Ethical Travel Portal

Mathia setup a wonderful trip for us, with a beautiful hotel in Oslo, then a train trip on the Flam scenic railway. Next stop was Aurland, which I loved our hotel there as well, with a gorgeous view of the fjord. My favorite part was traveling on the fjords to Balestrand (quaint villlage) and then on to Bergen. Our trip went very smoothly and I've highly recommended it to all my friends. Thanks so much

Mathia did a good job arranging a nice selection of different locations in Norway, and scenic modes of transportation between locations. The hotels she selected for us were very nice, and generally well located for walking and accessing public transportation. The tour guides she booked for us were excellent. She did a wonderful job rescheduling our Northern Lights Safari due to inclement weather on the originally scheduled date.

My only disappointment was when she said she could not book the planned dog sledding experience. When I looked into this myself I found many opportunities, and arranged a great experience on my own.

Visiting Norway was a great experience. The country is beautiful at every turn, the food is wonderful, and the people very friendly.

Katie at Kimkim was such a great fit for us. There were 10 adults (siblings and spouses) traveling to Norway for the first time. We only had 2 weeks so we wanted to make sure our choices fit our personalities and styles (which is no easy task with 10 participants). We gave Katie a rough idea of the things we liked and the things we wanted to avoid and she gave us choices to consider and was VERY patient as we changed our minds several times. We used trains, planes, automobiles and boats to get all around Norway and everything was seamless. Katie's attention to detail was perfect. Kimkim was available to us while we were in Norway (there were a couple of occasions where they didn't seem to have our prepaid reservation at a hotel and once, our shuttle was very late). Kimkim called these businesses for us to help make sure all was ok. Katie really listened to what we were looking for and chose hotels that we really liked. I also liked that we could leave some days unplanned but Katie still gave us ideas of things to do once we arrived. I would use Kimkim again and again!

This was a great trip. First of all, I'm sure we were lucky by having sunny or "almost sunny" weather for 7 days. My husband and I were thrilled with Anna's responsiveness and ability to modify our trip as a few unforeseen things such as a strike at KLM for baggage handling that changed our inbound flight. It really is worth it to have local expertise that can arrange hotels and transport in Norway. Also, it is important that you do your own research before reaching out to KimKim so that they can know what exactly you want to see and where to go. Norway is beautiful, the people are friendly, and the accommodations and transport are excellent. Again, the experience using KimKim, especially with Anna, was excellent. Bergen was lovely, Balestrand and Flåm railway breathtaking, Oslo is a fascinating city. Our guide, Stig, in Oslo, took us for an unbeatable off the main path tour - great! So much to see - we hope to go back to see even more of Norway.
Go and see the fjords for yourself!

As senior citizens traveling on our own (with too much luggage), this trip looked to be ambitious and arduous. I was anxious about our extensive in-country travel, with all the buses, trains, ships, planes. But it went smoothly, thanks to pretrip communications with Christina, maps she included in the itinerary, and because she booked us into nice hotels close to terminals. Bente in Lillehammer, Stig in Oslo, and John In Bergen were all excellent. We especially appreciated Bente's efforts to bring us to Øvre Ulland, the farm my great great grandfather came from in the 1850's. That was special. Our walk through Oslo with Stig was great. He was easy to talk to about life in Norway, current events, and we were able to effectively explore your beautiful capitol on our own afterwards. At City Hall on Sunday we visited with residents, many wearing their bunads, who were attending a weekly ceremony celebrating and welcoming young children. Three days was not nearly enough time for Oslo. Every part of the country we visited was spectacularly beautiful. We did the Norway in a Nutshell experience with a little hesitation (because we were going to be spending a week cruising with Havila), but we are very happy we did it. So beautiful! The cruise along the coast was lovely. All aspects were great, except for cloudy nights obscuring the Northern Lights. I guess we'll just have to come back and spend enough time away from the cloudy coast to see them. Spending 2 days in Tromsø and the excursion to the Sami reindeer family was also highlights. And the food was great! Minnesota is 1,500 km from the nearest ocean, so to be able to eat fresh seafood 3 meals a day - I was in heaven, gastronomically speaking. Overall, the trip of a lifetime for us. Many thanks, Christina!