Kimkim Trip Reviews for the Azores

The tours and hotels that the travel partner arranged for were excellent. I was very pleased with the individual tour operators. There was a massive breakdown in communication between the tour company that I was communicating with and the tour provider due to the fact that there were two or three companies in between them. The meeting times on our trip vouchers did not always match the meeting times on our overall itinerary. The tour operators called us the "ghost clients" because they didn't have any information about us and didn't even know if we were real clients.

This was most problematic on the mountain climbing tour because the tour operator provides a document to participants instructing them on equipment and supplies that they are supposed to bring. We were lucky to have the operator for a different tour so she was able to send us the document the night before our climb. We were told that lunches would be provided on full-day tours, but this was not the case for the mountain climb. We had gone to a market earlier and just brought whatever food we had. We brought hiking equipment that was sufficient for the climb, but that was purely by chance. The tour company also needed our passport numbers to register us with the government as climbers and to get us insurance for the climb. Nobody told us about this and i happened to have a copy of our passports. If not, we wouldn't have been able to climb.
Had we not met with the tour guide the day before, we would have been unable to complete the climb (other people were not permitted to climb if they were not properly outfitted).

Another tour only had the name of the third party travel agency and not our names, ages, or nationality. After the other tour issues, we went to the tour provider the evening before our tour and they were ecstatic because this allowed them to put us in the correct group with other people who spoke english.

On another day, our transfer from the port to our hotel was not there when our ferry arrived so we walked to the hotel.

The next day, our guide for the full-day tour was not at the hotel at either of the times we were provided (tour voucher and itinerary had different times). We tried calling the number listed on the voucher, but it was the number for another travel company who the kimkim travel partner had booked through. We found a poster for the tour provider and managed to get in touch with her. The third party tour company had told her that we would be arriving that day and she should pick us up at the port, not our hotel.

Overall, i used kimkim because i wanted the tour planning and booking process to go more smoothly. Due to the multiple layers of tour companies between us and the eventual tour operators, there was a tremendous lack of communication. I imagine the multiple layers also added cost. Were it not for proactive steps that we took during the trip, this could have spiraled into a complete disaster.

There were small errors that i picked up on during the planning process. There were the mismatched tour times. It's hard to say whether some of the other issues were her fault or whether it was further down the chain. If she had directly booked things for me, the way i thought this would work, it would be easier to determine where the breakdown occurred.

The schedule of activities felt oddly organized as our rest day was early in the week and prior to the more physical activities. The packed lunches with repetitive and monotonous. The trip was good but essentially we were paired with an agent from pico adventures so we were limited to activities only from their group even when we suggested an alternative it was dismissed. So essentially kimkim provided us with someone who made a hotel reservation for us and connected us to pico adventures.

See prior notes.

Thanks KimKim! This was an excellent trip and having KimKim back-up was comforting. You connected me with Picos de Adventura, a superb tour company and their "adventures" could not have been more fun or beautiful.

Catia was great -- I also worked with Tiago and they were both tremendously helpful with getting my trip organized and with any questions I had along the way. This is a great company clearly focusing on the best possible customer service.

If directions to the office were included, it would have been helpful for the 1st day. Also, having a dry, secure place to store phones/camera would be great for water adventures so we could have taken pictures. Alternatively, if there was a photo package, for the water adventures, we would have signed up for it.

So organized, very accommodating, great variety of activities. Catia was so helpful with questions, preparation, and the overall planning of our trip. She even made a call for me in advance to help confirm a ferry trip I booked to another island for a day, because I was unable to dial internationally. Every single staff person was fun and friendly. Goncalo went above and beyond in accommodating us on our bike ride day around Sete Cidades. I would recommend Pico de Adventuras to anyone traveling to the Azores. It was a great deal, a great value, and included all the key things to see and do in Sao Miguel.

Tiago is a great guy! Fun personality, very friendly.

The arrangements were quite seamless through KimKim with a tour operator in the Azores.

Tiago and his team were really accommodating, friendly and knowledgeable. The guides gave us a much better look, and insight, to the Azores and Sao Miguel.

The trip was amazing! The people were wonderful, warm, kind and friendly, the island is incredibly beautiful, the activities were fantastic. We loved it!

What could have been better then? More detail in the information provided. After booking the trip, we received nothing to confirm and no more specific information than was provided in the initial trip plan description.

Why was this a problem? For example, on the afternoon we arrived in Ponta Delgada, we were scheduled to go whale watching, but no information was provided as to the time, location or meeting point for the activity. Before we left I thought to ask Cátia specifically about this and was told 1 pm, but I should have asked for more details. I guess I thought we would receive them on arrival, but we didn't. While it might have seemed obvious to them that we would meet at the boats in Ponta Delgada harbor, it was not obvious to us on the day of our arrival!

Similarly, the description provided for each activity was good for a general idea of the activity but fell short of giving enough specific information - duration, degree of difficulty, starting point, starting time, etc. For another example, the description of the "Route to Pristine" doesn't mention that it is a 14K hike with the first 3K uphill, never mind where you meet and what time, etc. The hike was fabulous and we loved it but it would have been good to know what we were getting into before we started on the journey.

Whenever we asked, the information was provided, and it was correct, but sometimes we didn't ask quite enough questions. Before traveling we asked Cátia to reserve a restaurant table only one night, at a small place where we heard reservations were necessary, which she kindly did. But we had to ask the date and time of the reservation (the day of), and were not told that the restaurant was cash only, which they say they tell you at the time the reservation is made, something we didn't find out until we had finished our meal. Fortunately, the owner seemed unfazed, we paid with all the Euros we had, but had to return by cab (the place was in another town) another day with enough cash to pay off the entire bill.

We figured most things out and they were expecting us at each step along the way, but it would have been good to provide us with a bit more specific of an agenda, at the latest upon arrival.

Please do not take this as a negative review! Overall, the activities were fantastic! We just would have liked a bit more detail in our itinerary.

Tiago and Cátia planned an incredible trip for us and we enjoyed it immensely. I'd like to thank all our drivers/guides/hiking companions - Luis, Luis, Mario, Philip and the Azores Fishing guys Eduardo and Diogo for being so wonderful, knowledgeable and kind, and showing us their beautiful home and all the great things there are to do there. Had we booked this trip without kimkim's help, we probably would have done less than half of what we did and certainly would not have tried canyoning, now my son's favorite new activity!

Our trip went very smoothly and was a wonderful experience. We didn't wind up doing the activities on the days of our trip planned, but all of them were covered and it fit very nicely based on weather, etc...

Catia was very prompt in responding to any questions that we had during our trip.

Thanks Tiago, Cathy and I really enjoyed our week (post whale watch). We plan to return to visit other islands in the future.
You and your team were great!
Thanks so much - Joe