Good Vibes Tours

Trip was great but traveling time from place to place could have been better. Site/ tickets were booked a d could not make it due to travel time weather and road closurez.
Katie's communication and initial set up was great

Amazing trip, well planned and put together by Aleksandra.

Our tour guides Chris in Edinburgh, Rhona MacKenzie in Inverness, David in Oban, and Leire (food tour in Glasgow) were all amazing. We can not recommend them enough.

This was our first trip in 23 years and, as an introduction to Scotland, well it was just incredible.

Thank you Aleksandra and KimKim.

Hotel Reviews

The Social Hub Glasgow

Glasgow

Fun hotel. So much to do within the hotel itself. Food was good, staff was so nice. Location was great!

Authenticity & Character

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Cleanliness & Comfort

The Ranald

OBAN

Room was clean but so very tiny. Staff was very nice and the location was good. The shower was also so tiny.

Authenticity & Character

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Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Creag Mhor Lodge

Onich

This was our favorite. The view of the loch, breathtaking. Room was comfortable. Shower amazing. Great whisky bar. Staff was extremely nice. Location was a bit far from any walkable city but the view...wow.

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Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Avalon

Inverness

Room was beautiful. Host amazing, food incredible. Homemade jams just WOW.

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Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

N°11 Boutique Restaurant and Rooms Hotel

Edinburgh

Great room, location was wonderful, staff very helpful, food was amazing. Would stay again.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Walking distance to just about everything

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Oban Distillery Visit

Oban

Well I love Oban whisky so is it fair to review this...YES! If you are in Oban for a couple day, just do it!

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Private Inverness Walking Tour

Scotland

Rhona was very knowledgable and fun. Great walking tour.

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The Wee Food Tour of Glasgow

Glasgow

Leire was just wonderful. Go do this!

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Oban Guided Town Walking Tour

Oban

David was great, very knowledgable. Wonderful day in Oban.

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The Real Mary King’s Close

Edinburgh

This was our fault, we missed our time window due to getting caught up at a cathedral. So can't honestly review this.

Private Glasgow Essentials Tour

Scotland

Our tour guide was just ok on this tour. We had a better tour guide on the food and drink tour.

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Edinburgh Castle & Old Town Private Tour

Edinburgh

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Three Isles Tour – Mull, Iona & Staffa

Oban

Unfortunately due to weather this was cancelled. So it is not fair to review.

Skye and Eilean Donan Castle Small-Group Day Tour

Inverness

Again, tour guide was amazing and funny. Driving those roads, I don't know how anyone could do it. WOW. Just a beautiful place and amazing to see.

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Outlander Castle Tour

Edinburgh

Tour guide was very funny. Castles were grand and lovely. Just a wonderful experience.

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Our group of 26 (mostly) older adults from Laguna Presbyterian Church in California brought our own church history guide to Scotland to learn about our Presbyterian roots. Kateryna (Kate) was a wonderful, gracious specialist, always willing to find answers and solve problems. In Edinburgh, we loved our hotel location in Grass Market and the first-day walking tour by Chris. Another favorite was having tea in the Edinburgh Castle which we could not have arranged without Kate.
Although it rained one of our days on the island of Iona, most of the group would say Iona was the high point of the trip. Kate worked wonders to make this possible. She secured the hard-to-find accommodations on the island and arranged seamless private coach transportation via 2 ferries and a drive across the island of Mull.
All the other trips I have led were set itineraries with full- time guides and drivers. I found this custom trip much harder to plan and to lead. Choosing the right Edinburgh hotel, for example, took many weeks and several changes. As delightful as Kate was to work with, I will probably go with packaged trips in the future for the ease of planning and the luxury of a guide who leads us each day. If I ever want another custom trip, however, KimKim is the company I will call. You are wonderful! Kathy Sizer, retired Associate Pastor

Hotel Review

Apex City of Edinburgh Hotel

Edinburgh

Perfect location in Grass Market. A short walk up Victoria got us to the Royal Mile while an even shorter walk got us to Greyfirars and the National Museum of Scotland. Rooms were comfortable and staff was helpful. The only thing lacking was a restaurant and bar in the hotel.

Authenticity & Character

Contemporary

Location

near the Royal Mile and Greyfriars

Staff

always helpful

Cleanliness & Comfort

Great shower

Activity Review

Edinburgh Old Town Tour

Edinburgh

Chris was a great guide with entertaining stories.

Thank you Aleksandra for planning a wonderful trip to SE Ireland. You did exactly what we asked, which was planning a flexible itinerary. This allowed us to add a few adventures and skip a few things depending on our timing. You were very responsive to changes during the planning as well as accessible when needed during our trip. You were excellent! 10/10!!

Following, is a review/feedback of each location;

Dublin:
Leinster Taxi from airport to the Schoolhouse Gastropoda Hotel - driver “Tony” was excellent, on time, even though our flight arrived 1 1/2 hours late. Tony gave us an informative ride and was a great introduction to Ireland.

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Th Schoolhouse Gastropub. The front desk staff was friendly (Tina!!), welcoming and very helpful. The room was clean and had a great housekeeping staff. We appreciate having the restaurant on site for the included breakfast and also tried it for dinner, which was excellent. The wait for our dinner was very slow, however the water comped our drinks.

On our return to Dublin, Tina at the front desk allowed us an early midday checking to drop off our luggage, which allowed us to turn in our rental car more easily.

Dublin Private Walk Tour:
The tour guide, Mydie was sick and we were not able to do the walking tour. However, she comped us by getting tickets for the Hop On Hop Off bus tour, the EPIC Irish Emigration Museum (very well done and recommended for other visitors, and St Patrick’s Cathedral. She also gave us a monetary voucher for Bewley’s - a wonderful cafe which we highly recommend for visitors.

Merry Ploughboy Gastro Pub:
This was a great introduction to Irish food, music and dancing. The food was 3 of 5 stars.

While walking around Dublin, we also recommend the following sites:
- St. Stephen’s Green
- Sheridan’s Cheesemongers ( cheese shop -where we sampled cheese)
- John Kehoe’s Pub for a pint!

Rental car: We used Alamo Rental Car and picked it up at St. Stephen’s Green Shopping Center on the top floor. Staff was great but it was a challenge driving in and out of the tight parking garage.

Drive Dublin to Wicklow:
We drove through Sally Gap Drive to Powerscourt Waterfall and Powerscourt Gardens. We enjoyed the scenic drive and found it very worthwhile.

The Coachhouse stay in Roundwood was very nice and cozy with a lot of sitting areas, with lovely plants, some retail and a nice pub. We especially liked the option to have the included sit down full breakfast or eat in the attached bakery/cafe. However, we were not greeted when we arrived and searched for staff in order to check in. It was not made clear the options for breakfast. Wi-Fi only works on the first floor and not in guest rooms, which was inconvenient. We do recommend it as a lovely place to stay, however the manager was not friendly or customer service oriented. She was always rushing around and made us feel like we were inconveniencing her.

Monastic Glendalough was a very nice stop with amazing architecture. We also visited the Upper and Lower Lake. We recommend parking at the Visitor’s Center and entering the monastery from the parking lot. There are restrooms there as well as a place to purchase food/drinks. Having lunch at The Wicklow Heather in Brockagh County, Wicklow was a highlight. (5/5 stars!!) The bar area was very nice and there was a dining area called The Writer’s Room, filled with original editions of various Irish writers. Excellent service. Beautiful floral patio area for dining when weather allows. We took a side trip to Glenmacnass Waterfall from the parking area there is a wonderful view of the valley and Guinness colored waterfall.

Wicklow to Wexford:
We found out that the same company (Aramark) that owns The Coach House also owns Avoca Mills in Avoca. We took a tour of Avoca Mill with “Art” who was excellent and informative. We recommend visiting the shop and cafe at Avoca Mills. There were lovely wool garments made at the mill, blankets and scarves and gift items. The bakery had delicious coffee and wonderful baked pastries.

Visited Enniscorthy which included Vinegar Hill with a scenic view of the countryside. Visited the 1798 Rebellion Center (3/5) . Had lunch at The Cotton Tree Cafe (3/5) and a pint of Guinness at Stamps Pub (3/5). Stayed at the Riverside Park Hotel. Mediocre Hotel at best, musty, smokey and damp smell and rooms outdated. Breakfast was not as good as previous places on the trip. The pool facility was decent. Note: guests must wear a bathing cap or rent one to use pool area. This hotel did not match the description online.

Waterford:
Excellent walking tour with “Liam” was brilliant. The Waterford Factory tour was worthwhile and interesting.
Fabulous stop at Hook Lighthouse on the way to Waterford. Taking the tour of the lighthouse was VERY worthwhile. We bought tickets on site. Note: There were restrooms and a sandwich/soup restaurant on site in the old light keepers house. The Avoca Mill Gift-shop gives a 10% discount on a sales receipt for tickets to Hook Lighthouse.

Driving Note: We recommend rather that driving to New Ross to get to Waterford, take the East Passage Ferry which departs every 15 minutes. This was convenient because our lodging at Marsh Mere Lodge was in Arthurstown, very close to the ferry.

Marsh Mere Lodge was an absolute STAND OUT place to stay!! 5/5 stars!! Host Claire was fabulous. The home was filled with generations of antiques and was like a museum. Very clean and well decorated. Very personal touches with bottled water and cookies, coffee and tea. Breakfast was 10/10 - homemade full Irish breakfast including homemade breads and scones. Amazing view overlooking the sea wall of Waterford harbor. NOTE: The host does not accept payment from the travel agent, though the travel agent can make a reservation. The guest must pay host directly upon arrival.

Waterford to Kilkenny:
Beautiful drive to Rock of Cashel. One of the highlights of our trip. We had lunch at The Cellar Bar at Bailey’s Hotel in Cashel. Excellent service and excellent food. For visit at Rock of Cashel, park at Car Park just below the site.
Stayed at Kilkenny House Hotel (3/5 stars - nice lobby area and recently updated hotel, however no personal touches in rooms, no water bottles, etc.) Breakfast was included however there were breakfast items that had run out, pitchers empty, and not homemade items - more like a modest hotel continental breakfast.

Kilkenny Walking Tour (John Crommerford was “The Craic”!!! Ask for him! He was very knowledgeable and gave us nearly a three hour tour! Offered his contact information if we needed any help or advice while in Kilkenny. Loved visit to Rick Steve’s recommended bookstore “The Book Centre Kilkenny. Visited The Field Bar and Restaurant w/ live music. Our favorite spot was Tholsel Bar. Great live music and more modern pub vibe, with big open window in front . Had dinner at Kytelers Inn (4/5) Cozy ambiance and good food/service. NOTE: when parking in garages in Kilkenny, take note of closing hours. We had to call security after hours which cost us 25 Euro. Overall - Kilkenny was our favorite city we visited. For great shopping - we enjoyed The Kilkenny Design Center Kilkenny Castle yard across from the Kilkenny Castle. Great artisans, and met a soap maker Denise O’Conner at MySkin and 85 year old silversmith Des Byrne!

Return to Dublin:
Received VERY warm welcome back at The Schoolhouse Gastro Pub with note and chocolates on our bed. Enjoyed touring Trinity College and seeing The Book of Kells. We shopped on Dawson Street and the pedestrian mall in the city center. Highly recommend the Celtic Whiskey Shop. Staff was very knowledgeable and wrapped our bottles for airplane travel. Great ways to finish trip was a visit to Peruke and Periwig cocktail bar. Incredibly eclectic decor and drink menu currently based on Alice and Wonderland theme, but signature drinks change periodically an are created by the staff. The drink menu alone is a piece of art. we topped off our trip with a delicious dinner at The Schoolhouse Gastro Pub.

Kateryna is amazing to work with! She is responsive, professional, accommodating and a pleasure to work with. This is my second trip with Kateryna making dreams become reality.
Thanks Kate, for everything!

Hotel Reviews

Gardette Park Hotel

Paris

Authenticity & Character

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Windsor Hotel

Nice

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Le Jas de Gordes

Gordes

It's definitely not Bacardi Rum (white) in the Bacardi bottle... Friendly staff. Breakfast great but other than that, very limited menu to choose from.

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Hotel Passy Eiffel

Paris

Authenticity & Character

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Activity Reviews

Seine River Gourmet Dinner Cruise with Live Music

Paris

Quality of Experience

Food

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Evening Eiffel Tower Tour

Paris

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Moulin Rouge Evening Performance

Paris

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Disneyland Paris: 2- Day , 2 Parks Entrance Tickets with Premier Access Pass

France

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We thoroughly enjoyed Ireland and we are very, very glad that we included Northern Ireland with Derry and Belfast. All of our guides were excellent but our favorite was Paul Martin who gave an excellent but balanced overview of “the troubles”. My single favorite event was watching the border collie herding sheep up a beautiful Irish green hill!

Tetiana was very helpful and user friendly. There are a couple things I would have liked to do differently, but it was a wonderful trip overall. The lodging was all perfect, the trains went pretty smoothly and were very nice.

Hotel Reviews

The Ambassador Hotel

Wonderful hotel and staff. Great food. Highly recommend this hotel.

Authenticity & Character

Beautiful and luxurious.

Location

Staff

The staff were so helpful and professional, especially the concierge when we checked in. We were late and tired, and we had an issue. He dealt with it calmly and professionally. Also, some of the wait staff in the dining room were wonderful and charming.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Beautiful room - stayed in “Silk” #12.

Virgin Hotels Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Great location, wonderful staff.

Authenticity & Character

It’s a modern hotel, so not that much “character”, but I highly recommend this hotel.

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Roomy, clean and modern.

Cedar Manor

Windermere

I can’t say enough good things about this hotel. It was beautiful, the proprietors were wonderful, it was an easy walk to town and it was on the bus route. Check out Tilly’s restaurant - fabulous, with several gluten free options. Also, the 10 lake tour with Steve from Mountain Goat Tours was one of the highlights of our entire trip.

Authenticity & Character

Classic manor hotel.

Location

On the bus route, and a short walk to town and to the lake.

Staff

Very helpful and gracious.

Cleanliness & Comfort

We spent time in the comfortable lounge playing cards with our traveling companions.

The Yard in Bath

Bath

Nice location and great staff. The breakfast was brought to our room in a basket and hung on our door - very cute. The only reason I didn’t give it five stars was because the room smelled a bit.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

The Academy London

London

Some people might want a bit more central location, but it was a lovely hotel, and the staff were terrific.

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Activity Reviews

Edinburgh Castle & Old Town Private Tour

Edinburgh

We did the castle on our own the next day, so I’m not counting it as part of this activity. The Old Town private tour was interesting. Unfortunately, it was very cold, so the length of the tour got to us eventually.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Our guide told us some interesting stories and gave us a good overview of the Old Town and some of the New. It helped us for being on our own the next day.

Cotswolds Experience from Bath, private tour

Bath

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Our driver, Kevin, was very nice. However, it wasn’t really like having a tour, it was more like just having a driver. When I asked where we’d be stopping for lunch, he acted surprised that we’d want lunch. He did accommodate us and make a few stops in the Cotswolds so we could shop and get something to eat, but I’m not sure if that was on his agenda when we started.

Transport

A black cab for such a long tour/travel day was not the best. One or two of us always had to ride in the jump seats, so we were looking backward at those times. The jump seats are much stiffer than the regular seats, and three of the four of us have bad backs. Also, some of our luggage had to be stored on the floor or under the jump seats. Not the best.

Discover London in a Private Black Cab

London

Good way to start out seeing London.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Our guide, JP, was fantastic. He was flexible when one of our party didn’t feel well. He postponed our start time a bit, and still took us to all the expected places. JP was a good bloke.

Transport

The black cab was comfy, however, someone always had to ride “backward” in the jump seats. All the black cabs in London are like this, though.

Ultimate Full Day Scenic Tour visiting 10 Lakes

England

Loved this tour.

Quality of Experience

This tour was more than we expected. Loved seeing the stone circle and the slate mine, as well as all the lakes.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Our guide, Steve, was wonderful. He grew up in the area, so he interspersed personal stories with local legends/stories. He took us to some special spots we didn’t know would be on the tour.

Transport

The small bus was very comfortable and clean.

Churchill War Rooms & WW2 Westminster Small Group Tour

London

Very interesting. A lot more walking around pre-war rooms than I realized, but we saw some interesting sights.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

My wife and I went to Scotland and Ireland for our 25th wedding anniversary. We were ready to book with a big tour group but wanted something more intimate and tailored to our interests. Aleksandra with KimKim helped us plan a trip based on our interests, took care of the hotels, in-country travel and tickets, and set up guided walking tours. We just had to show up. Aleksandra was very accessible and responsive at all times, even rearranging some scheduled events for us while we were on our vacation. Prior to booking, we exchanged messages and set up a zoom meeting with Aleksandra to get an idea of what our budget would get us, quality of hotels (we decided to spend a little more to get nicer hotels), and what we might like to do/see. Using the app was great. All tickets and confirmations were stored there. We were impressed with all of the hotels Aleksandra booked for us. She also booked pickup from the airport, inter-hotel, hotel-airport, etc. It was worth every penny and we had a wonderful time. We ended up skipping some of the walking tours because we wanted to explore on our own, on our own time. KimKim was most helpful because it seemed overwhelming to book various hotels in different cities, schedule train rides, and schedule/arrange sight-seeing. We would definitely use again if we explore a different country.

Tours were very good. Very satisfied.

Dear Kate.

Sorry for not finishing this sooner. It turned out I had jet lag longer than I thought, and of course arriving back didn’t just mean I could stop and take account right away. As John Lennon said, Life happens when your busy making other plans.

In any case. Here is my over summation of my trip you helped plan for Scotland.
I will not comment upon the flights to or from there since that is really a completely separate and overall headache inducing tangent. So will merely say to anyone who might listen. Don’t book a flight with Iceland air. Moving on…

Transportation both gong and coming to and from most locations were reliable and covenant. With very friendly drivers all around.

The first leg of the journey in Edinburgh, which lasted from Saturday through Monday was very inviting and convenient with regards to both the hotel, Apex, as well as its proximity to all that we had scheduled to accomplish. Highlights especially were the Royal Mile and Edinburgh Castle and The Johnny walker experience (though it was slightly disappointing we couldn’t purchase anything we sampled). Along with the pool in the hotel.

Our journey to the highlands on Tuesday was long but beautiful. And our tour of Dalwhinnie Distillery as well as their bar and staff were well stocked, informed and friendly. The only downside was that because the tour was essentially in the early afternoon, by the time we arrived at our hotel in Pitlochry, I was pretty well sauced and had to struggle the rest of the day to make sure I didn’t pass out before sunset. Overall the accommodations and the breakfast the next day however were the nicest we had thus far.

The Next day our Train was delayed, and we had to maneuver ourselves to The Redcliffe In inverness with a little more effort than was expected. However, once we were settled in, the accommodations were actually the most spacious, comfortable, as well as enjoyable concerning its location, beer garden, and food. Along with the next day, which took us down Loch Ness, and to the castle by the sea. Up until then I would say it was the most fulfilling day in terms of expectations. And of all the places I would personally return to I would say Inverness was the place.

The next day, Friday started off wonderfully. In fact, I would say for me and maybe even my dad the highlight of the trip up to that point was the morning trip and personal tour of the Highlands near Craigmore. Both our drivers were extremely friendly and informative. And we even got relatively good weather considering the time of year. Truly a magnificent time spent out in the Scottish wilderness. With hardly a soul seen.

Which is probably why the rest of the day, and sadly by extension the trip was such a come down. But then you knew this was coming. But I have to speak honestly. Perhaps it was the expectations, or maybe just the contrast from where we had just come from. Yet when we arrived at St Andrews, and tried to check in to what I assumed was a hotel, we instead found our selves locked out of the place without a single person to answer the doorbell, nor an explanation of how to check in. We had to wait for someone’s wife who was already staying there to come down and let us in. and even then not a single brochure, pamphlet, or even map of the city was waiting for us. I had to try and get the owners on the phone, and was spoken to quite rudely for not knowing what either our room # was or how to enter or exit the flat. On top of that, our room was three floors up with no elevator (A perk I would have declined had I known from the get-go considering my several heavy bags and my fathers age.) As well as staying in what was up till then by far the smallest room we had been in so far. Completely false advertising to all the photos broadcasting the place. So from the complete headache of trying to “check in” the cramped and falsely sold space we had, and the indifferent rudeness of the owners, my dad and I were more than miffed. We were at the time outright angry. But of course, you knew that by my immediate messaging of you. Which had a cascading effect on the rest of the trip.

Admittingly we probably overreacted at the time. Feeling the need to find more spacious and overall welcoming accommodations, I was ready to split the coop after a single night, and pulled the trigger on a flat in Clydebank Glasgow. Which meant we only got half a day at St Andrews golf course. And having to forego our city tour, only to find ourselves basically in a cultural dead zone for an extra two days. Disappointing to be sure, especially considering my dads love for golf, and our expectation of relaxing for the last leg of the trip. But I will take most of the blame for the overreaction. However, I must admit it wouldn’t have had to happen anyway if there was at least a better sense of transparency concerning what we where we were headed. It is what it is. Just let future travelers know what to expect if they get room 1 there.

That’s about all I have to say, as the last two days at the Jubilee hotel were honestly refreshing and completely low key, and really just a necessary
preparation for the hell day we had to get back home. But like I said, that’s outside the realm of your teams input. Ultimately it was a very fun memorable trip. And like all trips had it ups and downs. But at least we made it home in one piece, and I would personally return certainly to the highlands and inverness especially. Maybe we will plan one again in the future.

Sincerely and gratefully
Nicholas DuShane-

Activity Review

Cairngorms National Park Wildlife Tour

Scotland

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport