Kimkim Trip Reviews for Nepal

The trip was amazing, I enjoyed every moment of it. Chhiring, our guide, was incredible, helped us all the time.

Pre-Trip: Fast reply to questions. Flexible arrangements.

Trek: Well organised, great team, great people - which could be hard as you live with them day after day .

One of us had never flown long haul and the other was on their fourth trip to Nepal, the service provided exceeded both our expectations.

So in summary I would highly recommend for both novice or experienced travellers alike.

I was extremely impressed with NMMT and would happily travel with them again. Of particular note were the consistently speedy responses by Ngima to all pre-trip correspondence and our endless queries, all dealt with with great courtesy and infinite patience, plus the helpful explanations and suggestions made in the planning and lead-up to our trip (5 people). The impression was of an efficient, experienced team who can deal with anything that crops up. We were not disappointed. Tashi and our guide Pemba welcomed us and personally I felt in good hands from the word Go. Our endearingly cheeky, lively, careful guide Pemba Sherpa and warm-natured assistant guide Dendi Sherpa took assiduous care of us on our fabulous 7-day trek, always observing how we were coping and adjusting pace or route accordingly and with respectful grace, shown clearly when one of our group unfortunately had a gastric reaction early on in the trip. They were always there, endlessly good-humoured and supportive. Pemba had to make some considered decisions on our return route, given road closure times due to the current massive Chinese road construction. Our two excellent, nimble porters were smiling and good-natured. We also appreciated the extra time Pemba took to guide us on our "free" day in Kathmandu at the end, when we were lucky enough to visit sites on Buddha's birthday. Although we were sad not to meet Ngima after all our communications with him, he had ensured we were well cared for in his absence (doing good works in his home village). Many thanks, NMMT.

I cannot say enough about how professional, efficient, personable, and thorough the team at Responsible Treks was.
I consider myself a low-maintenance traveler, so I was not used to having such a highly attentive team. But I’m grateful for it. They took care of every detail, leaving my focus only on soaking in the scenery, history, culture, and terrain of one of the most beautiful countries on earth.
Kunchok guided me through selecting a trek and preparing for it. He was responsive to every question and upfront with all the details we would need to know. He met us as we arrived at our hotel and ensured that we were briefed in person on the timeline and the details of the trek.
I had selected the short Dhampus Trek with my brother. Our guide in the mountains was Dawa. He was phenomenal—entirely professional and highly knowledgeable. And we felt as though he were a close friend by the end of the trek. He helped us navigate cultural nuances as well as fully explained all stretches of the trek to us. He left both of us wanting to return and trek again with him one day.
Rajive was our guide for a day in Kathmandu, and we were left feeling like we couldn’t have asked for a better experience. He asked us about our timeline and our interests, and then he made tailored suggestions to us that allowed us to see both the major Kathmandu sites as well as some off-the-beaten-path sites that allowed us to feel as though we’d been given a private view into the true vibe of that culturally rich city.
At an incredibly reasonable price, Responsible Treks seamlessly took us from A to Z along our trip, and left us feeling beyond satisfied. I highly recommend this team.

The whole trip- all the connections the tour guides, the hotels- awesome!
Thanks!

This was my second visit to Nepal and my second time using this company. Amanda and Tendu provided excellent service once again!!

I contacted Amanda to have her set up a tour for us on short notice. She was always quick to respond, friendly, accommodating and answered all of our questions. We did a three day trip through Pokhara, Dhampus and Bandipur, which would have been hard to do on our own. We stayed at fantastic guest houses and had some great views. Our guide Tendu was very knowledgeable and friendly. I will be coming back to Nepal and I will be using this company again!!

Ngima's company, Nepal Myths and Mountain Trails, was amazing! From the first steps of communication to our arrival to our trek and to an additional day trip after that, we were responded to promptly, effectively, and with the utmost of care. We did the three passes trek with Ang gelu Sherpa as our guide. He was an exceptional guide and an awesome person. He made sure that our experience was perfect at all times. While our experience leads us to believe that Ngima's company would be an amazing choice no matter what, we recommend that you request Ang gelu as your guide. Our porters Kima and Pemba were also incredible. Ngima also provided a great representative, Tashi, who met us at our hotel, briefed us before the trip, arranged transportation to and from the airport, and even helped to coordinate an additional trip to Bhaktapur after we finished trekking . Throughout the entire trip we felt like we were in knowledgeable and capable hands. If you are looking to trek in Nepal, we highly recommend using Nepal Myths and Mountain Trails.

I cannot say enough about the awesome Nepal trek we recently competed that was booked through KimKim with Responsible Treks. From our first interactions, KimKim identified the type of trip we were interested in, the specific dates we were available and matched us with a trekking company and a trek that fit our skill level and expectations.

The trip itself exceeded our expectations on all fronts. The communications we received via KimKim's platform helped us plan our trip, get a great sense of what to expect each day, and to pack accordingly. The information and communications we received on the front end alleviated any trip anxiety we may have had. Chhewang, our trip organizer with Responsible Treks, met us at the airport in Kathmandu and rode with us to our hotel where we met with our trek guide, Sonam. We discussed the trek and generally what to expect. Our trek started the next morning where we met our porter, Chhiring T. Over the course of our trek, whether in airports, check points, tea houses or lodges Sonam and Chhiring T took care of us and ensured we had the best trek possible. Upon our return to Kathmandu we met for dinner with our trip organizer Chhewang from Responsible Treks and our trekking crew for a traditional Nepalese dinner - an awesome ending to our trip. We were picked up the next day and escorted to the airport for our flights home.

Again, we had a great trip and trek and no detail was left to chance - the KimKim platform and team matched us up with exactly what we were looking for in a trip and Responsible Treks and their team took care of us and ensured our trip was a success.

We give KimKim and Responsible Treks 5 stars - and two thumbs up!!

Sudarshan is an amazing host, pre-trip and during the trip! He gave very speedy replies and was very efficient even though I made multiple changes throughout the planning of the trip.
He also constantly stayed in contact with me throughout the trip via whatsapp to make sure that everything was going fine and gave us up to date information on what was going to happen next.
He even invited our group out for dinner on our final day! (Although we had to decline as we weren't feeling very well).
The long bus rides between cities however is something I would probably never do again (Sudarshan did warn me on this before the trip).
Sudarshan's hospitality and reliability is something that will make me return again.
Everything went very smoothly and pleasantly!

Damber was quite possibly the best guide I could have asked for. He was considerate, extremely knowledgeable, caring and very entertaining. The journey was significantly easier under his care. Many fellow trekkers didn’t make it, or struggled intensely. I am convinced much of my journey was made easier based on following his very experienced advice. I strongly recommend both the site and Damber specifically. In spending the time and money to attempt to get to EBC, make the effort to get the best guide possible. Damber is it.

Trip was excellent. Amanda was more than awesome. I give her 10 stars, not just five. She handled all our needs, last minute changes and beyond.

Mingma and Dorje were top-notch and literally saved our trek by being agile in the face of Indian Prime Minister’s visit to Muktinath. They stayed informed of his changing schedule and altered our trek route and time-table to enable our visit. They both were knowledgeable, fun, and a pleasure to trek with. During trek days they stayed close to us in sketchy areas and gave us space in easier areas.

All transfers and accommodation were great.

The entire crew made it possible for Donna and I to drop into Adventure travel for two weeks and not lose any of that time to waiting for permits, negotiating for taxis, etc, etc, etc.

Thank you Amanda, Mingma and Dorje. Thank you kimkim!

Very well organised trip with kimkim. During our hike we didnt see any other tourists so it felt really special walking there only with the guide and porter. Our guide Padam Paudel was very kind and told us a lot about Nepal and the local villages and the life there.

The lodges were perfect aswell. Nice beds and bathrooms with warm water. Also the food was good and the happy hour was included ;)

The views of the mountains were the best in the morning when the sky was clear. Incredible experience!

I had a wonderful experience with KimKim and the trekking company the set me up with, Responsible Treks. Let me fill you in!
After checking out trekking options on kimkims website, they connected me with trekking specialist Kunchok Nima, who was able to provide me with wise advice and suggestions as to which trek we should do, based off the amount of time we had and experience. After booking the Poonhill trek he continued to keep contact with me, confirming details and answering questions, which was very helpful indeed!
Upon arrival in the country, Kunchok met us at our hotel, he gave us an overview for the upcoming adventure and we were off to Pokhara the following day.
And let me tell you, everything for the next 5 days was very well taken care of, including us...we immensely enjoyed getting to know guide Rickjin and porter Kunchok! Even though the weather was a little overcast, these guys made up for the lack of sunshine! Poonhill trek has a good variety of geography, you see local villages, lush jungle and majestic mountains. And the trek itself is well spread out and gives plenty time to rest.
So if you despise planning and details, KimKim is the number one option for you to partner with to experience the beauty of Nepal! Thank you to kimkim and the guys at Responsible Treks for making our Nepal experience a memorable one!

I cannot speak too highly of the team at KimKim. From the moment I first made contact to the very end of our trip the service was outstanding. They focussed on finding out exactly what we wanted and then provided way above expectations. Mads put the trip together checking throughout if it was exactly what we wanted. The city guide Rajive was very knowledgeable and informative. The Inn Patan was a great place to stay.

The trek was just the right level for us. It stretched us. OK some basic teahouses, but some pretty good ones too, and the views, unbelievable. Our guide on the trek, Suman, was a guide, a butler sorting out food orders etc and a guardian angel keeping an eye on us at all times. Suman and our porters, Manoj and Laxman, became part of our family. They were suoerb and great company.

The pavilions in Pokhara is a fantastic hotel to relax in. Then Chitwan. The Baraha Jungle resort is luxurious but you must go to Tiger tops and be with the elephants.

Finally I must mention Raj, the office manager. He made sure the trip worked. He seemed to have a sixth sense and once when one of our party had to get a doctor within minutes. he phoned me up to check all was OK. How he knew I don’t know as we did not tell him. Constantly checking in the background I guess. Perfect as we did not want to be on an over organised trip but were glad of his quiet efficient organisation.

Perfect trip. I highly recommend Mads and his team to you if you are going to Nepal.

Hi Tashi and Prajwol,

Sorry I've taken so long to review but I was thinking it over and didn't want to write exactly how I was feeling at the time. I'm going to just give a breakdown of my experiences on the trip you planned for me.

Day 1- the touring day.

The guide was very knowledgeable and he made the whole experience quite pleasant for my friend and me. We do recommend using him in the future. However, there were two situations where we felt VERY uncomfortable. I had been feeling off about it and when I asked my friend she said she also felt the same. It sort of felt like our guide had made prior deals to try to force us into spending more money than we wanted to. First time we felt this way was when we stopped for lunch in the Square. Our guide took us to an EXTREMELY expensive restaurant, where the food was VERY average. In fact it might have been the worst food I had during my entire 17 days in Nepal, and yet it cost more than double the meals I had in Thamel. When I went to ask why my food was taking so long to arrive (my friend's food had arrived about 15 minutes before mine) I found our guide lounging with the owners as if they were friends. When he saw me he got up very quickly as if he was trying to hide his affiliations. This is when I got very suspicious. I might be wrong but my friend felt the same way.

The second time was when we were going through the old city and we stopped outside an art school. He told us a bit of its history and ASKED us if we wanted to go in to see the artworks. We, of course, said yes. When we got to the top one of the masters was patiently waiting for us and immediately started giving us a tour of the art. This gave us more suspicions because it was DEFINITELY prearranged. Which means either I had PAID for this tour (in which case I don't understand why our guide asked if we wanted to go in), or else our guide had organized it. When the tour ended the master painter became VERY forceful about us buying art. He kept repeating that it was our choice but he did it in such as way that make us feel we didn't actually have a choice. We told him multiple times that we didn't have money and they kept in forcing the subject and came up with alternative ways for us to buy (eg they charging our hotels or the guide and us paying them back). My friend even mentioned how uncomfortable they made her feel.

I might obviously be wrong about the guide trying to scam us a little, but either way we learnt a lot about the history of Nepal from him so we enjoyed that.
If I am wrong about the guide, and he took us to such an expensive restaurant as it was part of the normal program then I'm more disappointed in you guys as I told you repeatedly that I didn't have a lot of money as I'm a student so I definitely didn't appreciate the poor planning there.

The driver for day 1 was really professional, I really recommend him for future use.

Day 2 and 3- trekking.
This was my biggest disappointment for my entire trip to Nepal. The first day of trekking was better than the second. It went through the forests and several farms so I definitely enjoyed that. It was only a little underwhelming but I was expecting the second day to be better so at the time I was happy. The second day to Nagorkot was VERY VERY disappointing. So much so that I was very irritated with whomever chose this route for me. There was so much construction the ENTIRE 7 or 8 hours, and on top of that I'm sure 95% of the trip was on the road. This isn't what I wanted at all, in fact it might have been the exact opposite of what I wanted. Perhaps you weren't completely aware of this but that just shows poor planning, because it was not a good experience. I actually felt like I wasted one of my few days left in Nepal because of this last trekking day.

My guide Pemba was good. He gave me space to just be by myself which is what I wanted, and he answered my questions whenever I had them. My conversations with him left a bit to be desired but that might have been my fault since I had had little sleep the night before so I didn't have the energy for much conversation. The lodge and guesthouse you booked for me were very disappointing as well. I understand the lodge being how it was but I expected way more from the guest house.

The driving that got me to the trekking start was fine. The driver that took me from Nagorkot to the water rafting was NOT good. But my experience with him was very likely Pemba's fault. This is the only thing I did NOT like about Pemba- he made me worry unnecessarily. The night of day 3 he told me that breakfast will be at 6 and then we will leave for 6.30 as it will take us long to get to the water rafting. He said it will be tight but we should make it on time. When I came for breakfast the next morning at 6.05 my breakfast hadn't even been made yet and Pemba started reprimanding me on my bad time. He didn't outright say it but he basically said "if you miss your river rafting then this is clearly not my fault". This honestly made me very irritated with him. He made me feel like I was a child who had no sense of responsibility. I finished eating at 6.15 and when I said I'm going to brush my teeth and then we can go he again made a comment that if we late it is my fault not his. I really didn't appreciate it. We left at 6.20 (10 minutes BEFORE he said we needed to leave) and he again made a comment about how we might miss the river rafting. So of course I worried. This is where I really started to dislike my driver that took us to the river rafting. Within the first 20 minutes he pulled us over so he could speak on the phone to his family. Normally I wouldn't have minded but Pemba got the idea that we were going to be late into my head so I was worried. After about 5 min we started again. Within 10 min he pulled us over again to phone someone else. He did this a third time. After an hour he pulled us off again so he could go to the toilet (which he should have done before we left if we had such a tight schedule). We ended up arriving over an hour BEFORE it started so all my worrying caused my Pemba was for nothing.

Other than this though, Pemba was great. He was well mannered and was always trying to make me more comfortable (whether it be him carrying my sleeping bag, or making sure my food arrived and that I had enough of it, or making sure my drinks were cold). So because of this I still highly recommend him for future use because even though I very much disliked the trekking route, he made it better.

Day 4- white river rafting.
This was by far my most memorable activity in Nepal. I had an absolutely incredible time. I highly recommend it for future suggestions to tourists. Traveling through the valleys was incredible and we saw monkeys and loads of mountain ranges. Was definitely a highlight for me.

I honestly found my experiences unusual because we had spoken at such great length about what I was wanting and not wanting. I'm not sure if I will use KimKim again in the future. You were UNREASONABLY expensive. I saw the prices for the lodges and guest houses, for my breakfast/lunch/dinner during the trekking, for the river rafting and for guided tours. What I didn't see was what the price for private cars was but I assumed it was between 5000 rupees and 10000 rupees per day. Even with this by my calculations you overcharged me by about 25 000 rupees. Plus I still had to pay tips which came to another 7000 rupees. Plus on top of this the reason you told me that you couldn't provide prices to me was because you were receiving special DISCOUNTS from the companies, so the trip should have been even cheaper. I honestly felt very cheated, whether it was because of poor planning or else you just taking advantage of my ignorance in prices, either way I didn't appreciate it.

I did like the fact that you came to meet me in person to introduce the guides etc. It was professional and I appreciated it. But that courtesy wasn't enough to fix it all.

Overall I'd give a 6/10 stars for the trip, but it is only so high because of how much I enjoyed the river rafting.

Organizing and booking through Kimkim was easy and fast. I only contacted them online 5days before my travel and it was still possible to have an amazing 4day trip on the Gandruk trek! The journey was customized to my needs and I had a wonderful guide and porter. I just had to follow them and everything was taken care of. I had a lot of time to enjoy the mountains and the beautiful villages and did not have to worry about anything. Just perfect! The tea houses we stayed in were simple, but cosy and there was all I needed. Honestly a truly amazing experience and good value for money!

our guides - Dawar & Naresh - were so kind and helpful. We loved that they joined us in the evenings before/after dinner, it felt really personal the whole time, they were our local friends telling us so much about the culture, region and country. They did a fantastic job and are a credit to the team.

Most memorable place was Namobhuddha - the tranquility of the resort made us book an extra spontaneous night, it was a beautiful place! The monastery had us mesmerised and we've since learnt a lot more about Bhuddism. The only tip I have for future treks is to have one rest day in Namobhuddha so you can fully enjoy the resort as well.

Bhaktapur took us by surprise entirely - we weren't expecting such an ancient, artistic town on the outskirts of Khatmandu! Pratiksha is a very warm, smiley, amicable person with huge amounts of knowledge on the place. We really respect her passion and devotion to her country and religion and thoroughly enjoyed our city tours with her.

After a week back in the Netherlands I look back after a huge experience in the Himalayas.
Supported by a special team with Raj and Anura, who provided me with information from the booking of the trip, I was received in Kathamandu with a greeting dinner and an afternoon where I got all the explanation and what my responsibilities are during the 19-day trek . Especially because I am no longer one of the youngest (69 years), Raj has gone into great depths about pulling at high altitudes. The meeting with Indra my guide was very cordial and familiar. This all supported fine for the coming trek. Planned was a 19 days trek over the 3 passes, but after the stage from Namche to Thame I got a headache, necessarily a day waited but from Thame to Lumden happened exactly the same. Switched to drink a lot of water and use Diamox and of course I had to wait another day, I was rid of the headache and I could bridge the first pass Renjo La. Great view my first goal was achieved, but I also realized that I was against my physical limit and in consultation with my guide we changed the program and left Everest BC behind and opted for Ama Dablam base camp and Dingboche attempt to see the Makalu. Unfortunately, it got worse in the last week and was hardly visible.
My advice if you like my age and you want something seen from the Himalaya Asia choose Raj and Anura, everything is negotiable and the team is very correct and when you have Indra as guide your are a happy man.

Both the Upper Mustang Valley trek and the Annapurna Base Camp trek were fantastic and both so very different. Our guide, Pemba, was awesome and really went out of his way to make things as easy as possible for us. Would definitely recommend him, and our porter, Amar, was also great. We met some fantastic people, both local and trekkers on these trips and had lots of laughs with them. Every day was different and every day was memorable. It is very hard to pin point any particular day, but we'll never forget the view when we got to Annapurna Base Camp.

I can not say enough how amazing our experience was with Kimkim. I worked wih a Amanda who customized our trip to fit the very limited time we had in Nepal. We did a 3 day trip and were able to hike and explore the Kathmandu area which would have been very difficult to do on our own. We had a hiking guide and a city guide and both were amazing, knowledgadble and super friendly. We loved the hotels Amanda reserved for us. The Namo Buddha Resort was beautiful and very peaceful. If and when I go back to Nepal I will use this company. I highly recommend them!