Kimkim Trip Reviews

Ed Reeves provides a very unique, custom service. We enjoyed 3 private day trips from Tirana with Ed or Nesti, one of his excellent Albanian guides. Ed’s 4 wheel drive vehicles allow you to access the “real” Albania. Day 1 we visited Durres and then on to a little known beach and a fabulous seafood lunch right overlooking the sea. