Aleksandra Shebaltseva

Aleksandra planned an incredible trip to Ireland for my father and me, and we couldn’t be happier with the experience. From the very beginning, she was professional, attentive, and thoughtful in curating an itinerary that suited both our interests and pace.

What really stood out was her responsiveness, not just during the planning phase, but throughout our actual trip. When a few last-minute changes came up, she handled them quickly and efficiently, taking the stress out of the situation entirely.

Thanks to Aleksandra, we had a seamless, memorable journey through Ireland. I highly recommend her and Kim Kim to anyone looking for to plan their next trip!

Alex did an amazing job helping us organize the trip agenda. I liked all the hotels you arranged. All the tour guides and drivers were great. Being able to get us tickets to tour Gilhaman prison was a real feather in your cap as we understood they are hard to get. Job well done! Thanks

Hotel Review

Casey's Hotel Baltimore

What a charming, country inn. Pleasant breeze off the bay was invigorating. View from beer garden porch and restaurant were outstanding along with the food. The staff were friendly and helpful. Great pic!

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Review

Dublin Private Walking Tour

Dublin

Very informative, I was interested in the historic locations of the Easter 1916 uprising and I appreciated the guides knowledge of the history.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

All good except the cab's air conditioning was not working on the trip from Galway to Dublin.

We recently used Aleksandra to plan our trip to London and Paris, and she was absolutely amazing. She handled every detail—hotels, activities, and travel between cities—with such care and expertise. Everything was seamless, and her recommendations were spot on.

She made the entire process so easy for us. Aleksandra was responsive, organized, and really listened to what we wanted. Thanks to her, we were able to relax and fully enjoy our trip without any stress. I highly recommend her to anyone looking for a smooth, well-planned travel experience!

Three generations explored London, Paris and Amsterdam, myself, my son, daughter-in-law, grandson (16) and granddaughter (11), through a wonderful itinerary made possible by Aleksandra. Though we had only a little over 2 months to put together a 12 day European trip, Aleksandra worked with us via email and Zoom calls answering a multitude of questions and clarifying the itinerary.

She especially saved the day (precisely 4 nights in London) when upon arrival we found inadequate hotel rooms, as it was not the beds we thought we had for five people. After notifying Aleksandra, she promptly corrected the situation with a third room at no charge. Her efforts were greatly appreciated and it allowed us to enjoy London stress free. Two separate days of London tours were broken up with a private tour with John our driver, to Stonehenge and Bath. It was a lovely day to experience both of those fascinating places.

On to Paris and of course the sparkling Eiffel Tower at night. We enjoyed the view on a late evening Seine River cruise and also during our trip to the top of the Eiffel Tower on another evening. We especially loved the Versailles bike tour led by Jean-Baptiste where we biked to the Sunday market to purchase our picnic food for lunch and continued a bike tour of the grounds and ponds until it was time for entry into the palace. In Paris, we loved the private cooking class at Cookin' With Class where Chef Christian taught us how to make chocolate candies, truffles and our own personal chocolate bars. He was excellent with the kids and revised the marshmallow recipe due to an an egg allergy in our family. Chef Christian made it a fun, hands on experience for all of us and so much chocolate to take home!

Amsterdam was charming with our Hotel Mai facing a lovely canal in the older section of the city. Anne Frank House was a must see and we found it very emotionally moving. De Kas is a farm to table restaurant where we had one of our best meals. Imagine eating for 3 hours, trying so many fresh, delicious dishes and desserts. On a day trip, Erik our driver and guide took us to see working windmills and the small village of Giethoorn where we boated down the canal to a lake with over a hundred swans.

We thank Aleksandra for helping us plan a wonderful European trip that we shall long remember.

We had a wonderful time on our recent self-driving tour of Scotland and Shetland! Aleksandra was incredibly responsive and worked with me to create a trip that worked with our budget. Adding the extra trip to Shetland made this a unique experience for us and having someone that helped with the planning and deciding where to stay was really helpful.

Aleksandra was amazing in guiding us with our first trip overseas to London, Paris, and Normandy. She was able to develop an awesome itinerary based on our desired sightseeing requests as well as offer additional points of interest to consider and she coordinated and purchased tickets for the tours, hotel accommodations, drivers, and other modes of transportation. All we had to do was book our flights.

The trip could not have gone any smoother with little to no issues during the ten day trip. She also checked in with us to make sure things were going well. You could not go wrong with Aleksandra!

Hotel Reviews

Blakemore Hyde Park Hotel

London

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotel Plaza Elysées

Paris

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Chambres d'hôtes du Bas Manoir

A great countryside bed and breakfast outside of Caen for our stay in Normandy. The owners were quite friendly and delightful. The residence was built in the 16th century and was bombed on D-day, which made it that much more special to us.

Authenticity & Character

A 16th century residence and bombed on D-day, how authentic can you get!!

Location

Staff

Very friendly older couple.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hôtel A La Villa des Artistes

Paris

Right in the heart of Paris! What more could you want!

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Palace of Versailles Day Trip With Driver Guide

Paris

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Thames Cruise with Dinner

London

Relaxing evening on the Thames with great food and sights from the river.

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Hop-on hop-off sightseeing bus

London

Great place to start your stay by getting your bearings and layout of the city.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Churchill War Rooms & WW2 Westminster Private Tour

London

One of my favorite tours as a World War II buff. Plenty of history and gives you and understanding what went on in the bunkers!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

City & University Tour – Oxford Walking Tours

England

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

40th Anniversary Celebration to London, Paris, and Normandy
Planning this trip was a totally awesome experience. Working with Alexsandra could not have been easier. She worked with us to provide great accommodations and events that fit exactly what we wanted to do during our 12 day trip. We were able to add, remove, and modify anything we needed. When one of the items was not available, Alexsandra was able to move one day's activities to a different day and add another tour that was only available on a specific day! She also handled all of our transportation needs via trains and taxis during the entire stay (other than flights to and from our home and a rental car). She also made a great suggestion that we walk instead of taking a taxi from our hotel to a train station because it would be significantly faster than taking a taxi (and seeing the traffic backup on our walk, she was right!). We were able to request an earlier pick-up time for the taxi to the airport and Alexsandra handled it quickly and made sure we had proper confirmation.

Our trip included 5 days in London, 4 days in Paris, and a day trip to Caen (Normandy). There is no easy way to pick a favorite part of our trip because it was all so wonderful. In England our day trip via train to Windsor Castle and Oxford along with our tour of the Palace of Westminster (British Parliament) topped the list. In Paris, our private tour of Versialles, along with the Montmartre area were highlights of those days. Our day trip to Normandy to see the history and drive through the small towns was something we will never forget.

I would highly recommend using KimKim for your travel needs if you want control of planning your trip and activities, while using the expertise of a person knowledgeable in the area you are travelling to help coordinate the activities and handle the logistics. We did not want to just be a part of a big tour group; we wanted to experience things mostly on our own.

If you are traveling to the United Kingdom, I would highly recommend Alexsandra to assist you in your travel planning.

Our experience with KimKim was incredible and we will use KimKim again for travel in the future.

Hotel Reviews

Blakemore Hyde Park Hotel

London

Great location within 5 minute walk of 2 tube stations which allow you access to major attractions. Hotel was clean and roomy for a large city hotel. The staff was helpful and friendly. The breakfast was very good providing a traditional English breakfast buffet.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Although not located next to many of the traditional tourist attractions, this hotel was close to 2 tube stations which made it easy to travel to many locations within the city. 3 minute walk to the Kensington Gardens. Many pubs and restaurants also close by.

Staff

Friendly and helpful staff. Handled a request for an extra sheet promptly.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Very clean and comfortable.

Hotel Plaza Elysées

Paris

Great location just north of Boulevard Champs Elysees. Clean room with nice ammenities. The staff was friendly, but was not responsive to issues after we checked in. The room was hot when we arrived late in the evening and it took a while for the air conditioning to be turned on in our room. Each room had a fan, but ours was not working. After bringing this to the attention of the front desk and being promised to have it looked at, we never heard from them. The room eventually cooled down sometime after midnight.

Chambres d'hôtes du Bas Manoir

A very lovely and charming bed and breakfast just outside of Caen, France. The owners were friendly and pleasant. The breakfast was simple with breads, pasteries, homemade yogurt and jams, and fruit (some grown on the property). Though over 300 years old, the rooms clean and well furnished with spacious and updated bathrooms. Note that this property does not have air conditioning and the room we stayed in did not have any windows that could be opened. The temperature during our stay was not unbearable so this was not an issue; however, it could be during higher temperatures.

Hôtel A La Villa des Artistes

Paris

Staff was friendly and helpful. Rooms were clean and updated. Rooms are a bit small but not out of line for large city accommodations. Breakfast was a little lacking with the food on the buffet not being restocked while we were eating. We had to store our luggage upon early arrival and they had to store it out in the lobby behind the bar. Nothing was missing but it provided a bit of concern.

Activity Reviews

Hop-on hop-off sightseeing bus

London

Great way to see the sights without needing additional transportation. Easy to hop on and off. We did this on our first day after travelling overnight. It helped us get our bearings and see areas that were not on our itinerary later in our stay. We were delayed with heavy traffic.

Churchill War Rooms & WW2 Westminster Private Tour

London

If you are into WWII history this is a must see! Our guide was imformative and knowledgeable. He presented the a lot of information while walking us from the meeting point to the actual museum. Many of the items are as they were when the war ended, and the rooms were abandoned.

Thames Cruise with Dinner

London

This was a very pleasant surprise of our trip. We had initially planned to remove this, but changed our minds and glad we did. The cruise started down the Thames with the first course of our meal and live music to entertain us. When we reached the turn around point, we were fed our main course and dessert which was excellent! The gentlemen provided entertainment following the meal. The setup of the boat was great. The views travelling back as the sun set and the lights of the city illuminated, were fabulous.

Quality of Experience

Food

Excellent

Guides, Drivers and Staff

City & University Tour – Oxford Walking Tours

England

Wasn't sure what to expect when we arrived but was pleasantly surprised. Led by a graduate student, we received a ton of information about the area and the university that we would have never been able to get on our own. Excellent guide who made the trip enjoyable.

Palace of Versailles Day Trip With Driver Guide

Paris

We had never been on a private tour before and after this experience we will consider these more in the future! Our driver and guide Paul picked us up at our hotel and drove us out to the Palace. On the way he provided the history and background we needed to better understand what we were going to see. He answered questions and provided pleasant conversation during the entire trip. Once there, he managed us into the gardens and palace without any delays or waiting in line. He allowed us to take pictures and ask questions while moving us through and keeping us on schedule. He had a wealth of knowledge about the subject and again provided us with information we would not be able to get if we had toured on our own.

Quality of Experience

A private tour made the trip to the palace more informative

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Paul was fantastic! Pleasant and courteous.

Transport

Clean and comfortable vehicle

Private Transfer from Paris to Paris Charles dea Gaulle Airport

France

We used this company 3 times during our stay in Paris and each time they communicated with us prior to arrival, at arrival, and got us to our location with no issues. From our hotel to the airport, the driver was early and got us there on time. The driver was helpful, courteous, and friendly.