Overall well planned and executed trip.

Croatia | Sep 27 - Oct 4, 2026

Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed our trip through Croatia. Tina put together an excellent itinerary that gave us the opportunity to experience Croatia from Split north through Zadar, Plitvice Lakes, Istria and finally Zagreb. We enjoyed every town we visited, and the overall routing and pace worked very well for us.

Our two private guides were among the highlights of the trip. In Split, Dino was outstanding. As a college professor of history, he did an excellent job introducing us not only to Split and Diocletian's Palace, but also to Croatian history. He was knowledgeable, engaging and brought the history of the city to life.

Our private tour of Zagreb with Josipa was equally excellent. She was one of the best guides we had on the trip and every bit on the same level as Dino. Both guides added tremendously to our understanding and enjoyment of the cities they showed us.

We used VoiceMap to explore Zadar on our own, which worked very well.

Plitvice Lakes National Park was another highlight and is an absolute must-see. It is beautiful and extremely well organized. We could easily see returning someday and spending more time exploring the park.

The accommodations were generally very good. Our room in Split was large but fairly basic. The hotel was a short walk from where we were dropped off, as we had been told, and breakfast was good.

Zrinka House near Plitvice was outstanding. The rooms were excellent, and Zrinka and her daughter Barbara provided exceptional personal service. We would highly recommend staying there.

Hotel Mauro in Poreč was another excellent choice. The location in the Old Town was perfect, the staff provided superb service, and breakfast was excellent. Because the hotel is in the pedestrian area, parking is located elsewhere, but the hotel's shuttle service between the parking lot and hotel worked very well. Parking was €20 per day, which Tina had made us aware of in advance.

The Best Western in Zagreb was very conveniently located in the heart of the city and within easy walking distance of the city center. Breakfast was excellent. Our only negative was the size of the room. It was extremely small. There was not enough room for both of us to access our luggage at the same time, so we had to take turns.

We ultimately decided to skip Hum on our drive to Zagreb and headed directly to Zagreb instead. Throughout the trip, the self-driving portion worked well, and the final transfer from our Zagreb hotel to the airport was seamless.

The primary area where our experience with KimKim and Tina could have been better was communication during the planning process. There were several occasions when questions went unanswered for days, and on one occasion I followed up by asking whether we were still working together. This became particularly concerning after we had made final payment.

To Tina's credit, when I raised the issue directly, she acknowledged my concern, apologized and addressed it. Communication improved considerably as our departure approached, we had her WhatsApp number if we needed assistance while traveling, and she checked in with us as the trip approached. Once we were in Croatia, we felt comfortable that we had a way to reach her if we needed help.

There was one unfortunate oversight involving the truffle hunting and tasting experience that was included in our package but inadvertently left out of the final itinerary. We did not discover the error until after the day it was originally supposed to occur. Tina immediately took responsibility, apologized and offered to arrange the experience for the following morning at no additional cost. We decided to continue to Zagreb instead, and Tina promptly requested a refund for the missed activity. Mistakes can happen, and we appreciated the way she handled it once it was discovered.

Overall, this was a wonderful trip, and we are very pleased with the experience Tina put together for us. The itinerary was well designed, the accommodations were well located, the driving portion worked well, and Dino and Josipa were exceptional guides. Most importantly, we came away feeling that we had experienced several very different parts of Croatia rather than simply visiting one or two major tourist destinations.

Tina deserves a great deal of credit for putting all those pieces together. More consistent and timely communication during the planning process and closer attention to the final itinerary details would have made an already excellent trip even better.