Kimkim Trip Reviews for Norway

Our recent trip to Scandinavia was wonderful! Ingrid, from Ethical Travel Portal, did a great job of helping us find the right balance between city and rural travel in our trip to Norway, Sweden and Finland. Before we found kimkim, all the options we were provided by travel agents were "canned tours" which were really just packages to save money on air/hotel travel with bus-type sight-seeing tours. In comparison, Ingrid helped us figure out a plan of cities and villages that let us explore a few countries in Scandinavia over 17 days without feeling rushed.

She was clear up front that her expertise was mostly in Norway, but she still helped us find well-located hotels in Helsinki and Stockholm. We were happy with both choices in those cities.

We typically don't like tours in cities, preferring to explore on our own. However, we had such a great morning tour in Bergen with Ingrid herself, that we arranged one with Stig in Oslo that we enjoyed very much. These tours were informal discussions while we walked around parts of the city we'd never find on our own.

I also really liked the process with kimkim, where we could chat on the site as we honed in our schedule and different choices for each place. Ingrid was very patient with all our changes as we made our plans and helped us while we were in Norway to make some last-minute adjustments.

We couldn't have been happier with kimkim and Ingrid at Ethical Travel Portal and would use both for future vacations, if they serve the country we'll be visiting.

I just got back from Bergen, Norway. Ingrid Thornes arranged my excursions. She was knowledgeable and kept in constant contact as we were planning the trip. She guided my hike and city tour. The kayaking tour was very easy to do. Don't miss it. Also recommend the Fjords boat rips.
I had a very pleasant stay in Bergen.
Kimkim is a reliable company. I felt safe and relaxed, especially since I was travelling solo.
I will definitely use them again.

From start to finish, Ingrid provided exceptional service. She carefully listened to my list of criteria and dutifully created an itinerary that suited all my needs. We worked collaboratively to refine the trip as my interests shifted, and I ended up with the trip of a lifetime: 4 days of kayaking and camping in the Lofoten Islands of Norway. For anyone looking for travel guidance in Norway, I highly recommend Ingrid.

Lofoten Aktiv -- the company that led the kayaking trip -- was equally outstanding. My guide, Christian, was absolutely phenomenal. His passion and skill for outdoor tripping were immediately apparent as he showed us the local area. He thoughtfully took the group's goals into consideration when planning the trip to make it a resounding success. Jann, who owns the company, has been a pioneer in this industry and takes pride in providing high quality experiences for all his quests. He is a native of the Lofoten Islands and possesses a deep knowledge of the area. For those adventurers looking for a rustic experience in the most beautiful environment, I highly recommend booking with Christian, Jann, and Lofoten Aktiv.

We had a large family group of 12 people that traveled to Norway on a custom trip to see both north and south Norway. Out trip included trains, buses, ferries and flying. Some of the travel logistics were complicated but it all worked out great. Ingrid at Ethical Travel Portal was very responsive and designed a great trip for us.

Ingrid was amazing to work with! She created an amazing trip for my son and I and planned fun activities for us to engage in. I, personally, loved kayaking on the fjord and would highly recommend this activity for others. My son hiked Trolltunga, and although a very difficult hike, if you are physically prepared for this hike it is a must! Ingrid did a great job of organizing travel, hotels and activities for us and provided all itineraries, ticket, and maps to get us to where we needed to go.

One additional note, our luggage was lost at the airport and Ingrid went out of her way to help us with the airport to help us reunite! Ingrid was a blessing :)

Thank you so much for creating such a memorable trip for us!

Our family's trip to Norway, with the help of Linda, Wilda, Samuel, Stieg, and all the folks at kimkim, was truly amazing. What Linda arranged for us to do and see, the intelligence of all our connections and the appropriateness of all our activities to our interests, made for a wonderful vacation. None of us will ever forget it. Our 3 mountaintop hike, the cabin on the water in Aurland, hiking around Aurland, the fjords, the history as well as the place, our hike to the goat farm, our railway trip, and the sights, museums and coffee in Oslo -- I only wish we had had more time. Thanks so much to kimkim. What an incredible service!

Dear Ingrid and Kimkim
Why there are only five stars in rating? I deeply appreciate your help in planning, booking my short 10-day trip to Norway. Found myself to be very lucky to discover Ingrid and Kimkim. It turned out to be most fabulous trip. Weather was excellent as well.

My wife and I have been travelling abroad for the sightseeing at least twice a year for last 20+ years. We take ride in designing the itinerary and make the booking ourselves. This was rare exception. Here also I planned to join the itinerary made by my friends.

However Ingrid was so good, so resourceful and helpful, after getting her quick prompt replies, I could not let her go and not take her She help. She precisely made all the bookings at the hotels, excursions, train, ferry tickets consistent with bookings done by my friends with no error or mix up. She was excellent in understanding all requirements, changes and communication via e-mail as well as phone calls. She has very good command over English. In writing and speaking. She managed to get all the bookings where my friend original travel agent could not. She was very resourceful, insightful and prompt with absolutely no pressure. She provided me additional contacts when needed. She was frank to inform me of the areas (like Stockholm) where she was not most familiar. Few days later my son joined me for the driving tour. The whole trip was very smooth and without any glitches. She and Kimmkim were very price competitive as well and I did not have to concerned at all about the cost of the agent’s services.

Ingrid provided her phone number, e-mail and was in constant communication with me during the trip as needed. I got a chance to meet her in person at Bergen. Very smart, warm, friendly young lady. I felt like having a local young personal friend.

Norway was stunningly beautiful. I will be posting pictures and write-ups at my blog TusharInIceland.blogspot.com in coming days. I do wish to visit Norway again with my wife with alternative driving trips and areas in north like Lofoten Islands, North of Alta, Svalbard etc. with my wife. I will also consult kimkim for future trips to Vietnam and Nepal..

Kimkim specializes the travel with local travel agent who know the place and culture well. Maybe Kimkim can consider an expansion of “meal with local family” (done by Trafalgar) or cultural event like wedding or trip on special events like constitution day for the travelers interested in the cultural tourism. Highly and strongly recommend Ingrid and Kimkim.

Our Norway trip was incredible and absolutely spectacular! Alesund is a very beautiful town with great seafood and views, and the fjords and natural scenaries in Trollstigen, Geiranger, and Fjærland were breathtaking and unparalleled to many other places I’ve been! Hotels were really nice with great amenities and views. Our trip would not have happened without our local specialist Ingrid’s awesome service. She is attentive, informative, and supportive end-to-end, from initial planning to adhoc support throughout the trip and we ended the trip with a nice personal touch, i.e., grabbing lunch with Ingrid at a nice local cafe in Bergen. Thanks Ingrid for your detailed planning and support, and for making this trip memorable for us!

We were pleased with all parts of the trip. All the guides were accommodating and interesting, they all helped with interests and attention span of the young children of our group. The hotels were located in convenient locations, easy walks to and from trains and ferry. Linda had great ideas for us and put it all together....even delivered train and ferry tickets to us. The mini bus tours were perfect, just long enough for families and to places hard to reach other ways. All members of my family were pleased with the trip and the pace of the trip

The whole trip was amazing and this will go in the list of the best holidays I have ever done. The trip was well organised and detailed, down to the time in which I had to catch a train or a bus. This was most helpful. The stay at the three mountain hotels/huts (Haugastol, Geiterygahytte and Osterbo) was most pleasantly surprising. I was expecting something rougher, but rooms and food especially were amazing. Same for the Ronda Hoyfjellshotell in the second to last day. Our preferred spot was in Kalvag. We loved it and we may go back there as it was a real paradise.

Linda was super helpful in designing the holiday and in creating the itinerary. She was patient with the changes I asked her to do and was very responsive.

The only suggestions for improvement are:
- the hut suggested for stop in the second hiking day (Stein Bergdal) did not appear to be open to the public. Other hikers stopped there but ended up eating outside on the grass like us. I think it needs to be clear that there are no hospitality places where one can stop. It helps setting up the right pace and mindset at the beginning of the hike
- all the hiking times are excluding stops and probably it is better to specify it
- the hike on the third day was too optimistic and strongly not recommended by the staff in the hut where we stayed overnight. It was possible to do it with no stops and no time for contingency, but it also required leaving at 8 am. Breakfast only gets served from 8! so we shortened it and we took the bus earlier in a spot suggested by the staff in Osterbo
- the overview of Bergen was good and with interesting insights in the culture. I would have probably cut a bit certain areas less interesting and added the bit around the old harbour. Also, I would have liked to hear more about the history. There was no coffee and cake :-(

Overall I thought Ethical Travel Portal was great and I would recommend them to friends. I would recommend Linda to anyone who wants to go to Norway.

Amazing trip - Norway is incredibly beautiful! The trip was amazing - perfectly planned to see the countryside. Linda was responsive and customized our trip perfectly.

Ingrid's help planning this trip was incredible! We told her what our interests were, she made suggestions, then adapted them to specifically meet our needs! She was patient with any changes we had! It was nice to know she was there if we had a specific question! We spent the first week of our Norway adventure renting a car and traveling the Kimkim trip that Ingrid planned and the second week on a Holland America Fjord cruise. The land trip Ingrid planned was by far our favorite part! We were immersed in the beauty, experienced the culture, food, and landscapes of Norway, and traveled at our own pace! We especially loved the Hotel Utsiken in Geiranger - sitting on the balcony drinking a delicious local beer, we counted 11 waterfalls around us (we could hear them rushing!), and had the most breathtaking view of the Fjord! In addition, we loved the Trollstigen road and staying in Kalvag, a small fishing village, for 2 nights was so relaxing! The fish dinners there were just phenomenal! You should have see the view from our hotel window in Fjaerland - right ON the fjord - I was just in awe at the gorgeous setting - WOW!! We stayed in Stryn one night and drove out to one of the glaciers - what a spectacular scenic drive!!! As a photographer, I was overwhelmed with this trip!! We have even talked about coming back for 2 weeks of travel to see more of Norway! Thank you Ingrid and Kimkim! You are highly recommended - we could not have done such good planning all on our own!

Amazing Experience!

We organized a short 4 day trip, courtesy Ingrid from the Kim kim team.

Remain amazed by the fabulous service levels on display, especially when it came to acquiescing to our requests for changes/amendments/plans, in line with our sensitivities and special considerations. Top notch!

Our trip included Geilo, Bergen, Oslo. Would like to come back again sometime soon (hopefully)

Highly recommend:
- a trip to Norway;
- under the aegis of Kim kim
- handled professionally by expert staff like Ingrid.

Linda helped us plan a trip through Norway that was a nice overview with a few touches just for us. We did the usual things of seeing Bergen, taking ferry trips on the fjords, riding the train to Flam, and even hopped on the Hurtigruten for a few days. These were really lovely. We loved best our time in Tromso and our car trip in the Lofoten Islands. It was a great solution to get us out of the crowds and into nature, which is always what we prefer. Well done Linda. The stay at Eliassen Rorbuer was a special treat.

We had a great vacation in Norway! Ingrid was very helpful throughout the entire planning process and also during our trip.

Thank you Linda Verasdal, our trip planned by you was amazing, so well organised for us, so easy to follow.
Highlights for us was Flam Railway breathtakingly beautiful. We loved Balestrand enjoyed the kayaking and hiking amazing views to town. Cruise on Naeroyfjord was surreal.
Accommodation was easy walking distance from train.

Dear Ingrid and kimkim, Tom and I appreciated your planning of our Scandinavian trip this year. Ingrid, your suggestions and fine-tuning help to structure our trip so we were able to enjoy new experiences and culture that was absolutely fresh to us. Ingrid, From structuring the best way for us to travel to numerous contacts with Tom to polish our itinerary to prompt responses whenever we had a question you were patient, friendly, kind and reliable.

We were happy, well fed, and well housed. We could get around very well using public transportation. Ingrid, your warm welcoming tour of Bergen was just what we needed to help us get our feet on the ground and learn so many new things about amazing beautiful Bergen. We loved our fjord cruise and were happy to stay in Aurland, which was gorgeous. We were relieved that we hadn’t pushed to stay in Flam which was essentially a group of souvenir shops punctuated by bakeries. Really good bakeries.

While in Aurland, the prices were very high in the restaurant which had no competition and served badly cooked food. We thoroughly enjoyed the magical train ride from Flam to Oslo. ( Such Beauty!) Sarah was a splendid guide in Oslo, kind and so well informed. She was very responsive to our specific interests and was so knowledgeable about Oslo; its history and present. The ferry to Denmark and our stay in Copenhagen was also excellent. Stockholm was a total surprise for its amazing city square and museums.

After being home for one week, we can appreciate the cultural aspects at a deeper level: near-universal English being spoken, often with no discernable accent, the tolerance of people in all countries to any need we might have. I loved especially that atmosphere of reverence toward the past and the sense of history that seemed to co-exist with the present.

We highly recommend Ingrid Thornes as a trip planner and guide. Sarah in Oslo was an excellent, personable guide. We were very satisfied kimkim is a terrific travel service. We will happily return for future travel.

In Gratitude and Satisfaction,
Best,
Tom and Susan

Linda planned the perfect trip for us. The hotels were all carefully chosen to be within an easy walk of trains and ferries and fully met our expectations. Linda’s local knowledge ensured that we had just the right amount of time in each place. Her recommendations were spot on. Local guide Wilde in Bergen gave us an interesting and personalised tour which was infinitely better than the usual city walking tour experience. Lofoten Islands were an absolute treat. Lone at Westerålen is the most delightful,warm and welcoming hostess. This experience has inspired us to come back and see more of Norway and we will definitely use Kimkim again.

Both Emily and Thomas were amazing to work with for our adventures. Thank you both for making our vacation fabulous and fantastic!!!

We have just returned from an amazing 9 day trip to Norway which has been truly one of the most memorable family holiday's we've had.

KimKim connected me with Ingrid, a Norwegian specialist in Bergen. She listened to what we were looking for and created a unique trip that met the different requests of my husband, myself and my two children. Not only did she save me hours of research, but she managed the hotel bookings, train and ferry tickets and provided recommendations of things to do and places to eat. Her organization enabled us to experience Norway independently but without the feeling that we were all on our own. I contacted her a couple of times while we were on our trip and she answered my questions and provided guidance quickly and efficiently. It was super to meet up with her personally in Bergen where she gave us a fascinating tour of her hometown.

Cannot complain about anything! Really was an incredible experience.