Espíritu Travel

This trip was difficult to plan from the beginning. It was for 2 people with different arrival and departure dates. Also, 2 nights of accommodation were already booked. Hector never seemed to get exactly when who was going to be there. I said my son was going to be there on the 6th and he booked a room for him on the night of the 5th. Many of the days had shopping as the main activity. I had said we were interested in nature and culture. The hike that was booked for us turned out to be a 4x4 ride which was disappointing. I was in Madrid and the Prado was not scheduled as a tour until I asked for it to be added on. I believed Hector when he said that the last minute nature of the booking made the expensive but when we looked at daily room rates when we were there, they were not high. I think we were overcharged by about 50% and want a refund of at least $5000.

Activity Reviews

4x4 Jeep & Hike the Cares Route, Picos de Europa

Picos de Europa

This was a 4x4 without a hike.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Walking Madrid’s Old Town

Madrid

Great tour

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

I heard about KimKim through a friend who frequently uses the service. I decided to take a chance and use the services for my upcoming trip to Portugal with my boyfriend. Beatriz was super easy to work with and made adjustments based off of my input. It was very easy to approve the final itinerary and was stress free since all I had to do was make final payment. Our flight was cancelled and we were rebooked and I was able to reach out to have our driver pickup updated. I was very happy they were able to accommodate us. One first tour was scheduled on the date we landed. We met at the meeting point but there was no tour. We learned the tour was accidentally booked for the wrong day. I was able to reach out to get help and the agent I spoke to was very apologetic. She refunded the tour costs and double checked to make sure everything else was booked correctly. That incident put us a little on guard but the rest of the trip went perfectly! All of our tours went as promised and our drivers were all on time (early). We especially loved our day tour to Sintra. Our tour guide, Teresa, was very pleasant and super knowledgeable. It rained early that morning and she had extra umbrellas for us. For lunch, she took us to a local spot and we enjoyed being able to eat some authentic Portugese food. We were very happy with how everything went minus the one tour hiccup. I would def recommend and use again.

Hotel Review

Exe Almada Porto

Porto

Great location! This hotel was like a Portugese hotel with American amenities. Hotel staff was friendly and I loved how clean everything was. The location is perfect and we were able to walk just about everywhere. I'd recommend and stay there again when in Porto!

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Review

Discover Sintra & Wines of the Old World

Portugal

Kimkim was great and getting a trip organized in such a short period of time. We went to Milan Italy and then took day trips via public transportation throughout the week. The team was responsive to all concerns that we had during our trip. Anita was great and helping us plan our day trips and getting excursion scheduled. My only complaint is the hotel that was chosen was so far from everything else that we did. I felt like we spent so much time traveling back-and-forth on trams and trolleys and trains to get to where we needed to go when we could’ve been closer to the city center. There were no restaurants or shopping nearby our hotel. If we had been closer to the city center, it would’ve made for a much more enjoyable trip.

Overall, we were pleased with our accommodations and the experiences that Hector planned. The Iberostar resort was perfect for our family, and my cousin and I loved our windmills tour with our wonderful guide Birgit. Most of the family also enjoyed the catamaran trip and swimming. The Gran Hotel Havana in Barcelona also suited us well, and we loved our tour guide for Girona (Manuel and his driver Wandr) so much that we lobbied to have them for our second tour (of Montserrat) which was amazing. We also loved the sunset boat trip with the guitarist.

One of the two reasons we did not give 5 stars is because our original flight from Mallorca to Barcelona was scheduled without our agreement to leave at 8:30 in the morning which would have been extremely difficult with three small children. When we requested to move the reservation, we received a lot of pushback and almost tried to make arrangements ourselves (since we received no credit for the original reservation). When we did finally get rescheduled at considerable expense, we learned at the airport that my son would be on standby and his 1-year-old son who is a lap child, had a confirmed seat. It took a great deal of effort to get my son on the flight with no help from Espiritu who blamed the airlines and did nothing to help despite having been responsible for the reservation. I don't believe that the fact that we were with three small children was adequately considered.

The second reason is that we did not receive much help in figuring out where to go to watch the eclipse. Most of the suggestions we received were not helpful because the government was closing many of the streets in Mallorca for security reasons, and they were therefore inaccessible. My daughter did a lot of research online to learn this and did find for us the best place possible given where we were staying, but we would have had a difficult time and probably missed it entirely if we had relied on the information we were given.

Hotel Reviews

Gran Hotel Havana

Barcelona

The rooms were very comfortable and attractive and quiet. Most of the staff were helpful and polite. It was good to have room service and the rooftop restaurant available when we did not want to go out, and the included breakfast buffet had lots of good choices.

Iberostar selection Playa de Muro Village

Playa de Muro, Mallorca, Illes Balears

The rooms were clean and comfortable mostly (one had a problem, but the staff moved those of us in that room to a better one). The pools and private beach were perfect and greatly enjoyed, and the breakfast buffet (and other food options) were all amazing. The staff were all helpful and friendly.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Discover Montserrat & Catalan Wine of Penedès Region

Barcelona

Again, our guide Manuel made it extra special. It is also a beautiful and spiritual place. Some of us are not religious but were deeply moved nonetheless.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

From Medieval Girona to the Villages of Costa Brava

Barcelona

Our guide Manuel made this a very enjoyable and memorable experience. And some of our group said that the beach where he took us after Girona was the best one they had ever been to.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Manuel was knowledgeable, warm talkative, fun and great with the chidren.

Transport

The vans were very comfortable.

Mediterranean Sunset Sailing Experience & Live Spanish Guitar Music

Barcelona

We loved the guitar, and the route was very calm so no one became seasick.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

One of us has balance problems and the captain and staff were very helpful in getting on and off the boat.

Transport

It was a beautiful catamaran sailboat. The only thing that would have been better would have been if it actually sailed instead of motoring the whole way, but that did not impair the experience.

Barcelona for Kids: Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia & Park Güell

Barcelona

The Sagrada Familia on the inside just blew me away; I did not expect to be so moved and impressed.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

She could have been more enthusiastic and warm.

Mallorca by Sea: A Boutique Sailing, Tapas & Snorkeling Experience

Spain

The swimming in the Mediterranean was wonderful. The only problem was that two of our group got seasick.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Windmills & Villages: A Journey Through Mallorca’s Interior

Spain

Birgit was so knowledgeable and warm. My cousin and I really enjoyed learning about the history, traditions and current day people of Mallorca from her. She was great!

Quality of Experience

our guide Birgit

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Birgit was outstanding and made the whole experience one I will not forget.

Transport

We were grateful that since only two of us went, Birgit picked us up at our hotel.

The hotel in Lisbon was nice and no elevator and difficult stairs. The hotel in Cascais was wonderful and Porto’s was great location. The cooking class and dinner with locals were the best planned parts of the trip. The tour guide in Lisbon was a little boring. Overall it was a very smooth experience.

Activity Reviews

Private Day Excursion: Sintra, Cascais & Estoril

Portugal

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Douro Valley Highlights: Wine, Olive Oil & River Cruise

Porto

Really nice day and lunch with good wine. I expected a little more of a boat excursion and maybe a smaller boat but it was nice. It is a lot of time in a van. The guide was very good.

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Petiscos Brunch & Market Experience in Porto

Porto

Really good food and wine. The guide was very pleasant. Only negative was maybe spending so much time within the market and not exploring Porto more.

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Dinner With Locals: A Homemade Portuguese Experience

Lisbon

Lovely and welcoming couple. Great food. One of the best meals we had in Portugal.

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Tracing Lisbon’s Jewish History: A Guided Experience

Lisbon

A little dull

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Hands-On Cooking Class with a Local Chef

Porto

Excellent chef especially with our kids. This was our favorite night.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

In numerous ways, the logistics and planning for this trip were poor. From considering travel times for our family with young children, to fiascos with booking almost causing us to miss our flight, it did not feel like a smooth trip.

The day trips planned for us were excellent though. The hotels were great too.

The only reason I'm giving this two stars is because our pickup and transfers were without issue and the hotel properties were fine. The trip was amazing, but no thanks to Kim Kim or the local provider. It was amazing because we spent every evening researching and figuring out what we were going to do the next day. The provider knew we had a rental car but made no provisions to check with every one of our hotels to make sure that they had parking. When we asked them to do that, they checked the hotel for the following evening, and we never heard about that again. We had one day in Zaragoza, which was actually the day most of the locations we wanted to visit were closed, so it would have been nice to have a heads up on that. We landed in Bilbao during a national holiday. Also would have been nice to know about that. We also arrived in San Sebastian during the City Festival. Didn't know about that either.
On one of our wine tasting trips, we were supposed to get transfers to and from. Two days before, the wine trip the company informed us that we were too far away and they couldn't pick us up.
We eventually reached out to Kimkim itself to report some of the issues. We didn't get back anything that was helpful at all and never heard from them again.
Kim Kim has booked a number of trips for us that have all been essentially flawless. This was not one of those trips.

Activity Review

A Basque Country Excursion: Jaizkibel Hike, Txakoli Winery & Hondarribia

San Sebastián

Jaime was amazing sharing with us the local culture and the amazing Basque region.

Quality of Experience

Jaime

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Jaime

Transport

Jaime

I thought hector did a great job setting up stuff. But when I got there I was really disappointed. I expected him to have thought through all the transitions. But when we got there we found that he didn’t consider whether we should book the night before in order to have a place to sleep when we arrived. Clearly we had a misunderstanding about the role of a travel agent. Very disappointing.

That said, the locations he chose were great. The hotel where we stayed for the eclipse had a perfect view of the eclipse from the parking lot. The hotel in Valencia was lovely. The hotel in Madrid was really great and very comfortable. We liked all the tour guides except the racist one (reported already), particularly the one in Burgos. She was amazing.