Kimkim Trip Reviews for Norway

Ingrid and Vilde were very responsive and kind in the trip planning and I enjoyed the KimKim platform. I was hoping the itinerary would help my group make the most of our time in Norway- but unfortunately the itinerary didn’t achieve that. Our first full day in a location put us in Ålesund on a Sunday when everything was closed. A few museums were open from 12-4 but it made for a long day waiting for the Hurtigruten in our hotel lobby until 1am. I would have expected recommendations on tours to book in advance or thoughtfulness to what is open. I was really looking forward to the Hurtigruten- but found that the view wasn’t very good and our ticket didn’t include lunch. Stranding us as bored captives until 2pm. We didn’t accommodate any fjord cruises or boat trips thinking this would be a cool experience and I feel like we really missed out. This itinerary was a big splurge for us and I thought it would be worth it and we would get local insight to the best things to see in country. We would have been better off just flying into Bergen and booking ourselves a few days in the fjords.

My husband and I went on a trip to Norway organized by Elina in March this year. Start to finish it was a truly perfect trip. Our first three days were spent at Malangen, an absolutely lovely, modern hotel with breathtaking views of a fjord. The staff at Malangen was extremely helpful and friendly and there were wonderful activities to choose from. We snowshoed, went to a campsite owned by the hotel to see the Northern Lights and had a fascinating session with someone who taught us about Sami culture.

After Malangen, we went to Tromso. A charming small city where we went to museums and restaurants. We also had a driver pick us up and give us a tour of the fjords.

Every aspect of the trip went incredibly smoothly. Their was one glitch when checking into our hotel in Tromso, but Elina was reachable immediately and resolved the issue. Moreover, she was prepared to spend 6 hours driving if she needed to address the issue in person! Thank you Elina!

Overall, we would rate Linda & Ingrid's trip planning and travel services for our trip to Norway as 5 Star. They did a lot of work behind the scenes to make our vacation a smooth, seamless event. We made a very customized travel plan and they demonstrated considerable patience and much effort to accomplish our goals. Without their help and inside knowledge of Norway, we would surely have experienced a great deal of trouble, especially with the transportation.

The most memorable portion of our trip was our visit to Alesund and the Hjorundfjord & Grirangerfjord fjords. The Sagafjord Hotel in Saebo was outstanding.

My husband and I returned from the Norwegian Highlights trip which was organized by Ingrid. Everything was perfect. Ingrid took the time to talk me thru the entire trip before we left which was great since I was a little nervous. Also, every stop we made, we were expected at. What I mean is everyone knew the Johansen's were due to arrive and welcomed us. All reservations Ingrid made went smoothly. It was very nice to have all that done and not have any problems. I would highly recommend Ingrid for anyone planning a trip to Norway.

Hello! Thank you to Ingrid and Vilde from Ethical Travel for arranging everything to my taste and my budget. I also had a great time with Nikola from Gone Paddling in Balestrand and Flemmet, my walking tour guide in Bergen. I feel I had the chance to explore lots of things that Norway has to offer in few days . I definitely recommend visiting Balestrand, a unique gem on the fjord and their new museum of Travel and Tourism in Norway (Norsk Reiselivsmuseum ). Thank you for helping me realizing one of my traveling destination dream

Greetings! Everyone I interacted with during this process was kind and as helpful as possible. There are a few things I think you might find helpful for the next time.

Generally speaking, the logistics of having to figure out our own transportation was not smooth. Having someone meeting us at both airport and train stations, and generally ensuring those things go well, was missing. Case in point is arriving at the Oslo train station with limited instructions about finding our hotel on site at the mall, and not seeing a sign anywhere, nor was the hotel name on the mall directory. Finally after spending considerable time, with suitcases in hand, looking for the hotel in the dark (roughly 10:30 pm), I found the phone number to the hotel and they led us to a door which was locked and which they had to buzz us in through. This door was poorly marked, and again, in the dark this was a problem.

Another issue was the cost of the cab to get us to the airport when leaving. It was not our desire to use the tram or bus with luggage. It cost us $150 US for a 35 minute cab ride. At minimum, the overall trip cost should have included airport transfers. At certain points during the trip I began to wonder what we had really paid for.

Another issue is that we were not instructed to arrive early (as was the case with several other items in the itinerary), and we arrived 2 minutes past the time indicated on the itinerary for the boat to Rosendal. The boat had already left when we arrived. While I do believe there is some culpability on both ends of this one, the least you could do was reimburse us for the alternative trip we took which cost $138. I was told this was not an option.

When I asked for "City Tours", I did not mean "Walking Tours", and while our walking tours were both fine and enjoyable (David and Stig), they did not properly take the place of a more comprehensive day tour via bus, motor coach, etc., where you see the whole city. We saw very small parts of the cities, especially in Oslo. Luckily we found the beautiful buildings and harbor on our own or we would have missed a lot! Also, the harbor boat tour in Bergen was rather miserable. It was held in an open sailboat (sans sail), and it was pouring rain. It was very difficult to see anything, and while we enjoyed the guide, the type of boat was a poor choice for the frequency of rain there.

We did have an error on the itinerary at Balestrand which indicated we were staying at the Kvikness vs. where we ended up which was at the Midtnes. I did appreciate the view from the room, and Jon taking us via van to and from the harbor with our suticases, as well as the included dinners at the hotel, the amenities were quite lacking comparatively speaking. We had planned to use the gym at the Kvikness, and also there was no TV in the room, and the pillows were poor at the Midtnes. We also ended up spending evenings at the Kvikness since there was no restaurant/bar at the Midtnes. It just felt to me like we stayed in the cheaper hotel to keep your costs down.

In the end we accomplished the goal of experiencing the Fjords and cities of Norway, and that was really great. I think if you could implement a bit more 'service orientation' into the program, it would make it even better.

Many thanks for the opportunity to provide this feedback!

We had the best guide in Oslo, Erlend Oyan. He was knowledgeable, engaging and connected well with the kids. My teenagers loved white water rafting with Serious Fun near Geilo. The staff at the Geilo Hotel was also fantastic. They happily helped us plan our short stay to the fullest. Our other favorite activity was the hike to the goat farm with Sam from FjordSafari, great day!

Overall, the trip was wonderful and we had a fantastic time! We can't wait to return to Norway to see more of that amazing country. Marrit (sp?) our guide was amazing and great at showing us the sites as well as reacting to changes on the fly. Even though some stormy weather kept us from doing the glacier hike we originally planned on, she identified several other options and shorter hikes we could do in the area to make the most of the day. The kayaking portion of the trip was magical and it was amazing that we were the only boats out there. The only critiques of the trip are as follows:
1) Through no fault of the guide or our local specialist, the hotel that we got the kayaks from seemed pretty disorganized (they said they had 4 boats, they only had 3, the paddles were in a different spot, some boats were locked up and they didn't have access when we wanted to go out, they weren't very well maintained making them harder to steer, etc.). It would have been nicer if this had been more of a professional operation so we could spend more time on the water.
2) I realized at our last stop before heading to the train station that Emily hadn't sent us copies of the train tickets we needed to get to Oslo. Marrit contacted her and got a link to the tickets, but there was some trouble downloading it to access the actual tickets so when we got on the train there was some confusion proving that we had tickets and sitting in available seats. This was quite irksome, especially since if I hadn't realized that we didn't have tickets before we left Skjolden, we wouldn't have been able to board the train at all.

Please let me know if you have additional questions. Overall we really enjoyed our time in Norway and can't wait to return. When we do, we would absolutely use KimKim and Emily for assistance in planning our next adventure.

Linda and her team were terrific. They put together a custom itinerary that took into account the varied interests of a family with teenagers and made everything easy. The trip was very fun and educational and, coming from someone that hasn't used a travel agent in years, it wouldn't have been possible without their help. I highly recommend Linda and her team for a Norway adventure.

Excellent service provided by my KimKim representative Ingrid. She let me know everything down to bus times and numbers, and even went above and beyond finding me a ride home one night after I missed the last bus and the only taxi company in Aurland was fully booked. Really great help overall!

Just returned from a totally epic trip to Norway, planned with great care by our awesome specialist Linda. Linda service was nothing short of perfect. She listened to what we wanted to do during our visit, understood and respected our budget and planned a trip for us that maximized our dollars and used our travel days very efficiently. Without Linda's help I am certain that we would not have been able to see so much of the country in such a smooth and logical manner and would never have found the interesting, charming and cost efficient accommodations that she did. In addition that tours she planned were spot-on and unique to our family. I was really impressed with Linda's ability really get a sense of what we truly wanted out of the trip (i.e. to experience the "real" Norway, not a tourist version). We had so many wonderful experiences, but I would say the best was probably our stay in Aurland. Our accommodations were amazing (cabin overlooking the fjord) and our tour of the area with Mathilda was just amazing, and included a hike to a beautiful lookout and glassblowing with a local artist. Our tour through Bergen with David was equally awesome. He gave us a local's view of the "scene" in Bergen and had so many great recommendations for restaurants, kafe's, shop's etc. that were off the tourist-path. I think the best part of the tours were that both guides were lovely and engaging and happy to chat and share about what life is like in Norway. We also took the Hurtigurten which was really interesting and fun and ended our trip in Trondheim which is a simply beautiful, young, fun city. I think it is worth mentioning two very important things: 1) Linda really did a great job ensuring all of our booking and travel transitions were smooth and easy to follow, including arranging taxis and pick/ drop off and being considerate of train/boat/travel times to ensure we were not wasting time waiting or were stuck in one place with hours to kill and nowhere to go. 2) When there were a couple of (very minor) hiccups with hotel bookings, Linda was accessible, available to help and dealt with the issues immediately. It was very comforting to know that she was available to help during our travel. Well done Linda! Truly was a trip of a lifetime and my mother was so impressed and happy. Best, Katie

We had a fabulous trip to Norway, orchestrated by Ingrid.
She was patient, kind, responsive and so extremely helpful!
We would definitely do this again!

Our trip to Norway was great - helped in great measure by Ingrid, our travel advisor.

She helped us a lot in planning our itinerary - listened to what we were interested in and followed through with thoughtful suggestions. Once we decided on a trip plan, Ingrid made accommodation suggestions and then made the reservations. It was so helpful to have an agent from Norway who knows the country and helped us make excellent choices.

As to the trip itself, it was wonderful. The accomodations were excellent - we stayed the right amount of time at each place and the trip went without a hitch.

We started out in Oslo - what a wonderful city. We then went to the mountains around Lom. We stayed in an old wonderfully maintained hotel full of history. It was a great launching point for our hikes in the Jotunheimen national park.

Next, we went to the charming city of Alesund - stayed in another charming hotel and enjoyed the sites of the of the city including an amazing walk up to a lookout over the city - 500 plus steps and well worth it - suggested by the TI near our hotel.

Geiranger was our next stop - a beautiful location. Ingrid suggested we stay away from the bustle of the tourist town at a great hotel in Nordal - Petrines - probably our favorite of the trip. Geiranger fjord is beautiful and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

Following Geiranger, we travelled to Aurland in stayed in the Aurland Fjord Hotel - another excellent accomodation. The Aurland area was our favorite fjord region. Ingrid lined up a Nærøyfjord cruise from Flam to Gudvangen which showed off the beauty of the fjord. We also took the train from Flam to Myrdal - also enjoyable.

Then it was back to Oslo - sad to end a great trip - met lots of interesting people - some travelers, some native to Norway and others who emigrated to the beautiful land.

The whole trip was wonderful - thanks Ingrid and kimkim.

Our wonderful trip to Norway went off without a hitch. Linda was knowledgeable, cooperative and flexible during the planning process. She was willing to Skype with us as well as communicate by E-mail. All the arrangements she made -- hotels, cruise ship, and other transport tickets -- were fine. She did as she was asked when we wanted to be near an airport or a train station. She was also very pleasant personally.

The only thing that might have been better is that a couple of the rooms were a bit below our usual standard (at 1 Scandic in Oslo, e.g., room was extremely tiny and there was no closet and -- amazingly -- no place to lay out clothing flat, as in a bureau or on shelves; our cruise cabin was directly behind a lifeboat, hence had no view). However, I suspect she was trying to minimize our cost (and cost was very reasonable). The lesson I have learned is that I should make clear if I want higher-grade accommodations.

All is all, a memorable vacation! I would recommend to other that they plan such a trip with Kimkim/Linda.

Vivian Berger

My Oslo tour experience was a great one. Thank you very much Ingrid for booking this at such short notice. I really enjoyed the long walk along the river because it was beautiful and quiet especially in the middle of a very busy city.

My guide, Stig, was very helpful in explaining the history behind the tiger for example close to the train station. Stig also shared facts about other things we saw and was of tremendous help in showing us around other places we needed to visit before we left for home. You guys are the best! Thank you:)

All of Ingrid's recommendations were terrific. We had a great experience! She even went above and beyond to give us directions at each site. The glacier hike at Folgefonna was amazing! But the highlight of our trip was a sunrise hike to Priekestolen. Driving around on our own was a great way to explore and see the "real" countryside... it's beautiful!
Thank you Ingrid!

It was pretty good but I had to check some details. Flemmet at Bergen did a good job too. We had a good time in Norway over all. Thank you for the arrangement.

Our guides in both Bergen & Tromso were excellent!
When we arrived into Bergen off our cruise ship Vilde was there with a huge smile and waving! She called up Ben who was waiting with the van and our luggage was taken care of with out any fuss.
Our walking tour was just right... We saw so much but at a leisurely pace. Enjoyed sharing the lovely City with a local.
Our guide arrived at our hotel in Tromso (sorry I cannot find the notes with her name ) and gave us an excellent over view of Tromso and then tailored our walk to suit or interests. We enjoyed it all very much
Thank you to both guides and to Linda for the arrangements!

Wonderful trip, Ingrid was fantastic with all details, hotels, and guiding us to make a schedule that made sense for our various driving trips. Highlights were definitely the driving trips to Geiranger - Trollstigen and the Gamle - Strynefjellsevegen roads.

Ingrid did a phenomenal job helping to plan and book our trip. Even when we changed our plans multiple times, she was able to quickly adapt to our changes and come up with constructive solutions.
She knows her country very well, so was able to advise us on the best travel plans, since we were traveling with a child and elderly parents.