Krista Muuk

What comes to mind is my interest, long before my trip to Norway, in the Viking Age and Norwegian explorations, as demonstrated in two musical compositions: (1) "Viking" by Peter Hammill who, with vivid imagery, stirringly sings: "Looking out forward over the prow of our long ship, pulling our oars and listening..." see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oXn7m_4Cog, and (2) "Amundsen" by Justin Sullivan (while I cannot speak to this its historical accuracy, his is a fine video regarding Roald Amundsen. In taking on the explorer's persona, Mr. Sullivan sings "long ago I learned how to sail...see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_YZd6N978c.)

Without much thought of these works of art, before having arrived, and having no idea that Roald Amundsen's ship was still around, I was gladly surprised to find the ship, so well preserved, at the museum in Oslo! I was not even aware that there was such a museum in Norway. It was indeed memorable part of the trip.

And then there were the fantastic fjords, the climb made to Steinsdalsfossen waterfall, the Stave churches, the TB museum, all very rewarding. Also, while we were there the beloved King Harald passed away and with that event I was able to learn about his life. It was moving to be witness to so many of his followers paying tribute to the King at the parliament, while awaiting his funeral.

I would enjoy returning to Norway. The above accounts of my time there were made possible by Kimkim's planning, itinerary, and guidance, to include the wealth of knowledge displayed by our Oslo tour guide.

Steve

Krista helped us plan an amazing 31 day Scandanavian adventure through Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Highlights were the Folkmuseum and Vigeland Park in Oslo, kayaking in Flam, riding the funicular in Bergen to the park above and going to the Troll museum. The numerous fjord cruises were breath taking. We enjoyed the Cidery tour and lunch in Balestrand. And ending our time with a Midnight Sun kayaking in the Lofoten Islands. We loved Sweden visiting museums and castles. We took a day each to visit Sigtuna and another Uppsala where we had fun looking for Rune Stones. Our visit to Visby on Gotland Island, Sweden was fantastic. Starting and ending our trip in Copenhagen was perfect. The 3 hour Hygee tour is a must do and highly recommend traveling to Fredericksborg Castle. The hotels were very nice with delicious breakfasts. The hotel in Flam was okay but it made up for its plainness by its wonderful breakfasts and dinners. It was also nice to not be in the center if Flam with all the cruise tourists everywhere. We had excellent support by Matijs and Beni. They alerted us to the Norwegian Airtraffic controllers strike - luckily we were not affected. Thanks for the memorable trip!

Hotel Reviews

Hotel Lilla Rådmannen

Stockholm

Great place. Good location. Excellent breakfast. Excellent restaurant with Belgium beers.

Authenticity & Character

Great restaurant with Belguim beers.

Location

Near public transportation.

Staff

Friendly. Restaurant staff was very knowledgeable of their beers.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Svinøya Rorbuer

Svolvær

Unique old refurbished fishing cabin. We stayed in 2 bedroom, and 1 bath on first floor and on 2nd floor was an open space with the kitchen, table and chairs and a livingroom. The bedrooms are tiny with built in single beds. Lots of character! The restaurant were breakfast is held is very old, charming and special.

Authenticity & Character

Most authentic place we stayed in.

Location

Beautiful views.

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

The bedrooms can get hot and stuffy due to small size.

Thon Hotel Ålesund

Ålesund

Nice room with helpful, friendly staff.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Centrally located.

Staff

Helpful providing excellent recommendation for traditional Swedish food.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Havila Cruise

Fosnavåg

When we were first boarding, we didn't realize that when you scan your ticket you are assigned specific seats. We thought we would have to find seats. The seats were comfortable and the meals very good.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Relaxing way to get to Alesund.

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Shower was great! Good water pressure.

Donners Hotel

Visby

Great location, very friendly and helpful staff. Cool older hotel. We had a room on the 4th floor in the rafters. It was a large space which accommodated twin beds.

Authenticity & Character

Quiet, older hotel with character.

Location

Excellent. Visby is a walkable town and the hotel is in the center.

Staff

Very helpful and gave excellent recommendation for dinner on our first night. Both young men who worked the desk were friendly and fun to talk to.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Scandic Torget

Bergen

A very busy hotel in central Bergen. We could easily walk everywhere to see the sites and activities. It was a mad house trying to checkin and we had to request luggage storage since checkin is 4:00. There is 1 key for luggage storage area and it is just a room off the dining area with tables and chairs in it. That made it feel stressful.

Authenticity & Character

Very good breakfast.

Location

Excellent. Right in the center of everything.

Staff

Only 2 check in people who were not that friendly.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Heimly Pensjonat

Flåm

The hotel is small, only 42 rooms. The rooms are basic, no coffee maker in room. There was decaf coffee available but if you wanted regular coffee before breakast or later in the day, you have to buy it. But the fact that it is a 20 minute walk outside of town away from the deluge of cruise tourists and has beautiful views of the water and provided both breakfast And delicious dinners made up for the small, basic room.

Authenticity & Character

A place we're people stayed before the chain hotels. It had a homey feel.

Location

Away from crowds and beautiful water view.

Staff

The woman who worked the front desk was very friendly and helpful.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Clean - just an older building.

Hotell Bondeheimen

Oslo

Nice room and very good breakfast. Easy walk from station.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Perfect for seeing the main sites. Centrally located.

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Copenhagen Island Hotel

Copenhagen

Our first stay here at the beginning of our trip was a room on the first floor facing the water with a small outdoor balcony where we could relax and watch people swimming. It has an excellent breakfast.

Authenticity & Character

Nice decor and lighting. The area for breakfast has good views and comfortable seating and layout.

Location

Great location, close to public transportation.

Staff

Breakfast was perfect.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Oslofjord Dinner Cruise

Oslo

Nice tour of Oslo by water with a very good meal.

Quality of Experience

Food

All of it.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Hygge Tour Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Our tour guide Amit was fantastic. We spent 3 hours walking around Copenhagen. He provided a lot of information about the concept of hygge, the Danish culture, historical facts and present day information about education, taxes, etc. We stopped first for a delicious pastry, then a stop at a sweet shop and ending the tour in a cute, funky little coffee shop.

Quality of Experience

Great guide, valuable information and delicious snacks.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Amit was smart, friendly and easy to talk to.

Sea Kayaking In Ålesund

Ålesund

We expected the kayaking to be in canals in Alesund to see Art Nouveau buildings. Tgat didn't happen. The group was too large and a good junk of time went to outfitting everyone with equipment. The guides were great but this tour isn't worth the time or money.

Quality of Experience

Smaller group. Kayak to see the buildings

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Friendly

Transport

Good kayaks

Midnight Sun Kayaking Excursion

Norway

Amazing kayaking experience. We had a good amount of time in the ocean. It was about 2 1/2 hours on the water. We landed on a small island for a small break for hot tea and cookies. Guides were excellent. The equipment was not as good as Flam's. The skirts were beat up and need to be replaced.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Need new kayak skirts

Guided Cidery Tour to Balestrand & the Sognefjord

Bergen

Balestrand is a very pretty town. The Cidery tour was fun and we had a delicious meal pairing 5 different ciders.

Quality of Experience

Transport

Summer Kayaking Excursion

Norway

Nice small group kayaking experience in Flam's harbor area. Mette was a very knowledgeable guide and did a great job. The equipment was well maintained. It was a fun morning.

Quality of Experience

Norsk Folkemuseum - The Open Air Museum (museum tickets included)

Oslo

We enjoyed seeing the Stave Church, the old farms and buildings. We were lucky and saw a dancing performance. We tried the homemade lefties with butter. It is amazing that this musuem was started in 1881!

Quality of Experience

Historical buildings in a large open area.

What a well organized and pleasant trip we had! Daniel was an enthusiastic and charming tour guide in Oslo. I loved each city: Oslo had so many sights to see-City Hall, Fram, Munch, and Open Air museums were fantastic. Opera House was fun to walk to and climb to roof. Transportation well organized by KimKim. Easy to get to train station from hotel, from cruise boat to hotel, to and from airport, etc. Train ride was beautiful and bike ride on path next to train going downhill looked like a great ride too! Flam and fjiords were gorgeous (my favorite pictures), but port was touristy with cruise ships. Our day trips in Flam were great with a challenging hike Brekkefossen and kayaking. I would replace Viking day Village with trip to Viking museum in Oslo when it opens. We were able to see Viking exhibit at Historical museum in Oslo, though. Bergen was interesting, particularly the funicular, hike, walk through Bryggen where we discovered St. Jorgen's hospital leprosy museum and church. Cruise to Rosendal was special, especially the Stone park, Manor and gardens.

Thank you for organizing a great trip!

Our group of 6 couldn't be happier with our Kimkim Norway experience. Your service and recommendations were spot on. All hotels were great locations, close to transportation and dining. Oslo: Our guide Daniel made Oslo come alive. So very knowledgeable about Amundsen's expedition, folk history, Stave churches, Vigeland sculpture park and Oslo in general. He pointed out other areas to explore on our own... like City Hall, the Library, the History Museum... all great ideas. *Sorry to miss the Viking Museum which was closed. Flaum: Train ride to Myrdal was just breathtaking and the forest spirit at the waterfall was unexpected. Our kayak adventure was perfect...just the right amount of time on the water. Again - our guide Greg shared so much information about the area and really made the experience much more interesting. Great hike in Flaum ... though my calves are still sore. Hotel and Food in Flam were very good. Baden: *I would have liked a tour of Bergen. While we enjoyed the Viking Village, it was a little too much time and effort. Hiking was nice. Added the Leprosy Museum which was fascinating. Needed more time at Rosendal. Rock Park was so interesting. Disappointed that our tour of the Manor didn't include inside spaces... we didn't have time to see it all. Overall just a wonderful trip. Thanks again for all of your guidance and support. Jo

Overall the trip was very good and Kim Kim was helpful. We had to know what we wanted to do. If we did not, i do not know whether we would have been told what to do. I came to Kim Kim because i did not know anything and wanted a lot of guidance. In the end, I had to say what we wanted. After we gave Krista parameters of what we wanted she came up with a good plan.

Planning
Airport private transfer were set up. About 2.5 time smore expensive than just Uber to hotel. Luckily at the last moment we asked and canceled the airport transfers. Our specialist, Krusta, should have asked us whether we were comfortable with Uber or wanted a private car.
We never got itemized costs of the trip so we could make decisions on whether we wanted to do all the activities. I had to ask 3 times for itemized costs and only got it after trip was done. That is NOT very transparent. A safari and a kayaking trip was suggested for out time at Geiranger. I assumed we would see different places. We saw the same fjord when we kayaked, and when we did the Safari and took the ferry from Geiranger to Alesund ( you will see the same fjord in any ferry route out of Geiranger). As such the Safari was completely unnecessary and for us a waste of money. Either the safari or kayak would have been enough.
We had Kim Kim get us all tickets to activities. In one way that was good. I do not know whether the cost was lower with Kim Kim. From what I see it was at best the same or higher. I think you are better off asking Kim Kim what activities to do and book them yourself unless money is not a concern.

Due to rail construction the train was changed to bus. The tickets issued still mentioned train and the bus information was hidden. Instructions on how to get to bus stops were not clear. Luckily i asked about it ahead of time and clarified where to go etc or we may have gone to the wrong place.

Experience and Service
With the exception of not telling us somethings to make our trip even better the service and communication were good. They had a support team (Matijs and Beni) who responded quickly on what's app as well as on the app. If we really needed something they were there. They told us that the bus stop in Alesund was changing due to road closures.
Krista, teh booking team (Jacob) and support team were polite and quick to be helpful.

Fees
Kim Kim never disclosed what their fees were and how they charged. In the end there is a service fee and an admin fee. I do not know whether it is a Percentage of what we bought through Kim Kim. Mine ended up being close to 20%. I expected that I would have higher costs for the great/extra service we received from Kim Kim (vs doing it all ourselves) but I thought it would be 10% but 20% for me seemed high. Thinking back had they told me it was 20% I would have likely agreed. But i was not told anything and then told this was my cost without any breakdown - which to be fair I accepted. I think it is better for the costs itemized to be shared before they take payment.

Overall
Loved Norway. Linked Kim. Great service. Service fee the high side.
Wil never go back again as Immigration in Oslo was the worst of any country i have been to ( I've been to over 30 countries). This has nothing to do with a strike - i kept being told this was because of air controller strike. Any non-EU passport holder has to wait for 3-4 hours to get into Norway. To leave Norway we waited 2 hours (there was no strike at that time). We were USA passport holders. They only have one person processing 90% of passengers arriving into Norway.

Hotel Reviews

Scandic Torget

Bergen

Right in town. Windows face the street with cars and bars. NOISY all night Would be fantastic if they had A/C. Without A/C, we have to open windows to be cool and give up on sleep.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Great location if they had A/C. Without A/c have to open windows to be cool and sacrifice sleeping.

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Grande Fjordhotel

Geiranger

Resort. Expensive but spacious rooms and beautiful. Not convenient to get to the town as it is a 2KM walk. Shuttle service is there bit frequency is not 24/7. Restaurant and Breakfast buffet is very good.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Need shuttle service to get to town. otherwise very quiet and beautiful. If you have your own car, FANTASTIC location.

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Grand Hotel

ÅNDALSNES

Nice. Fantastic Staff. Breakfast buffet good. Very costly relative to room.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Marcus and Inka(Inga) were so helpful, polite and helpful. They made restaurant reservations for us. Let us store our food in hotel refrigerator.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotell Bondeheimen

Oslo

Good value for money. No A/C. Packed breakfast was basic.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Discover Kayaking Geirangerfjord

Geiranger

Great staff

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

N/A we did not use transport

Romsdalseggen Guided Hike

Åndalsnes

Great guide. Fun. Knowledgeable. Great for active fit people.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Geraingerfjord Safari by RIB

Geiranger

Very expensive. Not worth the cost. do not see anything that you cannot see from the ferry ride/cruise ship ride into port or Kayaking.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Kimkim gave us a great itinerary that closely matched our interests and desired level of activity. They took a lot of the planning burden off of us and made our trip fun and enjoyable.

I will say that the communications when we were on the actual trip were a little uneven. Messaging through the app received no or a delayed response. When I finally figured out we should use WhatsApp we had better responsiveness, which should have been made clear from the beginning.

Our stay at hotel Aurlandfjord was lovely, but we were a little surprised to find dinner had been included and we weren’t asked about that in advance. I think we would have preferred to buy our own dinner and make our own choices.

We had a fantastic trip. I really appreciated how much Krista was willing to go through all of our requests and the multiple changes (people arriving and departing on different days, lots of requests for very specific details) with patience and grace. The trip was super smooth, we never had any issues with transport, hotels, etc (I think Norway is a pretty organized country!). We loved our time in Ulvik and Kinsarvik especially, and feel like most agencies would not have picked up on our desire to be in smaller, more out of the way places. Several Norwegians were surprised to see Americans in Ulvik! The hiking was fantastic in both places. We loved our hiking guide, Andreas, in Bergen, along with the dinner cruise and the Greig house and concert. Can't wait to come back.

Hotel Review

Karl Johan Hotel

Oslo

Central location, comfortable, amazing breakfast.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Bergen’s Classic Trails – Private Hiking Experience

Bergen

Great hike, learned so much about Norway chatting with Andreas as we hiked.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Cider tasting in Ulvik

Ulvik

lovely place to visit, great view and the food accompanying the cider was delicious

Quality of Experience

From the beginning of our planning stages, Krista was amazing. We had a broad idea of what we wanted to do and where we wanted to go, which of course was probably a bit grand for our available time, and budget. Krista was great in helping us to navigate what we could reasonably get in and do in the time alloted. During our trip, we ran into a few issues that needed to be addressed, and the customer service team took care of all of them! I would not hesitate to recommend Krista and NORD/KimKim for anyone wanting to visit Scandinavia!

Hotel Reviews

Heimly Pensjonat

Flåm

Great small boutique hotel just a 10 minute walk from the center.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Scandic Torget

Bergen

Perfect location right across the street from the fish market and Brygenn.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Thon Hotel Ålesund

Ålesund

Great location!

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotell Utsikten

Geiranger

This is an amazing hotel with unprecedented views...but you MUST have a car to stay here. Too far away and a steep walk to town, with no or limited taxi service

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotel Lilla Rådmannen

Stockholm

Now called the Corner Hotel, it's a little far away from the center of the city.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Viking Line overnight cruise

Stockholm

Loved this overnight cruise across the Baltic and into the Stockholm Archipelago!

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Upgraded Superior Room was a necessity, and was great!

St.Barbara

Tallinn

Great hotel just outside the old town.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Scandic Grand Central Helsinki

Helsinki

Great hotel in a great location!

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Food & Culture Walk

Bergen

Geraingerfjord Safari by RIB

Geiranger

Food & Beer Walk

Oslo

Walking Tour Stockholm

Stockholm

Guide didn’t show up

Estonian Food Tour

Tallinn

Guide didn’t show up.

Copenhagen: A Food Tour of Past & Present

Copenhagen

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff