Kimkim Trip Reviews

overall a great experience, we chose the hotels.
It would have been good to know about "Tipping", as far as I know , we were not told that the tipping was expected each day and tipping the driver , who was excellent.
I did email during the trip asking about the tipping system which was explained
My only negative criticism would be the camping night, room was below average , shower did not work and dinner unfortunately was below average, but besides all that we had a great time and a great experience.

There were some slight variances from the descriptions but some were lacking while others were above and beyond expectations! Fernando was so great we felt as though we were leaving a friend after out short stay in Quito. Richard in Galápagos was very knowledgeable and clearly proud of all that he has learned. The day tours in Galápagos are not really as described although we enjoyed them thoroughly. I suggest contacting the excursion companies and request updated information.
When I look back at my trip I can only think how very perfect and wonderful it was! I will highly recommend Kimkim to friends.

Our driver and guide made our trip! They were wonderful and did everything to make us as comfortable as possible. Thank you to Abu and Sami!!! ❤️💪🏻

Petra was amazing. We conquered all with a pregnant group memeber and another member with a broken leg! We would have liked to have more time at Wadi Rum as it is so beautiful but we had to rush to keep to schedule. The Dead Sea was beautiful too even if a little cold!

One thing that would have been helpful for our group was to have known that restaurants/healthy food options were limited during the long drives and in some of the towns. Perhaps it makes sense to have hotels prep guests lunchboxes for a fee?

Thank you!

I had a wonderful trip in Peru. Everything was very well planned and executed. The accommodation and transport was good.
I would highly recommend this adventure.

I have just returned from a phenomenal trip to Iceland. Kimkim.com helped us establish a trip which included all the elements of adventure we were looking for. They utilized Midgard Adventures and Midgard Base Camp. Midgard added some completely unique dimensions such a hornet meal in a cave! They also quickly adapted when our snowmobiling trip was cancelled due to weather, the revised day was even better than we had planned. Iceland with Kimkim/Midgard is an absolute must !

Disappointed... although the communication was excellent but the plan is improper. We ended up paying extra cost for accumedation and transportation, and they didn’t take any responsibility to refund the missed up situation

So first off, thanks to Olman for his great service. The trip that was planned definitely met our expectations. Below is our point by point review:

Arrival: all good, driver was able to accommodate all of us even though one flight was quite delayed. Overnite stay in the Radisson was fine as well. Early pick-up and xfer to La Fortuna went very smoothly.

La Fortuna/Arenal: Casa Luna was VERY nice, the staff super friendly and helpful. A little far from the center of town but still we enjoyed our stay there. The tour of Arenal was fine as well. We organized another outing the following day thru the hotel.

Monteverde: Xfer to Monteverde by car-boat-car the next day was fine as well. The replacement hotel was adequate but nowhere near the standard of the Casa Luna or La Mariposa, so we were glad it was only a one nite stay. The ziplining was fantastic though wet. We skipped the tour afterwards as we did something similar on our own the previous day after our arrival. As a result, we left earlier than planned and Olman was great in helping with that change. The xfer the following day to Quepos was fine as well, the driver very helpful and stopped off at the crocodile bridge for us.

Quepos: La Mariposa was easily the hilite of the stay hotel-wise. Great rooms, great views, great food (great French-trained Costa Rican chef). Super friendly staff. The day after our arrival we went to Uvita to dive. The club was super well organized, the staff very well qualified, high quality equipment. Having said that, this is a dive organization for beginner divers. So they were not really equipped to deal with experienced divers with computers that needed to be installed (a bit our fault as well as we should have had our own tools to do that – but we did not expect that the center would not have the tools either – somewhat surprising). The boat ride out to/back from to Isla del Caño was really fun and the island lovely. The two dives, however, were average at best. The usual marine fauna which is always nice but the flora was non-existent – a very degraded underwater environment, comparable to the Mediterranean but clearly lacking when compared to places such as the Red Sea, Rangiroa or Indonesia. We would not recommend this activity to intermediate and above divers. Plus we found out the there was a dive club at the Quepos marina, not sure if the dives were any better but it would have saved us the 2-hour transit to Uvita.

The rest of the stay at La Mariposa was great. We organized a tour of Manuel Antonio the last day and that was very nice. We made some last-minute changes which appeared to give Amazilia Travel a few problems: we switched the return to San Jose from 10:30 to 11:00, no problem there. But we changed my return as follows: instead of returning to SJ with the other two, I decided to stay at La Mariposa one more nite and xfer to SJO the following pm via air. We asked Amazilia to make this change, but it seems to have been too much: the SJ hotel resa and city tour were cancelled (we assume), the air travel from Quepos to SJO was handled fine, but Amazilia forgot to book an extra nite at La Mairposa or book xfer from the hotel to the Quepos airstrip. Oops. Fortunately it was not an issue and I managed to do everything on my own (although the airport xfer was done in extremis). Then there is the matter of cost: the extra nite at La Mariposa was paid directly by me so no issue there. But the flight to SJO was $65 and the xfer to the Quepos airstrip was $20. Perhaps I have missed something there but that would appear to a less costly initiative than staying overnite in SJ and then taking an all-day city tour. So you may want to have someone look into that.

Overall, an extremely enjoyable experience, and we would definitely recommend kimkim to others. Thanks again.

Chris Welton

Hassle-free setup and really responsive support from Emily and Erin. If we were to replay the experience, I would have built in more downtime to the itinerary, as well as taking time for stuff in between the iconic sights and stops that Patagonia offers (which are, to be fair, spectacular). The guides that we had for all the trips and excursions were really great: personable, enthusiastic, knowledgeable.

We thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Sri Lanka. We were very happy with our accommodation, with the exception of Athgira River Camp. Breakfast was included each day, and were all very good. The days we were leaving early to go on a safari, we were provided with a packed breakfast to take with us. The staff at all of these places were very helpful and friendly.
Our driver La La did a great job. His knowledge of the places we visited, as well as the politics and history of Sri Lanka made our journey much more enjoyable than if we had not had this information available to us. He was a very good and safe driver.

I can highly recommend Amanda at Kim Kim/ Himalayan Trails and am very grateful for the care and thought she put into planning my trekking trip in Nepal. I felt that my needs were really listened to and that she made a conscious effort to suggest accommodation that she felt I would enjoy. Our guide Sumon was knowledgeable and engaging and helped to make the trip more interesting and tailored to our needs. Overall a very enjoyable experience and I would definitely use the company again - they are professional, attentive and experienced.

We only booked a portion of our trip with Kimkim and overall it went well, but there were a few hiccups throughout that I thought would have been organized through the service. For instance, it said we had a coffee tour booked, but the hotel was unaware and there was no English tour guide. Also the driver we had to Medellin didn't know the address we were going to, despite me giving it to the service beforehand, meaning we had to turn the data on our phone.

Otherwise went smooth and all parties turned up on time! Our guide in the Cocora Valley was great.

Overall our experience in North Thailand was more than amazing. Our moments with my (private) group members were irreplaceable and we highly recommend Kimkim for adventure and extreme destinations. The places we visited were really difficult to reach them without a local guide being comfortable and familiar with the people and the place. Every single day was unique and different. We were able not only to experience for a few hours some villages in the jungle but also to stay for some nights and live the local and simple life. Kimkim is a really trustful company with many advantages and will definitely choose them again for our next destinations.

When my family decided we wanted to visit Costa Rica we were at lost to where to go and what to do until we discovered kimkim and decided to try it out after reading some very positive reviews. It was a great tool to use and it made paying for our trip very easy and I plan to use it again for future travel as it really is a great way to connect with a local expert in the country you plan to visit. They do not bombard you with tons of emails and when they send email they have some very interesting ideas for travel in unique places.

Sylvia with Horizontes Travel was our Costa Rica specialist and she was able to craft an amazing trip four our family. She patiently worked with us until we had an itinerary that was what we wanted. She also called us a few days into our trip to make sure everything was ok and we had contact information to call Horizontes if we needed anything. There was a little problem with an incorrect pick-up time and Horizontes paid for our supper one night. Having not used kimkim and an out of country specialist we were a little nervous but from the time we arrived in Costa Rica we were blown away by the custom trip and we felt like royalty from the moment we arrived at the Liberia airport. We were greeted by a company representative who took us to our private transport with a welcome package and snacks and drinks for our voyage to Monteverde and the Fonda Vela Hotel which had a great buffet village and stunning views looking down to the gulf of Nicoya. The personal guided walk through the Children's Eternal Rainforest was very good and our guide Marcella with Ocotea tours was very knowledgable and we managed to see and learn about many of the cloud forest treasures. Another highlight was zip lining and the hanging bridges through the cloud forest with Sky Adventures. Next we went to Manuel Antonino and stayed at the Costa Verde Hotel with outstanding views of the national park and its beaches. We had a fantastic guided tour of Manuel Antonio park with Iguana Tours and our guide Andry was absolutely amazing, his passion for his work and skill for finding wildlife and talking up the treasures was awesome. From Manuel Antonio we went to Arenal La Fortuna and stayed at the Arenal Manoa Hotel. A little isolating location if you didn't have your own vehicle but views of the Arenal Volcano were amazing and the grounds of the hotel were gorgeous. Highlights were to the Rainforest Chocolate experience and the guide Chapo was very funny and informative. Rafting the Balsa river with Wave rafting and our boat guide Horacio was very fun afternoon and a highlight. Canyoning with PureTrek canyoning was excellent and the staff helped my youngest daughter calm her fears of rappelling so that she had a fantastic time. We went to Rincon de la Vieja and stayed at the Hacienda Guachipelin and we did the 1 day adventure pass with horse back riding, river tubing, zip lining a canyon and finishing with a soak in volcanic hot springs. The staff for the adventure were excellent and we had guided tour of butterfly gardens and serpentarium. We capped off our 20 day visit to Costa Rica at the fantastic Tamarindo beach and stayed at the amazing Tamarindo Diria Beach resort.

All of our transportation to the different areas we visited were with very safe and conscientious drivers. The transportation was always on time. The vehicles were spotlessly clean and the drivers would usually point out points of interest and stop when asked. Rene from Jacamar Naturalist Tours was a great ambassador for Costa Rica explaining interesting things about Guanacaste province and life in Costa Rica.

We thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Costa Rica and we couldn't be happier with the personalized trip that Sylvia created for us and I would highly recommend her to anyone looking to travel to Costa Rica and I am trying to get my parents to plan a trip through her for next year.

We really enjoyed Monteverde forest walk and zip lining. The sloth trial was amazing and the guide there was super knowledgeable but low key. Traffic was horrendous, so hats off to our drivers who dealt deftly with the mayhem.

We had a truly memorable trip to Colombia. Clearly there are some internal communication issues with the Logistics Department at Aventura Colombiana but Laura was very quick to initiate action to try to resolve situations as quickly as possible.

Two guides that really stand out are Alejandro who took us on a bird watching expedition. Very knowledgeable and personable. We had a great time. And Gian who took us on a really relaxed and interesting city tour in Cali. The biggest disappointment was the guide for the Corcora Valley. He was due to meet us at the hotel at 8.30 but didn't show up. Eventually we caught up with him at 9.30am in Salento by which time no jeeps were available. Not only did we make a late start because his failure to be in the right place at the right time but he then cut short the tour which meant we had 4 instead of 6 hours.

We had a great trip to the Santa Rita Wine Estate - thoroughly recommended for a two night stay - the Atacama Desert, Lake District and Patagonia (Punta Arenas and Torres del Paine).
The Atacama was just after their first heavy rainfall in years, which added extra beauty as the salts emerging from the ground gave the effect of a light sprinkling of snow. The mountains around were also topped with snow. The NOI Casa Atacama was good, apart from some oddities like the worst faucets of the trip but the best shower. Despite a small mosquito and fly problem in the room, the staff couldn't supply any fly spray, which we thought was unhelpful.
The Cumbres hotel in Puerto Varas was good, but I wouldn't recommend spending the extra cost of a room with full mountain view, as the clouds were down over the mountains most of the time! It's a great area for hiring a car and exploring yourself.
Punta Arenas and Torres del Paine were amazing, and fantastic weather most of the time too. I'd recommend booking at least the Full Paine tour well before you arrive, rather than at the last minute.
Avoid connections at Santiago airport with less than a couple of hours. A delayed arrival on one flight meant that we were stranded overnight in a cheap airport hotel, which lost us most of one day.
Oxana was very helpful in the plannning stage, with good suggestions and good choices of hotels, and in monitoring our progress through the trip, and gave us all the help we needed in rebooking flights after disprutions, and making changes to the programme.
I can't remember all the names of the guides and drivers, but they were excellent throughout, and everyone turned up preceisely when and where they were needed!

Would be very happy to come to Chile with Eco Chile again, or to use Kim Kim for other trips.

Andrew Dakin

We had such a wonderful and memorable time in Jordan. Working with Amanda was such a delight - she was patient, thoughtful, and put together a schedule that worked perfectly with our travel plans. We highly recommend Amanda and KimKim.

The trip conformed well to what I had desired to do. the hotel accommodations were good, the shuttle buses were exactly on time and took me to where I needed to go. All in all I was very pleased with the service.

The itinerary was well planned and managed to see a lot in a short space of time. Hotels were a bit hit and miss though. Some were excellent and others were below average. My guide Karpila was knowledgeable and a professional driver. The most memorable places were Anuradhapura, Polonaruwa, Sigiriya and Minneriya National Park.

My husband and I did the cultural tour with Grasshopper Advenures and it was absolutely spectacular!!! We did this as part of our honeymoon and we couldn’t have wanted anything better! Nishan our guide was fabulous, and our driver Sidit was always there if we needed him! The accomodation on the tour was out of this world - every night was different and showcased a different cultural side to Sri Lanka. This tour took us all over Sri Lanka from the beaches up into the moutains, riding on backroads and through little villages meeting the locals. We would recommend this tour to anyone who loves advenure, culture, exercise and good food.