Kimkim Trip Reviews

What separates the excellent from the merely very good is how they deal with problems. Sabina came through in spades.
Cyclone Gabrielle arrived the week before our arrival and disrupted our itinerary.
She worked overtime to ensure our trip was still wonderful.
While others were struggling with reservations and ferry crossings, everything went smoothly for us.
In addition, the hotels Sabina booked were great. As we had asked, she booked at various price points from moderate to luxury.
Each was unique and lovely. In no way were they cookie cutter rooms.
Finally, Sabina worked hard to include all the activities we wanted.
In conclusion we recommend Kim-Kim and Sabina very highly.

Activity Review

Hukafalls Jet

New Zealand

An adrenaline rush.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Our vacation was cancelled twice due to Covid but Lucas remained constant with us and helped us plan a terrific trip. All the airport transfers, hotels and excursions worked out as planned and most were outstanding. There are a couple of things we might have done differently but most of that is on us for perhaps not either communicating properly to Lucas or fully understanding his planning. Specifically, there was a national holiday in Buenos Aries 2 of the 3 days we were there. One of our city days was a Tuesday and all the museums were closed; we did not know they would be. And our estancia day, while truly unique, was different from our expectations. Since one of us is fluent in Spanish it was okay; otherwise it would not have been. in Mendoza, we did not know that many wineries required reservations and many were booked during out time. Notwithstanding those things, overall everything Lucas suggested was very good and we have a lovely trip. The hotels and excursions in El Calafate and Chalten were great. The boutique hotel in BA was very nice; they voluntarily changed our room for the last 2 nights, which was to a much nicer room. Cavas Wine Lodge was amazing. All properties provided very nice breakfasts, very helpful staff and were very clean and well run. Lucas responded immediately on What's App to any questions, including on weekends. He did an excellent job.

Lize correspondence and attention to detail was perfect. The itinerary worked out amazingly well.
Victoria Falls was beautiful and guide Ernie was patient and thorough. Zambezi sunset cruise was relaxing and hippos a plus. Boma dinner entertainment was fun and Mopani worm a little chewy.
Cape Town accommodations at Victoria & Alfred hotel were ideal on the Victoria wharf area. Many available restaurants a short distance away associated with shopping mall. Unable to visit Table Top mountain due to high winds and cloud cover.
First visit to South Africa and safari trips were amazing. We went to two different game preserves & lodges. Hostess Kelly at Elephant Plains lodge was very accommodating and safaris guide Dennis/tracker Dumi found so many animals Lions, elephants, rhinos, zebra, hyenas, leopards and wild dogs to mention a few. Staff always available and friendly.
Our final lodge Thabamati Luxury Tented Camp was unbelievable and a special experience. The hostesses Mich & Lorna were there to greet us on arrival from every safari with wet cloths and drinks. Intimate camp with only 8 guests and service & food was amazing. Guide Charel and tracker Caswell were so knowledgeable and helpful. You could tell they really loved their job. Simply an awesome experience. Thank you!!

From organizing through the trip itself all went smoothly and gave us a great experience! This was our first time organizing travels using a travel service - but won't be the last. We particularly appreciate Bryan arranging for small group tours - versus large groups that we saw along the way. At times it was just us and our guide - fabulous! The guides were wonderful, knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the terrain and wildlife - which is infectious. Special appreciation to Socio of Endemic Birds - truly a standout in terms of depth of knowledge (in fact, he has trained many other guides). Our favorite accommodation was Hacienda Baru (near Dominical). This was "homey", complete with a lovely outdoor cafe that served great food that was cheaper than eating in town, and has fabulous nature trails on the grounds. We enjoyed having iguanas visit us during b'fast. Without leaving the property we were able to enjoy a bird watching tour and zip lining. We were happy that we only spent one night near Manuel Antonio Park - the crowds there were overwhelming. Special thanks to Bryan, Nancy and Charlotte for remaining available to us throughout the trip! One suggestion - providing more specific driving instructions would have been helpful.

Activity Reviews

Coffee & Chocolate Tour

Costa Rica

Beautiful grounds - even able to enjoy on our rain-filled day (the walking path is under cover). We learned a lot about the production (from start to finish) of coffee and chocolate - and enjoyed the opportunity to make our own. I must admit - the coffee that we bought in their gift shop was much better than what we made!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Arenal Volcano National Park Boat & Hike

Arenal/La Fortuna

A very pleasant half day - with a (muddy) nature walk that we enjoyed, and a beautiful boat ride with views of Arenal (partially in a cloud). Once again - we had a private tour. Our only complaint was the 50 % penalty that we were charged for changing our tour from the scheduled day (pouring all day!) to the next day which was predicted to be dry. The company was willing to take us out in the rain - but we would have been wet/cold and seen nothing. We chose instead to spend that morning at our resort - enjoying the hot springs. KimKim did try to advocate for us, but the tour company didn't budge on the up-charge.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Carara National Park Guided Tour

Costa Rica

After our previous day at Manuel Antonio Park, we appreciated how quiet this park was. We had Socio for a second day - for a private tour. The volume of wildlife was lower than in Manuel Antonio - but Socio taught us a tremendous amount about the trees and balance of nature - as well as spotting fascinating insects/spiders, bats and other critters that we would have walked right by.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Socio was both exceptionally knowledgeable about the terrain and wildlife, but also took the initiative to make calls for us to re-schedule our tour in Arenal so we would not be rushed. Very grateful!

Manuel Antonio National Park

Costa Rica

The park is beautiful and full of wildlife. We did however, feel a bit overwhelmed by the size of the crowds. Most tour groups were large (we were fortunate to be in a group of 4) - so a lot of people to traverse around.

Quality of Experience

The nature - not the crowds.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Flight of the Toucan Zip-Lining

Costa Rica

We had 2 guides for the 2 of us - so we were all able to play! The lead guide had also been our guide for bird watching earlier in the day, so felt like we were "playing" with an old friend.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Rainforest Birdwatching Hike

Uvita

Great guide, shared with one other couple. This was our first opportunity to see sloths - very exciting!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Whale Watching & Wildlife Spotting Boat Trip in Marino Ballena National Park

Costa Rica

Boat ride was lovely - we saw mom and baby whale and playful dolphins, as well as the beautiful views. Our swim was lovely - snorkeling was underwhelming (not the guides fault, just not much to see). We enjoyed our time walking (on our own) on the Whale Tail at the end of the tour.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Silvia was available nearly 24/7, quickly had answers to all my questions, big and small, had an easy and detailed knowledge of travel, of Iceland (where we visited), of services and culture, etc., and was able to get some discounts on local activities/services while we were there.

We could not be more happy with both Kimkim and Silvia!

We had an amazing time in Vietnam and couldn’t have been happier with the service we received from Lucy. Whenever we had questions or wanted to make last minute changes she was so quick to get back to us. Would highly recommend.

We arranged our family trip with Kim Kim, Michael was our local specialist. I was really happy throughout the planning process .. he was cooperative and always available. He adjusted the trip details multiple times to accommodate our needs and requests. Also during the trip itself, he was available all the time with prompt responses to our questions.

Our experience during the travel was very smooth, our drivers were always on time and our guides were good. We visited Bogota, Medellin, and Cartagena and all these cities were an experience with a different vibe. Our guide in Cartagena (Carolina) was great and we enjoyed spending time with her. She was very knowledgeable, fun and recommended nice places for dinner and helped us book them.

Our family trip turned to be a great and enjoyable experience and most important hassle free.

Hotel Review

Arsenal Hotel

We loved this hotel .. location was great and close to the most important attractions in the city. Safe neighborhood. The hotel is very clean and modern. The staff were very friendly and welcoming.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Review

Coconut Workshop

Cartagena

This workshop was a highlight of our trip. Spending time with local women and learning from them was a very nice experience. They were very friendly and we loved the items we made with them. I recommend this workshop for any traveler who wants to spend time with locals and enjoy their company and learn from them.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Ours was a twice-postponed week-long tour of Normandy for a 20-person group of extended family members, mainly seniors, from Canada, the USA and the UK, in late September 2022.

We appreciate kimkim’s responsiveness in helping us design a tour that, in addition to visits to main tourist sites, included visits to a couple of sites connected to our family. We are especially very grateful for kimkim staying with us through two COVID postponements! Our contact person, Laetitia, was always a pleasure to deal with: highly responsive and invariably helpful.

