Kimkim Trip Reviews

We had a great trip to the Santa Rita Wine Estate - thoroughly recommended for a two night stay - the Atacama Desert, Lake District and Patagonia (Punta Arenas and Torres del Paine).
The Atacama was just after their first heavy rainfall in years, which added extra beauty as the salts emerging from the ground gave the effect of a light sprinkling of snow. The mountains around were also topped with snow. The NOI Casa Atacama was good, apart from some oddities like the worst faucets of the trip but the best shower. Despite a small mosquito and fly problem in the room, the staff couldn't supply any fly spray, which we thought was unhelpful.
The Cumbres hotel in Puerto Varas was good, but I wouldn't recommend spending the extra cost of a room with full mountain view, as the clouds were down over the mountains most of the time! It's a great area for hiring a car and exploring yourself.
Punta Arenas and Torres del Paine were amazing, and fantastic weather most of the time too. I'd recommend booking at least the Full Paine tour well before you arrive, rather than at the last minute.
Avoid connections at Santiago airport with less than a couple of hours. A delayed arrival on one flight meant that we were stranded overnight in a cheap airport hotel, which lost us most of one day.
Oxana was very helpful in the plannning stage, with good suggestions and good choices of hotels, and in monitoring our progress through the trip, and gave us all the help we needed in rebooking flights after disprutions, and making changes to the programme.
I can't remember all the names of the guides and drivers, but they were excellent throughout, and everyone turned up preceisely when and where they were needed!

Would be very happy to come to Chile with Eco Chile again, or to use Kim Kim for other trips.

Andrew Dakin

We had such a wonderful and memorable time in Jordan. Working with Amanda was such a delight - she was patient, thoughtful, and put together a schedule that worked perfectly with our travel plans. We highly recommend Amanda and KimKim.

The trip conformed well to what I had desired to do. the hotel accommodations were good, the shuttle buses were exactly on time and took me to where I needed to go. All in all I was very pleased with the service.

The itinerary was well planned and managed to see a lot in a short space of time. Hotels were a bit hit and miss though. Some were excellent and others were below average. My guide Karpila was knowledgeable and a professional driver. The most memorable places were Anuradhapura, Polonaruwa, Sigiriya and Minneriya National Park.

My husband and I did the cultural tour with Grasshopper Advenures and it was absolutely spectacular!!! We did this as part of our honeymoon and we couldn’t have wanted anything better! Nishan our guide was fabulous, and our driver Sidit was always there if we needed him! The accomodation on the tour was out of this world - every night was different and showcased a different cultural side to Sri Lanka. This tour took us all over Sri Lanka from the beaches up into the moutains, riding on backroads and through little villages meeting the locals. We would recommend this tour to anyone who loves advenure, culture, exercise and good food.

Chris did a good job with planning everything. Casa del Mundo in Atitlan was a very nice hotel with amazing views, and I enjoyed visiting the different villages along the lake. Antigua was also a nice place with colorful colonial architecture, along with lots of shops and restaurants. I would definitely visit these places again.

My recommendation for anyone looking to visit the Atitlan region: pack lightly. You have to take a lancha (water taxi) to visit the villages, and your luggage gets placed on top of the boat. These are not big boats, and they can be packed with people depending on where you're leaving or heading to. Panajachel and San Pedro, for example, are very busy areas. The boat rides can also be a little scary and bumpy depending on how windy it is. I was definitely scared riding a lancha for the first time.

We had a great experience with Vishal and his team. They were experienced and flexible. Our guide and driver were fantastic. Our guide was very knowledgeable about Bhutan history, Buddhism, and culture of this magical country. We highly recommend using this company. They can tailor your trip to your own interests and will provide you with excellent service.

Lena planned an absolutely amazing trip for my sister and me. It was our first time visiting Jordan (or the Middle East for that matter) and with the help of Lena and her guidance, we two girls felt completely safe, welcomed, and confident that everything would go as planned. Lena was constantly available to assist before, during and after our time in Jordan. She picked great accommodations and was extremely flexible with any changes we made to the itinerary. My sister and I can be pretty picky with our itineraries so it was very tough for us to leave it with someone else to plan for us; however, Lena’s accommodating assistance and positive attitude made us feel as though we received the best itinerary as possible. We left Jordan feeling very confident that we saw everything and experienced everything we dreamed of. And our driver was absolutely amazing and our trip would not have been the same without him!!!

We would definitely reccommmend Lena and the Kim Kim team for any future endeavors!!

Overall, our trip was fantastic. Our local guide, Jagdish Thakur was absolutely wonderful in every way. He was knowledgeable, professional, and compassionate.

I felt that communication with Angela could have been better. There were some issues with pricing that took a phone call to iron out. She also was unclear on the registration process to see the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala. It cost us a couple of hours of unnecessary waiting in a line (in the rain.) There was also a lack of communication with Jagdish prior to the trip.

It seems that the advertised itinerary was at times simply impossible to complete in the amount of time allotted. This was a yoga retreat, and we were unable to do yoga for the first week due to the schedule, and the hotels where we stayed. Seems this could have been better planned. (?)

As I said, despite these issues, everyone still had a FANTASTIC trip. Thanks so much!

Jessica Lohrey

Ash, our guide, was amazing. He was a great driver on challenging Sri Lanka roads. Ash is also very knowledgeable and infinitely great company. We loved every minute with him.

Planning with Shalindra was very easy too. We had just one misunderstanding re our need for a guide and driver. We ended up paying for both but only getting (and needing) Ash who was well qualified to both drive and guide. We did get a $100 credit, but that type of confusion at the beginning of a vacation far from home is a bit concerning.

Overall a wonderful trip!!

The trip was well-planned but had a couple of glitches. We did not receive the packet of materials including daily schedule until 2 days before the trip. It probably should have been sent earlier. Also we were scheduled to leave the hotel in Santa Marta several hours before out flight. Since it was a domestic flight and the airport is only 25 minutes from the hotel, that was too early. Fortunately our birding guide was able to call the office and have it changed so we arrived only 90 minutes in advance.

Our birding guide, Breiner, was excellent. He is only 20 year old, but is able to recognize birds almost instantly by sight or sound, even when the birds are mostly obscured by foliage or flying high in the sky.

The accommodations at Eldorado lodge were fine and the food was good.

We did not like the hotel in Santa Marta, Casa del Farol. It was conveniently located very close to the center of town and restaurants, but the water for the shower was not even luke warm; the shower heads were broken; and their advertisement of an afternoon happy hour was not correct. They did not even have sodas to purchase.

The trip was amazing, more than I could have hoped for. I was able to meet with winemakers and winery owners. The guide assigned to my trip was extremely knowledgeable and was able to answer all of my questions.

Everyone showed up on time, and schedules were flexible enough to meet our needs. No problems, no "hitches", no hassle.

Very well done!

Natalia was superb. I initially indicated there would be about 10 people traveling and ultimately there were 17. She did an excellent job of structuring an itinerary (consisting of Santa Marta- Zipaquira- Villa de Leyva-Bogota-Medellin-Guatape-El Penol- Santa Elena) to accommodate my requests. She graciously and quickly accommodated every change as needed. She did a terrific job of planning the trip, choosing the hotels, securing the airline tickets, acquiring all the subcontractors, responding to inquires, and making adjustments as needed 'on the go'. She was totally accessible, even responding to What'sApp texts on Sunday morning during the tour, and immediately interfacing with bus drivers when there was confusion about their location.

Her choice of subcontractors for guiding and transportation was excellent. All of the vehicles were new or nearly new, and had ample space for all passengers and luggage. The 6 personable guides were always on time, spoke excellent English, and had a immense grasp of the history, culture, and noteworthy information of the locations we visited.

KimKim's pricing was very fair. It's 5% surcharge became somewhat confusing from time to time, and it's payment system for payments from multiple guests was somewhat clunky, but we managed to get it straightened out quickly and completely before the trip even started.

In summary, I would gladly recommend KimKim and Natalia to anyone who wanted a great travel planner and booking agent in Colombia.

