Designer Trips Argentina

Dear Camila

Peggy and I want to express our sincere gratitude for your hard work and professionalism on our travel arrangements. You went above and beyond to ensure our trip was smooth and stress-free. 
Your attention to detail and professionalism was evident throughout every step of the process. I’ve traveled for over 40 years for work and pleasure (about 4 million miles) and about 20 years ago I stopped using travel agents because they didn’t seem to get the details right, nor value of bookings they were offering. They didn’t seem to care about anything but finalizing the paperwork and moving on to the next booking.

Then a family member used Kimkim and I decided to contact the company. From day one you listened, asked good questions, and helped immensely with changes to the itinerary. We particularly enjoyed the Vamoos app and the fact that every local agent you coordinated with was prompt, friendly, and very caring. This allowed us to relax and fully immerse ourselves in the experience. 
I would like the contact name of a supervisor or office owner where you work so we can tell them how elated we are with you and the team of professionals that your company has assembled with what seems to be the sole purpose of making our traveling life superb. We have honestly never experienced anything like it and will tell others to reach out to Kimkim when they want an exceptional travel experience.
Best regards,
Joe Veltri
Ps. You may think we’ve overused the word “professional” but we cannot think of a better word to describe the dedication and commitment to excellence that characterizes your work.

Camila was excellent: consistently responsive AND informed/connected in designing a trip to Patagonia that exceeded our expectations. In short, she listened well and curated an excellent trip based on our wants/needs. Her contacts/selection of local guides in Bariloche, Calafate, and El Chalten were excellent, especially that of Julian in El Chalten!

One piece of feedback: the booking of flight travel and transport to/from airport pick up times could have been improved. Specifically, (1) when we decided to extend our KimKim Argentine travels with a new trip to Iguazu Falls at the end of our travels from Patagonia, a new ticket should have been issued for a flight from Bariloche to Iguazu, with a stop in Buenos Aires. Instead, a second round trip ticket was added for the travel from Buenos Aires to Iguazu. This necessitated a stressful dash thru BA airport to pick up our luggage and recheck our bags to Iguazu. (2) While all drivers were excellent and always punctual, pick up times should have been better coordinated in the transports between Calafate and El Chalten, and again from El Chalten back to Calafate. Both times had 7:00 AM pickups which created slack time in El Chalten without access to hotel room (from 9-3) and at the airport in Calafate (from 9-2).

Hotel Reviews

Gran Meliá Iguazú

Iguazú National Park

This hotel is a world-class gem showcasing a piece of the breathtaking beauty of Iguazu Falls directly from its infinity pool.

Authenticity & Character

It’s worth every penny! To really experience the falls, stay a minimum of two nights.

Location

The location of the hotel with its connectivity to the trails in the park that lead directly to the falls is its key attribute. It’s also a 5 star luxury hotel that delivers on all fronts: rooms, amenities, dining, grounds and staff.

Staff

To a person, the staff is superb!

Cleanliness & Comfort

Splurge: Book a room with the view of the falls. You won’t be sorry.

Mercure Iguazu Hotel Iru

Puerto Iguazú

Exceptional linens and bed quality! Lovely setting among lush jungle plants. Excellent breakfast and sold dining in restaurant.

Authenticity & Character

Lush jungle setting

Location

About a 30 minute drive to falls

Staff

Staff seemed inattentive and not particularly happy…Of all hotel staff of our 19 nights of stays in Argentina, this staff was the most UNINSPIRED.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Bed and linens were exceptionally comfortable/high-end

Hotel Lunajuim

El Chalten

There are not of good choices in this town so this one, which was mediocre, might have been the only option But the rooms were of poor quality, very noisy, lacking any kind of decoration. Purely functional

Authenticity & Character

Location

One night at a local bar there was a very noisy band playing very late.

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Try to make the rooms look better?

Xelena Hotel & Suites

El Calafate, Santa Cruz

This is a premium hotel with air conditioning that is geared to large groups. Excellent accommodations and staff, as well as excellent restaurant for breakfast, lunch, dinner and bar. It’s not readily accessible to town, but does provide a reliable hotel bus service.

Authenticity & Character

Great views of lake!

Location

Reliable and comfortable hotel bus service into town!

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Design Suites Bariloche

San Carlos de Bariloche

Hotel rooms are spacious and restaurant provides excellent breakfast and dinner! However, the location is not walkable into the city (and doesn’t have AC).

Authenticity & Character

Location

Not walkable to city

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Palladio Hotel Buenos Aires—MGallery

Buenos Aires

Excellent location with exceptional rooms, breakfasts and welcoming staff!

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Brazil Falls

Argentina

While viewing the falls in their entirety from the Brazilian side was remarkable, this was the least favorite part of our travels. The time to transition thru customs between Argentina and Brazil, plus the actual travel time to/from the hotel to the falls (about 4 hrs total) , coupled with the crowds on the Brazilian side diminished the experience. The Brazilian falls felt very commercialized when contrasted to the Argentinian side and less well maintained.

Quality of Experience

See above

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Our guide was most gracious/kind/informed, but his English skills were not as solid as all other guides.

Transport

Prompt, polite driver who had a car with strong air conditioning!

Estancia Cristina Discovery Trek

El Calafate

EXCEPTIONAL! Hard to describe the contrast of landscapes and climates experienced during this trip…Often, it felt as if we were hiking between differing planets; at other times, it was as if we were in a movie setting where a dinosaur or caveman might make an appearance! Also, the packed lunch and the location for lunch: EXCELLENT ! In addition, the boat was a magnificent vessel and the captain took extraordinary care to provide multiple viewing access points to the icebergs.

Quality of Experience

This was an unusual, robust and absolutely SPECTACULAR experience. Definitely 5 star/high quality, from the design of the boat, to the national park hiking guide, to the well maintained and pristine setting. landscape.

Food

Excelente sandwiches and snacks well suited for a long hike!

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

The Blue Safari

El Calafate

This was one of the most impactful and stunning experiences of our entire Patagonia trip! The boat trip to view the glaciers up close and to experience the floating icebergs is difficult to describe: the beauty, the clarity of the ice/waters, the contrast of sea and sky yielded innumerable pictures and memories for a lifetime. We had an exceptional guide with solid scientific grounding peppered with humor !

Tronador Hill Trekking

Bariloche

Black glacier and calving in real time were spectacular! Our guide also provided pics that showed the changing face of the glacier from various viewing points we visited. That was eye opening/sad.

Quality of Experience

This was our first viewing of a glacier. The scale and the floating icebergs were impressive! (NOTE: However, the impact of viewing Tronador would not be as impressive if a traveler has already visited Perito Moreno .

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Our guide Patricia was excellent, sharing historical context that framed what we were viewing. Also, she shared a lovely less traveled hike to a waterfall.

Transport

Panoramic Hike

Bariloche

This a great first day must do activity. It provides visual perspective to the vastness of Patagonia

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Nativo Experience - Lakes and Caverns

El Calafate

Good to get a cultural oversight of Patagonia

Quality of Experience

Loved the dinner in the cave and seeing/learning about the cave pics

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Tango Show & Dinner at La Ventana

Buenos Aires

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Iguazu Falls Great Adventure

Puerto Iguazú

This is a MUST DO!

Quality of Experience

Great guides

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Camila was our planner and we loved working with her. Great suggestions and local insights, very communicative, and answered our many questions. Helped us build an incredible trip.

Our guides were invaluable and made traveling comfortable and smooth. This was especially helpful since our Spanish is limited and basic. From airport arrival to drop off to everything in between we felt completely taken care of.

Hotels were amazing with one exception- did not care for the Novotel Buenos Aires but it was only for our last night after we arrived back from Antartica and were flying home the next day.

We loved Buenos Aires and all the activities from neighborhood tours to food tours to the incredible Tango show Camila set up (others we talked to about the shows they went to that they coordinated through their hotels had lesser experiences so we were lucky to have an insider like Camila).

We also flew to Mendoza for an incredible 4 days - Camila set everything up and even adjusted our schedule back in BA when a flight was changed. In Mendoza we once again had an outstanding experience with our Guide Lucia and driver Gozalvo- wine tastings, an incredible lunch at Zonda, horseback riding, a cooking class where we made and ate empanadas! We loved all of it.

Then we connected with our separately planned cruise to Antarctica.

The handoff and return were seamless. When the inevitable bumps, delays and curveballs came, we had a local agency we could WhatsApp with and Flora was amazing. Everything flowed smoothly. I can’t emphasize enough how helpful it was to have this service. It made all the difference for us having an incredible bucket list trip that flowed smoothly.

We absolutely loved it!

Hotel Reviews

Novotel Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

Location is the best thing going for this place. Room was hot and AC weak. Seems like a previously top notch hotel that is frayed around the edges and a bit run down. Staff was good but not the standard of other places we stayed. Would not come back

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Posada Verde Oliva

Coquimbito, Maipú

Perfect place to stay in Mendoza! Room was quaint and comfortable, breakfast was awesome, coffee was great, staff was amazing, pool was a nice refuge on hot days. Will stay here again when we come back.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Palladio Hotel Buenos Aires—MGallery

Buenos Aires

Incredible experience- would stay here again without hesitation. Felt like an oasis. Great breakfast, very comfortable room, nice bar, great location. Loved it

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Palermo Food Tour

Buenos Aires

Very cool tour of a hip part of Buenos Aires with Freddy. Also got some fun facts about the neighborhood while there. Every place we went was great. Loved the insight into great little restaurants and would go back to many of them when back in Buenos Aires. Ate too much but really enjoyed it.

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Cooking Time at Casa del Visitante in Santa Julia Winery

Mendoza

What a fun experience! We did it with another couple and had a blast. Made empanadas and bread and a dessert I can’t remember the name of. Delicious. Then we walked over for a tour of the winery. This is a bigger, more industrial type winery but fascinating and the tour guide was great! Very informative and we loved the young wines and the tasting (but was not a fan of the sweeter wines). Then back for an incredible lunch. But the portions were huge and we were so full we couldn’t really enjoy it fully. Very fun and would do it again for sure!

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Lujan de Cuyo Wine Experience

Mendoza

We had the most incredible day. We started at the Alta Vista Winery and it was incredible. Great tour, super informative and great wines. Then onto Bodega Vistalba - beautiful winery with excellent wines. Finally a lunch and wine at Zonda. Absolutely incredible meal! Wines were excellent. Toured the organic garden. As Big foodies, this was one of the highlights of our trip to Mendoza. Love the whole day and our love for Argentine wines is redoubled. Again, our guide Lucy and driver Gonzalvo we fantastic. We were chauffeured around so comfortably and loved talking to them and getting to know more about their home and the region

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Sunset Horseback Riding in Mendoza

Mendoza

The best part was the ride and sunset. Our guide was great and explained some of the flora and fauna of the region. We are horse people and really enjoyed it although the riding was very “trail ride” oriented. The BBQ afterwards was mediocre and a bit too long. Enjoyed it for the experience of being out there and seeing the landscape, horses and sunset

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Tango Show & Dinner at La Ventana

Buenos Aires

Loved this show. Meal was great. Waiters and staff were brusque but efficient. Dancers were incredible. We sat with another couple we’d just met and had a great time. We felt lucky we went to this show as other tourists we met went to other shows through their hotels that were mediocre. This one was excellent

Quality of Experience

Food

Buenos Aires Barrios Tour

Buenos Aires

Very cool to see the different neighborhoods and to see some of the highlights of each. Loved the insider perspective. We were able to hit the Changing of the Guard at the Metropolitan Cathedral just right and learned a lot about the history of Argentina while driving. Enjoyed Choripan in La Boca and many other experiences. Just wish we could have had more time.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

We have nothing but praise and thanks to Camila and the onsite travel agencies. We had a few glitches along the way but overall it was a wonderful trip. We are grateful for Camila's flexibility and the ability to craft a trip that checked all of our boxes. In reviewing all of the activities that were planned, we would offer the following reviews.
The Jewish tour was frankly disappointing. The guide we had was apparently a replacement and we saw very little during our excursion. The highlight was going to the famous bookstore, which really has nothing to do with Jewish heritage. In all honesty, we received feedback from other travelers who took a similar tour and were equally disappointed, so perhaps overall the Jewish tour needs to be revised in some way.

We loved the tango dinner. We enjoyed our time at El Fogon. Our visit to Mendoza was amazing and the highlight-was lunch at Catena which was off the chart! The wineries that were selected were all terrific and we loved where we stayed at Casa Glebinas. We really loved the guides that we had in Mendoza. One comment that is important to mention, we really should have been told that nothing is open on Sundays in Mendoza so we really should have planned better around that information.
All of our in country flights were fine. We did have a bit of anxiety on the return from Puerto Madryn as our connecting flight was shortly after our arrival.
We loved our time in Puerto Madryn. One comment to share is that the local guides would inform us of a pick up time and then we would be waiting up to an hour for them to arrive, typically a result of their needing to pick up other guests. We would have appreciated a heads-up. The penquin trip and swimming with Sea Lion experiences were awesome.
Upon our return to Buenos Aires-the tour company was wonderful. Cecilia was a wonderful guide/host. The city tour was great-which included leather shopping. The trip down the Tiger was quite nice as well. Overall we were extremely happy with all of the plans and our time in the country. Thank you again!

Activity Reviews

Uco Valley Wine Country

Mendoza

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Lunch at Catena Zapata

Argentina

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

We were very happy with Camila and kimkim for our Argentina trip. This was our first experience using kimkim and our expectations were exceeded during every step: itinerary planning, detailed information on the Vamoos app, and Camila's prompt follow-up on questions during the trip, for example, flight updates. We were particularly impressed with the five guides in each of the cities we visited. Of course each person was welcoming and knowledgeable, but beyond that, they were also very open, funny, thoughtful, and so proud of Argentina. Our guide in Salta, Juan R., went above and beyond by giving us a lovely highlight video of our drive from Salta to Cafayte.

The overall trip was amazing and we will recommend kimkim to our friends and family.

Hotel Reviews

Villa Vicuña Hotel Boutique

Salta

Villa Vicuña Hotel Boutique in Salta was our favorite accommodation. It was a charming, small colonial-style hotel, beautifully decorated, and the ambiance was just lovely. Despite some noise that bothered my friend in a room at the front, we stayed in a quieter room at the back, and it was perfect.

La Reserva Virgin Lodge de Selva by DON

Puerto Iguazú

La Reserva Virgin Lodge de Selva looked amazing from the pictures, but the reality was quite different. The room we were given was old and not clean, unlike the new rooms shown on the website. Although the service was prompt when I raised the issue, it was late at night and not convenient to switch rooms. The staff was friendly, but the initial mismatch in expectations was disappointing.

Activity Review

Scenic Drive to Cafayate

Salta

The Scenic Drive to Cafayate was extraordinary, thanks to our guide Juan, who was both our tour guide and driver. He created a wonderful video of our journey, complete with stops and pictures along the way, which was a unique and memorable touch. The drive itself was beautiful, and his attention to detail made it a standout experience.

Our schedule changed due to a delayed flight and Camila did a great job of rearranging our flights and itinerary. Our Buenos Aires guide, Cecilia was great. she was friendly, knowledgeable and very flexible if we want to see something. Medoza was also incredible and the Kim team arranged some incredible wineries to see.

Mike