Amazilia Travel

I had an incredible trip to Costa Rica, and I cannot recommend it enough! My coordinator, Olman, did an amazing job organizing everything. One of the most unforgettable highlights of the trip was witnessing the incredible diversity of wildlife throughout the country, especially in Monteverde and Manuel Antonio, which were absolutely breathtaking.

My driver, Alex, was exceptional. He shared fascinating insights about Costa Rican wildlife, culture, cuisine, and daily life, making the journey informative and engaging. His knowledge and friendliness added so much value to the experience.

Overall, this trip was a perfect blend of adventure and learning. I left Costa Rica with a deeper appreciation for its natural beauty and culture, thanks to the excellent coordination and guidance from Olman and Alex.

Olman was so patient and responsive to all my questions. He listened to our requests about a specific type of itinerary and made great suggestions. The activities he suggested were perfect for my 10 year old and myself. The accommodations in both Puerto Viejo and Arenal La Fortuna were just what we wanted!

Impeccable choices by our friend, Yuliana, starting from pick-up at the airport. Her planning and attention to detail allowed my family to enjoy a vacation free from arguing, uncertainty or poor planning. Thank YOU!

Costa Rica for a family of four to celebrate my husband’s 50th birthday. Our two sons (16 & 13)came along for their second international trip. We started in San Jose to acclimate and pick up a rental. Hotel was perfect for one night with teens. Service was excellent and super helpful with car rental communicators. Alamo provided a new Toyota Rav 4 for our journey.

We ventured to La Paz Waterfalls for a stop off on the way to Arenal / La Fortuna. Fantastic spot and worth the time to explore the waterfalls and zoo.

Next stop was Arenal Parasido Resort in La Fortuna. Stayed in a villa ( 2 bd/ bath house with micro kitchen). Private and spacious with beautiful grounds. Zipline, safari river tour, eco thermal springs are some of the amazing activities we enjoyed. All companies provided were top notch!

Next area we explored was Quepos and Manuel Antonio National Parc. We stayed at Los Altos Resort in Quepos which was pure luxury! Accommodations were stellar including our own elevator, balconies off all rooms, 3 bd 3 bth, concierge service! Wildlife on the property rivaled the national park! Sloths, monkeys, macaw, agouti, toucans, hummingbirds and much more all on the property. Some of our favorite moments were observing the natural beauty poolside and experiencing wildlife completely free. Stunning views across the property. Staff was legendary and a pleasure to get to know. Breakfast was another standout.

Olman planned a dream vacation for our family. He managed to fit in all the excursions we wanted and all our transportation within the country. We were very impressed!

Hotel Reviews

The Royal Corin Thermal Water Spa & Resort - Adults Only

Fortuna

Beautiful, well appointed hotel. We loved the thermal pools and the swim up bar.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

El Establo Mountain Hotel

Monteverde

This hotel has beautiful views, but it was a little more rustic than I like. It is situated on a very steep hill, making it very difficult to walk the grounds. Thank goodness they have a shuttle bus to pick you up and drive you to the on site restaurant. The food was delicious.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Capitán Suizo Beachfront Boutique Hotel

Tamarindo

My whole family loved Capitan Suizo! Our room was beautiful and had a wonderful sitting area by the front door looking out into the gorgeous landscaping of the resort. The beach was awesome and had surf boards available. We also enjoyed the pool and bar area very much. The food was very good. The restaurant even cooked a tuna that we caught offshore fishing.

Authenticity & Character

The grounds were beautiful

Location

Right on a gorgeous beach! Can walk to stores and restaurants in town.

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Arenal Volcano Extreme Zipline

Arenal/La Fortuna

Nothing quite like soaring through the jungle over waterfalls! Awesome!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Guided Hike in Arenal Volcano Park 1968

Arenal/La Fortuna

Our guide was very informative and we learned so much about Arenal. We had an amazing hike even though it was raining!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Guided Hanging Bridges Hike

Monteverde

A must see if you love plants and wildlife. The cloud forest is like no other place on Earth.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Night Walk in the Children's Eternal Forest

Monteverde

This was so much fun! It is SO dark! The guides are superb!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Catamaran Sailing Excursion & Snorkeling

Costa Rica

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Hike to La Fortuna Waterfall

Arenal/La Fortuna

Simple beautiful! Worth the hike!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Fishing on the North Pacific Coast

Costa Rica

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Amazing trip with amazing people! Second KimKim trip - both great!

This was our first time in Costa Rica, and the entire experience was wonderful!

We’re grateful to have worked with kimkim, especially Olman, who made planning so much easier. From the start, Olman was responsive and attentive to our travel requests, and his insights were invaluable when planning our activities. Everything during our vacation went smoothly—our transportation was always on time, our accommodations had amazing rooms with stunning views, and our prepaid excursions made check-in easy. We appreciated Olman’s thoughtful itinerary, which included time to rest after travel and between activities. His planning helped us avoid fatigue and fully enjoy our trip. Graciela also reached out as a point of contact during our stay in Costa Rica, which provided a sense of reassurance even though we didn’t need any assistance.

Here are some specific highlights:

La Fortuna: It took about 2.5 hours to reach La Fortuna from San Jose airport. Our driver, Leo, was incredibly kind, pointing out sights and offering to stop along the way. We loved staying at Los Lagos. Our room was within walking distance of the hot springs with a view of Arenal Volcano. Our tour with North Adventures, led by Monica and Caylor, was exceptional. They even spotted a three-toed sloth on the way to an activity and stopped for photos. Monica seamlessly switched between Spanish and English for our small group and offered great food recommendations in La Fortuna. The included lunch at Restaurante Las Tablas provided incredible casado with fish and chilera.

Monteverde: The lake crossing from La Fortuna to Monteverde was stunning. We stayed at Hotel Ficus, and it was our favorite place during the vacation. The reception staff—Dylan, Aylin, and Anna—were extremely kind and helpful. The town was close enough to walk to and far enough to avoid traffic noise. We were also lucky with our tour guides at Don Juan, Treetopia (Jason, Sebastian, Greivin, Daniel), and the night tour with Cristian.

Gulf of Papagayo: Our hotel, Bosque Del Mar, had beautiful rooms and was just a short walk from the beach, which felt almost private due to the lack of crowds. It was farther away from stores so we needed to take a taxi but it wasn’t an issue. The reception staff was very helpful and assisted us in booking a last-minute catamaran excursion (Marlin Del Rey) on our final day. We saw whales and snorkeled, and it was the perfect way end to our vacation in Costa Rica.

Thank you to everyone who made this trip unforgettable. We look forward to visiting again!

Hotel Reviews

Hotel Los Lagos Spa & Resort

Fortuna

We loved staying at Los Lagos. Our room was within walking distance of the hot springs with a view of Arenal Volcano. The hotel restaurant had delicious food.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Access to hot springs, short driving distance to the town

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotel Ficus

Monteverde Costa Rica

Hotel Ficus was our favorite place during our vacation. The reception staff—Dylan, Aylin, and Anna—were extremely kind and helpful. The town was close enough to walk to, yet far enough to avoid traffic noise. It had incredible views of the clouds and was close to amazing restaurants and a delicious panadería.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Dylan, Aylin, and Anna went out of their way to provide us recommendations and to help us with activities.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotel Bosque del Mar

Playa Hermosa

The hotel had beautiful rooms and was just a short walk from the beach, which felt almost private due to the lack of crowds. The reception staff was very helpful, assisting us in booking a last-minute catamaran excursion (Marlin Del Rey).

Authenticity & Character

Location

We enjoyed how close it was to the beach but wished it had easier access to more restaurants, grocery store.

Staff

In addition to the reception staff, the restaurant staff were extremely kind.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

El Silencio Volcano Hike & Visit to La Fortuna Waterfall

Arenal/La Fortuna

Quality of Experience

Food

The included lunch at Restaurante Las Tablas featured an incredible casado with fish and chilera.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Our tour with North Adventures, led by Monica and Caylor, was exceptional. They even spotted a three-toed sloth on the way to an activity and stopped for photos. Monica seamlessly switched between Spanish and English for our small group and offered great food recommendations in La Fortuna.

Transport

Coffee, Chocolate and Sugar Cane Experience

Monteverde

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Treetopia: Tram, Zip Lines & Hanging Bridges

Monteverde

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

For the hanging bridge guided walk, Jason was very knowledgeable and pointed out birds we would have likely missed. We greatly enjoyed our time with Sebastian, Greivin, Daniel while ziplining.

Transport

Night Excursion at the Wildlife Refuge in Monteverde

Monteverde

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Cristian was very personable and knowledgeable. It was incredible how he could find insects, snakes, birds in the dark! He was very nice in helping all of us take pictures.

Transport

I usually do all of my own planning for trips to save money. In Costa Rica, I wanted to see the Turtles on the Carribbean side of Costa Rica, my husband is a geologist so the volcanoes were of interest, and our daughter wanted to surf in the Pacific. We had nine days to manage this so we needed a car for a portion of our trip. I knew a boat transfer was necessary to get to Tortuguero but was a bit confused about what to expect and how to book it. When I contacted KimKim, Olman was really helpful. He explained that it was more expensive to book many things on our own and after comparing prices, he was right, it was more affordable to go through KimKim and absolutely less hassle! Olman asked what we wanted to do and he put it all together. The price was a bit higher than what we wanted to spend so I asked for a manual shift car and a hotel change, which brought the price into line. A driver met us at the airport and took us to our hotel in San Jose. In the morning another driver took us to the dock in Tortuguero for our 1 hour and 40 minute boat ride to the eco lodge. A jungle walk, open lagoon boat tour, and boat to town was included with our hotel plus all three meals daily. We booked a night-time turtle tour and saw a 250lb. turtle laying her eggs and then using her flippers to camouflage her nest. It was a dream come true for me to see this. After Tortuguero, we traveled by boat to the docks then to Guapiles by motor-coach for lunch and to pick our car that had all fees paid and was gassed up and ready to go. Our hotel in La Fortuna was at the top of a hill with a wall of windows for a perfect view of Arenal Volcano. We took a mud bath there and swam in mineral hot springs. Our next day took us to 7 zip lines over the tree tops and then a walk with hanging bridges to see the flora and fauna at Misitco Park. After two nights we made our way to Tamarindo where we stayed on the hillside with a cooling breeze and an infinity pool. Our daughter got in 3 days of surfing and we all took a snorkel sunset cruise. All of our accommodations were top notch and the food was great at all of them. Our drivers met us as expected. The tours were all good and safe (zip-lining!). The Costa Rican's are happy, helpful and appreciate tourists. The country is beautiful and still wild. Go to see the turtles, monkeys, sloths and colorful birds. There is so much to do. Contact Olman because he will very graciously work with you to put together an affordable trip of a lifetime. I now need to see the turtle hatchlings make their way to the sea, so I will be booking another trip soon (and I will feel very safe traveling there by myself using drivers) and I will book through KimKim and Olman again!

Hotel Reviews

Park Inn San Jose by Radisson

San José

Beds were very comfortable and restaurant food was delicious.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Pachira Lodge

Tortuguero

Pachira Lodge has their own boardwalk through the jungle where you will see monkeys, sloths and poison frogs! Three meals are served here and there is good variety and it all tastes delicious. We sat at each meal with another family to fill our table and it was fun getting to know them. Eco lodges do not have air conditioning but the overhead fan cools the room down at night where you will use a blanket.

Authenticity & Character

It's an eco lodge with monkeys playing in the trees.

Location

Staff

Oliver

Cleanliness & Comfort

Everything was as expected. Beds were comfortable.

Montaña de Fuego Resort & Spa

La Fortuna

The glass walls made for a fabulous view of the volcano.

Authenticity & Character

It was one of the coolest rooms we ever stayed in with the big windows overlooking the volcano.

Location

Staff

Joseph was very friendly.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Great air conditioning and big towels for the springs.

Wyndham

Tamarindo

The room was big and the beds very comfortable. Loved the pool and swim up bar.

Authenticity & Character

Open air lobby overlooking the ocean.

Location

Located at the top of the hill there was a nice cool breeze.

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Enjoy the Beauty of Tortuguero National Park

Tortuguero

Turtles, Turtles, Turtles. And monkeys, sloths, frogs and colorful birds. I need to go back. Soon!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

All drivers and staff were very helpful and kind.

Transport

Very efficient.

Arenal Volcano Extreme Zipline

Arenal/La Fortuna

7 ziplines!!! Lot's of staff to help everyone. They were wonderful.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff