Kimkim Trip Reviews

All of our guides, we had 4, were very helpful, they were especially helpful negotiating around weather and certain locations where there was mass tourism. The trip was well laid out and planned. Our contact in Turkey kept us up to date about each step of the way. We knew each tour guide, driver, including telephone numbers, as well as well as license plate numbers of drivers car. The hotels selected were all very good, with good locations. Well done.

The entire trip went very smooth. All the guides and drivers were very good and always on time. The 2 guides that stood out the most was Paulo and Vasco.

Activity Reviews

Get to Know Lisbon with a Local

Lisbon

Very informative

Quality of Experience

Explore Porto’s Hidden Gems with a Local Guide

Porto

Guided Visit to the Medieval Town of Óbidos

Óbidos

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Nice and comfortable car

Furnas Valley Excursion: Crater Lake, Hot Springs & Tea Plantation

São Miguel Island

We saw and experienced a lot on this trip. Vasco was a very good guide.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Peneda-Gerês National Park Experience: Easy Hike & Cultural Experience

Porto

We saw and did a lot but it was also a long day. A bit too long.

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Riding in the Land Rover wasn’t the most comfortable. Wouldn’t do that again.

Aveiro Experience: The Venice of Portugal

Portugal

Quality of Experience

A bit overrated

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Portugal - Important Trip Information: Please Review Before Departure

Portugal

First, Alice was lovely to work with! She accommodated all of the changes we requested and proactively adjusted our itinerary to work around a general strike. All of our hotels were exactly what we had requested and the transportation options were perfect. The only bump in the trip was the Giants Causeway/ Game of Thrones excursion and my husband already provided Alice with feedback about that day.
We will use KimKim again and have recommended it to our friends and family!

We had a great time on our four stops on the trip Athens, Naxos, us Paros and Santorini

Our guides in Athens Andreas on our food tour and Yorgos on our tour of the Acropolis and Parthenon. Both were great. In Knox, our guide of the Chora was Ariadne who was lovely and we took the E bike tour with our guide Olga. A great exploration into the inside of the island.
On Paros our guide Demetrius took us on a great trip to some of the remote villages and beaches on the island and a great lunch

Finally on Santorini, we had Mario take us to the villages of the island and we had a fantastic boat ride with our captain Yorgos and our first mate Alex

Hotel Reviews

xenodocheio Milos

Athens

We love everything about this hotel, the location, the staff, the rooms and the restaurant. We had been to the Milos restaurants in three other locations, and this one definitely held his own and was much more intimate.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Walking distance to everything and a cute area

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

18 Grapes Hotel Naxos

Naxos

We generally like this hotel a lot. Our biggest drawback was location in that we were further from the town and then we would have liked to have been and there wasn’t much to do in the area of the hotel since it was not really beach weather. Our room overlooked a parking lot, which was less than ideal when we were sitting on our balcony and trying to use the hot tub.

Authenticity & Character

Lovely space and rooms

Location

Staff

Everyone was great here. It was particularly great when I left my phone at the breakfast table, and they graciously ran after me, but couldn’t catch me but held onto the phone until my return and presented it with great panache.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Senia Hotel

Paros

This hotel was ideally situated a short walk from the village of Naousa. However, we did not love our room. The sink and bathroom area were really unusable with nowhere to put anything and shelves where everything fell through. We thought the staff was great and were helpful, including when arranging for a rental car.

Authenticity & Character

Location

I said it before, love that we were able to walk into town each evening for dinner.

Staff

Very helpful and accommodating.

Cleanliness & Comfort

The utility of the sink and bathroom area is really could use Work. It was very difficult to use.

Katikies Chromata Santorini - The Leading Hotels of the World

Santorini

We loved the location and character of this hotel. It was great to be outside of OIA and Fira. We also received an upgrade to a senior suite which had an amazing balcony and view of the Caldera. It was extremely private, and we rarely saw other people and our stay.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Wow. 6 stars

Staff

Very little live interaction but very responsive on WhatsApp in arranging transportation, etc.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Private Acropolis & Acropolis Museum Experience

Athens

We really enjoyed our tour and our guide as mentioned above. We particularly thought the new museum was fantastic architecturally and content.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Private Morning Old Town Walk with Museum, Castle & Portara

Naxos

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Private Authentic Food Walk

Athens

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Private Tour of Villages of Paros

Paros

We enjoyed touring 2 contrasting villages which showed the modernization of the island. We got to linger over a beautiful coffee and cookies moment and visit a jeweler who had the exact thing we are searching for as a gift for our granddaughter.

Self-Guided Beach Time

Paros

For this day, we rented a car that was dropped off at our hotel and drove to take the short ferry ride to Antiparos. This was one of the highlights of our trip. We were able to explore and have a coffee in the little village, drive to the ancient caves and walk all the way down to explore. We also drove the rocky roads to some very secluded beaches and even were able to take a swim. We had a fantastic lunch at Captain Pipini’s

Quality of Experience

Private Yacht Caldera Cruise

Santorini

Another highlight of our trip. We enjoyed our private cruise with lovely staff. We were able to swim in the volcanic hot spring mixed with the sea. We were made a lovely lunch and got to relax and view the extraordinary landscapes of Santorini from the sea. A special shout out to the kimkim team. Because of predicted for voting whether we were able to rearrange the timing of this trip to a day earlier than scheduled. They were able to do this seamlessly on the fly and it worked out great.

E-Bike Experience with Olive Mill & Farm Visit with Lunch

Naxos

This activity was good, not great. We were looking for more of a farm Table experience and this was more of a generic tour of a store and working farm that really didn’t have much going on.

Private Villages Exploration with Independent Akrotiri Visit

Santorini

Because we had to reschedule this by a day, our guide was unable to do the scheduled trip to Attie. Therefore, we had to do this trip on our own in the morning of that day. Because of this there was not that much to do on this tour and while we enjoyed it, we sort of ran out of things to do by the end of the tour.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Self-Guided Exploration of Santorini's Towns & Villages

Santorini

We found both Oia and Fira very crowded with tourists and cruise ship passengers., Weil the views in Oiaare spectacular the crowds take away from the enjoyment to the experience. We walked from our hotel to Vera and back and it was quite a hike with a lot of steps. Worth the view, but exhausting.

The overall expeience was excellent. Highlights were dinner with families, Marakesh tour with Moroccan history, sunset trip in desert, guided stops at the various points of interest, and generally the experience of interacting with the Moroccan people.

Our driver, Abdel, was over-the-top excellent, an 11 out of 10.

A few suggestions:
1. Although most stops were NOT aggressivey pushing sales of their products, a couple did...not comfortable.
2. A walk through the gardens at the "rug stop" was not particularly interesting and, in our case, the ground was muddy and uneven so quite messy and somewhat dangerous.
3. Acceptance of credit cards was sporadic. Thus, I would suggest advising clients to have sufficient amount of Morrocan cash for the week.
4. Because of the frequent tipping of guides and other service people, I would also suggest that clients have smaller denominations available.
5. The last Riad routinely shuts off the water overnight. Quite a surprise when you need to wake up to make an early flight.
6. Logistics for arriving at & leaving the desert camp could be fine-tuned...all aspects, who, what, when, & where. Communications with, and seemingly among, the staff at the desert camp was disjointed at best.

I normally plan my own vacations but this year I decided to get some help - and working with Kim-Kim proved to be one of the best holiday decisions I've ever made! From the beginning of our planning sessions with our Portugal specialist, Emily, my husband and I felt that she really "got" what we were looking for in our dream vacation. Every hotel was beautiful and comfortable, the guides and drivers were first-class and the activities that we planned were well paced and really touched on our travel interests (history, food tours, cooking classes and time to relax in the beautiful ambience of each destination. We loved staying in a Quinta (winery) in the Douro Valley, a former armoury in Lisbon and a former convent in Tavira - spectacular places that I wouldn't have found on my own. And each of our drivers and guides spoke of how much they valued working with Kim-Kim, a sign that Kim-Kim really gets to know the people "on the ground". Our operations gal, Summer, was mentioned several times by the guides - she took the exact tours that we did so she really knew how to recommend the best! Overall, I can't say enough about our experience with Kim-Kim! It has raised the bar for us for future travel and we will definitely work with them again on our next adventure!

Hotel Reviews

Lawrence's Hotel

Sintra

This is the oldest hotel in the Iberian Peninsula, rich in history and charm! We were delighted by our suite which was large and looked out onto the beautiful valley. The staff, especially Beatriz at the front desk, were so kind and gracious. We were pampered and loved every minute of our stay!

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Beatriz

Cleanliness & Comfort

Pousada Convento

Tavira

Beautiful renovated convent overlooking the central core of Tavira! We enjoyed a comfortable room with a balcony/terrace and found it to be a perfect place to enjoy a glass of port before heading into town for dinner. The weather was perfect, blue sky and warm, so we did manage to lounge by the swimming pool - and enjoyed our soft robes afterwards!

Authenticity & Character

So beautifully renovated! Only disappointment was that there was an archeological dig going on in the cloisters!

Location

Outside of the "main drag", very quiet and easy to get to the main square and the bridge.

Staff

Very helpful at reception. Elton, in the dining room, made a point of personally talking to each guest and made us feel so welcome each morning at breakfast.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Super comfortable - and the breakfast was outstanding!!!

Jardim da Batalha Boutique Hotel by Shiadu

Porto

We had a comfortable room with a balcony overlooking the back garden which was a lovely place to relax after exploring the city all day. The staff are exceptional and very helpful. And the location is perfect. A very quiet place in the heart of the city!

Authenticity & Character

Lovely spot, not ostentatious, very comfortable.

Location

Easy to get to all the main sites - lots of good exercise walking up the hills!

Staff

Very helpful especially when I needed an Uber to go to the train station!

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotel Albergaria do Calvário

Évora

A very comfortable room, spacious and clean. Not particularly fancy but had everything we needed. The breakfast was very good (best omelette of the trip!) and the front desk staff were exceptional, very pleasant and helpful. Only one issue came up and that wasn't the hotel's fault - because of the openness of the building layout, sound carries up. There was a group of very loud patrons drinking in the lounge until 3am on our first night and that likely kept most of the hotel awake!

Authenticity & Character

Beautiful renovation of the original olive oil facility. The front courtyard for dining is lovely.

Location

Convenient to all the sites in Evora

Staff

Very helpful and gracious.

Cleanliness & Comfort

AlmaLusa Baixa & Chiado

Lisbon

Such welcoming staff! And a beautiful comfortable room that was very quiet! Each night we received a gift: a bottle of wine, pens, custom soap - so unexpected but truly made us feel appreciated. GREAT location as well! And the staff were helpful in steering us in the right direction when we headed to Belem!

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Very friendly and helpful!

Cleanliness & Comfort

Quinta da Salada

Cambres

Peaceful and beautiful! One of our favourite places during our trip. The location in the heart of the Douro Valley is spectacular! We would have loved more time to relax and enjoy the pool so next time, we'll stay an extra night! The grounds are beautiful, and the wine is delicious. They have an Honour's Fridge where you can help yourself to either the estate white or red wine. Please note, however, that there is no welcome glass of wine when you arrive as the app suggested. They do have a meal service - a choice of cold meat salads, side salad, excellent desserts, bread, cheese and charcuterie. Wine is extra but very reasonably priced. We ate in the garden both nights and it was so special!

Authenticity & Character

Beautiful room, the "deluxe" suite! Appreciated the extra space although we were outside all the time!

Location

Beautiful and peaceful. Worried about not having a car, but the owner arranges a taxi and that was excellent

Staff

Very attentive.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Traditional Portuguese Food Walk

Lisbon

This was our first tour and we got off to a great start with Dani, our lovely guide! We not only got a fantastic history lesson about the different areas of Lisbon, but we sampled some of the most delicious delicacies which I never would have guessed were part of the Lisbon food scene - not just delicious charcuterie, but samosas, burrana sandwiches (my husband's favourite), and, of course, Pasteis de Nata! Lots of good beer and wine too! A great afternoon!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Very knowledgeable and fun!

Flavours & Stories of Porto: Private Walking Tour & Mercado do Bolhão Visit

Porto

Our guide, Joao, was one of the most articulate and interesting young men we met on our trip. His knowledge of Portuguese history and love of his home town, Porto, really stood out for us. We felt like he genuinely wanted to get to know us and understand our country as well as sharing what life is like in Portugal. It was a lovey exchange of ideas and perspectives. And the food at the market was fantastic! Again, very generous portions of charcuterie, main courses, desserts - and three types of vinho verde! Who knew there were so many variations. We finished with Pastel de Nada and a lovely Muscatel! Truly a memorable afternoon!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Private transfer from Sintra to Porto with stops in Óbidos and Nazaré

Portugal

Our driver, Paulo, was much more than a driver! He should be a tour guide! At each stop, he encouraged us to take our time and told us about things we should look out for! As a result, we got to spend time in Obidos early in the day, before the major tours arrived, and we got to walk the ramparts with virtually no people in our way! It was wonderful! Paulo also took us to see some sites that were not on the "tour" but were on the way to Nazare, so we enjoyed beach views that were less crowded than those in Nazare itself.

Quality of Experience

Having a relaxed journey, able to spend as much time as we wanted in both Obidos and Nazare.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

So friendly and knowledgeable .

Transport

Very comfortable car and willing to stop anywhere we wanted to!

