Kimkim Trip Reviews for Colombia

Suggest that the trip summary include the start times of tours.

Nathalie was great

The events and activities we did were amazing and highly enjoyable. We were sad that Natalie was not available to help us or answer our questions while we were here. No one picked us up at the airport in Cali and the Calanoa transport was told the wrong time for our flight. Otherwise, Natalie was very helpful and we have had a great trip.

You guys provided a great itinerary, but I think it also would have been nice to know some other details beforehand. i.e., the walk down to rio verde is rigid and pretty long, wear good shoes. There are no showers or sinks at the camp site. Bring plenty of water, etc.

I put in the passport for that one person from our group was a vegetarian and there was no vegetarian dinner option. :(

For future groups, I would recommend providing a luggage requirement. We were told in the van on the way to the river that there would be limited space in the dry bags. It would have been nice to know ahead of time so we could have packed minimally instead of having to re-pack bags on the side of the road and leave things in the van.

It was fantastic and planned very well. We had a great time. My only comment would be more detail in the overall itinerary so we don't have to bounce around kimkim trying to find different pieces of information about each activity.

The hotel we stayed at in Santa Marta was not great. The lack of air conditioning was a big problem. Also our guide for the hike in Tayrona did not speak much English and was therefore not very helpful. Other than that, the trip was great!

It was weird that I just got one travel agent, and that there was no choice at all -- an agent that ended up being good, if not perfect. I felt there was no particular reason I got this agent as opposed to any other--why this person? What was so great about them? What was special about who they were, or why I they were the person who should plan my trip?

Communication could have been better. We went 3 days without hearing anything, and then found out that our itinerary needed changes. Trip was still amazing, but going through that was nerve racking.

We were very pleased with our experience in Cartagena and Isla Mucura. We did not appreciate the difficulty of the 13.3-mile hike planned for our second day in Colombia. (For example, we did not know how long the hike would be. We had an estimate of how many hours in would last, but not of the difficulty.) We are in good shape, but this was a daunting scramble though and over boulders and with a 300-meter plus gain in altitude in a tropical jungle.
We were disappointed in the Casa Lina Hotel in Palominos and in the Casa Amarilla Hotel in Mompox. The language barrier was high in both locations, the beds were uncomfortable and the staff were correct but not friendly.

We seemed to have difficulty understanding each other. When we needed help with a billing dispute (in Mompox) and in adjusting our itinerary (in Palominos), she was not readily available.
As in other aspects of the trip, we were to blame for some of this. We should have pursued more subjects before we left, regarding temperatures, hiking difficulties, sunscreen, etc. I was also disappointed when we were asked for full payment earlier than I expected.

I can't say enough what a pleasure it was working with these folks for our trip into the Amazon for our honeymoon. From the time I made the initial contact with KimKim until the end of our adventure, we felt like we were the only concern they had. We worked with Nathalie on the front end for lining the trip up and making sure we had everything we needed. She was very thorough and polite, and kept in excellent contact with me prior to the trip.
Once we arrived at the airport in Leticia we waited a few minutes for our ride to show up and then were taken straight down to the office to get ready for our 4 day trek into the Amazon jungle! Thats where we met with our guide Ramiro, were promptly issued some rubber muck boots, and went over some necessities for our trip. We didn't bring enough mosquito repellent or rain ponchos, so we made a quick stop at the store to grab some and then had a nice lunch with our guide at a restaurant there in town. Once we were ready to roll, we hopped in a cab and were driven about 20 minutes outta town, where we got out and the 3 of us began walking through the jungle. Immediately I was feeling grateful that they gave us the rubber boots and told us to grab more Deet!! We eventually started fondly calling the bug repellent "Amazonian Cologne". It worked great though and really as long as we kept some on, the mosquitoes really didn't bother us that much.
We walked for maybe a couple hours into the jungle to a Maloka and met with some of the native people there working on the plantation. Our guide Ramiro knew the people well and immediately introduced us and explained what they were working on. We had some supper and just hung out for a little bit until it got dark. Then we went for a hike into the jungle to look at the nocturnal wildlife, which was really awesome to see everything!! We saw all kinds of cool stuff! That night we met with the Shaman and shared his Mumbai. We had a good talk with him and learned a bit about their culture, which we found very interesting!
The next day we woke up & had breakfast & then hiked for several hours through the jungle to a remote Lodge where we showered & relaxed for awhile. After supper we hiked for about 15 minutes to a huge tree where we repelled UP about 100 feet to a big platform just above the jungle canopy. Ramiro was given instructions by the company to leave us alone in the tree house for a few hours, since it was our honeymoon, so he set us up with some rose petals, grapes & chocolates, and a bottle of champagne, and then they went back to the lodge for a few hours so we could have some privacy ;) The next morning we woke up to see the sun rise over the jungle, zip lined out of that tree into another tree platform, and repelled down to the ground. What an experience! We hiked for a couple hours to the river and boarded some kayaks and took off paddling. It was high water season so the river was swollen up and into the jungle so we had a lot to look at from the kayaks. We paddled a couple hours and finally made it across a big lake to another Lodge where we ate lunch and met our boat captain. The last leg of our journey was in a small boat where we got to see a bunch more wildlife, including sloths, toucans, monkeys, pink dolphins, grey dolphins, green parrots, and piranhas! We fished for and caught piranhas and took them back to the lodge where they cooked them for us! They were great! We drank some cachacas with the folks who run the lodge and then went off to bed. The next day we boarded the boat again and made our way back to Leticia to conclude our trip.
All in all I would say our Amazon jungle experience was truly amazing! The people that we met were all so nice, courteous, and respectful, and you could tell they sincerely appreciated our business. We feel that we made lifelong friends with our guide Ramiro, and hope to stay in contact with him through Facebook. He had everything lined out perfectly and even cooked most of the food we ate on the trip! What seemed like an amazing trip to us was literally just another day to him. He has done hundreds if not thousands of those trips and we felt safe the entire time.
I would highly recommend this company for your trip into the Amazon. They did a great job for us and was worth every dollar we spent on it!!! A+

The overall experience and final results were good but communication was frustrating. You do everything by internet which is fine for a young generation but for a senior generation this impersonal approach is difficult and when in transit usually without wi-fi availability it becomes challenging. Unfortunately our contact left your company at a critical time although both girls were excellent.

The overall plan was generic but the notification of pickups was and van drivers were last minute. The local transport companies and drivers you contracted were outstanding punctual and polite. In our party, 3 did not speak any Spanish and I fluent in both ended doing all the translating and acting as a guide not a big deal but if you are going to expand tourists from North America you should try to get ones with a little English.

From Pasto to Cali travel company Tierra y Cielo as well as driver Henry Patoja and guide in Medellin Maria Elena Marín were A1. Travel companies Cali Salento and salento Medellin I give a A. English guide in Salento was charming but English very limited. Your hotel choices Le park in Medellin was good and ideally situated and Hacienda Cairo was excellent and highly recommended. As a born Colombian living in Canada I was happy to show my wife and friends Colombia in a positive way and very happy with your arrangements

Over Xmas, I now intend bringing my children and grandchildren for a two-week visit and hope we can work together again.

Pick up info at each point was last minute, all else was well. Nathalie and Katheryn were good.

Nathalie was the best. We had her redo our itinerary maybe a dozen times and consistently received prompt responses and a ton of help. Nathalie even helped us with arrangements not booked through her, like finding tickets for a football game in Medellin. Within the first ten minutes of arriving to our first destination, Nathalie called us to make sure we were okay. Everything about her service exceeded our expectations.

The Cambio hacienda restaurant staff was mostly not interested in service, the dinners and coffee was substandard and the room was in poor condition.

Katherine was very patient with us in the planning stage and equally attentive throughout the trip.

Katherine worked very hard on our behalf, especially given the short time frame in which we were planning. She also was great while we were in country and got sick and had to revise parts of our trip. She was always available to help re-adjust. There were two of the lodging options that were disappointing. Cartagena, Tayrona and Silvia were the highlights of the trip for me.

It was chaotic from the get go

she was really lovely, however a few things could have more clear

Nathalie was fantastic in helping me plan my trip in such short notice (4 days prior to travel). All of my accommodations were in the heart of each city, and had an authentic local feel to them (Just what I asked for). Nathalie also sent me plenty of restaurant recommendations, and additional activities we could take advantage of on our free time. She kept in touch with me throughout the trip and she went above and beyond to quickly resolve a minor issue I had.
Overall great, despite one of the guides not showing up (he had the times switched), but that was resolved by Nathalie, the guides that showed up were awesome, their historical knowledge in Bogota, and the 2 in Villa de Leyva, was phenomenal. The people (guides, drivers, and locals) were extraordinarily friendly, and open to sharing their customs.

If I could change one thing it would have been longer planning time (not on you), because I would have altered my itinerary slightly to avoid a lot of movement from town to town, probably returned from Villa de Leyva to Bogota rather than go to Barichara just to avoid the transportation time, and likely headed to Cartagena a day earlier since it was a place I needed more time at. Nothing major, overall great support by Nathalie, and a fantastic trip.

Thanks, looking forward to using your services again.

Regards,

Howard

She was very helpful in such short notice and provided great recommendations. She resolved a minor issue and compensated the hiccup with a great dinner in Cartagena. Fantastic service, and fully recommend her.