Mathilde Dubuisson

We had an exceptional experience with this company. Our travel planning consultant, Matilde, was extremely knowledgeable, helpful, and reponsive. Our itinerary was exactly what we wanted for our time in France and was HIGHLY personlized. The arrangement of transfers was wonderful and seemless. Even "special" requests were easily attained. Unfortunately I experienced a medical situation on our trip and our travel consultant and the emergency contact for Kimkim were helpful, kind and responsive. I will definintely use this agency again and highly recommend for an exceptional travel experience!!

Since I had very little time to plan and book a trip to Switzerland , I decided to give kimkim a try. In 7 weeks, Mathilde put together a suggested itinerary, worked with me on zoom calls to add and subtract destination cities, and purchased/booked travel passes and hotels.

While I might have done a few things differently (like staying in Wengen rather than Grindlewald), all in all I think it was money well spent with kimkim. The directions for each stop were thorough and clear and the online vouchers and schedules were easy to access.

If I find myself in a similar situation with short lead time, and no knowledge of the destination country, I would use kimkim again.

My wife and I are retired teachers, we love to travel and experience new adventures. Two years ago we spent three weeks driving around Ireland. We didn't do a lot of planning and sort of played everything by ear as we went along. we had a great trip. That trip empowered us to try and do the same thing in France. Neither I or my wife had ever been to France. As I started to research things to do and places to go on the web I came across Kim Kim. I was curious to what it was about. So I clicked on it and started going through the process (which was really easy). I figured if they asked for my credit card I would click off the site. To my amazement they didn't ask for money. The next day I received a 21 day itinerary that included so much, I was astonished. The instructions said to set up a phone interview with the local specialist Mathilde (who is amazing). We did we altered and tweaked the itinerary to the way we wanted it and viola' we had a three week trip planned. We asked if they could rent us a car. They did. We asked to change dates, bookings, tours. Whatever we asked Mathilde accommodated us. We traveled around 1,500 miles and eight different cities. During a travel day Mathilde called me and said that we would be really close to where Kim Kim is located and would we like to get together for coffee. We agreed to meet and for an hour had a wonderful conversation with a really lovely young lady. We experienced Paris (all the highlights), The Alps, The Riviera, Medieval mountain towns, Normandy (D-Day tour was exceptional). The itinerary included 3 bike tours, 3 walking tours, 2 private tours, tickets to the Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Mount Blanc, Chenonceau Castle, Palace of Versailles, Dinner cruise on the Siene, Mont St. Michel, D-Day tour, Monet's Gardens and so much more. All of our hotels booked. Things that I would have never thought of Mathilde and Kim Kim did. And all this at a price that we could afford. We are preparing to go to Italy for three weeks next year, I will definitely be calling Kim Kim and Mathilde . Thank you for a great experience that my wife and I will never forget.

Activity Reviews

Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey - Entrance tickets

France

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Full Day Luberon E-Bike Adventure

France

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Omaha & Utah Beach War History Day Trip

Bayeux

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

City Excursion by E-Bike with Food Tasting

Lyon

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Welcome to Chamonix

Chamonix

Quality of Experience

Seine River Gourmet Dinner Cruise with Live Music

Paris

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

VIP Versailles Bike & Palace Day Trip

France

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Skip-the-Line Eiffel Tower Summit Tickets

Paris

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

This is our second time booking through Kimkim. We had an absolutely amazing time with the process and experience on our first trip to Italy last year. So, we were excited to plan the second trip this year. Mathilde jumped in to plan fairly late in the game so we were thankful for that. I will say., in comparison to our first planner, Mathilde seemed to be less available / communicative and/or slower to respond than our first experience. I also was a bit concerned about her knowledge of the areas we were traveling since she is from France and we were not traveling there. That said, everything got booked and we were looking forward to it.

When we arrived in Munich, we had to call our driver when no one was present when we arrived. So, that was a little frustrating and different than we experienced previously. But, the ride was fine. When we arrived at the hotel Jederman in Munich we were very surprised and disappointed in the location, but tried to shake it off. We were there early, and the room was not ready. We knew this was a likely possibility, so that was not a big deal. We were very under-impressed as a first impression of the hotel. We were given a space to put our luggage and a map of the city. When we asked for some suggestions on where to go, the staff was fairly non-responsive. So, we did our best to find the city center for lunch. When we returned to check in, we were given our keys to adjoining rooms, and we retrieved our luggage ourselves. There was just no interest in assisting in any manner from the hotel staff. I guess we’re just not used to that at all. When we got to the rooms, we were again disappointed. They were minimal, semi-clean and definitely not welcoming or comfortable. When we entered my daughter’s room, it was filled with the smell of heavy smoking, even though it was supposed to be a non- smoking room. It was so bad, we all started coughing and sneezing and I started to get a headache immediately. I went down to the front desk and the initial response was - sorry - we can’t control if people smoke in the rooms. That’s when I called Mathilde to see what options she could help with. I was honestly uncomfortable staying there. In the meantime, my daughter found mucus wiped all over the wall next to her bed and some kind of pink substance on the wall next to the door. Additionally, there was black mold in each bathroom. We have pictures of it all. They offered Mathilde to clean my daughter’s room, but I knew that wouldn’t mitigate the smell. They were able to find a room down the hall for my daughter, but, it made me very uncomfortable given the overall state of the hotel. That said, every answer I got was that there were just no other options.

By this time, because we had to wait to check in, and then deal with the room debacle, I was not comfortable leaving in the middle of that mess to go on a tour of the city. And, apparently the guide had been told a different location to meet (we were told she’d come to the hotel, she was at a different location by “the fish pond”). I felt it was such a mess. I couldn’t just drop everything to go meet her. I felt like there was just very limited help to resolve the issue from Mathilde or the staff. I actually resorted to looking for other hotels that I was willing to pay for myself. Ultimately, because we had no idea where anything was in the city, and becausexwe we’re going on a full day tour the next day, we decided to suck it up and stay.

The breakfast buffet at Jederman was just okay and, again, we found the staff unfriendly and unhelpful. It was honestly one of the worst hotel experiences I’ve ever had. Based on our prior experience with Kimkim, we were just very surprised at this choice, it’s poor location and poor presentation. Definitely did not meet expectations and we felt like we had no options but to suck it up and make the best of it. We definitely felt it was well below the standard we had come to expect from Kimkim.

The tour to the castle in Germany from Munich was a lovely day and definitely the highlight of Munich.. It was great to be out of the hotel and somewhere beautiful for the day. The tour guides were very nice and knowledgeable. Well worth it.

The trains to Stuttgart were coordinated well and that travel was easy, as always. So, we appreciated that. The Maritime Hotel in Stuttgart was much more in line with our expectations and was in a lovely, convenient area of the city.

Travel to Bruges was also simple and well planned, so we appreciated that.

Hotel Aragon in Bruges was amazing and fully in line with our expectations. Great staff, warm welcome, assistance with questions and suggestions, and a fabulous location. Just a great experience. Hotel Aragon was in line with what we experienced with our Italy Kimkim trip and we were very thankful for that. The rooms were beautiful, clean and comfortable and the breakfast was very good.

There was a snag with my son’s arrival and transport. We don’t really know what happened, but when he arrived he, too, had to reach out to the driver to see location. Apparently the driver was still an hour away. As a result, and to not waste a full hour waiting, my son took a cab from the airport to the train station. Again, for us, we weren’t used to that inefficiency. That said, he did arrive safely.

The tour of Bruges was great and our local tour guide was super nice and knowledgeable. A great tour. Also, the transfer to the airport on our final day went well and our driver was very nice.

Overall, the trip started in a very disappointing manner. Those first two nights were very uncomfortable and we would never stay somewhere like that again. I was surprised Kimkim would select that hotel as something acceptable for guests. It made me wonder if anyone from Kimkim had ever stayed there.

Thankfully, the trip ended on a much better note in Bruges with hotel Aragon. Much more in line with our previously established expectations.

Very helpful and always attentive, highly recommended.