From start to finish, a good experience
Chile
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Jan 12 - Feb 10, 2025
From start to finish, we had a good experience. I don't know if we saved any money using KimKim, but we definitely were more organized and less stress and we didn't have to spend hours and hours doing the planning ourselves. So, that was a huge benefit. We learned about a Puma refuge while we were visiting Chile that I would have liked to have visited (but didn't because we didn't know about it), but otherwise I felt that our trip covered all the "must-do" sights. Francisco managed questions and interactions with vendors along the way, so we felt we were well informed.
Hotel Reviews
The hotel is nice, and the rooms are a good size. The restaurant for dinner was very good. The lunch menu is very small - basically burgers. The rooms have no A/C, just a fan . . . so it can get quite warm in the summer. The pool did not have fresh water; it looked stagnant and not inviting at all.
We stayed here multiple times as we flew to the airport one day and back out again the next day. The dinner restaurant is fine, but the breakfast wasn't worth waking up for. We went the first day and then after that didn't bother with breakfast because the fruit looked sad, the eggs were runny, and nothing really looked appealing. The rooms are nice, large, and well air-conditioned. It is a very easy walk from arrivals to the hotel.
We didn't end up staying at this hotel. We booked it and paid for it and didn't get a refund. In spite of that, we switched to another hotel. The room was not well-maintained. The shower pan was stained and dirty looking - no way was I going to stand in that shower. The rest of the bathroom was sad. The room was very hot . . . and there was only a fan. The door to the patio had a screen, but it had holes in it. The only place for wifi was by reception, which was also sad looking - not a place where you want to hang out at all. The location would have been fine - about an 8 minute walk to the main restaurants/beach area, but we couldn't handle it.
This hotel is older - the rooms are small and a bit run-down. There is no elevator, so if you're traveling with suitcases, request a room on the ground floor. The breakfast area is upstairs, so that could be a problem if you have mobility issues. The toilet in our room was lopsided . . . which tells you the attention to detail to expect in the hotel. The location is fine - and easy 5 minute walk to the beginning of the main street through the small town.
The foyer and reception areas are much nicer than the rooms. The rooms are small and the bathrooms (and the shower) are tiny. The food was fine. The location is okay, but you are at least 12 minutes walk from the water.
The hotel is new and well-maintained, but it is a 10-minute, rough ride through rough roads via Uber to get to the town where the restaurants are. After a long day of excursions, we weren't particularly excited about having to catch an uber into town. The cost of the uber is reasonable, about $5 USD each way, but it's a bit of a hassle. The breakfast was nice - and is available in the fridge (cereal, breads, coffee, and fruit) so you can eat it when you want to . . . which means you don't have to get a packed breakfast for an early excursion. That was a nice benefit.
We stayed here twice. Depending on what you want to do, this location could be good. Apparently it is completely unsafe in the evenings, though. The desk clerk and 2 strangers all told us to hold on to our phones and be careful . . . . Yikes! The rooms have A/C, but our first room was HOT and the AC was supposedly on. The other two rooms were a bit better, but not really cooled. So, if you like a room to be cool when you sleep, I would go elsewhere. The dinner and the breakfasts were both good.