We had three different guides during the seven days; all three (Aurélie, Mathieu and Céline) were punctual, personable, friendly, helpful and, above all, highly knowledgeable. We certainly learned a lot of interesting detail from our guides during our visits to Normandie sites, including Mont-Saint-Michel, the D-Day beaches, Dieppe, Caen, Rouen and Giverny. Several members of our group highlighted and especially appreciated Mathieu’s extensive knowledge of Canadian troops’ experiences at Dieppe, on D-Day and in the ensuing Battle of Normandy.

We had requested one guide for the duration of our week-long trip, and been promised we would have the same guide “unless imperative.” But we understand the widespread problem of unexpected absences and staff shortages, and appreciate that kimkim did its best.

Our two bus drivers were always punctual and got us safely from site to site, for which we are grateful.

The weather was not always ideal, and impacted some activities. Notably, we were disappointed we were not able to take the two-hour Étretat-Fécamp boat “cruise” as planned due to the inclement weather.

As might be expected in a trip of this nature and duration, there were several glitches and disappointments, which I will not detail here.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable trip, and a good time was had by all of us, despite the glitches and the weather.

Jim Fraser

We visited La Fortuna/Arenal and Manuel Antonio. Our trip was beautifully planned by Diego. He found great adventures and excursions for us. Our 5 kids’ ages range from 12 to 23 and he met all of our needs and made sure they would all be interested in what we were doing.

Hotel Reviews

Auténtico Hotel

San José

Authenticity & Character

Location

Next time we would just skip San Jose and drive directly to our first resort.

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

The air conditioning did not work well in our rooms. There was construction going on at the hotel early in the mornings and throughout the day.

Si Como No Resort & Wildlife Refuge

Manuel Antonio

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Arenal Manoa & Hot Springs

Fortuna

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Manuel Antonio National Park Guided Nature Hike

Costa Rica

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Snorkeling Adventure

Manuel Antonio

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

La Fortuna Waterfall Hike and El Salto Swimming Hole

Arenal/La Fortuna

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Sky Tram, Ziplines & Sky Walk Adventure

Arenal/La Fortuna

So much fun!! So much adventure! It was great to have it all in one place as well.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Our family of four went to Ecuador and visited the Amazon basin and the Galapagos Islands from Feb 5-20, 2023. Our local trip specialist was Tamer Obeid. Tamer was there for us the whole time. He was a text away and always responsive if we had a problem or a question. Special thanks to Tamer for providing us with dinner and a cake on my son’s 26th birthday. Tamer is an asset to KimKim, and we greatly appreciate his help and support.

In the Amazon basin, we visited the Napo Wildlife Center. Our guide was Remy, and he was incredible. He grew up in the local community and was aware of all the animals and made many of their sounds. Perhaps the highlight of our visit was seeing the Giant River Otters up close and spending time with the Kichwa Añangu Community. We also climbed to the treetop canopy, visited the parrot clay licks, hiked trails, and did lots of wildlife watching from the canoe.

In the Galapagos Islands, we stayed on Santa Cruz, Isabela, and San Cristobal and had different guides each day for our excursions. Perhaps our favorites were Joel and Lambo. They went out of their way to help us get good photographs and provided their GoPro photographs from our excursion.

Joel pulled two non-swimmers wearing life preservers while he was leading our group. He would occasionally dive down to take photographs of sharks and rays at Pinzon, our best snorkeling trip. Lambo would also dive deep and show us where an object was, like a seahorse, to photograph. He led us around the Tunnels to see enormous sea turtles.
The best place we stayed in the Galapagos was at the Iguana Crossing Hotel on Isabela. The view from the hotel was gorgeous and the service was excellent.

Note that everything on our trip did not run smoothly. We had some transportation problems, and three of us had stomach issues during our travels that lasted many days. Having said that, it was still the trip of a lifetime and one that we would gladly do again.

I didn't initiate the booking and planning with kimkim. Overall, the trip has been pleasant as we managed to see big 4/5 and the accommodation has been okay in general.

As this is the first time in South Africa for the group, there have been a lot of times where we weren't sure what we can do especially on free days. While instructions are provided, it would be good if it is clearer or in details given everyone is not familiar with the place. Understandably that the group got larger as time goes and the original plan might not work too well with more people.

