Kimkim Trip Reviews

Our trip to Spain was amazing, 19 months of planing with KimKim. This was the 2nd time using them, and would definitely use 7 refer them. From Seville, Madrid, Costa Brava to Barcelona and all the other excursions kayaking, wine tasting, royal palace taps stroll etc. All amazing. But there was a couple of bumps in the road which was not really a big deal. But I did I feel like Alfonso was more of pointing the issues at others, rather than understanding the issue. Or just take accountability.
*1st issue was every stop from destination to destination we had a private transfer from hotel to train station or vice versa. Except when leaving Madrid, we were required to take a taxi to the train station. Private transfer should have been included, and I will never be convinced it shouldn't have been. When asked about this, Alfonso immediately referenced a conversation we had in the trip chat about taxis. But that was in regards to taking taxis to our excursions(Costa Brava) not back to a train station
*2nd issue was at some point our train time changed leaving Madrid to Costa Brava back in May. But we were never notified, and we never noticed either. Originally scheduled to leave at 10:30 and arrive 13:15. New time was 12:27 and arrive 16:35. Not that big of deal, but what was never mentioned once was that it was an 1:15min ride to the hotel. So what originally was a day we thought we would be at the Hotel by at least 14:00, didn't arrive until almost 18:30. In addition to the time changes our train tickets had incorrect train # on it. Thankfully Renfe held the train for 20min to get us seats on the train
*3rd issue was not having clear instructions at the Sagrada Familia. Had instructions to meet for a guided tour at 17:00 at a certain point, we waited and waited. But eventually we didn't know who we were actually waiting for so we went inside. Where we waited there's hundreds of people, different tours with different groups, colored flags etc. Again this wasn't really a big deal for us, but when asked Alfonso seemed very frustrated with us, as if we were just asking to much. We just didn't know, we followed the specific instructions and just waited at the meeting. But didn't know who we were meeting.
*4th issue was Alfonso creating a WhatsApp group thread for communicating, and not actually including me. The group consisted of him, his associate and my wife Paula. This I didn't understand, as I just spent 19months planing this trip with him, and he set up this group chat without me. Wasn't until the 2nd to last day I was added to the chat. Again small issue, I just didn't understand why.
In summary our trip was amazing!! I spent 19 months planing this with Alfonso and everything he put together was amazing from top to bottom, the hotels, excursions food etc. Although I do know Alfonso was dealing with a family matter, and I hope everything is ok. My father passed away this past January, it was a very difficult time. With that said I feel Alfonso did a great job with everything, nothing is ever perfect. Would still give 4-4.5 stars. There was just a couple of things where the instructions weren't clear to us, and when we reached out. We sensed some frustration from Alfonso towards us. We've now been home for 12days, and I thought its very unusual for a traveler agent that you worked with for 19 months, and hasn't even reached out asking how the trip was. Or ask for a review? So I came on to check, and only saw the KimKim reply. Either way can't wait to plan the next trip

Activity Reviews

Cruise Seville's Río Guadalquivir

Seville

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Visit to La Sagrada Família & Tower

Barcelona

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Private Visit to Seville’s Cathedral & Alcázar

Seville

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Private Evening Tapas Stroll with Locals

Madrid

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Tapas Walk in Barcelona

Barcelona

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Kayaking & Snorkeling in Costa Brava

Spain

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Private City Walk & Royal Palace Experience

Madrid

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Private Wine Experience

Spain

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

I will start by saying I loved Japan. The itinerary was based on a trip another kimkim representative – who had left kimkim – had put together but was still on your web site, and that trip really appealed to us. What we did do was a nice mixture of cultural things (shrines, temples, even riding the subway) and food-oriented activities – sushi making class, ramen making class, sake tasting, street food tour, sushi and waygu beef tasting, etc. This is a nice way to get to see Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka in a relatively short time. I now have a better idea of what we can do ourselves in terms of getting around, and what we need help with.

Our tour guide in Tokyo was one of the best we have ever had anywhere. I mean it. She was super!!!! Not only did she know a great deal about Japanese history and culture, but even while we were waiting for things, she would explain things – like bowing, etc. She also gave us tips about keeping cool - -5 degree neck towels, using a small fan, using a spray to cool us down. These are ‘forever” tips, and I just shared them with our daughter who is heading to Italy.

Our guide in Kyoto and Osaka was fine and extremely nice, but she did not have a depth of knowledge – particularly about food – and I believe her English was not quite strong enough. She was adaptable, however, and found us a place to buy knives and other things we asked about. So overall I thought she did a good job. Thus, we found her very responsive and helpful, despite the bit of English problem. And since I was in Japan without being able to speak more than a modicum of Japanese, one can hardly complain!

My main concern is with communication problems with our main travel agent Eleanor. We found it impossible to get detailed itineraries in advance. We waited for a very long time to get picked up in the Tokyo airport. We did not see anyone with a sign when we left baggage claim, and walked outside. We kept asking where the driver was, but couldn’t seem to get an answer. I felt very bad for him, and I still have absolutely no idea where he had been waiting. A simple email, text, or message on What’s App with his exact location would have been helpful. All we got was “he was there” and a photo of his sign. I think I sent the message “where” about 5 times.

For our foodie tour, it was super unclear where we were expected to get to. One set of itineraries said we needed to get to that part of Tokyo by subway. Another said we were to get driven there. We were very mixed up about pick-up and meet up times and places on many occasions. While taking the subway at rush hour in a new city would have been challenging, and we were glad to be driven and picked up, a detailed itinerary would have solved this problem.

We had another extremely stressful incident getting on the bullet train in Tokyo to head to Kyoto. We almost missed our train, because we were not given whatever “code” we needed to scan at the entrance. I sent a lot of messages on this one, and the bullet train person ran us to the gate and got us through somehow. Luckily a person named Jonathan sent us the correct bar codes or we wouldn’t have been able to exit either.

When we were leaving to fly home, Eleanor sent us a message late the night before and said the car would pick us up at 11 am (for a 12:45 pm flight to Tokyo – then U.S.) and the driver sent us a what’s app message that he would pick us up at 11:20 pm – and neither time was acceptable. It was over 30 minutes to get there by car, and we had baggage to check. Having less than an hour to get checked in for what is an international flight technically is just crazy. When I saw this the night before, I immediately sent a message through the Kimkim app that we needed to be picked up by 10 a.m. at the latest. Eventually this got arranged, and the new driver was very prompt the morning we left. However, a question to us before hand of how much time we needed and when we would like to get picked up would have saved a lot of late night scrambling on the part of Eleanor.

I view these issues as a lack of ability to provide detailed itineraries for the entire trip, with times, bar codes, meeting spots, etc. in advance – certainly by at least 2 days in advance. Receiving this late at night the day before a specific set of activities was difficult. By providing detailed itineraries in advance, we wouldn’t have a panic late at night. This all adds up to insufficient clarity and timeliness in the communications from Eleanor.

Overall, the trip was great. I adored Japan, and I cannot wait to go back. It is unfortunate that we had the communication difficulties we had. We did not have any of these problems on our February trip to Costa Rica – nor when my husband used your group in Morocco.

We really enjoyed seeing three distinct parts of Thailand, Bangokok, Koh Sumai, and Chang Mai. Leena, our guide in Bangkok, was great and listened to our feedback. We didn't have a guide in Koh Sumai. Our guide in Chaing Mai, Lilly, was also wonderful and provided a lot of interesting information about the areas we visited. If I had to change anything about the intinerary, I would trade one day in Koh Sumai for another day in Chaing Mai. The accomodations we stayed at thoughout the trip were very comfortable and nice quality. It was a good mixture of a guided and self-led vacation.

Our Iceland adventure was incredible! Iceland is a beautiful country with so much to see and explore. Adam and the entire team at KimKim were exceptional at advising, organizing, coordinating, and communicating all details to make our adventure as easy and exciting as possible. Not one detail was missed. From the moment we arrived; airport transfers, car rental, hotels, tour & activity tickets were all prepared in advance. The KimKim App is easy to use with all details and documents at your fingertips.

We loved our adventure and know that Adam and KimKim Travel helped to make it better than expected.
This was our second large family travel adventure with KimKim. We highly recommend KimKim and will certainly use them again for our next great adventure.

I have been recommending KimKim to all of my friends since returning from Greece! Two girlfriends and I traveled to Athens, Mykonos, Paros and Santorini. Erica and Lea were so helpful every step of the way, and our accomodations were perfect. Everything went so smoothly with meeting our drivers and ferries, etc. One of the unexpected highlights was a day trip to Antiparos. We shopped in the morning and spent the afternoon at Fanari Beach Club. It was the perfect day. Another highlight was the day cruise from Paros. The swimming, sights, the staff and the lovely authentic Greek lunch made for a truly memorable day. We also loved our walking tour in Mykonos with Pako. He was an absolute delight! I could go on and on. I will definitely be using KimKim for my next trip :)

Activity Reviews

Day Cruise Sailing

Paros

Loved all of it! The staff were fantastic, views were awesome. Authentic barbecue lunch was amazing :))

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Self-Guided Day Trip to Antiparos

Greece

This was an awesome suggestion. We spend the afternoon at Fanari Beach Club. Highly recommend!

Quality of Experience

Chora Food & Culture Walk

Mykonos

We loved this tour! Pako was an absolute delight!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Kinderjink was great. Would have been better if biking in the area was added. Bruges was terrific as was the guide. The biking trip to the coast was amazing

Hotel Review

Hotel des Arts

Amsterdam-Centrum

Plumbings needs attention. The staff was great but the hotel needs major renovation

Authenticity & Character

Historical building

Location

Close to everything

Staff

Very helpful

Cleanliness & Comfort

Bed mattress was uncomfortable

Activity Reviews

Rotterdam - FENIX Museum

The Netherlands

Very informative. A must do.

Quality of Experience

Gorgeous building

Rotterdam - Day trip to Leiden by public transport

Rotterdam

Cute and charming place. Would liked to have stayed here.

5/5 Stars – An Unforgettable Travel Experience!

We couldn’t have asked for a better trip planner than Hector at Spiritu Travel! From start to finish, Hector went above and beyond to make sure our vacation was seamless, stress-free, and truly unforgettable. He was extraordinarily patient, took the time to answer every single question we had, and even jumped on phone calls with us multiple times before our trip to walk through the itinerary and make sure every detail was covered.

The Spiritu Travel app was an absolute game-changer, putting our complete itinerary, travel details, and key information right at our fingertips whenever we needed it.

Every excursion and local guide Hector booked for us was top-tier, exceptionally professional, and always right on time. On top of that, the private transports Hector arranged were wonderful—the drivers were incredibly friendly, highly knowledgeable, and made getting around a breeze.

Thanks to Hector and Spiritu Travel, we enjoyed every single minute of our trip. We are already looking forward to booking our next adventure with Hector and cannot recommend him highly enough!

Hotel Reviews

Hotel Meninas

Madrid

Rooms are small and there is a poor view out the windows. The room smell a bit musty and the free breakfast was really bad.

Location

Centrally located near the center of the city and metro.

Staff

Staff was always friendly and helpful

Cleanliness & Comfort

Cascade Wellness Resort

Lagos

This hotel was amazing and the highlight of our entire trip. I would highly recommend it. The room was clean and well kept. The pools were beautiful and clean. The food at the different restaurants was top notch.

Authenticity & Character

Location location location

Location

Close to town and located near the cliffs for hiking and running or walking

Staff

Everyone was extremely helpful and friendly

Cleanliness & Comfort

The entire place was always clean.

Activity Reviews

Exploring Sintra & Cascais: Palaces, Cliffs & Coastline

Lisbon

Sintra is a beautiful town. However, it gets very crowded. To nobody’s fault the high risk of wild fires had closed the road and we couldn’t visit the palace. The trip to cascáis was a great experience just wished we had more time to spend there.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

The Soul of Lisbon: Fado Dinner Experience

Spain

True dinner and a show experience. The food was delicious our waiter was very friendly and accommodating. The show was espectacular and we would highly recommend it, even my 8 yold daughter enjoyed it a lot.

Quality of Experience

Food

Gummi was great to work with, starting from the initial emails and video calls to questions being answered on the spot while we were on vacation in Iceland. Although the weather did not cooperate on three of our days, we were still able to explore the country around the Ring Road without much difficulty. We were given step by step instructions on how much time to spend at each location to maximize our travels with three children as well as driving instructions.

Activity Review

Glacier Ice Cave Experience

Iceland

The deep colors of blue and being able to experience glacial ice was a bucket list item that was fulfilled! It was a great experience for our family!