Private Alfama Walk & Fado Dinner Performance

Lisbon

Our driver, Miguel, was charming and really helped us to understand the power of Fado. The experience at the Fado restaurant was wonderful, great food and the singers were amazing, such deep sonorous voices. My husband managed to get some wonderful video so we can be reminded of the experience now that we are home!

Quality of Experience

Food, music

Food

LOVE sardines, and these were grilled to perfection

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Miguel was very attentive and drove us around Lisbon to see some other areas we would not have had a chance to see.

Transport

Lovely car, clean and excellent drier

Private Guided Trip to Prehistoric Sites & Stone Circles

Évora

Fascinating area and our guide, Paulo, was so knowledgeable! We really appreciated seeing a sight that is literally off the beaten track - the road to get there was quite a challenge! And as a result, we had the place to ourselves! Fantastic!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Very knowledgeable and a good "teacher".

Transport

Comfortable car for dealing with the rough roads

Private City Walk & Wine Experience

Évora

More time with Paulo, this time walking through the fascinating city of Evora. Paulo made each era of history come alive ! Later, we enjoyed drinking the very generous samplings of wine at the wine cellar. The wines of were all excellent and very different than the Douro wines we had sampled earlier in the trip.

Quality of Experience

Great guide, good wine!

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Paulo took an interest in getting to know us and we appreciated that connection that we formed.

Transport

Private Tuk Tuk Full-Day Tour of Sintra with Guided Visits to Pena Palace & Quinta da Regaleira

Sintra

This was a very full day! Our guide and tuk-tuk driver, Federico, was a lovely young man who provided us with lots of information and took us all over Sintra and beyond! If we had it to do over again, we would probably have skipped the Pena Palace - too many people and more interesting to look at from afar than from inside. Federico did take us to the Chalet on the Pena property - this was lovely and there were very few people there. The Regaleiria was much more interesting due to the beautiful gardens and the initiation well. And our highlight of the day was the visit to Capo de Roca, the western tip of Europe! Going there by tuk-tuk was so much fun and it was a great place to take in the marvel of the ocean - great photo ops!

Quality of Experience

Capo de Roca was amazing!!!

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Lovely guide and driver, not as knowledgeable as some that we met on our trip, but a very kind and caring young man. We felt like we got to know him quite well after our long day together. It was a pleasure to spend time with him.

Transport

The tuk-tuk was pretty comfortable and really the only way to get up the mountain quickly! It was fun taking it on the highway to the ocean

Wonders of Fátima & Tomar

Sintra

We really enjoyed the Convent of Christ in Tomar but found the Fatima part was not of as much interest. We would have been happy to skip that entirely and spend most of the time in Tomar.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Alex was a terrific guide, very knowledgeable and fun to be with

Transport

Comfortable van.

Scenic N222 Drive with Boat Ride & Wine Tasting

Peso da Régua (Douro Valley)

Really enjoyed our boat trip along the Douro. It was a beautiful afternoon and being on the river helped us to appreciate how immense it is! The port wine tasting afterward was very special - we learned so much about port during the tour and really enjoyed tasting the three very different offerings. We, of course, purchased some to take with us!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Vasco was very knowledgeable, and personable! We enjoyed hearing about his life in the Douro Valley and he provided us with some lovely little side visits that really made the trip fun!

Transport

Comfortable Land Rover - great driver!

Douro Valley Hike

Portugal

Once we sorted out where we were supposed to be to start the hike, it went well! Our guide, David, was great and took us on a moderate hike into the hills above Regua. We really enjoyed the vistas and learned a lot about living in the area.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Very good guide. David was knowledgeable and very personable.

Guided Azulejos Walk

Porto

Very interesting subject matter and I learned a lot during our time with Nuno. I did find him to be a bit aloof and at times, a bit crude - not sure if this was due to language issues or not. He did spend extra time with us and gave us some good recommendations re: restaurants and shops.

Quality of Experience

Very interesting subject matter for me (not so much for my husband)

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Guide was knowledgeable, not as personable as some of our other guides, but certainly gave us a good tour.

Family Farm Cooking Experience & Dinner

Tavira (Algarve)

We enjoyed visiting the farm, learning about what they produce and cooking our meal! Will definitely be making a couple of the dishes here at home, especially the carrots! Anna was a very good instructor, gave us the experience of getting involved and learning about key ingredients in Algarve cuisine.

Quality of Experience

Wonderful to have a home cooked meal and the other members of the group were great!

Food

The carrot appetizer was SO good.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Very good cooking instructor and her assistant in the dining room was very attentive.

Self-guided Beach Day at Tavira

Tavira (Algarve)

We loved having a day to ourselves to explore the Islas da Tavira! Wonderful time playing in the waves and enjoying beer and seafood at the outdoor restaurants along the beach boardwalk. A real highlight of our trip.

Quality of Experience

Time to hang out and enjoy the beach and the sun - lucky to have great weather!

Amandine did and excellent job creating a wonderful experience for my wife and I for our trip to the south of France. She built us an amazing itinerary covering all of our requests and added other points of interest with her knowledge of the areas that we
were travelling through. Accommodations, travel arrangements and tours were spot on.

We would recommend and use Kim Kim again for future travels.

Merci Amandine.....much appreciated.

Robin and Kirk Roberts
Canada

We had an amazing trip to Croatia! The food and the people were incredible!

We can’t say enough good things about our trip to Morocco. We booked a week long tour with Kimkim visiting Fes, the Sahara and Marrakech. I don’t usually use tour agencies but I was glad I did. Both for the inside tips on what to do and where to go, but also it made it so much easier getting around Morocco. We worked with Nihad over the course of several months getting everything arranged. It was nice because she was so responsive to our requests and tried to make the trip exactly what we wanted. Once there the trip went smoothly. Rachid, our private driver for the week, was amazing. He was always dependable and just fun to be around. Also, whenever we wanted to do anything a little off the schedule - he always accommodated. He even bought a birthday cake for my wife and somehow got it out to our camp in the desert. We will definitely use them in the future!

Robi was very helpful and responsive. This includes a last minute schedule change. Robi also sent information every night which was helpful in orienting to a new city. Everything went smoothly. Arranged transport was on time with nice cars and friendly drivers and hotels were close to citi center. Would recommend the service.

Adeline went above and beyond to help with out complex group of 11 trying to book a Ryokan in Japan. Without her help we would have never been able to accomplish this. I greatly appreciated all her help and will definitely reach out to her as needed for future trips and will recommend her to others. Our booking with her was went off flawlessly and was everything we were hoping for. Extremely satisfied!

We had very good one week trip to Turkey. Our local guides were knowledgable and spoke excellent English. Polat and Gigi were excellent. Both had some good suggestions for maximizing our trip enjoyment. For the most part the trip plan was very good. We did have one very long day (Canakale to Kusadasi) that included three stops that was very long and the visits to the sites seemed a bit rushed but otherwise the itinerary was very good. The hotels were also very good. especically the hotel in Cappadocia. We especially enjoyed the balloon flight in Cappadocia. This was our fourth trip planned by Kimkim and we would use them again. Zehra was very accomodating with regards to our interests and timing.

Hotel Reviews

DoubleTree by Hilton Çanakkale

Çanakkale

Very comfortable hotel. Good location and excellent breakfast.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Doubletree by Hilton Kusadasi

Kusadasi

Excellent hotel in a good location. Very comfortable and with a good breakfast. Nice spa area.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Yunak Cave Hotel

Ürgüp/Nevşehir

This was a fantastic hotel! As the name implies the rooms are in caves yet are very comfortable. Excellent breakfast.

Authenticity & Character

Rooms set in caves.

Location

Nice area to walk around. Lots of nearby restaurants.

Staff

Very helpful.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Review

Canakkale to Kusadasi via Troy & Pergamum

Turkey

This was a long day of driving and siteseeing. Troy, a legendary location, was very interesting but the ruins there are not spectacular. Pergamum is a fascinating site with an interesting history. The Pergamum Altar is an important site in Berlin but it was very interesting to see the town from where it was removed.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Emre was very knowledgeable.

Transport

Very good driver.

Overall, this was a wonderful vacation and please don’t take the superlatives in the following description lightly as they are all well deserved. To begin, the quality of the exhibits at the Altamira Museum was very high; the recreated cave itself, however, was a disappointment compared to other caves we’ve visited. We did, however, appreciate the authenticity of our experiences at the La Moneda Cave and the El Castillo Cave. Our guide in Santander, Daniel, was excellent and despite the poor weather made our time there very enjoyable. We were particularly impressed by the Centro Botin (designed by Renzo Piano) and the Paseo de Pereda. The history and insights provided by our guide, Nicolas, in the fishing village of Santona made that visit special as well. The tour of the Conservas Emilia anchovy & tuna processing plant gave us a unique window into the local economy and we enjoyed the tasting afterwards. Of course, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao was fantastic and Sokorri was an excellent guide to both the museum and the city. The next day another lovely and well-informed guide, Susana, showed us the Itsas Museum of cultural and maritime history. She also went with us to the Casa de Juntas and Peace Museum in Guernica - which is a “Can’t Miss” experience. Our next knowledgeable guide, Alfonso, led us on a tour of San Sebastian’s Old Town and supplemented the visual interest with his deep understanding of local history. Both the San Telmo Museum and the Aquarium are also well worth a visit. Our final days were spent in French Basque Country and Etienne was, again, a most knowledgeable and considerate guide. We particularly enjoyed the time spent with him in Sare. In sum, while all of the places visited were memorable, the guides elevated the quality of the experience with their knowledge and congenial personalities. They were the embodied expression of the place and the culture which we appreciated very much. In addition, all the drivers were excellent and we felt very safe.

Activity Reviews

Private Museum & CityVisits

Bilbao

Private San Sebastián History & Culture Walk

San Sebastián

We enjoyed our time with Alfonso very much. It was lovely to meet him after working together to plan the trip.

Discovering Bizcay

Bilbao

Guided Bilbao Walk

Bilbao

San Telmo Museum & Aquarium

San Sebastián

Quality of Experience

There was something new and special to enjoy every day. We learned so much and each place was unique - never a dull moment.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

All the drivers were excellent, the cars were very comfortable and the guides were so nice and very well informed.

Transport

Comfortable cars, water provided, everyone was on time and made traveling very easy.

Private French Basque Day trip

San Sebastián

Quality of Experience

Beautiful countryside and Etienne was an excellent guide.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Etienne was very flexible and accommodated requests. He also took us to an excellent restaurant for lunch which we enjoyed very much.

Transport

Comfortable car with water and knowledgeable driver.

Visit Santander

Santillana del Mar

Daniel saved the day with his guided tour since the weather was quite bad. Despite the rain and the wind, we enjoyed walking around with him and learning about the city. Pilar was a pillar of strength since she had to drive through the hard rain yet she did a great job and we felt comfortable with her at the wheel.

To begin I would like to thank Faisal for an amazing journey across Morocco. From the time he picked us up in Casablanca he has treated us like family. It has been an amazing 15-day journey across Morocco. The history, the sites, and people that I have met have created everlasting memories. Thanks to KimKims and Original Travel Company and Said for putting this trip together. Much ❤️

Our trip to Morocco was phenomenal! Kimkim planned our flawless, well organized 10 day adventure. All of the guides, sites, Riads, and Kasbah’ss were beautiful and well coordinated. Our guide, Abdelhadi was fabulous. He was personable, thoughtful, knowledgeable and a pleasure to be with. He made our trip memorable. From start to finish he provided us with important facts about Morocco. He truly wanted us to know everything about his beautiful country. Anyone who is lucky enough to get Abdelhadi as their guide is very fortunate. We would give him 10 stars on a 5 star rating.⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Activity Reviews

Guided Tour of Fes

Fes

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Fes to Merzouga via Ifraine and Azrou - Camel Trek to Desert Camp

Morocco

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Merzouga to Dades Valley Via Todgha Gorge

Morocco

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Rabat to Fes via Volubilis and Meknes

Morocco

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Dades Valley to Marrakech via Ait Ben Haddou

Morocco

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Guided Tour of Marrakech

Marrakesh

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Driving Tour of Casablanca

Casablanca

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Afternoon Guided Tour of Rabat

Rabat

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

We had a wonderful and memorable trip to France thanks to the Kim Kim staff. We appreciated all our tour guides along our route in Paris, Amboise, Aix, and Cassis. Standout drivers were Phillip and stand out tour guides were Henri and Greg. We loved it all and would do it again.

Hotel Reviews

Hôtel Palm - Astotel

Paris

Of all the hotels, this hotel had a wonderful selection of breakfast items, had drinks and snacks available all day, ability to do custom orders, and the top tasting yogurt of them all. The bed was comfortable and we were in a lively part of the city with access to almost everything. The hotel was pretty basic, but staff were great.

Authenticity & Character

It was a more modern style with emphasis on unique newness and simplicity.

Authenticity & Character

It was a more modern style with emphasis on unique newness and simplicity.

Location

I loved the location. We walked to the Sacre Cour and I took several runs around the area and down to the Seine for amazing sights.

Location

Staff

Wonderful staff. They were almost always available.

Staff

Wonderful staff. They were almost always available.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Very comfortable. Room was a tad bit small.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Very comfortable. Room was a tad bit small.

La Maison Rabelais

Amboise

This was obviously a very nice hotel. The staff were especially nice and accommodating. The breakfast was pretty decent but was billed separately. The yogurt was OK, not as good as the Paris hotel. I’m not sure if one could order a cooked to order item, but I didn’t pursue it. The general fruit selection were very good as was bread and bakery items were especially good here.

Authenticity & Character

Very nice plush hotel. The room was vast compared to our prior hotel and we felt like royalty.

Location

The hotel was in an great location in Amboise. We were within close walking distance to all the attractions.

Staff

Great staff! Friendly and cheerful.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Excellent cleanliness and comfort.

Boutique Hotel Cezanne

Aix-en-Provence

This hotel was very nice and comfortable. The view out of our window was very nice with a view of a tall plane tree and a courtyard. The staff were very helpful and accommodating, helping to store our luggage until check-in and keeping our wine chilled. The breakfasts were very nice and staff checked on each table to take custom coffee orders. They might have been able to make custom breakfast orders, but I didn’t ask. The variety is fruits, bakery items and other oatmeal & muesli items was a step beyond other breakfasts. Unfortunately the yogurts offered were just a basic well known brand we have in the US and not that special or unique.

Authenticity & Character

The hotel had very appealing character and style.

Location

We loved our location. We were close to the market and all the nice restaurants, shops, and main attractions. I enjoyed a very nice run around the area.

Staff

The staff were quite friendly and helpful. They called us to let us know our driver had arrived.

Cleanliness & Comfort

The room was a bit smaller than our previous room, but was quite comfortable. This is a very nice hotel and deserves its 4 star rating. The only issue was the bathroom door would not close all the way and had to stay partly open.

Hôtel de la Plage Mahogany

Cassis

This was a very nice hotel and had a ‘beachy’ feel. The staff were friendly and helpful. They stowed our luggage until we could check in and even let us check in early. We didn’t get to experience breakfast due to an early departure.

Authenticity & Character

The character of the hotel was simple and not super updated or stylish, but was very comfortable and had a perfect view of the Mediterranean Sea.

Location

Amazing location! right next to best beach in the area! We were within walking distance to the town center and boat docks.

Staff

Very friendly, but had had a minimal interaction with the staff. They did provide coffee all day long.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Very quiet and comfortable room. It was a smaller area but had a very nice seating area on the balcony overlooking the sea.

Activity Review

Musée de l'Orangerie: Entrance tickets & Audioguides

Paris

One of my favorite all time museums. I enjoyed all the detailed narration of all the paintings and availability in English. I could visit there each time I go to Paris.

Quality of Experience

I just enjoyed seeing Monet’s Picasso’s and the other artists’ paintings. I also enjoyed seeing a video of Monet painting while in his advanced years.

Our trip included time in Oslo, Bergen, and Tromso... our group of 10 had an amazing time in Norway!

Oslo:
~ Karl Johan Hotel was a great location with very comfortable rooms and a high-quality breakfast provided.
~ Taste of Oslo Street Food Walk (provided by Shaf and the team at Oslo Way) was great... a little history, a little food, a beer, and some exercise! Highly recommend this tour as a way to see some of Oslo on foot with local insight and conversation. Harald's Waffles were a treat!
~ Oslofjord dinner cruise provided an excellent meal and opportunity for conversation with our group, but not much in terms of a guided tour of what we were seeing outside (at night).

Bergen:
~ the Norway in a Nutshell experience from Oslo to Bergen by train and ferry was one of the highlights of our whole trip. It is one full day of travel, but there is so much to see and do along the way. Highly recommend this!
~ Det Hanseatiske was our hotel... a quirky and unique hotel right in the middle of everything... comfortable rooms, good breakfast, and easy walk to everything.
~ Floibanen funicular... a must do! Very good cocktail bar and restaurant at the top... I recommend reservations for dinner and a happy hour prior to dinner following your travel to the top and short hikes around the area.
~ Food and Culture walk was great (provided by Bergen Base Camp). Lots of history, we had very good samples of food and a beer at one stop, but the focus for this walk was more about the history of the town ... and it was very well done!
~ fjord Cruise to Rosendal: our trip to Rosendal was on a day with bad weather and in October... most of Rosendal was closed in town, but the hike up to the waterfall was worth doing. I think this day could have been better spent doing something else, mostly because of the time of year we went.
~ we went fishing with the team at Bergen fishing and had a great day on the water and eating our fresh catch with their team afterwards. High-quality people and a great thing to do in Bergen!
~ Bergen is an amazing town; we found so much to do just by walking around and stumbling on to things. Great restaurants and pubs, lots of history and shopping along the way. The people were amazing.

Tromso:
~ even in October, this town has a very fun vibe.
~ amazing bakeries and coffee shops
~ we had a great evening with the Northern Lights Husky Experience; and the Northern Lights did not disappoint!
~ we did the City and Polar History walk with the team at Arctic Guides... the museums were very interesting and the history provided by our guide as we walked was very well done.
~ the Northern Lights dinner cruise was a little disappointing only because we had such a high-quality meal on our Oslo dinner cruise that this one did not compare. The fact that the Northern Lights were not visible on this day, the boat was late (whale watching early in the day was late getting back) added to some level of disappointment.

Along the way, we needed to make adjustments to compensate for weather and changes in travel plans, but the KimKim team was right there with us the whole team and made everything work out just fine!

We had a great experience working with Alex to make this trip happen. We visited Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand over 18 days - our first trip to SE Asia. Alex booked guides, drivers and activities for us in each location along with hotels and airport transfers and plane tickets to cities along the way. We loved all of it. Our fave country- which surprised us- was Cambodia. The Royal Crown Hotel in Siem Riep was also our favorite hotel. And we had the best guide there, too. We enjoyed touring Ankar Wat but the smaller temples were the best. Loved the Apsara dance show, too, the first night we arrived. We loved seeing Hanoi - the cooking class, city tour, a walk around the lake and the water puppet show. Our favorite part of Ho Chi Minh City was our day spending time on the Mekong River delta. And of course Thailand was awesome, too - loved the city tour and food tour - another exceptional guide -- by tuk-tuk. And of course, the temples and elephants in Chiang Mai. Oh, and another fun cooking class! The trip was well-paced-- we had three nights in each city and even had time for an overnight on a very nice boat on Ha Long Bay. Everything went smoothly and we were met by the kindest, most gracious people everywhere we went. We had enough down time throughout- it was quite hot and humid and sometimes ya just need a couple hours in a cool hotel room at the end of the day! We also took in a couple of spa treatments and went off on our own in Bangkok- found the subway efficientand easy to use. Alex checked in every day to let us know specific details and pickup times and was to able to change a hotel reservation at the end of the trip when we asked. 10/10! Our 4th trip using KimKim.

Hotel Review

Royal Crown Hotel & Spa

We stayed 3 nights and really enjoyed the hotel. We rarely order room service when we travel but arrived late afternoon and just wanted to chill for a bit - had spring rolls which hit the spot! We liked the spa and pool - very clean--also had a drink at the rooftop bar one night. Well-located in town. We had a bigger than average room with powerful air conditioning!! Nice breakfast buffet.

Authenticity & Character

Friendly staff. Hotel was upscale without being pretentious.

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Review

Hanoi Cooking Class

Hanoi

It rained that morning but we still rode bikes out to the herb-growing area. Fun, intimate experience - great food!

Quality of Experience

Food

We tried different things in each city.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

We enjoyed all of our private tour guides:
Mydie in Dublin - she had a deep knowledge of Irish history and we had an informative two hour plus walk through Dublin. Chris in Edinburgh - he too was very informed on Scottish history and the city of Edinburgh. Our two hour plus walk through Edinburgh was fantastic.
Stuart for our day in St. Andrews - the day was fantastic and a bucket list item for us. Stuart was full of Scottish history as well - and was able to get us around St. Andrews to our desired stops with ease.
Our nine-day, eight night trip was everything we had hoped for and more. Aleksandra of Kimkim put together a great itinerary, working with us to ensure we'd see what we wanted plus added some great recommendations. All worked out well.

Hotel Reviews

Moxy Dublin City

Dublin

Convenient location; tiny rooms

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

The Glasshouse, Autograph Collection

Edinburgh

A fantastic hotel. Convenient to everything. The rooms are large. The Snug Bar is a fantastic place to hang at the end of the evening.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Review

Loch Ness, Glencoe & the Highlands

Edinburgh

This is a good trip if you are interested in seeing the Scottish highlands. The boat tour on Loch Ness is only 45 minutes and perhaps not worth doing. We instead ate lunch in the village and walked around - enjoying seeing boats go through the locks.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Our driver was knowledgeable and kept the group on time. He talked the entire twelve hour trip - it was a bit much.

Transport

We really enjoyed Uni, our guide for the food tour. He spoke fluent English and was very personable. Cannon was very responsive and helpful. The employees at the Ryokan Gyokutei were wonderful the entire stay, serving us dinner even though we were late because of traffic. We loved the facility. Unfortunately alot of our drivers didn't speak English so it was difficult to communicate with them. The drop off at airport on the last day was disappointing. We were very confused about where to meet our driver at the train station. He seemed to be rushed and dropped us off far from the doors of the airport. We would have liked more guidance on how much time to allot to each activity so that we wouldn't fall behind on our itinerary.