Kimkim Trip Reviews

Our drive for the entire trip was Samad. Though not a full guide he did have a lot of local information and in essence helped make the trip as great as it was. He has a great command of English, He was willing to stop to allow my wife to take roadside photos. His road skills were excellent and we never fear for our life while he was driving. We did have local guide in Fes - Hakim. He took us into the many winding streets and alleys that was a wonder that he didn't get lost. He was very good. In Marrakesh Youssef walked us around the City and again I was surprised that he did not get lost, but a life time resident he knew his way around and it showed. I would also like to say that each of our Ryads and Dars had hosts who really looked after us and made us feel very welcome. They were always eager to help with any thing we needed. The Bellamane Ryad & Spa the host heard my wife had a sore throat so he went to the local market for fresh lemons and ginger for a hot tea potion - it did the trick!

My team of 5 avid hikers hiked 7 volcanoes in 11 days with guides Carlos and Lucas, who went out of their way to make our trip fun, safe, exciting and full of wonderful surprises. Their passion for adventure, love for the outdoors of their country, dedication and commitment to meeting our needs and cheerful disposition made it an epic experience for us.

I am also extremely grateful to Chris Gwinner, of Old Town Outfitters (OTO), who tailored this adventure for my group. His professionalism, prompt and accurate communication and patience in answering questions left little to unknown which helped everything run smoothly.

Getting up close to volcanoes is unique and humbling. The breath-taking scenery from the summits were awe-inspiring. The hikes were challenging but the experience was worth the sweat and dust on our boots, hair and skin, and OTO played a vital and commendable role in making it all possible.

The trip to Peru was fantastic. Cesar Surco, our guide post Lima, was exceptional in every way. He was patient, kind, knowledgeable and an absolute genius with the camera. He was filled with excellent recommendations of what to do (and what not to do). We were never rushed and yet, got to see and do everything. He is a true local and took us to places we would never have seen on our own. I can't stress how great he is.
Although we spent very little time with Anne, she was amazing as a planner. She had so much patience helping me put this trip together. We changed our plans multiple times and Anne never seemed annoyed with changes.
Lastly, in the Lima portion of our trip, our guide Sheila on our day to Ica was exceptional. She was so friendly and warm and knew so much about the area. We thoroughly enjoyed our day with her.

Our local specialist Deborah was fantastic in helping us organise the trip from start to finish. We encountered a few teething problems along the way to do with booking of flights but all issues were resolved to our total satisfaction without any fuss. Deborah also arranged excellent choice of on the ground personal guides and car transfers which all went very smoothly, they were all very professional and knowledgeable. All in all we would highly recommend Deborah and her team and would like to thank her for making our honeymoon so memorable in South Africa.

Huyen and all the guides were fantastic. Nothing but good things to say and great memories. Your service made my trip effortless because you did all the planning. Thank you so much. I will be back again. Ron Brooks

Preeti, did a fantastic job of scheduling our day to day activities. She is very experienced in this line of work. She somehow managed to almost perfectly time our stops with the time we had each day. Thanks and we will be using kimkims services again.

Five days before flying to Colombia I found Kimkim online and was encouraged by the favourable reviews. I like that there was a form to decide if it was the best option for me within my budget. I was contacted by Natalia who made an itinerary with all the things I wanted to do; I’m grateful for them making my stay in Colombia AWESOME. I’m truly grateful for the itinerary, accomodation in fantastic locations and the BEST local guides.

My guide in Bogotá - Juan Carrillo gave me 3 wonderful days in Bogota; it really made all the difference. And the local touches crowned everything.

Lydia was great in Medellín with personalised touched in the tour; highlight of my trip was the transformative Communa 13 trip.

Last but not least, Carlos in Medellín - a most engaging and wonderful guide; I truly enjoyed our day together.