Our experiences in Sri Lanka were amazing ! Prior to the trip Sandun helped us put together an itinerary that suited our interests and needs. He always replied promptly and courteously and even rang during the trip to check all was going well.
Our Guide , Sath Kumara was outstanding throughout our 20 day trip. He was professional, knowledgeable and had a great sense of humour. It was like travelling with a friend. Nothing was ever too much trouble and he presented the car each morning washed and spotless.
Every day of our holiday brought new and awesome experiences but some of the highlights included climbing Sigiriya's Lion Rock to see the remains of an ancient palace and soak in unbelievable views; getting up close and personal with elephants and other wild life at Udawalawe and Yala National Parks; watching fishermen haul in their night's catch on the beach at Mirissa; walking through fish and vegetable markets with the locals; Jaffna, Delft Island and Point Pedro; visiting Danbulla's Cave Temple and witnessing history going back to 1st century BC; riding on the scenic train from Kandy to Ella through the tea plantations, vegetable gardens and high mountains. The list could go on. Sri Lanka is so diverse and to date unspoilt. Kumara and Sandun you made it the BEST holiday. Thank you.

I booked a 6 day trip with Umoja to visit Rwanda together with my girlfriend

Agnes was very responsive on the KimKim chat at helping me tailor the trip I wanted (seeing some of Kigali, chimps in Nyungwe, gorillas and golden monkeys in Volcanoes NP), and the quote from Umoja combined with KimKim's relatively modest commission made the trip much cheaper than comparable quotes I got from traditional agencies.

Eric was the guide on the trip itself and he was excellent. Picked us up and made us feel welcomed at the airport, and struck a great balance between being informative and helpful but also providing us the space and freedom we needed to enjoy the holiday.

Would definitely recommend talking to Agnes about your next trip to East Africa.

Thanks Sotiria for an helping us plan an amazing trip to Iceland!
We had such a great time there and are so pleased we ended doing all the fun things you suggested. The waterfalls and the ice cave were the highlights of the trip!

We spent two weeks traveling around to multiple areas in Costa Rica. Randall helped us with a tremendous itinerary enjoying different climates and activities along the way. Some of the recommendations for dining were expensive and we didn't go to them as there were many choices available in each town. Beware the tour to Osa Pennisula is very remote, don't compare the accommodations to your standards! Drake Bay has only had electricity since 2007 and building codes are something they are not familiar with. That said, it was perfect and unspoiled.

This trip was fantastic. I had some ideas as to what I wanted to do in Norway, but Ingrid put together the itinerary to accomplish it in a really unique trip.

We flew from Minneapolis to Amsterdam, then to Oslo, and finally to Tromso, before transferring to the Malangen Resort. Delicious dinner at the resort. We stayed in one of the deluxe cabins. The next day we went dogsledding and saw the Northern lights. We were allowed to mush our own team of dogs and were given a snack (reindeer sandwich and coffee/tea afterwards).

The next day we flew to Oslo and explored on our own. The next morning we had a 3-hour walking tour around Oslo with Stig, a knowledgeable local guide. That afternoon we saw several museums including the Viking ship museum and the modern art museum.

Then on to Geilo where we stayed at the Dr. Holms hotel for several days. One day we went cross country skiing with Hilde and Jorgen from vinternatt.no. Then for the next two days of snowkiting in Haugastol, I rented a car so that I could drive there, yet my wife could stay in Geilo and be close to the spas, etc.

Following this we took the train to Flam, fjordcruise to Gudvangen, then on to Bergen. The next morning in Bergen, we met David a local musician and guide. Following Bergen, we took a train back to Oslo and then flew home.

I had never been to Norway previously and contact KimKim with only basic requests as to the activities I wanted to do. Ingrid put together a great itinerary that was easy to follow. We felt like we saw a great amount of Norway but it also left us wanting to return. We look farward to working with KimKim for future trips.

Jordan was exhilarating, the itinerary was perfect, well scheduled and planned. Two more days in Petra would be fantastic, but that will have to be for another time. Special mention to our driver/guide and friend, Hasheem 'Petra', and to Why?jordantours for this unforgettable adventure.

The driver/guide Ruwan Hadinnapola was A++... He went out of his way to please us and help us in many ways. His conduct is truly exemplary. He and Shalindra made our trip to Sri Lanka very enjoyable and successful. Rowan had a nice comfortable air conditioned car that took us to different places.
The places we went to like the safari, Kandy and the shore were most memorable. In fact, the whole time we were in the six day tour were very comfortable and enjoyable. We wish all the best to the Kim Kim team.
Mohamed and Nuzhat Masood.