Marina Courtaut

We had a great time in the Azores. Marina was super helpful in taking the standard trip packages and working with us to tailor it to our interests - more food, less guided hikes etc. She was flexible in working with us when we wanted to book some hotels with miles but still keeping all the elements of the trip in the "plan" that was provided even those that we booked ourselves. She was able to book flights, rental cars, a few transfers and the bike and food tours. When the food tour had adjustments due to availability she and the team came up with great alternatives. On the ground when weather impacted the trip the team was responsive in communicating with us about potential changes in schedule or not. It was very reassuring to have locals on the ground able to help out even with questions.

Activity Review

Eat With a Local in Azores

São Miguel Island

Perfect combination of city tour, interesting food locations and local wine experiences. We went back to 2 of the places we saw on the tour!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

We enjoyed our trip and covered most of the country. Porto, Ciumbra, Lisbon, Ibidos were great places to visit.

Hotel Reviews

Lagos Avenida Hotel

Lagos

Authenticity & Character

Location

I

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Évora Olive Hotel

Évora

Authenticity & Character

Location

On

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

The grounds were not overly inviting, could be better maintained

MeraPrime Gold Design Hotel

Lisbon

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

The decor is a little outdated as needs updating

Sapientia Boutique Hotel

Coimbra

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

The Editory Garden Porto Hotel

Porto

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Scenic Algarve E-Bike Private Experience

Portugal

It was supposed to be a private tour but we found out the day before that it was going to be a group tour and we were not offered an alternative.

Quality of Experience

Évora Cork and Castle Tour

Évora

The tour was supposed to be 3 hours and it was shorter by 1 hour. The guide told us that we didn’t spend enough time at the store and the tower of the castle was closed so it made the tour shorter. She should have adjusted her plan and improvise to add another element to the tour since she is a tour guide knowledgeable in the area. The cork tour itself is not enough for a tour you should add a winery tour to make it worth it.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Sintra Heritage Hike: Hidden Secrets

Portugal

Our guide was excellent and we enjoyed the steep hike up. He took us to a nice coffee shop and we enjoyed his company.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Porto Cooking Class

Porto

We didn’t have the cooking class but the local food tour. It was fine but the tour guide was more interested in talking about himself and his drinking adventures than educating us on the local food and drinks. Not impressed I heard from other tourists that they had a great time so I would say that the activity can be great if you have a good guide.

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Get to Know Lisbon with a Local

Lisbon

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Day Excursion to Douro Valley: Wine Tasting & Hiking Routes

Porto

Quality of Experience

We were told that we would go to a winery in the itinerary but on the day of the activity they told us that the hike was too long so we would have lunch at the local restaurant and we would a stop to have a glass of wine on the way back. What is the point of going to the Douro Valley if you don’t visit a winery and the local wine? In the end our driver found a solution and we got to visit a winery but the agency dropped the ball.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

The driver save the day and made things right!

Transport

Hiking & Cultural Excursion in Peneda-Gerês National Park

Porto

We were expecting to hike for at least 2-3 hours but the hiking was quite shorter than expected and others in the group were also surprised. The drive to get to the park was almost 2 hours each way and the van was extremely uncomfortable with too many people which means that we have to change seats along the way so people would take turn sitting at the back of the car. This is not acceptable for a 4 hour ride on the highway.

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Get to know Porto by E-bike

Porto

The tour was supposed to be 3 hours but it only lasted 2 hours so we didn’t get the full value. I think the description needs to clearly reflect that duration of the activity to avoid disappointment

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

The highlight of the trip was the knowledge of all our tour guides and just how friendly the people are in Portugal!

Activity Reviews

Wine Tasting & Lunch at a Portuguese Quinta

Portugal

The best meal we had in Portugal along with the best wine!

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Douro Valley Excursion with Wine & Olive Oil Tastings & River Cruise

Porto

One of the highlights of the trip! The wine and food were amazing. Pedro kept us smiling the whole time.

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Private Day Excursion: Sintra, Cascais & Estoril

Portugal

Paulo was outstanding! He went over the 8 hours and made sure we had an excellent experience. He even gave us recommendations for the rest of the trip!

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Get to Know Lisbon with a Local

Lisbon

Alex was very friendly and went out of his way to show us all Lisbon has to offer!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Our travel consultant, Marina planned the perfect trip for my family of all ages- from teenagers to seniors.
Our activities showed us the local food, scenery, activities and people in a way that we never could have done on our own.
The guides were so kind and knowledgeable. They even checked on us the following days to see if there was anything we needed or any questions we needed answered. We have become good friends with our guides and felt so safe and well cared for while in another part of the world.

I can't thank Marina enough for the unforgettable trip to Portugal and we can't wait to have kimkim help us plan our next trip.

Hotel Reviews

PortoBay Marquês

Lisbon

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Cascade Wellness Resort

Lagos

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Algarve Kayaking Trip to Benagil Caves

Portugal

Once in a lifetime experience!! So fun! My teenage daughter, older mother and everyone in between loved this!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Private Day Excursion: Sintra, Cascais & Estoril

Portugal

Our driver and new friend, Paulo was the best tour guide in all of Portugal, I'm convinced! He gave us history lesson, life lessons and we talked about everything in between. Such a great and fun person who took great care of my family. I can't thank him enough for making our trip amazing.

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Guided Tuk-Tuk Tour

Portugal

We loved our driver! So nice, knowledgeable about helpful.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Lisbon Roots: A Walk Through Flavors & Tradition

Portugal

Our tour guide was one of the nicest people we've ever met. We ate the best food I've had in my life and had the most wonderful conversations. We learned about the history of Portugal and the food associated with its people. And we just had fun eating and drinking!

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

The guides were great, the cities visited were beautiful and fun. The weather was a little chilly but not so much as to hinder my family's good time.

Marina was very responsive and had an amazing itinerary for us. We had young kids and this was very kid friendly. Our guides were great with kids. Our accommodations were very comfortable and nice, and close to all the destinations. We walked to most places. Highly recommend Marina and kimkim.

Overall, our trip to Italy was wonderful! The information Marina gave us was for the most part very clear and timely and correct. We did experience a few glitches in communication which I will detail in a moment. But, again, overall, the drivers, guides, accommodations, and tours were really very good. The drivers were friendly and spoke English well enough for us to be able to communicate, and in many instances very well! The guides for the tours were well informed and passionate about what they were telling us. I am not good with names and was going to get back on the Trip Plans App to retrieve some of those names, but it won't let me. The Trip Plans App was also very helpful in keeping directions, train tickets, guide names etc all at our fingertips! I liked that very much!
Back to our drivers & guides: Coliseum tour: wonderful guide!! Very engaging! We saw her the next day at the Vatican and she came up to us and spoke for a while. Lovely woman! AnnaMarie may have been her name?
The food tour: Delightful young woman, who conveyed the different vibes of the different areas well!
The cooking class: This was a blast! The chef was a lot of fun even though he didn't speak English! He made himself known, and our translator was fun and engaging with the whole group! I may get a pasta maker because of this class!
Pompeii tour: She was so knowledgeable and interesting to talk with! She really knew the history, and conveyed it well to us. Again I'm so sorry I don't have any names!
Trip to Capri Island: She was wonderful as well! Knowledgeable and fun to chat with about life style and cultural things. I enjoyed her very much!
Florence tour with David: Very good as well. She was personable and informative. There was quite a bit of standing while she spoke and that was a little hard. She knew her stuff about Michelangelo and David though and that showed in the way she spoke about the statue!
Our driver and guide for the 3 Tuscan towns were good too. Friendly and informative! The driver was very accommodating. His name was Johnny! We were ready earlier and he was there and we just started out before the time and changed the order of the towns to be seen. It was a lovely day!
Wine tasting day! Fabulous! I think Matthew was our driver/guides name. Funny, informative, (a little opinionated, but that was ok! We understood where he was coming from even tho we may not have agreed on all his points!) He was a lot of fun and we learned A LOT from him!
Jacob was our driver/guide for what should have been our day to Cinque Terre. The rain kept us away from there which was a great disappointment for me as that was the place I was most looking forward to. We went instead to Lucca and Pisa. The day was sunny but I was sad about not being able to spend the day by the sea. Jacob was excellent as well. He was very knowledgeable about all kinds of things and funny too. Seeing the Marble mountains driving by Carrara was a treat we didn't expect. Very cool!
I think our guide in Venice was "Henry" or the Italian equivalent of Henry! He was delightful as well! Really knew the subject of St Marks Basilica and the Doges palace well. There again, we stood quite a bit and that made us tired. That wasn't his fault tho!
Accommodations were very nice! Capo d/Africa hotel: Lovely, friendly staff. Positano Art hotel: very nice! Concierge there was very helpful and personable! Olympia Hotel in Venice: Super friendly staff!! Very helpful! Mamo apartment was very nice as well. I did call for them to come and fix something in our closet, but they couldn't make that happen. We called for additional toilet paper & trash bags and someone decided that it would be good to deliver them at 22:30! We were all in bed! At first I thought it would be far from the Florence sites but the location grew on me! There were several good restaurants we enjoyed very close to the apartment! Good job! :)
Now the down side of the trip were the following: Communication while in Italy. For the most part it was fine but there were several times that the drivers or guides had my sister-in-law, Julie's number. Julie began the process of planning the trip but had to back out in April, so I took over planning. I don't think Marina communicated with Julie anytime past June, so her number should not have been part of the itinerary. When we booked and had to give all our final information I took Julie's name off the list so it wouldn't be confusing, but it was still in Marina's files. Julie ended up getting several calls from Italy (mainly in the middle of the night!). That was annoying for Julie and frustrating for me as I couldn't get to our guides in a timely fashion. This happened most notably on the Vatican tour. Our guide was late, I believe, to begin with, and didn't use a sign with our name on it. She looked up Julie on facebook to see what she looked like to be able to find us. That obviously didn't work. I don't look like my SIL! :)
The Vatican tour was disappointing too as I had requested going to the Rafael Rooms specifically, and that got overlooked.
The other disappointment was the final day in Rome. We didn't get to go on the Appian Way bike tour because of traffic to the airport hotel. And we didn't get any type of refund for this either.
I think this stemmed from the fact that I had no idea about drive times to and from places. I wish that Marina would have explained drive times to me better. It didn't affect too much of the trip, but this last day we may have changed things around had we know about how long it took to get from the train station to the airport and back to town to take the tour. All we did that day was travel, but it wore us out! Plus day light savings time had just ended so it was getting dark sooner than it had up until that point. That threw us off as well. If Marina had explained to us that, since we wanted to stay at the A/P hotel, that we may be taking on too much, we could have cancelled that activity and saved a little bit of money. We did have a nice relaxing evening together at the hotel on that last night!
Oh! One other suggestion! It would have been helpful to have the name of the tour companies for the tours we were on. We would have then been able to be proactive in finding our guides a little quicker. As it was we were completely dependent on them finding us. Just a thought!
So as you can see we had a "Fantastico" trip to Italy! There were some rough spots, but nothing that would dampen my memories of this trip! I have already recommended KimKim to others planning trips to Europe and Italy in particular! Thank you for listening to me!

Hotel Reviews

Mamo Florence Apartment

Firenze

Not as far from the Florence attractions as I initially thought but we did have to do a good bit of walking, which isn't bad! The staff was mostly accommodating to some of our needs. They couldn't come fix a closet issue, and brought us extra toilet paper and trash bags at 22:30! That was late for us Americans! We were in bed already! I would suggest having instructions for things like the coffee maker, washer/dryer & dishwasher. Letting us know what the checkout process was, and what to do with the trash would have been helpful too. Maybe having an information sheet with restaurants, markets, pharmacies etc would have been nice too. The lock for the door was something none of us had ever seen so that was a challenge initially but we got used to it! Overall a nice place to stay!

Authenticity & Character

City feel

Location

Good . Maybe could have been a little closer to town.

Staff

22:30 for delivery? not the best.

Cleanliness & Comfort

It was fine and clean and comfortable!

Art Hotel Pasitea

Positano

Lovely hotel! Concierge was super helpful in restaurant selection! He really seemed to enjoy seeing us when we'd come by the front desk!

Authenticity & Character

Fun artwork all over the place here!

Location

Beautiful views! Gorgeous

Staff

Very friendly staff and helpful. Spoke English well for us, which we appreciated!

Cleanliness & Comfort

Lovely rooms. Could have had a few more hooks, shelves & storage cabinets. A mini frig would have been nice too!

Hotel Capo d'Africa—Colosseo

Rome

Good location, friendly staff and the breakfasts included in the stay were very tasty!

Authenticity & Character

rooftop breakfast and bar in the evenings!

Location

walkable to historic attractions

Staff

Very friendly and helpful

Cleanliness & Comfort

No problems!

Activity Reviews

Day Excursion to Cinque Terre

Florence

Did not go to Cinque Terre because of rain. Very disappointing to me! We did go to Lucca and Pisa. It was sunny but didn't make up for not being able to see the sea!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Our driver Jacob made the best of a bad situation. He was super friendly and explained a lot of things to us driving down the highways to our destinations!

Transport

Driver was excellent!

Day Trip to Siena, San Gimignano & Monteriggioni

Florence

Fun day driving through the Tuscan countryside!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Our driver was super friendly and helpful! He told all sorts of things about the area. Our guide in Sienna was good too! She enjoyed her town and liked telling people about it!

Transport

Driver was great!

Chianti Wine Half-Day Experience

Florence

So fun! Really enjoyed the wine, luncheon an both wineries! The guide was very friendly and talkative as well (I talked about him in my overall review

Quality of Experience

Food

Delicious! Italian lunch and olive oil and wine! Who could ask for anything more!

Guides, Drivers and Staff

friendly funny knowledgeable

Transport

driver was our guide! Good!

Guided Visit of Florence Including David and Duomo

Italy

Good tour. Lots of information. Lots of standing which is hard sometimes! We did walk a lot though too!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

We walked and met her at the designated point.

Day Excursion to Pompeii & Hercolanum

Italy

Fascinating to learn all the details of these ancient cities!

Quality of Experience

very informative.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Excellent! She knew her stuff and could convey it well to us!

Transport

Our driver to and from Pompeii/Positano was very conversational!

Day Excursion to Capri Island and Anacapri

Italy

Started out rainy but turned into a lovely sunny day! Really enjoyed the Funicular and the chair lift to the top of Anacapri!

Quality of Experience

Our guide was very personable and helpful

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Enjoyed our guide very much

Transport

I thought we would get to ride a hover craft out but we didn't get to That was the only downside. Funicular, Chairlift,ride over the MamaMia bridge! Very memorable

Italian Cooking Class at a Local Ristorante

Rome

So fun! Loved this event! Made pasta and an appetizer and were served plenty of wine in the process! Friendly Chef, translator and staff too!

Quality of Experience

Engaging staff! Wine! Yummy food! Fun Chef!

Food

Great food! So fun!

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Enthusiasm, outgoing personality!

Transport

the driver got us there! It was fine!

Guided Visit: Vatican Museums & Sistine Chapel

Italy

Interesting place. Lots of people. Didn't find our guide for about half an hour. It was beautiful but felt herded like cattle through the Sistine Chapel. Didn't get to see the Rafael Room which was on my list.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

She was passionate about the artwork she was telling us about

Transport

The driver to the Vatican was fine.

La Dolce Vita: Private Golf Cart in Rome

Rome

Loads of fun! Guide was great and drove us all over the place! He was very knowledgeable and explained a lot of history & culture to us! He was losing his voice and we felt bad about that. a microphone would have help us and him out a bunch!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

so fun and a little scary on the streets of Rome! We had a lot of fun!

Colosseum & Roman Forum Visit: Arena Access, Gladiators Gate & Ancient City

Italy

Learned a lot! Lovely guide

Quality of Experience

learned a lot

Guides, Drivers and Staff

she was very engaging

Transport

we walked there!

We started with a rough itinerary and Marina really helped us fine tune the details. The local guides were fantastic and provided much more context to the sights and areas than we would have gotten just from the guide books. We will definitely rely on kimkim in the future and highly recommend them.

Hotel Reviews

Hotel Viento10

Córdoba

Authenticity & Character

Location

973-384-0265

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotel Reina Cristina

Granada

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Anahita Boutique Hotel

Málaga

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotel Montelirio

Ronda

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotel YIT Casa Grande

Jerez de la Frontera

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotel Alcázar

Seville

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotel Spa Adealba

Mérida

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotel Meninas

Madrid

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Train Madrid to Toledo, Guided Visit of Toledo, Train Toledo to Madrid

Madrid

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Walking Madrid’s Old Town

Madrid

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Private Guided Visit of Córdoba

Spain

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Hiking Excursion in the Andalusia Countryside

Spain

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Guided Visit: Alhambra & Generalife Gardens

Granada

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Privately Guided Visit of Málaga

Spain

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Visit an Andalusian Olive Oil Estate

Seville

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Private Guided Visit of Seville

Seville

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Flamenco Experience

Spain

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Privately Guided Visit of Mérida

Spain

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport