We did a 3 week trip to Peru, Chile, and Argentina covering the Peruvian Amazon, Lima, Santiago, Valparaiso, Patagonia (Torres del Paine National Park in Chile and El Calafate in Argentina), Iguazu Falls, and Buenos Aires.  To give you some of my travel background, I’ve been to about 45+ countries, and usually travel abroad either for work or vacation 5-6 times a year, accounting for maybe 5 months a year.  I say this to qualify things when I say that usually when I travel I self travel and never use a travel planner, but in places like South America if you’re going a bit off the beaten path, or in Africa on safari, my advice is really not to “wing it” and try to do it yourself.  The middle of nowhere can be a lonely place to be when something goes wrong or you miss a flight.

Yampu, and Karolina specifically were great.  Basically I told her what I wanted to see, and then she did the legwork and came up with some itineraries.  We went back and forth a bit and added and dropped stuff (we dropped Macchu Picchu, for example).  I’m 40 and my wife 36, and we took my 67 year old parents on this trip, so it needed to be exciting enough for us, but comfortable enough for my folks.  Karolina kept all of that in mind and did a great job booking us into exactly what we asked for – the best hotels and lodges in each place.  More importantly was the handling of logistics of getting from one place to another – seamless, and always with someone at the airport to pick you up and get you to the hotel, which when you’re in rural Argentina or Chile is really a help – and a relief to know for sure that you’re not being swindled.

We had one hiccup on our trip – they booked us into a restaurant that just was sort of terrible – and I let Karolina know.  She was very apologetic about it, and to make it right Yampu treated us to another dinner later in the trip at Iguazu that was excellent.  Mistakes happen, and I guess the restaurant declined since they last visited, but I appreciated the candor and eagerness to make it up to us.  That effort was appreciated.

Overall the organization and communication are great, and I can’t recommend Karolina and Yampu highly enough.