Kimkim Trip Reviews

We had an incredible custom trip to Peru, organized by Anne Godoy from Peruvian Soul. Our guide for the first 6 days (Cusco, Sacred Valley) was Julio Quispe and our guide for the Ausangate portion of our journey (though Andean Lodges) was Alfredo Zuniga. Both guides were incredible. Super knowledgable, friendly, helpful and made the trip an exceptional experience. Anne was very prompt and checked on us through the entire trip. This was my first time with KimKim and my first time organizing anything via a travel agency - and I was very pleased with the experience. Thanks Anne, Julio and Alfredo - for a wonderful trip.

Thanks Dean and Petrina! We had an amazing time in Ireland, and loved every moment of it! We would love to come back and see more of your beautiful country. All the work you put in for us, both in terms of making our bookings and planning our itinerary, is much appreciated. Almost everything worked like clockwork. We were also lucky to have great weather during our time there, and on the one day it wasn't great due to the rain, quite magically Dean showed up, and helped us plan our day!

In terms of guides and related feedback - here are a couple of things -

1. Hilltop Treks - Celts and Castles Tour. We had specifically requested a tour of Newgrange. Turns out this tour regularly does not enter Newgrange. That would have been a huge disappointment for us. As it turns out our tour started early since all the tourists got there in time, and the guide was able to eke out the time for us to see the inside of Newgrange which was amazing. I don't think the trip would have been worthwhile for us if we had not entered Newgrange. All's well that ends well - but I wanted to mention this, for future reference for you. In case there are others who specifically request a tour of Newgrange, it might be better to find a tour company that routinely goes inside the monument.
2. Lally Tours - Cliffs of Moher tour - In the interest of full disclosure, it would have been nice to know before that the money we paid earlier for the tour does not cover the cost of visiting the caves. Interestingly, they don't even mention it on their website. Also, we would have preferred a tour that covered Dunguaire castle vs the caves.

Overall, for us, I think it would have been better to have been given the option of a couple of tour companies before the bookings were made, so we could have checked out their itineraries and seen which ones worked the best with our interests.

Places that were most memorable - honestly, we enjoyed everything.
In Dublin - our favorites were the tour of Trinity college (the guide was really good), and the Book of Kells, and the Musical Pub Crawl.
Waterford - loved the tour of Waterford Factory
Cobh - loved the town and the beautiful St Colman's Cathedral
Ring of Kerry - loved the Derrynane Loop Walk. Your directions were perfect!
Dingle and Slea Head - were our absolute favorites! Absolutely stunningly gorgeous! Our favorite stop there was the Dunmore Head hike (which was not mentioned in your information - you may want to add it to your repertoire!).

Challenges - we had only one. We were unable to find the Old Head of Kinsale hike. I think we made some error in getting there and hence it took us for ever, and when we got there we were turned around. We parked at the Speckled Door, but were unable to find the start of the hike. It looked to us like you had to walk on a narrow road shared by cars which seemed risky. We asked the gentleman at the bar at the Specked Door, but he was too busy to help us. That's what delayed us in getting to Kenmare that night, and led to the problem at the B and B.
Everything else was really perfect.

I mention the above not as criticisms, but in the spirit of constructive feedback!

Overall, we ended up having a fantastic trip. our 2 private guides (Curtis from viking Biking in Oslo and Romain in Bergen) were both excellent and very informative. The Fjord cruise and Flåm railway were also highlights. On the flip side, we had some challenges along the way that could have been avoided with careful planning. For example, it took awhile for the hotel to find our reservation at the Thon hotel in Oslo because it was booked under Axel Garber, our guide. I also had to email Axel to find out where to go for our bike trip since it didn’t say in our detailed itinerary. In Flåm, we missed the ferry to Balestrand because our train was late. Had we known to look for the ferry to Bergen (which stopped in Balestrand) we would not have missed it as that ferry was held for a large tour group. That night, we had to stay in Flåm but also had a room booked in Balestrand which we were unable to cancel. Apparently, the kayaking tour we had booked in Balestrand was booked by the tour company in error so it was canceled. Finally, we had an issue checking out of our hotel in Bergen because the CC on file was from a name that we didn’t know and the hotel did not have authorization to charge the card. After quite awhile, Julia called back and straightened out the situation.

We enjoyed the route through the Snaefellsnes Penninsula and remote areas Westfjords, We were able to snag a reservation at Tjorhusid in Isafjordur which was a real treat. Driving through the snow in the mountains on a gravel road was a real adventure. We liked the Malarhorn guesthouse and suggest taking route 68 from beyond Holmavik on the way back to Reykjavík for wild beauty and staggering views. It was the only time we ventured off the route planned by Pauline and it was well worth it. Pauline was able to develop an amazing 7 day trip for us with very little lead time.

David and Heimdal Tours were excellent. Their service is personalized and they are dedicated to making your tour as smooth and convenient as possible. They will cater to your interests and are quick to respond to all inquiries and questions. They appear to be committed to highlighting and preserving local Faroese culture without exploiting local communities. We had a great time in the Faroe Islands and are very glad we experienced the islands with this tour group.

Planning and booking via kimkim was seamless and easy. The local specialist in Brazil, Luciana was excellent, responding to what we wanted to do, rescheduling, and providing required information promptly. Our trip went as planned by Luciana, and exceeded our expectations, in what we managed to do and see.

We were very pleased with the service provided by Dimitris. He answered all of our questions and made sure that all aspects of our trip ran smoothly. When we were concerned that weather conditions might lead to a cancellation of our ferry he was behind the scenes looking into that for us. He also listened to the specifics of what we were looking for and adjusted our itinerary accordingly. Overall we were very pleased with our trip and we enjoyed working with him.

My wife and I spent 16 days in Croatia (a country we had never been to) celebrating my 60th birthday. I stumbled across Kimkim and decided to give it a try. This was the best decision we could have made. The booking and payment process was painless and then while on the trip, the checking in and checking out at hotels was completely simple and easy.
But the best thing Kimkim did was connect us to the local Croatian travel specialist Robi. He was a dream to work with. He met us in person on day one of our trip and sat with us to explain everything we would need to know before being left on our own. Believe it or not, every night he would text me to find out how our day was and more importantly to send me the drop-pin for my google maps gps. We were driving a car rental, so this was a huge help.
Robi perfectly walked the fine line of being there for us and not being intrusive. I cannot emphasize enough how valuable and reassuring it was to have Robi available for us during the trip.
Finally, the beauty and unspoiled nature in Croatia made our trip exceed all of our expectations. Thanks to Robi and Kimkim for an amazing experience we won't forget.

It was my first trip to Nepal and everything was handled perfectly. Kripa was very helpful and able to give good tips about the trek and the whole office worked to make sure that my experience was great. While the weather could have been more cooperative my guide was able to make adjustments and everything worked out great.

Well organised, friendly, professional from start to finish. The entire NMMT team was very helpful, and our guide, Darfuri Sherpa provided a great hiking experience. The weather was a challenge with flights, but the team made a great effort to ensure that we managed to experience everything we wanted to. Would highly recommend them.

Our trip was great. Itineraries were created thoughtfully to match our interests and were packed. The first day was very tough because we had been awake all night, maybe a more low key day would have been nice. We loved all the local recommendations and the restaurant recommendations were amazing! All the recommendations exceeded everything that we found on our own.

It was a trip of our lifetime and we were so happy to have found Preeti and her team to help us enjoy their country. I can't wait to use kimkim for our next adventure.

Dafuri was a great/knowledgeable guide and the porters were very helpful. Overall great first experience in Nepal!

The Quad Biking in Cappadocia was one of the highlights of my trip. Also, the Day Tour in the city was very interesting and enjoyable.

Jasmine was very responsive to ALL my questions!

The hotels she chose were exactly what we were looking for. We especially liked the Pullman in Cairns and the Montra Bond in Sydney. Get location and value.

All the tours were wonderful. Especially the 1/2 tour tour of Sydney and the Great Barrier Reef Day.

The only tour we did not like was the Daintree Rainforest. Had we known how long it was we would have opted to do something else. Driving for 5 hours in one day is too much. I think that tour they try to do too much. Long drives and then short stays at the venues.

Thank you very much!

This trip was nothing short of spectacular. Most memorable I found the pagodas in Bagan, and driving around exploring them on e-bikes. Also, the boat trip on Inle Lake was very nice. Our guides were knowledgeable and sociable. The people in Myanmar are very friendly, the food is great and reasonably priced.
The one thing I didn't like was riding on a horse-drawn cart in Inwa. The horses did not appear well-kept, and to watch one horse pull a cart with four adults was just painful.

Ingrid was lovely to chat with when planning our trip. Her responses were always very prompt. However, we were planning a trip for Bergen for mid-late September. Our group would have greatly appreciated and benefited from having her insider perspective shared ahead of time. For example, many of the attractions on the Bergen card (which she sold us as part of the package) were closed or on very limited hours due to the fact that it was “late” in the season. Additionally, we feel Ingrid should have shared the fact that our ferry back from Flam was 5 hours long and part it after the sun went down. Our group was left with dead phones and nothing to do for about 2 hours. She did a great job purchasing the tickets but then didn’t always give clear instructions for which port or which platform to go to- creating some confusion for us.

We absolutely LOVED our tour guide Jon who lead our hike in Bergen. His energy and friendly attitude were perfect for our steep incline hike.

Overall, we felt the service provided by KimKim was very friendly but maybe not worth the price because we didn’t receive any extra information or guidance from the team (other than navigating and purchasing tickets for transportation). The companies they used for both the ferries were very welcoming!

Some more 5 stars for Erin and Himalayan Trails and they are all well-deserved! Very well organized trip that exceeded our expectations. Unfortunately I cannot remember the names of all our guides and it would be unfair to others if I mention only a few. They were all so kind and helpful with good knowledge about each area, history and religion of Nepal. The only bad thing is that we didn't have the chance the see the Himalayan range due to the late monsoon season but I think clearing the sky is one thing that Erin and her team cannot do something about it :-)
So until next time, THANK YOU GUYS for this amazing Nepali experience!

p.s.
stay away from leeches! ;-)

I traveled through Slovenia for 8 days on a mostly hiking and occasionally biking itinerary. Domen, our local trip specialist from Ljubljana, did an excellent job planning even more activities than we had time to enjoy, so each day there were options. He responded to our many questions and concern with patience and in detail.

Slovenia offers stunning geography, wonderful food, and warm hospitality. Hiking through the Julian Alps and along the Soca River can be challenging with some steep inclines and miles of uneven surfaces to navigate. You need to be fit and wear good boots- all worthwhile when you’re immersed in the natural beauty.

We were provided with with a local phone and a detailed itinerary with maps and navigation for each segment of the trip. We had problems with the Android phone, but found that we could download the maps and itinerary details into our iPhones which worked better for us.

Our favorite part of the experience was the cooking class in Tuscany. The view was absolutely stunning and it was such a fun day! We really enjoyed the smaller group tours. I would highly recommend taking the ferry when traveling between the Greek Islands. It’s much more convenient than flying. Bellou suites in Mykonos was our absolute favorite hotel. Beautiful views, friendly owner and quiet and set back away from the hustle and bustle of this party island. We booked a few tours on our own that we loved too. We did a biking tour through “we love Tuscany” and would highly recommend this to people who want to be more active. Overall it was a very awesome trip!

We had an excellent experience with Kimkim in planning our trip. We gave Vilde the general outline of where we wanted to begin and end and she planned it all, hotels and excursions. We drove over 650 miles during our stay and thoroughly enjoyed the drive and landscapes. We loved the Dragsvik Fjordhotel , Bergens Bors hotel, the Fjord Cruise and walking tour of Bergen. Our guide, ( forgotten his name) during our walking tour was great. We were a bit more vigorous than his typical clients, so we finished his usual tour in 2hrs rather than 3. No problem we still enjoyed it!! We realized that we prefer a la carte dining rather than the dinner buffets offered in two of the hotels we stayed, for the tour bus crowd. During our trip we needed to adjust our travel and Andre easily took care of cancelling and rebooking our hotel. The Viking Village was a major tourist destination, not our type of thing but the drive there was beautiful! we will most definitely use Kimkim again on our next visit to Norway, when we plan to venture further north!!