Kimkim Trip Reviews for India

We had a fabulous trip to India with a fantastic driver Vikram. However our whole experience has been marred by our guides need to feed us to the lions at every opportunity. We felt like they thought we were walking ATMs to be fleeced at every opportunity. Our first day we were talking to a store, our guide told us he just wanted to show us something. Then we were led to the slaughter. My husband works in the Middle East and is used to bartering but this was an all out attack that left us feeling abused. We bought a pashmina we neither needed or wanted just to get out. After this we made it clear we did not want to shop, we don’t need stuff we travel for the experience not the tat. Another guide took us to a palace and even though we had specifically said we did not want to shop we ended up sitting infront of an artist where both the guide and artist embarrassed us into paying £100 for a picture but were quite disappointed that we didn’t buy the £450 they started with. We were made to feel mean and tight by both of them. The fact that we could neither afford or wanted the picture meant nothing to them. If this is how your guides operate I would be reluctant to use them again.

Overall, our trip was fantastic. Our local guide, Jagdish Thakur was absolutely wonderful in every way. He was knowledgeable, professional, and compassionate.

I felt that communication with Angela could have been better. There were some issues with pricing that took a phone call to iron out. She also was unclear on the registration process to see the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala. It cost us a couple of hours of unnecessary waiting in a line (in the rain.) There was also a lack of communication with Jagdish prior to the trip.

It seems that the advertised itinerary was at times simply impossible to complete in the amount of time allotted. This was a yoga retreat, and we were unable to do yoga for the first week due to the schedule, and the hotels where we stayed. Seems this could have been better planned. (?)

As I said, despite these issues, everyone still had a FANTASTIC trip. Thanks so much!

Jessica Lohrey

The trip was amazing, more than I could have hoped for. I was able to meet with winemakers and winery owners. The guide assigned to my trip was extremely knowledgeable and was able to answer all of my questions.

Everyone showed up on time, and schedules were flexible enough to meet our needs. No problems, no "hitches", no hassle.

Very well done!

This is a response from Bernard and Jean as a couple.

In rating your services, we are making a direct comparison to the last time we were in India on a small tour in 2014 as well as a private tour in Portugal in 2017.

We found the contact with Preeti to be sporadic with twice having to contact kimkim because Preeti was not responding to emails. We suggest that kimkim should have a "follow through" strategy if staff/contractors are sick or on leave. All emails should be responded to within 24 hours.

The only time we had good response from Preeti was when payment was requested.

Accomodation, before and at the end of the tour, was not finalised until very late despite a number of requests for this to happen. As a result of this we booked our own private accommodation at the beginning and end of the tour which was infinitely better in character than was provided by the tour.

On previous tours we have been provided with an itinerary well beforehand by email as well as a paper copy on joining the tour. This was not offered or provided. We had to scroll through many emails to look for itinerary.

We were very pleased with our guide Arun. He was informative, knowledgable and well organised. He ensured that we were safely taken to our destinations re:accommodation, tourist sites etc. We would highly recommend him to any future tour groups.

Our driver Shaqa was also very good - he was polite, patient and got us safely around South India.
The vehicle provided was excellent and reliable. It was cleaned everyday and water bottles were provided on a daily basis.

A separate guide in Goa, Avi (sp), "shouted" at us. The only time he lowered his voice was in a church. He was however well informed and had a rich knowledge of the area.

We were disappointed by the accommodation provided. The hotels selected were all characterless boxes which could have been from anywhere in the world. It appeared that little thought was given to showing Indian authenticity and pride. On a private tour such as this we had an expectation that the accommodation would be chosen that reflected the character of the area.

Amit, our guide throughout the trip was an exceptional young professional on so many levels. His personality and patient disposition were indispensable in creating a relaxed and fun experience. He is very knowledgeable in the 4 major religions of India and his command of dates and facts rivals a PhD in Eastern religion. A good teacher communicates by sharing stories and Amit explained wars (political and religious), customs, cultures, gods and goddesses and historical people like he was intimately involved with each one and sharing the history of his country as if reading a novel or watching a movie. Vividly, animatedly, and with humor. We were lucky to have had him all to ourselves!. He was also a fun person and highlighted his stories with personal tales of his life in India.

DalGeet Ji was an incredibly skilled driver. His knowing the roads all over Rajisthan, especially when construction and some political demonstrations lead to road blocks, made the trip so much more reliable and safe. Again, we were very lucky to have had him. He got along with Amit so well.

Highlights for me were: (1) the night in the Thar desert with the best meal of the trip cooked by Soda and Abdul over the open fire, (2) praying in the Sikh temple and then visiting the kitchen , (3) The sound and light water show in Delhi, (3) the colors of the markets, men and women's attire, (4) the graciousness of everyone in letting us photograph them, and (5) the elegant little hotels that each had cultural character, beauty and /or historical significance.

Our guide (Arun Panicker) deserves full marks. He is a classic CCC person (Cool, Calm and Collected) with a deep knowledge of everything Indian (history, culture, social issues, etc) and an excellent concise and precise information approach.
We all did some background reading about South India, so for me the "unexpected" was the most interesting (e.g. the room of thousands columns in the Meenakshi Amman Temple Complex - a fairy ordinary rectangular structure on the outside and an incredible jewel inside; the Sri Aurobindo Ashram - historically apparently a failure but still very impressive; the wide and very green streets of Chennai, etc).
Pondicherry's French quarters were quaint and charming; Goa was over touristy...
The houseboat on Kerala's tranquil backwaters was delightful and the boat ride through the narrow channels felt timeless - the women were doing the washing by the shores, the men were fishing for dinner, the kingfishers were flying above...
The spice plantation was a wonderful learning experience and in the little town of Trichy I finally found Tourmaline in silver setting!

After some initial communication difficulties, Preeti’s responsiveness and the kimkim mail system greatly facilitated the trip experience. She did very well given that we were widely dispersed geographically and somewhat unsure of exactly what we wanted to do. In the end though, the whole trip came together really well.

Preeti excelled herself with the choice of guide, Arun Panicker. His maturity, experience and responsiveness were absolutely perfect for the ages of our group. And on top of all that, his excellent command of English and knowledge of all aspects of India made the trip highly educational and much more enjoyable than just a temple visit focused experience that it might have been under a different type of guide or tour leader.

Our Driver Manoj,
The guide in Coimbetore Prkash,
City foods guide Sounder,
Sundar in Trichy,
They were great and courteous, knowledgable and eager to show us things around.
Prakash in coimbatore specially was a superb fine young man.
Hats off to the whole team!

Well to sum up our trip it definitely met the "Incredible India" tour. We found the whole trip to be wonderful. A few items could have been better but both my wife and I believe we truly got immersed into India, history, culture, cities, countryside and most importantly the wonderful people of India.

We were met at the Mumbai Airport at 3AM in the morning by a guide and driver who took us to a money exchange person at that time of the night and got a better rate than the airport exchanges. We were driven directly to Hotel Godwin and got checked in with NO problems. We received our documents and vouchers for our whole trip. Hotel Godwin proved to be a very nice hotel at a great location near the India Gate in Mumbai. Since we got in so late we took the day off and just wandered around the area with no problems. Breakfasts were very good at the hotel but the restaurant in the evening (Cloud 9) was just so-so, not bad - not good.
Our tours were nicely timed typically our pickup was about 15 to 20 minutes after the agreed on time but considering the traffic we were not displeased. Elephant Island was very interesting and our guide was informative. The great thing was our guides were conversant in English and they were with us to make sure we got to the right spots, offered tips on how and what to do and gave us a very great analysis of what we were looking at. Victoria Train Station was fun and interesting as was the outdoor laundry amazing place. Bollywood was OK fun to learn about the filming process, the dancers were just students in a tiny stage versus a real Bollywood performance. Watching a 3 hour Bollywood movie got boring very fast as we did not understand Hindi, just an hour of so would have been plenty. I was nice to visit a movie theater and sample the snacks. The Dabbawallas were very interesting and it was great to learn how they perform their services. Fun little train ride and to buy tickets. Another outdoor laundry and we were driven to the airport with plenty of time to spare so we have no last minute hassles. Good Mumbai visit.
We were picked up at Delhi Airport and deposited at the Taj Princess Hotel. Hotel was good also breakfast was OK and the location was nice allowing us to wander the street. Old Delhi was a very good visit, riding in Rickshaw, visiting temples and mosques etc. Amazing place with animals in the streets and crowded bustling area. We were a little disappointed we did not get to sample "street food" as we were warned the water and oil used in the cooking process might not be the best for us. Probably good advice but it sure smelled good (we love Indian food of all sorts) The Gandhi memorial was nice but the real great thing was the Gandhi house with the little museum, learned a lot and it was very nicely done without hurrying us along. The New Delhi was very nice wide roads and modern government buildings. The annual independence day was coming up so we got to see preparations for the parade and a few groups practicing. The Qutab Minar and the Humayun Tomb was great and our guide very informative. The visit to the Delhi slums was interesting and we got to provide some bags to chips to the children again something you need to see. This tour was to a "newer" slum as the Indian government is trying to rebuild the area providing better housing. Our guide Samar in Delhi was very good providing us with a lot of information.

Our driver for much of our northern India tour was Ravinder Tiwani and he was excellent getting us thru unbelievable traffic without any mishaps. Our drive to Jaipur took us thru countryside. He took us to the Hotel Suryaa Villa which was a nice hotel good breakfast. My wife was not too happy with her dinner but I kind of liked my dinner at the hotel. The Pink City tour was great and the Amber Fort with the elephant ride was very good. We asked for some extra time to allow my wife to walk the Jaipur markets and our guide made sure we had the time we asked. Our tour of the Jai Singh II Observatory is not to be missed (I actually thought of cancelling it BUT am SO glad we did not cancel) I was very impressed. The Maharajah Palace tour was good as well. Our poor driver worked a long day as we did the evening Indian cooking class we love Indian food and learned so new tricks to making a great Indian dinner. Fun and Yummy at the Harsoli Haveli with Beena as our host.

Now on to Ranthambore a long drive but again we got to see the countryside stopping at the Om Rudra Priya Resort - what a great room huge. Disappointed at no wifi in rooms and one evening no hot water but a very nice place. We wandered out and took a tuk-tuk ride into town to wander around. Our tiger safari was wonderful. We made a mistake and did not have a blanket with us in the morning so we were extremely cold riding to the reserve BUT we had the great luck of seeing a tiger in the open and got great pictures of the tiger and the herds of deer, antelope, crocodiles, monkeys, birds etc. Wow was this fun!!! Breakfast was very good and our evening dinner was nothing short of excellent - do not miss the pre-fix dinner too much food but incredible veggies and a little butter chicken. We were so surprised and happy exactly what we were looking for.

On to Agra with a stop at the Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary. We had been told to see the Bird Santuary from an Indian ex-pat here in the US but I was kind of skeptical about seeing birds. Once again I was totally wrong what a great stop our guide was Krishna was excellent. We learned a lot and got to spend some time walking the park with him. He was an enthusiastic Indian tourist supporter and made our visit great. Also he found a few Indian Rock Pythons for us to view.
Our hotel in Agra was the Howard Plaza The Fern. A very nice modern hotel with a great breakfast. Our tours of Agra were also very good with of course the Taj Mahal being the star. Our guide suggested a few tour modifications since the Taj in winter is hidden in early morning fog so we took his suggestion and visited the Red Fort first - as interesting as the Taj in my opinion. We saw the exterior of the Taj and then early the next morning we visited the interior. Our guide was great. He allowed us time to explore the town on our own where we walked and rode tuk-tuks. Fun to visit the local market place but watch out for the open sewers.

Our driver got us back to Delhi with plenty of time to spare to catch our flight to Varanasi. As usual we were met at the airport and escorted to our hotel the Temple on the Ganges. Although the location was very good on the Ghat Assi it was certainly the worst hotel of our stay. Our room was not cleaned although we were there three nights we just asked for fresh towels. The bathroom was tiny so when you showered the whole place was wet. Small room and the breakfast was so-so. I ate dinner there one night and it too was OK but nothing special. Varanasi is a very special place not to be missed. Our guide did a great job getting us to the right places and explaining the city with its temples, Hindu and Buddhist, Ghats in the morning and at night. At the end of our temple tour they dropped us off to allow us to wander the streets and Ghats. We spent a lot of time watching the cremations and walking the streets. We finally took a tuk-tuk ride back to our hotel but then stopped at a restaurant called Diyva near our hotel. Again we ended up with a spectacular vegetarian dinner so good I asked our waiter to write down the names of what we ordered so we could try to make some of these items at home. Lots of open sewers, animals of all sorts wandering the street, traffic and blowing horns but we got the full immersion into India. We were driven to the airport with plenty of time to get our flight back to Delhi. Once back in Delhi we were met at the airport to be transferred to the International Terminal for our flight out of India.

Spectacular trip which we will never forget. By and large the hotels were good with amazing wifi access except for Ranthanbore. Our Varanasi hotel left a bit to be desired. I think the location of all of the hotels were located in almost perfect spots to allow us to walk the streets. We had no problems in the streets and never felt unsafe. There was enough English speaking available for us to get around and purchase what we wanted. We were very pleased with the drivers and guides across the board. Having our "own" driver and guide made the trip extra special as we could make minor changes along the way. We recommend Kimkim and Active India if you want a tour tailored to your specific requests.

All our guides were informative, polite and eager to make our experience memorable. However, each guide was also eager to take us to a particular shop, each saying there was no pressure to buy.
Both our drivers, Vinod and Thaslim were most accommodating, and Thaslim often suggested places we could look at, or that we might find interesting. This added to our experience. We appreciated Vinod's driving skills, which were exceptional but unfortunately we also found it a little difficult to communicate with him to his lack of English and our lack of Hindi. The guide which met us at Cochin airport was very informative and spent the time talking through the itinerary - we really appreciated this and would have like this to happen in Delhi.
Transitions from place to place and guide to guide was flawless and very well managed.
It would be hard to write about the most memorable place as every place we went was fantastic. Each of our family members liked something different. My husband particularly enjoyed the Ranthambore National Park, spotting 2 tigers and 2 leopards, as well as the boat ride on the Ganges. I loved the Mehrangarh Fort.
We were a little bit sad that our organiser had written on our form that we were to visit places that weren't actually open on the days we were there. Such as Cochin - Mattancherry Palace and the Jewish Synagogue. Also in Jaipur the bazaars weren't open as it was a festival. The tea museum was also closed. Checking the timetables against opening times and special days etc is not difficult. Unfortunately when you arrive somewhere and are told that it is closed can be disappointing especially if you have been looking forward to it for a very long time.
All hotels were good, whilst some were fabulous. Unfortunately our first impression of India was not good with our stay at the Taj Princess - we arrived late evening and was put into a room which was not nice - it was dirty and the bed was very soft and uncomfortable. We asked to be moved and the staff were happy to do this. Unfortunately this room, whilst looking better, had electrical sockets hanging off the walls and the toilet seat was not attached. At this point both my husband and I were very apprehensive about our choice to go to India for our holiday of a liftetime - this was not a good first impression and we would recommend that you do not use this hotel anymore (I also feared for our safety). However, the food and people were wonderful. We had an issue with some chocolate that we had bought for our grandchildren was stolen at Clouds Valley Hotel - we reported this and the chocolate was replaced but we weren't really happy with how it was handled.
Whilst a lot of this sounds negative. I have written about the hotels as feedback so that you can do something to improve this and perhaps consider their selection in the future.
I would thoroughly recommend Active India to everybody and have already done so to a family member. We loved our time in India and will start saving to come back in the next couple of years. Thank you.

Great trip all in all.

A few attempts needed to convey that we did not want city/corporate style hotels. The stand out accommodation was Ahilya By the Sea, which we sourced ourselves.

Guides were good (other than Elephanta) - drivers were excellent. Trips were broadly ok but nothing we could not have organised ourselves. However, more thought needs to be put into making a tour special. The itinerary pretty standard, was disjointed and needed rearranging. Whilst we were able to do this, on one occasion it required a guide to travel by road overnight from Mumbai to Nasik (!). Otherwise, we would have been having a wine tasting straight after breakfast (!). Not sure why a local guide would not be available.

Major issue on our last day in that a dolphin tour was substituted with a fishing trip and an afternoon on a beach without any communication. In fact, in was only when we were on the beach (not to our taste at all) that we were told that we were not on a dolphin trip. Whilst I understand the reasons for the John's Tours trip being cancelled, alternative dolphin spotting trips are promoted via Trip Advisor, including one at Coco Beach (where we were staying!). What a waste of a day....

The offer of dinner hardly compensated and to add insult to injury, Kim Kim refused to pay the drinks bill (just INR 1550!). In context, we paid over $9,000 for this trip.

Going over old ground again, shortly after we paid the balance for the trip, our preferred hotel was changed for the first 3 nights in Mumbai. We remonstrated at the time without success but Kim Kim somehow construed that we were happy with the replacement hotel option and decided to change our final night in Mumbai (2 weeks later) to that hotel also. Whilst the replacement hotel was good, it was not our choice (which was Abode - a 'must visit' in a number of guide books).

All this is of course covered in your T&C's but it does not lead me to conclude that Kim Kim is a quality operation and I would not recommend. Quite the reverse in fact.

First, our driver Ravi Kumar was excellent. A very kind man, attentive to our needs and a very good driver in India traffic. Most memorable was the Jain temple and of course Agra Taj Mahal, but many of the other sites were also amazing. We had a lot of fun and made great memories. The tour was well organized and Ravi was always very punctual for our outings. The choice of hotels were adequate, of course a few were 5 star and extremely modern and comfortable. All of our city guides were knowledgeable and performed nicely.

Priya quickly understood what we wanted and arranged everything very well. She was also flexible with some changes we made, and was gracious.
All of our drivers showed up and were very courteous. The hotels were very good, no complaints there.
The best tour was to the Elephanta Caves. The guide was a local, very knowledgeable and sweet.
The weak part was that one day in Mumbai was overloaded. The guide for the day was late in the AM. We had to beg for lunch after the Elephanta Caves, which we ate in the car on the way to the "Bollywood tour." Looking back, we should have had a longer tour on day before and less on that day. Also the Bollywood tour, as it was called, was inadequate. It was a dusty old set and there was no demonstration of a shoot-out as described. The dancers were good (just three) but we had no interest in the karaoke. The tour guide there was nice enough, but the place was practically empty and it took over an hour to get there from our hotel. We didn't watch the whole Bollywood movie because it was so late by that time. I would not recommend that studio tour, and especially not during Christmas vacation when hardly anyone is working there.
We liked going to the Hanging Gardens. That day the guide was going to take us somewhere far away, I can't remember where, but we were tired of traveling in cars so we said no. I think overall in Mumbai attention must be paid to the travel factor. It's not something I had thought to ask about.

Thank you very much for arranging my trip to Kerala in India.
Over all the experience was very good and I had an enjoyable time.
My driver was very nice and keen to please, his English was sufficient.
I thought The Brunton Boat Yard was very good as were the staff.
The Flamingo Marari was also very nice, loud speakers broadcasting a religious festival made sleeping a little tricky! The hotel was also not exactly on the beach which was a little disappointing but not disastrous.
The boat house was fine for what it was.
Cardamom County was very good and the entertainment on NYE was also good, they tried hard to make it special.
Rivulet Resort I did not like, I the room was basic and a little run down, I found the restaurant staff awkward and not particularly friendly, there was no atmosphere, the hotel did not have a swimming pool which I expected.
The guide in Thekkady was good as was the guide in Fort Cochin. The guide in Munnar was not that good.
With kind regards
Jason

My Mother and I spent around 10 days touring the Rajasthan area of India. We had a fantastic time.
Angela was able to customize our trip to fit the needs.. For instance we wanted to stay at higher end hotels, skip some attractions to see others, and slow down the pace a bit. She was patient with us as we had a lot of back and forth before settling on a final itinerary.
The driver we had was amazing and ensured our safety through out our trip. Our guides were thoughtful and were experts in guiding us though Indian history. We never felt pressured or unsafe during our entire time.
I’d highly recommend booking with Angela via KimKim.

Very professional, a great itinerary and we had an excellent time.

The trip was coordinated by Active India, which is your contact in India. It would have been good to understand this upfront. Bhupendra was an employee, who left AI part way through my planning process, but I wasn't told this upfront. I ended up dealing with three different agents with AI. In addition to that, AI doesn't provide any drivers or any guides outside of Delhi. They contract out for the drivers and hire local agents in each city, who then hire independent guides. Most of that went pretty smoothly, although in the final location, the guide questioned whether my trip included the payment into the sites. He was good about it, but that illustrates the challenges with the dissemination of the actual services so far down the chain. Again, it just would have been good to know that upfront, so that I could be prepared for how everything was to unfold. Overall though, the guides were very professional and I really liked our driver Prakash. They all did an excellent job looking after us.

Overall we had a fantastic time and the help Priya provided was great. We changed our minds a few times and Priya was more than happy to accommodate which we appreciate. A few of the hotels were slightly out of date but that was our only gripe. Driver Gopal was amazing, and all guides provided were good fun and very interesting. Thanks again.

The whole trip throughout South India was very well organised and executed by the Kim Kim team.
Unfortunately, one incident near the end of the trip ruined my final memories and has caused me to cancel future plans to visit North India.
On the last day in Kerala, the driver (Tency) who had been with me constantly since Chennai stopped the vehicle in a deserted industrial area and demanded, in a most threatening way, that I give him the tip (gratuity) immediately.
This behaviour was so 'out of character', that I was most disturbed and, in fact, frightened for my life.
This incident has caused me to review (cancel) my intended trip to North India with Kim Kim.
Ralph Watkins