Kimkim Trip Reviews

Most friendly staff at a hotel we have ever stayed at. Our train was running late and we were worried we would miss our dinner reservation. The driver for the hotel GUESSED that we would be on the last train and was waiting there to bring us back to the hotel so we could get ready for dinner. A gesture of hospitality that I will remember forever. The onsen is also amazing, the best we visited on our trip.

Beautiful, private, luxury resort perfect for couples wanting romance! Loved this part of our trip.

Amazing experience! Perfect blend of excursions and luxury camping with relaxation.

Ton our tour guide really took care of us and made this a special experience.

This had a lovely pool and a warm friendly feel from the owners and staff, but the rooms were cluttered and didn't feel 100% clean.

A classy and quiet spot with a great rooftop view and gorgeous beachy design rooms,

Unhelpful staff, chauvinistic toward women, and unavailable to help us when we needed them.

An incredible oasis on the edge of the sand dunes. We should have stayed more than one night! Could have stayed 3.

This was a surreal and dramatic overnight stop on the way to the desert: we met other travellers en route to the Sahara, or some returning. And the staff (Omar!) was funny and warm and welcoming. We liked how quiet it was, the pool, and the feeling on being on the edge of a rugged landscape. Not fancy, but clean and quiet, like a motel. Our kids loved it too.

Incredible original atmosphere, great location, clean rooms and fantastically friendly staff.

Was a great location, but we would have liked to know that kitesurfing lesson #1 doesn't include any time in the water actually kitesurfing. So that would have been helpful. However we had a fun day at the beach, and our kids surfed.

Was a great father-son workshop. However I'm glad my other kid (10) didn't attend as it was quite technical! But our teenager and his dad loved it!

Awesome! Such a vibrant city

Loved this tour at night with Ishmael!

We liked stopping at the rosewater factory, but noticed the prices were very high, aimed at tourists and cost more than at home!

Loved this but we wanted to ride more. The guide seemed to think we only wanted photos of ourselves on the horses, when really we all wanted to gallop and go riding a bit more freely.

So cool, the best

Was just kind of tacked on to the ATV riding. Felt like an afterthought. No instruction, which is fine. We could have all used boards (4) rather than just having one. Would skip this next time

Was not really a favorite for us. We learned a bit, but will save wine tastings for other countries where it is a focal point.

Really lovely to see and experience a real home, with a local person. It gave us a chance to ask questions, and our boys learned a lot.

Excellent history from our guide, however our kids got hot and tired halfway in, and there was no shade on site.

By far a highlight of our family trip!

Excellent tour w Mustafa!

The air conditioning doesn’t always work. Very small closet. Nice big bathroom

Tiny room . The smallest closet I ever saw. No drawers to store anything. The food is buffet style and is served tepid. Overall the food was mediocre. Upon embarking we had to buy the dinner because it was not included. Big mistake! It was horrendous.

Clean hotel. Professional staff.

Old hotel n need of renovations. Marginal air conditioning. Old furniture in need of replacement. Shoddy workmanship. Breakfast was ok

A very nice excursion

Very nice excursion on small boats

A pleasant excursion

The embarkation process was chaotic. The dinner that we had to buy on board was the terrible.

A good show.

Nice excursion

Very nice excursion thanks to our excellent guide

A waste of time

Very interesting site with some remarkable historical pieces

The show was good. The dinner and service were poor

The Great Wall is a must see. It is impressive but it’s a long drive from Beijing. The wall is very crowded. The tomb excursion is not worth the time

Nice excursion

Nothing special. We didn’t visit any family

Interesting site

Sunrise on the Bund is well located near the amazing riverfront. The room was spacious and luxuriously decorated. The bathroom was equipped with a rainfall shower plus a deep soaking tub and an automatic Toto toilet. They provided adequate water bottles each day. Slippers, robes added to our comfort. We looked forward to each day’s included breakfast buffet with its abundant choices of western and Chinese food.

Many staff spoke English poorly and communication was difficult.

Old charm. Very centrally located. Good service.

Beautiful views from our balcony. Excellent breakfast as well

This is a must when in Athens

This hotel is centrally located. Hotel personnel where very helpful. It's easy to walk to our parts of the city. Chinatown is right across the street. I would definitely recommend this hotel.

We loved the Only You hotel. The staff was very friendly and accommodating, the location was amazing, the views from the room and the top of the hotel (where we ate breakfast) were beautiful. We really enjoyed staying at the Only You in Malaga.

We loved our stay at the Melia. The rooftop had an amazing view of the city, our room was nice and the food was good! The staff were friendly and very helpful with every detail of our stay. The location was great too and we had no problem walking everywhere we needed to go.

We really enjoyed this hotel! The staff were friendly, it was a great location and the food was good. It was a pretty hotel and we enjoyed our stay here!

Beautiful hotel in a great location. Staff were very friendly and helpful and the food was great! We enjoyed our stay here.

We enjoyed the beautiful drive to Marbella with Angel who was informative and so friendly. Marbella old town was beautiful and really neat! We had a delicious lunch there and enjoyed looking at the pretty flower lined streets and visiting the shops. Overall we had a fun trip to Marbella.

Malaga is another beautiful city in Spain and we had a great private tour with Nahuel. He was a great guide and very informative! We enjoyed this tour and learning the history of Malaga. The Roman Theater was very cool and we learned how the Cathedral of Malaga was unfinished but they are working on finishing it now. It was also at the time of Picasso's birthday which is the same day as mine and so we learned more about his history with Malaga. Nahuel also gave us some great suggestions for places to go eat and to see while we were there. This was a great tour!

We enjoyed the views of the countryside on this private drive with Rafael who was very nice to Rhonda and when we got there, WOW! What an amazing place! The views and cliff are just incredible and the town of Rhonda was fun too. We had an excellent lunch at a cafe in the city and enjoyed walking around. But really it's all about the views. Wow!

Wow! The Alhambra and gardens are amazing! There was so much to see and it was beautiful! Christina was a great guide and very informative and made the tour fun. The views were incredible as well as the beautiful gardens and of course the palaces. The old fortress and the old roman aqueduct and ruins were very cool. There is a museum onsite that had some very neat artifacts. There were so many different parts to this tour and each part was spectacular! We really enjoyed this tour!

What a great Flamenco show in Granada! We even enjoyed the walk up the hill to the Sacromonte area where the Flamenco show was held in the cave. It was a lot of fun and the performers were so talented from the dancers to the singers to the guitar player. We had a great experience!

Wow! Cordoba is such a neat city with so much to see! We had a great tour with Jose who was so informative! We loved the old Roman bridge and of course the Mezquita, the enormous mosque-cathedral. That was pretty amazing and there was so much in there to take in! It is such an interesting history. We had an excellent lunch while there and some free time to explore.

We really loved this tour of the Olive Oil Estate. Alberto our driver to the estate was a lot of fun and taught us a lot as well. Sarah, who led our private tour of the estate was great! We learned so much that we didn't know about the types of olives and the process of making olive oil both in the present and the past. A bonus was the carriage collection that the owner had - it was amazing to see and we got to pet the horses. We also enjoyed the tasting at the end. Sarah made the tour a fun experience and we really enjoyed it!

We loved our private tour of Seville with Lita! Wow, what a beautiful city with so much to see and so much history. Lita was so informative and we had a great tour with her. We learned so much about Seville and saw so many beautiful sights, history and buildings. It was a wonderful tour!

Wow! Toledo is such an amazing place full of history and cultural and very unique as well. We loved our guide Sonia. She taught us so much about Toledo and the history, art, architecture and so much more there. She knew. how to take the side roads to avoid the busy and more crowded areas and got us right up front for prime views of everything. She knew so much about every aspect of the city and all of its history. She was fun and went out of her way to give us additional suggestions of places to eat and see and even got us a taxi back to the train station. Toledo is a place where I wish we'd been able to stay longer.

Wow! So many beautiful sights, cultural and history in Madrid. Our guide, Javi was great! He was very informative and friendly and took us to some neat places and a few out of the way shops in Old Town that we loved. We really enjoyed this tour!

We loved this tour! It was our first night in Madrid and the perfect introduction. Our guide was fun and very informative, the food and drinks were really good and we had a great group and met some cool people. We really loved this tour!

Perfectly located in the shopping district. Walkable to stores and great food

Nestled in Kyoto, walkable to the aquarium. Beautiful and comfortable

Great location with perfect amenities

Excellent location

Excellent location.

Amazing time with Nuno. Very helpful and informative with a personal touch.

Excellent tour and narrative with Daniella. Food was great and the history really added to the experience.

An excellent B&B in the Barberini area. Modern, clean comfortable rooms. Staff were very caring and helpful.

Great location close to the old town and the beach/port area. Rooms were spacious, clean, and staff were very helpful. Very quiet of a night to sleeping was easy.

The hotel is in a great location on the Spanish Steps. Drinks in the courtyard at sunset was fantastic. However it is hard to access with luggage via a tiny elevator. The rooms whilst very nice were all quite different eg: our room had an extremely small bathroom but a big bedroom. The hotel only has eight rooms and is one floor is a residential building.

We organised a cooking class and we had a wonderful day.

At best it’s a fast ferry not a hydrofoil. The trip to Capri was fine but timing of the return trip changed without notice. At one stage we were wondering how we would get home. In the end we got a later ferry. While Capri is nice, it’s very expensive to eat and drink. The Blue Grotto closed in the early afternoon allegedly due to high tide but we suspect it closed due to lack of people.

What a wonderful way to see the Amalfi coast and the towns of Positano and Amalfi. The boat was excellent for 10-12 people. The time we had in both Amalfi and Positano was enough to get a taste of both places. We every had a couple of beers/wines on the trip and this was much appreciated. However a hotel pickup would have been appreciated as we had a 20 minute walk to from the pick up point.

Great guide and transport. The guide wasvery knowledgeable and funny. we arrived as the gates opened, so we beat the crowds. Pompeii was an amazing experience and 1/2 say was plenty of time to see the key things.

The guide was knowledgeable and spoke well. We only passed by the art in the Vatican Museum with little time to appreciate it. We did not see the Raphael room or the Caravaggio’s. It felt like the Vatican Museum was the conveyor belt to the Sistine Chapel. The crush in the Sistine Chapel was awful. The tour of St Peters was good. Having been to Rome previously and seen the Museum etc, I know how good the experience can be. Too many people in small spaces.

The tour was too big and it was hard to hear the guide. Going to the Coliseum at 11 was too late on the day as the coliseum gets very crowded. We visited the Forum and Palatine Hill before and this could have been done first

Motel rather than hotel

As part of our SE Asia tour including Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, we stayed at this hotel in Siem Reap, Cambodia for two nights, October 14 & 15, 2024. We were extremely disappointed with the quality of the room in the Hari Residence, it was really bad. I've refrained from giving details because it doesn't come close to any of the other rooms we had during our tour and don't want to seen as overreacting - but I can supply those if you wish. The only reason I give this place one star is because of the breakfast room staff who were polite and courteous.

This really is an excellent hotel, possibly the best place we stayed in during our whole SE Asia tour. The style was modern, an elegant boutique hotel. Our room was a medium size but comfortable, well equipped and with a decent shower/bathroom; it was very clean. The hotel's staff were very polite and helpful with attention to detail. There were some nice touches such as the efforts they made for decorating the hotel for the fire boat festival. The pool and bar area was excellent and the restaurant agreeable to use with a nice atmosphere (it covered breakfast and all other meals). The hotel was conveniently located and a short walk or ride into the main areas of Luang Prabang and we would happily stay there again.

This is a decent hotel with friendly staff. Our room was a good size and was very clean. There were plenty of plugs! The restaurant and service was good (we only had breakfast). We particularly liked the pool which was in very agreeable, exotic surroundings and marvelous for cooling off after a day travelling and visiting! The hotel was in a good location, 2 minutes walk from the main road through Ninh Binh, good for a stroll and with lots of restaurants. I would definitely stay there another time.

This hotel has an interesting modern stylish design and was very clean everywhere with very friendly & polite staff. We particularly liked our upper floor bedroom which was a reasonable size with a comfortable bed and decent shower & toilet. The hotel was well located in Saigon with easy access to the town centre and places to eat (~8-900 metres). The breakfast area was on the top floor with a spectacular view of the city and plenty of space - staff were very efficient and agreeable. Breakfast was decent with a good selection and choice. We enjoyed our stay in this hotel, It might apparently only have 3 stars but we were happy with our stay and it's certainly a good choice for a short touring visit of the Saigon area.

We stayed at the Riverside Villas & Apartments, Hoi An for one night on October 11 , 2024. Our hotel room was quiet but small and cramped (nowhere to store our cases conveniently) but it was very clean with a reasonable bathroom. The hotel staff were polite and it had a nice pool. The breakfast was fine. We found a nice restaurant (Firefly Garden) 3-400 m from the hotel (there were plenty of others around too). Overall our stay was ok - however, the hotel is 2-3 km outside the main tourist area of Hoi An and it was just a pity that it was so far from the town centre.

The hotel has a "baroque" architectural style and we did appreciate the size and cleanliness of our comfortable room (and the view since we were on an upper floor). The rest of the hotel was clean and comfortable too, the swimming pool (top floor) was super with good views of the city, again nice to relax with a swim after a days' sightseeing! A pity the hammam and sauna were not working. The breakfast was good with plenty of choice. It was necessary to choose your breakfast timing a bit since there were several tour groups staying at the same time as us which sometimes made the breakfast restaurant crowded and tables were not always cleared away in a timely manner. However, that's a problem often encountered in hotels and I will say that the staff were quick to replenish the buffet - so avoided a downside of sharing with tour groups. The hotel was situated in a good location and a brief walk found plenty of restaurants to choose from in the evening. Overall our stay was a positive experience.

We used Doris Cruise for the Ha Long Bay part of our Vietnam tour. We had a "Junior Double Suite Sea View with Private Balcony" which we thought was very nice and comfortable with a good bathroom and nice secluded balcony. This was good since it was on the second floor away from the sea - from time to time there were small rowing/motor boats stopping and trying to sell drinks and souvenirs who did not understand "no thank you". The cruise ship was nicely designed and decorated and very clean. We liked the jacuzzi situated in the bow and had a good soak there whilst most other people went on the visits (we didn't do those). Staff were agreeable and extremely helpful. The restaurant was nicely designed and allowed good sight seeing whilst at lunch. The food was ok, we did find the buffet a little bit limited and it was not always replaced in a timely manner. There were two downsides for us, one was the cost of the drinks, in particular, the wine, even for Vietnam was ridiculously expensive, much of it at 40-60€ a bottle! The second, was the long tender trip out to and back from the cruise ship which ate into the stay somewhat (40-50 minutes each way). Overall though, the cadre of the visit and the incredible scenery made the trip certainly memorable!

This is a nice hotel with agreeable and helpful staff. We stayed there twice, two nights at the start of our October 2024 SE Asia visit and one night at the end since we used Hanoi as a gateway for our tour. The hotel is very conveniently situated in the old town and great as a starting point for that part of Hanoi and further afield. Staying there makes it easy to experience the local atmosphere! There is a nice rooftop bar and restaurant together with the breakfast room. Everything we ate there was good but not fine dining (breakfasts and evening meal). There are also plenty of places to eat outside too. For our first stay we had a 4th floor room which was a nice size and with a balcony (the shower was ok but had a slippery floor). For our second visit, we stayed in a 5th floor room which had a large balcony, nice bathroom and sauna. The rooms were very clean. A good place to stay when visiting Hanoi.

It's a fantastic place to stay. The hotel, room, pool and restaurant & food were all great. Incredible views from our room. Staff & service nice, agreeable. Nothing to add but the fabulous sunset! I would stay here again.

We started the tour with a visit to the temple, "Wat May Souvannapoumaram" and after that the national museum to see another ornate temple "Haw Phra Bang" and the royal palace. The temples were very impressive and we liked the royal palace particularly which had plenty of historical information about the royal family (as was). After lunch we moved on to the very old temple "Wat Xiengthong" where the site has been developed since the 1550s. It was quite hot by then so we took a break for a few hours then met our guide again early evening to walk around the historical region downtown to the see the Fireboat Festival and animations. I must say we had a splendid evening there.

Today's activities started with a 06h30 start to see the daily morning alms giving ritual to the Buddhist monks. This was quite particular and a very original experience. Following on from this we visited the morning market; this was one of the most diverse local markets we have seen and was a quite unforgettable experience. Following breakfast at our hotel we were driven to the Luang Prabang historic area to start our boat trip up the Mekong River to the Pak Ou Caves. On the way (1h20) we stopped at Chang Hai, a small village selling local whiskey and clothing. We continued for about another 30 minutes (1h50 and about 25 km total) to the caves. Pak Ou Caves are certainly an original experience since they are only accessible from the Mekong River, there are thousands of Buddha statues of all sizes to be found inside and on several levels, truly amazing to see! On the way back to Luang Prabang we stopped at the Nalongkone Shop where we learnt how to make "Sa" paper, their speciality. After lunch we drove to the Kuang Si Falls (about an hour). This was an incredible site - a series of cascading pools which were milky turquoise coloured. The whole site is very large with a spectacular water chute at the top and was well worth the visit.

Our guide Johnny picked us up from our hotel at 8 am for our tour of the Mekong Delta. It was about a 3 hour drive, including a biobreak before our first stop to visit a brick factory at Lò Gạch Phú Tự (according to Google Maps). We saw how the local brick making was done, from the clay to the kiln firing process. Following that we transferred to a river boat along the Ben Tre River (and a fresh coconut drink!). In a tributary of the river we visited a small company making coconut based sweets and other products. There were demonstrations of the different processes- we also explored the craftsmen's shop including tasting the snake wine! (like strange saké). Continuing down the river we stopped and walked a couple of km to a Homestay for lunch (very copious it was too). Our final experience in Ben Tre was a short 15 minute ride in a longboat before heading back to Saigon. All in all, a great day out, made even better by our fantastic guide, Johnny who was a really experienced and helpful person. Possibly the best guide we have ever had on our travels.

Our flight was delayed so there wasn't time to see the Roluos temple. However, the Banteay Srei and Banteay Samre temples were frankly awesome. As our guide Su explained, Banteay Srei really is a gem! Later in the evening we finished with a walking tour around Siem Reap and the night market. Overall, a good day.

This was one of our favorite days during our holiday. We saw many temples but each totally different. Starting with our 5am first visit to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat following on to the other temples, all close by. Our guide, Su did a great job of explaining the differences between them and their history. It's difficult to identify a preference between views and experiences. maybe we have just a slight bias towards the Temple of Ta Prohm, AKA the "Tomb Raider Temple" which was particularly amazing! Or, just maybe the Hindu temple of Banteay Srei that we visited on the previous day... However, this was an unmissable day :)

The whole evening experience (meal, location and the dance show) was very positive and definitely worthwhile. The dance show was divided into a series of set pieces related to local culture and fascinating; the meal was very good quality with excellent service. We can definitely recommend this experience to other travellers.

This day was mainly in two parts, 1) the drive from Hué to Hoi An and 2) sightseeing in Hoi An. We enjoyed the drive to Hoi An. This passed via the lagoon at Thua Thien where we stopped for 30 minutes for a coffee and sightseeing, via Da Nang (quite interesting to drive though) and finally with a climb to the mountain pass (~480 metres) at Hai Vân Quan where we stopped for 15 minutes sightseeing before continuing to Hoi An. We really the enjoyed this drive, our two stops were quite fascinating and culturally different to each other, so certainly worth the stops. The final part of our day was a three hour look at Hoi An including lunch and being dropped off at our hotel.

Just like boarding, this was a bit long... Our pick up and driver was good. The drive to Hanoi Airport was ok and there was plenty to see.

Our first city visit during our SE Asia tour in October 2024 was Hanoi. Our guide, Mai, provided us with a good overview of the sights. Our tour included, Tran Quoc Pagoda, the Museum of Ethnology (particularly interesting, including the village and houses outside section) and a Vietnamese lacquer art workshop and gallery. After lunch, our visit took us to the Temple of Literature before rounding off with the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. The tour gave us a good overview of some of the major sites in Hanoi.

We started with a trip along the Perfume River to see the Thien Mu Pagoda and Buddhist temple. Next up the Hué morning market. This was followed by a good walk around the Hue Imperial City before lunch. In the afternoon we visited the Mausoleum of Emperor Tu Duc, then Huong Non Tram Huong Hue - Incense Village. All in all a good days visit and we saw and experienced many memorable things and sensations. The only downside was the torrential rain but that was certainly beyond anybody's control!

A lot of driving today. Traffic in Vietnam is somewhat slower than we anticipated and we were happy to take a break on the way to the mountain pass at Dừng Nghỉ Đèo Thung Khe (as per Google Maps). Here, we saw local food of all forms available to eat and we sampled some of those more to our taste such as sticky rice and Jackfruit. On our way again, we stopped for lunch with Jay and his family (the "Memories Homestay"). We were given a wonderful home cooked, authentic lunch and learnt about their family and the Hmong way of life. After lunch a great walk around the village to admire the scenery - amongst all that, we saw the local rice harvest being dried in the open air.

A visit to the water puppets was amongst the first activities of our Hanoi visit. We visited the Thang Long theatre opposite the Hoàn Kiếm Lake and old town. The visit lasts about an hour and has several different scenes each of a few minutes in length. An example would be the retelling of the Hoan Kiem Lake legend - the story of a magical sword together with the turtle. We were impressed by the skills of the puppet operators and this was really a wonderful experience and well worth a visit.

Boarding and sailing out to the cruise ship on the tender was rather long and slow if picturesque.

Another nice drive there with plenty to see. Lunch was interesting, our first try at Goat wraps! Following on, two great visits to the Mua Cave and those... steps.., and Tam Coc and the boat ride (watch your head in the caves...).

Front desk staff was great and always very friendly. Breakfast was good and staff was very accommodating to an allergy.

Great location to fly out the next day. Dining was nice and staff was very friendly.

Absolutely loved this hotel! Great service and wonderful breakfast. Vera greeted us every morning for breakfast and was the sweetest.

Loved the town of Sintra! and then we visited the Monserrate Palace with its beautiful gardens. Could have spent the whole day here, beautiful and not a lot of people which made it even better.

Our guide was Fernando and we had a great day with him. Beautiful part of the country, fun stories and yummy food.

Paulo was the absolute best! We had a wonderful day. Paulo is very knowledgeable about his beautiful country, fun to be with and so gracious.

I had an amazing stay at a beautiful hotel surrounded by lush greenery and vibrant flowers. The location was fantastic, with easy access to the beach, which made it perfect for both relaxation and adventure. I even tried surfing right in front of the hotel, and the waves were powerful—perfect for a thrilling surf session! On top of that, one of the most memorable parts of my stay was the incredible wildlife. I was thrilled to spot wild sloths sleeping in the trees right on the hotel grounds, along with many wild monkeys, colorful birds, and iguanas. Exploring the property and observing all the animals was a delightful experience. To top it off, I was pleasantly surprised to see fireflies lighting up the garden at night—a magical touch that made my stay even more special. Overall, this hotel is a nature lover’s paradise and a great spot for surf enthusiasts, offering a unique blend of comfort and the wonders of wildlife. Highly recommended for anyone who loves being close to nature and the ocean!

I stayed at a lovely hotel in Monteverde, and it was a fantastic experience. The property is surrounded by beautiful greenery, which made for an incredibly relaxing atmosphere. The staff were all very friendly and welcoming, making me feel right at home. Breakfast was delicious, offering a great start to each day. While the walk to the main souvenir shop area took about 15 minutes and included a steep slope, there were some convenient supermarkets and restaurants located near the hotel. Overall, it was a peaceful and enjoyable stay, perfect for anyone looking to unwind in nature while still having easy access to local amenities.