Rutopía

Our trip to Mexico City was wonderful
We got to see all the highlights over a few days
It was wonderful being there over dia de muertos
Would absolutely recommend kimkim for all your travel needs!

Activity Reviews

Private Experience: Tacos, Chelas & Mezcal in Narvarte

Mexico City

Excellent way to try different cuisine and the mezcal tasting at the end was a great way to end the night!

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Pop

Air Balloon Flight over Teotihuacan & Biking Experience

Mexico City

A must do

Sweets & streets! Family-Friendly Historic Center Tour

Mexico City

Our tour guide was wonderful and the kids loved it!

Lucha libre experience & mezcal tasting

Mexico City

Such a fun experience! Our boys loved it

Be amazed by the pre-hispanic beauty of the chinampas in Xochimilco

Mexico City

Unique experience Beautiful wildlife and nature

Tour the famous and picturesque neighborhood of Coyoacán.

Mexico City

Tour guide was great Beautiful part of mexico

Enjoy an Oaxacan dinner at Los Danzantes.

Mexico City

Delicious!

The first half of our trip was really well planned with great hotels, perfectly timed transportation and amazing tour guides. At the end of the trip we were reserved in a hotel that was extremely inconvenient and kept giving us false information. We wasted most of our time in Tulum trying to work around the inconvenient location of the hotel.

Hotel Reviews

Histórico Central Mexico City

Mexico City

Great hotel and location. The breakfast menu was excellent. Very clean hotel and helpful service.

Authenticity & Character

Clean, beautiful and easy

Location

Located perfectly near the main attractions

Staff

Helpful recommendations

Cleanliness & Comfort

Great beds

El Mesón del Marqués

Valladolid

Great location and helpful people. Very pretty building

Authenticity & Character

Great ambience and restaurant

Location

On the main square

Staff

Helpful and friendly

Cleanliness & Comfort

Good beds but a smell of mildew

Copal Tulum Hotel

Beautiful room and pools but the location is terrible and the staff repeatedly gave us incorrect information

Authenticity & Character

Nice pool

Location

It takes hours to get to the beach and walking to the center of town requires walking through a poor neighborhood with no sidewalks and muddy dirt roads

Staff

Incorrect information was given at least 4 times

Cleanliness & Comfort

Clean and good beds

Activity Reviews

Be amazed by the pre-hispanic beauty of the chinampas in Xochimilco

Mexico City

The boats are beautiful and the scenery fascinating

Quality of Experience

Very interesting

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Lots of information and a great tour

Transport

Tour the famous and picturesque neighborhood of Coyoacán.

Mexico City

The market was fascinating and the fruit stand a once in a lifetime experience. The neighborhood otherwise didn’t seem very interesting

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Visit of Teotihuacan and the Basilica of Guadalupe

Mexico City

Fascinating archaeology and Luis, our guide, was extremely knowledgeable.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Walking tour through the historic center of Valladolid

Valladolid

The guide was friendly but his English was hard to understand

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Explore Chichén Itzá: A Wonder of the Mayan World

Chichén Itzá

The driver, Carlos, was very friendly and helpful. The guide was informative and nice. The site is very crowded

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Visit a peaceful cenote and enjoy traditional mayan food

Mexico

Amazing swimming and a great lunch

Quality of Experience

Food

Sops de lima was great

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Carlos was really nice

Explore the mysterious area of Ek Balam

Ek Balam

A less crowded site where you can climb the pyramid

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Carlos was very nice

Visit to Xcanche Cenote

Ek Balam

Great experience and lots of fun

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Carlos was nice and helpful

Transport

Maria was nice. Other than that everything was horrible except the hotel in Puebla . Starting from our hotel room in Mexico City to uber driver from Puebla to Mexico City as he kept turning the AC off in the car in the heat. The boat guide was good. We did not like the way we were given the hotel room or the way we were treated when we complained about the hotel

To preface, we have used Kim-Kim 2 previous times and were pleased with the experience each time; this time was the exact opposite. The over arching issue was poor communication. Throughout the planning process we were very clear in our desires. When we expressed them, Andrea would agree and then present a plan which was different from discussed. This disconnect progressed for 3 weeks (2 months before the planned trip) when we finally called KimKim admin to step in for a better person to work with.

Gustavo jumped in to help, and honestly things did not improve significantly. Like before we would try and be clear about our desires and he would agree to our requests. Then he would present something different. As we got closer to the trip, there were also delays in responses to our questions. Excuses were given, always different, but the delays for prompt answers to our questions kept piling up. This affected our ability to make plans outside the official tour related events. We wanted to figure out meals, restaurant reservations, shopping opportunities etc. This was especially challenging and anxiety provoking since we were a travel group of 11 which included travelers aged 11 to 80, half of which were seniors. Gus kept making the excuse that we keep changing the plans. Our perspective is that the proposed plans have not been satisfactory and we keep catching the flaws.

Specific issues with our planning involved our desire to have a tour focused on food and religiosity for our visit to Mexico City. We wanted an overview type day - tour of the city and food tour at the beginning of the week were in CDMX. Then each day would have a mass/visit to church and as the week progressed we build on the great beginning city tour. Didn’t seem like a big ask - but they couldn’t do it. In the final itinerary, we were offered a city tour with food tour at the last day of the tour, the exact opposite of what we wanted. After we continued to push, they relented and placed a city/food tour on day 2 of our itinerary.

When day 2 arrived, our local guide Yuichi Pablo was very nice and educational. He took us a tour of Metropolitan Church and a limited walking tour of the city. But not a single food tour or sample. NOTHING. So when we got to lunch, we complained and also contacted the local tour operator, Ibis Murillo at Rutopia. They apparently knew nothing about the agreed food tour on the itinerary. This was maddening. So Yuichi’s adjustment on the fly was to take us to a sandwich shop.

To appease us, Yuchi promised to try and add food elements into our itinerary. To meet this end, he added a lunch stop at a touristy restaurant each of our tour days. As you can see, very underwhelming and disappointing. Yuichi was a wonderful guide in terms of meeting our goal for religiosity - he really understood the special history of the Catholic Churches we visited and helped us worship and attend mass each day. So kudos to that.

One final knock against our travel week is the driver they used for our week visit, Carlos. He drove a large Mercedes van for us and was a great driver and kept the vehicle clean. However he also had poor communications skills with Yuichi and the parent company, Rutopia. When he dropped us off for a site visit and then parked, he was always late upon returning to pick us up. The worst was on the second to last day of our trip, he dropped us off at Teotihuacan (pyramids). When we finished he did not come to fetch us for over 30 minutes - in the hot sun with our aged parents, aunts and uncle. Our guide Yuichi unsuccessfully messaged him in watsapp and called on his cell phone but he never answered. On the final day, we had early flights out of Mexico City and he was to pick us up at 4:40am. When he hadn’t shown up by 4:55 (15 minutes past the scheduled time) I used the whatsapp to contact our on call tour operator, Ibis. I sent her messages 2x with no response. I then tried calling Ibis directly and finally got hold of her. She proceeded to call our driver Carlos directly, but she said he wasn’t answering her phone calls. This was completely unacceptable especially on a travel day.

These poor experiences really tested our patience and dampened our excitement. It certainly ruined what could have been a great visit to CDMX.

Ultimately I cannot recommend KimKim based on this experience. We also caution travelers who decide to visit Mexico City to make sure they do NOT use Rutopia, or any travel firm that associates with them.