Kimkim Trip Reviews for Colombia

We had a fantastic trip to Colombia over the 2018 winter holiday break. For a family of four, Nathalie Clavet helped personalize and customize our Colombia trip experience and provided a multitude of options for us to select from as we were in the planning stages. While in Colombia, Nathalie and her colleague, Mathilde, took care of us, checking in and were available to help us with any additional questions. Thank you Nathalie! My family and I really had a memorable time in Colombia and we can't wait to visit again!

A very good trip. Tatiana and Pablo were great guides and we all enjoyed the places we were at. Favorites were Bogota and Salento. Great food and lots of fun.
Just a few hiccups, not unexpected in South America.
Some suggestions for future travelers around Christmastime.
Do Salento on the 24th and Christmas Day. Everything is open there.
Do the coffee farm in Salento on one of the days instead of Cocondo. Too many bugs at Cocondo. We all got eaten up despite the repellent.
Don't do Medellin on the 24th. Everything is closed.
Thanks.
Ezra

Our trip to Colombia took me and my husband to Bogota, Salento, Cocora Valley, Tayrona National Park, and Cartagena. I think what was most striking to us was the multitude of landscapes that exist within the country - mountains, valleys, beaches, tropical forests - it was all very beautiful and steeped in a tradition of ceremony, sustainability, and conservation. We were also impressed with the knowledge of our guides and the variety of their subject matter expertise. One was a world-traveled artist (Camilo in Bogota) who was able to give us a deep, immersive lesson on the famous street graffiti, Botero, gold craftsmanship, along with a brief history on the origins and expansion of the city. Christian, an extroverted and boisterous botanist, was our guide in Salento and Cocora Valley. He knew everyone. And vice versa. We learned a lot about Willys, wax palms, coffee, and Tejo under his watch - he was an attentive guide, ensuring that we were well taken care of...and entertained! Jose was our trusty and tireless guide through the depths of the jungles of Tayrona National Park. He led us to Pueblito one day and the playas the next, providing a history of the pre-Colombus indigenous people and pointing out monkeys, caimans, and sacred rocks without breaking a sweat. In Cartagena, Rafa took us inside the minds of the engineers and architects, pointing out the strategy behind the construction of the fort and the wall. He also took us through the Old City neighborhoods, giving us a brief overview of of the plazas - and advice on where we should eat and shop. That said, our only negative experience was with the boat trip that was arranged in Cartagena. Our itinerary promised we'd be "treated to a boat around the Islas del Rosario...Aboard this boat you'll visit 3 beaches, in some top-secret locations that the day-tripper crowds have not heard about (nor are they likely to)." Instead, we were jammed onto a boat with 40 other people and taken to Bendita Beach about an hour away. The boats anchored off of the beach ensured that we sucked in gas fumes all day. Trying to redeem the day, we signed up for a snorkeling trip, which again was super crowded and the guides kept yelling at us to hurry up as we swam through the reefs. This was not a tour, nor was it 3 beaches, and it was anything but top-secret. We were very disappointed in the huge disparity between what was described and what we experienced and wonder how it happened and who benefitted off of our misfortune. We will never get that day back.

Nathalie was incredible, she knew exactly what my husband and I were looking for and designed the perfect trip for us in Colombia! She passed the "baton" to Mathilde during the holidays and it was totally flawless. The tour guides were all different in their own ways which gave us an interesting flavor of the culture and the hotels were perfectly located, in the heart of the city and in safe neighborhoods. The people we met during our journey were very kind and very sweet and I believe that a big part comes back to Nathalie, Mathilde and her organization. Bravo!

This was our first experience in Colombia and with KimKim. We worked with Nicolas while before our trip and he was very prompt and accurate in providing the detail level of information as well as customizing the entire trip for us.

The entire trip went very flawless and smooth as planned and committed. One thing to consider and be patient with is that there are several companies involved in the service chain including the KimKim, their domestic office, their local agent and their subcontractor which might make it a bit complicated but they planned all well. For example the driver picked us up on time from airport however he did not know the person who we had made the reservations, but everything went great.
The driver Anderson in charge of all transportation for the entire trip was fantastic, although he did speak almost none to minimum English, made every attempt to understand us and specially my limited Spanish.

The Coffee farm tour at Santiago's farm was amazing, the tour, lunch and their hospitality was amazing. Also the Cocora Valley and Finlandia tour guide Alberto was extremely knowledgeable and great company for the entire day.

Overall we were very pleased with the tour and highly recommend KimKIm company for Colombia and Zonacafetera visit.

At the end thank you Nicolas for this wonderful memory and experience.

Thanks
Greg G

Overall we had a really good trip. We were greeted at airport by Daniel, who was sweet, engaging and very knowledgeable. His English was quite good and he was very informative, sharing personal insights on history and culture. We never felt threatened or unsafe on the trip - we're also assuming that the second man who accompanied us during our first afternoon tour, and did not speak English, was there for security! Our lodging at Casa Canabal was very comfortable and very accommodating - though the rooms are small and have no windows. A very creative lighting system in the walls, however, gives the semblance of outdoor lighting and ended up being fine. Breakfasts were good and the waiters were wonderful and very friendly. I would suggest that the hotel have towels available at the pool.
We enjoyed the cooking class the second day with Sandra and Ellie. The trip to the market was eye-opening and truly a cultural experience. Visitors should be forewarned, however, not to wear nice shoes! We made ceviche, guacamole, fried plantains, salad, fried fish, coconut rice and passion fruit panna cotta - all delicious!! Sandra was engaging and very interactive - teaching us new skills and lots about Columbia.
We had been told in our tour itinerary that we would be going to Playa Azul in the Rosario Islands and getting there by private speed boat. We were surprised and a bit confused when we arrived at the dock, and amidst a large and equally confused crowd of tourists, found out we were going to Bendita Beach on a speed boat with 30 other tourists. No one spoke English, other than the other tourists, so all the safety and general information given once we got on the boat was entirely in Spanish - not very helpful OR safe! Once we got to the beach, we were pretty disappointed with the number of people there (masses) and being "herded" to the lineup of beach chairs which weren't very comfortable. All activities were pretty haphazard - again, because English was limited and there were so many people. The lunch was good. I'm not sure we would have gone if we had known it would have been so crowded and uncomfortable - it certainly wasn't very relaxing and not what had been depicted and described in our itinerary. There certainly wasn't any place to go walk and "explore the island" and no one was around to talk about the flora and fauna.
All transfers were very good and on time. Our driver to the Tayrona region was excellent - Jorge was a wonderful driver and spoke relatively good English. Our lodging at La Mer de Bien was lovely - though we didn't we didn't realize we were staying there until we read the fine print itinerary (it wasn't the lodging listed in the larger itinerary which was actually quite a bit closer to the park). We loved La Mer de Bien - and Sergio and Diana couldn't have been lovelier hosts. Food was delicious and they were very accommodating making us sandwiches to take with us with our pre-breakfast early departure. Tour of Tayrona and the Victoria Coffee plantation in Minca with José were great. At Tayrona we had a great hike and saw monkeys and lizards. The afternoon at the beach was terrific. The tour at the coffee plantation was incredibly interesting and very well done. Again, visitors should be forewarned about the bumpy road from Minca to the plantation! We were fine, but our driver seemed worried in the van he was driving - especially since the road is so narrow and there was definitely traffic going both ways. Overall - a great trip and we very much enjoyed seeing this part of Columbia. We felt the country has done an amazing job making visitors feel welcome and safe.

We loved all three hotels. BOG hotel was excellent, had a wonderful breakfast and great service and was walking distance to restaurants. Great location.
Allure Chocolate is a wonderful hotel in a wonderful location. Service was great. The rooms are a bit on the small side but still a wonderful choice.
Las Islas is a dream resort. It’s very new so still has a few problems which I am sure will be fixed. We had an amazing time there.
The transportation everywhere was great! Drivers were always nice and the buses or vans were great. Apart from one problem where the driver didn’t know our flight got moved to an earlier time and wasn’t at the airport when we landed all of them were on time.
The only problem we had was the guide in Bogota who despite being a very nice person was very unprofessional , didn’t know the facts and gave us both days disappointing tours.
We can highly recommend a tour we booked ourselves in Cartagena with Experience Real Cartagena- Alex Rocha. His son Chris took us to a tour of Cartagena and a day later Palenque. It was amazing!!!!
Mathilde was always available on WhatsApp and always very helpful and so was NathLie who helped us with booking a restaurant in Bogota. Thank you all, we loved Colombia.

Had great time in Colombia! Trip was very well organized by Lisa! Thanks!

Sharon in Bogota was amazing, as was David in Perreira.
Lovato in Medellin did a great job.
Dency in Cartagena lived up to her name (meaning "Dignified , explorer, powerful, happy, beautiful.")

We learned so much from each of the guides and enjoyed the various day trips and tours.

The wax palms hike and Penon of Guatape got us out into the countryside and were good physical challenges for me.
Loved the Cathedral of Salt, which was my "add" to the itinerary.
The coffee plantation visit was amazing.
Really, a great trip and filled with surprises for me, since my daughter did most of the itinerary planning with Nathalie.

Thank you Nicolás for planning our trip on short notice and being so responsive to our questions! We had a great time and things went smoothly - from our transfers to our accomodations and our guides. We especially liked our accomodations in Cartagena and Tayrona. Our guides were also wonderful, particularly Jairo in Bogotá. He was very flexible and knew a great deal. I can't recommend him enough!

Miguel was a very competent careful driver. The driving part of the trip was longer and tougher than expected - 9 hours day 2, 7 hours day 3, 6 hours day 4. There was a lot of extreme poverty with many beggars requesting water and rice because they were so hungry. The main sites to visit were nice enough but the scenery along the way much less interesting than I had imagined. Taroa dunes beach is lovely. Places we stayed at understandably very primitive. Food monotonous but we did not get sick.
We very much enjoyed the boat trip in camarones. Carlos, our boatman and guide was well informed and we saw many flamingos and red ibis. Learned about Wayuu which interested me. Would NOT recommend trip to others unless they have some real reason to be interested in area.

The full trip was awesome the guides very well ínformed and puntual and very helpfull. Every activity was memorable.

We had a really excellent experience in Colombia, and with KimKim in particular. One thing we appreciated immediately was that our drivers were always punctual and pleasant, and their vehicles were in great shape. We started off in Bogota and had a wonderful bike tour led by Daniel Felipe. We were particularly interested in street art, and it turns out he is a street artist himself, so it was a perfect match. The next day we had an equally great tour to Monserrate led by Sharon. We then flew to Salento (in the coffee-growing region), which was the highlight of our trip. We stayed at Reserva el Cairo, which we can't recommend highly enough. We spent 2 full days there. On the first, we did a mountain bike tour of the wax palms through Salento Cycling (not through Kimkim), which was absolutely fabulous. The next day we had our best tour ever (provided by Kimkim), which was a tour of several local towns with our guide David. We learned to grow and prepare coffee, saw incredible beauty, and hung out in some really gorgeous (non-touristy) little towns. Loved it! The last part of our trip was in Cartagena. This was not our favorite, due to the heat, multitude of tourists, and extremely obvious income inequality. However, we recognize that many people really enjoy the hot coastal environment and that our going there and not loving it was predictable. We did, however, learn a lot about the history of the place, and really enjoyed our tour with Nestor despite our cutting it a bit short due to our discomfort in the heat. It was a relief for us to get back to Bogota, where we all agreed we could spend a lot more time. Overall, we loved Colombia and feel like we want to come back, spending more time in Bogota, the coffee region, and other areas that we haven't visited yet. I also was very pleased with KimKim's services, which were exactly what we needed and perfectly executed.

We loved our trip to Estación Corcornan. We enjoyed birds, monkeys, hippos, waterfalls and life on the river - all without a single other tourist or boat in sight! Our guides Ana and Victor were awesome and super knowledgeable about the area. Victor knew all the birds, frogs, and wildlife in general and even some of the tree species. I asked for a bird guide (I am a birder) and I definitely got someone who knew his stuff!

The trip felt very authentic and we enjoyed living like locals and eating traditional foods. Highly recommended and thanks so much for all the arrangements!

Nathalie organised a wonderful trip for us. She was very responsive and everything was organised perfectly. We were very happy with all of the hotels, guides and activities. Nathalie called us at the beginning and end of the trip to make sure everything was ok so it was a very personalised experience. We loved Colombia, especially our time in the Amazon and will definitely go back.

I had a wonderful trip from start to finish. Lisa was the BEST travel agent in assisting me in organising my wonderful trip to Colombia who has also turned into a wonderful friend. She was very patient and accepting of all the changes, questions, additions that I had in organising my holiday and I would highly recommend her to anyone who wished to book their travels to Colombia. I would personally like to recommend and thank German in Medellin and Carlos in Salento for being wonderful people and being so passionate about their country and being wonderful tour guides during my visit. The places I stayed in Colombia I think made my trip that much more special as I stayed mostly at little B&B type places that had a more personal and local touch. I loved especially my stays in Santa Marta (Casa Verde) and Salento (Posada del Cafe) which had such a unique and wonderfully local touch to them with the loveliest people running them. I couldn't recommend Kim Kim highly enough for my trip through Colombia. It was the first time I have every used the company so I was a bit apprehensive at first but I could not fault the service at all. Everyone I came into contact with were so genuinely nice and friendly and all the guides very knowledgeable and fun. Thank you for a wonderful holiday and thank you Lisa for putting it all together for me and for being a loveliest person to deal with throughout my booking with Kim Kim! I can't thank you all enough. I loved every single minute of my time in Colombia.

Many months in planning with Aventura Colombia’s wonderful adviser Elisabeth, paid off on my very memorable trip to Colombia. A special thank you and shout out to to my local guides (Juan in Bogota, Maria in Villa de Leyva, Oswaldo and Camila in Barichara, German in Medellin, and Sergio and Manuel in Cartagena) who made each city personally come alive. Some of the infinite highlights: Bogota’s La Candelaria district cobblestones, colorful and lovely historical Colonial-era buildings. Villa de Leyva’s magnificent square which is truly UNESCO World Heritage worthy, and the bike ride which was such an interesting way to see the countryside. The almost movie-set look of Barichara, and the challenging but beautiful hike to Villanueva showcasing the magnificent vista out the Rio Suarez valley. Spectacular, and cosmopolitan Medellin nestled in a giant “U” against the two mountain ranges, with its marvelous transportation system replete with cable cars and happy vibe. And finally Cartagena, which is truly a jewel of the Caribbean, enhanced by a stay at most perfect hotel in the middle of the cobblestoned Colonial-era mansion-filled walled city. I can't speak highly enough about Elisabeth and the entire Aventura Colombia's follow up, which made me feel that they really cared about me as a customer and a person. Hasta luego Colombia--I'd return in a heartbeat!

We visited Colombia in August and traveled through Jardin, Salamina and Cartagena. Our travel specialist Lisa Calabrese, did an outstanding job in arranging everything including transfers between the towns, tours and our choice of hotels. We were looked after every step of the way right from the booking. Initially I wasn't sure which places I wanted to visit but Lisa helped me through and after week or two we finalised an itinerary. Lisa always answered my query promptly.
We even got to meet her in Medellin. I will certainly book more tours through her.

My cousin and I booked our trip through kimkim and I could not have been more pleased! Lisa, was our specialist, created our itinerary, took care of us, and tackled any concerns that we had. We had expert tour guides with us on several excursions that made all the difference. I felt completely safe and was able to have a stress-free experience in Colombia. Our trip was truly memorable!

Tayrona National Park was amazing we were able to see lots of monkeys and other wild life. Our guide, Jaruen, was really stealthy at finding all kinds of creatures. He came equipped with a laser pointer so we were able to easily spot, what would have been camouflaged animals and birds, with ease. I think other people on the hiking trail were jealous. Our guide also held our table at the restaurant once we made it to the beach-which was really helpful because the line for lunch became soooo long! My cousin and I were able to just walk right in. At this point, YES, the other hikers were definitely jealous! Bug spray is a must.

In Santa Marta, I highly recommend Lulo Cafe Bar for a FABULOUS cocktail and great service! Lots of great restaurants on the same street as well. Also some fun street entertainment on the street and at the square-it’s the teenage boys dancing that steals the show! It was also waaaay nicer as far as restaurants go than at the lackluster beach so stick to the square! Bug spray is a must if you are eating outside.

Our day trip to Minca for waterfalls and a coffee bean farm tour had a great guide named, Fidel. He was very knowledgeable about birds and wildlife in this area. My cousin and I swear that we thought we were following Mowgli into the Jungle! He really knew his stuff and LIVED this lifestyle. He took us to several waterfalls and was able to identify all kinds of amazing humming birds. The best part was that he took us to an authentic roadside “barbeque”. They had a huge, open brick oven with slabs of meat roasting in it. My guess is whatever animal was in there was alive not too long before we ate it. I have no idea what I ate exactly, but it was good! Great views of the mountain side too! Bug spray is, again, a must.

Our hotel in Cartagena was very nice and smack in between the old town and Getsimani so it was easy to mix it up within the city walls as far as exploring goes. Carlos, the guy who seemed to run the show at breakfast, was extremely personable! He showed us all the different native fruits as well as how they made coffee- taught me some Spanish as well! Carlos went above and beyond because he really didn't have to do any of those things for us- the breakfast was excellent as it was!

Our Cartagena city tour guide, Sergio, was also very friendly and informative. He had lots of insight into the history, and architecture of the city, as well as some current events and also what I felt was "insider" information! We found the BEST local artist-and both my cousin and I had been looking the whole trip- thanks to Sergio! The artist’s name is Fini. I really am impressed by her artwork and I’m currently in the process of getting it framed! Can’t wait to put it up!

We went to Casa del Farol at the Rosario Islands for a day of snorkeling and relaxation. The snorkeling was really surprisingly good considering that the weather was overcast. There was a lot of colorful coral, and seriously amazing fish! Lunch, as most every meal of our trip, was excellent. My only complaint is that the day was too short!

Overall, this was an amazing, exciting, bucket-list type of trip! Thank you, Lisa and kimkim!

Lisa was instrumental to the success of our trip. I would recommend to anyone interested in visiting Colombia for the first time or a repeat visit to book. I felt safe, informed, guided and assured. The guides were friendly and helpful and Lisa was able to track me thought the entirety of our trip.