Kimkim Trip Reviews for Jordan

My overall experience with the travel arranged for me in Jordan was quite nice.

Plus
- all the drivers arranged for my pick-ups were professional, polite and kind. They made some calls for me on the way to the hotel and so on to make sure everything goes smoothly. I really appriciated that

Minus
- I feel like I didn’t get enough information about Jordan and all the destinations I was going to prior my trip. Carmen created Vamoos app for me for my itenerary, which was great, but I thought I’d get more personalised information about some interesting places , where to dine, or some local facts I wouldn’t normally get from the internet. Clicking the map didn’t help much, since most of the places on the map don’t have any information. Also the traveling date was wrong, and is still wrong up til now. It’s Febuary in the app.

- on my first day, my visit to Amman beach was pretty disappointing. The facility was not great, shower room broken, no hair dryer, lockers with no lock, and no staff to borrow the lock or lend towels from. Good thing I had my towel with me so I didn’t have to, but i had a hard time showering and drying my hair after the swim, espeically with that much salt on my body and hair. I would have been willing to pay more for better places, like one of those 5 star hotel facilities nearby (Kempinski, movenpick, dead sea spa etc.)

- on my last day, it seemed like my bus ticket from Aqaba to Amman was wrong. I couldn’t read Arabic of course, but my driver was kind enough to check for me at the bus station when he dropped me off, so they changed the new one for me.
And since my bus was at 6 PM and i was dropped off at 10 AM with my luggages, I had to find a place to store those before I could do anything, which was pretty troublesome. At that point I wish I was told or suggested beforehand what to do with my luggages. In the end I mannaged to ask Movenpick hotel to keep them for me, eventhough I wasn’t staying with them.
And I also wish I was given some interesting information about Aqaba, restaurants, cafe and attractions. Since it was a very low season, whatever I tried to do (glass bottom boat tour etc.) everything was unavailable due to too small group of people joining.

I think that’s pretty much my opinion on my trip to Jordan. Thank you Carmen for all the help in planning and everything. Jordan was an amazing country and I loved my experiences there.

Thanya

Ibrahim in Jordan was a fantastic guide and Mohammed was a great driver. They worked well together. We like our history so Jerash was fabulous. The hike through Dana Valley also was a highlight as was Jerusalem. Re the design of the trip, the only dud day was the trip to the Dead Sea. The hotel where we had lunch was depressing and the beach was ugly and cordoned off with barb wire.

The driver was good and gave us lotts of good informtion about Jordan. However, even though he never smoked when we were in the car, the vehicle stank f stale cigarette smoke.

The restaurant in Petra did not have any record of us, of Kimkim or of Experience Jordan. Forunately I had the contact telephone numbers which the restaurant used and found our booking under a company name hat had never been mentioned in the correspondence. This should be rectified in your system.

We booked quite late, but some of the things between Kim Kim, Experience Jordan, and the driver were not so clear; although things were always resolved quickly.

Good advice on the trip, and how to best allocate time.

This was one of the best trips I have been on. So well organised. 5 start accommodation and service. The guide we had was so friendly and helpful. The taxi drivers were friendly and very helpful too. I would recommend this tour and company to anyone who wants the best in Jordan.

Bianca did every she could to get the best tour together for my team. I changed the plan/days multiple times and Bianca continued to help us get the best price and experience out of it.

My compliments to all the support staff. From Abdullah our Bedouin guide to all the drivers, cooks and Wilderness Camp workers, they were all very kind, helpful and attentive to our comfort and safety

As for me, being an older, slower and more deliberate hiker, I found the terrain and heat more than I have ever experienced on previous hikes. I would like to do that trek over 10 days instead of 5 but that would be difficult from a logistical point of view. I was able to walk 2/3 of the trail but was happy to have the donkey or truck for the other 1/3. Gratefully, Mahadi was understanding and never made me feel that I was a burden.

Of course, the last 2 days, the hike to Little Petra and then to Petra were the highlight. Other than Machu Pichu I have never experienced anything like the hike from the Monastery and through the Siq to the Treasury. It was truly magnificent. The hardship of the trek was worth all that I learned about Jordan and its' people and customs. We all came away with a much greater understanding of the Middle East and the peaceful religion of Islam. It is very unfortunate that many politicians, for their own gain, paint Islam with a terrorist brush. It would be a better world if more Americans had the same experience we had.

There is a possibility that I will be returning to Jordan next April to work with a medical team at the Syrian Refugee Camp near Amman and I told Mahadi I would contact him and we would have a cup of tea together

Best regards
Bill Tedesco

As a solo female American, Bianca and Jolanda did a great job making me feel comfortable.

Bianca was amazing. She planned every step for me perfectly.

This trek in Jordan as arranged by Tala and guided by Mahdi was a life-satisfying experience like none other. Hiking through the desert took me from modern times and troubles to the depths of where
it all began. Throughout the trek, our excellent guide showed professional competence and patience easily seen reflected in the faces of the people young and old in Bedouin communities we passed through. He was able to take us back in history to the Nabatean era to the present with ease and understanding. Our accommodations were comfortable and complete offering us the modern eco-friendly to the more primitive camping styles. My favorite times were having tea through the day, prepared in the way of traditional Bedouin tribesmen, as if to take timeout to remember to enjoy and experience the moment, a time that often is missed back home. Thanks to all who made this possible. I will never forget this outing nor those who joined me on this adventure!

It was a short trip. I would say the biggest surprise was just how beautiful, well-equipped/appointed the Fig Tree B&B is. The food and accommodation exceeded every expectation. The host Jolanda even does chair massages!

Organized to a tee. Bianca could not have been more organized, knowledgeable or accommodating.

We truly had a great time in Jordan. Basma and team organized a well-planned itinerary but we wished we had more time in Jordan, especially in Petra and the Dead Sea. Jordan is an amazing place for a holiday. People are friendly and the food is great. The place is safe. We felt safe and relax wherever we traveled. The driver we had in Jordan was fantastic. He has good knowledge of the places we visited that made our holiday in Jordan more special and memorable. Thank you.

We had a great time on all of our tours and transportation. Everyone was flexible and Carina was very responsive and supportive so we always felt like we had someone to help or just answer questions.

Carina was very responsive and did a great job helping to plan a great trip and make sure it was executed correctly.

The sites were great as was the drivers in both Jordan (Nabil) and Israel (Abed) as they were not only excellent drivers but their knowledge was excellent for our group which was not a religious tour. Our guide MaHa, in Jordan was also good in adjusting the itinerary to our particular preferences. I felt this was more a group tour in a small van rather than a private tour. We would have appreciated being offered a broader range of accommodation options to suit a range of budgets. We would have also appreciated a broader set of itinerary's - for example - just camp dinner at wadi rum with no overnight We also had to identify our own more upmarket hotels in some locations.

Basma was excellent in adjusting the tour to our needs but we were surprised when she informed us she was leaving the tour half a day earlier because it suited the tour company better and there was no guiding to be done in the last leg. It would have been better if you had informed us we only needed a guide for 3 days instead of four.

When booking, I was under impression that only our small group will participate in most of the activities - however it turned out we were joined by other people on the Little Petra to Monastery hike, as well as on Wadi Rum tour. It wasn't much of an issue in Wadi Rum - we already became friends with other 2 women, and we had wonderful guide who was making sure that we are comfortable at all times.
Little Petra to Monastery hike however was quite disappointing - our guide was going very fast, moving on with the most fittest in the group, acting quite arrogantly when asked to slow down, and making rude comments about having to wait for us. It was quite a challenge to keep up with the pace, and it felt like I hardly had any time to look around, and absolutely no time to take any photos!

Another issue was a behavior of our driver Ali at times:
He suggested that when visiting Dead Sea we go to different beach instead of Dead Sea Spa hotel as planned by our trip advisor. He was very persistent, making up stories of how the entrance to the Dead Sea Spa hotel "without reservations" would cost 45 instead of 20JD, and while saying that it is up to us, truly making it quite impossible for us to refuse - we ended up going to "Oh Beach", and although the beach was not bad, I believe it was not quite same standard as Dead Sea Spa hotel (but we still paid 20JD per person for beach entrance).
On the way back from Wadi Rum to Madaba he tried to "ditch us" - at first he said that another driver will meet us at the gas station, and take us back to Madaba. Once we arrived at the gas station it turned out that the other driver had somebody else in the car, so Ali told us to get back into his car and kept driving, while constantly making phone calls. Little later he pulled into the Rest Stop with shop and restaurant, and declared that we will take 15min brake. As we got back into the car some time later, it turned out that Ali's car "broke down" and wouldn't start, so he had to call his friend to take us back to Madaba! Also, instead of coming to pick us from the hotel in Madaba to go to the airport he sent yet another friend - who was driving quite old taxi without any AC.

Bianca was easy to communicate with, she answered all our questions, and the plan she came up with covered everything we wanted to do/see in Jordan. Entire Wadi Rum experience was truly wonderful - highlight of our trip! And it was great to meet Bianca in person =)
There were few minor hiccups, but those seem to be somewhat out of her control: as mentioned before, we were disappointed with the back road to the Monastery hike, and a bit unsatisfied with our driver.

The overall experience planning was easy and fast!

Tala organized an amazing trip. We visited the places we wanted to visit in addition to some places that she added to our trip and they were all worth it. Also she provided us with all the necessary information. She made sure that everything went as we wanted. Thank you for the great experience Tala! Also the driver we had with us, Ahmad, stopped us at some great views and took us to visit places on our way that we were interested in. The car was very comfortable. The overall trip was amazing, a great experience!

Almost perfect. There was a slight mismatch between our expectations on tour length and the expectations of the guide. Specifically, our request for a deeper dive into the historical details of sites above and beyond the usual time limitations of a fixed length standard tour was mis-matched with the guide's understanding that the standard tour length would suffice. I'm not sure where the communication could have been more complete and apologize if this is a detail that we missed somewhere in the exchanges. In any event, we raised the question with our guide and he was able to quickly clarify that he was hired for time-limited tours each day in line with the needs of regular tour customers. Overall, he was an absolute delight to work with and very impressive in terms of the depth of his knowledge clearly resulting from a deep personal passion for the history of Petra. Thank you!

It was not completely clear to us why our border crossings between Israel and Jordan were so far north and at such a remote border point. We guessed that it was due to the need to enter and depart by the same ports of entry and the relative time savings offered on the tail end of our trip when we needed to get to Haifa.

This is significant in part due to the remoteness of the Jordanian port of entry seems that it may have contributed to the delay of over an hour when the immigration officials withheld my visa stamp with no rationale or information on whether or not I would be permitted to enter Jordan.

It is very possible that the information was offered to one or both of us and we just missed it in which case I apologize. Thank you!

Everything met and exceeded our expectations. The guide was flexible, knowledgeable and friendly. If we asked for a change, we were always accommodated. Our plans were worked out and we had many great surprises and not a single bad one. Thank you kimkim and see you soon.

Rania our guide was amazing and our coordinator Tala was kind understanding and very very helpful.

Everyone we had contact with was friendly, professional and spoke excellent English. Small hick up with a driver who overslept, but Bianca was right on it. The person who took us on the Jeep trip was excellent and was very knowledgeable about the area. I would highly recommend him.

Blanca was easy to get hold of and very responsive when we needed to contact her.

Everything went according to plan, The drivers and the guide were all fantastic. Well done!

Wow, what a great trip. Bianca was a delight to work with, and everyone she introduced us to along the way was fantastic. Can't wait to get back there and adventure with these guys again!

Bianca is extremely well organized and very effective. Highly recommended.

The trip was more than we could have expected. We had great hotels, amazing drivers and the team did everything to make it easy for us at the border.

Platform-wise, I would have liked to select my currency while planning the trip or to have it more obvious than prices were in USD. We are Canadians and used to platforms automatically converting to CAD using cookies. The exchange rate was, therefore, a very bad surprise.

Also, a module for the agent to provide local contact details we could have downloaded directly would be great (or kimkim app to save them) and the possibility to download the conversations locally for when we do not have wifi once on the trip.

Otherwise, the platform and concept were really good. Already recommended it in a few Montreal newspaper/tv. Good job guys!

Carina was great, always accessible and made all necessary adjustments before our arrival. Amazing job!