Kimkim Trip Reviews

Thanks to kimkim and Yassine, who organized a wonderful trip for us to Morocco's imperial cities of Marrakesh, Rabat, Meknes, and Fez, along with visits to the coastal city of Essaouira and the commercial hub of Casablanca. Planning our trip was a breeze. Once I told Yassine we were particularly interested in food, history and culture, he recommended places to visit. I did some research and we settled on an itinerary. Although we spent a bit of time driving between destinations, that was an interesting experience in itself, seeing the rich farmlands and remote villages. Yassine selected several beautiful riads, bed & breakfasts which are elegantly refurbished homes located in the middle of the old city Medinas. The riads, with their central courtyards and lovely detailed tile work and wood carvings, were a quiet oasis and gave us a genuine feeling for Moroccan history and culture.

We began our journey with a few hiccups, arriving late to our connecting flight from Casablanca to Marrakesh. Our driver, Muhammed, coordinated to have us driven instead of waiting 4 and 1/2 hours for the next flight. When we weren't able to retrieve our luggage, we waited two days before it caught up to us. In the meantime, Muhammed was terrific. He was warm, friendly, flexible, and completely reliable. He patiently took us back to the Marrakesh Airport several times until the luggage finally arrived.

Although we enjoyed our entire trip, we particularly loved walking through the Kasbah of Rabat, the bustling Medina of Fez, and visiting the beautiful beaches of Essaouira. Our guides in Marrakesh, Rabat and Fez all gave us wonderful historical background on each of the cities and a sense of present day Morocco.

Our only regret is that we didn't have more time to explore this beautiful country. We will definitely use kimkim and Yassine to plan our next visit!

We gave the places we would like to visit and the time frame to the KimKim team who assigned us to Gaurav their Indian specialist and after a few tweaks we had the most amazing experience over the 13 days of our visit to India. Our driver Sadari was with us for 10 days and handled the chaotic roads, streets and highways like a real professional. We felt safe with him and he always Made sure we were dropped off picked up at easy accessible sites. Our guides on the tours were professional knowledgeable and passionate in their work. Every day when we thought nothing could beat the day before ... it did. From airport pick ups to accommodation to drivers to guides to the experiences we had I cannot recommend The KimKim team highly enough. Thank you Gaurav for this experience

Trophel tours arranged an absolutely splendid 8 day experience for us in Bhutan. From the moment we were picked up, through our incredible 4 day Druk Parh trek, to the sad final departure...the service was exemplary. Tek was an incredible guide, supported by a capable team, and Vishal was very helpful and accommodating during planning. We would highly recommend their services. Yalmaz (USA), Kevin (NZ), Damian (India)

We had a great family spring break adventure vacation in Costa Rica. Yenyi was instrumental in planning all details from hotels, excursions, transfers between citis and local restaurant recommendations. Kids really enjoyed the hotels and excursions in:
> La Fortuna (Arenal) - hotsprings and coffee and waterfall tour
> Monteverde - nocturnal animal tour and hanging bridges and zip line
> Manuel Antonio - catamaran and snorkeling tour
with all the upfront planning and detailed itinerary, all we had to do was show-up and follow the plan. Great way to enjoy the vacation and not worry about the logistics.

We will definitely work with Yenyi and the KimKim Team to plan our next vacation soon.

We had an incredible time in Greece. We wanted an authentic experience of the history, the food and the people and we received that and more. Tasos looked after every detail of our vacation, made excellent suggestions and guided us through the process even as we changed dates. All of the tours were perfect. Small, personalized and entertaining. The people were amazing from our guides to airport transfers to hotel managers everyone made us feel at home and well taken care of. I highly recommend Travel 12 and their team!

Yuliana was wonderful in helping plan this trip. There were a lot of moving factors and people to make it a bit complicated. We loved our hotel, Diez, in Medellin and really enjoyed our city tours with Santi through the Colombia Project. In Minca we stayed in a lovely hotel called Sweet Harmony and then went onto the El Doardo Reserve where Jarwen was our guide for birding. He was extremely knowledgable and the staff was excellent. The food was so tasty too! Finally in Cartagena we had Laura as our guide and she was great. We enjoyed all that we were able to see. The only downside was that we ended up rushing around a lot and some of our tours were cut short or ran longer because of timing. Financially, it can get a bit expensive, but if you want everything taken care of I definitely recommend using Kimkim!

