Kimkim Trip Reviews for Chile

Martin was easily contactable and helpful in providing tours, and selected some perfect tours for us in the end. However it was hard to determine the exact day itineraries to see what was involved. It would have been useful to have been sent final overviews to what each day covered and what was included with more information than was provided. This lead to a bit of confusion on arrival as there was a misunderstanding of the plan for the day and being dropped at the hotel for lunch when we thought we were out all day, and when we were late being picked up on day 1 we weren't sure who to contact.

The local agency was very good - very knowledgeable guides and great trips.

I can't say enough about how effective and awesome Erin was -- and everyone I interacted with at the local guiding company Dittmar Adventures. Erin was very fastidious with her correspondence, always answering quickly and thoroughly, from our very first exchanges, when I was outlining what we wanted to do, and what our budget was. She tweaked the itinerary to suit our, quite unique, needs. Because our situation was pretty unusual -- in that I was traveling with a 3-year-old and a 6-year-old alone while my husband hiked the "W" trek in Torres del Paine -- Erin really had to think hard about what would work for me and two small children to do that would be manageable. Her itinerary worked so well. It was a combo of two days of group tours (one to an estancia, Estancia La Peninsula, which was INCREDIBLE, and the other a boat tour aboard the Agunsa to the Bernardo O'Higgins national park to see glaciers) and one day of a privately guided tour to Torres del Paine national park, with a guide (Victor, also amazing, who Dittmar uses with some regularity). Everything Erin chose was awesome, including the days off for the kids and I to recuperate from long days of activity! We thoroughly enjoyed the inn she chose for us, the Amerindia, and the staff there were so helpful and friendly, particularly with my boisterous children. The owner of Dittmar, Laura, even lent me two carseats to use for the children on the day-trip to Torres del Paine. All I can say is that Erin, and all others from Dittmar I associated with, were so personal, so interested in us having a good time, and so available to help when needed. We ended up needed some help because a member of our party had her hiking backpack lost by LATAM, and Erin coordinated with Laura and another Dittmar employee (the amazing Emily) to be sure our traveling companion could rent everything she needed the night before their trek began. All I can say is that my whole experience with KimKim, and then with Erin and Dittmar, was excellent. Erin is so generous with her time and all the information she shares. I highly, highly recommend working with her!

