Kimkim Trip Reviews for Argentina

Overall great trip. Would have eliminated Punta Arenas. Loved El Calafare and would have liked to stay there two nights. although the location was great, the hotel in El Calafate was awful. Not clean. Hotels in El Chalten and Ushuaia were great. Enjoyed trekking on the glacier the best. Also enjoyed Ushuaia. Overall very nice trip and well organized and coordinated

Laura

We had a great time booking with Kimkim, and will definitely use them again. We would also recommend them to others, and in particular others doing the trip we did.

We had some really great calls with our specialist Martin, who did an amazing job, and helped us plan the trip that we wanted. I was very particular about our accommodation, but Martin listened to what I wanted and (patiently) found the perfect options. He also helped us maximise our time in Patagonia e.g by thinking outside the box and finding other flight options when we discovered that all the domestic flights were booked out due to the G20 (we had booked our international flights by ourselves and didn't realise). He was also so helpful with all the logistics of moving round so much in such a short time, and planning the best trip possible so we could see everything we wanted to in the time we had.

When circumstances changed (e.g unpredictable closures in Buenos Aires during our stay due to the G20) Martin was on hand to help out in person (he even came to our hotel) with other options for us - very quick thinking!

He also put small touches on our trip which were both lovely and personal and absolute lifesavers (such as arranging for us to have a shower after a hike and before a plane ride when we had checked out of our hotel) which allowed us to be comfortable and make the best use of our time.

It is one of the best trips we have ever been on (if we planned it again we would change nothing) and all the individual tours we did as part of it were amazing, in particular all the day trips and accommodation in el calafate. Special shout out as well to Hotel Lago Grey and our guide Carlos, which were absolute highlights of the trip.

We would only mention a couple of other points as feedback:
1) I would generally allow plenty of response time to queries during the planning phase (as this could sometimes take a few days or so)
2) to double check the schedules and bus tickets etc have the correct dates and hotels on them (we had to get some errors corrected to match our itinerary, but once pointed out these were speedily corrected by the travel team)
3) one transfer showed up half an hour early and then left without us, but as it was only a cab ride to the nearby bus station we were able to run there to make the bus, and
4) when we were dropped off in Torres del Paine it was later than scheduled and there was no one there to meet us, and the phone in the cafe wasn't working - luckily we found someone who spoke English who took us to talk to a ranger who was able to radio base to call our hotel, who then came to collect us.

These are all however minor points (which happen when you have so many things booked), and did not detract from how pleased we were with this absolute trip of a lifetime, and the hard work put in by Martin to help us realize this. Thank you so much Martin! 11 out of 10! We would recommend to anyone visiting Argentina and Chile.

Overall it was a fantastic trip.
I take at least 2 and sometimes 3 vacations a year and I am very particular. I had been using a particular agency for many adventures and decided to give Kim Kim a try.
I will give a concise but honest evaluation if you permit and at the end some suggestions that may help Kim Kim and future travelers.
Day 1, All day walking tour A , that night was the Argentine Experience A+.
Day 2, Navigation to Tigre C
Although interesting, I found it to be a long boat ride followed by a long and boring train ride. Guide for both days was the same. Although very knowledgeable he had no communication skills and was very boring.
Day 3, Mendoza , Wine tour and lunch. A+. This guide was A+ with good communication skills and a sense of humor.
Day 4 White water rafting A+ and I followed it up with a canopy adventure. A+. Guides overall with the expedition we're great.
Day 5 High Mountain Full day tour.
Although very scenic it was just way too long a drive. Guides stopped at MANDATORY spots for pictures, tiny walk, lunch and site for pictures. C
Day 6 Travel Day
Day 7 P Morena and National Park and boat ride. D
This was the most disappointing day of my trip. Bus was 1 hour late for pick up and I was on a bus with 37 other people. Took 45 minutes for everyone to get off and then back on bus for a picture . Boat ride was cancelled due to the weather (wind). We walked down steps to view glacier and then spend 3 1/2 hours at the refreshment house . This was absurd, watching bus load after busload of tourists coming and going. Unbelievable and touristy.
Fortunately, the guide was able to get a different boat trip to save some part of the day.
Day 8 Estancia Discovery Cristina B+
Great views and scenery. 4X4 trip was very exhilarating. B+
D
Do away with the boring museum tour and garden visit.
Ugh.
Day 8 Travel Day
Day 9 Beagle Channel boat ride and Penguin Island A+. Great overall experience.
Day 10 Trek and Rafting trip. Great guide (Pedro) A+.
Day 11 Travel Day , Flight, USA.
Here are my suggestions, take or leave them. I think they make your company a little more personal.
1. Warn your clients that they should be aware of counterfeit $ being used all over BA (taxi drivers are notorious).
2. Forworn your clients that some adventures (national park, lunches, etc.) must be paid in cash and pesos only.
3. Forworn your clients that they should make dinner reservations before they arrive in the next destination. Suggest restaurants to clients . They will appreciate it rather then go there blind.
4. Advise clients to bring their passport to trekking in Ushuaia so they can get them stampted at the end of the world.
This little item may mean something to a person.
5. Suggest places to shop and places not to shop. Do some research and it will pay dividends. Maybe even get a discount for clients at certain places.
6. Double check all info to clients as my reservations were incorrect the first night and my flight info was also incorrect. (Very confusing).

So I have exhausted my time and you are probably tired of reading all of this but I wanted to make sure you really knew my thoughts.
Hope this info may help someone in the future.
Having said all this I would consider using KimKim in the future.
All the best Billy Gluck

Maria was wonderful from start to finish. She picked a terrific itinerary and gave great advice on where to go and how many days to spend. All the arrangements she made went off without a hitch. She helped with changes and a traveler who had to change plans last minute due to illness. We all had a wonderful time and I would use Maria again in a heartbeat!

I must say I did not have a great experience with KimKim and will not be using again.

For starters, communication took too long. I would respond to a message within seconds of receiving it and I would get a response the next day.

Secondly, when booking a tour, I had asked for a more private tour. The booking I received stated semi-private. When I asked what semi-private actually meant, how many people would be in our group, I never received a response. When I was picked up and taken to our boat tour, there was nothing private or semi-private about it. It was a regular tour boat with what seemed like 70-100 people. We were also promised a guide. There was no guide.

The price we paid seems a bit high for a large group tour that I basically could have bought a ticket through the boat company themselves and saved money.

Finally, although we were reserved as VIP. The boat had some problem on the return trip and we had to wait to take a different boat back where there was no VIP section at all. This was a waste of money in my opinion.

Erin is excellent. She was incredibly helpful while planning our time in Patagonia, and was always available to answer any questions. While in our trip, she went above and beyond to make sure we were set (we forgot our immigration papers while in a national park, and she coordinated getting them to us). You couldn't be in better hands.

Pros: Smooth booking process, quick turnaround to our requests, professional dialogue and we got compensation (other services) or refund for all travel inconveniences. The services we did benefit from (tours, accommodation) were of good quality.
Cons: one day tour was not what we asked to book, and one day tour was cancelled due to transportation issues at one of kimkim’s partner.
Martin was very cooperative, communixative, reaponsive and went above and beyond to solve the issues in such a manner that he managed to minimise our travel discomfort.

We had issues, but Martin was good in getting the situation back on track.

Erin and Emily from Dittmar adventures put together a superb and well-organised itinerary for us. Every day was memorable, from our trip to Estancia La Peninsula, to the W trek, to kayaking down the Serrano River and at the foot of a glacier. We will be sure to use KimKim again, and would particularly recommend the wonderful local specialists.

Axel and Argentina on the go built an excellent trip for me! I was thankful to have them when an unexpected strike happened with the airline and they arranged alternative travel for me. In Mendoza the guides were excellent except I would not recommend doing the cooking class- my experience was it wasn’t worth the money unless you do not know how to cook. I expected more out of that tour. All the rest of the tours were great and Iguazú Falls was incredible.

The entire trip went as smoothly as possible. All transfers were on time, all guides were quite knowledgeable and gracious hosts. We thoroughly enjoyed the experience and would love to return. We had many unique experiences and were grateful to see them all. The most spectacular were the Beagle Channel tour in Ushuaia, the hiking in El Chalten and the Perito Moreno Glacier tour near El Calafate.

We were on a trip to Patagonia and toured around Argentina and undertook a number of experiences. All of these were incredible and while there were some things that slightly detracted from the experience we were very pleased overall with the experience.

We happened to arrive at a time when a strike was scheduled which meant one of our days had to be moved around. This meant we stayed a day longer in El Calafate and had to find something to entertain us whilst we were there, which we managed no problem due to my interest in wildlife and the presence of a nature reserve at the edge of the town.

The strike also had a knock on effect that meant our transfer from the hotel to the bus station the next day didn't turn up and we had to very quickly jump in a taxi and head across to the bus station and similarly when we returned to El Calafate a transfer with a different company also didn't show up which meant a walk in the dark back to the hotel with no map.

We also had an issue with some cash machines which after an internet search turned out to be due to some Argentinian banks not working with European issued credit/bank cards. We found that HSBC and Santander were able to work fine and actually charged less overall for the withdrawals.

Activity 1: Canoeing on Lake Mascardi with Kawen Adventure Company.
Guides Julian and Rodrigo turned up on time and spoke good English. They talked us through the area, the wildlife and the plan for the day. After a morning of canoeing the weather ahead looked pretty bad and we made the decision to stop for lunch. We had lunch on the shore overlooking Lake Mascardi. Lunch wasn't just some sandwiches and a bottle of water. A full table was set up with a whole range of different food, pastries, salad and of course Argentinian wine. After lunch we carried on back to the start before heading back to Bariloche.

Activity 2: Horse Riding at Estancia Frugua
Another great day, however there wasn't a bi-lingual guide and my Spanish is pretty poor. We were due to go out in the morning and afternoon but for some reason we only went out in the morning. I suspect there was a reason for this but as we don't speak enough Spanish to hold a full conversation we were left in the dark a bit. We managed to communicate through most of it though. The food here was also incredible.

Activity 3: Mini Trekking Perito Moreno Glacier
Great day again. Good guides, spoke good English and a great experience overall. The trip out to the glacier was great and it just got better and better throughout the day. An experience not to be missed. Whisky on the glacier was pretty cool too.

Activity 4: Hiking in El Chalten
The hiking in El Chalten was incredible. We were fortunate that the weather turned to the good the day we arrived and stayed good for our entire stay but it is an incredible place and a must for anyone who likes the outdoors. The hikes we did were far from challenging and took in some amazing scenery. A couple of steep sections but nothing anyone who is relatively fit couldn't take on.

Activity 5: Valdes Peninsula and Whale Watching.
Again an experience not to be missed. After touring around during the morning and early afternoon seeing various wildlife, (guanaco, burrowing owls, mara, elephant seals, penguins and sea lions) we then got the chance to go whale watching and we were so close to the whales it was incredible.

Hotels
Design Suites Bariloche - Very nice hotel and restaurant. Great views across the mountains and very friendly staff.

Hainen Hotel - Nice place but obviously not meant to be overly luxurious. It was great, served our purpose and the staff were friendly and accommodating when issues occurred.

Lunajuim - Really nice hotel, very friendly staff who really made us feel welcome.

Hotel Peron - Nice hotel, although clearly a lot busier than others we had stayed in so breakfast was a lot louder. Good views across the bay. Staff spoke less English, but we managed to check in.

Hotel NH Florida - Nice hotel and polite staff. Breakfast was incredibly busy with people finding it hard to find somewhere to sit and staff seemed to be struggling to keep up with providing enough cups and glasses etc.

Other small notes -
There were a few costs that we hadn't budgeted for nothing major but may be worth making clear to people in future -
Park Entrance Fee for Canoeing (300 pesos each)
Park Entrance Fee for Mini-Trekking (600 pesos each)
Park Entrance Fee for Glacier Boat Tour (600 pesos each)
Park Entrance Fee for Whale Watching (520 pesos each)
City Tax in Bariloche (approximately 300 pesos)

Total of approximately 4,340 pesos. All of the above also needed to be in cash. Once we'd resolved the withdrawals issue it wasn't a problem. Also worth noting that the fees are much reduced for residents of Argentina.

It is worth noting that while there were a few issues we had the telephone number of our local specialist who managed to resolve the issues as they occurred and generally put our minds at rest when we were concerned.

Overall this experience was incredible and one not to be missed.

This trip was a good experience. I'm glad we chose the northwest of Argentina because it has many beautiful things. I would have preferred to be told how long it was to get to the Parque del Rey. It was about 4 hrs just together and once there even more time in the truck to go to different places where we actually did not see the animals that are typical of the area. Few birds and a type of Dorado fish. Just that for such a long trip back and forth. I would not recommend it to anybody. The best parts of the trip were Salta, Purmamarca, Humahuaca, salinas grandes.

Very easy to book and easy to deal with. Well organised everything went smoothly hotel was nice and the tour was fine. Will reccomended services

We had a fantastic time on our trip to Iguazu Falls. Jacquie’s organization was perfect. Our guide at the Falls Solange was excellent as was our accomodation organized by Jacquie. A fabulous time. Thank you!!