Trip My France

The hotel was in the center of everything we explored and the staff was absolutely amazing and was very welcoming. I absolutely loved the dinner cruise as it was one of my favorites along with Disney land.
The tours were wonderful with lots of amazing history and art,
The metro made things alittle stressful at times into navigating the city.

Hotel Review

Hôtel Parc Saint Séverin

Paris

Such a great fit! The staff was welcoming and very accommodating and helped in any way you needed. Felt spoiled while we were there.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Nighttime Seine River Cruise with Dining Experience

Paris

Made this truly an amazing way to end the trip. It was amazing.

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Haut Marais & Canal St Martin Food Tour

Paris

Loved trying all the famous and delicious foods of Paris!!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Our family of four (kids aged 14 and 12) had a great time on our trip to France, which Kimkim planned. We enjoyed each activity they had planned for us. We had multiple private tours scheduled, and each guide was exceptional. All respected all of our wants and needs to the utmost degree. All of the transfers worked very smoothly as well. The travel specialists listened to all of our requests and delivered.
Only two minor gripes, which downgrade my review to 4 stars instead of 5. The travel specialists changed multiple times during the planning, and it would have been nice to have this be more consistent, as I feel the trip could have been a little more personalized if rapport had been built with one specialist. The other small detail was that our trip documents were not released to us until very close to the trip, so some of the details were unknown until that time, which led to a small amount of anxiety.
That being said, neither of these things impacted how we enjoyed the logistics and events that were laid out for us. We did have a fantastic trip!

Hotel Reviews

Le Meridien Nice

Nice

Authenticity & Character

Location

If I could give this more than 5 stars, I would.

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Negrecoste Hotel and Spa

Aix en Provence

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Hôtel Le Tourville Paris

Paris

Our family of four stayed in the family suite (1 king and two twin beds) on the top (sixth) floor for five nights. We truly enjoyed our stay. The suite fit us very well. As expected in Paris, it was a little small, but we made do. The closet and bathroom were nice and large. This is a boutique hotel, and as such, it does not offer some of the amenities that larger hotels typically provide, such as a pool or spa. That being said, the staff were charming and helpful, and the breakfast options were plentiful.

Authenticity & Character

They have a French writing theme, which is unique

Location

It is very close to a Metro stop and easily within walking distance of the Eiffel Tower and the Seine.

Staff

Always available and attentive.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Room was cleaned daily and no signs of any distress in the rest of the hotel.

Activity Reviews

Monaco, Eze and La Turbie Tour Private Tour

France

Tour in the Alpilles, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, and Les Baux de Provence with Wine Tastings

France

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Greg, from A la Francaise, was an amazing guide.

Villages and Markets of the Luberon

France

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Greg was a fantastic guide from A la francaise.

Eiffel Tower Summit Ticket

Paris

Louvre Late Opening Private tour

Paris

Montmartre & Sacré-Coeur walking tour

Paris

Sweet Side Food Tour of Paris

Paris

Family Bicycle Tour of Paris

Paris

Our family left the Le Peloton Cafe in Le Marais for a private tour. Cedric was our guide, and he provided us with very informative insights. We covered a fair territory on the bike for a total of 5-6 miles.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Seine Cruise with Commentary

Paris

This was the kids favorite part of our time in France.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

We just finished a wonderful 10-day trip in Switzerland……spending time in the Interlaken area, taking the Golden Pass to Montreux, then moving on to Luzern and Zurich. The weather had been erratic but cooperative most of the time, so no complaints!
In general, all three in the group really would like to commend and thank Clo and her team for planning and executing pretty well with the rundown of the entire itinerary.
However, with some of the planned activities and hotel/transfer services, there certainly are surprises......Some pleasant, but a few less so!

