Luigi Pasiani

Scotland - behind the scenes.

Using kimkim and @Luigi Pasiani is the only way to travel to any country and get to see things that you would NEVER pick out on your own. Our trip was spectacular. Luigi planned all of the hotels which were all awesome in their own right. The trip plan had more than we could do at our pace so we ended up cancelling some of the events he had scheduled for us and had to catch some at the end of our trip rather than the beginning as planned. Some of the most unique people and places were scheduled by Luigi, including a short meeting with a Tartan expert which turned out to be most interesting. Sheep dog trainers in the most remote locations. I will say again, you will not see the real Scotland without the help of people like @Luigi Pasiani and the kimkim team.

Hotel Reviews

The Balmoral Hotel

Edinburgh

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Fonab Castle

Pitlochry

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Victoria Square

Stirling

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Rusacks St Andrews

St Andrews

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Kimpton Charlotte Square Hotel, an IHG Hotel

Edinburgh

Authenticity & Character

Location

If you are arriving by car, park on Rose Street and walk to the hotel entrance. They will get your luggage and park your car from there. There is no parking in front of the hotel.

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Discover traditional herding

Scotland

Wonderful demonstration on how the sheep, the dogs, and humans interact with each other.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Drove a rental car to the address, no problem finding the place.

Contemplate the Highland nature

Pitlochry

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Highland chocolate tasting experience.

Pitlochry

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

David seaplane experience

Scotland

If you can make this happen, it is a must for the Scotland experience. The plane uses Lock Lomond to take off and land, but the tour is about 140 miles of the Scotish coastal towns and inlets from the Atlantic ocean. The plane is a Cessna Caravan turbo prop, average altitude 1400'. Trust me, you can see a lot from 1400'.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Uncover hidden gems of Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Great last day to wind down and get ready for the trip home. Shop all the stores on Rose Street and restaraunts are too many to count.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

We had an incredible experience and Luigi was a dynamic, passionate and spectacular guide. He had the most remarkable ideas and highlights for us to experience. Some of his unique ideas that we experienced:
1. Meeting Dr. John Sadler (an historian) and walking through ruins learning about them as well as all of Scotland
2. Flyfishing in unspoiled waters with the local Fisherman
3. Oh the STORYTELLER!! Did I mention her? She was just absolutely amazing and we had an incredible visit to a castle with her.
4. High Tea...WE LOVED IT
5. Seeing Edinbugh through and through, with lots of Hidden Gems
6. Visit to an incredible castle and meeting an remarkable heraldry artist
6. We had actually hidden gems all throughout our trip (Including a highland festival!)

Every day Luigi would send us a comprehensive summary of our day that we read each morning to our family which boosted our excitement for what we were going to see and experience. Everyday was unique and special for us.

Luigi was also incredibly accommodating and we worked with us to adjust and modify our schedule when we needed. He was always available, attentive and responsive.
I cannot recommend Luigi enough!

Thank you Luigi of the White Rose Guild for the experience of a lifetime!

Hotel Reviews

Holyrood apartHotel

Edinburgh

Authenticity & Character

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Cuil an Daraich Guest House

Pitlochry

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Bed & Breakfast Drum Farm

Denny

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

The Waterfront

Anstruther

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Get passionate to Scottish history with an Historian

Scotland

Incredible day with an incredible historian. If I had more time, we would have spent another day with him. We loved it

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

River Tweed Fly Fishing

Scotland

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Get fascinated by a Storyteller's stories

Scotland

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Contemplate the Highland nature

Pitlochry

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Experience the intricate nature of a Heraldry Artist

Scotland

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Admire the majestic falcon

Scotland

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Luigi was great!! His expertise guided us through all the decisions of what we wanted to do and he had incredible patience with our very busy work schedule. He just kept on reminding us to make decisions and stayed patient with us. We really enjoyed working with him. He listened to our needs add to be loved the hotels that he booked. We were guided through the whole process, and he was very responsive with the two small hiccups that we did encounter.

