Kimkim Trip Reviews for Greece

In planning my trip to Greece, Vasilis was very attentive. He adjusted my itinerary many times to meet our needs. Our anniversary dinner he planned at Point A was outstanding. However, our travel documents were not received until May 9th for a May 13th departure. I feel that was cutting it close just in case there were any issues. As a whole, the trip was outstanding. Lampros, the driver in Athens, was excellent. Our tour guides in Santorini, Gustos and Paris, were fabulous. Costos and Tasos from Travel 12 were very helpful while we were in Greece. Vasilis checked in with us , as well. When we had an issue with our phone charger it was taken care of immediately. Our Catamaran tour in Santorini was cancelled at the last minute. We, however, were not notified of this cancellation until I called Travel 12 when no one came to pick us up. Tasos gave us a driver for 4 hours to take us to the beaches where we would have gone with the tour to compensate for the missed tour. Tasos made it right. Travel 12 was at our disposal before, during and after our trip. I would definitely use them and KimKim again.

This trip was a blast. Except for a problem with a late driver picking us up at a ferry dock, the whole trip was very smooth! The accommodations were very nice and the excursions were terrific. We felt we got a great introduction to Greece and the islands we visited. I especially enjoyed the local tours of the bell maker, cheese makers, distillery, winery, and tannery. --and of course all the ruins we visited. Our guides were wonderful, knowledgeable, and really went out of their way to make our tours exceptional. The thing I'll miss most is the food! Greek yogurt will never taste the same...

I would highly recommend Tasos and the entire Kimkim /Travel 12 team to everyone. Everyone we dealt with was very professional. Tasos put us with drivers that took us places we didn't even know existed. Every tour was right on point. The tours of ancient Athens, Meteora, Delphi and Messinia were incredible. Mykonos was fantastic and Santorini was wonderful. In Athens of course you must see the Acropolis. The meal arranged by Tasos was unbelievable. Meteroa is like something from another world, the beauty is breathtaking. Visiting the Oracle of Delphi is an experience you must have . Messinia is a treasure we didn't know about, thankfully Tasos and his team did. It is a very ancient city still under excavation, We had a tour with one of the people excavating the ancient city and found an ancient coin which we turned into the museum. Included with the tour of Messinia we met the last bell maker in the region as well as the last leather tanner. Once again our driver provided a few little side trips that were fantastic. The ferry ride to Mykonos was pretty cool. Mykonos is an incredible place. We needed this time in Mykonos to catch our breath. Delos is a sacred island in mythology with many ancient ruins but honestly by this point we were pretty tired so I don't thing we could really appreciate the magic of the island. On to Santorini. The island is a beautiful place and the catamaran tour Tasos set up was truly one of the highlights of the trip. Do not skip the catamaran trip! All of our transfers were right on time. Our driver in Athens was incredible. We feel like we made some friend. I will use Kimkim from now on when making vacation plans. My Mother-in-law, Wife and I just spent 2 weeks in Greece and I have nothing to complain about. Think about that! Thank you Tasos and your team, you truly provided the trip of a lifetime.

The trip was amazing. All except 1 individual were on-time for pickups and twice when he was involved our ride was late. Every other interaction was smooth as silk. It was a wonderful balance of guided tours and free time to roam on our own. I enjoyed that most of our tours weren't the traditional touristy thing. The accommodations were nice at each place and the staff was friendly and very helpful at each location. I have recommended Kimkim several times since returning from our adventure and will continue to do so.

Thanks for the wonderful time!

We planned this for a couple of generations of family, us (in our 40s) and our parents (ranging from 70 to 80). This overall was a great trip which allowed us to combine everyone's interest and also cater to some of the activities we wanted to do on certain days. At every hotel, the breakfasts were fantastic!

Most memorable - the first night restaurant. Although a tiny bit of a walk to get there (for our parents), it was beautiful, food delicious, and gorgeous view of the Acropolis. Pi Athens our hotel, although initially we were skeptical, the service and the rooms were great.

In Santorini - everything worked out wonderfully. Everyone really enjoyed the hotel we stayed (Fileria Suites). I really didn't miss the fact that we didn't have the views because we could go right across the street and enjoy them. Service was perfect.

In Archanes, the city was quaint, very quiet and didn't feel it was built for tourists yet. We had an extremely difficult time in finding the Kalimera Hotel and I had to call the hotel for them to meet us at a church (which was steps away from the entrance). We loved this hotel in its history, beauty, and service (again impeccable)... however, since we had seniors with us, we would have preferred to stay at a typical hotel without so many steps in the actual room. Although I know in Greece we did end up walking up and down quite a few staircases and uphills.... if we could have had the option in our hotel to do without we would have paid extra. Our parents did fine, but this would have been a good option for us to know about. Archanes, as much as we liked it, I know my parents would have loved to had a little touristy area to shop. So maybe a few more options of where to stay since we only had the one tour here and it sounds like we could have stayed in Heraklion, more built for tourists.

Chania - hands down this was the favorite of everyone in terms of the rooms, location, and also the elevator! Loved Chania in general - happy to walk around and explore on our own. The local tour was fantastic - loved the lunch, Raki making, cheese making, and bread making stops. Definite highlights.

Some pointers for our transfer from Chania to the ferry and to Athens. Our driver picked us up around 8:30 and we arrived at the ferry port around 9:30 or so - no problem. We thought we would be boarding the ferry immediately, but the ferry that was docked was for 10:00 PM or so. We found out that they ferry didn't arrive until 11:30 with a departure of 12:00 AM. So we ended up going to a cafe across the way and waited for a couple of hours. This was probably the low point of the trip as we were not expecting this wait. We would have rather waited in the hotel lobby a bit longer or at least know of the wait.

The overnight ferry ride was awesome - wish it could have been longer! But our transfer to Athens and our final day tour with Inside Athens was fantastic with Giannis as our tour guide.

Pick up to the airport worked everyone was able to depart on time!

Our trip and experience in Greece was fantastic. We have Tasos and his team to thank, the itinerary was planned to suit our interests. The communication during the planning phase and while we were on our trip was exceptional. We were able to contact Travel 12 anytime, we had been provided with a sim, and there was always someone on the end of the phone to help. In one instance we were not able to locate a restaurant we were to go to and were helped to find it. The guides during our visit were informative and as our trips were in small groups or private you were able to learn more and had opportunity to have conversations. Our accommodation was lovely in all places and suited our budget and needs. We visited Athens and three islands which were very different and went to Tinos which was suggested by Tasos, this was a good choice as it was so different from
Santorini and Mykonos. The scenery was stunning and history, gave us adifferent view of the islands. I thank Tasos and his team for a wonderful trip and would recommend to anyone planning a trip to Greece you will love it.

We had such a wonderful experience for our Greece trip. I would highly recommend using kimkim services to plan any vacation. Harris, our specialist, was absolutely amazing every step of the way. He skillfully planned an itinerary that was exactly what we were looking for. In our two week trip, we experienced city life, cliffs, beaches, mountains, beautiful waters and of course delicious food. We were able to visit Athens, Mykonos, Santorini and Crete and every single detail was taken care of every step of the way. From transportation, to hotels, to excursions, Harris meticulously arranged everything. All we had to do was show up. I cannot say enough about this service. Going to Greece was one of our top 3 bucket-list trips and we wanted it to be perfect. Harris did that for us in such a wonderful way. We did not have any stress on planning the trip, making bookings, ensuring times line-up for ferries, excursions, etc. All of the excursions that were booked also were so wonderful. Our walking tour and hidden gems tour in Santorini was spectacular. We could not have covered so many things in one day. Kostas, our guide took us to the best places all in one day. The sunset catamaran cruise was also so amazing. Getting to swim in the hot springs was also wonderful. In Crete, we visited two places, Heraklion and Chania, both wonderful places. We did a food tour to highlight the Cretan diet that was tasty and informative. We had a chance to sample home-made food with local ingredients. The botantical gardens tour in Chania was so beautiful and a wonderful way to spend the day, enjoying nature and of course great food. I also wanted to callout our driver in Athens, Lampros. He was so professional, timely and so helpful to us. Even on the way to the airport, he took us for one last sight-seeing adventure to a hilltop where we could see the city of Athens. It was a marvelous view!

This trip was simply an amazing experience. I cannot say enough about Harris and the wonderful service he provided. He was responsive throughout the planning process, advising and guiding us every step of the way. He took out all the stress of planning and coordinating this trip, allowing us to just come to the beautiful country of Greece and enjoy all the wonderful things it has to offer. We were delighted! Thank you Harris for such a wonderful trip!

Sincerely,
Namrata and Andy.

All the guides (sorry, we don't remember names) from Alternatives Athens were very good. We enjoyed the fact that all our hotels were in mid town and we were able to explore and walk everywhere in our free time.
On Delos, the sights were good but there was not enough time to explore the ruins and go to the museum. To us the organized tours were not necessary.
In Santorini the Villa was beautiful and would have been a perfect place for a relaxing vacation but for our first time in Santorini, we felt it was too remote for the schedule we had and it would have been better for us to be in a hotel in the town center. Sophia was great and did her best to make us comfortable ( the electricity kept cutting off when we got there and the safe never worked) and welcome. The guide, Costas was excellent. The CATAMARAN Sunset cruise was the best and all the crew on the boat were fantastic.
The Palace of Knossos guide was very good too.
We enjoyed the 7 villages tour in Chania and the driver/guide who took us was also very good.

We had an amazing family vacation thanks to Christos. Greece is a beautiful country and thanks to Christos and his team (Kostas, Sophie, Spiro just to mention a few) we were able to enjoy all that it had to offer. In addition to excellent tours and experiences, Christos's team went out of their way to help us to surprise and celebrate by dad for his 70th birthday in Santorini. It was a memorable experience for everyone and a fantastic vacation!

This is the first time we’ve used a travel agency and it was a great experience! The hotels were excellent, with the exception of the location of one hotel in Crete, close to an outdoor party area, it was noisy and bright in the room. The tours they booked for us were excellent, every guide was so knowledgeable and very engaging. Christos personally came to our hotel in Athens to hand deliver a SIM card for our phone. We had only one incident of a driver not actually waiting for us getting off the ferry in Mykonos. We called KimKim and someone was there to get us within 20 minutes. We would not hesitate to use KimKim again, a very good experience.

We had a fantastic time in Greece and thought it was a great trip. The welcome dinner at ManiMani was superb, each dish better than the one before. The tour of Santorini's farm produce and wines with Anna was terrific; our trip to Delphi with Effie was also fabulous. Another highlight of the trip was the hotel in Ornus -- it was so delightful just to be there. I thoroughly enjoyed everything about it and the staff was great. We also had lovely people running the hotel in Kamari -- Mary was really delightful. We had some really great guides -- Kostas was wonderful at the Acropolis and very understanding when Marvin was having his spell. I also really enjoyed the tour of Akrotiri and the Palace at Knossos, and found the guides knowledgeable and capable of handling questions. I would suggest that perhaps more time be allotted to both of those sites, however, since it was very rushed and we didn't really get to savor things. I do understand that there are so many visitors and our guides were trying to stay ahead of the crowds -- this may not be something that could be fixed during a tour in May, but I offer it just in case. The museum in Knossos was fantastic, as was the National Archaeological museum (we visited it on our own). I had been told how great the Parthenon museum was and it did not disappoint. We took the suggestion of a friend and had lunch there, overlooking the Acropolis. That was really delightful and I recommend it to others.
One complaint i have, however, was our tour in Delos. I found the guide, Athena, was not particularly responsive to the group. Her accent was such that we had a great deal of difficulty understanding her, and hearing was also a problem. I would suggest that for a group of anything over 10, Assisted Listening Devices be used. I work in an art museum and that is our policy and it really makes it a much better experience. Everyone can hear; guides don't need to raise their voices to be heard. I would suggest that a Delos visit be longer, or at least people should be told that they could take the later ferry if they wanted. Since we had someone meeting us after the tour, I didn't realize that was an option.
I don't want my review to end on an extended complaint, however, since for the most part it was a wonderful trip and we enjoyed it immensely. We found the KimKim staff, as well as some of the local agencies, very responsive and for the most part, things went smoothly and we had a terrific vacation.

We started the trip with a free day in Mykonos and spent it at the Kahlua beach club, dinner at Busulas and out at Semeli that night. The next day was a trip to Delos Island. We had the most fabulous, authentic, amazing guide named Toula. We wanted to take her home and have her be our very own Greek grandmother. Took the speed ferry to Santorini and had a hidden Gem and Wine tour hosted by Manos, another great local guide and a tour we very much loved. Our favorite activity the following day was our Catamaran cruise hosted by Spiros & Spiros (yes two men on the same boat with the same name!). Spent the rest of the night with the locals after hours at Vineyart and enjoyed a local flight of wines. In Athens, we enjoyed a very tasty food tour and found our new love of Greek coffee + Freddos. Had a nice meal at Feedel and had our most authentic meal of the trip at "The Traditional". Stopped by Clumsies, Baba Au Rum and Noel for some cocktails along with Oinoscent wine bar to round out the trip. Had an amazing views in Meteora and could not get over the tranquility of the perfectly preserved monasteries. Overall we had zero hiccups, all of our drivers were on time, hotels reserved, tour guides punctual, and a great experience. It was a nice touch to get a welcome call once Travel 12 new we arrived. Will use this service again!

Ginger, David, and Judy will be providing their own reviews; their memory of the specifics (guides' names, in particular) is much better than mine.

I'd just like to express my thanks to KimKim and Christos for putting together such a wonderful and memorable trip. There were really no downsides. One suggestion for improvement, though, concerns the occasional lack of detail, on the schedule/ itinerary, regarding ferry transfers. It wasn't always clear where we needed to be and what to expect. Again, the others will likely be providing more specifics in this regard. Also, it might have been more sensible to have us in a hotel near the airport upon our late return from Heraklion on the final night. Presumably, availability and cost dictated the decision to have us in downtown Athens, at the Pi Hotel. This, by the way, was the least impressive of our hotels, although it was certainly acceptable.

I can assure you that we'll be recommending KimKim to friends and acquaintances. Thanks again for everything!

We had an Amazing Trip. Dimitris did a great job with our itinerary and when we made some last minute changes he had great advice and helped us switch around our reservations. The Boat Charter was Amazing. The only negative would be the Hotel room for the first few nights in Athens. the room had 3 very small single beds. but at the end of the trip we stayed at the same hotel and got a better room with a real bed. The Rest of the Hotels were amazing and Greece is beautiful.
thank you
Shawn

This was our first overseas trip ever and it turned out amazing! Dimitris planned our trip out within our budget and the lodging was fantastic. Our favorite hotel was the Corfos Bay Hotel in Mykonos for its genuine beauty and true Island architecture. All of our ferry transportation was booked for us and spot on. The private transfer on our second day via Mr. Stavros was perfect, he even took the time to show us around Athens as we had extra time before the ferry departed. Dimitris hooked us up with an amazing local friend and guide in Santorini. Thanos. He provided us a cultural experience we will never forget and a lasting friendship from afar. We would not hesitate to book another trip through Dimitris! Thanks for a wonderful 10th anniversary honey moon!

Great trip! It was all very memorable ,but if I have to say, the places that were most memorable: Acropolis, Delos Island, and the food/wine tasting on the farm in Santorini. On Mykonos: the Hotel Dorion was fabulous! We also loved the dinner the first night at Manimani --a splendid meal! Of our many guides, I think Effie at Delphi was the most knowledgeable. We also very much enjoyed our male guide in Santorini but I forget his name, unfortunately. Our driver in Santorini was also terrific--very friendly and eager to talk about the terrain, the architecture, the history of the island.

Some good parts, such as the mythology tour and the farm experience and the Mycenae tour, some mediocre -- the amphytrion hotel -- and some poor, like the foothills trek.

We really enjoyed the rock climbing in Napflio with Kostas and Nadine perhaps most of all. Sofia was great on the Santorini Oia, monastery and wine tasting tour. Really helped to make us feel at home. And Katherine was super knowledgable of ancient Greek history and mythology. Brought the museum and Acropolis to life for us.

Napflio and Naxos stand out as the more interactive and fun destinations with a wide variety of things to see and be more spontaneously involved in. Athens, with its diverse historical sites and nightlife, was very engaging and we felt like we could have spent longer. Santorini was a little touristy, but we're glad we went. The caldera tour offset the commercial feel, and some of the smaller towns looked like good places to spend time away from the crowds.

We traveled with another couple and had a wonderful vacation in Greece, thanks to the itinerary we created with Tasos and the support we got from the Travel12 team during our trip. Tasos was a pleasure to work with and very responsive in answering our questions as we developed the itinerary. Pre-arranged car transfers, ferry and flight tickets, and guided tours enabled us to relax and enjoy the rich history, beautiful landscapes and delicious food Greece has to offer. When ferry schedules changed twice, Travel12 informed us and took care of the details. We were delighted to meet Tasos the evening we arrived in Athens and the morning before we returned to the US. We highly recommend kimkim, Tasos, and Travel12!

Here are a few highlights from our 16-day trip:

Athens - Our enthusiastic guide Maria led us on an excellent food tour. We walked through the Plaka, Monastriaki, and Psyri neighborhoods while sampling pastries, Greek coffee, souvlaki and other treats. We also recommend the Mythology Tour through the Acropolis and ancient Athens. Although the drive to Delphi was long, we enjoyed the scenery and the visit to the ancient site.

Crete - Our five days in and around Chania, Vamos/Douliana, and Heraklion/Archanes were a good introduction to the island. The guides and drivers were friendly and helpful, especially Christos who met us at the airport and drove and guided us to Elafonissi Beach, Vamos and Heraklion. Our guide Clio at the Archaeological Museum in Heraklion and at Knossos was very knowledgeable…we were fascinated by the sophistication of the Minoan civilization. We left Crete having learned there is still a lot more to see!

Santorini - While many people are drawn to Santorini because of the pictures of brilliant white buildings and blue-domed churches, we thoroughly enjoyed exploring ancient Thera and Akrotiri, which are a respite from the cruise ship crowds in Fira and Oia. Our guide Anna was engaging and knowledgeable about ancient Greek history and current aspects of life on the island. We also enjoyed a sunny, windy hike along the caldera rim from Fira to Oia led by our wonderful guide Denise. An added bonus to our visit were the many wildflowers in bloom all over the island due to the unusually wet and cool spring. And the view of the caldera from our room was spectacular!

Naxos - We welcomed the warmer weather when we arrived so we could enjoy the beach and swimming in the Aegean Sea, which were only steps away from our hotel. We had fun exploring Naxos town, and visiting the villages of Halki and Apeiranthos. Although our guided hike through the hills was a bit more rugged than we expected, the mountain views and wildflowers were fabulous, and we enjoyed visiting a unique, remote monastery and strolling through picturesque Apeiranthos.

We hope to explore more of Greece in the future!
Barbara and Skip

Harris did a great job coordinating all the crazy-busy days we asked for while in Greece! And an added bonus? We got to meet one of our coordinators, Angeliki, in person on one of our day tours, and it made our day that much more fun. What a great group of folks! I would call them up in a heartbeat to coordinate our next trip to Greece. Thanks, guys, for making our stay so memorable!