Hotels
• The Ameron Hotel in Luzern is great..... Comfortable, clean and efficient. Staff is very professional, knowledgeable and helpful.
• The NiMo in Luzern comes as a pleasant surprise. Although you informed us that the hotel has no air-coned rooms, it turned out that our rooms do have aircons, and there are also fans. Rooms are clean and spacious. The breakfast/reception area is also quite charming and well run. A very good find, thanks Clo!
• Hotel Lotschberg in Interlaken is ok in general in terms of room size/setup and reception staff support. But the housekeeping we encountered was terrible. Bathroom sinks and counters, and water glasses were not well cleaned, and so were toilet bowls. Body wash was not refilled, despite that we had requested it consecutively for two days. It certainly was not a very pleasant stay as I would have thought standard hygiene and amenities provision should be pretty basic with any 3-star hotel.

Activities
• The panoramic train ride is magnificent......And thank you so much for securing the Prestige seats. They are great!!
• On the day of the Bern tour, because I never was given a detailed rundown of the day's itinerary, we were surprised to learn that the whole group had been enrolled in a 2-hour cookie making class while visiting the Kambly place. Obviously the two men wouldn't want to join. I did go along for about half an hour and then quit. Honestly, should I have known ahead that this was included as part of the visit, I would have requested that the class be removed because it certainly wouldn't fit the profile of our group, and both the costs and time that had been put in for the class were wasted. There was NO tasting session at the Kambly place, and there was NO tasting session at the Emmental dairy. We did pass through stunning landscapes on the way, but we weren’t given any explanation by the guide about them (assuming that is the UNESCO Biosphere Entlebuch which was mentioned in the itinerary you provided!). We passed through a lot of farmhouses, but I don’t think we stopped at any of them to take a look or for pictures. All in all, the day passed along quite flat partly because the guide Henry didn’t provide much explanations (except when in Bern), and we were just driven from one place to another while missing the “meaning” of the sceneries in between.
• The Farm Walk and Cheese Tasting tour in Luzern was totally not what we had expected. Again, because I wasn't informed of the "details", we were all expecting some easy walk in a farm near Luzern, and then cheese tasting in the farm itself. It turned out that the guide Dave (who substituted Eve) brought us onto some kind of high grounds/farm/forest areas at Sonnenberg for walks and then picnicking with wines and cheeses brought in his backpack. Honestly, we were all skeptical about this approach of the tour when we heard Dave’s explanation at the start of the tour, because I did mention to you at the planning stage that “prolonged” walking in the mountains/forest is definitely not Philip’s preferred activity. However, despite that Philip was struggling a bit with the walking part, we all ended up enjoying it VERY much. The fields are so green, the calves are cute, and grazing cows with cowbells are quite a delight!! A very refreshing experience for us city people!! But still, I think I would appreciate if you can give me some kind of a headsup at the planning stage about the "off the beaten path" nature of this tour so that we can be more mentally and physically prepared.

Car Transfers
• All the car transfers from our arrival in Zurich airport up till our check in into the hotel in Luzern were handled by Marquis who was professional and attentive.
• Actually, when he did our various transfers in Montreux, he literally acted more like a guide to us - alking around town with us to different points of interests with great explanations. He was knowledgeable and professional, certainly very attentive to our preferences and needs (particularly because of Philip’s walking “limitations”). The walking tour that day was a pleasant surprise, and we had great commendations for Marquis.
• Marquis could not handle our transfer from Luzern to Zurich in person, so he had texted me ahead of time that he had assigned the transfer to Musa who was ok, but I was surprised that he did not help us with our luggage when we arrived at the NiMo Hotel in Zurich. He parked his car across the road from the hotel (I guess because of traffic rules), left the luggage of the street. So the three of us had to move five pieces of luggage across the road and into the hotel ourselvesl. My question: is this the usual practice?
• It was a total letdown with our transfer from the NiMo Hotel to Zurich Airport on the last day. I didn't get any news from Marquis about who the driver would be. Then at around 8:30am that morning I got a WhatsApp message from a guy called Mustafa saying that he was assigned the job and would arrive 10:30am as planned. Then at around 10:10am, a taxi guy arrived at the hotel reception claiming to pick up guests for airport, his look definitely not the same as Mustafa in the WhatsApp message. I was confused, and communicating with the taxi guy was near impossible because his English was minimal. Finally, this taxi guy made a few calls and with the translation help of the NiMo reception, I was made to understand that he was there in place of Mustafa. So we took his car to the airport and told him that we needed to find the terminal for Air Canda. We were left with our luggage at an airport entrance where there was NO Air Canada signage. I was anxious and so I tried to show him our flight itinerary to make sure he understood that we were looking for AC departure. He literally snatched the paper itinerary from my hand to look, papercut one of my fingers, kept waving us towards the airport entrance......Then just went up his car and drove away!!! That was downright rude and irresponsible! We literally felt just being dumped in front of the airport. Of course, we could definitely find our way in the airport to the right terminal and the right counter. But honestly, I would expect a more polite and helpful attitude/behavior from an average taxi driver......let alone the fact that we had actually paid for a private car transfer service. So, that was a pretty low note to end such a special trip!!

Anyway, I know this is a pretty long and detailed review, but please do understand that the comments I made are not meant as complaints. I just think that the KimKim team would like to know how your service providers are doing in playing out their different roles.
Overall, we all had a wonderful trip, and the fun we had is not going to get dampened because of the unpleasantness in just a few instances. But we certainly would remember those pleasant surprises that we picked up along the way.

Hotel Reviews

BOUTIQUE HOTEL NI-MO

Zurich

Rooms are airconed and spacious.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Walkable to Old Town area.

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Ameron Luzern Hotel Flora

Luzern

Concierge staff is very knowledgeable and helpful.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Walkable distance to main station.

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotel Lötschberg

Interlaken

Location is great. Staff support ok. Housekeeping below standard.

Authenticity & Character

Old building but relatively well kept.

Location

Convenient distance to various places.

Staff

Staffing at reception should be extended beyond 7pm.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Basic cleanliness and amenities provision need to be improved.

Activity Reviews

Zurich Old Town, Cruise and Lindt Home of Chocolate

Switzerland

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Lucerne Walking tour and Cheese Tasting

Lucerne

We didn't expect a farm walk, even less so, a walk on the high grounds/farm/forest at Sonnenberg. We also didn't expect doing cheese tasting on a bench with cheese and wine brought along in the backpack by the guide Dave. But it turned out we enjoyed the tour VERY much. The green fields, the grazing cows, the cheese and wine, and also Dave's stories were all a great delight!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Bern - Swiss Capital & Countryside!

Switzerland

The actual experience fell short of what was detailed in the itinerary. - There was a scenic drive of Swiss countryside, but we were not told or explained by the driver guide that we were actually going through this so-called UNESCO Biosphere Entlebuch - There was a visit to the Kambly place, but we were surprised to find out that the group of 3 was enrolled in a 2-hour cooking class. We were NEVER told ahead of time.......that certainly wouldn't fit the profile of the group. And there was NO sampling session at Kambly. - There was NO sampling session at Emmentaler either. - We passes through a lot of farmhouses but there was no stop at any of them. We did stop for pictures at the top of some kind of farmland (with a Switzerland Grand Tour signage).

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

The driver guide Henry was polite, but he acted more like a driver than a guide (except in the guided walk in Bern).

Transport

Beatus Caves, Panoramic Bridge, Nature Park Blue Lake and Lake Thun Cruise!

Switzerland

Places we visited are special and memorable........particularly the Beatus Caves and the boat ride on Lake Thun. Interesting though that the guide Mike usually just left us at the entrance or at a certain drop point, and we were just given maps to walk around on our own. Is that the standard practice of being a driver/guide?

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Maybe the guide should be more "involved" in pointing out and explaining points of interests instead of leasing us just with maps to explore on our own.

Transport

Some parts of our trip were above and beyond our expectations. Our 5-night stay in Amboise was very charming and lovely - however it was a one mile walk to ANYTHING, including restaurants and tour meeting points. From speaking to our specialist, I assumed that our tour group would pick us up and drop us off at our hotel - not so. Also, I told the specialist how much I disliked crowds, and our trip to Monet's garden was on a 100 person double decker bus, and into a tremendously crowded area, where it was difficult to enjoy the garden.