Megan was amazing - she helped us organize our perfect trip! This was incredibly helpful, she made a detailed itinerary, and answered all of our endless questions. She was super understanding of our minimal budget and was very helpful organizing things accordingly. This service is incredible for it's price and I highly recommend it! Megan was outstanding and made all of our wishes come true! Cannot recommend this enough!

Our trip to Peru was out of this world, beyond expectations and truly life changing. What a rich and beautiful culture, country, and people. We had everything set up perfectly through Aspiring Adventures and I would recommend them over and over again for a perfect Peru trip. From the multiple calls with Steve and communication with Katy to make sure everything was exactly what we wanted and executed perfectly, to arriving in the country and connecting with our excellent guide and driver, Aldo and Paul, everything was well beyond expectations. There are not words to describe how special this trip was for my family and friends. Aldo was beyond helpful, thoughtful and and incredibly devoted to the rich history and future of the Incan people. We were in safe hands with him and our driver Paul the whole trip. I would and will go back!

Amazing customized trip across Peru in 7 days!
We had a great time with our Kim Kim team. The trip was tailored to our needs and we saw everything we wanted to during the week of our trip. The guides were extremely knowledgeable and all the transportation/tickets/other logistics were seamless. Each event/activity was thoughtfully planned. Have already recommended this to several friends.

Valentine created an awesome itinerary for us! If I were to pick out the best highlight (which is hard because everything was awesome!) I'd say it was the Waimarino glow worm evening kyak tour which was absolutely fabulous. However, everything was great from the moment we arrived in Auckland, to the whale and dolphin watching, to the wine tasting on Waiheke island, to the Hobbiton movie set, hiking around Wai O Tapu, and hanging out next to the stunning ocean in Tauranga. We had an amazing time in our 7 days in NZ!

Guides and activities were outstanding! Hotel in Puerto Varas was fine, but not exceptional -- very much enjoyed the hotel in Pucon. We had to defer the trip for a year after a preceding trip to Antarctica was deferred -- Oxana was extremely helpful in working with us on those changes. We did have some confusion with internal Chile airline reservations -- caused by different requests within the travel group -- also some confusion with final payments (likely caused by the fact that we had to defer). Overall, it was a very positive experience.

Ha was awesome from the start! She offered a lot of great initial options, and we worked together over a few weeks to make this vacation everything we wanted it to be. We were spoiled from the moment we met Mr. Sauce and his driver at the Bangkok airport, when we met Ms. Mew and her driver at the Chiang Mai train station, and until our last driver dropped us off at the Bangkok airport at the end of our vacation. And Ha was in constant contact with me the entire time to make sure everything was perfect. I would highly recommend Ha and her team!

We had an amazing trip to Sri Lanka. Mohit, our agent, was very attentive to our requests and planned a great schedule for us. All arrangements including hotels, transportation and sightseeing trips were wonderful. Our guide and driver, Mr Assange, was really good, a careful driver but engaging and reliable. We will definitely be using KimKim again.

Overall the trip to the Lake District was enjoyable with several hickups. We wrote to you about the discrepancy on Day 2 between what was originally quoted about lunch being included and still have not received any answer or verification of that. The original quote on which we paid stated lunch was included and then we found out it was not. The stay at Casa Karfu in Punta Arenas was not enjoyable. The hotel is very noisy, ALL the floor boards squeak, the walls are thin, and you can hear people walking above you. If you don't have ear plugs you won't get any sleep. The staff was not particularly friendly except for one young lady at the desk who was helpful. It was a 15 min walk to town, which after a long day was not something we felt enthusiastic about. Thankfully there are 2 options down the street. Breakfast did not start promptly at 0700. Ronaldo, our guide in PA, was very good. He was professional and answered all our questions. All the activities were enjoyable.
Casa Estado in Pucon was very nice. The only complaint, if any, is it is far from town and costs about $12 each way in a taxi. You are pretty much stuck there without a car. Stefanie from Amity Tours was very nice. She was not good at keeping pace with the whole group on the hikes. One person was a fast pacer and she kept her pace with him. The 2 of them walked far ahead of the 3 of us. The 3 of us felt we could have just taken a walk together without paying for a guide. She should have considered the "pace of the whole group" and set that pace so all of us would have had the benefit of walking with the guide. This happened both days. Otherwise, the hikes in both national parks were beautiful. The thermal pools were enjoyable.

We were delighted with our Sri Lanka trip. The organization was great and when we were dissatisfied with one of our hotels, Yasantha quickly made alternate arrangements that were perfect. Our guide/driver, Kumar added to the overall enjoyment of our visit to Sri Lanka. He is an excellent reflection on the Kim Kim operation, along with Yasantha.

There are too many highlights to cover. We REALLY enjoyed the Horton Plains hike; and, of course, Sigiriya, and the cave temples of Dambulla.

Carlos was so great! He gave us a ton of options before we booked our trip, and then made sure everything went smoothly thereafter. He also quickly jumped in to help out with any bumps in the road while we were on our trip.

I had never been to Jordan, but after some research went for Kimkim. Went with them and Sara(h) was the agent.

She is outstanding. organised an outstanding trip, form collection in Israel to dropping off back in Israel. Great suggestions too. Definitely will recommend her to anyone going to Jordan and Petra. Stayed in a Bedouin camp near Little Petra which was very good, and a lot cheaper than the overpriced hotels in Petra as well.

We recently used kimkim.com for our recent 11-day trip in late February/early March, 2020 to Costa Rica. Alberto Molina, the local specialist, was really easy to work with and easy to contact with any questions. A few days into our trip, we had a few questions and Karol with Green World Adventures, and she was very quick to get back with us. She helped us several times during our trip and adjusted our tours when we had questions. She was always handy and helpful.
The following tour guides were standouts on our trip:
Felipe with Green World Adventures: Great walking downtown tour of San Jose! He graciously gave us his own recipe of ceviche, and kept us entertained our our drive to and from the airport.
Axel and Victor with Desafio Adventure Pioneers: Hanging Bridges tour, Aerenal Volcano hike and La Fortuna waterfall. What a fun filled day with these guys! They were so accommodating during these fun adventures!
Javier with Iguana tours, our nature guide at Cari-Canche Private Reserve. He was full of knowledge about this beautiful area.
Yenaro Suarez, our guide who conducted our tour at the Don Juan coffee, chocolate and sugar cane plantation. That was such a wonderful, tasty treat!
"Professor" Andres, our very informative nature guide who conducted our tour at Manuel Antonio National Park.
Hector Altamirano of HecTours. He was our ultimate nature guide at Carara National Park. He was a marvelous tour guide, along with our driver Eddie, who spotted the macaws at the very beginning our our trip. This was our last tour and was such a memorable day.
We all hated to leave beautiful Costa Rica, but hopefully will return sometime soon.

Our local specialist, Lena, was very impressive. She created an itinerary that perfectly met our objectives, and gave knowledgeable answers to all of my questions. After we finalized the plan and paid for the trip, she continued to provide assistance via email as we prepared for our Jordan adventure.

Our drivers, Jamal the first day and Medhet the other four days, were very professional and accommodating. They always arrived on time (early, in fact) to pick us up, and were eager to help in any way possible. In fact, when I left my phone in Medhet's car one evening, he made a special trip to our hotel to return it that night.

Our 5-day tour included Al Maghtas on the Jordan River (the baptism site of Jesus), the Dead Sea, Petra, Wadi Rum, Amman, and Jerash. Petra was the most amazing and impressive attraction, but we would highly recommend visiting all of them. In particular, Jerash was much larger and more interesting than we had anticipated, so it was a special treat to go there on our last day and carry that memory home with us.

If we were planning the trip again, I think we would want to spend 2 days at Petra (making a total of 6 days in Jordan). The extra day at Petra would allow time to explore more of this very extensive site, and also permit spending more time in the museum at Petra, which is by far the best museum we have seen in our visits to Middle Eastern and African countries.