Kimkim Trip Reviews for Norway

The itinerary that Ingrid and KimKim put together for us was amazing! We spent 5 nights moving from Oslo, to Balestrand then finishing in Bergen. As we did not really know too much about Norway and really did not have the time to plan our own trip, Ingrid put together a trip we will never forget! The hotels she recommended were all exceptional and we really enjoyed the contrast of seeing a large city like Oslo but then experiencing the natural wonders of Norway as we made our way to the small village of Balestrand via the Flam train (which is not to be missed) then an unforgettable ferry ride through the fjords. All of the connections went smoothly and Ingrid's attention to detail as we made our way through each town and city was greatly appreciated. Each of the hotels had friendly staff, amazing breakfasts and Stig, our tour guide in Oslo was a wealth of knowledge, history and just plain fun to hang around with for a few hours. In short, Norway was a trip we will never forget and we would not hesitate recommending Ingrid, Stig and KimKIm to plan your Norwegian vacation!

Jim and Barbara Gordon--Calgary, Alberta, Canada

I want to specifically thank Ingrid for planning our family vacation. I chose to book lodging ourselves and left activities and local transportation in Norway to Ingrid. She gave us an itinerary which covers all places and activities on our wish list. She planned for our local transportation and transfers so we could focus on the pristine sceneries and fun activities without worrying about many logistics on self tours while not being in restricted times while traveling in a group tour. Ingrid was also reachable in case we had any glitches during our journey. Really best of both worlds.

For places/activities which Ingrid planned for us, the most memorable are:
1) Geiranger Kayaking tour (with the Geiranger Kayak Center at Homlong. The tour guide was knowledgeable in many aspects in how the fjords were formed, local legends/myths, geopolitical facts, economics, etc. And most of all, top places to visit in Geiranger in our two days of stay.

2) The Fjordcruise from Flam to Gudvangen (on the Naeroyfjord) was also spectacular. Before the ship entered the Naeroyfjord, the captain offered us a private tour to the engine room which featured the totally electrical engine. We were truly impressed by Norwegians effort in preserving the environment.

3) Dragsvik Fjord Hotel: although I found this hotel myself. However, Ingrid approved of it. We wanted to bike around the neighbor. Ingrid managed to find out for us that the hotel actually has a few bicycles for hotel guests to borrow (helmets included). That was SO nice because, with Ingrid's arrangement, we did not have to worry about transportation from Dragsvik to the Balestrand town!

I list the following most memorable places we visited (some are suggested by Ingrid and others by our Kayak tour guide):
1) Dragsvik hotel - My family loved our stay there. It was situated in a ideally situated vantage point of the fjord and the mountains. Also, we really appreciate the hotel manager Magnar (?). Although he does not speak much, but we felt that he really tried his best to accommodate our family's needs. We were rather troublesome during our stay: borrow bicycles, laundry machine, etc.
2) Geiranger: a) Westeras Gard - farm and restaurant
b) hike to behind the Storsæterfossen waterfall
c) Ørnesvingen
d) Geirangerfjordsenter - great cabin lodging for family or small group
e) of course, our kayak tour
3) Bergen Budget Hotel: I booked this hotel myself and I want to express it so that your future customer could avoid it. It is poorly equipped, old, and rather unfriendly. Finally, it has no luggage storage, even for a few hours because the reception is UN-manned.

J.

Ingrid is the best! She customized a perfect itinerary for travels to Norway. There were several transfers and she scheduled everything seamlessly. Especially enjoyed the lodges she booked for us as they were quaint with kind hosts and good breakfasts (vathnalhasen and midntes to name a few). The Flåm railway was also a highlight of our trip. Everything from renting a car through Kjetil to detailed itineraries and directions was exceptional. During the trip we had questions and Ingrid addresses everything in a timely and friendly manner. Highly recommend Ingrid for all your Norway travel needs.

Ingrid did a fabulous job helping me plan a 3 week trip to Norway.There are so many positives to share. Ingrid did a fabulous job communicating with me in the planning and was very receptive to all my questions and quick to respond.The hotels chosen were all good. The itinerary with the maps was absolutely wonderful to have and and really made going from location to location very easy. She also was great in an in an emergency situation when my husband’s airline went on strike and he was stranded in Spain and Ingrid helped me find other airlines to get him to Oslo.
I feel very lucky having gone to the Lofoton Islands I would put their beauty in the top three places that I’ve seen in the world.
From a learning and planning perspective one of the things I learned is many things are closed on Sundays (especially in small towns ) and sometimes it was hard to even find restaurants open ( in the small towns) so Sundays would be good travel days if possible.
Overall working with Ingrid was a very positive experience and I thank her for all her work in making this trip so memorable for us.

My family and I just got back from Norway few days back and we're currently nursing on our severe jet lag. But despite the lack of sleep, we all had an amazing time there. The itinerary planned by Ingrid was so much fun and many of her suggestions outside of our initial itinerary were even better!

We really want to thank Kimkim and Ingrid for this lovely and well planned trip. The hotels provided were comfortable and surpassed our expectations. Other than a minor issue with the train tickets (train station updated the schedule but didn't inform us), everything else went swimmingly well.

Would definitely use kimkim again for my future travels.

We have just returned from our two week tour of Norway arranged by Linda. It was wonderful!! Our lodgings were perfect and all transportation went smoothly. We had great personal tours in both Oslo and Bergen and especially enjoyed our stay in quiet Aurland combined with a sea safari out of Flam. Thank you for a Very memorable trip!

Let me start by saying this was by far one of the most amazing trips I’ve had. KimKim is an excellent place for customizable tours and for those looking to travel independently with just hotels and transportation pre-booked. I was in Norway for 8 days in April and Ingrid helped me plan and organize my stay, and accommodated several itinerary changes from my side 😊. She gave me multiple suggestions for hiking and sightseeing (including maps and distances) in the cities I visited. The whole booking process was extremely easy, and Ingrid was reachable at all times and very responsive.
Norway is an incredible destination, and I was extremely fortunate the weather was perfect throughout my stay. The fjords, mountains and just the landscapes in general are absolutely breathtaking! There was also far fewer tourists around this time of year! I visited Oslo, Bergen, Stavanger and Tromso, and every city was unique and picturesque in its own way with a lot to offer. The Pulpit rock hike was definitely the highlight of my trip - relatively easy to do and very rewarding. Ingrid also arranged local tour guides for me in Oslo (Stig) and Bergen (John) who were both extremely knowledgeable and helpful!
Needless to say, I had a great time in Norway and definitely recommend KimKim for travel planning. Many many thank you to Ingrid, Stig, John and Andre who made my stay very memorable!

Ingrid did an amazing job planning our trip through Norway. We were able to fly into Oslo and make our way across the country towards Bergen via train. We made stops along the way in Geilo and Flam, finally reaching the city of Bergen. We were so impressed with how accessible Ingrid and her team were in making last minute changes, booking restaurants and their overall knowledge of what to see and do. We had a wonderful and memorable family vacation in Norway and I felt so blessed to be led by the kimkim Team! Thank you!

Overall really solid job with the trip planning and execution from the KimKim team and happy with their service - I would recommend it to others. (I worked with Andre and Ingrid.) I booked on short notice and they were able to turnaround a fun, cost-effective, well-organized trip built around the input I provided (interests, timeframe, preferences, etc.) Pre-trip communication was timely and thorough, they were quick to adapt activities based on seasonanilty and want made sense with thoughtful recommednations. Covered a ton of ground and saw a wonderful mix of natural and urban sites and activities in a Wednesday to Sunday window.

Though not significant enough to dock the ratings relative to all the wonderful things provided with the trip, the criticism I'll highlight is to provide more detail around some of the transportation for future trips with the below examples in mind for mine that were pain points:

1) "At 17:00 the transport to Aurland will pick you up from the Flam station (same place you arrived by train)": Didn't have any detail around which company and/or individual this was, any contacts for them, or what I should be looking for which would have been helpful. Eventually asked around and was able to find the cab driver that had been booked by asking various people in the train station lot if they were there for a , but we were both waiting for each other for awhile and eventually asked if he was there for a pick-up.

2) "You'll catch the five-hour ferry to Bergen through the stunning Sognefjord, arriving to the city in the evening." Ticket had a company name [Norled] and route cities listed, but no clear instructions on where to pick up the ferry in a city with extensive feasible port locations. (Booking company [Norled] was closed on the weekends for the departure day and no contacts were available here.) This was a stressful scramble when asking a dozen locals (including the hotel) were unable to help direct me to where I'd need to be to board the ferry based on the information provided. Ended up walking along a dangerous one-way road with my luggage before eventually hitch-hiking with a local that was more familiar with the ferry system and just making the ferry in time because of it. Situation was panicked and making my flight home would have been difficult with few alternatives if I hadn't gotten lucky finding a friendly local here to help me out in a significant way. Reached out to KimKim here, they weren't available immediately when the need was urgent, but they did eventually get back to me in a pretty quick turnaround that would have been otherwise fully acceptable had it not been an immediate need.

Otherwise, found the activities to be great, accomodations reasonable (and close to transportation), and trip thoughtfully planned/enjoyable at a solid rate. Enjoyed my time in Norway with a lot of special experiences that would be difficult to find without KimKim's service. The reps were knowledgable, kind, and thoughtful and would be a returning user after my first experience with them.

Successfully attached this trip to Norway after a work trip in other areas of Europe. Couldn't have asked for more responsiveness from my local contact Ingrid. I'm very detail oriented and she always gave me all the information I requested as we planned the specifics of each day.

The Lofoten area at the end of March had perhaps the most finicky weather I've ever seen so be ready with appropriate clothing and gear. Expect to have some activities cancelled or moved and try to go with the flow. I found the drive down the islands on my own with no schedule to be one of the best parts. Though do your best to avoid a one-way car rental as they are very expensive.

I also really enjoyed hanging out on the Hurtigruten ship for most of a day after running around for so long beforehand.

A word for anyone looking for the Northern lights. I found it to be much more about luck with the weather than it was about going on the northern lights chase tours. If you're up for driving to the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night to try for clear skies go for it, but the longer your trip the less necessary it probably is.

I compiled a video of my experiences that anyone is welcome to see here:
https://youtu.be/f-tFAZfqaeE

From the very first conversation to the last day there Ingrid was there to make sure we had the time of our lives in Norway for 18 days. With no detail left out and the time taken to make sure we had everything throughout our trip. She answered our questions as needed was invaluable. Meeting a local with knowledge of the area makes the difference in planning a trip. Would highly recommend this service to anyone who needs assistance in traveling and would love to have a full time travel planner! Worth every cent!

When I was planning a trip to Norway for a mid-March Nordic ski race, my family (with two teen kids) knew we wanted to see more than the area between Rena and Lillehammer but didn't know anything about Norway or where to begin. I completely trusted the local knowledge of Vilde and Ingrid to make a recommendation for what more we should see in the time we had and without a car. The trip completely exceeded my expectations!

Several friends joined in after they heard the trip plan. We had excellent easy travel and a lot of fun. Ingrid chose super hotels and made reservations or provided directions for train and bus travel that was simple and perfect with many highlights. Stig was our excellent local guide in Oslo who told us about music, local culture, and a little history as we walked along the Akserselva River, urban art district, the fortress, and metropolitan downtown on a rainy day. The train to Flam was a magic ride the next day with blue skies and views of mountains, frozen waterfalls, plus beautiful towns, homes and farms going from snow up high down to the Naeroyfjord arm of the Sognefjord. We had a full moon that night at our both historic and modern hotel in Auerland and enjoyed a cruise on the electric Future of the Fjords sightseeing vessel. Ingrid was flexible to help us decide where to go at this point and four friends decided to ski an extra day in Geilo while my family continued on to Bergen. We were impressed by the completely different look and culture of Bergen. Our local guide David helped us know so much more about where to go and interpreted what we saw in his beautiful city as well as gave us a feel for how Norwegians live. We had so much fun with David that we went over our time more than an hour. Geilo was our last place to explore with downhill resorts on two sides of the city and lots of Nordic trails. On a sunny but windy day, we caught the ski bus, rented average quality downhill ski equipment, and bought a ski pass that worked at both Slaatta and Vestlia. Our friends enjoyed the ski tracks there for Nordic skiing.

Overall, the best things about Norway were the scenery, the breakfasts so do opt into breakfast at the hotel, interesting history and the happy people. Ingrid was our best find since she reserved the best places to go and stay and gave us detailed directions on how to get around. Her directions were so good there were only a couple occasions I messaged her with questions and she helped right away. Ingrid also was able to reschedule a hotel stay for two friends who left a bag on the train from Lillehammer and were able to retrieve it in lost and found in the morning just before our flight home. I would not have changed anything about what Ingrid planned for us except maybe staying more days! We enjoyed a "God Tur" and I am grateful.

Amazing experience with Kimkim.
Ingrid was very professional and made sure to tailor our trip to Oslo, Bergen and Tromso based on what we want and what we like and was always responsive in a timely manner.
Highly recommended!!

I'm so grateful to Ingrid, Kimkim and Trapper's Farm for helping me arrange the Norwegian adventure of my dreams. I wanted to chase the Northern Lights on a multi-day dogsledding expedition, and Trappers Farm delivered. The 4-day trip was highly personalized, authentic and filled with once in a lifetime opportunities. If you want to experience dog sledding off the beaten track, I highly recommend arranging a trip with them.

Ingrid did a wonderful job planning our trip. She was prompt, professional and thoughtful. We had limited time and wanted to fit in Oslo, Bergen, the Flam railway, a Fjord cruise, dog sledding and the Northern lights. It took some adroit and creative planning to fit all this in 5 days, and we simply could not have figured this out on our own, and I give Ingrid great credit for figuring out a travel itinerary where we could do all this without feeling rushed. Everything went smoothly thanks to Ingrids' careful attention to detail. She was also on call during our trip — a mere text or e-mail away. I also want to thank her for arranging an Oslo walk with Stig, which was wonderful, as we got to see Oslo through a natives eye. We did the same in Bergen, where Ingrid took us on a charming walk through town and up into the hills. Both walks are strongly recommended. In all, I recommend Ingrid with the greatest possible enthusiasm. She will make your trip richer!

Ingrid was perfect! From start to finish she provided so much information, advice and support. She put together a perfect itinerary for Norway which ran super smoothly. I fit so much in to 5 days and had an incredible experience. Absolutely everything was organised and if I had Abby questions Ingrid responded pretty much immediately. I would highly recommend Kim Kim and I would definitely use again.

Disappointed... although the communication was excellent but the plan is improper. We ended up paying extra cost for accumedation and transportation, and they didn’t take any responsibility to refund the missed up situation

This trip was fantastic. I had some ideas as to what I wanted to do in Norway, but Ingrid put together the itinerary to accomplish it in a really unique trip.

We flew from Minneapolis to Amsterdam, then to Oslo, and finally to Tromso, before transferring to the Malangen Resort. Delicious dinner at the resort. We stayed in one of the deluxe cabins. The next day we went dogsledding and saw the Northern lights. We were allowed to mush our own team of dogs and were given a snack (reindeer sandwich and coffee/tea afterwards).

The next day we flew to Oslo and explored on our own. The next morning we had a 3-hour walking tour around Oslo with Stig, a knowledgeable local guide. That afternoon we saw several museums including the Viking ship museum and the modern art museum.

Then on to Geilo where we stayed at the Dr. Holms hotel for several days. One day we went cross country skiing with Hilde and Jorgen from vinternatt.no. Then for the next two days of snowkiting in Haugastol, I rented a car so that I could drive there, yet my wife could stay in Geilo and be close to the spas, etc.

Following this we took the train to Flam, fjordcruise to Gudvangen, then on to Bergen. The next morning in Bergen, we met David a local musician and guide. Following Bergen, we took a train back to Oslo and then flew home.

I had never been to Norway previously and contact KimKim with only basic requests as to the activities I wanted to do. Ingrid put together a great itinerary that was easy to follow. We felt like we saw a great amount of Norway but it also left us wanting to return. We look farward to working with KimKim for future trips.

Overall working with kimkim was a great experience. Norway in winter was beautiful. The best was wisely saved for last. Or experience at Trasti & Trine was magical. Hannah, or dogsled guide was terrific and Johnny's food was an event every meal. We will definitely be back and will use kimkim again.

We had an amazing trip to tromso and senja. All the activities were perfectly planned.
And luckily we have seen the northern lights twice! 😊
We would definitively book here again!