Kimkim Trip Reviews

Oh my, what an amazing experience. Susan was just absolutely fabulous. Answered all my questions promptly and just truly arranged an amazing trip for my 50th birthday. Zanzibar was incredible, Stone Town a delight. The hotels we stayed in were to die for. Truly works of art. The highlight of my trip was climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro. Our guides Sinaí and Amsi were amazing, kept my daughter and I entertained and safe. They were so knowledgeable of the área, plants, animals, everything. They took our oxygen level and heart rate every night to make sure we were safe. Our cook made the most amazing meals, I wish I could take him home with me, and I miss the banana stew, I want the recipe for that, I was so good!! He even made me a cake on my birthday! I couldn't have asked for better porters, they sang and danced for us, and at the end of every day they would meet us on the trail and carry our packs to camp for us. On day 7, summit day, they met us 2 hours from camp and brought hot tea and juice! I miss the crew so much. Our hotel in Arusha had the nicest staff and most beautiful grounds. Albert from DiscoverTZ arranged for an Arusha city tour on our free day and we got to go to the Women's Market and a true highlight for me - see Masaai medicine (I'm an ER nurse in the states) My daughter's favorite part was the safari (which I loved too). Albert was also our guide for the safari and was knowledgeable and took us to out of the way places so we weren't competing with other drivers. He has the best philosophy - its all about the experience, and it was!!! We saw lions, elephants, lion cubs, cheetahs and cheetah cubs - even saw cheetahs in a tree which is unheard of! Our accommodations for the safari were amazing - tent camps where the animals came right up to the tenis. I looked out at one point to see a zebra eating the grass right next to my tent and then walked next to the monkeys cavorting on the pathway. You don't get a better experience than that! I truly miss Sinaí, Amsi and Albert as I have made new friends. A perfect 50th birthday.

Our guide, Dean M was super brillant. We had the best time. He made sure we had the history of each place we stopped. And he added a few along the way he found after getting to know us better. We felt like we had first class service the entire trip. If I had to pick, the Aran Island trip was my favorite.
The food was exceptional. Every meal delicious. Saying good by to Dean at the end of our week together was like saying good bye to an old friend. Thank you for a great trip.

We (Siva & Spouse) returned back to India last night after a great trip to Morocco. We are realize that we would have missed a great opportunity, had we not made this visit to Morocco.

The planning and suggestions were SUPERB. Well coordinated. Service support has been excellent.

The vehicle, driver and the accommodation suggestions were simply great.

Overall, we have returned back with lot of satisfaction and great feelings about the country and people of the country.

Hats Off to Mohammad! Great Human Being and We established a fantastic relationship with him.

Thanks Brahim.

Salam!
Siva

We were initially reluctant to reach out to a travel agent to help with this trip (as we never have) but work and life got in the way and we needed local assistance navigating hotels and transportation. We knew from the start, we wanted to see as much of Croatia as possible in a week and did not want to only rely on a car or the ferry service, which complicated things. From the start, Robi was very responsive and patient in providing feedback on various itineraries, as we reached out prior to purchasing our plane tickets. We ended up flying in and out of Dubrovnik, as there was a direct flight from teh United States, which is a somewhat unusual route for traveling. He listened to feedback and easily incorporated suggestions of upgrades and locations of accommodations, when we asked. He also provided reasonably priced accommodations and budget ensuring we had a nice room at each hotel, which we appreciated. Robi also suggested things like private drivers and guides for Split and Dubrovnik, which we had not specifically requested, but made our trip much more enjoyable and relaxing. All drivers and guides showed up as promised and were easy to identify, friendly, and knowledgeable. While we were in Croatia, Robi personally drove from Zagreb to Dubrovnik to meet us our second day and drive us to Korkula. Along the way, he drove us along a scenic route to Ston and provided us an introduction to Korkula, and a history or Croatia. He also provided many local recommendations including use of pinpoint google map sites of where to rent an electric bike, where to eat, how to get to local beaches, where to pick up a rental car in Split, and even where to park at Plitvice Lakes. Robi really went above and beyond what we expected in a travel guide. He was always thinking about how we could get more out of our trip, calling ahead to accommodations with information on when they should expect us, and communicated well with us throughout our trip. We would recommend him to anyone! As this was our first experience with KimKim, we intend to come back for help with future vacations.

We started in Prague and first meet with Sasha our contact. Sasha reviewed our trip and had several suggestions. Our guides in Prague were all outstanding, being willing to answer all our questions. In all cases our transfers to the next city was seamless, thank you so much.
Budapest was the same, a great experience.
In Ljubljana we met Lidija who again reviewed our plans and made suggestions. We are so glad that we followed through with suggestions given to us throughout this trip. Guides were great and travel connections were seamless.
If we have to put a negative into this section, the only thing is the five day walk around the three lakes. This is so minor but here we go. Day two had us walking through very muddy trails which really were unsuitable, we should have returned to our hotel by the way we came. Day four had us walking along a path covered by fallen trees which really needed clearing. At times we thought we would have to turn back.
Thanks for a great experience in Central Europe.

My two sons (19 & 21) and I wanted to visit Norway but due to my work schedule I left everything to the last minute. I found Kim Kim per chance on the Internet and decided based on their excellent reviews for Norway to give them a try. I completed the questionnaire and Fridur quickly contacted me. She was extremely helpful, knowledgeable and patient in helping us to plan our Itinerary. She focused on basing it on our own special requests - active with multiple hiking days in Bergen and Balestrand plus white water rafting near Geilo. We even squeezed in visits and morning tours of both Bergen and Oslo. The local guides, Fartein in Bergen and Stig in Oslo, were informative and fun to discuss the history of their cities and country. I had never been on a personal local guided tour before and they have convinced me that this is the way to go. We saw so much and learned a great deal in our three hours together.
Fridur sent details on how to travel to the airports and tips on saving money by purchasing the day passes, etc. She responded to all of my 1,000 questions. I also must comment that I had braced myself for sticker shock but was pleasantly surprised that Fridur kept the cost down in our price range while booking us into comfortable 4 star hotels that were well located.
There is so much to see in beautiful Norway, I hope that we are able to return soon. I definitely would love to work with Fridur again.

Wow what a trip we have just had! Firstly, a huge thank you to Vishal and Sonam at Trophel Tours, and to Thinley (our guide) and Migmar (our driver) who made our 2-week trip so memorable, informative, fun, with seamless travel connections and full of chilli cheese!
From the start, organising this trip was made easy with the communication, advice and support provided by Vishal. Ric was on an invite working visa with the Ministry of Health and Vishal went out of his way to navigate the complexities of the various itineraries and different visa types Ric and I had to have in place.
The hikes that Thinley and I undertook together (while Ric was working) around Paro were fabulous, walking through pine forests and we hardly saw another soul on any of them, apart from a few local farmers, monks and friendly dogs! Thinley has a wealth of knowledge about his country, Buddhism, the history of the various monasteries, Dzongs, temples we visited and of Bhutan’s flora and fauna. He could even talk with the birds! And our very respectful driver, Migmar, was a delight to be around and we always felt in safe hands on the mountainous roads.
In the second half of our trip, Ric joined us for hikes and sightseeing in and around Punakha and Thimphu. We loved watching the national sport of archery, and even came back to Australia with a traditional bow and arrows!!
We were also lucky enough to be in Thimphu to watch the Tour of the Dragon – one of the World’s toughest mountain bike races which sees cyclists covering 268 kms, up and down 4 mountains all in one day! Even the Prime Minister of Bhutan took part.
We stayed in the 3-star Tourist hotels organised by Vishal and all were of a high standard, with scenic views of dzongs, temples or the breathtakingly beautiful countryside. All the hotels were clean and comfortable, and we were certainly well fed!
The only thing that we got wrong was the weather! Bhutan is on the same latitude as Cairo and Miami and at high altitudes and at the time of year we went (end of August/September), it was hotter and more humid than we had planned for! Be prepared to wear long sleeves to enter the zdongs and temples and also not every hotel, restaurant and/or shop takes credit cards so take in some hard currency (preferably US$).
We loved our time in Bhutan, with its proud people and strong national identify and it seems decades before its time in terms of the environment – at the Paris Climate talks, Bhutan didn’t commit to becoming carbon neutral – they committed to staying carbon negative (i.e. their forests absorb more carbon than the country emits)! It really is a special country.
We plan to come back with our family to do a 6-day hike and will certainly, without a doubt, be in touch with Vishal and Sonam and go through Trophel Tours again.

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!