Kimkim Trip Reviews for Italy

Carmelo arranged an eBike tour for us in Tuscany, starting in San Gimignano, through to Siena and up to Montalcino. We finished it off with a couple of days on Lake Como. This was fabulous, and Carmelo organised everything perfectly. The bikes were waiting for us when we arrived, with very easy to follow route instructions. Drivers were there to pick up and carry our bags between towns when they said they be there. The accommodation Carmelo selected was perfect and the cycling route was exquisite - through rolling Chianti hills, with relatively little traffic. I can't recommend both KimKim and Carmelo enough.

I'm very grateful to Marianne and Carmello and the kimkim team behind them for their patience with my very specific interests and their continuing effort to find matches. Minori, on the Amalfi coast, was just the right size, the Hotel Lucia was simple and impeccable, local bus service to other coastal cities was as promised and their transfer arrangements spot on. I'm an experienced solo traveler but new to this part of Italy and wanted a little local insight beyond what's on the internet. I'll use kimkim again and recommend it to others.

All guides were very good.
We did not go much on Ragusa, this was part due to long trip after previous days journey, plus when we got there we had to search for information office, get town map etc. Maybe KimKim could provide this sort of info within welcoming pack, details of sites where not staying at hotel. Also checking of recommendations the week before would be advisable, the soap museum was closed and also website said booking required for visit. Yes we could of looked on website before we left but also KimKim should not be recommending visits without suppling this sort of info.
Response by KimKim staff , mainly Marianne, mainly on WhatsApp, was very good, when we needed her she was usually there ,if not replied within minutes rather than hours.
Hotel at Palermo is very tired and lacking facilities we had become used to, ie safe in the room, basic toiletries, and fridge. Also it needs to be noted that hotels parking arrangement not available 13.00-21.00 on sundays. Resulted in us spending all of Sunday afternoon at hotel rather than exploring the city.

My wife and I just returned from a 12 day (Sept 30-Oct 12) road trip around the island of Sicily. We worked with Marianne to book our car, places to stay and visit, and local guides. I started to work with Marianne back in early 2018 and she delivered on all counts.

The itinerary for each day provided us many interesting things to do, as well as plenty of time for us to explore this beautiful island. All accommodations were very comfortable and inviting. There were a few in which we would gladly return without hesitation. Our local tour guides were excellent! We were with guides at the Vally of Temples, Villa d'Casele, Syracuse, and Palermo. It was great having our own guide, not like the oters in groups, 30-40, following one person. Our guides also knew of ways to bypass long lines, a great thing at the Valley f the Temples.

During the trip, Marianne was always just a text message away, but we didn't need much from her, since the trip was well planned in advance.

Overall, an excellent experience/vacation/trip! Our first time using KimKim, and not our last I'm sure.

Richard & Brigette

Trip to the Almalfi Coast was amazing! Carmelo was super helpful in planning and tailoring the trips to our needs. The agency was also very quick to respond during our stay in Italy and was very accommodating in helping us work out some last minute changes to our trip. It was truly an unforgettable experience in a beautiful place!

Had an amazing time on our short, self-guided bike trip through Tuscany. The area is beautiful, especially the stretch from the outskirts of Florence to Radda in Chianti. Lots of wineries with consistently good wine. Everything was well coordinated in terms of bike delivery, luggage transport, and hotel booking. Had some initial difficulty with the bikes and with navigation but everything went smoothly afterwards.

Olivier was very helpful, was quick to respond and booked an unforgettable trip for us. Thank you!

Marianne was great! Thanks to her, my mom and I got to enjoy Italy stress free. She was really patient, answering all my questions. She was thoughtful offering suggestions and options for tours and hotels. Marianne while in Italy checked on us, making us feel taking care of.
Thank you Marianne!

This was the first time we have ever planned,booked and paid for a trip totally on the internet. We are older travellers and were a bit hesitant about "faceless" booking, but we are happy to say everything worked out wonderfully. We started planning our trip to Italy with local specialist ,Georgia who put together a fantastic package and was completed by Marianne, with a few changes that we decided to make. All in all, every detail worked out great with no problems with any of the arrangements. What we really liked was being able to plan exactly what we wanted to see and to have the ability to have days to ourselves such as we did in Amalfi for 3days.

HOTELS...... We asked for 3star hotels and were very pleased with all of them. They all were in prime locations for walking to all the sights. Particularly lovely was the Hotel Culture in Napoli, Il Piccolino Giardino in Taormina and the Via Della Giudecca in Syracuse, Sicily.
DRIVERS......Every driver was waiting for us at each airport to take us to our hotel.also punctual were the drivers between cities. Every car was a Mercedes!
TOURS......we had 2 tour guides, both very knowledgeable and approachable. Ludevicia for Napoli and Pompei was exceptional and Eva in Syracuse was very personable. The boat trip around Ortega Island was really fun. The cooking class at Porto Messina restaurant was a great day too.

We would not hesitate to use KimKim again for future travels. The cost was very fair for the quality of trip we experienced. Such a good idea to be able to plan with an agent who actually lives in the area you want to visit and also have the backing of the KimKim company throughout the process.

Julien and Olivier from Allibert Trekking did a fantastic job in planning my itinerary for my Dolomites trek. Given that August is the high season, I thought the task of booking my trip would be almost impossible given that I booked in June. Nevertheless, within 48 hours of initial contact, I had my itinerary mapped out and all rifugios confirmed. It was almost too good to be true!

They were super responsive and possess great knowledge useful for people wanting to take a self-guided tour.

The itinerary they planned was very detailed, and the accommodations were excellent.

I'm already thinking about the next trip I will want to have planned for them. Great job guys!

We had a terrific experience working with KimKim. There were some glitches and problems along the way, but the fact that we had a cell phone number to call and that someone ALWAYS answered the telephone and assisted us immediately made a huge difference in our feeling that we did not have to resolve the issue on our own. The hotels that were booked through KimKim were fine, and without exception the staff at the hotels, many of which were family-run, were kind and helpful. Regarding the guides: the only one who was questionable was the person in Palermo. Although knowledgeable, he was on his phone way too much during our time together. All of the others were friendly, took their job very seriously, and had much to offer. They had great pride in being Sicilian and that was great to see. It made a big difference to be able to just arrive at a location and know that someone was waiting for us and that we did not have to first try to hire someone ourselves. They all (except for the Palermo guide) spoke about the importance of being a professional guide and their concern for quality of service.

Carmelo, Alessandra and Ketty were great. Without repeating myself, we also greatly appreciated how Ketty handled our situation in Lipari. We arrived there not realizing that the hotel we had booked for a week was at the far end of the island, the staff there not particularly pleasant - we had to wait almost an hour for them to pick us up at the ferry despite repeated calls, the beach narrow and all big stones, and that the only way to get to the town was by a bus that ran once an hour and stopped at 7:00 pm. Otherwise, we would have to take taxis at 35 euro each way. There were no cars to be rented. Ketty was wonderful, she booked us into a beautiful hotel 10 minutes walk from Lipari, with a swimming pool which we used daily, and easy access to everything in town. She took care of cancelling the week at Hotel Cutimare and KimKim absorbed the additional cost of the Hotel Tritone, and so the whole situation was hassle-free for us.

The only other inconsistency in the trip was that we drove from Trapani to Agrigento and saw the Greek ruins. The following day you had scheduled us to go to Selimunte, but that would have been at least a 1.5 hour trip each way back to where we had just come from, and we ended up cancelling that excursion. It would have been much better to do these 2 excursions in reverse order.

We really enjoyed every aspect of the trip - probably least favorite was Palermo - the garbage was overwhelming- but the hotel was fine and the sites remarkable. We brought too much stuff - we did not realize that none of the places we stayed would have elevators and our suitcases were heavy, so in the future I would pack much lighter and find laundry places to wash our clothes. it would have been helpful to know in advance that there are no elevators. In Cefalu we had a problem with the taxi not coming to take us to the airport, and it seemed - if we understood right, that it was coming from Palermo - it would probably have been better to hire a local taxi that was not affected by traffic, as we almost missed our plane - but again, Ketty helped us through that.

We also stayed at some wonderful places that you did not book:
La Serenita outside of Noto
Ai Lumi in Trapani
Agriculturismo Casa di Basso outside of Agrigento
and we highly recommend that you explore them for other travelers.

The food was unbelievable - we did not have a bad meal the entire trip. The cooking school was fun. The trip to Mt Etna was great, as was the day-long excursion to Stromboli. We also took a boat to Vulcano one day. We went to a lot of beaches of all kinds, also to Modica and Ragusa, and did much "offbeat" things. At the B&B La Serenita, a woman who works there is also an aspiring chef of typical food, and she invited us to her cava in the mountains and prepared us a wonderful meal.

Thank you again for all your assistance and mostly especially for being available throughout our trip.
Allyson and Bruce

Took forever to get answers on the tour then once in Italy tour was not what I paid for and they were unable to purchase the tickets for the underground Colosseum as purchased. Very disappointing experience in all.

Our feedback from our 12 day trip in May/June 2018 to Sicily organised for 4 adults by KimKim was outstanding to say the least. We asked KimKim to put together a leisurely itinerary that covered the history of Sicily, farmhouse lunches and a Sicilian cooking class.

From our pick-up on arriving by ferry from Malta at 6.30am by Stefano our driver and Maria our guide. Maria and Stefano (supplied by Valdinoto Tours) were both outstanding. So helpful throughout our 3-4 days with them. Maria was so knowledgeable and gave us an in depth history lesson on the areas we covered with her.

All the other transfers and guides were of high standards. They were all on time and helpful throughout their time with us. Only one slight hiccup being one driver could not speak English but was still helpful as 2 of our party could manage with Italian language.

All of the accommodation were to the standards we expected and in very good locations.
They all were very helpful with any requests and the breakfasts supplied throughout each B&B or hotel were excellent.

Our guide in Agrigento was also outstanding. So passionate about the history of the te archaelogical site we visited. One slight problem with our stay in Agrigento the street where this B&B is located is closed to traffic at certain times of the day and unfortunately we arrived during this time. Our driver overcame this by speaking to the police about how to get there and at the end we had to reverse up a one way street! The owner of the B&B met us to carry the bags up a stairway.

The cooking class we had in Taormina at the Porta Messina was excellent they could not do enough for us and it was such fun along with plenty of food and drink.

All the other farmhouse lunches the lunch at Acitrezza were excellent, so much food! We certainly enjoyed the experiences.

From the time we arrived in Sicily to the time we left we did not have to handle our luggage.

We highly recommend KimKim for their excellent organisation and their very reasonable pricing.

We had a wonderful 14 days in Sicily with an extension of 2 nights in Lipari and 2 additional nights in Rome. Marianne was very helpful, especially when we altered our Mt Etna excursion and she then added an additional dinner to our trip. The only recommendation my husband and I were to make is if you plan to drive to Syracuse's part of the City called Ortygia, it should be mentioned that you need to 1st park your car in longterm parking and then take a taxi to the hotel as only residents' cars are allowed.

Marianne did a great job of arranging our walking trip on the Francigena way from San Miniato to Siena. The hotel arrangements were great, the bag pickup was flawless and the taxis she arranged that allowed us to cut down each day to a reasonable 10-12 miles a day of walking were aways on time. Working with her was well worth the money.

We could not fault the whole trip. All the guides were exceptional. The places we visited were fabulous. The farm house lunches absolutely great. We would recommend this trip to anyone who asked for advice.

An excellent trip. Choice of guides and destinations inside Sicily was excellent. Accomodation excellent except for two nights in Cefalu where the accommodation was too basic and better suited to backpackers.

With our input, Giorgia came up with a great itinerary for our trip to Sicily, and the experience was smooth and stress free. We were paired up with very knowledgeable guides and really enjoyed the street food and culture tour in Palermo and the tour of the temple ruins in Agrigento. The hotels where we we we stayed were clean and centrally located so that we had only short walks to the center of town, The agriturismo was my favorite stay -- located in the countryside with gracious hosts and a veranda with spectacular views of the countryside which we enjoyed while we sipped some wine and relaxed at the end of our day,

The drivers were courteous and arrived promptly, and having a driver really made a difference in our enjoyment of the trip. We would have had some issues finding some of the places where we stayed, especially in the agriturismo which is tucked away and off the beaten path, Having this trip planned for us by an expert allowed us to really enjoy the experience without the worry and work that normally goes into planning vacation of this sort. I don't think I would travel any other way from now on!

I reached out to KimKim because I had a difficult time planning the itinerary for our Italian vacation on my own. Giorgia did an excellent job with helping us plan. She had great recommendations for tours and things to do in Florence. She booked a small group tour of the Colosseum including the underground and other off-limit places. She also booked us for a small group tour of the Vatican. Our guides were extremely knowledgeable and seemed to love sharing the history of their city. Giorgia also booked us for a food tour in Florence. We loved trying the local foods and our guide was a lot of fun.

Giorgia had excellent communication with us and answered all of our questions. She even reached out to us during our trip to make sure everything was going smoothly.

I would definitely recommend Giorgia and KimKim to anyone looking to plan a memorable vacation!

This trip to Italy was amazing. Giorgia did a fabulous job arranging everything, responded to emails quickly and efficiently! We had some issues with our flights getting changed multiple times, and Giorgia was amazing, kept in contact with us and our driver and our driver was there to meet us when we finally got there. My daughter especially liked the guide (whose name I can't remember) for the city tour of Florence, she took us to several churches, told us about art (my daughter is a artist so was especially happy) and history and we just had the best day! Seeing David was really the best part of the day! The next day we went to Pisa and Lucca, Simone, our driver was fabulous. He was funny and interactive, and made the trip driving seem really short. The hotel was perfect, Hotel Basteri was perfectly located within easy walking distance of everything. All in all this was a perfect trip for my daughter - it was a surprise for her 26 birthday!