The planning portion with Edmondo and Valentina were great and a huge relief. They worked very hard and efficiently to answer my questions and address my needs. It was nice to have the trains all booked ahead of time. We weren't too excited about our hotel choices, we felt as though they weren't really 4 stars, and the hotel in Florence was out of the way.
During the actual trip, we hit a few snags and we think it may be a miscommunication between KimKim and the tour groups chosen.
In... read more
The planning portion with Edmondo and Valentina were great and a huge relief. They worked very hard and efficiently to answer my questions and address my needs. It was nice to have the trains all booked ahead of time. We weren't too excited about our hotel choices, we felt as though they weren't really 4 stars, and the hotel in Florence was out of the way.
During the actual trip, we hit a few snags and we think it may be a miscommunication between KimKim and the tour groups chosen.
In Rome, we went to our meeting spot for the Skip the Line Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and Roman Forum tour at the designated time (15 minutes prior) as directed on the final itinerary. When we arrived there at Romaround, the desk worker told us that we needed to be there 30 minutes earlier and pushed us to the next tour that was 2 hours later. After killing time, we came back and another couple experienced the same issue. When they asked to be put on an earlier tour, their request was granted...meanwhile, my husband and I sat there with no offer of jumping into that tour. After I spoke to the desk worker, he said at first that we couldn't move up, yet another worker was able to make it happen.
For our Vatican Tour the following day, we experienced the same issue. We were given a choice of 10am or 11:30am, the only requirement being that we show up to the tour agency a half hour early. My husband and I showed up an HOUR early for the 11:30am tour and we were immediately told we had to go on the 12:30pm tour because other people had walked in earlier and took our spots. We feel that an easy solution could be put in place at this particular agency; simply hold the spot for visitors who went through a planning agency (like KimKim), tell walk-ins that there are possible spots available but they need to wait, and if they don't show up, then give those spots to walk-ins.
Giving walk-ins priority over people who made weeks in advance was upsetting. This was also frustrating because we knew we were in a time crunch with a later activity.
Again, I greatly appreciate the time my specialists put into my trip, tailoring it to what we wanted. The timing and level of expertise was above and beyond what I expected. However, I was greatly disappointed in the tour agencies chosen in Rome (Florence and Venice tour agencies were awesome) -- hopefully there are other Rome tour guides you can consult with.
