NORD DMC

From the beginning of our planning stages, Krista was amazing. We had a broad idea of what we wanted to do and where we wanted to go, which of course was probably a bit grand for our available time, and budget. Krista was great in helping us to navigate what we could reasonably get in and do in the time alloted. During our trip, we ran into a few issues that needed to be addressed, and the customer service team took care of all of them! I would not hesitate to recommend Krista and NORD/KimKim for anyone wanting to visit Scandinavia!

Hotel Reviews

Heimly Pensjonat

Flåm

Great small boutique hotel just a 10 minute walk from the center.

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Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Scandic Torget

Bergen

Perfect location right across the street from the fish market and Brygenn.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Thon Hotel Ålesund

Ålesund

Great location!

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotell Utsikten

Geiranger

This is an amazing hotel with unprecedented views...but you MUST have a car to stay here. Too far away and a steep walk to town, with no or limited taxi service

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Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotel Lilla Rådmannen

Stockholm

Now called the Corner Hotel, it's a little far away from the center of the city.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Viking Line overnight cruise

Stockholm

Loved this overnight cruise across the Baltic and into the Stockholm Archipelago!

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Upgraded Superior Room was a necessity, and was great!

St.Barbara

Tallinn

Great hotel just outside the old town.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Scandic Grand Central Helsinki

Helsinki

Great hotel in a great location!

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Food & Culture Walk

Bergen

Geraingerfjord Safari by RIB

Geiranger

Food & Beer Walk

Oslo

Walking Tour Stockholm

Stockholm

Guide didn’t show up

Estonian Food Tour

Tallinn

Guide didn’t show up.

Copenhagen: A Food Tour of Past & Present

Copenhagen

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

We generally liked the hotels that were booked, with the Brittania in Trondheim and the Hamn I Senja our favorites. We had to change plans a few times because of two Norwegian national holidays that occurred during our trip (not known to us - we might have rerouted our trip a bit since many places were closed. The ongoing hospitality strike impacted our stays in the larger cities - Bodo, Tromso and Oslo. Most hotel restaurants and bars in those cities are closed (except for breakfast buffets).

Hi, My friend Dave did most of the planning and decision making with Krista, our local specialist. For the most part, the trip was incredible. Though we only spent 1 night in Oslo, we enjoyed walking around seeing the sights and ate a delicious dinner. Our long drive to Odda was smooth. The Hotel Trolltunga was very nice. We liked the small town and restaurants. When our hike to Trolltunga was cancelled due to a rockslide, Krista immediately scheduled us another hike to Queen Sonya's trailhead. Next, we traveled to Stavanger, which was a great place to walk around and eat more delicious food. Absolutely loved the hike to Pulpit Rock. Unfortunately, our hike the following day to Kjeragbotten was a bust. They were to pick us up at the Clarion Hotel and never showed up. Dave was very disappointed as he is an avid hiker. Krista did manage to book us on a Fjord cruise instead. We absolutely loved Bergen. So walkable, pretty area near the water, delicious food and friendly people. We enjoyed another Fjord cruise and the Funicular ride. Didn't get to enjoy the view as it was rainy and cloudy that day. Would love a return trip to Bergen!

The trip was great! The chosen activities were all good and I was very glad to have used Kimkim for the most part. I don’t like giving up control so much (control freak, obviously), but I only truly regretted it twice and kind of rolled my eyes once. They were not quick enough on getting us train tickets and we lost the opportunity for the original timing altogether (which I ended up being really glad for) and still weren’t able to get us seats together on the later time (which was not pleasant- not only was it annoying to not be next to my family, but also none of us had windows). The second thing I regretted was the first hotel- but it’s hard to say if I could have done significantly better - I did do way better on the last hotel 😮‍💨. That said- without them I would have likely not done three things that were the true highlight of the trip: one was a cruising sauna (in the end I booked this outside the Kim Kim portion of my trip myself, because due to the train timing issue they had to cancel the floating sauna they had intended for us- but I wouldn’t have booked at all probably without them putting it in my itinerary originally! The second was the Flåm train ride- what a treat! And thanks to the awful seats on the first leg of the train journey, we ended up having probably the best seats in this ‘free seating’ portion- so that worked out and was a true treat. The third was the fjord safari- super highly recommend!! It was wonderful, and we ended up having a private tour which was great. The one activity that was eye roll worthy and I regret on so many levels was the ‘dinner cruise’ in Bergen. For one, I’m sure it was unnecessarily expensive, two: at this point we had seen the fjord several times and it is definitely way prettier by Flåm and Balestrand, and three: the meal was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long. My 16yo was jumping out of his skin and frankly so was I- it’s just that as an adult I could hide it better. Even my husband, who does like relaxing in beautiful scenery way longer than us, was not pleased with the overly drawn out meal. I wish I had asked more about this, I would have likely taken it out. To me, dinner cruise means you’re on a boat that has food- so it was also a case of wrong interpretation by me. Overall- the trip was amazing and I’m glad I used Kimkim, but I will ask more questions next time.

Hotel Reviews

Flåmsbrygga Apartments

Flåm

Super spacious! Very clean, lots of doors to open (important because I could not turn off the heat). However- the birds are LOUD, so theres a downside to open doors. Despite the great amount of space there aren’t enough surfaces for luggage. They have maybe one that is supposedly for luggage, but it’s so narrow we couldn’t even successfully use it for backpacks, let alone carry-on size luggage. So then we used the chairs to open up our backpacks, because the couch needed to be opened for our third person (our son), so then we had nowhere to sit. Thus, despite the huge size of this place, it was not comfortable to hang out in. This extended to the ginormous ballroom size bathroom which contained one of those ridiculously tiny round door showers. Good luck washing your feet without fancy acrobatics or opening the round doors thus creating an even bigger mess of water. They could have simply strung a curtain in a larger area and it would have likely been cheaper (presumably why they used the round doors instead of actual glass that created a bigger footprint). They have shelves, but are the cheap, plastic, wobbly kind, so you can’t use them for anything other than their towels. At least the sink counter is spacious though. All in all- I was very pleased with how clean and well kept it was, but wow what a waste of space that ultimately made it exactly as comfortable as a cramped hotel room.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Theres no staff- but check in and out were easy

Cleanliness & Comfort

Clean yes! Comfort- half yes half no per review

Hotell Bondeheimen

Oslo

It was ok- pretty cramped (we were three, so our chair bed was opened), very hot (zero control over temperature- can’t even ‘turn it off’). However, very well located and the staff were very friendly- they got us two fans to help with the heat. The shower is open- the glass that is there doesn’t even reach the floor, so water goes everywhere, very literally everywhere. Important to note that most European hotels have zero A/C (although I can usually at least turn off the heat!), are usually tiny, and the showers tend to be tiny and uncomfortable- so the downsides here weren’t exactly abnormal, but with careful researching I’ve successfully avoided all of these in the past, and did so in Bergen. Last thing- the breakfast was amazing! And again: the staff is outstanding and delivered good service despite an ongoing strike that affected their staff.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Clean yes! Comfort so-so

Activity Reviews

Fjord Safari by RIB

Flåm

It was an amazing way to experience the fjords up close and personal! Our driver/tour guide , Anton I believe, was great- caring, entertaining and friendly. I would highly recommend this!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Fjord Cruise & Seafood Dining Experience

Bergen

Ok- it wasn’t- it just wasn’t worth it for us. We had come to Bergen by ferry from Balestrand- so a nice four hour tour of the fjords. Zero upside to the boat ride required to get to the restaurant. The dinner itself was three long hours long- waaaaaaaaaay too long. It was solidly good, but nothing out of this world and because it’s strictly seafood, people who don’t love seafood won’t have as great a time. Also- I’m sure it was ridiculously expensive in a city area where you can get great fresh seafood without even trying. The location is very nice with a great view of the water, and the service is excellent. So again: not bad, just not worth it IMO. For us it was a waste of five hours for something we could have accomplished in one anf slept earlier 😂 but it may very well be something you love if you love spending hours on dinner and want to feel extra fancy.

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Past & Present City Walk

Bergen

Excellent tour- Erik was a great guide and quite entertaining. We learned a lot and had a lovely walk around the city, surely we wouod have missed some things if it hadn’t been for this tour!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Unfortunately, I was very disappointed with the trip planning and overall service for our Norway trip. The only reason I am giving stars is because Norway is an incredible country and, thankfully, it runs so well on its own. Also, the hotel in Alta , Onga was extraordinary, and we were lucky enough to see the Aurora, which was truly unforgettable.

That said, the planning felt overly commercial and generic. From hotel reservations to transfers to restaurant recommendations, everything seemed focused on standard tourist logistics rather than creating a meaningful or authentic cultural experience. We had no real opportunities to connect with Norwegian culture, traditions, or local experiences, which is what I expected from a company like Kimkim.

There were also several major issues that should never happen with a professional travel agent:
1. The castle visit in Denmark – we were not informed of the ticket time, and we missed the visit completely.
2. Bergen airport transfer – we were forced to arrive extremely early, which caused us to miss the only great part of the Bergen hotel: the breakfast.
3. Transfers advertised as private – we were clearly told in writing (and charged accordingly) that all transfers would be private, yet in Alta the transfer was shared. Because of this, we had to miss a museum visit.

Overall, there was very little attention to detail and almost no care in making sure the trip flowed smoothly. For the high price I paid, the service and planning did not match expectations at all.

I strongly recommend that future Kimkim travelers consider working with a different Norway specialist.