Arctic Travel Designer

A once in a lifetime trip! Emanuela helped us plan an amazing vacation that fit everything we asked for into an active 8 day adventure.

She was in touch along the way to make sure all was running smoothly. We deeply appreciate her and would recommend her and Kim Kim to anyone looking to plan an unforgettable experience.

Our only issue was that some of the driving maps took us to the incorrect spots (off by a couple of km). But it was easily fixed.

As a single parent, it was tough for me to design a trip while working and doing housework. My girls were excited about visiting Iceland, but I was overwhelmed with options/decisions to be made. That's where Emanuela came to our rescue! She responded quickly with a great plan that the kids loved. Once we arrived in Iceland, she was communicative and responded quickly if I had questions or concerns.

We left feeling that we got a good first taste of Iceland -- now we want to go back!

Activity Reviews

South Coast Day Trip

Reykjavík

Our driver was a local, super informative -- and funny! Enjoyed learning a little more about this fascinating place from a local,

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Golden Circle and Secret Lagoon on small groups

Reykjavík

Clean, well-organized, and tons of fun. Our driver was very informative and helpful, and he was prompt.

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Icelandic Lava Show

Iceland

One of the highlights of our trip. The host of this show was very informative, and it was amazing to see real lava in person after watching so many hours of Floor is Lava at home!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Reykjavík Puffin Watching

Reykjavík

This activity was really cute. My kids loved the binoculars onboard and the very informative Puffin expert.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Wow, just wow!! I looked around for the best self-guided driving tours. I compared Kimkim to others. I ended up picking Kimkim because I liked the way they were able to customize the tour for us. I picked a 10 day driving tour driving around the Ring Road and also the Golden Circle. My guide stayed in touch with me via WhatsApp. I freaked out a lot in the beginning because I wasn't sure I was doing things correctly. Emanuella was very responsive and helpful. Because of the snow storm, we ended up staying an extra day in Akureyri instead of two days in Myvatn. We were still able to catch up on some of the sites we didn't get to see because of the missed day in Myvatn once we headed there. Some excursions we couldn't do because of the weather - we were warned to go straight from Reyjavik to Arureyri. There was an excursion over gravel roads that we had to skip. Just wasn't safe because of the bad weather. But, there were so many sights suggested along the drive that we were always busy and didn't feel we were missing out. We went the first week of June. Such a great time because we have so much daylight. With driving, we got to see all the landscapes. From sunny and clear while we were in Reykjavik, to windy and snowy in Akureyri and other parts in the North, to sunny along the south. We lucked out on our days on boats with sunny weather. It was an amazing trip. We used the suggestions Kimkim provided for finding places to eat, where to visit, geothermal pools, boat tours, and even a horseback riding experience in Vik! I highly recommend using Kimkim. The driving tour came with driving instructions that included all the stops. All the excursion tickets didn't need to be printed - I just needed to give my name and they had our info. The food was so delicious. Highly recommend Icelandic lamb soup. Moe's Food truck in Akureyri was a hit with Gf fish and chips. Thank you, Kimkim and Emanuella!!

Activity Reviews

Amphibian boat tour

Jökulsárlón

We arrived over an hour early and they were able to move us to an earlier boat. The guide was really nice. I liked that the guide talked the colors of the ice and what they were. We even got to touch a piece of ice as well as taste it! I felt this tour was a good length of time. We were able to walk around the park afterwards.

Quality of Experience

It was fun!

Guides, Drivers and Staff

The guide was informative and fun.

Glacier Walking

Skaftafell

I was a bit confused where to meet but eventually made my way over after parking. It was a warm day and I was surprised that it was just as warm up the glacier. Our guide prepped us with ice pick and crampons for our shoes (some people didn't have the correct shoes and they had extra hiking shoes for those people). We took a 20 min 4x4 bus ride to the glacier. The off road part is really bumpy! Then, we hiked up to a base area where we put in our crampons. Our instructor was a glacier hiker from Finland. He gave us lessons on how to walk up and down with crampons on the ice. I went from nervous to confident in a very short time. We even got to look down a steep hole in the glacier. I highly recommend this tour. Definitely a highlight. We got lucky with the weather, too!

Quality of Experience

The young guide was very knowledgeable and a great teacher.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Even the young driver who brought us to the glacier and then picked us up at the end was amazing. She really handled the rocky terrain so well.

Transport

Horseback riding on the black sand beaches

Iceland

Definitely one of the highlights of the tour for my daughter. I had to back out after an injury and was refunded for that. They meet at the barn. The guides explain the difference between the way Icelandic horses walk and American horses. Icelandic horses tölt and American horses trot. Then, all got on horses and they walked along the black sand beach in Vik. I drove over to the beach and watched them. Everyone was smiling and giddy at the end.

Quality of Experience

The staff was excellent and organized.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Reykjavík Puffin Watching

Reykjavík

My daughter loved this and we lucked out with sunny weather. They provide binoculars as you can't get too close. Nice tour guide. We saw lots of puffins!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

The captain and guide worked well together

Explore Reykjavik and Sky Lagoon

Reykjavík

This was our first stop after arriving. It was such a wonderful intro to Iceland. We loved going through the ritual. I was nervous about all the lagoons on our trip before arriving but I'm glad these were added.

Quality of Experience

People are friendly. They speak English everywhere.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

I was using a rental car.

We had the trip of a lifetime. Emanuela with Kim Kim took very good care of us. We had weather issues that required us to change hotels twice in one day. We were extremely grateful to her for working so hard to make sure we had the best accommodations. She even had a bottle of champagne waiting for us in our room. We were in very good hands with our guide Svavar. He was very knowledgeable and went above and beyond for us. I would highly recommend booking with Kim Kim and ask for Emanuela!!!

Emanuela was so amazing to work with! We could reach out to her with any questions and she got right back to us. I told her what we were hoping to do and see during our trip to Iceland, and she planned a perfect vacation full of waterfalls and hot springs, and even a glacier hike. We were able to print out everything before our trip, including the tickets that she booked to the hot springs and for our snorkeling tours. Everthing that we need to know was on the pdf files that we printed out. It just made packing and planning so easy and stress free. The driver that she booked for us was such a nice guy. He was able to tell us so much about his beautiful country. And he was super helpful with everything. We had a wonderful trip and would absolutely use Kimkim again for future trips. Thank you Emanuela!

The guide that we worked with for our trip to Iceland was everything I could have hoped for! I gave her a LOT of info on what we wanted to do, and she was able to make it all happen. I love that you can go back and forth, ask questions, make tweaks, etc through the whole process. She gave personal recommendations on sites to see and places to stop for food - all of which were amazing. The handheld guide she put together was easy to understand and very thorough. Even better was that she didn't disappear after sending the guide. She WhatsApp me when we got there, a couple times during the trip, and when we got home. It was very comforting to know I could get help at any time. Plus there's a number for 24/7 help. I never had to worry about anything going wrong, and that was worth every penny. Highly recommend, you won't be disappointed!

Hotel Reviews

Hótel Kría

Vík

Great location in the heart of Vik. There's a bar and restaurant, which have an incredible view. Lots of parking. Rooms were nice, good size bathroom, and smart TVs. The beds were clean and nice.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Eyja Guldsmeden Hotel

Reykjavik

What a cute hotel! There was breakfast, and a restaurant on site. The rooms were darling and had very comfortable beds. The TVs are not smart tvs so you're limited to like 6 channels. There's a gym, and there's a Bonus grocery store right behind the hotel. Walking distance to a food hall, but it would be a pretty far walk to downtown where the shops and restaurants are.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

ION Adventure Hotel

Nesjavellir

Such a cool hotel! It has a spa pool and a sauna. A bar that stays open until 11. There's room service and a restaurant on site. The rooms are modern but cozy. You can get Netflix on the TV. We saw the northern lights from our walk out. You also get some prosecco when you arrive, which doesn't hurt a bit.

Authenticity & Character

Very unique and cool

Location

Not very far from Selfoss

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Northern Lights tour with your driver

Iceland

The super jeep tour was so cool! Picked us up from the hotel and drove us out about an hour and half. They stopped and looked for the lights, then would move us to another location looking for them. We found them! They set up a camera on a tripod and take your pictures with the lights in the background. The guide even had hot chocolate for everyone... And a lil something special to add to it if you liked. Great tour!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Sky Lagoon

Reykjavík

Wow you will not regret going here!! Pay for the bigger package because it's totally worth it. There's a restaurant inside and a small gift shop. The locker room is private with showers. There's a swim up bar in the lagoon. The seven step rituals were absolutely incredible and not to be missed.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Silfra Snorkeling Adventure with Transport

Reykjavík

Such a neat experience! You have to wear thermal underwear of some sort and warm socks. You put on a suit, and then a dry suit over it. It is tight, and uncomfortable around the neck and wrists - but it's to keep the 2°c water out sooo it's worth it. There's a short walk to the entry point. We had to wait about 20 mins to get into the water because of other groups ahead of us. Once you are in the water, it naturally propels you and the suit loosens up a bit. You barely have to do work. Our guide was funny and nice. At the end we all drank hot chocolate and talked about the experience.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

We had James and he was wonderful!