Personalized trips to Brazil
for independent travelers

My son and I who are Philadelphia Eagles fans, visited Brazil, from August and September of 2024. Our 20-day tour of Brazil included stops at Sao Paulo, Paraty, Angra Dos Reis, Rio De Janeiro, Iguacu Falls, Jumo Lodge in Amazon Jungle near Manaus, the historic City of Salvador, Chapdada National Park at Lincois . Thanks to Kim Kim's tour specialist Sara Martinel, our tour and experiences of Brazil was beyond amazing!! Prior to the start of the tour, we shared with Sara what we wanted to do such as including but not limited to hiking on mountains, snorkeling in the ocean, visit the waterfalls and magnificent caves, appreciate the history and culture and cuisines of Brazil and she made it happen!

Our daily trips were well thought out and provided a variety of options and recommendations! She tailored our trip and itinerary such a way that we were able to travel on road between certain cities to enjoy and appreciate the landscape! Each day we were provided accurate and specific driving plan with stops programmed in and links to other optional places. Travel arrangements were beyond imagination. From the moment we arrived at Sao Paulo, the transfer services from the airport to hotel and hotel to the domestic airports were like timer on a clock. The professional tour guides she selected for us were well informed and kept a pace we could keep. The list of tour guides we has were Alberto Cardoso and Andre Van Berg in Rio, Leon Courtman in Amazon Jungle, Ray Salvador in Salvador and Roco Belletti in Sao Paulo were amazing. These guides commented on wide variety of things in Brazil from Amazon rain forests to history of Salvador and other significance with each place and were recetive to questions and adjustment to the tour. The drivers we had were fantastic. Hotels and the Juma Lodge Sara selected for us were exceeded our expectations.

This was my first time using Kimkim and we highly recommend to other. I can’t wait to use them again!

Hotel Reviews

Wyndham São Paulo Paulista

Sao Paulo

Nice hotel

Authenticity & Character

Nothing can be improved due to constraint with the building structure

Location

Conveniently located close to other attractions in Sao Paulo.

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotel de Lençóis

Lençóis - BA

An historic building converted to a hotel but looks like a beautiful lodge. The entire ambience is so beautiful that we spent significant amount of time walking in and around the hotel. Dining hall is an open air pavilion with an 180 degree view of the nature. Birds simply sit next us while we eat our morning breakfast. We could hear the bird chirping every morning.

Authenticity & Character

Simply it looks like a lodge that is generally built in a jungle

Location

Located at the highest point in Lincois and is next to a beautiful municipal park with multiple water falls.

Staff

Staff were very friendly and cordial.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Very clean facility

Bahiacafe Hotel

Salvador

Beautiful historic building located in a historic district. View of the bay from the dining room windows was magnificient

Authenticity & Character

A historic building is converted to a hotel with all historic architecture still contained in the building.

Location

Conveniently located to all historic buildings and tourist spots and restaurants and activities. Every location within the historic district is walkable

Staff

Staffs speak good English

Cleanliness & Comfort

Juma Amazon Lodge

Autazes

We had the best experience at the Lodge from the location, ambiance, food and staff.

Authenticity & Character

Built with natural wood including the swimming pool built into the lake

Location

Lodge is located in the middle of a lake and atmosphere is very quite and serene.

Staff

Very nice and friendly.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Very clean

Novotel Manaus

Manaus

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Viale Cataratas

Foz do Iguaçu

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Nobile Hotel Copacabana Design

Rio de Janeiro

Very nice hotel and convenient location.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Pousada do Principe

Paraty

Nice hotel

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Tijuca Forest and Botanical Garden Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro

Tijuca One of the best botanical gardens I have seen in a while. The extensive selection of plants and trees are labelled. Many of the species were brought from different parts of the world and plated and grown in this garden. There were many that I hadn’t seen before. I was amazed at how they were able to grow so much in the garden. Tijuca Forest is actually largest urban forest in the world. Also, it is growing on steep mountains located adjacent to Rio. We were told by our guide Alberto Cardoso that Tijuca forest was actually created by the reforestation efforts in the late 1800s. The view of Rio from the top of the forest is amazing. Also, the Christ the Redeemer , a colossal statue of Christ is located at the top of one of the mountain peaks in the Tijuca Forest.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Telegraph Stone RJ

Rio de Janeiro

One of the best experiences I ever had visiting this Telegraph Stone . Our guide was Andre Van Berg. He picked us from our hotel in Copacabana in the morning and drove to village. .I just turned 65 and the hike takes about an hour to reach the top of the mountain with an elevation gain of 1100 feet.. It was a little tuff going up . But our guide and my son kept the slow to pace to help me climb the mountain. The view of the surround area from the top of the mountain was breathtaking and the pictures were some of the best pictures I have ever taken on a vacation.

Quality of Experience

Hiking a steep mountain (1100 feet tall) and taking photos at the telegraph stone is simply an amazing experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Our guide Andre was very knowledgeable and understand what it takes to hike a steep mountain. He himself was very fit and agile.

Transport

Andre used his own car to drive us from Copacabana to the village and back to Rio. On the way back to Rio, he drove along the coast and showed us numerous beautiful beaches including Ipanema and Leblon

private transfer from Paraty to Rio with stop in Angra for boat tour

Brazil

Our driver was very friendly and helpful. Our stay in Paraty was short but we appreciated and enjoyed the time we spent in the Historic Center District

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Day 1: Arrival in Sāo Luis: The arrangements went smoothly until check-in to Hotel Luzeiros. The reservations were not paid and had to be billed to my companion's Visa until proof of payment was provided. This took longer than expected because the Hotel accounts office was closed leading to an e-mail trial and error. Not a great start. The problem was corrected eventually that evening.

