Remarkable family trip!
Colombia
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Jun 24 - Jul 3, 2022
We had a remarkable family trip to Colombia recently. Michael from Chaska Travel was incredibly flexible, attentive to details, and prompt in getting us information and making adjustments to the itinerary to match our interests and needs as a family with 3 kids ages 4-10. Very much appreciated arrangements for all internal travel as well. With Michael's help, we had a seemless trip that started in Medellin, including a day trip to Guatape and Penol Piedra with our wonderful guide Will and continued in the coffee region. Will even provided us a list of recommendations for vegetarian-friendly restaurants for later in our trip in Cartegena; we went to several and all were delicious! Our guide Jose was terrific and knowledgeable as was our driver Mario who knew so much about birds! Jose even checking in with us after we had left his company to make sure we we had reached Cartegena and were continuing to enjoy our trip. The coffee region was beautiful and lush and we enjoyed our hike to the waterfall with a nature guide. Cartegena is beautiful and our hotel was perfectly located. A bike tour was the perfect way to get around and learn the layout of the old city and much better for the kids than walking! We are thankful to Michael for finding a way to get us to Hotel Las Islas which was a truly wonderful experience in terms of service, activities, food, and the setting. A truly memorable trip that was a pleasure to plan and take with the help of KimKim and Chaska tours!
Hotel Reviews
Great breakfast, very friendly staff! Rooms are large, clean and comfortable.
Beautiful setting on a coffee farm surrounded by lush vegetation, the hotel has a lovely central courtyard and friendly staff.
Excellent location in the Old City of Cartagena with clean and comfortable rooms and friendly staff, great morning breakfast on rooftop.
Activity Reviews
The Santa Rosa Hot Springs are an impressive setting and the hot springs were fun, although crowded when we went as it was a holiday. Getting in at first was confusing due to the crowds but once in, all was straightfoward. We had some issues with dinner as almost no vegetarian items on their menu were available and arrangements had to be made for our driver to stop at a restaurant in town with us so we could eat. Worth considering in determining the timing of when to go to hot springs.
Great hike -- thank goodness for the rain boots provided by the nature guide!
Great way to get a sense of the old city and see the main historical sites before exploring further by foot although a little hard to navigate on bikes with traffic and narrow streets. Guide was a little nervous with our kids but they were fine. The vendor for the bikes would benefit from improving their helmets which did not adjust/fit well.
The aviary is impressive but it was just too hot and humid to fully enjoy on the day we went. The educational show at the two set times is okay but not a huge loss if missed (especially if not fluent in Spanish). We rushed through the last several exhibits before the arena to get to show in time.
Hi Sangini,
thank you very much for the detailed travel report. It's nice to see that you liked the activities and hotels so much and that you could get a super good impression of this great country! Thanks to your whole family, for the uncomplicated realisation of the trip and the nice communication during the travel planning and during the trip.
Sunny greetings from San Agustín,
Michael and the Chaska Tours Team