Olivia Luang

I cannot express how amazing this trip was! Olivia planned such an amazing itinerary based off of the things we were interested in. Her expertise made our trip so easy and fun. Our guide Yoshiko was the absolute best! She went above and beyond and made our days so fun. I hope KimKim gives her a raise because she is one of the best tour guides I’ve ever met. Sonny was also awesome!

Our hotel Sakura Terrace was a lovely stay. They have an amazing ceramic plate sauna, and massage chairs in the lounge.

I don’t think our trip could’ve gone better and I will definitely be using this company again.

We had an amazing time in Japan and would highly recommend KimKim travel. We were there for 17 nights and spread across 7 different cities including Tokyo, Kyoto, and the northern mountains. It was a busy itinerary and we were so glad to have Kimkim’s help. Olivia was a huge help both in planning our trip and assisting us whenever needed along the way!

Friendly, professional, and prompt! Highly recommend booking with this company!

Our first trip to Japan and it was a bit of a culture shock but in a good way. Very friendly, helpful people. The food was amazing, even my husband who doesn't like fish too much was loving the food. The tour guides we had were very experienced, informative and friendly in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, we enjoyed the tours and all the knowledge they had to give. The hotels that Olivia had chosen for us were perfect for what we needed and were doing while we were there, close to the train stations and sight seeing venues. Olivia was really good at getting back to us if we had questions. There was a bit of confusion with one of our tours but it was quickly remedied. The drivers and quides that we had would always text us the day prior to let us know where to meet and to give us any further information we'd need. The only thing I wish is that we would have seen the fall colours but the heatwave they were having during our stay caused the leaves on the trees to stay green so alas that was not meant to be. Next time.....

Hotel Reviews

Tokyo Prince Hotel

Tokyo

Very nice helpful staff. Nice clean rooms and great service. The restaurants were lovely. Close to the train station we needed and to Tokyo tower.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Close to the train station we needed and to Tokyo tower.

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Ryokan Aura Tachibana

Hakone

This hotel is a bit older but clean, we had our own private open air bath and a wonderful view! Nice and quiet and within walking distance to town and the train station.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Kyoto Century Hotel

Kyoto

Nice hotel, and located very close to Kyoto station. Buffet was good and the rooms were clean and quiet.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

The Royal Park Hotel Iconic Osaka Midosuji

Osaka

Nice quiet hotel, very helpful friendly staff. Nice rooms which were clean and quiet. Buffet was not the greatest but we made due.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Full Day Tokyo City Tour

Tokyo

Great way to see the history and culture of Tokyo, our quide was awesome and even helped us to navigate the crazy train station. Had a great sushi lunch at her favorite sushi restaurant that was awesome!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Very nice, knowledgable and fun.

Transport

Our guide met us in the lobby of our hotel which was perfect.

Tokyo: Sumo Show Experience with Chicken Hot Pot and a Photo

Tokyo

This was fun, a bit cheesy but still a good time. Food was okay.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Make sure you have google maps to find the place

Samurai Ninja Museum Tokyo

Tokyo

The museum is quite small but the staff are nice and know their history.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Not too hard to find.

1-Day Mt. Fuji & Hakone Join-in Bus Tour with Lunch (Departs from Shinjuku, Disband in Hakone)

Tokyo

Would have been an awesome trip, we however didn't actually get to see Mt. Fuji due to the bad weather, thanks Mother Nature! The bus was comfortable and the guide and driver were great. Lunch was provided and it was authentic so maybe not for everyone but okay with us.

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Kyoto Arashiyama Bamboo Forest & Garden Walking Tour (Join-in)

Kyoto

The bamboo forrest was really cool. Did not know that bamboo grew that quickly.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Osaka Local Foodie Tour in Dotonbori and Shinsekai

Japan

This was a really good tour, I would recommend to anyone who likes food and wants to try food they have probably never had.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

One Day Miyajima Island and Hiroshima Tour

Japan

This tour on the island Miyajima which they also call oyster island so if you go you need to try the oysters. I am not an oyster fan but did try them there and quite liked them. Hiroshima museum was extremely packed and because of this we did not get to see as much as we would have liked. They really should do timed entrance times but they do not. So expect to be packed in there like sardines.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Depends on where you stay but can get there by bus or taxi

Full Day Kyoto City Tour with Fushimi Inari-Taisha

Kyoto

Our guide was very knowledgeable and we had a great time getting to know Kyoto.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

I’m now back in the UK following an amazing month with my high school best buddy Phil, who I’ve known 54 years (!) which took in various parts of the USA and an amazing 11 days in Japan, curated brilliantly for us by Olivia-san at Kimkim.

I’ve travelled much of the world, but can safely say Japan is ranking in my top 3 experiences and it is in no small part to the assistance Olivia gave us in plotting the itinerary and then in being incredibly available, responsive and ever efficient in helping us make some minor adjustments as we went along.

Tokyo, Kyoto, Kanazawa and Osaka have given us some incredible experiences and memories plus a thousand photos.

The Japanese people we encountered on our travels were unfailingly polite, helpful and kind, and were happy to let us use our rudimentary Japanese to communicate with them!

In particular the guides Olivia arranged for us, Yumiko-san in Tokyo, Hector (Boza Helfers), a Peruvian national married to a Japanese lady and living 20 years in Japan and fluent in his native Spanish, English, Portuguese and of course Japanese, plus as he put it “street” French and Italian!, hosted us in Kyoto and Osaka, and Ai Kawachi, who toured Kanazawa with us with charm and incredible knowledge, and Tasei-san back in Tokyo again who took us on a brilliant food tour.

I’ve used agents previously in Africa, Australasia, and India, and they don’t match the service that Kimkim and Olivia-san offered us, so I would definitely return to them.

Arigato gozaimashita ありがと ございました Olivia-san

Mike

I am extremely pleased with the trip to Japan which we booked through kimkim. The kimkim agent who worked with us from Japan is Olivia and she did an outstanding job for us. We gave a fairly vague request to start the planning - "10 days in Japan visiting 4 cities, utilizing private guides in each city". Olivia came up with an initial itinerary including time in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Kanazawa, with proposed hotels, walking tours, activities and train routes. The chat feature in kimkim works very well, especially given that we were 11 time zones away from our agent. Over the course of several weeks we made multiple change requests and each time, Olivia made adjustments to suit us until we were ready to finalize and book our trip.

When we arrived in Japan, everything ran like clockwork! The hotels were great, the trains ran on time and each of the tour guides and drivers assigned to us by Olivia were excellent. The kimkim chat feature kept us in touch with Olivia throughout the trip, which was helpful on almost a daily basis - for instance each time we wanted the Japanese version of a hotel address to show a taxi driver. Also mid trip we decided we wanted to visit a different neighborhood in Tokyo for our last two nights and Olivia took care of that too on the same day we requested it.

I will definitely book with kimkim again.

We had a great trip to Japan. Our itinerary was detailed and the availability of drivers and guides was very useful. It made a big trip very approachable.