Kimkim Trip Reviews

Everyone was so accommodating in terms of what my family and I required! Our on-site planner greeted us with nothing but recommendations and the trip could not have gone better!

The trip was fantastic. It was our 1st time in Greece so we didn't know what to expect. This trip did not disappoint. We especially liked the Athens to are that was provided by Veronica. Full of history and lots of knowledge as well as being able to say see and get lots of good pictures. Our hotels that we say that were full of knowledgable friendly people and we had a great time talking with them. We had a great time at the beaches and all the restaurants. We can't wait to go back!

It's unfortunate that we didn't know that riads are not accessible by car. That is to some extent because I didn't do enough research, but it really should have been pointed out somewhere along the way. I had told Hajar explicitly that we were four elderly people aged 77 to 83 who were not up to extensive walking, but both our riads required a bit of a walk from where we unloaded our luggage. To make matters worse, the Palais Amani walk was through very unpleasant, not to say trashy, surroundings. and we were told not to go outside the riad on our own. This was far from what we were expecting!!!

Once inside, however, we found the riads very comfortable and lush, except that we were given rooms in La Maison Arabe that had no elevator, requiring two flights of stairs. And in the Palais Amani, our friends the Patels were given a suite in which the bedroom was upstairs but the bathroom was downstairs. Again, after telling Hajar our ages and conditions, I was disappointed that this was not communicated to the riads. The Palais Amani offered the Patels a swap to a single level room, which they accepted, but only on the second day; La Maison Arabe did likewise, again on the second day, which we declined rather than unpack and repack

The itinerary also was not constructed with reference to our elderly status. Our guide, Hammadi, apologized and said he had not been made aware of the problem; he adjusted our itinerary extensively, which we appreciated. Overall, he did a very good job for us, except that he spent far too much time taking us to shops from which I'm sure he was getting a commission. We were taken to one such shop each day, usually without warning that it was going to try to sell us merchandise. (The shop above the tanneries put on one of the hardest of hard sells I ever experienced!). I have been on many land tours and cruise-ship shore excursions but never have I felt so used.

I was also disappointed that Hammadi left us the final night at our hotel, leaving the driver to take us to the airport. The driver was fine, but we felt a bit insecure without our English-speaking guide lest there be some problem at the airport. There wasn't, fortunately, but I still feel he was derelict in leaving us early.

Thanks to KimKim I was able to arrange a bachelorette for 17 people within a month. It would not have been possible without the help, patience and cooperation of Karina (our local specialist). The tour was a perfect combination of planned moments and unplanned. It went above and beyond my expectations. Thank you so much!

It made things so much easier to be met and have our visits organised and explained, when in a foreign country and you don't speak the language it is often difficult to know shown how things work even train stations!

The guides Max arranged were helpful and welcoming, and keen to answer questions and give us a glimpse into life in China as well as just the 'sights'. The mountains in Zhangjajie and Guilin and the incredible Terracotta Warriors also played their parts!

The cooking class in Guilin was fun and the aubergine (eggplant) dish especially tasty, but the spread we had during the dumpling class in Xi'an was the biggest highlight, and the conversation (almost all translated by our guide) was fascinating.

We were in Jordan for 6 nights and seven days, and everything went perfectly. Carmen was very helpful throughout the planning process, she was very responsive and flexible with our schedule. Our favorite part of the trip has to be Wadi Rum! The desert was absolutely breathtaking! All the hotels we stayed were wonderful as well, particularly the Boutique hotel in Amman. The trip was planned very well because we did the intensive activities (Wadi Rum & Petra) on the first half of the trip and the second half was relaxing by the beach :) Our only comment is regarding driver changes. I wish we were communicated about the changes, especially the day that we landed. We weren't told that a different driver was picking us up. Other that this minor confusion, the trip was perfect. Shout out to Jamal, he was incredible!!

This is our second trip with KimKim and it went well but not quite as smoothly as our first trip in Iceland.

Initially Chris (local travel group) did a great job planning the trip but I am not sure if he left the company or what happened, but it was a bit stressful to have no contact from him after multiple attempts to contact him for 2 weeks prior to our trip starting. Basically after we made the final payment, he never assisted us again. We still had questions on the final details and wanted to add on a few excursions that he said would be no problem to do so later. Thankfully, team members at the Travel12 local company stepped in and answered all of our questions and assisted during our stay in Greece.

Extra special thank you to Dimitris for all of his assistance during the stressful time - he was excellent in answering our questions and helping us finalize items and we thank him very much.

One issue, and not certain if it is a difference in our terminology, but several times I asked if the wedding cruise we booked in Santorini was "private", and Chris assured me that it was just so (and you can see this documentation on the chat history). "Private" tour to me means just our group and no other people; however we were surprised to find that this was not the case on the cruise we booked in Santorini. The cruise was beautiful and fun; but just did not meet our expectations.

Thanks for an overall beautiful trip and experience, if not for the stressful time prior to leaving and the surprise on the "private" tour, it would have been excellent.

Our group of 4 arrived in Athens on Aug. 28th. Our driver was there to transport us to our hotel, the Pi Athens Suite. The hotel was nice, although it’s location (1/2 block from major road) made road noise a bit of an issue. The staff was friendly and they served a made-to-order omelet with your breakfast. Our welcome dinner at Mauro Parvato was delicious. There was confusion as to whether the cost of this dinner was part of our package, or on our own, but this was readily resolved. It was within a pleasant walking distance from our hotel.
Our first full day in Athens started with a Mythology tour lead by Maria from Alternative Athens. It was just excellent! Her knowledge and enthusiasm made it such a memorable experience. We appreciated our small group size (our group of 4 plus 4 others). Any and all questions were welcomed and completely answered. It was a great experience.
Our second day, Aug. 30th, began with an Athens Food Tour, lead by Maria Boli. Again, another wonderful experience! Maria lead us (our group of 4 plus a family of 3) on an extensive and delicious walking tour of various culinary sites in Athens. Well organized, informative, and so enjoyable! Maria’s enthusiasm was contagious! By the end of the tour, we were taking pictures together and exchanging email addresses with the former “strangers” in our group. What a fun time! Bravo, Maria!
Aug. 31st started with a ferry ride to Mykonos. Our accommodations on Mykonos were provided by Aletro Cottage houses, a beautiful small hotel with a breath-taking view of the Mediterranean . The staff was very friendly and treated us like family. A wonderful breakfast and a beautiful pool were just two of our favorite things at Aletro . In fact, when it came time to leave and our transfer to the ferry was late, the owners of Aletro offered, and did, drive us to the port so that we would not miss our ferry!
Our event for this day was a trail ride at Mykonos horses. The horses were good, and the hosts were very friendly. However, the ride itself was underwhelming. Not to the level of our expectations.
The next day, Sept. 1, we scheduled the traditional farm visit and Mykonian dinner. Other than the delay caused by confusion regarding our pick up time, the evening was a lot of fun and we were more than impressed with the delicious food served at our dinner. It was an added treat to have the chef stop and visit with us as we dined, to answer any questions and enhance our experience! A very nice evening!
After a day to transfer to Naxos via the high speed ferry, we arrived at the Adriani Hotel and were pleased to find an attractive hotel with very nice rooms, located within walking distance of the seaside shops and restaurants. The morning meal provided by the Adriani Hotel was outstanding! At least three entree dishes, along with several dessert-type options were included with many other items to make this an outstanding dining option for breakfast!
Sept. 3rd started with a transfer to a small village outside of the main city in Naxos. It was here that we met Katarina and began our cooking classes at her home, along with her mother. The opportunity to spend part of our day in their home was such a treat! They were fabulous hosts and wonderful chefs! An added bonus was the opportunity to meet the local historian and tour his museum. Truly an enjoyable experience! Once again, we had a communication glitch between our driver, our hosts and the organizers. It was quickly resolved, but had us a little concerned.
Our final scheduled event was a bike ride lead by Michalis (Mike) Manios and his son at Real Bike. What a great adventure! High quality equipment and the care and expertise taken by Mike and his son to ensure that we had a safe, yet challenging ride made this day one of our favorites! The route included beaches, city streets, the countryside and an added bonus of a historical site. They were so friendly and accommodating and welcoming. We all had a great time!
Although I cannot say that our trip went off without a hitch, I can say that whenever we encountered a “hitch”, our contacts at kimkim were readily available to quickly resolve any issues. We felt that we would have had a difficult time securing the quaint, family-owned hotels, the local guides and business people and wonderful experiences without the use of kimkim. We will definitely consult with kimkim when planning our next vacation!

Everything about working with kimkim and Nico and the team was top notch.. I am in the travel and customer service industry, and I was incredibly impressed with the thoroughness and service we received - 5 stars!

Where do we start!
We were feeling overwhelmed. We only had 8 days and wanted to see as much as possible. My brother contacted Kimkim and Robert got back to him immediately. Between them they crafted a trip that was one of our best ever. Don gave Robert our parameters and he flew with it, choosing the very best accommodations, organising a car rental, planning all of our transfers.........
it worked like a charm, and it was all basically remote control, every evening or the day of, we got our reminder updates. Our accommodations were amazing, small (and I mean small - 3 room hotels), and absolutely charming, we never would have found them ourselves. The rental car, ferries, assorted drivers all just clicked along, we didn’t have to worry about a thing. Goran ( our driver from Orbic to Ston on the Peljesac peninsula, then the next day to Dubrovnik, was a treasure.
We were, as well, happy to have an opportunity to meet Robi at on of the wineries we were visiting with Gorman.
This is a beautiful part of the world and given our wonderful experience with Kimkim, we would love to return to see more!
Thank you!
Diane Capozzi
Don Myles

Ingrid was great, the whole process made easy.
All hotel bookings and transport bookings ran smoothly.
Always available and ready to help
Will definitely refer and use KimKim again
Highly recommended

KimKim is a brilliant idea expertly executed. How to find the perfect in-country help for just the kind of travel you prefer? Ask KimKim. They put us in touch with Nicho and Diego at Peruvian Soul for our self-drive, self-guided trip in Peru. And while driving yourself in Peru is not recommended, we set out anyway to discover that it's true that the worst drivers in the world are Peruvian. But Nicho checked on us almost every day, and we did fine. At Machu Picchu, Peruvian Soul had arranged our tickets and Wilson, our guide. The experience could not have been better. Wilson was friendly, knowledgeable and flexible. Peg suffered from altitude sickness and had to miss some of the recomended highlights but got to know the towns a little better. Peruvian Soul gets 10 out of 10.

Considering how packed our schedule was for this trip, things ran smoothly. Service by Marcela in Buenos Aires was amazing. Thank goodness for her because we didn't know about the weight limits in our carry on to fly to El Calafate. Tour around Buenos Aires with Nicolas was fun. It was nice that we were the first to get picked up so we could talk about other things that interested us about Argentina
There was a small hiccup when we got to El Calafate and nobody was there to pick us up. It seems like someone missed our reservation entirely since our hotel was also closed for business when we got there. Luckily, another hotel owned by the same company was available for us.
Tours and service after that was great. Noelia was with us during our tour to Perito Moreno. We loved she had lots of information about the area for us.
Private Service from Puerto Natales was a bit scary sometimes. A three hour long trip was done in two hours and 15 minutes. We were going FAST!
When we got to Santiago, the driver was not waiting where we were told. He didn't know he had to wait for us there. All got sorted after I called.
Hotel in Santiago was super convenient. Perfect way to finish; close to parks and restaurants.
We liked that we had a combination of full service hotels to smaller boutique ones. We liked that for the most part things were confirmed for us by Say Hueque before we had to do so.
Thank you Mery for helping us plan this amazing trip!

Working with Brahim was a wonderful experience from beginning to end. I travelled with friends as well as my 9 year old children and he addressed all my concerns. He was attentive and responsive and we got everything we were looking for.. Brahim answered all of our concerns about traveling throughout Morocco and developed an itinerary that catered to our needs taking into account that we were traveling with children. Our 9-day trip was filled with adventure including Morocco’s famous blue city, Chefchaouen, nestled in the hills, Historical Fez with a great guide who helped us navigate the bustling maze of the Médina, Ifrane the Switzerland of Morocco with inquisitive monkeys who loved taking peanuts out of our hands, a guided tour of the Sahara and sleeping under the milky way, the Todgha Gorge which reminds you of parts of the Grand Canyon and the most scenic drive over the Atlas Mountains! The trip was fantastic - Great hotels, awesome excursions and wonderful taste for local food and culture. Our driver was awesome! One of my kids wanted to stay behind with his family! Our trip to Morocco was a breathtaking adventure from beginning to end and Brahim made this dream a reality!

My week in the Westfjords was beautiful. I felt comfortable navigating all the roads knowing I had the KimKim team within reach in case I needed help. Being someone who does not drive much in New York, driving through the steep gravel mountains of Iceland became more daunting as the week approached. As usual it was the most breathtaking scenery. I also met with Preeti who compiled my itinerary and answered all my neurotic New Yorker questions. 10/10 would use KimKim again for future travels.

Overall great experience! We were very pleased with our travel and everything was perfect! We are so thankful we used Kim Kim. Chris did a great job choosing hotels and excursions for us to do. It was everything we could have asked for! Lampros, our driver in Athens, was great! We loved getting to meet him and he provided excellent service. The staff at the Ammos Hotel went above and beyond to meet our needs. Loved every second of the trip!

My only recommendation is if anyone else is going to hike the Samaria Gorge, more information needs to be provided. Before the trip we were told we would have a guide and would be riding a bus. It wasn't until we were picked up by our driver at the hotel that he told us he would take us and pick us up (driver was much more preferred over a bus, but it did cause confusion!) and we did not have a guide (which was also much preferred because we were able to go at our own pace!) but still caused confusion. Also, we were unsure how the ferry tickets and entrance all worked. When we got to the top the people at the cafe told us they were the only ones that sold ferry tickets and that we couldn't buy them at the bottom. So we spent money not knowing any better. Once we got to the bottom we realized this was for a ferry off to the side and not the main ferry. It was a little sketchy so we decided to buy tickets for the main ferry and lost out on the money for the first ferry. In the end it all worked out, but a little more detail would have been preferred!

Using KimKim was definitely the best choice for us and we are so thankful for all the time and effort that Chris put in to make our vacation a once in a lifetime trip!

We enjoyed the trip and our guide Anderson was very good and pleasant. Many thanks for arranging.

We were so happy with our kimkim experience! André was responsive and very nice to deal with. He set up an itinerary that reflected our interests. All transportation, information, transfers, hotels were nicely chosen and there were no problems or glitches. André gave us great recommendations for restaurants, as did our guides in Bergen, David and Vilde. These two were so important in terms of our overall experience in Scandinavia. They were knowledgeable and fun; it was like going around town and on a hike with friends. David's tour was personalized and quirky while encompassing the city's history and significant places. We got a real sense of contemporary Bergen from him, deeper and more interesting than on a typical tour. Vilde took us on a rigorous, enjoyable hike. We learned more about Norway while talking to her about her life.

The trip was great. Everything was well organized, and the guides were very knowledgable and flexible. Highly recommended.

Just wished our initial briefing contained more information on the android phone operation and bike cover use with android. Miha was very responsive and really facilitated my recovery of my Fed Ex package!