Kimkim Trip Reviews

Our trip to the mountains of Nepal was great. It was well organized by Ngima, who was very responsive to the demands of the schedules of members of our group who were all coming and going from different parts of the world. He worked out a trip that made sense, mostly, and it was well organized, everything was thought out in advance and worked out, nearly, perfectly.

The only reason the trip was not perfect was that the weather interfered since we started with a flight to Lukla that was weather-dependent, so we lost 1.5 days from our trek and had to shorten it by a destination. This was not Ngima's fault, of course. But, in hindsight, I'd recommend that if one is on a very short trip like we were, then losing a few days to weather (only because of flying, we can hike in rain) is painful and I'd recommend a destination that does not require such a flight if it is going to be vulnerable due to weather.

Great facilities. Friendly staff. Flexible about moving us from a rainy day to a sunny one. right. She is delightful and informative.

Our guide Becca was wonderful. She tailored the trip to us just

I was very pleased with the work done by kimkim.

My family and I really made it challenging for Chris to arrange our plans: We were located in 3 different cities all giving different feedback. Chris did an excellent job coordinating and adjusting to our {changing} needs.

The trip was more than we could have expected. We had great hotels, amazing drivers and the team did everything to make it easy for us at the border.

Platform-wise, I would have liked to select my currency while planning the trip or to have it more obvious than prices were in USD. We are Canadians and used to platforms automatically converting to CAD using cookies. The exchange rate was, therefore, a very bad surprise.

Also, a module for the agent to provide local contact details we could have downloaded directly would be great (or kimkim app to save them) and the possibility to download the conversations locally for when we do not have wifi once on the trip.

Otherwise, the platform and concept were really good. Already recommended it in a few Montreal newspaper/tv. Good job guys!

Carina was great, always accessible and made all necessary adjustments before our arrival. Amazing job!

Everything was good and we had a wonderful time on our trip. I do feel like a few things could be improved. Kimkim was not proactive in providing itineraries or details. Everything was booked but I didn't receive confirmation number or vouchers with the tour agency. When I asked about this I was assured that everything was all set and I didn't need any confirmation number or voucher.

While everything turned out to be fine I would have felt more comfortable with some sort of voucher. Also, the receipts for payment are not itemized. That would also be appreciated. We did have a couple minor hiccups. Our guide had a hard time locating our snorkel group and the snorkel group had us booked for the next day. It was all worked out and we got to snorkel but there were about 45 minutes of confusion.

On our second day of touring, we had been told that lunch was included. It was not. We had not brought along any food. Luckily our guide shared his extra food with us and all was fine. But had he not we would have gone very hungry as this was an all day tour.

But not to focus on the negatives! We had wonderful and personal experiences with guides who customized our trips. They were all friendly and full of information. We had three days of very rainy weather and they all helped us enjoy ourselves despite that. Booking with kimkim was convenient with the chat function and spread out payment. I would use the service again.

Nicole was excellent at organizing our trip. It was great to talk to a real person on the ground in Peru when I was booking from Australia. At first, our trip seemed expensive but now in hind sight considering everything it included and in comparison to other travelers we met along the way our trip was excellent value for money. Every aspect of our trip was organized we didn't have to worry about a thing. Our guide Josias was absolutely fantastic and really made the trip special. He spoke fluent English and helped us translate along the way and told us fantastic history and facts about the region. The food and accommodation were excellent. After a hard day walking it was great to come home to a real warm bed. I am a coeliac and catering along the way was fantastic! We couldn't have had a better trip. We are so happy we chose to book with KimKim.

Nicole looked after all of our needs. She was very patient and always helpful. She helped us booked our salkantay trek and gave me information about other trips and options available.

Nathalie was awesome and she gave us everything we asked for and the price was perfect!!! We had an awesome time and a lot of that was KimKim making all our arrangements!! It is so nice to get off a plane tired and just see s sign with your name on it!!! Love it!! And even my friends said we will use KimKim again for future travels!! Thank you so much for a great trip!!!

Chris had very good suggestions and advice during the planning stages of the trip. His experience was very valuable in customizing the trip. Everything went on smoothly. We had no trouble finding accommodations. The places were comfortable and as cheap as one could get in Iceland. The places were also located strategically such that we could get to the attractions reasonably quickly and before it got completely mobbed.

Chris also provided detailed recommendations for each day for places to see, hikes to take, and also restaurants. We fully followed those recommendations and were rewarded. remember that in Iceland, every attraction is not marked 20 miles ahead. Therefore, it is easy to miss some. Having a local expert is priceless.

Overall, booking with kimkim was an excellent decision.

KimKim did a great job customizing the trip for my son and I. I couldn't have put a trip like this together myself. It was more than I was promised and I highly recommend their services. Thanks again

Gabor did a great job coordinating all aspects of this trip!

The north and east was great, the south was so-so. Some of the hotels were passable. The food was good but outrageously expensive.

Chris was very responsive to the wide range of questions. Response time varied a lot depending on his schedule or travel

Really impressive timely response and really appreciated the flexibility to make changes to accommodate different dates. Having now visited Vietnam our only comment would be that it would perhaps have been good to get more and wider suggestions to choose from to tailor the trip e.g. a cooking experience or an interesting stop on the car journey from Sapa to Hanoi. it did feel a bit as if we were on the 'standard' tourist circuit that could have been booked fairly easily locally - although the service level we got from having booked with you ( guide, driver) was excellent

The guide Ngoc was really excellent. very knowledgeable, helpful, punctual and happy to move things around ( e.g lunch booking when we opted to leave Sapa early because of the rain) . A great guy we'd be happy to recommend to friends.

The trip allowed us to visit many exceptional sites accompanied by professionals, exploring and learning as we went. We especially appreciated the attention to our interests and the design of a trip that met our needs. Highlights were too many to mention but included - great visits to the Blue Nile, the Simien Mountains with opportunities to visit with the Gelada, Lalibela, and Addis. The guides were consistently pleasant, knowledgeable, and helpful.

Marco has a great understanding of the country and opportunities to both see and experience it and an excellent ability to recruit team members across Ethiopia to support the trip.

Really enjoyed our trip and our experience with the guides was fantastic. The whole experience went smoothly and SimienEcoTours and their guides are a large reason for our ability to immerse ourselves into the Ethiopian natural and cultural environment.

Marco was very responsive before the trip, kept track of our experience to make sure all was well along the way, and served as a local guide in Addis as well.

This was a very expensive trip and several things could have been done better. I had payed for a full package but even then had substantial expenses towards drinking water 1-7 USD per liter depending on where on the trek, battery charging 4-6 USD per battery, hot shower 8-9 USD, WIFI 7 USD per day. These extra expenses are very particular to the area. I have never before experienced having to pay for all these things and. I am surprised that no-one has thought of informing of these extra costs.

Meals were provided but I was always only allowed to order 1 item per meal. This was really not enough when trekking for long hours every day.

Also tipping of guide and porter was a substantial extra expense - 250 USD shared among them. As a lone traveller this has been an extremely costly affair. The guide and porter I was happy with though.

I was overall very pleased with Ngima but I would have appreciated the information I have mentioned previously.

Small hiccup that was weather related. Could have been more responsive during the planning period. Itinerary was outstanding and the way that it was adjusted when the weather threw a monkey wrench was great. Otherwise, we loved it.

Timing of responses could have been better. When I started directly emailing him and calling while in Iceland, communication was much better

Really loved using kimkim. Made everything really simple and convenient. All aspects of the trip were great. The highlights of the trip were the guides - both Bekele and Tadele were awesome to hang out with. I liked pulling over to talk to random people on the street and going on spontaneous adventures. It felt like a bunch of friends hanging out rather than a guided tour.

Suggest that the trip summary include the start times of tours.

Nathalie was great

Planning and booking went pretty well. I would suggest that the organizers answer all of the questions asked by the clients, even if they seem unrelated to the actual booking, just so that there are no misunderstandings. Questions such as recommendations for restaurants were simply ignored. Answers to questions like that would have been extremely helpful.

Giorga did a nice job. She answered emails in a timely fashion and her responses were mostly clear. She was as responsive as possible when our driver did not show for a pick up from the VCE airport. Considering we were using a water taxi as transportation from VCE and had never been to Italy, this was somewhat challenging.

It would be great if kimkim could provide google maps links that provide a driving route. I manually created google maps routes each night for the next day- although i am fine with doing it, but i dont think other folks would have been ok with tackling that activity. The manual entry was challenging with the spelling of icelandic destinations.

Chris' trip was outatanding, and I greatly appreciated how he went the extra mile to find a riding tour that was appropriate for my wife's riding experience. It was a highlight of the trip!

We had an amazing time, and thought that KimKim did quite a good job, especially given the short notice for our trip. There were several issues that could have been better:
1) There was several recommendations of places to go that were simply impossible to see at the time of the trip - as an example, the Leirhnjukur Lava Fields were completely inaccessible. This happened to us on several occassions, which caused us to spend time that could have been better spent at places that were simply not accessable.
2) In some of the itinerary, there could have been more detail in terms of actually finding the locations. As an example, where exactly is Hvalnes Nature Reserve? It would be useful, when doing a self guided tour to have more specific directions and suggestions about what to look out for, where to turn, and where to park, etc.
3) In the town of Vik, it would have been I good idea to let us know that we needed to call ahead to make reservations for dinner.
4) There was some really sketchy and somewhat dangerous driving, and I think that we could have been better prepared for that. In addition, the driving times in many instances were a severe underestimate of the actual driving time.

These things being said, we did have an exciting and unforgettable trip!

We thought that Chris did a very good job, and was quite helpful when I reached out to him during the trip.