Kimkim Trip Reviews

Our trip to Romania has been a beautiful surprise. We had no expectations but we were totally blown away by the beauty and diversity of Romania. Our guide Bogdan was exceptional in his knowledge and enthusiasm for what has become his dream job. Nothing was too much trouble for him and he strove to fit in so much more than we had anticipated . From Bucharest to the painted monasteries in the north it was an ever changing landscape. Romania should be on everyone’s bucket list. Thank you Florin for organizing our itinerary and our great guide Bogdan

My husband and I had an AMAZING trip in Ireland for our ten year anniversary! The kimkim team and Ireland walk hike bike did such a fantastic job. The B&Bs we stayed at were all wonderful and they provided a very detailed day to day itinerary for our hiking adventure!

We just finished the most amazing family trip to Rio. We were travelling with our two young sons (ages 3 and 10 months), so we needed significant attention, special needs and flexibility. Camille made great recommendations on the tours to book. Our specialized guide, Daniela, was an absolute superstar. She adapted each tour and day to our specific needs and tastes, and was very flexible as the needs of the boys evolved over the days. They absolutely adored her and were excited to see her each morning. Pere and Dayane were also integral parts of our trip and made sure our whole family was well taken care of.

I would recommend this team to anyone looking to take a trip to Rio. Just let them know your interests and they will put together something special and maximize your trip to this beautiful and wonderful country. We hope to come back to visit you all again soon.

Activity Reviews

Walking through the Bohemian Neighborhood of Santa Teresa

Rio de Janeiro

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Corcovado & Christ the Redeemer Tour

Rio de Janeiro

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Boteco Tour of Rio

Rio de Janeiro

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Our trip to Greece was fabulous! We toured Naxos, Santorini, and Crete with the help of Angela. She was always very responsive whenever we had questions. Our day on the farm on Naxos was especially memorable. We also loved our tour of Akrotiri on Santorini. Due to weather conditions we did not get to spend the time on Crete as we had hoped. Ferries were cancelled due to high wind conditions. But Angela made sure we were compensated for our last minute cancellations. All in all, it was an amazing trip that I would highly recommend.

A quick note that my family had an amazing trip to the Galapagos. A special thank you to Mathias who helped with the pre-planning, advance trip details and check-ins during the trip to make sure everything went smoothly.
We visited all three islands and had great excursions and experiences on all. Mathias planned just enough snorkeling, hiking and travel with down time to spend with the family. ALL of our guides were top notch and were prompt and very knowledgeable and engaging.
It is hard to pick favorites as we encountered something special everyday from swimming with playful sea lions to having an hour on our own private beach. Bartolome Island is a must and seeing and snorkeling with the penguins was an added bonus.
It was a once in a lifetime trip for my family and the service we received was A+ - thank you Mathias

Hotel Reviews

Acacia Galápagos Boutique Hotel

Puerto Ayora

Very comfortable rooms and beds. Breakfast was good and location close to but off the strip was ideal for my family.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Albemarle

Puerto Villamil

Services were very good. Staff was very helpful. The hotel had a good courtyard for breakfast and leisure, and we enjoyed the rooftop for evening family social time.

Authenticity & Character

Location

right on the ocean

Staff

very helpful. We did our laundry on this portion of the trip with the hotel. Well done and very reasonable.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Highlands of Santa Cruz Island

Galapagos Islands

This was a very relaxing day before we left the island. Our guide was simply fantastic! Seeing and learning about the tortoises were great.

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Excursion to an uninhabited island

Galapagos Islands

This was a very special day and trip. Roughly two hours to get to the island via boat but well worth the time. The hike tour was very information on the volcanic formation. And the view ..... WOW. The lunch was great and the snorkeling with the penguins was something everyone wanted to see.

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Guides were very information, engaging.

Transport

Kayaking & Snorkeling at Las Tintoreras

Galapagos Islands

This was very close to the hotel and a shorter trip. We saw sea lions, many turtles and snorkeled over the sleeping sharks.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Snorkel at Los Túneles

Galapagos Islands

Maximo was excellent - the kids got to see a school of 20+ young sharks. The tunnels and landscape are amazing. We were treated to some great blue footed boobie dances on this trip.

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Exploring Isabela Island by bike

Galapagos Islands

This was our relaxing day. Bike ride was fun and we stopped at different spots on the ride. We really enjoyed body surfing and swimming on the beautiful beach.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

picking up the bikes was easy with the service from Emilee

Snorkel at Kicker Rock (Leon Dormido)

Galapagos Islands

Great rip- we really enjoyed the beach stop and of course kicker rock. Snorkeling on the beach was fun and then seeing the hammerheads and marine life around kicker rock was amazing.

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Guide was excellent, boat was very good. They spotted dolphins on the way out and engaged us with them.

Transport

Timely. Boat was comfortable.

Interpretation Center & Tijeretas Hill

Galapagos Islands

Enrique was a great guide. He got us all setup with our snorkel gear and wet suits. He gave us a good overview and let us view the interpretation center before going snorkeling. He was a great snorkeling guide. We went further into the cove with him and definitely saw more marine life. The sea lions were great, and this was the first place we swam with the turtles.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Fantastic!

Transport

Timely and comfortable

Amazing trip. Patricia got everything perfect. She listened to our style of travel and totally deliver. She was available through the whole trip and was a great help when we had a minor accident with our rental car.

We’ve never had one on one tour guides before but it really made the trip special. In each new location we had a guide for a major museum or palace tour and they gave us the inside perspective you could never get without them. And the food tour in Madrid is a must. Can’t wait for our next trip yo Spain

Our trip to Ireland was an unforgettable adventure. Dean had to make our dream journey happen after having to stall for two years due to COVID 19. He never forgot our original wishes. The travel arrangements he made for us were precisely what we had hoped for. Whether driving, biking, or walking, I highly recommend the Kimkim group. It met all of our expectations and so much more. We thank the team for an unforgettable experience.

We had a fabulous trip to Greece! The highlight of our time in Naxos was visiting the farm and cooking with Maria and Yannis. On Santorini I particularly enjoyed visiting the prehistoric town of Akrotiri.

Angela was incredibly responsive and went above and beyond to ensure that we were extremely happy with our trip.

We had an amazing vacation in Rome and Florence. All of our activities were perfect for us and very well done. Andrea was fantastic to work with every step of the way, and really customized the vacation for us. He even watched our flights arrive (we were meeting in Rome) and when my flight was late helped with arrangements in real time. I can't say enough good things!

Hotel Reviews

Parlamento Boutique Hotel

Rome

This hotel is very small, which was nice. Our room was small as well, but had good storage and we loved that we could cool down the room as it was very hot in Rome. The room was clean and modern. I would advise giving very clear instructions on how to find the hotel (look for the panel and ring up to the room, follow signs to the elevator) - we arrived when the street was very crowded and it was so hard to find what to do. Staff was helpful when we had questions.

Hotel Garibaldi Blu

Florence

The location of this hotel was great, as we walked everywhere in Florence. It was clean, well decorated and our room was spacious. The employees were kind and friendly. Two reasons I gave four stars: we struggled with the temperature in our room (it was very hot outside and we had trouble cooling off) and the internet was not reliable at all.

Authenticity & Character

Location

walking distance of all we wanted to do

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Review

Winery and Tuscany day including San Gimignano and Chianti wine

Italy

We ended up being the only ones on the tour - Felipe was great, so personable and a great host. I appreciated that there was not a hard sell to buy wines.

When we started planning our trip to Greece, it quickly became obvious that we would need some help. while we usually do our own planning and booking for our two trips a year, we knew we had to reach out for assistance. We found KimKim online with a solid number of good reviews and thought we would give them a try. They put us together with Angela who did a wonderful job for us. Not only did she spend an immense amount of time with us in advance going back-and-forth with options and changes to our plan, but she also continued to reach out during the trip to make sure everything was going well. There were numerous ferries involved as we transferred between islands as well as a flight back from Crete to Athens at the end. She always reached out before each of these transfers to make sure we confirmed our seating on the ferries and to see if we needed anything. One of the best features provided by her was the transfers for every time we had to move. Someone picked us up at the airport and took us to our hotel, from our hotel to our ferry, from our ferry to our next hotel, etc. etc. We moved a total of five times over 18 days and the logistics worked out perfectly. I would highly recommend Angela to make your travel arrangements in Greece. She did a wonderful job, and we will reach back out to her when we return for another trip.

Also, a little unusual for us, we elected to book a significant number of tours as we wanted to make sure our time was well spent while we were there. Again, their recommendations for tours were spot on and we had a tremendous time. We saw significantly more than we normally would have if we just relied on our own means to see things. The same can be said about their hotel recommendations. We stayed in predominantly small boutique places with tremendous views and/or locations. We traveled to Athens, Naxos, Santorini and Crete. In the end, Crete turned out to be our favorite place and we spent four days total with their tour operator Alex. We saw almost all of Crete and even hiked the Samaria gorge with him. He went way above and beyond the normal tour guide. Don’t go to Crete without him!

Using KimKim as our tour company made our trip so much more pleasant and memorable for my daughter and me. Greece was on my radar for many years, and we didn’t know how to plan it. Harris helped us every step of the way by laying out a suggested itinerary, and termed it along the way with our plans. From the moment we arrived in Athens to the moment we departed Santorini, it was nearly perfect. We especially enjoyed our wineries tour in Naxos and our Volcano and Oui boat tour in Santorini. Our tour guide Ana in Naxos was amazing and so much fun! The last day had several hiccups with transportation to and from the boat, and we somehow didn’t receive our tickets for the boat tour, but it worked out in the end. Also there was a big gap in our first full day in Naxos with nothing planned until an evening food and wine tour, which was fun and informative with Katarina as our private tour guide. But because we were free to do what we wanted, we found a small, nine-hour bus tour of several villages on the island that was fantastic and beautiful! Our tour of ancient Naxos and the Parthenon was also beautiful and informative, and our beach day in Naxos was amazing and relaxing. All hotels were beautiful, adequate, and the people welcoming and friendly! Overall, it was very smooth and well-organized, and we recommend KimKim for anyone looking for a semi-private tour company.

Hotel Review

Hotel Grotta

Naxos

The people were SO friendly and hospitable, the view was spectacular, and “Mama’s breakfast” was like no other anywhere I’ve ever been!

Authenticity & Character

Beautiful hotel. Pool is small, but a waterfall that massaged your neck and shoulders, jets in the pool for a back massage, there was also a hot tub, sauna, and hamam!

Location

The hosts, the food, and the view

Staff

They treated us like family!

Cleanliness & Comfort

Very clean, adequate space.

Activity Reviews

Caldera Cruise & Volcano Visit

Santorini

Our hike through the volcano site, the boat ride, the food and drink, the swim out to the hot springs, the music on the boat, and last but not least, the beautiful sunset cruise to Oui! Will never forget this!

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Our driver didn’t show up for us for an hour. That was stressful, but we worked it out with the tour company.

Transport

Santorini Farm Tour: Food & Wine

Santorini

This was among our top two favorite tours! Our bus driver Konstantinos was THE BEST! He was funny, engaging, and his fun banter with our tour guide Ana made it even more memorable. We laughed so much!! Great memories!! We learned so much about grapes, wine, and wineries! And we got to prepare our delicious meal together with our tour guide!

Quality of Experience

Everything! Even though the weather turned on us and it rained, the scenery was beautiful!!

Food

The fresh ingredients! And of course the wines we tasted!

Guides, Drivers and Staff

The wine tasting, the tour of wineries, the scenery, the preparation of food, and of course it was delicious! If I ever go back to Greece I would do this tour again! I made some real friends with Ana and Konstantinos!! ❤️

Transport

Comfortable, fun, engaging, best tour guide and driver!

Food tour in Naxos town

Naxos

I was hoping it would be a meal, but it was mostly small appetizer type food. Our host Katarina was lovely and fun!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

We walked to the event,

Transport

A ride. Our tour guide gave us a ride home so we didn’t have to walk to our hotel in the dark.

Acropolis & Athens Mythology Tour

Athens

Very informative. Tour guide was very knowledgeable and helpful, answered all our questions.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Hakim did a great job of organizing everything. He worked with us to create the best holiday plan given our family’s needs and interests. Hakim was also wonderful at changing the itinerary at the last moment to accommodate a change in dates and addition of another traveller.

Margoth was wonderful to work with! She was quick to respond to every inquiry and so helpful. She took care of every detail so that we could just focus on enjoying our vacation. She even surprised us with a few extra thoughtful gestures.

Robi always responded promptly to any questions or concerns. His choices were excellent and interesting. He was always prompt and upbeat. I would recommend him to anyone.

Luciana was just amazing and gave me great advice, I loved every minute fo this trip. Organization was just perfect and Brazil is such a beautiful country

Loved working with Samir, he organized the trip in less than 2 days and was always responsive.
Our local private drive also delivered an outstanding service and made our vacation unforgettable. Strongly recommend!

Tasos and the whole team provided us with a wonderful amazing trip filled with lifetime memories of Greece . Everyone was so gracious and courteous dedicated to making our trip a success! Thank you so much!

Hotel Review

Avli Lounge Hotel

Rethymno, Crete

We cannot say enough wonderful things about this establishment. Having fabulous breakfasts in the garden every mornings. The suite was absolutely gorgeous the staff was always willing to help us in anyway they could the best service in the world.

Tips for future travelers

Enjoy enjoy enjoy!

Authenticity & Character

The location was wonderful to walk among the wonderful shops and restaurants and streets in the old town.

Location

Enjoy enjoy enjoy!

Staff

The location was wonderful to walk among the wonderful shops and restaurants and streets in the old town.

Cleanliness & Comfort

The Decour the authenticity the integrity of the building was truly amazing

Activity Review

Private Guided Mykonos Island Driving Tour

Mykonos

Going off the beaten trail and seeing the culture and the history of Mykonos.

Quality of Experience

Take your time and enjoy. The old town coffee shop, the Vineyard, and the lighthouse.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

The old town coffee shop, the Vineyard, and the lighthouse.

Transport

Timely and comfortable.

Jordan is an amazing country. Our guide, Akram, was the perfect person to show us the country. He was pleasant, knowledgeable, accommodating and the nicest most gentle man. I would definitely recommend him and Kimkim. Our favorite sites were Petra, Bethany beyond Jordan, the Castles, Mt Nebo, and the Dead Sea. Jordan is a Holy place that makes the Bible come to life. Being able to see the countryside with Akram was an awesome experience. We already miss him.

Kimkim made our trip wonderful, worry free, comfortable and beautiful!!
We are sooo happy we found you guys! Rosa was available for every request and last minute changes, getting us the hotels and experiences we wanted and making our trip so wonderful!
We starred Kimkim and will absolutely use Kimkim in our next adventure. Thank you Rosa and Kimkim :]

Trip Planning Experience: Typically I plan our trips and I enjoy the planning (I’m a Project Manager by day), but given this was a unique country with so many wonderful places to visit, having little time to plan, and not knowing the country very well we decided to use KimKim. I filled out a questionnaire about our trip preferences (budget range, types of sleeping accommodations, how we like to travel, etc). After submitting our info, we received a message from Preeti shortly afterwards with a recommendation based upon our preferences and what wanted to do in Iceland. This was an “out of the box” trip plan, but Preeti made us aware that we can customize as much as we wanted to. We spent about 2 months doing our own research and working with Preeti to fully customize our itinerary at which point we booked/paid for our trip. Then Preeti spend about 6-8 weeks planning our trip: reserving vehicle, hotels, excursions, refining our itinerary. There were times I had to reach out to Preeti because it had been awhile, but she replied soon after. In the end, after reviewing our detailed itinerary and comparing to our list of must have and nice to have places to visit, Preeti worked our itinerary to best suit our wants and we were pleased with the results.

Trip Experience: Snaefellsness Peninsula, South Coast, Westman Islands May 18-26
When we arrived in Keflavik, we picked up our rental car without an issue, we ended up upgrading our vehicle to an SUV and all the insurance possible based upon reviews we had read elsewhere. We’re glad we did because some of the roads in Iceland are very offroad and we ended up getting a fast leak in a tire to where we had to use the Roadside Assistance. Highly recommend getting all the insurance offered.
The whale watching excursion with Laki Tours was so much fun. While the first few hours we didn’t see anything, in the last hour we saw orcas (including a baby). Since we saw them so late, the tour operator stayed out another 30 minutes so we could watch the whales. We were under the impression that it was a small group tour, but there were about 40 or more people on this excursion. This may be what is typical for small group tour size, and we were not aware.

The Katla Ice Cave Tour excursion with Southcoast Adventures was not what I had envisioned. We were under the impression that it was a small group tour, but there were about 20 or more people on this excursion. The Katla Ice Cave collapsed last year (and we were not aware), so the first part of the tour was seeing what was left of the Katla ice cave (not a whole lot) and then hiking to a baby ice cave to walk through it. The baby ice cave made up for the first part of the tour. Even though it didn’t live up to what I had envisioned, the total experience of trekking to the glacier, hiking the glacier a bit to see what was left of the ice cave, and hiking through the baby cave was a unique experience. It was amazing to think how old the glacier was and the volcano ash we were walking on, we took it in. I wish we had known about the Katla Ice Cave collapsing, and we would’ve selected a different excursion (like a true glacier hike).

The Kayaking in Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon was AMAZING. This tour was a true small group tour of 5-7 people (2 people arrived late and had to go on a different tour), and what we would’ve expected with a small group tour (around 10 people). Once kayaking in the lagoon, we had the freedom of taking pictures and kayaking at our own pace. We were fortunate with the weather, and seals were swimming all around us. The seals were friendly and swam up near us, a few seals were on an iceberg sunbathing. This was by far my favorite excursion to be up close to the beautiful icebergs and seals.

Preeti recommended several different hikes and we thoroughly enjoyed them, the ones that stand out to us are Glymur Waterfall hike, Mulaglijufur Canyon, Nauthusagil Waterfall. There were a few times where I thought we should do something else but should’ve listened to Preeti in her recommendations.

Preeti recommended several restaurants throughout our trip and she was spot on. All the food in Iceland is delicious. I highly recommend the following restaurants: Bryggjan in Grindavik, Sjavarpakkhusid in Stykkisholmur, Hotel Rjukandi Restaurant in Borgarnes, Mjolkurbuid Eatery in Selfoss, Wok on Vik in Vik, Ice Cream from Vikurskali in Vik, Messinn in Reykjavik, Gott in Westman Islands (ate there twice), Ice Cream from Isbud Huppu.

There were a few times that either an excursion got cancelled, we decided to make a change to our itinerary due to weather, or we had questions, that we had to rearrange our itinearey. I’m thankful for Preeti and her team for being able to quickly adjust our schedule and rebook for different excursions or ferry tickets. It was a seamless process, no questions asked, and reworked our itinerary. Thank you for the quick response! We were able to enjoy our time in Iceland instead of having to rearrange our time and schedules. Totally worth it!

Overall we had a wonderful vacation, it is our best one yet! I am thankful that we used Kimkim and we had Preeti to assist us throughout the process. We would not have had such a great time had we planned ourselves and not had Preeti and her team. We hope to return to Iceland in the coming years and we will use Kimkim (and Preeti) again!

Hotel Reviews

Hótel Snæfellsnes

Borgarnes

We stayed at this hotel for 2 nights. The hotel provided breakfast was amazing. There is a cafe attached to the dining area where they offer espresso, pastries, sandwiches. We had the best coffee on our trip in their cafe (Cortado). Highly recommend getting one of their cafe drinks. There is not much around this area to choose from a hotel, but our rooms were clean and open. The room temperature was a little warm, but we cracked the window to keep the air circulating. The room was on the smaller side, but I expected that. The bathroom was a bit dated and could use an update. The beds and pillows were very comfortable. We ate at the onsite restaurant and had one of the specials and it was AMAZING. Some of the best fish we've ever had. Overall pleasant experience and we would stay here again.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hótel Klaustur

Kirkjubæjarklaustur

We stayed at this hotel for 2 nights. This is a small town where a lot of establishments close at 9pm, including the hotel restaurant. The rooms were not as clean as I would've preferred. After our first night, the cleaning staff did not tidy up the room only refreshed the toiletries, which seemed odd to us and we had not experienced before. The room was small and our room was right near sitting water outside with a ton of bugs. The room was warm, so we had to crack the window, which meant a lot of bugs got into our room. If we were to stay in this town again, we would look for a different hotel. The hotel provided breakfast here was amazing.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hótel Vestmannaeyjar

Westman Islands

This was our favorite hotel on our trip! The rooms were very spacious, clean, and the shower was amazing! The room temperatures were comfortable compared to other hotels on our trip. I only wish we had stayed one more night!

Authenticity & Character

Location

It was in the center of the town and could walk anywhere.

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Rooms were clean and very spacious. The bathrooms were clean.

Activity Reviews

Whale Watching Ólafsvík

Snæfellsnes Peninsula

The whale watching excursion with Laki Tours was so much fun. While the first few hours we didn’t see anything, in the last hour we saw orcas (including a baby). Since we saw them so late, the tour operator stayed out another 30 minutes so we could watch the whales. We were under the impression that it was a small group tour, but there were about 40 or more people on this excursion. This may be what is typical for small group tour size, and we were not aware.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Katla Ice Cave

Vík

The Katla Ice Cave Tour excursion with Southcoast Adventures was not what I had envisioned. We were under the impression that it was a small group tour, but there were about 20 or more people on this excursion. The Katla Ice Cave collapsed last year (and we were not aware), so the first part of the tour was seeing what was left of the Katla ice cave (not a whole lot) and then hiking to a baby ice cave to walk through it. The baby ice cave made up for the first part of the tour. Even though it didn’t live up to what I had envisioned, the total experience of trekking to the glacier, hiking the glacier a bit to see what was left of the ice cave, and hiking through the baby cave was a unique experience. It was amazing to think how old the glacier was and the volcano ash we were walking on, we took it in. I wish we had known about the Katla Ice Cave collapsing, and we would’ve selected a different excursion (like a true glacier hike).

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon Kayaking Tour

Iceland

The Kayaking in Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon was AMAZING. This tour was a true small group tour of 5-7 people (2 people arrived late and had to go on a different tour), and what we would’ve expected with a small group tour (around 10 people). Once kayaking in the lagoon, we had the freedom of taking pictures and kayaking at our own pace. We were fortunate with the weather, and seals were swimming all around us. The seals were friendly and swam up near us, a few seals were on an iceberg sunbathing. This was by far my favorite excursion to be up close to the beautiful icebergs and seals.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport