Kimkim Trip Reviews for Iceland

We loved Iceland but I think hotels should be researched more. We had a reservation at the GEO hotel it was unexceptionable. It looked like an institution. We left, even though we already paid $180 for it that's how horrible it was. We went to Northern Lights and had to pay $500 for the night which was a killer. The hotel in Fudor would have been much better. The other hotels were from 180$ to 200$ per night no dinners included which was another 120$. Except Aldo in Reykjavik which made the reservation on my own not included included in your price.
I would hope to get a refund from KimKim for the $180 for GEO hotel.
Thank you. CArolee Kass and Amanda Cline

More choices of lodging. One of the hotels put us in lower level under main dining room, which was open at 6:30am to 10:00 pm. Chairs moving and people walking around was very disturbing. After a long day we looked forward to comfort and to be able to get some rest. They had no more rooms.you should check these things out.
Blue lagoon there r different entry fees. You had an economy plan for us. For 10$ each more which I paid extra for while we were there, , we didn't have to wait on line for 30 extra minutes and received a bathrobe which was not included in the plan you gave us. You need a bathrobe! It was cold.

Preeti - was excellent in her suggestions - having the detailed itenerary everyday with where to go, what to see, suggestions on where to eat and a hotel a the end of the day was invaluable...and imo the best way to see Iceland. The booking process was very smooth - I only wish there was more disclosure on actual cost of the trip abd some of the hotels - i.e so you could perhaps upgrade if desired, etc...

Preeti did an amazing job. We had one issue that was not her fault, but was the fault of the guesthouse...she had great meal suggestions and also her recommendations of what to see and the tours was excellent. Again, the itinerary was worth its weight in gold...and having a place to stay at the end of a long day was a premium. Also, the restaurant suggestions were fantastic....here are a couple of my favorites...Bjargarsteinn was amazing...don't miss this one. great meal and for Iceland, reasonable...which is saying something...Sjavarborg was very good but the cowshed was fantastic, go when the cows are brought in...fresh warm milk...Humarhofnin had amazing Lobster - a must. Reykjavik has a LOT of good restaurants and Kaldi Bar for great unfiltered beers...

We also did a detour on our drive around the Island and stopped at restaurant Fridheimar - for tomato soup bread and other tomato greenhouse specialties. I would include this on the itinerary...

The Glacier Hike was awesome - we ended up with a personal guide, just my wife and I and since we were in great shape we did the 3 hour tour in about 2 and 1/2 hours...I would recommend this....

The Baths at Myvtan were awesome...as well - go at night to see northern sunset and stay for northern lights...long yes, but relaxing...have a beer while you bathe...

PS - also recommend the Into the Volcano tour...pricey, but frankly worth it...has to be seen.

What an amazing country and a well planned trip! Plenty to do and see.

Only issue was a few rough roads which could have been avoided that weren't really appropriate for an RV. In particular the road north of Detifoss. Best to approach from the south which is bitumen.

It sometimes felt like the driver was a bit impatient with us. We wanted to linger a bit each morning (not morning people) and the driver seemed annoyed with us. We are of a different culture so taking our time is normal, but there may have been a cultural misunderstanding.

The arrangements Preeti made were wonderful! She was very responsive to us and made every little tweak we requested. My finance's birthday was amazing!

I am SO glad we used Kimkim to organize our trip. I can't believe how quickly the time passed between booking our flights and when it was actually time to fly out. All of that planning I thought I'd have time to do disappeared in 6 months. It was so convenient to have an idea of the distances to travel, what to see and where, things to skip when we were short on time, and the highlights of each location. It brought a lot of peace of mind and much-needed structure to our road trip.

Chris provided exactly what we asked for, and went above and beyond when we needed last minute help and changes. His timeline gave us plenty to do on each day, and while we couldn't quite fit in every single thing, it was nice to know we already had our next destination planned and there was no time spent wondering where to go next.

