Turismo Milodon

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.

Lorena did an amazing job communicating, being responsive and clear regarding our 8 day trip to Chile in February. Every single transport, accommodation and tour was really well done and reliable. We had weather issues in the Atacama that caused some reworking of itineraries and they were handled greatly. Shoutout to the Hotel Desertica who handled the numerous weather related power outages really well, even serving dinner by candlelight. Overall a great experience with Kimkim and its on to Morocco with them! Thanks again to Lorena and all supporting staff.

We have just returned from a truly wonderful 14-day February trip to Chile, booked on kimkim with the excellent, professional help of Jesse. First we must write about Jesse. From the moment I began looking into doing this trip, Jesse provided thorough, competent, and sensitive assistance. She "listened " to all our hopes and preferences, designing for us the trip of a lifetime. She adjusted hotels for us to make the package more affordable. And every tour she arranged for us revealed things we had hoped for and amenities we couldn't even have imagined - like early morning outdoor breakfasts in the desert, and phenomenal trekking and viewing experiences.

Once we arrived in Chile, again, Jesse could not have been more helpful. Communicating with her on WhatsApp, she ensured that all pick-ups and drop-offs went smoothly, and answered all the questions we had immediately, even sometimes quite late at night. Her responses were always kind and personable. We always knew we were in good hands with her guidance, and when we return to Chile - which we will! - we hope we will be lucky enough to work with Jesse again.

We began our trip in Santiago, and thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Valparaiso, with its incredible murals and steep, winding streets. Our guide, Javi, made sure we spent as much time as possible walking those streets, and she pointed out many treasures that we would have missed without her help. And we were thrilled with the "San Jose Volcano and Andes Mountains" experience. We had our guide, Juan Paulo, all to ourselves, and his love of the area and of the climb was so evident and genuine that it filled us with love for the experience, as well. He was also a true professional, teaching us things about the flora and fauna and ensuring that we were always safe as we climbed and descended.

Then we flew to the Atacama desert, and began our time there there with what was my favourite tour of all - the "Atacama Experience." We visited the farm of Gonzalo, a young indigenous farmer who introduced us to his llamas, and then demonstrated and talked us through the experience of making pottery with local materials, helping us each to create pieces of pottery that we could take home. Next we sat 'round a small fire with him while he prepared infusions from local herbs, which we gratefully drank. And last of all, he "gave" us each a llama to walk, and we spent an hour or so walking with "our" llamas in the desert as the sun was setting. Gonzalo was an excellent, knowledgeable and gentle host whose passion for the way of life he was retaining has stayed with me and made me want to return to Atacama.

Everything we experienced in the Atacama was wonderful. Our guide for "Exploring the Atacama Salt Flats" and "Valley of the Moon Tour" was Daniel - a true professional with an uproarious sense of humour. We learned about the salt flats, saw statuesque flamingos and wild vicunas with their young and had a great outdoor breakfast. Daniel brought us to a small village where he helped us find and purchase genuine alpaca products - and when we saw things we wanted to photograph he always made that possible. We were thrilled to have him as a guide again to visit the Valley of the Moon. The trek along the salt caves and stone formations was awe-inspiring, and Daniel thoroughly explained the formation of these geological wonders.

Marta was our guide to the Tatio Geysers, and she too was a wealth of knowledge and a great outdoor breakfast provider. And seeing the geysers steaming into the air at sunrise was beautiful and otherworldly.

I was sad to leave the desert, but other wonders awaited us. We flew to Santiago and from there, via Puerto Montt, to Puerto Varas. We loved our "Day Trip to Vincente Perez Rosales National Park" as well as our wonderful and quick-witted guide, Jorge. The highlight of this tour for us was the amazing view of the volcanoes and glaciers, and our ascent of the Osorno volcano. We chose to take the lifts up the side of the volcano, and I'd recommend that to anyone taking this tour. We also had a fabulous lunch of local salmon. All the while Jorge had us learning and laughing. He was an excellent guide.

Nest we went "Trekking in Alerce Andino National Park" with Luis, whose knowledge of local flora was impressive. He shared with us his fascination with the plants, flowers, and trees of this rainforest - and kindly taught us a lot of Spanish, which really pleased us.

Then we flew to Punta Arenas. It proved too windy to go see the penguins on Magdelena Island, but we enjoyed time to ourselves exploring the town with its amazing waterfront statues. We could feel the pull of Antarctica from there. Punta Arenas is another place we'd like to return to.

In Puerto Natales. the "Boat Tour to Balmaceda and Serrano Glaciers" was a fantastic day. We saw sweeping waterfalls, sea lions resting on shore, and beautiful views of the glaciers. It was doubly gratifying to be able to land and walk to the base of one of them, where the view was amazing. So was our stop at the ranch and our meal of lamb there. And so was our surprise treat of whisky served with glacier ice, on the boat!

We finished our time in Patagonia with a day of trekking Torres del Paine. Three treks in one day was challenging, but the views of mountains, glaciers, and waterfalls was memorable.

Jesse and Kimkim made all of this happen for us, and we will certainly want to work with them both again for our next South American adventure. Thank you for this amazing experience.

I strongly recommend kimkim and particularly the local specialists.

a 3 week trip with lots of moving parts was perfectly planned. any questions along the way very answered immediately regardless if it was Sunday 6am or Wednesday 11pm. Just extraordinary customer service.

thank you for the great experience kimkim team

Marcela was great! Everything went off like clockwork. We had some problems with an adjoining trip which affected the start of this itinerary but Marcela and her team handled the changes with complete efficiency. Gaboo gets a call out too for excellent service and assistance!
The drivers and guides were on time, did a good job and were personable.
Especially like Juan Pablo from the Buggy ride in the desert and the kayak guide.
Dinner (you called it lunch, but it was at 5pm so it was our dinner) with the red rocks tour was fun and a pleasant surprise.
The only tour we didn’t like was the moon valley. Too big of a group and a very disorganized start and it just wasn’t that interesting.

Hotel Reviews

Hotel Ladera

Providencia

They had a coffee maker in the room, but charged for a tny cup of coffee. Also the hot water took forever to warm up

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotel Casa de la Patagonia

Puerto Natales

Loved the breakfast room. Staff was great - but it was VERY noisy! Only 7 rooms and people were loud going up and down the wooden steps starting very early in the morning and then late at night and it sounded like someone was clanging dishes in the breakfast room starting at about 5. Also bathroom was way to small - no shelf space and there wasn’t much storage in the bedroom either.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

It was clean, just not that comfortable - see above

Hotel Cabaña Del Lago Puerto Varas

Puerto Varas

Amazing breakfast room and great location. Nice size rooms

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

El Refugio - La Casa de Don Tomas

San Pedro de Atacama

Pretty place - nice pool area and places to sit outside. Rooms comfortable. Loved we got complimentary sparkly wine once a day and the restaurant was very good. Good service.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Kayaking in Eberhard Fjord

Puerto Natales

A little strenuous but in a good way! We really go a workout and learned about the history of this area. The guide was excellent!

Quality of Experience

It was private. The guide was very attentive to our capabilities and was a good coach.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Bike & Beer

Puerto Varas

Beautiful town to start and countryside to ride in. Beer and pizza were fun One of the best drivers Guide was great

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Santiago City Tour - Private

Chile

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Valparaíso & Wine Tour - Private

Santiago

Claudia was very good! And the wine tasting was amazing.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Buggy Safari Through the Desert

San Pedro de Atacama

JP was superb! Maybe our best guide of the tour. He had a good sense of humor, taught us much!

Quality of Experience

Guide, equipment, all top-notch.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

JP was a great communicator and fun to be around.

Transport

He picked us up in a comfortable vehicle and took us directly his home where we got the jeep

Trekking and Condor Watching

Puerto Natales

It was a tough hike mostly do to the incredible wind. and we didn’t see any condors

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Trekking Torres del Paine Active

Chile

Good challenging hikes. Great staff

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Tour of Tatio Geysers

San Pedro de Atacama

Well done

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Trekking in Alerce Andino National Park

Puerto Varas

Really muddy- I sunk up to my knees at one spot. Our guide, Rafael was amazing. Great guide. Nice lunch provided.

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Explore the Atacama Salt Flats & Lagoons

San Pedro de Atacama

Beautiful landscape made for amazing pics A little too much back and forth time in the van Wind made it kind of uncomfortable Breakfast outside is a fun touch

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Stargazing Experience

San Pedro de Atacama

It was delayed until 10:30 so really late at night - hard to see each other and the wine/snacks table was kind of awkward

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Puritama Canyon Trek

San Pedro de Atacama

Didn’t give as much info in English and lots of loose rocks - so hike was challenging

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Valley of the Moon Tour

San Pedro de Atacama

Not interesting and way too long

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

We had a great experience working with Lorena and her team. Our trip was amazing. Patagonia was stunning and to have a perfect, flawless itinerary was the cherry on top. Everything was planned out for us and there was always help available for questions or concerns. Any issues were solved almost immediately. We especially loved our private guide through Torres del Paine José. He made the trip that much more special. An unforgettable time.