For the most part, Oxana did a very good job planning and organizing out trip to Chile. We had printed our itinerary and had access to the Axios app of our daily activities. The itinerary was well organized and structured with lots of helpful information(I.e., confirmation codes, flight #s, seats, check-in and departure times, hotel names, et. al. info). The bilingual tour guides were all knowledgeable, capable, well-prepared, punctual, and professional. We were especially impressed by two tour guides: Maria Teresa Vargas Casanova on Easter Island(Rapa Nui) and Felipe Maureira, our driver, tour guide and sommelier for Colchagua and Maipo Valley tours to the wineries. They were exceptional. We would highly recommend them and now consider them lifelong friends.
The connections went smoothly and our pickups/drivers at the airports were always there waiting for us with our names on signs. First, the accommodations on Easter Island could have been better since the room looked old and needed an update. It looked better from the outside. The service, and breakfast were good, as well as location to the airport,
However, in retrospect, we would have liked to see what other places were available in that category or even a higher category hotel. We would not recommend this hotel If there is a better choice available.
Each time we based out of Santiago at the Ismael Hotel and it was great. It was a nice boutique hotel with great service and breakfast and was centrally located in a fashionable area close to Lastarria, the art museums, the seafood market, and other places of interest. It was a great choice. Our only criticism was during our time in the Atacama. Oxana, even though we did have your telephone #, there were times when the communication could have been conveyed more clearly. For example, though you organized the itinerary, it would have been better to know that local tour operators(i.e.
Rutas Andinas) were handling the tours and schedules. The itinerary you gave us was suddenly in question as the driver who picked us up at El Loa Airport in Calama handed us a different itinerary. The order of activities and the days were changed. The first activity was supposed to be at 5:30am and not at 8:00am as now scheduled. We didn’t want to miss an activity so we prepared for the earlier time. This could have been more clearly communicated to us and the night person at reception was not sure himself. Also, while we had a very nice, modern room, there was no telephone in the room of this new wing of the Hotel(Don Jose). One activity had us going to the salt flats(Salares) with a stop off at a village famous for its church bell tower and the market in the plaza. Unfortunately, we were there so early, the market was closed,! Somebody should have clarified this since it was part of the tour. A big highlight of the Atacama, which we greatly anticipated, was the astronomical observation. Since we had cloudy weather all week, the day was not promising, but it wasn’t until ten minutes before that it actually came off. It was spectacular and we highly recommend this activity with Jorge Corante F. The Atacama part of the trip was where we felt that communication was not clear and we needed more help from you, Oxana. This is the only reason we feel you didn’t get the 5th star rating. However, you did respond quite well after this and notified us of what the last three days of our itinerary were and we considered those updated. We really appreciated that since I had requested help initially with checking in for our flights. You did that with confirmed Check-in info, but we found it was more helpful and direct to just go to the Latam app which we had from our trip last year to Ecuador to get our Tarjetas de Embarque(Boarding Passes). These were superior to what was sent us. For future travelers with Latam, download the app and put in the confirmation codes. A couple of other considerations we would have wanted.
We wanted to go to Pablo Neruda’s house near Valparaiso, but we were given The choice to go there or to do the walking tour as scheduled. We opted for the latter. Luckily, it was closed on Monday so that made it easier. Our good tour guide, Javiera, recommended his house in Santiago. Finally, given our time constraint, we probably needed another day of “down time” in Santiago to more fully appreciate Lastarria, the art and cultural museums, the seafood market, and other places of interest. Santiago has really good food. Dine at Aqui Esta Coco. We started our walking tour in Santiago with our good tour guide, Max, and ended in Santiago walking in Lastarria by ourselves. All in all, we appreciate the itinerary organized for us by Oxana and want to compliment her for her efforts. Gracias por todo(Thanks for everything).

I have done a good few trips and this one was definitely up there with the best. I travelled the length and breadth of Chile - which has plenty of the former and very little of the latter, so it meant a lot of flying north and south. I feel like I got a taste of the entire country, from Atacama to Patagonia. Could doubtless have spent longer at a few key places, but on the other hand, Chile is such a long way to come from the UK I felt I had to pack as much in as possible on this one trip. I met some lovely people, both other travellers and tour guides (especially Roderigo, tour guide to Valparaiso, Elvin, guide to Osorno and Petrohue, and Victor, guide to Chiloe island). My interactions with natives were curtailed by my regrettably poor Spanish - it was noticeable that many Chileans spoke little or no English, including airline staff and even people at Information desks, so English speakers should be aware that many of the service personnel do not have the level of English that some other countries do. This is not a criticism, and the attitude of the Chileans that visitors to Latin America should speak decent Spanish is perfectly reasonable. Having some command of the native tongue is obviously desirable, and I am sorry that mine was limited. That aside, the people were helpful and things ran smoothly - I was impressed by the efficiency of the Chilean airline Sky and the airports that I passed through; the embarkation, departures, and bag claims were some of the fastest I've experienced, which takes a lot of the hassle from flying. The scenery throughout was spectacular, notably in Atacama, Lake District and Torres del Paine. I also enjoyed a couple of days in Santiago, which is an underrated city. Some great food and drink, not least the pisco sours. All in all, a memorable trip and a country I would strongly recommend. Thank you kimkim, and Maria!

Once again, another perfect, memorable trek by Quechua Treks. From planning and booking with James, who I swear never sleeps to the trek itself we had perfect service. Cem, our guide met us the night before our trek to go over the layout of the park and what to expect which was wonderful. He then met us the next morning with our driver Patricio for the drive to the Park. Patricio suggested an additional trek that most people don't do, but we decided to do and it was a beautiful start to our journey! The scenery of the Torres del Paine is breathtakingly beautiful and we had an amazing time. The refugios are well equipped and very comfortable. Cem is a wonderful guide, full of stories of the area, great tips, pointed out things of interest as we went by, we even got to sample ripe berries as we walked by the plants on the trail!!! One of my best memories is of Cem, Micky and myself all on the ground looking in a burrow we found with a light trying to see if it was an armadillo burrow or a skunk burrow. We had so much fun!!!

My favorite refugio was Cernos, small, but oh so comfortable. Toasty warm, wonderful staff, beautiful views of the surrounding Park. Fabulous wine.

Many, many thanks to Quechua Treks for this truly amazing adventure that will always hold a special place in my heart. This isn't my first adventure with Quechua Treks and it certainly won't be my last (I already have three more adventures planned with them!) James and Mayra did an outstanding job coordinating the trek and Cem did an outstanding job guiding us. I already miss it and want to go back!

I personally didn’t get this trip started Kristin did. The email chain was informed and answered Most questions what questions I did have was promptly answered by James. Cam our guide was amazing I can’t thank him enough for the experience he gave us all.

Thank you

Cem was a wonderful guide!!! Though I think I was the guide for most of the time haha——loved every moment of my trip to Patagonian Chile. Learned a lot and greatly appreciated Cem sharing his knowledge about the area. Everyone was amazing and will greatly miss this trip. Definitely a memory that will last forever in my mind and my heart.

Cem was fantastic and truly entertaining. He was focused on providing our group with the best possible experience in Patagonia and was very considerate of hiking paces and experience levels. Also, he was prepared to assist with any small injuries or areas of discomfort caused by the trails themselves. I truly enjoyed every moment of hiking the “W” and can’t wait to hike even more in the future! Thank you!

Bob and I had an incredible and very varied trip to Chile for our honeymoon. We spent the first 5 days of it in Patagonia, where we did the "W" route. Our guide, Camilla, was the perfect person to take me, and inexperienced hiker, from place to place. She took such good care of us, and her pacing was perfect to get us where we needed to go without making me totally work out. Her cheerfulness and enthusiasm were such a treat.

After that we spent a day in Santiago and three days in Cochagua Valley doing wine tours and eating unbelievably good food. Our guides for the wine tour, Jose and Fransisco, were a lot of fun and really knowledgeable. We enjoyed all of the tours and tastings we did and were grateful to meet everyone there.

The two highlights of the wine-touring part of our trip were lunch at Fuegos de Alpata, the restaurant at Montes vineyard. Both the food and views were unbelievable, and it took us several hours afterwards to be able to recover and for the haze to wear off. The second was our accommodation - Hotel Quinta Maria. The massive and colorful room in the middle of a gorgeous garden was pretty great, but the best part of the stay was the hospitality of the hotel's owner, Eduardo, who took great care of us and made us a multi-course breakfast, including home-grown fruit and eggs from his own chickens, each morning.

Overall, we couldn't have asked for a better experience and are very grateful for James and Mayra's planning and decision-making. They captured exactly what we wanted.

We were impressed by our guides along the way. In Santiago, Maria showed us the sights. She was very knowledgeable. Vivian picked us up at the airport and dropped us off for the flight home. She was lovely, stayed in contact on Whatsapp and was very helpful.
In St Pedro, the tours were interesting, guides Elaine and Sina were very good. Really enjoyed the Moon and Mars valley with Sina very much. She was a fountain of information. The wine and cheese at sunset was a nice surprise.
All went well in Puerto Varas and Chiloé. The car rental experience was excellent and it was nice to drive around and make our own plans. Parque Quilquico Hotel was outstanding. Lovely scenery, peaceful surroundings, great staff and fabulous food.
In Patagonia, we were met by the Los Torres driver, Hernan, who had lots of sights to point out and was very interesting. The Cerro Negro stop was nice. The Las Torres hotel was great. Glad we did the all inclusive. Room was comfortable, staff very helpful and the food was excellent. Even the box lunch was well done. The excursions were very interesting. Our guide, Steve, on the Full Paine was excellent, very knowledgeable and helpful. The horseback ride toLake Norgenskjol was fun, lovely horses and guides there too. All in all an unforgettable vacation!