The major unpleasant moment was with the hop on hop off bus as the information provided was not consistent (with when we can use the ticket if we didn't go on to the bus/cableway on the booked day). No further communication was provided afterward and we had to check with the company ourselves. The wine tram was not a real hop on hop off experience and because of that some of us have to take Uber to leave earlier. While some of the information could have been found on website, it would have been nicer if it is provided on almost daily basis as it is quite inconvenience to have to refer to KimKim.com sometimes.

While we understand the incident in airport and weather is not under anyone's control, it seems like dietary requirements was not considered given there are a lot of us who don't eat beef. While we are thankful for the goodies bag, some of us can't have biltong. During the meet up session, while expressing our opinions on the trip, we don't think we were taken too seriously.

Cresta hotel need some improvement in housekeeping service. Bathroom mat was taken away everyday without replenish.

Special shout out and thanks to our private tour guides and drivers as they have done an amazing job showing us the beautiful South Africa and go above and beyond helping out one of the members who unfortunately injured her leg at the end of the trip.

Absolutely fantastic trip! We loved our experience visiting the northern parts of Morocco and the imperial cities. Every place we visited was incredible--Chefchaouen, Volubilis, Meknes, Fes, Rabat, Casablanca, and Marrakech. Our driver Abdellatif was very friendly and accommodating to our requests. He provided us with a lot of information about Morocco and its people and culture while we drove. We also had two outstanding guides showing us around Fes (Abdullah, nickname "Banana") and Marrakech (Hassan). In Fes, Abdullah customized our itinerary per our requests, and made sure to give us plenty of time to visit all of the sights and monuments that we were most excited to see. Hassan was very funny, knowledgeable, and witty during our tour of Marrakech. He told us so much about the Moroccan culture and shared many stories about the famous monuments we were seeing.

The hotels where we stayed in Chefchaouen, Fes, and Marrakech were absolutely incredible! We stayed in Dar Jasmine in Chefchaouen, Riad Fes in Fes, and La Maison Arabe in Marrakech. What amazing experiences. We felt like we were staying in palaces, and we definitely got a flavor of the local art, decorations, and culture at each place.

When we were planning the tour, both Abdellah and Said from Original Travels were very helpful and responsive. They gave us good advice about which cities to visit, and they customized our overall itinerary per our requests. Said also rearranged our entire itinerary after we decided to fly into Tangier rather than into Casablanca.

Thank you to Original Travels, as well as to our driver Abdellatif and our tour guides Abdullah (Banana) and Hassan. They made our trip to Morocco truly an unforgettable experience.

Hotel Reviews

La Maison Arabe Hotel

Marrakech

Beautiful historic hotel, wonderfully decorated, outdoor dining right next to their pool! Great location as well.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Riad Fès - Relais & Châteaux

Fès

Incredibly decorated, simply beautiful Riad right in the heart of the old medina of Fes! Rooftop terrace bar with panoramic views of Fes.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Dar Jasmine

Chefchaouen

Beautiful views of the Blue Pearl of Chefchaouen. No need to visit the Spanish Mosque, because you get even better views from the accommodation.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Exploring Marrakech's Wonders: A Family-Friendly Guided Tour & a Special Visit to the Tomb of Imam Al Jazuli´

Marrakesh

Our tour guide, Hassan, was fantastic! Very knowledgeable, funny, witty.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Half-Day Guided Sightseeing in Fes: Morocco's Spiritual Heart

Fes

Our tour guide, Abdullah (nickname Banana) was fantastic!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Absolutely incredible trip. Our guide, sherpa and porter were all awesome. We saw some spectacular sights and it was the trip of a lifetime.

Our trip to Thailand was excellent! We did everything we wanted... started off at Bangkok with our guide Jack, ver attentive and nice, gave us all the must do's in the city and during our visit to the grand palace, floating and train markets he gave us all the history of each place and took a lot of pictures for us. In Cambodia we were with Vannak, who was also excellent, smiling all the time, we learned a lot about Cambodia during our time with him, very caring. Ankor thom and ankor wat are a must.
Sutheeporn in Phuket, we did day trip tour to Khao Sok national park, experience was very good as well. We are very great full for choosing KimKim to plan our trip.

Activity Reviews

Full Day Maeklong Railway Market and Damnoen Saduak Floating Market

Bangkok

Our visit to the train market and floating markets were great and very fun. They did a stop at a sugar factory in between markets and we learned about the process of how they make sugar off coconuts. We ate at the floating markets and it was very tasty! Most shops had the same tourist market typical stuff.

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Full Day Tour to Angkor Thom and Angkor Wat

Siem Reap

We really enjoyed our trip to Angkor. Mr Vannak gave us a great tour. I would recommend every one who visits Cambodia to make this stop in siem reap.

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Full day Khao Sok safari (private trasfer and private activity) with lunch from Phuket

Phuket

Our visit to Khao Sok was a bit different than what we thought it would be. Early morning they took us to the Tsunami memorial which was nice, then they had told us that we would do a 1h hike along with elephants and the took us to Wassana Elephant park... there was no hike, it was a place with 2 elephants tied up with chains to palm trees, they were skinny and dehydrated, a guy with a pointy spear made him do tricks like playing the harmonica, dancing and kicking coconuts. I had read al over the internet that if you were going to see elephants you should go to a sanctuary . I would've thought Kim Kim would know something like this. I strongly recommend to stop taking your customers to Wassana. Otherwise the monkey cave and bamboo rafting were really nice and fun. All pictures of khao sok on the internet show off the Damn, I thought we would see it.

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Guides were a little lost, the had to stop to ask for directions for almost every spot we went

Transport

The museum, architecture and cultural tours organized were great. Local tour guides were great and very informative. This service was great that I could have all of the logistics, etc taken care of for me. But I don’t think the tapas tours were worth it. For the price paid, I didn’t expect to have to worry about cleanliness or food quality or safety. For both Seville and tapas tours, I was taken to places that were dusty and with food sitting out. I would skip tapas tours type of activities for my next trip.

Seven day action-packed trip to Iceland would not have been possible without the help of Silvia at KimKim. She worked out a fantastic itinerary: 2 days based in Borgarnes, 2 days in Vic, a fantastic night at a cabin in the Hrifunes Nature Park (great venue for Northern Lights!), finally 2 days in Reykajavik. We had pre-paid vouchers for everything and Silvia worked with us ahead of the trip to make sure we were hitting everything we wanted to see.
More important: Silvia kept in touch throughout the trip and when bad weather caused us to cancel a trip east to Skaftafell, she had alternatives for us and handled all the rebookings. Loved the constant check-in and help with everything.
We will definitely use KimKim again and "where to go next" will be determined on where KimKim operates. We saved money with KimKim and had a fabulous time. Thanks!

Everything about this trip was smooth and perfect!
The planning was easy with Veronica. She asked great questions, provided needed information, recommendations and assurances , and then organized a wonderful trip for us. The accommodations were amazing and all the tours, operators and guides were excellent! We had private tours with guides on many days.
Highlight:
Staying at the Tabocan Resort (a beautiful hotel with amazing hot springs) and the view (once the clouds cleared on our final day) of the volcano

Hotel Reviews

Park Inn San José by Radisson

San José

This hotel was just fine for an overnight stay. The location is good for walk around the area and finding a lovely restaurant for dinner on the other side of the park (across the street from the hotel).

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Gaia Hotel And Reserve—Adults Only

Quepos

We loved our 3 night stay at this hotel. The accommodations were beautiful and staff was very helpful, friendly, accommodating. The owner is very kind and friendly greets every guest warmly.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Tabacón Thermal Resort & Spa

Fortuna

This was the most beautiful hotel we've ever stayed at. We LOVED the hot springs and enjoyed the entire atmosphere of the hotel. The friendliness, helpfulness and service was exceptional. Food was very good. Room very comfortable. Shuttle service to the hot springs runs every few minutes and makes everything very accessible. We stayed for 4 nights and very glad we did! Because of the clouds, the volcano was only visible on our last morning, but what an amazing view we had!

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Proyecto Asis Wildlife Rehabilitation Center Volunteer Experience

Arenal/La Fortuna

Spending the morning at the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center was one of our trip highlights. We had a small group tour with 2 other families and our guide was fabulous! He provided an educational and engaging overview of the center. The volunteer experience was fun...we weighed, measured and chopped up fruits for the wildlife and then put the meals in home-made kongs, then delivered to the animals.