Chris put together a great itinerary and I am amazed at how much we saw. I really appreciated his insight and guidance on places to see. A great example is Seydisfjordur, a beautiful little Scandinavian village at the end of a fjord on the eastern coast. He had us there for a night and it was charming. Not knowing Iceland, I'm not sure on our own we would have ventured all the way out there.

Chris was very easy to communicate with and always promptly answered my questions or concerns.

I asked for breakfast included in all my accommodations, but some did not have breakfast and some others I had to pay extra and this was not communicated to me. Would also be good if there was more information given on the conditions of the roads in Iceland, as some were very bad with gravel and many potholes.

Some miscommunication about the tours cancellations. But at least the refund was completed promptly.

We loved Chris's attention to detail when planning our trip. He really sought our unique experiences for us, and crafted a wonderful itinerary. Each day was a good balance of sight seeing and experience the culture through food and museum suggestions. So many things we would have missed if it weren't for his suggestions and guidance - we are so glad we went with kimkim for planning our honeymoon!

Chris is GREAT! He was extremely attentive with all of our questions and concerns about anything regarding the schedule, booking day trips, even suggesting what to wear! We could not have gotten a better experience from our trip, and it's all thanks to his great itinerary.

Excellent all the way around, great people, informative and helpful. Great food at the local cafe after completing our hike.

Our guide Thor was great.

Our trip was absolutely perfect. I wouldn't have changed a single thing about our route, durations of stays, or destinations. Chris was so helpful throughout the entire process and kimkim made our honeymoon unforgettable. Would highly recommend and use again!

We wouldn't have had nearly as amazing of a honeymoon if it weren't for Chris's endless help! Thank you!

Great planning and coordination, however hotel accommodations were a bit out of control in terms of pricing and availability. $350 each night was expensive- were there alternatives such as renting a van that could sleep 3-4, just a thought. Thanks!

No orientation. Voucher incorrect for Arcanum ATV tour at Vik. GPS waypoint incorrect for dropping off the rental car. Hotel reservation incorrect Day 4.

The service from Rico and Halldor was fantastic. They were very easy to work with and communicate with.

Our trip was excellent, actually, however there are some things related to our itinerary that would have helped us manage our time better during the day. For example, including how much time we might need for certain hikes and warning us which roads might be gravel/dirt and might take us extra time to navigate would have been helpful suggestions. We had a dicey drive heading out to Elephant Rock and ultimately had to turn around and skip that stop because Route 54 was full of potholes and impassable with our smaller 4x4 vehicle. We also had to skip a hike to Skaftafell because it would have been 3-4 hours round trip and we didn't get to Vatnajökull National Park until later in the afternoon. Also, the GPS we received from the car rental company wasn't useful. We should have ended up getting the wifi hotspot instead. We did end up using Google Maps for the whole trip, though, by downloading our itinerary for the day in the morning before we left the hotel.

First, the positive comments. Iceland was a beautiful country to visit and our accommodations were very comfortable.
However, we were quite disappointed in the effort put out by your sub-contractor, Wild Westfjords for a number of reasons. We had expected the same level of service as provided to our friend, Susan Turner.
The itinerary that Susan was given showed a choice of accommodation at each location and specified the cost at each. We were given one choice with the note that if that wasn't OK, we could be offered some thing else.

Upon arrival at the Hotel Fron on Day 1, we were asked to pay for the room and that there had been no request for a gluten-free breakfast. It took a couple of phone calls to clarify both issues.

The itinerary put together for us seemed to rely a lot on "cut and paste" with little attention to detail. Some examples are:
We learned from the Hotel Fron that the bus stop designated for pick-up for the Golden Circle Tour no longer existed.

Our voucher for the Dimmurborgir Guest house did not state that breakfast was included so we bought supplies only to find out that breakfast was included.

Our Day 6 itinerary stated 466 km on well paved roads. It was somewhat disconcerting to find ourselves on a long stetch of extremely potholed road. Consulting the map we had bought confirmed we hadn't gone astray and that the road section was identified as gravel.

As a volunteer at a conservation area, I was looking forward to visiting the Arctic Fox Center. I was upset when arriving there at 4:15 to learn they had switched to a 4PM closing as of Sept 1st.

Day 8 suggested viewing the teeming bird life near the Svortuloft Lighthouse. The info sign at the lighthouse indicated that all the birds depart before the end of August. Our bird count - zero.

On Day 9, the instructions to visit the Landbrotalaug hot spring near Eldborg were useless to someone who did not have a GPS. A simple instruction such as"Within 200 metres of the turnoff to the Gerouberg Basaly columns, turn on a road marked Stora Hraun and travel 1.5 km on a terrible road to the hot spring" would have been more appropriate.

We were somewhat dismayed to learn that we had a 8AM reservation at the Blue Lagoon although we realized that this was the only morning time available on that day. However the staff at the Hotel Geo kindly informed us that this only meant we could not enter BEFORE 8 AM and that a 9:30 arrival would be perfectly OK.

Our conclusion was that not a great deal of thought had been put into preparation of our itinerary by Wild Westfjords.

Our major concern, however was the lack of financial accountability and the refusal by Wild Westfjords to give us an accounting of the costs of our accommodation, car rental, etc. I do not buy their contention that these are confidential between WW and their suppliers and that we bought a "package". We were advised at the Hotel Fron that the booking there had been made through Booking.com. All the bookings could have been made through Booking.com and those rates are known to the public. Further Booking.com has a 24 hour cancellation policy in most cases so there was no reason why we could not have paid for accommodation upon arrival rather than paying for the whole trip in advance.

The bottom line for Kimkim is whether we would recommend your services to friends planning to visit Iceland. At this point our response would have to be NO if you were to subcontract the service to Wild Westfjord and no financial accountability was provided.

The trip was close to perfect. Great choices on destinations and activities. One day was overplanned: it would have been too much to get off the ferry at 17:30 in Brjanslaekur, then drive to the cliffs of Latrabjarg, then drive back to Patreksfjordur. So we skipped Latrabjarg.
It was fun to stumble on the Wild Westfjords office in Isafjordur and meet Halldor, Preeti, and the kids. The next day we got to spend a good bit of time with the family. We drove up above town to a ski area to take a lovely hike. When we got back to the car, it had a flat tire (our second of the trip). When we were having trouble getting the tire off, I called the office. Halldor and family actually drove up to help us, made an appointment at a garage to get a new tire, and arranged for a reimbursement from Enterprise. We felt very well cared for.

Friendly and responsive staff. good itinerary. We enjoyed the trip very much.

Navigation directions had inaccuracies or were out of order that led to skipping some destinations or having a "phantom" starting point on one of the detours.

Not clear if going on a potholed road all the way to Látrabjarg makes sense, since the puffins leave in mid August.

Very helpful for a very last-minute vacation! We loved some of our lodging accomodations and really enjoyed the sites you suggested.

Preeti was very responsive at every moment that we needed her, and she created a terrific itinerary for us as we knew little about our destination and what we wanted to see.

The driving plan didn't include GPS coordinates or addresses for each location which made navigating hard at times. Some of the hiking trails that were mentioned and sites to see the written directions weren't sufficient enough to easily locate trails/site.

Halldor was very responsive during planning however the driving plan lacked the addressed/GPS coordinates needed to easily navigate the island from place to place.

Chris' attention to detail was really appreciated. He did an excellent job with our trip from my first inquiry through to his "check in" note during our travels. We really enjoyed the out of the way and less visited places he suggested, and the hotels were fabulous!

As stated earlier Chris was friendly, knowledgeable and efficient. His suggestions were excellent, particularly his advice about how much we could realistically see and do in 3.5 days

Response time was excellent, and the expert was very accommodating to my requests