Alex Nguyen

Every thing was planned for and we had a great time. So glad we could customize our trip to our interests and time frame.

I had an action packed 12 days in Thailand! My travel planner Alex was great and took care of every detail. I shared with him my vision and he provided great suggestions. He was readily available when I had questions and he took all the guess work out of traveling to a new country. Having Alex do all the planning gave me the ability to simply show up and enjoy my perfect vacation. Some of the experiences I enjoyed were a ringside Muy Thai match, time at an Elephant Sanctuary and a Tiger Park and an exciting night hike in the rain forest. I would definitely recommend using Kimkim to others and would use them again on my future trips!

Hotel Review

Khao Sok River Lodge Hotel

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Half day combined Grand Palace Temples city tour

Bangkok

This tour was an amazing experience. We visited a lot of temples in Bangkok and Chiang Mai. The guide was with us the entire time, providing valuable insights. It was an enriching experience and the temples were beautiful.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Evening Muay Thai Show

Bangkok

The Muay Thai fight was a unique experience. We were right at ringside and the venue was quite small, making it an intimate setting. It was thrilling to be so close to the action.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Visit Authentic Thai Railway & Floating Markets

Bangkok

This was another great experience. We saw the railway and then moved on to the floating markets. The tour allowed us to shop and haggle, giving us a real taste of local life. We bought a lot of different souvenirs.

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Chiang Mai Arrival - Evening Wat Umong and Doi Suthep Temple

Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai was more traditional compared to Bangkok. The evening temple visit was quite fancy and left a lasting impression.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Visit Karen village - Elephant Jungle Sanctuary

Chiang Mai

This was a wonderful experience. The people there truly care for the elephants and it's not like those places where elephants are mistreated. We got to feed the elephants, take pictures, and even bathe and brush them in water. It felt like a very ethical and rewarding experience.

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Self - Guided Day in Phuket

Phuket

On our last day, we had a car take us around for a self-guided tour. We visited Monkey Hill, which was a nice experience.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

We booked our recent 2 week trip to Vietnam with KimKim. It was a fantastic experience from the beginning to the end. First we filled out an online questionnaire, then spoke to a KimKim person by phone to make sure what we were looking for. We were then connected with Alex from Realistic Asia, who works with KimKim to design trips to Asia. Alex patiently went through 3 separate versions of our trip before we finalized the itinerary. Our trip included all lodgings, internal transfers, at least one meal per day, and private tours. We visited Hanoi, Ha Long Bay, Hoi An, and Ho Chi Minh City.

We cannot say enough good things about the entire experience! Every hotel was superb. And our private guides and drivers in each location took exceptional care of us, with every need taken care of! They were all knowledgeable and personable. We felt that they were our best friends. Special shoutouts to Cương in Hanoi, Dong and Tai in Hoi An, and Vinh in HCMC! And our drivers were punctual, friendly, and safe. Our dietary preferences were addressed in every location.

The selection of excursions and tours was superb. We had time on our own in each location, and our guides treated us to wonderful tours to make sure we hit the “must-sees” and got oriented. And in every location we included a fantastic cultural experience. We went to Ba Vi and had lunch with Mrs Chin and her wonderful daughters, and partied with the local rice wine distiller. We rode bikes through the rice paddies in Hoi An, visited with a grandmother who was part of an organic farm collective, and had some custom clothing made by one of the local tailor shops. In HCMC, we spent a fantastic day touring around the Mekong delta by boat, TukTuk, and canoe.

Last but certainly not least, we need to say that Vietnam is an extraordinary travel destination! The cities are vibrant, the countryside is beautiful, the beaches are exquisite, the food amazing, and the people are charming and welcoming. Every single person we met was happy to see us, and more than once we were stopped on the street by a stranger who said hello and wanted to shake our hands.

Hello,

I booked a trip for myself (36), my three children (17, 13, 11) and my Elderly Father (73) for about ten days in Thailand. During that time frame we spent time around Bangkok, Chiang Mai and one day south of Bangkok for "snorkeling".

I think the itinerary on paper was generally well set up, but the delivery and the guide were mediocre at times. I would rate the entire experience a seven out of ten (70%) which is slightly better than 3/5 stars. Had our last final day not been so bad and inefficient, I may have felt differently and given this experience 4/5 stars and not been so critical of our guide.

Our guide on the ground, named Ken, was playful and funny, but often sloppy and did not always listen effectively. For example, on multiple occasions I asked him to slow down and speak about the history of various things to my Father, rather than speaking to my children who were up front when we were walking. I also told him to speak louder and towards my Father, but he rarely listened and I gave up after awhile. My children were not interested in the history, but my Father would have soaked up everything happily.

On another occasion we missed the tour of an old temple (it was closing down as we arrived late) and had to rush through a cool festival because we had spent too much time stopping at coffee shops along the way. When I complained to Ken afterwards, he tried to blame this on us rather than taking responsibility for not communicating effectively; he also spent a bunch of time himself getting free internet at KFC while we were searching for him. A good guide would have spoken to us about the timelines and made sure we understood the consequences of spending additional time at multiple stoppages; a good guide would not have contributed to such delays along the way either. I was very disappointed that we didn't get to eat/shop at the festival and spend more time around the old temple.

Ken also loved singing and often sang the same song about "The train is coming here, Baby!" over and over. And over. It was redundant and annoying each and every day, and when I politely asked him to stop, he seemed to think it was funny and often continued. I wasn't impressed, and days later I can still hear his annoying voice singing this particular song.

On the final full day that we had in Thailand in Bangkok, we were supposed to go skydiving out of town, followed up by snorkeling. We had Ken arrange things with the skydiving business over the phone, who told us it was important to get there a few minutes before they opened around 7:55am the next day. Ken arranged for us to be picked up from the hotel at 6:15am, and we ended up arriving at 9:20am about an hour and a half late. The consequence was that there were 40 people ahead of us upon arriving, and given the other plans we had during the day, it was impossible or us to do the skydiving. What made matters worse was that the skydive area was 1.5 hours out of the way from our snorkeling activity route, so we ended up wasting 3 hours on the road for nothing, getting the kids excited for nothing, and wasting the additional time lining things up and doing research the day before. When I complained to the tour provider on WhatsApp about this terrible occurrence, they offered to take us out for dinner, which turned into a cheap street food meal with Ken later that evening around 10pm (after waiting for Ken more than an hour in a loud market area; we had fun keeping ourselves busy).

In the evenings that we were free after various activities, Ken did not always make meaningful suggestions, and I often found additional activities myself. For example, Ken didn't mention the popular Night Safari in Chiang Mai, which was well-known, popular and excellent. I found this myself, asked Ken about it, and then he joined us. I do give Ken credit for always being willing to go out to evening activities with us, and I was impressed at his stamina when we were hiking and rafting on the one day. He was a good guy and I still gave him 5000 Baht as a tip at the end, but I did this more out of pity rather than genuinely feeling as though he had earned this for being excellent. Had Ken listened more and been more diligent, some key issues could have been easily avoided.

As for the planning itself, the "snorkeling" was terrible. We boated to a single island, then myself and two sons went on a different small boat to a larger boat which had five people and a bunch of gear just a couple hundred feet from the shore. The waters were not clear and began burning our skin immediately. My youngest got out right away, while my eldest son and I tried to make the most of the opportunity for a few more minutes. When we got back on the boat, someone had a green cream there waiting for us because they knew of the terrible water conditions. I still have rashes on both armpits and it still itches and hurts. We wanted to leave shortly thereafter, and all five of those on the snorkeling boat left along with us. I don't want to know how much we paid for this entire experience, but I'm sure it was quite a bit considering the van ride to the first boat (two hours from our hotel), the boat ride to the island (25 minutes), the additional boat ride to the bigger boat (5 minutes), and then the boat ride back (5 minutes) with all the people who were there only for us. Terrible.

The last negative thing I'll say is that I emphasized the importance to Kimkim for us to spend some time with an indigenous group in their local surroundings somewhere, and this wasn't done well. We simply walked through a village of Karen people, they tried to sell us trinkets they didn't even make themselves for five minutes, and we quickly left thereafter. There was no showing us their daily lives or culture or anything meaningful or fun or memorable.

All that being said, the temples throughout the trip were amazing. The hiking and bamboo rafting down the river in the same day was great. The elephant experience was cool, although it wasn't as good as others I had done in the past (in Thailand) where we learned about buddhism and were allowed to ride the elephants (just one person per elephant without a carriage; I don't view this as being harmful to the elephant). Staying at the hotel along the river was awesome; we were the only people crazy enough to swim in the fast current in the morning a few times.

Ken helped us navigate a lot, and we felt like he was a family member by the end of the trip. I learned a lot about Thailand, as this is the first time I was here for more than a week and the first time I had money to pay for a guide and more experiences. The next time I go, I'll use the experience of this trip to be more efficient and will certainly return to Chiang Mai. I think I would fly directly to Chiang Mai and just do three of four sets of tours without going through someone like Kimkim again, unless I went somewhere new and was convinced the experience would be better.

I feel bad being so brutally honest about Ken and some of my negative experiences, but I feel Kimkim really let us down this time and I will likely not use them again if this isn't rectified in one way or another. When I utilized the company in Colombia our guide and experiences were basically flawless, so I had higher expectations to say the least.

My adventure in Vietnam was excellent!!! It was a wonderful experience. Alex was very attentive of everything I needed on my journey. Transportation arrangements were excellent and the quality of the tour guides was also great as they were very knowledgeble guys about Vietnam. I highly recommend Alex for any trip to Vietnam. The Hotel and cruise chosen by Alex were also factastic based on my budget. I will come back for sure with my family to Vietnam.

Hotel Reviews

La Pandora Cruises

Hai Phong

Excellent experience on this cruise, not only they were very attentive and organized but also the activities were great and the food as well.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Everything was great!

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hanoi Boutique Hotel

Hanoi

Authenticity & Character

Location

Very close to all main atractions in the Old Quarter!

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Hanoi Evening Walking Street Food Tour

Hanoi

The tour guide was amazing on all recomendations about food! Would not be better. I was very pleased with the attention!

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Day Trip to Ba Vi Countryside & Cooking Class

Hanoi

The experiences regarding Tea, Tofu, cycling, Rice wine and Cooking class were awesome!

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Tam Coc - Hoa Lu - Rural Village - Thai Vi Temple (N)

Vietnam

The Boat Experience was fantastic as well as the visit to the temples!

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Ha Long Bay - Lan Ha Bay (La Pandora)

Vietnam

A MUST in Vietnam! Worth every minute

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Dark and Bright Cave - Ha Long Bay (La Pandora)

Vietnam

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

CODY weas the BEST tour Guide!

Transport

Hanoi Half Day City Tour

Hanoi

Great Experience to get to know more about Vietnam Culture!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

We had a fantastic trip!!! From start to end we felt we re well looked after. Planning, guide and driver where all aligned and very profesional. I would highly recomend using Alex for travels in Vietnam :)