My family had a wonderful 2 week excursion in Scotland with the help of Luigi. We had a once in a life time visit through some of the most amazing locations in Scotland. Not only did we see some of the very well know tourist attraction, but we also visited many of the local "off the beaten path" villages in Scotland. My family always enjoyed more nature oriented excursions rather than big city tours. With Luigi's help, our itinerary included shepherding, falconry, fishing on the Tweed, and lots of hiking.

From the start to the end of the planning process, Luigi was always informative, attentive and prompt. He listened and understood what we wanted for our vacation. There were over 50+ messages exchanges between us before the itinerary was finalized. one week before departure date, Luigi had a Zoom meeting with us to go through the entire itinerary in detail so we were clear on our vacation. Every morning of our vacation, we received a detailed email synopsis of our upcoming activities. The emails included fascinating historical details relevant to the site we would visit. My husband and I really appreciated his attention to details. Luigi made us feel like we were his only client and he was always available for us 24/7.

This is our 3rd international excursion with KimKim. We are so pleased that Luigi is there to help us navigate through our planning. We can't thank Luigi enough for everything he did.

Activity Reviews

Discover traditional herding

Scotland

there is nothing like watching the close working relationship between a dog and the shepherd. We had the most amazing time with our host. After the demonstration, we got to play with all of the border collies for about an hour. Even my most apathetic teenager had a huge grin on his face.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Highland chocolate tasting experience.

Pitlochry

OMG...these were the most decadent chocolate I have ever had. Never knew chocolate could be that amazing!!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Get passionate to Scottish history with an Historian

Scotland

John and his partner certainly did not disappoint. We were suppose to have a 2 hour guided tour with John through Stirling Castle. But he has so much information to offer that the 2 hours turned quickly into 4 hours. If you are a history buff, John is the person for you.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

River Tweed Fly Fishing

Scotland

Martin and Jamie were the most laid back guides. even though we did not catch anything, they were gracious hosts. we really enjoyed the beautiful and quiet location. We now can check off Tweed river on our list of top fishing locations.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

I had a very positive experience booking through Kimkim and working with Luigi! He was very prompt in his responses, which was great given I was working in a time crunch and relatively last minute to book the trip. We were able to work together to put together and book a trip within a matter of days. Luigi was also very mindful of the needs of our party (couple in their 70s) in the activities he recommended and was regularly in touch once the trip started (e.g., to confirm transports, forward tickets to guides, etc.) He recommended a great tour guide as well! I definitely recommend working with Luigi! My only advice is to have a good sense of your priorities before booking, because while Luigi recommended some great hotels, a couple weren’t close to the activities our party wanted to do, so we opted for less fancy (though still great) hotels that were closer to our desired activities. To Luigi’s credit, he was happy to switch up the itinerary and include the hotels we ultimately wanted to go with. Enjoy your travels!

Planned an amazing trip where the days we played golf our wife’s had wonderful options. Hotels, tours, travel routes second to none. Communicated daily with us. If questions arose responded quickly, with knowledgeable answers. Hotels unbelievable. Suggested numerous local spots that gave you that local charm. Did an AMAZING job. We will use him again!!

Luigi was responsive, nice, organized, patient and well-informed. Thanks for hooking us up with such a great local expert.

We really enjoyed the sheep dog demonstration and Lindsey, the storyteller and historian at Blair Castle. The Highland Safari was very informative and enjoyable.
We appreciated Luigi’s trip details, but there was some confusion in our trip plans at the beginning. Considering his circumstances, he was very responsive, but it is unfortunate that Kimkim did not have a backup in Scotland when he was dealing with a most difficult family emergency. Nonetheless, he always responded immediately to our questions.

Hotel Reviews

Ben Nevis Hotel & Leisure Club

Fort William, Inverness-shire

Old, worn furnishings. Even the supposed refurbished room looked tired. We were right over the front door and parking lot and had a lot of noise. The front desk said the room had not been paid for until we showed our receipt. No hot water in the bathroom. We do not suggest that you book this hotel for other guests in the future. We knew this hotel would not be perfect, but we didn’t know how imperfect it would be. Zachary, in the restaurant, was the only highlight of the hotel. Excellent!

Palace Hotel & Spa - Best Western Inverness

Inverness

The room, location, and staff were all excellent. We had a beautiful view of the river and castle. The staff were so friendly and helpful. Good breakfast!

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

The furnishings were beautiful. The chairs in front of the windows were a very nice touch.

Activity Reviews

Get passionate to Scottish history with an Historian

Scotland

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Discover traditional herding

Scotland

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Get fascinated by a Storyteller's stories

Scotland

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Contemplate the Highland nature

Pitlochry

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

There is so much good to write about that made our trip to Scotland a really fun adventure. We appreciated so much the easy to navigate planning process that allowed so much personalization of what we wanted to see and experience.
Our suggestions would be to include some sort of up front notice of the distance to travel from chosen hotels to the town/city or destination being visited. What we were unaware of was how far some of our expeditions were from our hotels. We ended up needing to miss two such days since there was so much travel involved. We would have made different choices on those days to save travel time.
We had a personal driver/guide for two days. It was well worth the extra cost involved to sit back and enjoy as well as spend this time with a local resident and get to know the area from his perspective.
Aside from one meal at a hotel, the food was all top notch. Scotland should take pride in their quality of food and how it's prepared and presented.
We will look to Kim Kim planning again when we are planning our next vacation adventure.

Hotel Reviews

Tigerlily

Edinburgh

A great location within Edinburgh to use as a place to eat, rest up. The overall décor was quite exotic. The hotel was very clean and well staffed. The restaurant was quite good and the breakfast service is a nice feature.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Easy access to public transportation and walkable to want to see parts of the city

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Isle of Eriska Hotel and Spa

Oban

a hard to find location, but so worth the travel. A beautiful building set on an island. Amazingly quiet and restful. We did not stay in the main building, but one of the remote cabins. I would rate this as the most unique part of our trip. The staff were so helpful and made us feel welcome.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Double Tree By Hilton

Ingliston,

A total surprise being located near the airport. We could walk from our hotel to the tram that connects to Edinburgh. This allowed us an extra day to get back to the city for additional exploration.

Authenticity & Character

A nice, American style hotel

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Review

Jacobite Steam train

Fort William

The train was comfortable. The ride was a bit simplistic. It was difficult to fill in two hours in the town of Mallig.

Quality of Experience

We were very pleased with all the aspects of our trip. I think it’s important to realize the smaller hotels have lots of history and sometime interesting room set ups, but everything works and the breakfast included feature is a real plus as the Scots put on a feast that sets you up for the day. We did not use a guide, but we hired local taxi drivers on three occasions that took us around Lewis, Harris, Skye,, and From Fort William back to Edinburg. Each had lots to tell us and teach us about the places we were. It was nice some days to go slow and stay on our own timeframe, hike, eat light and explore the local town.
The Edinburg B&B had a broken elevator and a story they were waiting for a part but I think that’s a long way out, but we found young men to haul our bags. Broadway House on Lewis is a gem, food , view, accommodations, proprietors. HEB360 local guide A+. RAASAY Distillery and the island itself a highlight. We got a taxi driver from Portree to go over on the ferry with his car and drive us all around the island before checking in…totally a must to do. The Distillery, like so many places, is waiting for more waitstaff to appear for the summer after college gets out. They are a small distillery working on how they want to grow, and share dining days with the inn next door.Lovely hikes there and an amazing view back at Skye. Garrison Hotel in Fort William is also a gem, Small rooms but we had every single thing thought out to be comfortable and charming staff. NEVIS Taxi a real find too, who took us to Edinburg. Hotel Du Vin a bit gloomy lobby and room but spacious and food , staff wonderful and a great location. A last stop before the airport. Security and check in for Edinburg airport , under a lot of construction can take more time than you think so give yourself a bit extra. Luigi from KIM KIM made it all . The plus is having everything paid for, the ability to edit a trip with your own preferences with someone who knows the area. A MUST is to book restaurants AHEAD of time. Everyone is short staffed and Skye in particular was difficult so were were glad we booked ahead as many other tourists ate from the grocery store shelves! We took ferries and taxis and planes.
The hospitality and the humor of the Scots is just wonderful.