Olivia Luang

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.

Our trip to Japan during spring to see the magic of Sakura blooms was a hit from beginning to the end. Kim Kim (Olivia)'s support in planning and organising the visit was superb. She was extremely professional in her role and fucntions, we could not have expected any better. There were hardly any issues, since every detail has been looked into by Olivia. Whenever there was a need for a re- scheduling, Olivia took to the task and attended to it promptly. It was a pleasure to communicate with her. Thank you Kim Kim!
What we saw was amazing, the Sakura blooms we saw in Nara, Kyoto, Osaka can only be described as magical! It was a dream come true for us! Cherry blossoms painted the gardens, streets pink and white. As the petals fall and make a mosaic of a carpet beneath the trees, one realises that it indeed is celebration of beauty and impermanance.
Most of the tour guides who took us around were simply superb! namely - Yumi in Hakone, Hector, and NIck Nonaka in Nara and Kyoto. They understood our pulse and interests, were kind and helpful, all three of them made the tour super special. We also had a very good time with the guide who took us on the 'Foodie Tour' in Osaka, where we prepared and devoured Osaka special cabbage pancake!
I celebrated my milestone birthday donned in kimino with two of my sisters, strolling in the Osaka palace garden bustling with Sakura blooms. It was turely a memorable day!
Everything was wonderful, except:
i. The day in Tokyo - our Day One of the trip in Tokyo was nothing to write home about, it was dull, lacked any charm, and the guide did not make much effort to make the day special for us.
ii. The Tea Ceremony was a total flop (which had to be re- scheduled from the original plan due to the short time gap between 2 events). Olivia managed to find a different place, however, it was was not proper, run by a foreigner wearing a kimono, and what he preached did not match with the philsophy of the Japanese tea ceremony.
Except these two, the rest of the trip is a total win - 10 out of 10.
During our ten day visit we had a glimpse of wonders Japan offers, we returned with the promise to come back!

We booked the trip to Japan in April 2025 during cherry blossom season with Kimkim. Olivia did a great job helping us with the planing before and during the trip. She responses promptly whenever we had questions or issues to resolve.

Hotels in Tokyo, Hakone and Kyoto were nice and centrally located. Hotel in Osaka were below our expectation. I wish we could stay longer in the Hakone ryokan hotel as it was raining from the time we arrived in the afternoon until the next morning (not even one day) so we did not have time to view and enjoy the beautiful surrounding as well as to spend more time in the onsen.

It was a bit short of time to check in the hotel in Kyoto and then go for the tea ceremony right after that. Thanks Olivia quickly provided us with the driver so we could get there in time for the event. Much appreciated!

The guides were kind and friendly, however, I wish they could tell us more stories during the travelling to and at the historic sites like other guides we were with in the past. We had some minor communication issues with the drivers as well at the airport and in Kyoto. We heard that it is more difficult for Japanese to learn English than people from other nations.

Overall we had a great time . Thanks Kimkim and Olivia for helping us with our memorable family trip to Japan!

Activity Review

Tokyo Night Foodie Tour in Shinjuku

Tokyo

Excellent food tour, enjoyed the food and the city tour!

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport