Red Frigate birds (inflated!), rays and seals that came and played with us!

Quality of Experience

Food

Food was fine but that wasn’t what I was focused on

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Welcome to San Cristóbal – Kayak at the Port & Darwin Bay Snorkeling

Isla San Cristóbal

Amazing. Greatest sea lion experience ever! They are so fun and playful. Snorkeling was great too. The private guide with the kayaking and snorkeling was the best way to start the trip so we could get the focus and attention we needed given we were doing group snorkels the next three days. The pictures say it all

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Welcome to Isabela Island – Wildlife Encounter at Los Túneles (Cabo Rosa)

Galapagos Islands

Awesome. Got a selfie with a penguin, saw multiple rays, swam within a foot of 10 different giant turtles, and up close and personal with blue footed boobies! Great ceviche too!

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Welcome to Santa Cruz – Highlands & Bay Tour Experience

Galapagos Islands

The Santa Cruz Highlands & Bay Tour Experience was not our favorite. It was a bilingual group, and we were the only English speakers, so we didn't get as much engagement. It paled compared to the other tours, especially being our fourth day there.

Alirio was incredible. Being with him was like traveling with a family member who is an expert guide. Jacquie did a great job at planning out our trip. Valentina greeted us and presented us with wonderful gifts. First part of our tour was mainland where we experienced diverse experiences such as rainforest , mountains, lagoon, animals, volcanoes, equator line, caves, and new foods. Second part was tropical paradise in Galapagos with incredible experiences with nature and animals, beaches etc! Our guides were kind, helpful and experienced.