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Mangrove Boat Tour

Manuel Antonio

This was an enjoyable, calm activity for our last day in Costa Rica.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Manuel Antonio National Park Guided Nature Hike

Costa Rica

Another highlight of our week! The park was crowded, but we were able to enjoy an amazing morning. We were on a small group tour with 11 people in our group. Our guide was very kind, interesting, professional and considerate of everyone's interests. We were able to see things with the guide that we never would have seen on our own. The beach was gorgeous!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Coffee & Chocolate Farm Experience

Arenal/La Fortuna

This was a very interesting, fun and tasty tour! Very good tourguide at Don Juan Company.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Arenal Volcano Guided Walking Tour

Arenal/La Fortuna

This great hike to the volcano was beautiful and moderately challenging. We loved the fabulous views. Our guide was excellent and provided much information as we hiked. Relaxing afterward with a pineapple snack and watching the wildlife was memorable!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

La Fortuna Waterfall Guided Hiking Tour

Arenal/La Fortuna

We had a private tour with a guide to this beautiful location.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Shuttle Transfer with Rafting on the Sarapiqui River En Route

Costa Rica

Our driver picked us up on time and we drove in comfort to the Sarapiqui River. The driver provided us with good background information as we drove to our destination. The rafting adventure was awesome! We did class 2-3 rapids in a raft with only us and our guide. A photographer paddled in a kayak near us and took photos. It was beautiful, fun and very exciting! The break for fresh fruit and the meal afterward were very nice.

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Overall the trip has left remarkable memories for me . Kim Kim did a good job being a small company . As promised all was taken care . Car, private guides all along Bogotá Medellín and Cartagena. The guides were good with understandable English skills . The best of all was Sandy in Cartagena. . The people were all good and friendly and the coconut workshop with the ladies there to teach us accessory making with coconut were really nice and interactive . The place I enjoyed most was comuna13 and Penol Guatapé in Medellín.

The trip was amazing although Beth did all the pre planning with Silvia. I wasn’t involved in that. So appreciated the regular contact to make sure that everything was going well. Also Silvia was able to switch things for us when we were delayed. Also kept us updated on the strike situation. Would definitely recommend Silvia to anyone

Also, our guide David who took us to the ice caves out of Vik was excellent. Would give him a 5 star review

The trip and all of the connection points was arranged extremely well. We only had to know what time we needed to be in the lobby of our hotel to have a completely hassle free experience. The guides that were set up for our daily tours were incredibly knowledgeable and managed to find many wonderful animals for us to observe. They even took pictures for us through their scopes so that we would have lasting images of all of the wonderful animals and plants we encountered while in Costa Rica. Toucans, monkeys, sloths, macaws, lizards and coati mundis were all part of our experience. The trip itself had a good balance of organized tours and relaxation time. The hotels they chose were pretty as well as comfortable. The scenery - spectacular, we even saw double rainbows from our porch in Monteverdi.
One day was spent visiting natural hot springs which proved to be a very enjoyable and peaceful experience.
We were able to sample local and very delicious foods at low prices. Kim Kim / Serendipity supplied us with some recommendations for dinners and our local tour guides also provided some excellent suggestions like Pollo Fortuneno (wonderful Mahi Mahi dish) while in the Arenal/LaFortuna area.

Being foolish, tired tourists, we also managed to misplace a large sum of money and originally thought our money was stolen.
The hotel staff at Volcano Lodge found the lost money in our hotel room and, in working with Charlotte, our contact at Serendipity tours, managed to wire the money through our next hotel and hand deliver it to us.
That is what I call fantastic, over the top service! Totally incredible in every way.
We will visit Costa Rica again and will also use KimKim for future bookings in other areas

Hotel Reviews

Hotel San Bada Resort & Spa

Manuel Antonio

Nice, older hotel with excellent pool for the entire family and a separate 6th floor pool on top. Rooms very spacious and comfortable. Nice bar and excellent breakfasts. This hotel is located right next to the Manuel Antonio park so it is very conveniently located for quick access to the park and quick access to many, many restaurants in walking distance on the street. The concierge also very accommodating and helpful.

Authenticity & Character

Location

located right next to Manuel Antonio park and the animals can also be seen on the grounds of this hotel

Staff

very friendly staff who assisted with taxis and getting around town

Cleanliness & Comfort

very clean comfortable and spacious rooms

Hotel Heliconia

Monteverde

This hotel had very pretty and comfortable rooms and was located near enough to town to walk to town and walk to some great dinner places like Don Luis. The hill on which this hotel was located was a bit of a climb so I would not recommend walking up this hill during the heat of the day but it was quite comfortable in the evening. The staff at this hotel was very friendly and accommodating. They assisted myself and my traveling companion by helping to get us the cash we had misplaced at a different location. They really went out of their way to assist us in this regard and we will be forever grateful. We also saw some unbelievable rainbows from the porch of this hotel adding to the overall beauty. The hotel was located near enough that even when we went to the cloud forest, it was not a far ride. There is a spa at this hotel but we did not utilize it. The breakfast that was provided was not as spectacular as the other hotels in which we stayed.

Authenticity & Character

nice spacious rooms and you can get a bite to eat right at this hotel.

Location

easy walk to town and some dinner places, hotel is on a hill so you cannot walk back on a hot day.

Staff

The manager of the hotel assisted us with getting the cash that we misplaced back in our hands, truly amazing in that respect.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Very nice room with very comfortable beds.

Volcano Lodge, Hotel & Thermal Experience

San Carlos, Alajuela

This hotel had very beautiful grounds and many wonderful animals located right on the grounds. We saw a wonderful mother sloth with her baby. We also saw many beautifully colored birds right on the grounds. The swim up pool and the hot springs on the hotel were really fun to go into and swim around in. We even had a private jacuzzi for our room which we really enjoyed using. The staff at this hotel could not have been nicer. Being foolish tourists, we managed to misplace a large sum of money at this hotel and after thinking we were robbed, the hotel staff found our money and had it returned to us! Phenomenal!!! Amazing beautiful hotel with a delicious breakfast and an incredibly friendly staff that made our stay even more enjoyable.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

The staff returned to us money that we had lost with the help of the Kim Kim team

Cleanliness & Comfort

jacuzzi and hot springs were great, room was very pretty and comfortable

Activity Reviews

Ocean Kayaking Adventure

Manuel Antonio

Great snorkel and a bit of a work out getting there in the kayaks. We all did a water entry from the kayaks and also had to get back in the kayak from the water. One person had to hold the kayak steady while the other climbed in. Everyone did this without much of an issue. We saw lots of fish, some fairly good sized snappers and parrot and trigger fish. The lunch that we had later was really delicious.

Quality of Experience

The snorkel was really good, we saw a great variety of fish in a small area.

Food

Mahi Mahi was delicious

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Transport was so easy, we just needed to be in the lobby of our hotel at the appointed time for pick up

Rio Celeste & Tenorio Volcano Guided Rainforest Hike

Costa Rica

This was a fantastic day, Our guide Paulo was incredible and was able to find many animals for us to observe. The experience of seeing the very blue water was worth it here. Incredible and the paths were good to walk on. Of course there are many steps down to the waterfall so be prepared to climb the stairs once you get to the bottom but well worth it. We also saw a coral snake here which was very beautiful (if you like snakes!). At the end, the guide gave us coconut water out of the shell to drink and that was incredible as well, great finish to the tour.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Paulo took pictures with the smart phone using his scope.

Transport

the transport was completely stress and hassle free.

The Springs Hot Springs

Arenal/La Fortuna

Well worth the day trip to the Hot Springs. The natural hot springs were quiet and calming. I had never been to real natural hot springs before and these were fantastic, some of them had small waterfalls falling into the pools. Very fancy hotel that was also fun to visit.

Quality of Experience

Food

This was not our best meal in the Arenal La Fortuna area, we like Pollo Fortuneno better. But the dining room at the Hot Springs was very beautiful.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

This trip to the hot springs was only a few minutes drive away from where we were staying.

Coffee Experience and Nighttime Nature Walk

Monteverde

I enjoyed learning about a major export of Costa Rica and how the coffee is grown and harvested. When it was very dark, we did have a nice walk through the jungle, saw sloths, pit viper, porcupine, basilisk lizard and a kinkajou. Not bad for a short stroll through the jungle. I believe other night walks in the Arenal area might prove even more productive. Our guide was very knowledgeable and tried hard to ensure that we saw all that he was pointing out.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Transport was a little confusing, we did not know whether a ride back was going to be provided, in the end it was and was included but the staff there was unaware.