Kim Kim was very easy to work with and Tasos team was excellent. Although we were surprised that admission tickets were not included for our visit to fortifications in Nafplio. Lampros excelled at serving us. Our guide Hercules was like old friend treating us to a tour of his hometown.
Olive farm and sheep farm visits will always be great memories.

My husband and I had a wonderful trip to Morocco. Radia and team could not be more accommodating. We had just come off of 10 days of hiking the Amalfi Coast. I way over-booked myself for Morocco. But everything was perfect till our last Riad. There was a miscommunication between KimKim and luxury request and what Radia picked. This is mostly my fault for not doing more research. Everything else was perfect. Our driver, Mohammad stayed with us the whole trip was phenomenal. Great car with wifi. I highly recommend getting a driver for the week. We had an excellent guide in Fes. Our guide in Marrakech was fine but seemed obliged to tell us things and lacked passion about the city. Radia paid for a final dinner at one of the finest restaurants, The Maison Arabe, in Marrakech based on some disappointment in our final accommodation. The accommodation was actually fine but not what we were expecting. Radia checked in on us through our whole trip. The company, Morocco Experience was excellent. I would highly recommend using them.

We first used Kimkim for our trip to Morocco and because it was such a great experience, we decided to use Kimkim again for our trip to St. Petersburg, Russia. Once again, it was exactly the experience we were hoping for. Our local specialist, Sean, was very attentive to our needs and questions and was very responsive. The trip was exactly what we wanted and he made it happen. Once in St. Petersburg, just like Morocco, everything ran very smoothly. When we arrived, we were picked up at the airport and taken right to our hotel and it was great not having to worry about that. On the first day of our planned activities, Margarita (the manager of our tour in Russia) met us at our hotel because she wanted to officially welcome us to St. Petersburg and give us our tour the first day. She was right on time along with our driver for the week, Vasiliy. We went on a city tour of St. Petersburg and visited the Peter and Paul Fortress. She was very knowledgeable and made us feel really at ease and gave us an overall view of the city and what our next few days would be like and a great first impression to the kind of service and vibe we could expect. For the remainder of the week, our guide Dmitri, along with our driver, always arrived on time. Dmitri was a great guide. He was very knowledgeable and spoke excellent English. He was very easy going and open and was very patient with all of our questions. He was always willing to accommodate any requests and made sure that we always knew what the plan was and he always had any tickets we needed ready. It felt like we were being shown around by a friend (which is why we were a bit sad to say goodbye at the end since we had spent the whole week together). We visited many exquisite palaces and museums and learned a lot about history and culture. All in all, it was a great experience and it was what we paid for -- a well-planned tour where we could just relax and not have to worry about the logistics of everything. We know for sure that this will not be the last time we plan a trip with Kimkim.

We are so thrilled with our trip. The recommendations were exactly what we were looking for - from excursions to hotel choices. Corresponding with Sofia was easy, quick and she was very knowledgeable. We will definitely book with KimKim again. Thank you!

It was a great experience visiting Costa Rica. Very Beautiful country and very nice and friendly people. We as a family enjoyed a lot. Kids had lot of fun.

Adriana did awesome job in arranging and planning the trip. it was perfect.
I would recommend kimkim to everyone.

A wonderful holiday, made better by our local guide and driver, Dammika.
Very saddened to hear about the bombings.

I liked the interface--communication was very easy and consistent.

Yenyi did a great job setting up the overall plan and activities in Costa Rica.

Monica coordinated the travel plans locally and solved a couple of minor problems along the way. Our rides were always on time for pickup, the drivers were cautious, and the drivers and guides were always friendly.

Our favorite activities were the float on Penas Blanca river, the hikes in Monteverde, and the tour of Manuel Antonio National Park (and beach), though we also loved Campesina Vida farm and the chocolate tours!

We would suggest that the timing of the events should be more explicit. For example, we were scheduled for a tour in the morning and a tour in the afternoon. The planned pickup times were indicated, but the duration or return time was not consistently indicated. As a result, we were sometimes stressed about the transitions between activities and had to change clothes and/or devour a meal in very little time. We also missed one activity because our transfer took longer than planned. They were kind enough to offer to reschedule, but it just didn't work out for us. (I know that we asked to push back our early morning schedules because of the children, but we relied on your advice about how much flexibility there was.)

The hotels, Arenal Springs and Parador in Manuel Antonio, were both terrific. However, Los Pinos in Monteverde was really not ideal for us. The staff there was incredibly kind and helpful, but the cabin was just too challenging for a group of 6 that included 2 grandparents and 2 children. It was up a steep hill, cramped quarters, small and somewhat uncomfortable beds, poor water pressure in the showers, and no food options on the premises.

Lastly, it would be helpful if the roadbook included all the information in the kimkim trip summary. The two components have complementary information and it would be more useful if all the info could be available in one place.

Overall, I would be glad to use kimkim again, but would more carefully review the timing and other details before the trip.

From start to finish, dealing with Kripa was easy. We wanted a holiday suitable for a family of four (kids age 7 & 11), to include sightseeing, trekking & safari. Kripa took all of our needs into account & tailor-made our holiday, happily adding or removing options as requested. It was completely stress free & when a couple of things went wrong with flight delays & cancellations she moved quickly to adapt our travelling needs.
The hotels booked for us were exactly suited to our needs.
The Poon Hill trek was the highlight, & although it wasn't always easy with the extra needs of kids, Pemba, our guide & our porters were there to organise & support us.
The 2 days sightseeing in Kathmandu were perfect, and again our guide was superb, engaging with the children & making sure they were enjoying themselves.
The homestay in Chitwan was fabulous too & well worth experiencing. The only complaint there was the heat after being in the cooler mountains!!
All in all it was an amazing experience, professionally organised & all our concerns were taken care of. It made such a difference knowing that everything was taken care of & that we could ask any question, however trivial at any time. We would definitely use KimKim in the future & who knows, maybe even return to do some more trekking in Nepal. Thank you, Kripa & all your associates.

Best vacation ever! Many thanks to Natalia for planning us a wonderful tour of Colombia. We went to Medellin, Bogota, and the Zona Cafetera over one week. Everything was so smooth and seamless. All of our guides and drivers were on time (or early) to pick us up and were absolutely fabulous. We loved all of the hotels that Natalia selected for us, especially Patio del Mundo in Medellin. I can't recommend this trip, and Natalia, highly enough. Thank you!!!

Amazing trip. The guide and porter were so friendly and helpful- and just great fun. The Annapurna trek was tiring but worth every step up and down -there were a lot of ups and downs. The tea houses were an amazing experience but you have to go with the flow. Local people all very friendly and helpful. The mountain views were spectacular.

Special thanks to Erin at Kimkim for all the help and assistance organising everything for us and being onhand when we needed them.

Steve & Deb

Four of us have just returned from a most memorable trip to Greece. We chose to work with Tasos and were not disappointed. He worked with us to develop and integrate all the sites, hotels and details that we wanted included. He did it all perfectly and then some. We started with four days in Athens from where we visited several locations in Southern Greece, including Corinth, Mycenae and Napflion. Three nights in Thessaloniki gave us great coverage of Northern Greece-Kavala, Philippi and Meteora were all spectacular. Next we chose to see the island of Rhodes for its history and amazing medieval castle. We asked Tasos for his pick for a second island. He suggested Siros and it could not have been better. In summary, we had 14 wonderful days in Greece and at quite a reasonable price. I highly recommend KimKim and Tasos.

All of our drivers and Guides were Fantastic! Everything we saw is so incredible, it's hard to mention just a few!
I especially appreciated the planned tours, leaving plenty of unscheduled time for us to do things on our own. We saw such a variety of Greece, from islands to olive groves, to tannery and winery. Not the average tourists destinations. Hotel selection was amazing. I would definitely use this company for future travel.

Overall this trip was fun. The planning processes was relatively straight-forward with Linda though there was a bunch of back and forth that I think may have been solved by being more forth coming with "this is the company we normally go with" or "these will be stops on XYZ."
For the actual trip, I don't think the airport transfer went smoothly. The person who was supposed to pick us up, sent someone else into the airport, spelled our name wrong, and were holding a sign not associated with KimKim or any service I'd heard from. It was only because I speak some Spanish I decided that sign was the only one remotely close to our name we ended up with the right person.
Our guide, Marco, while very nice and resourceful I would have put in the category of "driver," not a true "guide." I frequently found myself at the edge of other tour groups in order to learn more history/background/context of what we were seeing. Marco effectively got us from place to place, but he might spend 3-5 minutes telling us about a centuries old church and then leaving us to our own devices. This is fine, but had I known, I would have hired a private tour guide for Quito at least.
We LOVED our experience mountain biking with Biking Dutchman down Cotopaxi. Despite the fact is was raining and cold, it was so cool and our guide/transport were great. Heads up that transport isn't super comfy/questionable seatbelt safety, but probably fine.
Banos was fun, there were some small issues with the group who did our rock climbing/ Via Ferrata tour, but they were easy to work with and responsive in handling mistakes.
I honestly normally do all of our trip planning myself, but do to cost of renting an automatic vehicle and my middling at best Spanish, thought this might be a good opportunity to test out a tour guide company. As I said above, this was a fun trip and parts were really very cool, but the parts we most enjoyed was stuff I specifically researched and suggested, so I'm on the fence about whether I would do this again.
It's probably a great service if you don't have time/desire to do the research, but I think TripAdvisor and Google will continue to be my go-tos.

Thanks for helping have a fun time in Ecuador!

What a fantastic experience from beginning to end!

In the initial stages I was connected with Nathalie, and after discussing my specific interests in Colombia via correspondence, she got back to me with an itinerary including additional suggestions that were welcomed and encouraged! After a little tweaking we had created a fantastic adventure through Bogotá and Antioquia!

Nathalie was always swift to respond with answers to my questions and even a couple weeks before the trip, she notified me that she’d be out of the office for a few days and put me in touch with Laura in her stead and Laura was equally as helpful!

Nathalie arranged all my transportation including airport transfers which was incredibly helpful and one less thing to worry about!

In Bogotá, I spent the day with Balthazar (a very smart and funny Rolo) starting at the Paloquemao market sampling a myriad of wonderful and delicious local produce and experiencing the calm chaos of one of Colombia’s largest markets. Ducked out of the rain into Cafe de la Fonda for some coffee and mate de coca and learned a little about coffee production in Colombia before ascending Monserrate and taking in the incredible view of Bogotá and beyond!

The following day was spent with Michael, owner of Bogotá Bike Tours in La Candelaria. We mounted up and traversed the city viewing some of the most incredible street art I’ve ever seen and Michael’s vast knowledge of history, politics and pop-culture and how it could be interpreted through the murals we were seeing was eye-opening on multiple levels!

Onto Antioquia! My first day was spent with Germán exploring Santa Fe de Antioquia including the historic Puente de Occidente bridge over the Cauca River! The beautiful churches and plazas of Santa Fe with it’s cobbled streets was a fantastic getaway from the city and Germán was knowledgeable and eager to show me it’s history and charm.

The following days I explored El Peñol, Guatapé, a coffee finca in Fredonia, Comuna 13 and downtown Medellín with Andrea. She was equally as knowledgeable and excited to share the highlights and history of Colombia with me. Climbing the 700+ stairs of Piedra del Peñol was exhilarating and the view from the top was incredible! I loved wandering through the vibrantly lined streets of Guatapé and seeing all the wonderful zócalos (bas reliefs) decorating each of the colorful houses!

We then traveled out to Cafe Luna Llena, a coffee finca in Fredonia, southern Antioquia. Where Gustavo Palacio completely schooled me on the coffee process in Colombia! From seed to cup, we walked the hillside noting coffee plants in various stages of maturity, I even planted one and picked some coffee beans myself! He covered the various drying processes and exported coffee versus the “Tinto” that is consumed by the majority of Colombians and how drastic the difference in quality is. So informative and interesting, this was was one of my favorite days in Colombia!

The next day we ventured to Comuna 13 and Andrea explained how the neighborhood has blossomed into the welcoming and colorful area it is today from a very poor and violent past. Vivid murals tell the story of its history and triumph with sweeping walkways and little cafés, peddlers selling handmade goods, ice cream and fresh juice it was a very cool experience!

We hopped a metrocable to get a nice aerial view of the cascading neighborhoods and jumped on the metro into downtown Medellín to see the hustle and bustle of it’s core and view the 23 sculptures of Fernando Botero in Plaza Botero!

This was such a wonderful adventure! Nathalie kept in touch throughout the whole trip and would check-in often to see how I was doing. All the drivers and guides were on time if not early and incredibly friendly and warmly welcomed me to their wonderful country!

I have nothing but good things to say about this country and it’s people and it’s all due to Nathalie! Thank you so much!

¡Hasta pronto!
Trevor