Day 2: Group transfer from São Luis to Barrierinhas. The transfer bus was one hour late, leading to some anxious moments about being forgotten etc. The communication was minimal between KimKim and us, so we just had to wait and hope. When the transfer bus (about 20 passengers) finally arrived, the air conditioning broke down, leading to an unscheduled stop at the SL airport where an alternate vehicle could be arranged. About an hour delay, but the van arrived and we enjoyed a nice air conditioned ride to Barrierinhas. Wonderful couple of tour guides were patiently waiting for us to check in so they could take us to Lençoise MNP. It was an unbelievably beautiful experience - the guides knew the back dirt roads, leading to us enjoying the swimming/walking experience to ourselves. Nice guide walked us there and back, offering assistance to we elderly women. Pousada Boa Vista was lovely: clean, with one English speaking staff member who helped us immensely. We had to text KimKim Angela to give us the departure time for the tour the next day. This was an ongoing problem - we should not have always had to text for departure times. This is a standing complaint. Please always give departure times for tours. We should not have to always inquire!

Day 3 Preguicas River Tour

Absolutely disastrous. The company who is responsible for picking up passengers operates the tour boat as a transfer boat for passengers who have luggage and are heading to Atins. The boat operator was disorganized, did not bother to organize luggage to accommodate all passenger who were only there for the tour and did not take luggage.. The boat operator took a great interest in two pretty passengers, totally ignoring the rest of the passengers on the boat. We two (2) were left on the beach on the final stop without explanation from the boat operator except that he would return in an hour for us. Our reserved seats on the boat were occupied by two strangers who were picked up for the run Atins, down river. Absolutely unacceptable and this boat tour company should never be used again. Also pretty sure the boat operator took time to smoke a few reefers in between stops, but of course cannot prove that. Just felt unsafe all around.

Day 4 Barreirinhas to Parnaiba

Pousada Villa Parnaiba was probably the best accommodation that Parnaiba could offer, but the rooms were in need of a great deal of repair. The toilet shower was not operable. No restaurant was within a reasonable walking distance, so at great personal cost, food delivery was made to the hotel. The hamburger worked out to be about 120 Reals. The pool was a little dicey - very shallow with no discernible pool cleaning system observed, so no swimming was done there. The tour that was supposed to pick us up at the hotel was over an hour late. This meant that return from the river tour would be well after dark. Nothing to see when the river is dark, so there was no point in taking the tour. KimKim would not refund the cost of the tour, as they thought the tour was only 1/2 hour late. No point arguing. There was no refund given by KimKim.

Day 5 Parnaiba to Jericoacoara

The driver was wonderful but without English, it was difficult to understand the day's schedule. Long drive in the vehicle but enjoyed all the stops and runs along highway and beach. Very generous stops, and very nice lunch spot where the hammocks dip into the lake. Well organized, expert driver who ran us up sand dunes.

Day 6 Jericoacoara

The planned activity for the day was something that perhaps younger generation enjoy, but a hot dusty and bumpy buggy tour at high speeds around sand dunes was not really what either of us wanted to do. We cancelled immediately when we saw what we would be in for. We did request age appropriate activity and this did not fit the request at all. We were perfectly content to stay in Jeri for the day and sit at the beach. We were transferred the next day to another room because of a leaky toilet, without incident. We would like to give a shout out again to Leandro, our friend at the front desk for being an awesome host.

Day 8 Fortaleza

Transfer from Jeri to Fortaleza took 9 long hours. We were advised it would be a 4 hour transfer. No idea why it took so much longer, but were again treated to expert driving along beach and road. Hotel accommodation in Fortaleza was 5 star awesome. Right across from the beach. Great room and location.

Day 9 Fortaleza City Tour

We did not have the benefit of an English speaking guide, but we did hire a guide who showed us around beautiful Fortaleza; the opera house, and market. Unfortunately we cancelled the planned tour, and paid for a tour ourselves. We kept some local families happy with that double payment. Poor choice on our part, not KimKim's fault.

Day 11 Manaus City Tour

Beautiful hotel. 5 star. Unfortunately the car provided by the guide was not air conditioned and the temperature outside was 40 degrees. We did our best, but had to return to the hotel because of heat exhaustion. We missed touring the Indigenous People Museum, unfortunately.

Day 12-15 Ecopark Jungle Lodge

Grateful that we did not have to travel 3 hours up river, the Ecolodge was only an hour away via vehicle transfer and boat. Accommodation cabins were lovely. 3 meal a day food was always superb. Special presentation at the beach one night with amazing food and 5 star entertainment. It would appear that this was for the benefit of special guests at the lodge who we guessed reviewed and recommended accommodation on the Amazon. We got the benefit of ths special presentation - and enjoyed it thoroughly.

The transfer from Manous to Manous Airport did not show up at 9 a.m. or at all.
We took an Uber to the airport instead.

After the original accommodation was cancelled at Turtle Lodge, which was 3 hours further up river, the plane transfer would have been doable from EcoLodge - Manous - São Paulo. An extra night had to be spent in São Paulo because of timing with original accommodation arrangement. Unfortunate.

All in all, a well organized tour, but again, it was not acceptable that communication had to constantly be made with Angela to advise us about tour starting times every day.

Sara was incredibly responsive. She answered every question I had in a timely manner, and when there were logistical problems she worked to quickly solve them. She tailored our trip to our unique interest. We enjoy being in nature and the energy of a vibrant city. We would definitely work with Sara again.