Quality of Experience

Our guide Bryka (spelling?) was great with our kids

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Clothilde was extremely helpful and responsive with the overall planning and with every detail. Our original ideas to visit Evian and Montreux for golf and jazz were made even better with the KimKim team presenting options for personalized tours which exceeded our expectations. The additional experiences included a private cheese and wine tasting with a Sommelier in Annecy (Jennifer), a private pontoon boat tour on Lake Annecy with Fondue (Gael), a private tour of the old town (Aude) a private tour of the Patek Phillipe Museum in Geneva (with Siggy), and a private tour of artisanal cheese making in Gruyere, a chocolate factory tour, and a driving tour around Montreux that included wine tasting in the UNESCO World Heritage site (with Emmanuel). The guides were impeccable in their knowledge and getting to know us to help personalize the tours. We especially want to single out Aude for her knowledge of Annecy and the ability to simplify the complex history of the area, and Emmanuel, who made us feel like friends from the moment we met, and who altered the tour in real time based on our interests. All of the drivers were on time and easily contacted for any time changes we requested. We are looking forward to planning our next adventure with KimKim. We will refer our friends to KimKim to develop itineraries to exactly match their desires.

We had some ideas of where we would enjoy visiting in Atlantic Canada and Ryan drew up a great itinerary which suited us very well. We especially enjoyed Peggy's Cove (complete with someone playing an Alphorn!).
Our food tour guide, Margaret, in PEI, gave us an in-depth and interesting history of the Island which accompanied our eclectic food samplings.
Getting out on the ocean for the whale watching and the tall ship tour was a plus - the air was wonderful. The restaurant recommendations were excellent (seafood galore).
We hope to visit NS again soon. What a gorgeous region of Canada!

It was one of the BEST trips I have been on!! I will definitely recommend Olman and this company to friends and family.

Hilda, did a fantastic job overall. We had several changes to our itinerary given we were traveling with an infant and she was able to accommodate them all. Additionally, she answered all questions we asked and was even responsive to questions during our time there. We had a great experience

We have used KimKim previously for a trip to Norway with success, and had high hopes for our trip to Scotland. Unfortunately, the trip was not planned well, and I feel that this service was mostly a waste of money, and it was a lot of money! We had emphasized at the start of this that we wanted a trip with a focus on nature and history, but ideally would like to avoid a bunch of churches and castles since those get repetitive. We were hoping for walks and museums, mostly.

In Edinburgh the initial old town private tour was very superficial with a focus on shopping locations and Harry Potter trivia rather than the history of the old town and culture of Scotland. It didn't help that it was given by a man who was new to the position and not a native to the area, so he was clearly giving info that he had just recently learned himself. The food tour had the wrong start location, and when we reported this to Tetiana our specialist, she reminded us that we could have checked the start location ourselves. We paid a ton of money so that we wouldn't have to double check all her work, so this was a frustrating response. Of note, our favorite visit in Ediburgh was the Surgeon's museum, which had great history and culture and demonstrated some of the impact that Scotland has had globally. This museum was one we picked ourselves on arrival, it was not suggested by Tetiana.

The Oban leg of the trip was fine, although this was the start of the difficulty with timing. Driving consistently took around 30% longer than our schedule had listed, and so we consistently had to remove one of the stops from each day from this point onwards. Calculating out the timing, we would have been getting back to the hotel between 7 and 9 PM nightly, which was not what we were looking for when the day also included 2-6 hrs of driving. Of note, the church we were supposed to visit in Glencoe on the way to Oban was closed, and it was just a local church for the town, not a destination from what we could tell. There was a war memorial nearby that might have been a better alternative to a closed local church.

Fort William was not very interesting, and when we ran into locals and mentioned this city, they were surprised we would even go there.

For the Isle of Skye, we stayed in Portree, and the museum suggested in the guide did not exist. There is nothing called the "Portree museum," and the closest thing was called the "Skye Museum of Island Life" which is a pretty different name! Especially when we emphasized wanting to get the history and culture of the area, I wish more care had been taken to make sure these museums existed.

The trip to Loch Lomond was fine, also, I have no major complaints.

While some issues with the trip I can blame on Scotland itself (such as the hot weather, lack of trees, lack of birds and small mammals, poor ability to consume the history outside of castles, apparently), many of the issues with the trip could have been avoided if a bit more care had been taken in planning the trip. I will not be using KimKim again, as it has proven itself too unreliable for my money!

Hotel Reviews

Cameron house

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

The Whispering Pine Lodge

Loch Lochy, Spean Bridge, Scotland, PH34 4DZ

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

No11 Boutique Hotel & Brasserie

Edinburgh

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Seal Spotting Loch Linnhe Cruise

Scotland

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Vegan Scottish Food Tour

Edinburgh

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Edinburgh Castle & Old Town Private Tour

Scotland

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Treshnish Isles Wildlife Cruise and Staffa Trip from Oban

Oban

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Mathia was a huge help in planning my two weeks in Norway. First he helped me book just the exact right cruise out of Bergen on Havila when I was struggling to figure out how to do only part of the coastal route. When only an interior cabin was available, he monitored the bookings and secured a newly available cabin with window with no prompting from me.

Then he re-routed our rental car pickup in Lofoten to be there when we disembarked, saving us from expensive taxi rides.

And finally, he showed us around his home island of Vesterhålen when we realized how close we were. It was a treat to meet him after so much electronic correspondence, and even better to get a personal guide for a bit.

I would recommend Mathia to anyone planning a trip to Norway!

From the moment we stepped foot in Peru, everything was perfect. The communication was great. All the guides we had were amazing. They were very accommodating when it comes to changing tweaking the itinerary. Highly recommend KimKim for your trip to Peru.

Overall this trip was full of hassles. 1) Kimkim will not disclose tour costs so it is difficult to make choices about where you want to spend your resources. 2) I bought insurance and had flight issues which required us to miss some tours. These were not reimbursed. 3) When my bags did not arrive at the airport and I was filling out a missing bag form, I got a call to say that there would be a charge because the driver was waiting too long. 4) the actual itinerary was wrong multiple times (dates, people, etc).

I will say the local guides (Ale, Angel and Jennifer) were great. Friendly and knowledgeable.

Hotel Review

Client to Book Own Accommodation in Santiago

Santiago

Activity Reviews

Wine Tasting, Valparaiso and Viña del Mar- Private Tour

Santiago

Loved Valaparaiso. Great town and we really enjoyed walking around, hearing the history and shopping.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Viña Santa Rita- Wine Tasting day

Chile

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Wine Tasting at Viña Cousiño Macul

Santiago

Great vineyard!!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Adventure Day at Maipo Valley - Waterfalls, Adrenaline & More!

Chile

We had 2 older people in our group. The hike that was described as a gentle stroll was wet, full of rocks and too strenuous for them. The location was beautiful. The lunch stop was terrible

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Santiago City Tour

Santiago

Great tour. The cable car part of the tour was awesome.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Kateryna did an amazing job planning our trip! I could have never done it without her. We packed in so many things in two weeks in Europe ! With all the complicated schedules and hours of the many places we wanted to see and go she fit it all in like clockwork.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!

IT WAS A TRIP OF A LIFETIME

Entire trip was wonderful. Special shout out to our driver Hamdi,!!,!

We worked with Laurent to book a girls trip to southern Croatia, and I can't say enough great things about him and the process. There is no way we would have had the trip we did without him. He worked patiently with us beforehand to understand what we were looking for and came up with an itinerary that matched our interests, travel style, and budget and then made changes and adjustments till we got it just right. He booked everything for us and gave us all our trip information in the app as well as in a PDF for easy reference. But most importantly, he was extremely responsive when we were on the trip and needed help or had questions. For example, we were notified the night before that a whole-day tour we had booked was cancelled due to weather. We reached out to Laurent, he got on the phone with us to give us some options and by the next morning we were booked on a whitewater rafting trip that was a highlight of our trip! All of the hotels he booked and restaurants he suggested were a perfect match for what we were looking for.

Our time in Iceland was fantastic. A lot of the thanks goes to KIMKIM for setting every up for us. We tried to set up our Iceland trip ourselves and it was overwhelming. The itinerary for our trip was great we never felt rushed. Our hotel accommodations were very pleasant and we were very happy with them. The suggestions on where to eat were appreciated, we did eat at quite a few of the recommended places. We were set up with a WI-FI HOTSPOT to use so we were always able to research things as we were going. Having the hot spot also meant our navigation was spot on and we were able to drive around with ease. Our pre-planned trip was extremely enjoyable. Iceland is a beautiful country to visit. Everyday was like being in a post card.