Kateryna Garkavenko

Thank you to Kateryna who scheduled a wonderful vacation for my family (all 7 of us)! We spent 5 nights in London and 2 nights in Paris.

» Day 1 - We flew from NY JFK to Heathrow on an overnight flight. Sleeping on the plane helped us feel a little refreshed, but it takes a few days to become totally adjusted. There was a car service set up to take us directly from the airport to the hotel. We dropped our luggage at the NYX hotel (check-in isn't until 3) and then set out on a 3 hour private Black Cab tour. We needed two cars because of our group size. Our guides Lee & Matt were knowledgeable, entertaining, and hilarious. They have a preset tour that they do, but were super flexible and took us to Abbey Road because I'm a huge Beatles fan. Everyone loved the tour! After the tour, we were dropped off at the Borough Market where we got some of London's famous Strawberries and Chocolate cups. Then we walked about 35 minutes to the London Eye to finish off our day.

FYI - The NYX hotel is in the Holborn district of North West of London, a beautiful area. Also, throughout our trip, we tipped about 10 pounds per hour for our tour guides, which they very much appreciated.

» Day 2 - We did a Royal London two hour walking tour beginning at 10am with our guide Delianne. This included seeing the changing of the guard, Buckingham Palace, St. James’s Palace, Clarence House and the Green Park. Delianne is an expert in royal history and shares great stories about the rituals of the British monarchy.

In the afternoon we visited Westminster Abbey, a historic Gothic church in London, famed for hosting British coronations, royal weddings, and burials since 1066. It houses the tombs of monarchs like Elizabeth I and Edward the Confessor, memorials to literary giants such as Shakespeare and Dickens in Poets’ Corner, and the Coronation Chair used in every royal crowning since 1308.

» Day 3 - We took day 3 as a free day and split up to do different things. In the morning, some of us went to do a tour of Tottenham stadium while others visited Kensington Palace. Both groups had a great time and you couldn't go wrong with either choice.
In the afternoon we spent a few hours at the Churchill War Museums. If you love history and all things WWII, this is a must see.
FYI - Uber and cabs can get you everywhere you want to go, but the London Tube/subway was super easy to use and I definitely recommend using this transportation at least a few times.

» Day 4 - We went to the Tower of London, a historic citadel and castle. The Tower was originally a fortress that has served as a royal palace, prison, treasury, and is the current home to the Crown Jewels. We all absolutely loved the Beefeater-led tour!
FYI - Our Beefeater was named Andy Murray (just like the British tennis star).

After the Tower, it was off to see the state rooms at Buckingham palace.
FYI - There are 775 rooms in the palace, but you'll only get to see less than 20 state rooms. The most impressive part of the visit was the grand staircase.

We then set out for a 3 hour Cruise with dinner on the river Thames. Dinner was delicious, and the nighttime views of London from the Thames were absolutely breathtaking.

» Day 5 - We had a private driver take us about an hour away to the Harry Potter Warner Bros Studio. My family are huge Harry Potter fans, and they loved seeing the behind the scenes tour and the original film stages. We spent 5 hours there in the studio. This is a must stop if you're a Potter fan!

» Day 6 - We took the Eurostar train from London to Paris, France. A driver took us from the train station to our Paris hotel, Les Jardins d'Eiffel where we dropped off our luggage (check-in is at 2pm) and walked the 10 minutes over to the Eiffel tower. The hotel location was phenomenal, in a beautiful neighborhood with tons of restaurant options, beautiful Parisian cafes, and plenty of gift shops.

We thought London was great, but Paris (IMHO) was far more beautiful.

FYI - Even though we don't speak any French, we never had any communication problems anywhere. Everyone we spoke with could speak very good English, especially in this area.

We had nighttime Eiffel Tower Summit Tickets and loved going to the top which gave us great picture opportunities and a sunset view of Paris. As an added bonus, don't miss the Eiffel Tower sparkle!

» Day 7 - We did a 2.5 hour private Louvre Museum visit and our tour guide Pat was our favorite guide of all! She brings you through the museum at a perfect pace and we saw so many beautiful famous works of art, including selfies directly in front of the Mona Lisa!!

After the Louvre, we walked around neighborhoods, had dinner, and relaxed before our early morning commute back to the airport.

FYI - You can tap to pay for just about everything both in England and France, but plan on having English Pounds and French Euros for tipping.

In summary, this trip gave us memories we’ll cherish forever—from laughing with our guides to watching the Eiffel Tower sparkle at sunset. Traveling with family can be chaotic, but this journey was pure magic. KimKim planned a beautiful fulfilling vacation for my family, and I'd highly recommend them.

wonderful 8 day vacation for my family!

Kateryna was very responsive and helpful in planning our 3 day trip to London continuing into Southhampton for a cruise. We had a driver that could pick us up for transfer to port and they quickly took care of alternate transportation. A bit stressful but very quick to respond and find alternate transportation. I would use the service again in the future.

Activity Reviews

Discover London in a Private Black Cab

London

Great interactive tour even though we were exhausted from just arriving!

Quality of Experience

I’m

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Tower of London Beefeater Welcome & Crown Jewels

London

Very interesting and educational experience! A private tour guide option might have added to overall experience

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

I

Thames Cruise with Dinner

London

Cruise sights were amazing at night. Dinner and on board entertainment were a bit cheesy! But it’s ok as sights made up for the cheese lol

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

We Loved Our Trip!

Kateryna clearly took the time to create an unforgettable trip to London and Paris for my husband and I.

We began in London with activities planned to help us see the most important sights and landmarks. After a slight hiccup with a two hour delay leaving New York, and then another hiccup in the Heathrow Airport, in which the customs computer system went down, we missed our time slot to see Westminster Abbey. Kate replied to us while we were still standing on line at customs to change our call time to the following day. She also ensured that our transportation from the airport would wait for us! We got the chance to have a private tour of London in a black cab with our guide, John. John was fun, informative, and certainly a highlight of our trip! In addition to Westminster Abbey we were also scheduled to tour The Tower of London and go to The British Museum. On our final day in London we went on a bus that Brough us to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Bath. Our tour guide Apple made sure that we stayed on time and had fun throughout the day. We had a great time in London, we stayed in The Phoenix Hotel, which was easily accessible and in a cute neighborhood that had everything we needed within walking distance.

The middle part of our trip took us to Oxford. Unfortunately, we were scheduled to be there during many of Oxford's graduations. We were booked to stay in a pub that was not in Oxford and we believe this is because many of the hotels were booked for the graduations. While Headington is not far from London, the 20 minute bus rides definitely put the brakes on exploring. In hindsight we wish that we had not been scheduled to go to Oxford. It was impossible to get tickets for Christ Church, Oxford's buildings were closed to non-graduates, and the streets were packed with people. We had a very hard time finding a place to have dinner in the city of Oxford and ended up having dinner at our pub, The Black Boy, both nights. While The Black Boy was a nice place to stay and we had plenty of room in our accommodations we couldn't help but feel that the overall experience was a little... off. While the owner was welcoming she also seemed annoyed that she had guests. The service in the restaurant was extremely slow and the staff seemed untrained. While we made the most of our time there- it probably would have been more fun for us to have spent those two nights in London. That being said, we did enjoy our tour of The Cotswolds, which could have been scheduled even if we hadn't left London.

Finally, our trip brought us to Paris! We loved it there. We got to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower our first night and the experience will stick with us forever. We were also scheduled to visit the Catacombs, which was both thrilling and chilling, and The Louvre! Our last scheduled event in Paris was seeing Versailles which was well organized and well timed within the scope of our day. Our schedule was open enough that we were also able to see Notre Dame and spend plenty of time in the Luxembourg Gardens. We were staying the WS Casanova. We had our own apartment which was cozy. We were on the top floor and were initially concerned about the fact that it had limited air flow, no direct access to the elevator, and no air conditioning (not uncommon in Paris!). The apartment worked out well for us as Paris experienced mild weather during our nights there. The only flaw is that the apartment was not a traditional hotel room and so there were no amenities such as room cleaning or fresh sheets and towels. There were also small signs of wear and tear on the room that, while not taking away from the usability of the space, did diminish its quality.

Overall we are really pleased with our experience. We would recommend Kateryna and KimKim to our friends in the future! Thank you for a great 10 days!

Kate did an excellent job planning our trip for us. The hotels were beautiful! The guides that she set us up with in Scotland were very knowledgeable, friendly, and fun to be with.

Hotel Reviews

VOCO Grand Central Glasgow

Glasgow

Cameron house

Rocpool Reserve Hotel

Inverness

Virgin Hotels Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Activity Reviews

Private Inverness Walking Tour

Scotland

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Edinburgh Old Town Tour

Edinburgh

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Our 12 person family trip to Scotland was amazing! A trip of a lifetime! And Kateryna our travel agent was incredible! She helped us plan a trip for 12 to 5 different towns and cities, starting in Edinburgh, and ending in Glasgow. We had two amazing drivers, Marco and Eri, who helped make the trip and excursions seem less. From the Inns to the restaurant suggestions, tours and hikes we couldn’t have asked for a better trip. I highly recommend visiting The isle of Skye, hiking its magical hills and mountains and its small towns like Portree. We will definitely use Kimkim and Katyrina again!

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!