Scotland Travel Agents

My daughter found KimKim when she started planning our trip to Scotland. Kate worked very well with our requests, the changes while planning our 2 week trip. The accommodations were excellent in every area we visited, along with scheduling the visits to the castles, dining and transportation on the ferries. I highly recommend Kate and Kim Kim for travel planning.

Our trip was amazing! Start to finish. Kate was super helpful and enthusiastic. Great network of guides and drivers. The ability to personalize our trip was key. Will use Kim Kim again!

I will contact Salomé and Kimkim to plan and prepare future trips. They were easy to work with and provided assistance from start to finish. Salomé helped us plan a two week driving trip in Scotland. Working with her was great. She put together a wonderful itinerary based on our interests. Even though I had done a lot of preliminary planning, she suggested terrific activities that I wasn’t aware of that really enhanced our tour. Salomé did all the leg work in booking hotels, ferry tickets, and attraction and tour tickets, a huge job! I truly appreciated her efforts when I asked her to rebooked all the hotels to reduce the overall trip budget. She provided an accurate and detailed itinerary with everything we needed for each day. She was always a responsive communicator during trip planning and during the trip . We had a couple glitches while in Scotland and Salomé was always available to assist. Planning in-depth international travel can be intimidating but Salomé and Kimkim made it easy. If you want international travel that includes more than the tourists highlights Kimkim and Salomé can help plan this type of trip.

Our Edinburgh city tour was excellent. Our guide was a passionate history student at the local university and was exceptionally knowledgeable.

In contrast, our city tour of Inverness was not so great. Our guide was a local volunteer and community activist but looking back, I am not sure the tour helped us at all. Timing was poor as the market was closed when our guide took us there.

Hotel Reviews

Virgin Hotels Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Authenticity & Character

Old building, well maintained and renovated.

Location

Walking distance to everything!

Staff

Helpful, available and friendly.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Bunchrew House Hotel

IV3 8TA

Looks great, seems understaffed. Dusty, old, needs a deep cleaning, maybe replace some carpets. My sense was that they think they are better than they are, staff are pretentious. The menu is very different, only ate there once but wouldn’t recommend the dining room.

Authenticity & Character

Old, history. Felt like a castle.

Location

Need a taxi or car. No Uber in the north regions.

Staff

All were fine, when you could find someone. No one at the front desk.

Cleanliness & Comfort

The Marcliffe Hotel & Spa

Pitfodels Aberdeen

Staff excellent. Parking is a problem with construction and loss of land to an adjacent development.

Authenticity & Character

Golf theme and many famous golfers have stayed here.

Location

Remote from downtown.

Staff

The bellman was a character, joking, making us smile and a true loyal employee.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Cameron house

One of the best hotels we have ever experienced.

Authenticity & Character

The addition to the original building was done exceptionally well.

Location

Excellent! Right on the lake!

Staff

Lots of them, knowledgeable and friendly.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Cannot get any better!

Hotel du Vin & Bistro Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Awkward location, no valet, nowhere to park.

Authenticity & Character

Maintained the character of an old building.

Location

Central location.

Staff

Not many staff.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Edinburgh Old Town Tour

Edinburgh

Our guide was passionate, knowledgeable and a pleasure to be with.

Quality of Experience

Learned so much history.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

We met at the hotel entrance.

Guided Exploration of Haddo House

Aberdeen

This location is off the beaten path but an important part of our trip because of family connections. We were pleased to see a photo of our great grandfather in the wall of the cafe!

Explore Glen Affric, Culloden, and Clava Cairns Tour

Inverness

Very interesting.

Quality of Experience

History

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Microphone did not work.

Private Inverness Walking Tour

Scotland

We could have done this walkabout on our own.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

I had dreamed of doing a trip to the Orkney Islands, the Isle of Skye, and Iona for years and tried to organize it myself, but it proved to be too complex. Stephen and his colleagues at Kimkim blew us away with how well they put it together They patiently worked with us, custom-building the trip of our dreams. Over a period of months we went back and forth making adjustments and Stephen was very patient with us. Eventually we had a complex package involving flights, taxis, tours of multiple sites, hotels, and car rentals. Things went very smoothly. We received a detailed itinerary and downloadable tickets that made the trip a breeze. We would arrive at a site, or a ferry, show the staff our ticket either printed or on phone, and they would wave us through. At each car rental and hotel, we just gave our name and everything was ready. My brother and I have travelled all over the world, and have rarely been so impressed.

A couple of highlights stand out: We had an Orkney Wildlife Sea Tour with Ocean Trek out of Kirkwall and our host was a fellow named Jimmy. A small boat, but Jimmy was very friendly and knowledgeable, so it was a special delight. He made it feel like we were just friends out for a day on his boat. We saw a castle, seals, and many different kinds of birds. Another highlight was the Tarbet Hotel on Loch Lomond. It was one of the most comfortable and elegant places we’ve ever stayed. Old-world elegance, and dog-friendly.

I hope to make use of Kimkim on future trips. They custom-designed the trip, making everything simple for us so we could focus on enjoying the wildlife and archaeological sites we came to see.

Hotel Reviews

Martyrs Bay Rooms

Isle of Iona

Arrived 5:00 pm. Were made welcome. Rooms and amenities were fine, but we were leaving early in the morning, so we didn't have a chance to sample food. They put together a bag breakfast for us to take on the road, so we were impressed.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

The Stromness Hotel

Stromness

Nice rooms, Victorian decor, friendly staff, good food. However, in the four days we were there, they didn't clean our room. A bit unusual, but we didn't suffer for it. Also, guests should be aware this is a 'no alcohol' hotel. Meals in the dining room are a bit expensive, but there are other restaurants, take-away places, and a grocery store within a couple of blocks for cheaper options.

Authenticity & Character

Location

So much history in Stromness

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

They only clean rooms if you stay more than 6 days.

The Royal Hotel Portree

Portree

Rooms were comfortable. Breakfast dining room staff were great, and the food was excellent. However, in a separate dining room for supper, the service was terrible. Bored teenagers waiting on us; waited 20 minutes to be noticed and then had to walk over to the counter and ask for a menu. After that another staff person came and told us that they only had 2 cooks on that night, so we would have to wait about a half hour for our food. Not impressed.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

The Tarbet Hotel Arrochar

Tarbet

One of the nicest places I've ever stayed, and I've travelled all over the world. Warm, old-world elegance; friendly staff, choice of 3 lovely lounges. Didn't care for the loud music being played in two of them and the lobby, but one lounge was kept as a quiet space, so I survived. A dog-friendly establishment and was delighted to meet the desk clerk's dog on one occasion. We were leaving early, so they packed us a bag breakfast. There is a nature-trail area across the street, and Loch Lomond is just across the street. The road it's on is a bit busy, but wasn't a problem. We elected to eat in a lovely former church down the street about half a kilometer, called 'Kirk o' the lochs'. Nice decor and good food to be found there.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Review

Orkney Wildlife Sea Tours

Scotland

This was one of the true highlights of the trip. Jimmy was our host, and he has a very small boat; can only take 3 guests, so it is very up-close and personal. Jimmy was very friendly and was a fountain of knowledge about the area. He asked what we wanted to see and took us to places to see it. We saw castles, seals, and numerous kind of seabirds. By the end of the tour, it felt like we were just friends out on a boat together. The only thing was that I was expecting a larger tour boat, and he was off to the side of the marina, so it was a bit of a challenge to find him. However, it was well worth it. I highly recommend hium.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport