Kimkim Trip Reviews

Possibly the nicest hotel we have ever stayed in. The staff from the Manager to the room stewards were impressively polite and friendly. The breakfast served was the best hotel breakfast we have ever had with a full buffet and a menu to order other meals. The staff were very friendly and accommodating. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay here and would not hesitate to stay here again.

We have never stayed in a hotel like this one before. We loved our experience here and the introduction and immersion into Japanese culture. We were greeted with kimono-wearing inn staff, had a tea ceremony welcome and were provided with our own kimonos. The room was totally Japanese from the furniture, mats, bedding and water garden structure. The onsen was awesome with some of the hottest thermal baths we have ever seen. We were provided with a 12 course traditional Japanese meal with serving bowls that we have never seen before. The traditional breakfast the following morning provided enough food to feed 2 or 3 people. We totally enjoyed this hotel and this immersive experience into the culture of this country. We will remember this day for a long long time.

This was another high end hotel that delivered a high end customer experience. We enjoyed everything about this hotel. It is conveniently located adjacent to the main shopping area and the train station. They had a beautiful buffet breakfast with sufficient choice to satisfy any diner.

This hotel feels like you are walking back in time. Very nicely decorated, it feels like you are walking through a library. It had an impressive breakfast buffet. The thermal bath facilities were high end with everything spotlessly clean. I would recommend this hotel.

This was an excellent day of sight-seeing in Tokyo. Our guide Sayumi (Sam) was excellent, it was like spending a day with an old friend. She provided us with subway cards to make it easier/quicker to navigate around the city. We thoroughly enjoyed this day with Sam. In addition to the temples and shrines we visited we also got to see areas of the city "not on the tourist maps" which we always find interesting to see.

This whole experience was new to us. From dressing in kimonos to the actual tea ceremony itself. The staff were very accommodating and answered all our questions. We enjoyed the three hours we spent there and definitely gained some insights into Japanese culture.

Another fantastic day with our guide Mitsui. The temples viewed were most impressive. We enjoyed our time here a lot.

The historic district was awesome to see. The Kiyomizu-dera Temple complex was very impressive. This was a most enjoyable day and we felt like we were able to see a lot of sights.

Our guide on this day (and the next) was exceptional. Mitsui was very personable and we enjoyed her company. The Bamboo Grove and the Tenryuji gardens were impressive. We were not a fan of the Yakatabune boat ride.

Great hotel in a great location. This was the nicest hotel we stayed in while traveling ion Norway.

Beautiful exterior. Our room was in the newer wing (built in the 1960s). Although the hotel lobby and dining room were stunning, our room was very bland and functional. The room was clean. We did have a balcony and supposedly a water view, but it was hard to see the water from our room. Good breakfast.

Great lobby. Great location. Room was nice. Bathroom was a bit small. Breakfast was good.

Great location. We were able to walk everywhere from the hotel. Our favorite breakfast of our trip to Norway. The room was very nice (and modern). The staff was very helpful in suggesting neighborhoods to explore.

It was an enjoyable tour. The tour guide was fine (not spectacular). In the past, most food tours had too much food so I left stuffed. This food tour had a much smaller amount of food, but I was still OK with that.

We really enjoyed this activity. The cheese tasting was enjoyable. The best part of the activity was being on the smaller fjords on a smaller boat. The guide was very knowledgeable and personable. We highly recommend this tour.

While you can do this activity on your own, our guide (Irvin) was great and we learned a lot about Norway. Irvin was the best guide of our entire trip to Norway.

We loved this walking tour. We learned a lot about Norway and Oslo. OUr guide was great.

Food was delicious. Very nice scenery. No guide. You just ate dinner, talked to your companions and enjoyed the view.

Pension Berc is an island of elevated tranquility in an already sublime setting. From there, we were able to walk into downtown when the occasion warranted. We checked in very late our first evening, and were met by Rojer-aay. (My apologies for the phonetic spelling.) We were tired and rushed, but he made us feel welcome, checked us in, took our bags up and showed us our room, and then appeared as our waiter in the attached restaurant! (I secretly believe he was cloned, but he wouldn't admit to it.) The room was "quaint" as my wife put it, with a rustic appeal, and super strong water pressure. A remodeled farm; redone very effectively. Having the attached restaurant was a huge advantage. We intended to eat elsewhere the second night, but got so tired we defaulted due to being tired. Much of the menu was expensive due to it being a steak house, but the vegetable risotto and other menu items were reasonably priced and very tasty. All in all we were truly impressed, and would recommend Pension Berc to all travelers to beautiful Bled.

Our reservation was changed from Grand Hotel Union to Hotel Cubo. My review is of the Hotel Cubo, not the Grand Hotel Union. Hotel Cubo is a wonderful location, with easy access to the highway system and close to the river and the town center. It's modern/minimalist design is interesting, but the room decor is just starting to show some signs of wear and tear. Nothing awful understand, but just getting to the point of making an impression.

Larisa certainly knows Ljublana! Her knowledge and understanding are impressive. Having been trained as a historian, I truly appreciate the historical details she provided. Suggestions for improvement, and please understand they are minor: it took her awhile to understand my wife's slower traveling pace, but once she understood why, she was most accommodating. I didn't have enough time to take pictures from the watchtower atop the castle, but this was due to scheduling friction between a video presentation and the extra time picture taking would have demanded.

This is an incredible cave system! We were truly impressed! Just warn travelers that there is a considerable degree of walking involved, over uneven and wet surfaces. The enforced trip through the gift shop was a minor detraction, but is not an abnormal state of affairs in Europe.

Nina, our private guide, really knew her Bled. Her father was past president of the boat pilots association! She actually lives near our hotel in the old village. Initially, she had difficulty with my wife's slower pace of mobility, but quickly adjusted, and helped her climb the 99 steps to the church on the island without a stop!

Nice hotel, very clean with nice amenities. The staff is helpful. I appreciated that you can pay to check in very early in the morning and also to stay very late, if needed. It is helpful with the timing of international flights. The food and atmosphere in the rooftop restaurant is good and the drinks are also great.

The hotel is a bit dated but the owners and staff more than make up for it. They truly go above and beyond in their helpfulness and kindess.

Interesting tour. Tour guide was knowledgeable and helpful in answering questions.

Awesome tour! One of the top highlights of our trip!

Fun, local experience. Dinner was good. Appreciated having a front row seat and that the tickets included a drink.

Unfortunately, we did not enjoy this experience. There were literally no sea life to see on this snorkeling tour, which really defeats the purpose of snorkeling. We stayed only in one spot rather than trying to go to another location which may have had something to see. Disappointing.

We loved this experience. Truly a local experience involving an entire local family. We felt very welcomed and part of their family. They really went above and beyond and the food was incredible! The view was lovely.

Enjoyable and interesting experience. Beautiful views.

Great location on the water but a lot of stairs if you want to go up to the road. However, nice easy path to get to Positano.

great location right in the middle of Sorreto

Nice hotel but they were supposed to just hold our credit card but they actually charged it and we had to wait 2 weeks to see it get off our pending charge.

This was probably our best memory of our trip. Sorrento is such a beautiful small town on the coast. The shopping was really nice cheap and good stuff. The tour guide was very knowlegeable and interesting.

Food and drinks were amazing. Tour guide too.

Tour guide very knowlegeable and spoke very good English

This was our first day/night in Italy and it gave us a good sample of Rome has to offer. Tour guide gave us some good restaurant recommendations. He was amazing.

Beautiful boat tour along the coast. It was a beautiful day weather wise. The captain was professional and knowledeable.

Tour guide was very interesting telling us all about Pompeii and the history. One of our favorite stops.

What an amazing experience this cooking class is. My husband and I have taken many cooking classes in the past and this was the most unique so far. We were not aware before arriving that the class would be in a locals home. We also expected a "small group" but for our class we were the only ones. A private class, learning from a local---making traditional food, that she has made her whole life, what could be better? We started by making pasta dough and letting it rest. Next was desert, each making a tiramisu for later. After that was a type of Tuscan dumpling made of spinach, a small amount of parmesan cheese, some salt and flour. I was so surprised how this turned out. Are you getting tired yet? Cause there is more...next was a potato filling for a tortellini, that we later made by rolling our pasta, cutting to size, piping the filling, and learning to fold into pillows of awesomeness! Donatella took over from there, giving us a glass of wine, water, and tomato and white bean bruschetta. She cooked the spinach dumplings with a simple tomato sauce with garlic, and the tortellini with olive oil, and sage. Simple ingredients, and unbelievable flavors. I was so surprised, and left full and very happy from the experience.

Our guide, Daniela, was on time and personable, providing history and commentary. We chatted on the hike up the hills and through the trees to the castle. (really more of a tower, but still very cool). We stopped and took pictures part way up, also a good time for a rest, drink and to cool off. Once at the top the views were amazing, but we continued on, going inside the tower and climbing to the top. At the top the 360 degree view as promised was worth the hike. It was so pretty. We could see up Milan in one direction, the Lake and valley in the other. We had a nice tasting of a Barbarossa wine and some crackers while enjoying the view before walking back down, and returning to our hotel.

We had an amazing time learning how to make Neapolitan pizza. Our small group was just us (2 people), and we started by learning what simple ingredients are combined to make the pizza dough. After making our own dough, we were taken back to the pizza station in the kitchen, right next to the wood oven and made our own pizza. We watched the professional cook the pizza and then we got to take it to our table and dig in. A very fun experience, with a bonus friend pizza provided by the restaurant for us to try and take home. (too much good food is such a wonderful problem to have).

This is up to a 1.5-2 hour drive from Naples each way. It's a long day of being in the car. We started at the Cheese farm for a short tour. We learned how they take care of the Buffalo, and got to see them up close and even got to pet them. After hearing about how the farm is run we tasted some cheese. It's so different in flavor and texture from cow mozzarella, you really can taste the difference. It's a nice place, beautiful grounds with coffee shop, restaurant and pastry shop on sight. (our paperwork said light lunch, and all there was for lunch was the cheese, so be aware and ask your guide to stop someone for food or grab a pastry) The ruins in Paestrum are really interesting, it was less crowded and had a very different from Pompeii if you decide to do that. We had a great guide named Mario who gave us history and commentary, taking us through the museum as well. Not as much to see due to the history of the ruins overall, which again is different from Pompeii but if you like history it's really enjoyable.

Really fun, hands on experience. I highly recommend. We helped to make, what turned out to be pretty simple, a small batch of limoncello and our instructor (Valentino) made it really fun. Playing that he had an injury so we had to do the work we peeled, shook, and combined all the ingredients. When it started to sprinkle, and we we went inside from our private view overlooking the water, they quickly got setup to show us how to use more of the lemon (no lemon goes to waste here) to make lemon marmalade. I was surprised how much I like it, and look forward to trying both recipes at home. This was an amazing experience with a friendly family run business, and I will not only buy from them in the future to ship, but I encourage everyone to to stop by for a tasting or to do the hands on experience. They love what they do and it shows.

We have started to do a food and drink tour on all of our vacations because of how interesting they are and how well it's done. Our Venice experience did not disappoint and from start to finish Beatrice was an excellent guide, telling stories, and history and generally keeping our group engaged. At each stop everything was planned and ready to go and the food and pairing were excellent. As a vegetarian, each stop was able to accommodate my diet with substitutions that looked better than whatever one else was having (but I might be biased). From a Prosecco I had never had before (and loved) to wine (you choose white or red) and ending with a nice dessert wine to sip -- everything was delicious and felt very customizable. We left happy with the experience, getting an idea of the overall city of Venice which helped us to get around later. We also left stuffed, with no need to think about dinner.

The drive takes a little over an hour to go to Siena (our first stop) where we got about an hour and 15 minutes to explore before heading off to the winery for lunch and our tasting. After lunch we went to San Gimignano where we had about and hour and a half to explore before heading back to our starting location. Both stops were really nice, with beautiful views and architecture to admire. We got a pastry and some stuff to take home while window shopping in Siena. We had the biggest slice of pizza we've ever seen an a nice glass of a local wine. At the Winery we had a great table outside with a wonderful view. After a brief introduction to the winery and the wines we had our first tasting paired with bruschetta, cheeses and salami. For our meal we had a choice of pastas or a traditional tuscan stew (a vegetarian choice). The food was wonderful, and the wine paired nicely bringing our the fresh flavors in the food. Our last stop was San Gimignano, where we got a gelato while wondering through the streets and shops.

A great activity to see Naples. We met Clemente at Neptune's fountain and started our tour by heading to see the Castle Nuova from the outside because it wasn't open yet, Galleria Umbero I, with all it's beautiful details (being restored to a sparkling white marble), walking by the theater where the Opera was held. Next to the Royle Palace, with statues in every archway. As we continued to walk we went through the narrow streets, hearing history and dodging shoppers. The tour ended at the underground ruins which was really interesting and worth a trip--it doesn't take too long, but it's a good place to cool off it's it's getting warm outside. A nice 3 hour trip taking it all in and hearing stories from a local who loved to show off his city.

Pompeii was so much larger than I expected! Amazing historical site. Our tour guide, I think might have been Mike, was great. The wine tasting was a nice break between larger experiences. The food was very good, but not too much to feel overly full. The grounds were very nice. Mount Vesuvius was more of a hike than I expected, but the guide was interesting.

This was a nice walk that took us a few blocks from our starting point and showed use some history of Florence. Seeing the David and hearing about about that was probably the highlight. I think it was the perfect length for the walk, at the right pace, as well as the time we needed to see what we saw.

This is a fun idea and I did enjoy the trip, but keep in mind how long it will take to get where you are going. We spent a lot of time in the car. The roads are narrow and speeds are low so it takes twice as long to go a short distance. We stopped for an hour which was nice to look in shops and get a feel for these buildings on the side of the mountain. We also did a limoncello experience (which I recommend and have reviewed separately) but that took 2 hours from our day so we didn't go to the 3rd stop on this tour. Additionally the only way home is the same way you came, so it took us roughly 2 hours to get home after our last stop. Even though we were not driving the say felt long, with a lot of sitting in the car.

The Day Trip to Cetinje & Lovćen was a mixed experience. Our guide Igor was wonderful and Lovćen was incredible, a true highlight with beautiful scenery. However, Cetinje just didn't impress us as much as we thought it would. If someone asked me, I'd say it's okay to skip it if you're short on time.

The Guided Tour of Skadar Lake with a Traditional Boat Ride was great. The guide was nice, although not as dynamic as some of the other guides we had. We especially enjoyed the boat ride and the lovely scenery.

The Jeep Tour Through Durmitor National Park was absolutely wonderful. The park itself is beautiful, and even though it got a bit cloudy and rainy later in the day, we still had a fantastic time. Our guide Dejan was knowledgeable and we got along really well. A beautiful day in a stunning park.

My host, Penny, was incredible. She was very welcoming upon my arrival. She was kind and made sure I had everything I needed during my stay. She also had great suggestions for local restaurants to try out. The BnB was cozy and just down the road from Bunratty castle!

Great location! The townhomes were very clean and comfy. The staff was very nice and helpful. They even made a bag breakfast for me for an early morning flight from Dublin back to the United States.

One of my favorite stays on my 10 day Ireland trip. The host was so kind and made a wonderful Irish breakfast. Rooms were clean and comfortable. An ideal location in Galway as it only took me 10 minutes to walk from the Latin Quarter and Cross street!

I was only here for one night. Minimal interaction with staff but they were welcoming upon check in. Room was clean and meet my needs. It was fun having a bar connected to the guesthouse although life music lasted until midnight.

Great stay! Very nice hotel a couple of miles from the town center. Good breakfast in the morning although they seemed a little short staffed. Room was very nice and clean! They use a system where the room key goes in a slot to conserve energy, so make sure the switches are adjusted appropriately at night. Motion sensored so my TV and lights in the room came on during the middle of the night with movement in the hallway.

Staff was very friendly and welcoming. My host prepared a great Irish breakfast in the morning. Solid location just a 10-15 minute walk from the downtown Cork area.

I really liked my tour guide, Mydie! She was very kind and welcoming upon my arrival to Ireland. She was willing to take pictures of me during the tour. She had great knowledge of Dublin city and was able to provide me with great recommendations for bars and restaurants to check out. I was a little bummed that we couldn't go inside Trinity college to see the Book of Kells. Mydie said the police in Ireland don't like when smaller tours or 1:1 tours go inside the Book of Kells. I wish they would let her more freely take small tours inside the college! Overall though, Mydie was awesome and I really enjoyed walking around Dublin with her for a few hours learning about the city.

I had a great time touring the Guinness Storehouse! The exhibits were fun and informational. It was self guided so I felt I could take my time moving from floor to floor. The taste testing and the free pint of Guinness on the 7th floor were definitely highlights!

The CascadeWellness Resort was absolutely gorgeous. It was my favorite accommodation. The rooms were really nice. I enjoyed the pool. The breakfast was magnificent, with very good options.

Generally nice, clean and great in terms of location. You could walk to everything, which was really handy. I was on the third floor, and going up and down was a little bit of a hike for a day.

It's nice to feel entirely on your own. The apartment was also very nicely situated, right in the middle of everything so I could walk anywhere. Lovely place to stay.

The Private Pena Palace & Sintra Village Half Day Trip was a favorite during my time in Lisbon. The architecture and history were breathtaking, and the whole experience was beautifully organized. It was a great way to escape the hustle of the city and enjoy some of Portugal's rich history.

The Evening Food Walk in the Algarve was definitely one of the highlights for me. I'm a big fan of food tours, and this one did not disappoint. It was an excellent way to taste the local cuisine and learn more about the culture. I highly recommend this activity to anyone visiting the area.