This Is A Great Service
France | Jul 31 - Aug 6, 2026

B
Bob P.
Houston, TX | Reviewed on Aug 16, 2026

Review of Road Trip In France
What a great service! Marianna, our local specialist, was wonderful to work with. She was very responsive and had some good insights. Now for some specifics:
Picking up the rental car was seamless. With everything prepared and paid for it took just a few minutes to do the paperwork and drive away. As with every other driving excursion, a quick click on the embedded link brought up a saved Google map with a detailed route right to the exact next location.
Deauville was a good stop for us. It was a short drive after leaving our cruise ship to this wonderful seaside resort that had obviously been visited by many film stars and other well-known people. The Hotel Barriere Le Normandy deserved the 5-star rating – great facilities, great service, wonderful charm.
Another click on an embedded link, and we were off for the drive to Mont-Saint-Michel. This was one of the highlights of the trip. What an inspiring feat to build such a grand abbey on an isolated small island so many centuries ago.
Next stop was Amboise in the Loire valley region. The Hotel Le Clos d’Amboise was a charming converted chateau with a courtyard and inground swimming pool. The reception staff was extremely gracious and helpful. The breakfast included was okay. However, we would not recommend the restaurant for dinner. The servings were small, the service was slow, and the price was way too expensive for what was received.
A major highlight of the trip was the visit to the Clos Luc Castle, the final home of Leonardo da Vinci. It was fascinating to see his drawings and the replicas of machines based on his ideas. What a visionary individual he was!
Now came the only hiccup in the entire experience. Before we took the 30-minute trip to turn in the rental car we called the transfer company that was to give us a ride back to our hotel. The company had the return transfer scheduled for the following day and could not get us a driver for the current day. The hotel staff lined us up with a different transfer. We paid for the transfer, but Kimkim graciously refunded us the charge. Specific instructions on how to return the car to the underground parking garage would have been very helpful as the Avis representative was not in his office and did not speak very good English as he tried to transmit instructions as we circled the train station a few times.
All in all, working with Kimkim exceeded our expectations. We have already recommended them to others and will not hesitate to do so in the future.

Hotel Reviews
Hôtel Barrière Le Normandy
Deauville1

Great old 5-star hotel in a wonderful seaside resort

Authenticity & Character
Location
Very short walk to the beach.
Staff
Cleanliness & Comfort
Mercure Mont Saint Michel
Le Mont-Saint-Michel

Typical U.S. style basic modern hotel. We wanted to make sure we had A/C, though it was not necessarily needed.

Authenticity & Character
Location
Staff
Cleanliness & Comfort
Hotel Le Clos d'Amboise
Amboise

Nice converted old chateau. The reception staff was very good and helpful. The restaurant was OK for breakfast but would not recommend it for dinner.

Authenticity & Character
Location
Staff
Cleanliness & Comfort
Activity Reviews
Visit the châteaux Chenonceau on your own (timed tickets provided)
Visit the châteaux Chenonceau on your own (timed tickets provided)
France
Quality of Experience
Private transfer in town
Private transfer in town
France

Transfer was scheduled on the wrong day.

Local specialist: Marianna Leccese