Aleksandra Sheb

Amazing trip, well planned and put together by Aleksandra.

Our tour guides Chris in Edinburgh, Rhona MacKenzie in Inverness, David in Oban, and Leire (food tour in Glasgow) were all amazing. We can not recommend them enough.

This was our first trip in 23 years and, as an introduction to Scotland, well it was just incredible.

Thank you Aleksandra and KimKim.

Hotel Reviews

The Social Hub Glasgow

Glasgow

Fun hotel. So much to do within the hotel itself. Food was good, staff was so nice. Location was great!

Authenticity & Character

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Cleanliness & Comfort

The Ranald

OBAN

Room was clean but so very tiny. Staff was very nice and the location was good. The shower was also so tiny.

Authenticity & Character

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Cleanliness & Comfort

Creag Mhor Lodge

Onich

This was our favorite. The view of the loch, breathtaking. Room was comfortable. Shower amazing. Great whisky bar. Staff was extremely nice. Location was a bit far from any walkable city but the view...wow.

Authenticity & Character

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Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Avalon

Inverness

Room was beautiful. Host amazing, food incredible. Homemade jams just WOW.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

N°11 Boutique Restaurant and Rooms Hotel

Edinburgh

Great room, location was wonderful, staff very helpful, food was amazing. Would stay again.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Walking distance to just about everything

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Oban Distillery Visit

Oban

Well I love Oban whisky so is it fair to review this...YES! If you are in Oban for a couple day, just do it!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Private Inverness Walking Tour

Scotland

Rhona was very knowledgable and fun. Great walking tour.

Quality of Experience

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The Wee Food Tour of Glasgow

Glasgow

Leire was just wonderful. Go do this!

Quality of Experience

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Oban Guided Town Walking Tour

Oban

David was great, very knowledgable. Wonderful day in Oban.

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The Real Mary King’s Close

Edinburgh

This was our fault, we missed our time window due to getting caught up at a cathedral. So can't honestly review this.

Private Glasgow Essentials Tour

Scotland

Our tour guide was just ok on this tour. We had a better tour guide on the food and drink tour.

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Edinburgh Castle & Old Town Private Tour

Edinburgh

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Three Isles Tour – Mull, Iona & Staffa

Oban

Unfortunately due to weather this was cancelled. So it is not fair to review.

Skye and Eilean Donan Castle Small-Group Day Tour

Inverness

Again, tour guide was amazing and funny. Driving those roads, I don't know how anyone could do it. WOW. Just a beautiful place and amazing to see.

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Outlander Castle Tour

Edinburgh

Tour guide was very funny. Castles were grand and lovely. Just a wonderful experience.

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Transport

Thank you Aleksandra for planning a wonderful trip to SE Ireland. You did exactly what we asked, which was planning a flexible itinerary. This allowed us to add a few adventures and skip a few things depending on our timing. You were very responsive to changes during the planning as well as accessible when needed during our trip. You were excellent! 10/10!!

Following, is a review/feedback of each location;

Dublin:
Leinster Taxi from airport to the Schoolhouse Gastropoda Hotel - driver “Tony” was excellent, on time, even though our flight arrived 1 1/2 hours late. Tony gave us an informative ride and was a great introduction to Ireland.

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Th Schoolhouse Gastropub. The front desk staff was friendly (Tina!!), welcoming and very helpful. The room was clean and had a great housekeeping staff. We appreciate having the restaurant on site for the included breakfast and also tried it for dinner, which was excellent. The wait for our dinner was very slow, however the water comped our drinks.

On our return to Dublin, Tina at the front desk allowed us an early midday checking to drop off our luggage, which allowed us to turn in our rental car more easily.

Dublin Private Walk Tour:
The tour guide, Mydie was sick and we were not able to do the walking tour. However, she comped us by getting tickets for the Hop On Hop Off bus tour, the EPIC Irish Emigration Museum (very well done and recommended for other visitors, and St Patrick’s Cathedral. She also gave us a monetary voucher for Bewley’s - a wonderful cafe which we highly recommend for visitors.

Merry Ploughboy Gastro Pub:
This was a great introduction to Irish food, music and dancing. The food was 3 of 5 stars.

While walking around Dublin, we also recommend the following sites:
- St. Stephen’s Green
- Sheridan’s Cheesemongers ( cheese shop -where we sampled cheese)
- John Kehoe’s Pub for a pint!

Rental car: We used Alamo Rental Car and picked it up at St. Stephen’s Green Shopping Center on the top floor. Staff was great but it was a challenge driving in and out of the tight parking garage.

Drive Dublin to Wicklow:
We drove through Sally Gap Drive to Powerscourt Waterfall and Powerscourt Gardens. We enjoyed the scenic drive and found it very worthwhile.

The Coachhouse stay in Roundwood was very nice and cozy with a lot of sitting areas, with lovely plants, some retail and a nice pub. We especially liked the option to have the included sit down full breakfast or eat in the attached bakery/cafe. However, we were not greeted when we arrived and searched for staff in order to check in. It was not made clear the options for breakfast. Wi-Fi only works on the first floor and not in guest rooms, which was inconvenient. We do recommend it as a lovely place to stay, however the manager was not friendly or customer service oriented. She was always rushing around and made us feel like we were inconveniencing her.

Monastic Glendalough was a very nice stop with amazing architecture. We also visited the Upper and Lower Lake. We recommend parking at the Visitor’s Center and entering the monastery from the parking lot. There are restrooms there as well as a place to purchase food/drinks. Having lunch at The Wicklow Heather in Brockagh County, Wicklow was a highlight. (5/5 stars!!) The bar area was very nice and there was a dining area called The Writer’s Room, filled with original editions of various Irish writers. Excellent service. Beautiful floral patio area for dining when weather allows. We took a side trip to Glenmacnass Waterfall from the parking area there is a wonderful view of the valley and Guinness colored waterfall.

Wicklow to Wexford:
We found out that the same company (Aramark) that owns The Coach House also owns Avoca Mills in Avoca. We took a tour of Avoca Mill with “Art” who was excellent and informative. We recommend visiting the shop and cafe at Avoca Mills. There were lovely wool garments made at the mill, blankets and scarves and gift items. The bakery had delicious coffee and wonderful baked pastries.

Visited Enniscorthy which included Vinegar Hill with a scenic view of the countryside. Visited the 1798 Rebellion Center (3/5) . Had lunch at The Cotton Tree Cafe (3/5) and a pint of Guinness at Stamps Pub (3/5). Stayed at the Riverside Park Hotel. Mediocre Hotel at best, musty, smokey and damp smell and rooms outdated. Breakfast was not as good as previous places on the trip. The pool facility was decent. Note: guests must wear a bathing cap or rent one to use pool area. This hotel did not match the description online.

Waterford:
Excellent walking tour with “Liam” was brilliant. The Waterford Factory tour was worthwhile and interesting.
Fabulous stop at Hook Lighthouse on the way to Waterford. Taking the tour of the lighthouse was VERY worthwhile. We bought tickets on site. Note: There were restrooms and a sandwich/soup restaurant on site in the old light keepers house. The Avoca Mill Gift-shop gives a 10% discount on a sales receipt for tickets to Hook Lighthouse.

Driving Note: We recommend rather that driving to New Ross to get to Waterford, take the East Passage Ferry which departs every 15 minutes. This was convenient because our lodging at Marsh Mere Lodge was in Arthurstown, very close to the ferry.

Marsh Mere Lodge was an absolute STAND OUT place to stay!! 5/5 stars!! Host Claire was fabulous. The home was filled with generations of antiques and was like a museum. Very clean and well decorated. Very personal touches with bottled water and cookies, coffee and tea. Breakfast was 10/10 - homemade full Irish breakfast including homemade breads and scones. Amazing view overlooking the sea wall of Waterford harbor. NOTE: The host does not accept payment from the travel agent, though the travel agent can make a reservation. The guest must pay host directly upon arrival.

Waterford to Kilkenny:
Beautiful drive to Rock of Cashel. One of the highlights of our trip. We had lunch at The Cellar Bar at Bailey’s Hotel in Cashel. Excellent service and excellent food. For visit at Rock of Cashel, park at Car Park just below the site.
Stayed at Kilkenny House Hotel (3/5 stars - nice lobby area and recently updated hotel, however no personal touches in rooms, no water bottles, etc.) Breakfast was included however there were breakfast items that had run out, pitchers empty, and not homemade items - more like a modest hotel continental breakfast.

Kilkenny Walking Tour (John Crommerford was “The Craic”!!! Ask for him! He was very knowledgeable and gave us nearly a three hour tour! Offered his contact information if we needed any help or advice while in Kilkenny. Loved visit to Rick Steve’s recommended bookstore “The Book Centre Kilkenny. Visited The Field Bar and Restaurant w/ live music. Our favorite spot was Tholsel Bar. Great live music and more modern pub vibe, with big open window in front . Had dinner at Kytelers Inn (4/5) Cozy ambiance and good food/service. NOTE: when parking in garages in Kilkenny, take note of closing hours. We had to call security after hours which cost us 25 Euro. Overall - Kilkenny was our favorite city we visited. For great shopping - we enjoyed The Kilkenny Design Center Kilkenny Castle yard across from the Kilkenny Castle. Great artisans, and met a soap maker Denise O’Conner at MySkin and 85 year old silversmith Des Byrne!

Return to Dublin:
Received VERY warm welcome back at The Schoolhouse Gastro Pub with note and chocolates on our bed. Enjoyed touring Trinity College and seeing The Book of Kells. We shopped on Dawson Street and the pedestrian mall in the city center. Highly recommend the Celtic Whiskey Shop. Staff was very knowledgeable and wrapped our bottles for airplane travel. Great ways to finish trip was a visit to Peruke and Periwig cocktail bar. Incredibly eclectic decor and drink menu currently based on Alice and Wonderland theme, but signature drinks change periodically an are created by the staff. The drink menu alone is a piece of art. we topped off our trip with a delicious dinner at The Schoolhouse Gastro Pub.

We thoroughly enjoyed Ireland and we are very, very glad that we included Northern Ireland with Derry and Belfast. All of our guides were excellent but our favorite was Paul Martin who gave an excellent but balanced overview of “the troubles”. My single favorite event was watching the border collie herding sheep up a beautiful Irish green hill!

My wife and I went to Scotland and Ireland for our 25th wedding anniversary. We were ready to book with a big tour group but wanted something more intimate and tailored to our interests. Aleksandra with KimKim helped us plan a trip based on our interests, took care of the hotels, in-country travel and tickets, and set up guided walking tours. We just had to show up. Aleksandra was very accessible and responsive at all times, even rearranging some scheduled events for us while we were on our vacation. Prior to booking, we exchanged messages and set up a zoom meeting with Aleksandra to get an idea of what our budget would get us, quality of hotels (we decided to spend a little more to get nicer hotels), and what we might like to do/see. Using the app was great. All tickets and confirmations were stored there. We were impressed with all of the hotels Aleksandra booked for us. She also booked pickup from the airport, inter-hotel, hotel-airport, etc. It was worth every penny and we had a wonderful time. We ended up skipping some of the walking tours because we wanted to explore on our own, on our own time. KimKim was most helpful because it seemed overwhelming to book various hotels in different cities, schedule train rides, and schedule/arrange sight-seeing. We would definitely use again if we explore a different country.

The drivers, tours, and hotels that Aleksandra chose were all professional and outstanding, with a shout out to Paul Clarke. Would strongly suggest including Northern Ireland in the trip.

Ireland is a beautiful place full of wonderful hospitable people. People with a great sense of humor, a wealth of information, and real love for their country. It felt like they couldn’t wait to show it off. The local guides were indispensable because they gave us a tremendous sense of history of the areas that we were touring as well as great local restaurant and pub recommendations. This had been a bucket list type trip for us and it did not disappoint. Aleksandra was so helpful in steering us toward local sites & museums that we never would have thought about. The Butter museum or the 14 Henrietta St Tenement museum were very informative and gave you a sense of Ireland’s past. Would highly recommend Kimkim to any one who doesn’t want a big bus tour of all the usual tourist spots but instead a chance to get off the beaten path and see more of the local culture such as a local food & pub tour in Galway.

Hotel Reviews

Trinity Townhouse

Dublin

Authenticity & Character

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Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Corrib House Guest Accommodation

Galway

Very lovely guesthouse with very helpful and attentive staff! Lovely tea house and courtyard made the place feel very homey.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Staff was very accommodating when we needed breakfast a little earlier in order for us to make some tours.

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Hayfield Manor Hotel

Absolutely lovely with all its old world charm!!

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Killarney Heights Hotel

Killarney

Authenticity & Character

Location

Would’ve preferred a hotel closer to the center of town

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Guided Tour of 14 Henrietta Street

Dublin

Quality of Experience

A very great look into Irish tenement history with guides who had first had experience growing up there

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Irish Tour Private Luxury Giants Causeway Day Tour From Dublin

Dublin

Quality of Experience

lol

Guides, Drivers and Staff

One of the best guides we’ve ever had! Extremely personable and chock full of history

Transport

Food and Culture Walking Tour with Tastings

Ireland

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Midleton Distillery Experience & Whiskey Tasting - Home of Jameson

Cork

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Killarney National Park Private Tour

Ireland

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Dingle Peninsula Tour

Ireland

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Galway to Cliffs Cruise, Aran Islands and Connemara Full Day Tour

Galway

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The Classic Ring of Kerry & Skellig Ring Tour

Ireland

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Guinness Storehouse Experience Tour

Dublin

I know it’s a must see for all Ireland visitors, but it felt very Disneyesque. The free Guinness pints in the rooftop bar were a nice experience

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Our trip to Scotland was amazing. Each location was different and beautiful and a good sampling of what we wanted to see in Scotland. Each lodging was also different but also beautiful. From quaint inns to personal cabins to luxurious hotels. We self drove so had a lot of flexible in what we did but the KimKim app was so useful in helping us decide what to do for the day. We did have some preset excursions. The Cairn distillery tour was very good and the Hairy Coo tour was really fun. And the castles....got to see castles in Scotland.

Hotel Reviews

N°11 Boutique Restaurant and Rooms Hotel

Edinburgh

Staff

Corriegour Lodge Hotel

By Fort William, Letterfinlay

The food was incredible and the owners so accommodating and friendly.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Bracken Hide Hotel

Portree

Location

Amazing views

The Ambassador Hotel

Staff

Very friendly

Atholl Arms Hotel

Dunkeld, Perthshire

Activity Reviews

Edinburgh Old Town Tour

Edinburgh

The Cairn Distillery Tour & Lunch

Scotland

Highland Coo Tour

Scotland

Aleksandra was very attentive. We didn’t have many issues, but the things we brought to her attention were resolved quickly and to our satisfaction. We spent too much time driving around Scotland, which is our own fault. We should’ve looked more closely at how far apart things were. We chose kimkim because I used you in Morocco, and the trip was wonderful. We had a driver that was with us the entire time, which was extremely helpful. I made an assumption the same thing would happen in Scotland, but it didn’t. Would’ve been nice to leave our clubs in a van when we didn’t need it, and have transportation whenever we needed it. Not your fault, but a more detailed understanding would have helped set expectations.

In a couple of places our reservations had the wrong name on them. Since we had the confirmation number we were able to convince people it was our tee time or tour time, but we were told by kimkim this happens all the time. You should figure out why and fix that. Overall the trip was good, hotels were nice, transportation was on time and appropriately sized for 4 people with luggage and golf clubs.

Kristof, our driver through Inverness and Loch Ness was amazing, loved him! Also Jack Treacher , our tour guide in Edinburgh was top notch.

Hotel Reviews

No 17 The Promenade

Oban

Great restaurant onsite. Room was nice, bathrooms very small. Most of the staff were wonderful, friendly, and helpful. Our check-in experience was not very welcoming. The person checking us in seemed surprised we were there, as if we were a bother to her. It was not what we expected !

Authenticity & Character

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Most were excellent

Cleanliness & Comfort

Dornoch Castle Hotel

Dornoch

Staff was excellent, and the restaurant was really good too. Rooms were nice as well

Authenticity & Character

It’s a castle but nicely updated and comfortable.

Location

Right in town, short walk to the golf course

Staff

The woman who greeted us was excellent. Stored our luggage, reserved a nice table for us for dinner.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Kinnettles Hotel & Spa

St Andrews

Good location, friendly helpful staff

Authenticity & Character

Location

Very close to town

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Bunchrew House Hotel

Bunchrew

Very charming with wonderful staff, but too far away from town. Good breakfast but you really must have espresso options! The bartender made the best old fashions we had on the whole trip (and we had a lot!)

Authenticity & Character

Beautiful grounds right on the water

Location

Just wasn’t for us, it was lovely but too far out of town

Staff

Everyone was welcoming and friendly.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotel du Vin & Bistro Edinburgh

Edinburgh

So many stairs and staircases that lead to different areas. Not easy to navigate. Some staff were very good, but most were reactive and not proactive, there was little anticipatory service. No one told us they had a lounge we could use while waiting for our room to be ready, we found it later on our own. And that there was a bar on the second floor with comfortable seating. We stayed here twice and the rooms were very different. Didn’t love the first one, it had a strange configuration, but the second one was spectacular. Beds weee very comfortable and large.

Authenticity & Character

Very unique, has old town castle charm

Location

Right in the middle of everything you want to see in Edinburgh

Staff

Some were good, some not, so very inconsistent. Breakfast staff was excellent.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Great bed. Great bathroom in our second stay, very strange in our first stay.

Activity Review

Edinburgh Castle & Old Town Private Tour

Edinburgh

Jack Treacher was terrific

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

We had a wonderful Scotland adventure with a day in London. Aleksandra listened to what we were looking for and then arrange everything. She mapped out our routes. Helped with all the arrangements needed. And was available for any and all questions. She was amazing to work with!! We will definitely be using KimKim again.

Activity Reviews

The Wee Food Tour of Glasgow

Glasgow

Lei was so much fun! We learned a lot about Glasgow as a city, as well as the food that makes up the Scottish lifestyle.

Quality of Experience

Create Your Own Harris Tweed Handbag Workshop

Edinburgh

All four of us...2 women, 1 man, 1 teenage boy...had a fun time creating our own bags to take home. The staff were friendly, patient, and accommodating.

Quality of Experience

Highland Coo Tour

Scotland

We were able to have a private tour of the cows and sheep. It was wonderful to connect with Donna on so many common experiences. And the cows were worth all the hype!

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Royal London Tour

London

David was amazing!! He listened to what our interests were and tailored our tour to us. It was the highlight of our London time.

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