Kimkim Trip Reviews for Nepal

It was the most delightful and impressive experience from the moment I made first contact with the company to the moment I was dropped off at Kathmandu airport after the trekking trip, and every step in between worked out exactly as planned. All questions and concerns were quickly and fully addressed; attention to details was second to none.

My guide Phurba and porter Lakpa were the best I could have asked for. Not only were they excellent at what they were supposed to do, they were such fun and laid back guys, and worked so naturally to match my level of physical fitness. By only the end of the first day trekking, we had all become trekking buddies!

The trek itself had some lovely moments, and a few great views of the mountain range, but nothing extraordinary. Much of the trail is comprised of pesky loose rocks (terrible on the knee and ankle joints) and almost the entire trail is full of animal droppings. (think bad smells) Next time I'd like to try the higher elevation treks.

At first we weren't so sure of how the trip would go, our guide Ang Gelu was very quiet and his english not great and Tira (not sure if that's how you spell it) our porter, was tiny and couldn't speak English at all... and wrong impressions is how we started the trip. Ang Gelu was just outstanding, well organized, had enormous knowledge over the mountains, the paths, what was safe and what was not. How to properly acclimatize. He was always on time, always ready for help and just amazing all around. Tira was so strong, always had a smile on his face and also did a incredible job carrying our stuff. The experience was very challenging, it is for most people, but they were our cheerleaders, friends and caretakers during the 17 days. We would repeat it again in a second. Nepal has a way of challenging everyone, and there is nothing better than feeling like someone is always watching your back when you are most seriously challenged physically and mentally. Thank you for such an unforgettable experience

We had such a short time in Nepal - only 5 days - but a wonderful experience thanks to Sudershan's expert planning. He was very patient as we emailed back and forth trying to decide what kind of trip suited us and always replied very promptly. It was a very stress free experience as we were met at the airport by Sudarshan, our guide Sanu and driver Amrit, and were whisked off to the first night of our 3 day Balthali Trek. All 3 nights accommodation were very comfortable with excellent food and service - but the highlight was Namu Buddha Resort! A series of cottages spread out through a lovely garden - we had a large 2 story house just for 2 of us - and superb vegetarian food all grown on the property. The walk to the nearby Tibetan monastry was well within our capabilities and the monastry was spectacular. We were very well looked after by Sanu, who gauged our level of fitness and adjusted walking times accordingly, and answered our many questions about Nepalese lifestyle and customs. We were also very appreciative of Amrit's superb driving skills on very challenging roads. Both Sanu and Amrit were charming, helpful and considerate and we highly recommend their company - Blue Sheep - to travelers wishing to gain an insight into Nepalese culture. Sudarshan met us on our return to Kathmandu and was very helpful with advice for our brief visit to that very vibrant city.

Had a wonderful time trekking Annapurna Base Camp and Muldai Peak with my awesome guide Nawang. Raj, Erin and Amanda were super helpful and accommodating as plans changed, and made all the logistics effortless. Truly an unforgettable trip!

Had a great time.
Beautiful country & beautiful people.

Hi ! We did the Pikey peak and Solu trek package. It was even better than we expected. Amanda our local specialist really understood what we wanted, I asked for a trek with the least amount of tourist and she delivered. We did not see any tourist until the end of the trek, so our entire trek was nature and the locals (Sherpa coulture). Very sweet people, warm and very hospitable. We stayed in tea houses and they were great. Our guide Pemba was really great, he knew his stuff well and was very good about taking décisions when the weather was less than ideal. He was also really great at the Phaplu airport, a very tiny airport with very few flights and weather plays a huge role in you getting your flight and so does the delivery of goods to Lukla. So after stressing a bit thinking we may not get our flight, our guide found a way and we flew on saturday as planned, thank you Pemba for your hard work! Now our sherpas, they were so amazing, Dowa 1 and Dowa 2, they both had the same name so the told us to add the number when Calling their names. They were so great, they also did most of the cooking for us at the tea houses, they really went out of their way for us to be confortable and well fed.

As for the trek itself I loved all of it, my favorites, I really enjoyed Japre, I loved where we stayed at Pikey basecamp, climbing up to Pikey Peak at 6am in the fog and then seeing Everest was pretty magical. We all really enjoyed Loding village it was really relaxing after two hard days of Walking. When we arrived in Junbesi we immediately climbed to Thubten Choling Monastery, now that was the nicest most amazing mistical monastery I have ever visited. The monks where really warm and hospitable, they even invited us to their tea room for some delicious tea with milk and some local cookies.

I could go on and on, but if you want a trek that is a bit challenging but yet very enjoyable and minimal tourist with a real experience of the Sherpa culture, this is a really great trek. Thank you Amanda for your hard work and thank you Pemba for all the strings you pulled to get us back to Kathmandu ontime. I can't wait for my next trek in Nepal!!!

Audrey

Review for Nepal trip from 9th Sept - 23rd Sept. This was my 2nd trip to Nepal but 1st time experience trekking in Nepal (Muldai and Poon Hill Trek). I arrived Nepal late night so reached Nagarkot in the mid night. Looking at the prepared delicious dinner inside my room, normally I don't take supper but can't resist it. Luckily I tried and had no regret to gain weight. :) I will have to come back to this place again as I did not have sunrise and panaroma view due to raining and foggy in the following day early morning. Anyway, I had fulfilled with local yogurt at Bhaktapur.

Actually I was quite excited while preparing for this trip though I did not have time to train my stamina, however, last minute being strike by over stress by work and almost collapse. So worry that I will not able to proceed with the hiking as per plan. Everything happened has its reason, this time, my domestic flight being delayed for 4 hours, so would not be able to start the trekking as per plan upon reaching Pokhara. Therefore, I got one extra day to relax myself physically and mentally. And unintentionally, found and taste a nice and yummy fried chicken wing for which I will never forget the taste and for sure not because of hunger.

For the 5 days trekking was awesome. Trekking in mountain at different altitude, there are lots of unpredictable eg: weather. You can experience from chill, cooling, freezing; wet, hot...muddy, rocky trail... crossing few suspension bridge, the fun part would be...take off your muddy boot, smelly socks and hanging on your hand to cross the stream with bare foot, where the water above ankle high. Fortunate the water not about waist high, then have to dry ourselves at the road side :). The experience is very difficult to express in word, should at least experience it personally once in life time as the trekking in Nepal different from another country, and has to be accompanied with a guide who are patience and exprience. I am glad that Kripa has arranged an experience and patience guide throughout my whole trip. I will always recommend him, Suman, who would like to go on trekking, I hope in future he can bring more sense of humour during long trip.

This trip I have experience freezing at the peak; Muldai & Poon Hill with 2 legs, super hot at the flat plain land at Lumbini. Vespa ride to 3 places, unfortunately most has been ruined during earthquake and yet being fully "restored". Thanks to the village has done their best to preserved all the historical icon, it really benefited the generation as well as foreigner like me. And thanks to Vespa guide whom bring me to visit these 3 places and try nice local Newari food.

Nepal really has it own charm, it attracted me to come back again and again.

Thank you Kripa for planning this awesome trip for me and also visit to Kopan Monastry. Thanks friend help me to fill up all the permit documents (big Hi). Hope to visit Nepal again in near future soon.

The overall experuence was exactly what we hoped for.
Nice people, flexible when plans changed and had a lot to tell about places we visited.
We have done only 5,5 days in nepal, kthmandu to pokhara and some rafting in between an staying in a fantastisch riverside camp.
All perfectly arranged.
My only point of comment would be that the drive to and from the Famous Farm (which was fantastic to stay btw) was too long (due to the road conditions) related to the total time we where in Nepal.
Besides that, all perfect!

Erin, our local specialist, was really great helping us prepare for the trip, to the point that she helped us booking bus tickets between Kathmandu and Pokhara as well as researching various other things that we were asking about prior to arrival.

We initially booked a 5 day trek in the Annapurna range, but as our prior travels went on we realised that a 4 day trek suited our schedule better - Erin sorted this for us as well, and put together a more compact plan with our guide Naresh that meant we could cover the same trek in a day less.

The specific trek was the Mulde/Muldai/Muldei Peak and Poon Hill trek, with a maximum altitude of about 3600m, starting at around 1700m and ending at around 1500m. Apart from the unfortunate cloudy weather due to monsoon season, we got two clear magnificent sunrises, and if the weather had been clear on the second evening; a sunset as well at 3600m. We really had some great views, and an overall great experience, and just the view the first morning made our 6 week travel in India and Nepal worth it. Naresh, our guide, was incredibly nice, helpful and considerate, and helped us with everything from pointing out the mountain peak names to leech-protection, getting drinking water, and drying clothes in the tea houses.

I unfortunately reacted badly to the rapid increase in altitude and didn't feel too well the second and third day, but Naresh did everything in his power, including swapping backpacks with me, to take some of the strain off, as well as put the tempo down. This trek should be doable without any significant prevention of altitude sickness, and my partner was fine apart from slight loss of appetite, but some tablets for AMS could be useful, and make sure to communicate with you guide so he/she is aware, as well as be aware of the symptoms and react early if possible if any symptoms develop.

I would definitely do this trek again - next, maybe a slightly longer one to the Annapurna Base Camp. If you are inexperienced or new to the trekking aspects, or other aspects such as navigation etc (or just wanna enjoy doing the trek without planning it yourself), I would definitely recommend this way of booking.

Thank for a great time, kimkim, Erin and Naresh!

We had an amazing experience trekking with responsible treks and would highly recommend it to anyone considering traveling to Nepal. Our guide Sonam was a true professional, taking care of us every step of the way. We did a 12 day hike to Phoksundo Lake and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a tour that is a bit more remote. We only say 4 other trekkers the entire time, and were able to really experience true Nepalese culture. The trek was definitely challenging at points, but nothing we (moderately fit people) couldn't handle. The most difficult part of the trip was getting to the remote area of Nepal where our hiking began and ended. We ended up being stuck for a few days; however, Sonam and the responsible trekking crew pulled out all the stops and made sure we were on the first flight out.

If you want a real Nepal experience where you get to interact with local people and see some amazing sights do this trek!

I had a very good time in Nepal thanks to the Social tours team (Anura & Raj), everything went smoothly and they were very flexible with my plans even dealing with changes to fit my preferences once in Nepal. This tour included the key cultural highlights of the Kathmandu valley as well as a trek from Pokhara. All guides provided were very knowledgeable and left me some free time to explore by myself as well. My only suggestion is to make sure you have the direct contact details of your guides to keep them posted on your arrival time outside of working hours, as this has been required during my trip due to my flight to Pokhara being delayed early morning. Luckily we could reschedule the trek to the following day. I could not recommend Social tours enough, thanks again for the amazing experience! :)

We had a great trek in Nepal- we did a 6 day comfort Poonhill trek- and as it was monsoon season we had the mountains more or less for ourselves! Marie was super helpful with advise and helping us choose our trek. Our guide Daewon and porter was also super sweet. Would totally recommend!

Mingma and the porters were lovely and very helpful, and I was grateful to them for flicking leeches off my shoes! It was a good route with lots of different and pretty immediate scenery, even if it was too cloudy to see the mountains. I was happy with the level of difficulty of the trek. I loved the first tea house in Ghandruk. I was a bit disappointed with the lack of views but had plenty of warning that this could well be the case in monsoon season.

It was great to have a personalised tour and the fact they ensured I was able to access it by providing a Nepalese Sign Language Interpreter. I enjoyed my time in Bhaktpur the most.

Mads was really helpful from the outset and helped me work out a fantastic itinerary for myself and my family. We thoroughly enjoyed it all from the trekking with our lovely guide chheering, the white water rafting expedition and our luxurious stay at Chitwan. Our adventure to lumbini and across the border was fun but would maybe fly from Kathmandu next time! Amanda, our contact in Kathmandu was faultless- giving us excellent recommendations for meals and providing us with a phone so we could contact her if we had any problems and then resolving any issues with incredible speed. We loved Nepal as much as when we last visited it nearly 20 years ago and now our 3 children love it as well. Thank you all so much.

My wife and I recently traveled to Nepal on our honeymoon to explore part of the mustang region. We were looking for adventure, culture and scenery. Our guide Thinley and the whole team from Responsible Treks gave us a wonderful adventure. Nepal is such a beautiful country rich in history, culture and spirit, and the mustang region was just as breathtaking as we had hoped it would be. Even with the monsoon weather providing us with a range of obstacles, the Responsible Treks team worked diligently to find solutions to each obstacle and succeeded in giving us an adventure that we will always remember.

We had a wonderful experience in Nepal, and I can't say enough great things about Chhewang and Sonam from Responsible Treks. This was our first time to Nepal, and Chhewang was extremely helpful in designing the perfect itinerary for us. He assessed our capabilities and interests, and proposed several options. He was patient and responsive with our questions and flexible to meet our needs at every step.

We trekked the remote region of Nar and Phu, and then part of the Annapurna Circuit. We had a day in Kathmandu before and again after trekking. For us, this was the perfect balance of varied landscapes, authentic cultural experiences, and "off the beaten path" trekking. We were hesitant to visit during the monsoon, but would do so again in an instant. Many areas we trekked were in the "rain shadow" and so we had plenty of sun, in addition to enjoying the lush green landscape and "off season" quiet serenity this time of year.

Our guide, Sonam, is the best of the best. He took great care of us including getting us safely over two high mountain passes, taught us so much about the landscape and local culture, and made every day fun. He went above and beyond to make sure we were comfortable, making tweaks to our itinerary based on how we were feeling. The trek was a great value and Sonam consistently looked out for us to ensure we had the best treatment at teahouses. My wife celebrated a birthday during our trek, and he worked with the locals to surprise her with a cake!

This was our first time using kimkim. The experience was wonderful, the fees were transparent and, most importantly, they connected us with an excellent local partner for our trip.

Loved the trek so much! Didn’t really think about much before I go. Alex and Erin are very experienced in terms of giving good advice on the drier route during monsoon season and taking care of my arrival. Ngawang is such a experienced guide and he was very helpful along the trek. Food is very good and satisfying during the trip too ;)

We are very grateful to Erin and the kimkim team for putting together a fantastic and memorable holiday this May. Our decision to go to Nepal was pretty last minute and not exactly at the best time of year to visit, but with Erin's guidance we were able to figure out an itinerary with all of the experiences we were looking for, while maximizing the opportunities for good weather and clear skies/views. Our trip included a four-day trek from Jomsom - with an incredibly memorable flight to reach Jomsom - and a couple days of relaxation in Pokhara on the back end at a stunning property. It was a perfect balance of activity and relaxation. The whole trip was seamless thanks to the KimKim team and our excellent guide, Mingma. Having all of the logistical stress removed meant that we were able to fully enjoy the experience. The team even made sure that we got the most out of our layover in Kathmandu, arranging for us to be picked up and see some highlights of the city. We look forward to traveling with kimkim again in the future and have already recommended them to family and friends.

My guide was very friendly and helpful for my trekking. He organized well and take care of me well too as we travel together. Erin helped me a lot by providing some information about this whole trip as this is my time to come trekking in Nepal. Everything was excellent and the one thing I was impressed was to see the local people in Langtang who work hard to rebuild their villages destroyed by the earthquake in 2015.