Kimkim Trip Reviews

Dear Kim Kim

I apologise for not writing before but my journey after Mongolia continued to China and I have had yet more adjustments to make and a culture shock as well! I may never have left Mongolia if such an opportunity existed. It is an exciting and beautiful country like no other and my visit there was in no small way life changing. That is to say I will never again look at a map of the world without my gaze first falling on Mongolia and being reminded of beauty and kindness. As far as Kim Kim is concerned my experience with planning the trip with Enguerran was first rate. He guided my expectations beautifully and without any pressure. He is a consummate professional and I will always be grateful to him for arranging this extraordinary holiday. Olongerel and Sambuu were our guide and driver respectively. I can honestly say that in the whole two week journey there was not a single moment when my sister and I were not cared for, looked after, made to feel safe, had our needs considered and catered to. It was hospitality of the highest order, always delivered with thoughtfulness, kindness and although it was - and felt like friendship - behind this was perfect professionalism that I have never experienced before in tourism. Me and my sister - who may well write separately, - we are now at opposite ends of the world - could not have been happier or more ecstatic with our Kim Kim Mongolian holiday and are planning another! Thank you to everyone but especially Enguerran, Olongerel and Sambuu who made everything possible. Victoria and Kitty

Martin was easily contactable and helpful in providing tours, and selected some perfect tours for us in the end. However it was hard to determine the exact day itineraries to see what was involved. It would have been useful to have been sent final overviews to what each day covered and what was included with more information than was provided. This lead to a bit of confusion on arrival as there was a misunderstanding of the plan for the day and being dropped at the hotel for lunch when we thought we were out all day, and when we were late being picked up on day 1 we weren't sure who to contact.

The local agency was very good - very knowledgeable guides and great trips.

Nathalie organised a wonderful trip for us. She was very responsive and everything was organised perfectly. We were very happy with all of the hotels, guides and activities. Nathalie called us at the beginning and end of the trip to make sure everything was ok so it was a very personalised experience. We loved Colombia, especially our time in the Amazon and will definitely go back.

The guides were all fantastic and look after us all very well.

We had a wonderful time with Responsible Treks!

Responsible Treks is a great touring company with a respectable business model and mission. By mainly hiring employees from a single, impoverished village high in the Himalayas, they are providing a way for members of the village to earn a living outside of the mountains. Our guide was Sonam and our porter was the famous dancing and singing Nirmal.

Our trek was a 7-day/6-night hike through the south Annapurna Conservation area. The highlight of the trip was being on top of Poon Hill for the morning sunrise! If the afternoon weather was clear, we would have tried to climb up for sunset instead - the mornings can be very crowded with fellow tourists. However, it was still well worth the climb.

We would choose Responsible Treks again!

A stand out negative- the Oscar hotel in Petra is not clean and is very tired and smoky. I asked for simple but clean. We ended up moving to the move pick for our second night. I would remove it from your hotel list.

We also had three different drivers all were nice and efficient but better to have one that can tell a few stories. They were very reliable and punctual though.

Otherwise Jordan was fantastic. Thank you.

The guides were excellent especially Chiring and KB. They were very attentive and helpful. The whole journey of trekking and places and people and views we passed thro were so awesome and amazing .

My wife and I just returned from a 12 day (Sept 30-Oct 12) road trip around the island of Sicily. We worked with Marianne to book our car, places to stay and visit, and local guides. I started to work with Marianne back in early 2018 and she delivered on all counts.

The itinerary for each day provided us many interesting things to do, as well as plenty of time for us to explore this beautiful island. All accommodations were very comfortable and inviting. There were a few in which we would gladly return without hesitation. Our local tour guides were excellent! We were with guides at the Vally of Temples, Villa d'Casele, Syracuse, and Palermo. It was great having our own guide, not like the oters in groups, 30-40, following one person. Our guides also knew of ways to bypass long lines, a great thing at the Valley f the Temples.

During the trip, Marianne was always just a text message away, but we didn't need much from her, since the trip was well planned in advance.

Overall, an excellent experience/vacation/trip! Our first time using KimKim, and not our last I'm sure.

Richard & Brigette

Max, the local specialist, did an outstanding job planning our two week tour through China. We moved around alot during the two weeks (planes, trains, boats, etc) and everything went smoothly. We were always met by local tour guides who ALL did a fantastic job showing us around China. Max put together a fantastic itinerary and even called us in China to make sure everything was going well. We will definately use KimKim again for future travels. (This will be our second trip using KimKim - my family visited Iceland in the summer of 2017). Iceland trip was outsanding too.

Ayu was so helpful and professional in booking our trip to Bali. With all the information available online, it is overwhelming to know where to go or what to do. She gave us invaluable information on which beach city was the least touristy and helped us come up with an itinerary that minimized travel time. Our Guide Leni and Driver Mady were so warm, personable and helpful throughout our trip. It was an amazing experience.

Jorge turned around a complete tour with under 24hrs notice. The tours were informative with great guides and delivered exactly what we asked for. Thanks!

Everyone I dealt with was absolutely wonderful! Very friendly and helpful. Chris did a great job!. Heimir was an excellent tour guide! It was so amazing to be greeted so warmly by everyone at the coffee break. Bjorg greeted all of us with a warm smile and a handshake. The tour was outstanding!!

The Nar-Phu trek was superbly organised, kimkim tours were great to deal with, Amanda was fantastic to deal with and very knowledgeable and our guide and porter were both brilliant and so helpful and fun to do the trek with. Would recommend the trek to anyone looking for a extremely interesting and varied out of the way trek and certainly would have no hesitation in recommending using kimkim tours.

Very interesting trip, the guide Yuhan was knowledgable , friendly and extremely good

Overall I had an amazing experience trekking the three passes. Lots of amazing views, Our Guides Mingma and Cher Sherpa, kept us safe whilst our friendly porters helped transport the bulk of our stuff. I felt a little bad about porters carrying my things, but then I was made aware that it does give porters a job to earn money for them and their family and can be a gateway to becoming guides themselves.

We did have some transportation issues too and from Lukla because of poor weather conditions but alternative travel was arranged via helicopter thanks to Ngima (the tour group manager ) who has been organizing trips for years and has developed a lot of useful contacts in such circumstances.

I would say there are a lot of advantages in traveling with a guided group I believe they get more of a Priority when it comes to booking ahead in teahouses etc (another thing you wont have to worry about). And as mentioned above if transport becomes an issue alternatives can be looked at instead of sitting at an airport waiting for a few days in hope that the whether will clear up.

I would recommend our tour group due to their experience with dealing with any problems that might arise during the trip, and I believe paying a little extra for that is definitely worth paying for.

I had a wonderful trip from start to finish. Lisa was the BEST travel agent in assisting me in organising my wonderful trip to Colombia who has also turned into a wonderful friend. She was very patient and accepting of all the changes, questions, additions that I had in organising my holiday and I would highly recommend her to anyone who wished to book their travels to Colombia. I would personally like to recommend and thank German in Medellin and Carlos in Salento for being wonderful people and being so passionate about their country and being wonderful tour guides during my visit. The places I stayed in Colombia I think made my trip that much more special as I stayed mostly at little B&B type places that had a more personal and local touch. I loved especially my stays in Santa Marta (Casa Verde) and Salento (Posada del Cafe) which had such a unique and wonderfully local touch to them with the loveliest people running them. I couldn't recommend Kim Kim highly enough for my trip through Colombia. It was the first time I have every used the company so I was a bit apprehensive at first but I could not fault the service at all. Everyone I came into contact with were so genuinely nice and friendly and all the guides very knowledgeable and fun. Thank you for a wonderful holiday and thank you Lisa for putting it all together for me and for being a loveliest person to deal with throughout my booking with Kim Kim! I can't thank you all enough. I loved every single minute of my time in Colombia.

We had a wonderful trip organised by Carmen. We were able to see Wadi Rum, Petra and Dead Sea. The whole experience has been breathtaking and it will remain in our memories for a long time. Our driver Mustafa was always prompt and ensured that we were taken to the places of the visit as per our Itinerary. We loved this trip and will recommend to our Friends as well.

We had a lovely time in Japan and enjoyed getting to know the culture and the people. We now know the people of Japan are very polite and patient people willing to help us when we needed, even though language was not always possible they were very helpful. Our first guide was Seiichiro Hara which we knew as Hara walked our legs off for 8 hours which we have discovered was not necessary as we could have done a few taxi for some of the walks between some of the places Hara took us. We also were a bit shocked that we had to not only pay for our tickets on one tour but we had to pay for Hara's as well maybe that was not the right thing for Hara to do. Our guide for Kyoto was Wakako Nakagawa and she was amazing she listened to us and took us to places we were interested in and even took us shopping to the right places to get the things we were looking for and told us about other places we could go to get other things. Still taking us to see all the places we wanted to see about Kyoto. Our guide for Nara was Reiko Karita who was very knowledgeable on Nara and its history and had great suggestions for us to see and wasn't worried about taking a taxi when needed. Reiko was also very easy to talk to about life in Japan. One highlight for us was speaking to school children who were learning English and wanted to ask us questions they were delightful.

Our trip was amazing! From start to finish we were taken care of. Sharif and his crew were very friendly and their hospitality was great. Sharif was very knowledgable about the area, spotting Mantas, Dolphins and baby sharks! We had some enforced changes to our itinerary, as we were unable to see Padar island which was a disappointment, but we always had interesting places to go, snorkel and view the wildlife. The crew cooked us a banquet for every meal, so we never went hungry! The facilities were basic, but we had everything we needed.

The highlights of the trip were definitely the animals we saw. The Komodo dragons on Komodo island, swimming with Manta Rays at manta point and watching the flying foxes exodus in their millions against the backdrop of the sun setting were really special.

The 3 days on the boat were an amazing experience and we would both highly recommend it to anyone.

Chris was very flexible in the modifications we made to our schedule and had some on the spot great suggestions along the way.