Kimkim Trip Reviews for Estonia

We had to cut short our trip for health reasons, and never expected or sought a refund for the unused portions. So it was a pleasant shock when Emerson contacted us to say that he had recovered more than $2,000. We are immensely grateful to Emerson and KimKim. It is a wise company that would do this, instead of just keeping the money. And Emerson is a first-class representative of KimKim. We'd recommend the company, and him, to anyone.

My Baltics adventure (Lithuania -> Latvia -> Estonia) planned by Emerson was just what I wanted:
- I feel I had good coverage of all 3 countries, seeing /learning the capital city highlights & history as well as experiencing the major national parks as well as many regional ones
- all drivers and guides arrived ahead of the scheduled times — no waiting
- all drivers and guides spoke clear English and were very easy to talk to — I’ll be life-long friends with many of them :-)
- as a naturalist, looking to find & document local species, I was very successful, finding over 100 new (to me) species of plants & animals
- all lodging was in top rated hotels, with good service, facilities, with a full spectrum breakfast included
- all city lodging was located in the heart of the respective city, in easy walking distance of key sites and many restaurants
- all rural lodging was in or next to park land, which I could easily walk to and explore

Activity Reviews

Gauja National Park's Hike

Cēsis

My guide, Sigita, was very knowledgeable and a pkeasure to be with !

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Private Lahemaa Day Tour

Vihula

My guide Rahel was superb — very knowledgeable and a pleasure to be with :-). At my request, I requested that we replace visiting non-park places with more park trails :-)

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

The plan to visit three Countries - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania was built around my curiosity with the complex history, mix of cultures of pre-Christian, Nordic, Slavic, German, Russian and many others, and intriguing cuisine of this part of the world. Veronika created a good plan to cover everything I wanted to experience. In actual execution this is what I felt about the trip:

Hotels:
The hotel choices were uneven. Of the 4 hotels three did not have lifts. I should have been told that in advance, because this meant I had to carry the suitcase 3 floors up. Veronika should have checked that I can physically do it. I understand these are historical buildings but the traveller should be informed. The check in and check out information need to be with the traveller, so in case I arrive early I can prepare what to do. These details were not shared. I arrived in Tallinn after a 16 hr journey and was told I could not check in for another two hours! The hotel in Tallinn (Three Crowns Residents) was also really bad and had the smallest room I have ever had. The staff were among the most unfriendly I have ever met. The other three hotels were good and staff friendly. Espcelially the Edvards Hotel in Riga and the Rinno hotel in Vilnius was good. When I checked Booking. com I saw that the reviews support how I felt about these hotels - good and bad. So I felt that booking.com was giving me more information than I was getting from a kimkim tour which is supposed to be bespoke. Honestly what I paid for as a package and what I got in terms of hotels (I now know hotel prices online from booking.com in these cities) was disappointing.

Activities and Tours:
The guides were almost all good. The city tour of Tallinn, the food tour of Tallinn, the city and food tour of Riga, the city tour of Vilnius, the tour to Trakai - all well informed and interesting. However the Sigulda trip had only a driver and no guide while the description given to me was different and promised a guide. The driver told me he knows nothing and basically just drove me to the castle and left me on my own. Also unlike the description given to me earlier I realised that all the entry tickets I had to pay for at Sigulda and Turaida. So basically the tour only organised my transport to these places! Similarly the Riga city tour was supposed to be a tasting of food tour too - but the tour was completely different from what was promised in the write up. This difference between what is given as a write up to fix the package and price and what comes later as final bookings was there in some cases and it felt bad because one expected a seamless journey through this, which did not happen. I felt not enough research was done to find the best tours, they were mostly what can be found on viator which I can book myself (which i did earlier when I used to curate the trips myself) and kimkim's promise of the 'local' added nothing to the journey. Another example of this is the Saaremaa trip - in the description which was sent to me for me to finalise and pay the advance it said small group tour with detailed descriptions of what all I would see Later I got only a bus ticket and a ferry ticket and was told I have to do the tour
on my own! This was completely different from the expectation at the time of fixing the budget.

Veronika herself is a lovely friendly person. She was in the area and drove down to take me in her car to Saaremaa islands which I deeply appreciated. She also came on the last day to have an evening out with me and her friend which i liked a lot.

The three countries are beautiful, as was the food and the people I met. I had so many amazing discussions on politics, power, people and culture. I loved the food and the spirits - both in bottles and of people. It was a very special experience. My respect also for their resilience against the constant empire building aggression of Russia and for their solidarity with Ukraine.

However, as far as Kimkim goes, I would say that going by my earlier experience with traveling in Japan with Kimkim, where Kimkim's local partner there did a fantastic job, I was expecting the same level of service here. I would give that a 9/10. Unfortunately my experience here was a 6.5/10 . I felt I did not get the value of money I spent and I could have got a similar trip much cheaper if I did this through viator and booking.com This should not be how kimkim feels. I have already booked an Iceland trip through kimkim and Veronika - which she has promised me will be with less problems. I really hope so. But i will think twice before booking one more kimkim trip.

Hotel Reviews

Rinno Hotel

Vilnius

Lovely room with sun window

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

After 8 pm open and close door yourself with pin. No lift. So up 4 or 5 floors.

Hotel Edvards

Riga

Absolutely lovely hotel

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Rooms were amazing.

Beguta Guest House

Haapsalu

Lovely, tiny, comfy.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Breakfast can be more substantial.

Three Crowns Residents

Tallinn

Really bad attitude of staff and small dreary rooms.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Staff and room airy.

Activity Reviews

Private Culinary Tour of Riga

Riga

Wonderful guide.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Private Riga Old Town Tour with Art Nouveau Quarter

Riga

The tour was good but there was nothing to taste. The actual trip offered and what is in description is totally different.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

The Signature Tallinn Food Tour

Tallinn

Wonderful guide.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Private Tour of Vilnius' Old Town

Vilnius

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Private Old Town Tour of Tallinn & Hidden Bastion Tunnels

Tallinn

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Trakai's Island Splendor—A Serene Escape from Vilnius

Vilnius

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Lithuanian Kitchen Secrets—A Vilnius Culinary Experience

Vilnius

Was cancelled.

Sigulda & Turaida Treasures — An Intimate Glimpse into Latvia's Medieval Magic

Estonia

Only driver, there was no guide. No tickets were paid for. This was only a car ride to and from these places.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Please provide guide

Transport

At first, there was some confusion on where we would meet our guide. We had thought we would meet inside the shipyard but that was not the case. We tried to call Jolita but could not get through. We eventually met our guide outside of customs. There was a communication problem for the meeting point but after we met the guide was pleasant and apologized for the misunderstanding. We enjoyed the rest of the day and the tour was as promised. We enjoyed the trip to the Synagogue the most. The tour guide made a special effort by calling the day before we arrived to have a synagogue representative meet us at the synagogue.
We arrived back on time and had enough time to see all of the planned sites.
We will try KimKim again.
Regards

Lawrence Goldfinger