Kimkim Trip Reviews for Greece

We recently completed a 9 day, self-drive tour of the Peloponnese organized, with our direction, by Tasos and his team at Travel 12. The logistics and trip arrangement worked out very well. The selected driving routes allowed us to see a great deal of the countryside, visit the important historical and places of interest and stay multiple nights in several centrally located hotels. These local, four-star accommodations ranged from very good to outstanding. Our guides, Ilias and Antonia, were excellent for the 3 included tours. Tasos and his team provided the right amount of support to get us on our way and keep us on schedule.
This was on 'offseason' tour which we recommend considering. Popular spots such as Ancient Olympia and Mystras were not at all crowded. Days were generally sunny and mild. Think of March. Getting around by car is quite easy with Google Maps on your phone. The people are very friendly and there's a taverna on every corner.

We had a three day tour of Greece and it was wonderful. Christos was great at putting everything together and making sure that we knew where we were going and when. He even called a couple of times during our trip to ensure that everything was going well. Our guides Theodorus (Epidaurus/Meteora) and Anastasia (Thessaloniki) were both very knowledgeable, spoke English well and enjoyable. I would definitely consider using kimkim and Christos again if we ever came back to Greece.

First and foremost, we LOVED kimkim. My boyfriend and I were so skeptical at first, but our local specialist, Tasos created a plan and a trip to Greece that was truly amazing.

In the beginning stages of communication, I shared with him that we were very into food and wine, and love "off the beaten track" type sites. Tasos put together a few different itineraries for us, and we were able to pick and choose what looked most interesting to us. We were able to completely customize our trip to our liking.

Tasos worked incredibly hard until the last minute providing us up-to-date changes (we traveled during the holidays, so some forms of transportation were hard to book), but he assured us that everything would be in place for us at an affordable cost!

When we first arrived in Athens, we were greeted by a driver at the airport. He drove us to our first hotel and within an hour, Tasos came to greet us! He walked us around a little and gave us tips. From that point on, he gave us flight and ferry confirmations, and we easily were able to send email messages if we had any questions. He was super quick to respond, and we never at any point in time felt helpless or unsure about what to expect.

Tasos arranged lunches, dinners, tours and transportation for us to every place we went. It was so comforting to know that there was always going to be someone waiting for us when planned.

This service and Tasos made our trip to Greece unforgettable. I would have never been able to plan this on my own, and I felt like we were treated like royalty everywhere we went. Every detail was taken care of, and we were able to fully enjoy every aspect without any worry. I highly recommend working with Tasos for your trip to Greece!! He was incredible.

More details about the tours/accommodations/meals:
In Athens, we stayed at the Pi Athens Suites. The room was big and clean and our concierge was incredibly helpful, and even called a restaurant for us to make a reservation one night. We were greeted with a complementary bottle of wine, and were able to watch the sunset on the roof deck with a spectacular view of the Acropolis!! It was located in a very convenient area, walking distance from everything.

360 Restaurant: Amazing first meal in Athens with another amazing view of the Acropolis. The service was wonderful and the food was too.

Alternative Athens Tour (Acropolis and Ancient Athens through a Mythology ): This was a great tour to see all the historical sites of Ancient times. Our tour guide Alexandra was so knowledgeable, and made learning about the history very entertaining and fun. I loved seeing the sites and stopping at a local cafe. It was just long enough, and I learned so much.

Santorini-
We knew that it was going to be the off-season here, but were really interested in seeing the scenery and true nature of the island. There were not a lot of stores or restaurants open in Oia, the village we stayed in, but still was a great experience.
Our tour was guided by Gabriel - it was a Santorini Highlights & Wine Tasting tour. He arrived promptly and drove us around the entire island, telling us stories and teaching us about what life is like for a resident of Santorini. Again, we learned so much! He was hilarious and real, we truly enjoyed our time with him. We had a wine tasting at Santo Winery and again felt like we were treated very special.

Naxos-
We flew from Santorini to Naxos and arrived in the evening. We stayed at the Xenia Hotel. Again, very clean room and the concierge was amazingly helpful, and also close to everything. We were shortly after greeted by our tour guide, Katerina. She was fun and bubbly, and super knowledgeable of all things Naxos, as she has lived there in a small village for her whole life. She brought us to a cheese shop and taught us about local Naxos cheese and wines, and told us stories about what life is like living there. We went to restaurant 1929, on the waterfront and had an enormous meal. Everything was delicious and service was amazing. We walked around after and she gave us a tip on where to get an after dinner cocktail. We went there and ended our night amazed and happy.

Katerina met us the next day in the morning to show us around the villages of the island. We saw the Temple of Demeter, watched a local spin pottery, and again learned so much. We sampled the islands famous liquor, Citroen, and felt like we had known her forever! Katerina made us feel so welcome and we enjoyed being with her so much. We plan to keep in contact with her as well, and we feel like we met a friend! The only complaint we had was that we did not get to spend more time on this island!! This was by far the best part of our trip. But, we sadly then had to leave Naxos and took a ferry to Crete.

Crete:
We arrived later in the evening and were brought to the Consolato Boutique Hotel. The street looked like a scene out of a movie! The room was by far the best of all the places we stayed and the gentleman in charge was helpful and hilarious, and gave us some great tips on where to go for dinner.
We took a tour of Crete with our tour guide Dimitrios. He drove us around the villages, got to see great views of the mountains, and we visited Dourakis Winery. We loved the winery tour and tasting (I did wish it was later in the day because we were tasting wine before lunch). Regardless, it was enjoyable and amazing still. We visited a local cheese factory where we got to see all the steps to make the local cheeses, visited a bakery, and then were treated to a home cooked meal by some locals at a small tavern. Overall the tour again, was fantastic.

We visited the Botanical Gardens of Crete. Although it is winter, we still enjoyed seeing all the plant life and tropical trees, as well as the animals (there were about 15-20 peacocks there!!) and enjoyed one of the best meals of the trip at the cafe at the gardens.

I literally cannot say enough good things about our trip and Tasos, as well as all the tour guides, restaurants and hotels. We could not have asked for a better trip. It is so hard to even find anything to complain about, or anything we would have changed. We highly recommend using him for your trip to Greece, you will not regret it!

This trip so far exceeded expectations that it is hard to know where to begin this review. Tasos did an amazing job of customizing our 8-night trip to Athens and the Peloponnese to fit our family group’s unique mix of interests and personal style. We wanted to and did take in some of the “must sees”, such as the Acropolis and other ancient Athenian sites as well as the Acropolis Museum, which we explored on a wonderful private tour focusing on mythology and guided by warm and knowledgeable former archeologist. Another day, we explored the Mycenae archeological site and beautiful coastal town of Nafplio with Ilias, a historian, as our guide. Although both these experiences were wonderful, and made all the more so by the relative uncrowdedness resulting from our unconventional choice to visit Greece in December, it was the more personalized experiences that Tasos arranged that really set this trip apart. These included: (1) a wonderful day of rock-climbing with a fantastic and knowledgeable guide, Kostas, who took us to a stunningly beautiful location on the cliffs near Nafplio with routes for widely differing levels of climbers and helpful instruction for those who needed it; (2) a spectacular mountain hike above the clouds guided by Nick, who provisioned us well with both equipment and a satisfying lunch and Mountain Tea prepared by his wife, Daphne (we asked for and were given the recipe for her raw cereal bars; yum!); and (3) a visit to an organic olive farm and vineyard guided by Carola and effusively welcomed by farmer Dmitri and his family, who was the soul of hospitality and with whom we shared a wonderful home cooked lunch under his arbor; and (4) a tour of Athens street art with Niko (???), an engaging professional graphic artist.

Our accommodations were all charming and comfortable, ranging from a magical old stone bed and breakfast far off the beaten path in the mountain village of Kefalari, to artistic and eclectic suites in Nafplio, to elegant hotels in Athens and the Athenian Riviera.

Tasos and his team provided an extraordinary and thoughtful level of service. This included providing our party with a Greek cell phone with our itinerary pre-loaded and including google map links to all our destinations. It also included the services of our wonderful driver in Athens, Lampros, who was fantastic in meeting all our flights (including a much delayed 3:00 a.m. arrival!) and getting us to and from our city tours. Tasos and Lampros even got me an appointment with an eye clinic when I arrived in Athens with a terrible eye allergy, and Lampros came with me to the appointment to translate.

In sum, I cannot say enough good things about this trip and the incredible level of service provided by Tasos and his team.

We worked with Harris to develop a custom trip from Athens to the Peloponnese and back, by rental car. It worked out beautifully, allowing us to be flexible about arrival and departure times, and to work out meeting times and places with our tour guide, Ilias, on the fly. We were met by a driver, Lampros, at the Athens airport, and delivered to our hotel for the night. It was a short walk to pick up the rental car the next morning. Our local guide, Ilias, took us to four sites: Corinth, Epidaurus, Mycenae and Olympia. The sites were great choices, giving us some variety in site ages and styles. Ilias is a fount of information, easy to understand, and worked very hard to tailor his information to our interests. The hotels Harris booked were nicer than I would have chosen, and several of them were really special. One brought a fabulous breakfast basket to our room, one upgraded us to an ocean-front room with balcony, and one changed our room to a lower floor to accommodate our mobility issues. As a nice lagniappe, Harris provided us with a local SIM card to use in our iPhone during our stay.

To say this experience was amazing would be an understatement. I spent countless hours researching the sites and monuments in Athens and put together a list of all the ones that interested me and my Husband. I sent a message to KimKim as they were the only company I found that not only put personalized tours together (forget the canned tours where you only get a few minutes at each site with a large group of people and are rushed away due to a schedule and don't always get to see every site you're interested in) but they spent time and energy helping us put together the most memorable tour for our Honeymoon. I have told as many people I can about this company as I feel as though if you are traveling to an unknown land - you should get the best most valuable experience - KimKim delivered over and above our expectations. We were greeted, on time, by the most amazing and friendly tour guide, Cici. She was lovely, knowledgeable, respectful and really spent time catering to our desires and interests. Cici was not the only KimKim representative we interacted with - from the date we showed interest until after we left Athens, we were given advice, suggestions and support for the remainder of our trip to Santorini and Crete. We saw everything we wanted to see, had a great lunch to break up the day and then, a private driving tour of the entire city. we saw every monument, all the best parts of Athens and really felt a connection to our guide. once we paid for our package we were assured everything was included, transportation, tickets to attractions and the most thorough explanation of the monuments and their glorious history. There is not one negative thing I can say as we reflect back on the most amazing experience we were provided with. We plan to travel to Thailand next and we will absolutely be putting out trust in KimKim to help us plan another outstanding experience for us. I have never felt so taken care of by a company in the past and believe they really try their hardest to ensure each one of their clients is completely comfortable and satisfied. their response time to messages is quick and they really made us feel completely comfortable before, during and after our excursion.

Thank you KimKim for the most memorable honeymoon experience anyone could ask for!
With Extreme Gratitude,
Marc & Joshua

We arranged a driving holiday of the Peloponnese on the KimKim platform with Tasos as our local contact. We found KimKim to be an great way to organise our arrangements, find a local contact to make suggestions and the relevant bookings, and as a great communication platform both before and during our holiday. It allowed us to stay in contact with Tasos for any queries we may have had.

Tasos and his team at Travel 12 were excellent from start to finish. The arrangements made throughout our holiday were perfect with no problems along the way. The hotels and itinerary were exactly as we had hoped and having a local contact like Tasos really paid off. Tasos was attentive to our requests and was quick to respond to any communications. He even arranged for some belongings we left behind to be forwarded to another hotel along the way for us to pick up! Although we never met in person, on our final day one of his team visited us as we were waiting to go to the airport with a small parting gift. We could not recommend his service highly enough.

We did a two-week custom tour, with guides, hotels, ferries, transfers, etc Tasos helped me come up with itinerary and responded to my questions and suggestions. He was great.

It was pretty complicated but it went off without a hitch. When I had questions, Tasos was great about getting back to me quickly.

We went from Athens to spetses, Napthia, micenae, Olympia, Navpaktos, meteora, and Delfi. 3000 years in 12 days. Greece was amazing!

While we had a really good trip, we were honestly a bit disappointed with the city of Heraklion. (Should note that we originally intended to go to Chania, but we 'accidentally' booked flights to Heraklion, not realizing there is more than one airport in Crete. Perhaps we could have been steered further away from Heraklion, or just driven out for more day trips from there.) The pedestrian areas there were nice, and George did a great job w/our food/wine tour; however, it was almost frightening to walk around much of the city, since motorcycles abound on the myriad tiny, winding streets. We did thoroughly enjoy our wine tour to Douloufakis, as well as our olive oil farm tour to Koronekes. Our driver, Alexandra, was great! Always on time and very friendly, as well as an expert on touring commentary, especially cultural comments. Tasos was very kind and generous in taking good care of us, and again, a good trip, but would definitely have done a few things differently had we known that Heraklion probably lacks much of the charm that Chania apparently has. KimKim is, however, excellent to work with, always answering questions quickly, and very attentive. Thanks!

This trip was overall great. We made the best of all the mishaps but those were not many. Only issues we had were finding a driver for our first transport. The others were small such as time changes for a tour which we ultimately missed (we ended up on the wrong tour), but the tour we did go on ended up being wonderful so it wasn't really a big deal. The tour guides and drivers were all friendly; communications with our Greek specialist, Tasos, were prompt and efficient whenever we had questions or issues. Tasos kept in touch with us to make sure that things were going smoothly or altering plans to ensure we had a hassle free trip. Greece was beautiful and it would be hard to have a bad time there.

The trip was amazing, Greece is a country that has lots of colors, flavors and adventours. Tasos was very helpful and on the Two occasions we had an issues with the hotels he made sure he got an upgrade or a change of hotel.
I would advise to take a close look at the hotels before booking them.
Aside from that everything was great

Tasos did a superb job setting up what is, perhaps, a somewhat unique trip. No islands but remote, ancient Byzantine churches. No beaches but many monasteries. No classical sites but every Byzantine site within reach. With other travel agents we've had to go back and forth several times to convince them we knew what we wanted. With Tasos - one time and he had it. Thank you.

In 3 1/2 weeks there are so many spots we loved that we can't list them all so here are some highlights:
Thessaloniki: great city for walking, Byzantine sites around every corner, great climate and sitting on the bay, enjoying a great ice cream cone and watching the ships come and go can't be beat.

Kastoria: fascinating old town best suited for wandering and discovering. At the Byzantine Museum we discovered Achilles, a guide who took us on a walking tour of the town. He knew the history and culture and, most important, he had the keys to the locked churches we wanted to visit.

Meteora: monasteries in the sky. All I can say is that they're worth the hard work of climbing the hundreds of stairs. See as many of them as you can.

Nafplio: laid back port town - this was a great place for us to kick back for a couple of days at the midpoint of our trip.

Monemvasia: a medieval town built on a large rock in a bay. A map can't do it justice for walking around - you have to be aware of all three dimensions. Climbing to the upper city for sunset was a wonderful experience (the sunset, not the climb.) The town did help me appreciate how tough people had to be in the Middle Ages and why the life expectancy was in the low 30s. But today, the town is full of great places to stay and eat.

Athens: 3000+ years of history and a third of the population of Greece make it a daunting city. For this, our first trip to Greece, we concentrated on the museums: The National Archaeological Museum (where the Antikythera device resides and is being researched), The Acropolis Museum and the Benaki Museum stand out.

All in all, I'm not sure why it took us so many years to get to Greece but I'm glad we did.

We wanted to explore some of the Greek islands as part of my conference trip to Thessaloniki, Greece. We were particularly interested in ancient history and archaeology. In addition to Crete, Vasilis suggested going to Santorini and Mykonos/Delos. The experience was fascinating, although a medicaine and minor back injury intervened. We particularly enjoyed Athens, where we stayed in the old city, old Chania and Akrotiri site on Santorini. Vasilis was very helpful keeping us updated and dealing with a couple of last-minute changes. The tour of Santorini, which was scheduled at the last moment, was particularly memorable.

Angeliki did a great job with the arrangements. The drivers were extremely reliable and helpful. It was too bad that the weather interfered with some of the excursions that we were most looking forward to. The hotel accommodations were very nice and well located. The local guides were well informed and entertaining. We really enjoyed the volcano tour at Santorini and of course the Acropolis and the other experiences we had. Angeliki was very diligent about keeping in touch and accommodating our needs.

We had a fabulous trip and were able to relax and enjoy every step of the way thanks to kimkim and Tasos. I was nervous at first using a travel service that I couldn't find many reviews for, but it couldn't have been better. The planning process was easy and fun, with an email exchange with Tasos to find the right mix of active/relaxing/cultural activities. He found great hotels for us and arranged all transfers. In the midst of planning, the ferry schedule changed and Tasos alerted us right away so we could make necessary changes to our plans. Without Tasos, we wouldn't have known about that change. Lampros, our driver from the Athens airport to hotel, was very professional and knowledgeable. We were greeted with a vodaphone card and phone battery charger in a welcome packet. We only had one day in Athens, so Tasos arranged a combined Mythology and Food Tour. Katerina, our Mythology guide was knowledgeable and entertaining. The suite with private and hot tub at Aphrodite & Venus Hotel on Santorini was beautiful with wonderful breakfast. The Wooden Boat tour with dinner/saxophone/sunset was a fun tour with guide Christina. We also enjoyed our stay in Naxos. The Nastasia Village Hotel was quaint, also with delicious breakfast and made to order eggs each morning. The host family was welcoming and helpful. The Naxos Trekking hike we took was a highlight with a guided tour just for the two of us. The day prior, the original tour guide was called away unexpectedly, but it was seemless to us as Taos made arrangements for a new guide, Matina. He offered a refund for that tour if we weren't satisfied, but that tour was a highlight of the trip. Tasos arranged for the taxi to pick us up from the hotel and meet Matina in Chalki where headed off for our hike. The taxi picked us up at the end of the hike to go back to the hotel. We had Tasos arrange all of our transfers to/from hotel/ferries and it made things so easy. We felt like VIPs when we showed up and just looked for a sign with our name on it. The transfer to the airport at the end was a little tight, but we made it (barely). The itinerary we received from Tasos about a week before departure was thorough and well-organized. It was a great reference during our trip, but just enough that we didn't have to think too much on the trip and could enjoy the sights and the company! We had a couple questions during our stay and Tasos was always quick to respond via email. I would definitely use this service again.

Thanks to kimkim and Travel12 for an exceptionally well planned and amazing vacation in Greece.
The attention to detail was most impressive.

I was a little nervous as I was traveling alone and had an ambitious schedule. Christos
ensured I was able to visit all the places I wanted to and got some time to relax and enjoy the islands. Taking my preferences into consideration.
The route was well planned and hotels selected were in close proximity to tourist attractions and pickup points for excursions. Transportation was coordinated with reliable, friendly and respectful business partners. They were punctual and professional. One of them drove around the port so I knew exactly which ferry I was to take as it was a little dark.
The excursions were also with reputable companies with expert and experienced tour guides which, in my opinion, makes a huge difference.
Kimkim's trip planning application made it easy to communicate, track conversations and always have access to information and resources. I never felt like I was traveling alone with prompt responses and help when I needed it the most.
The services provided by the Travel12 team truly reflect their values of honesty, respect and integrity.
Thanks so much Christos, Eric, Tasos and partners.
I highly recommend Kimkim and Travel12.
Talk to you next year Eric.

First let me start by saying I can't give enough praise to KimKim and our local specialist Vasilis in Greece. We had a change in our ships itinerary at the last minute do to weather and one message to Vasilis in hours had a tour change for us, he was just amazing and a pleasure to work with. The tours were wonderful and the service impeccable. The tour we had in Rhodes and the guide, Tsabika Geor Hatinikola was fantastic. Tsabika was not only very pretty and a walking book full of knowledge, she was delightful, funny and extremely charming. Maria in Santorini was wonderful as well and extremely accommodating when one in our group suggested to add an additional stop. We were a group of 12 in our private tour and all left each tour with only wonderful memories and knowledge of the two beautiful cities. We all highly recommend KimKim and know we will definitely use them for our future travels. Anita Gagliardi

Christos, my local specialist couldnt have been more responsive and communicative. It seems that he works 24/7 as he got back to me so quickly all the time! And also, very importantly, I feel we got very good value from them. All of the guides were first rate, very knowledgeable, delightful, and went the extra mile. We really enjoyed the Vintage Tour of Crete,Cretan Village Tour and Cretan Food Tour. We spent two weeks in Crete, going to Heraklion, Chania and Elounda which was perfect. We're already thinking about a return visit we liked it so much!

One word Fantastic!!! Definitely will use KimKim again when I travel. Vasilis was acceptional especially in 48 hrs. he arranged an alternate tour for a group of 12 because of the ships itinerary change do to weather. Everyone in the group was extremely pleased. Also had the pleasure to converse with Eric who was very helpful too. Thank you very much, be happy to tell the world to use your services and they won’t be disappointed! Anita Gagliardi

Christos did a super job in helping me tweak the itinerary once we had a draft and I put a lot into the 10 days there.. He was also very helpful and available when I was in Greece and had questions about anything along the way. My trip to Greece was fantastic! I learned a lot about the different islands i went to in Greece and saw a huge variation and diversity of the culture and views and other aspects of each place. I'd highly recommend Greece to anyone and also to work with Christos/Kim Kim on any itinerary plans for Greece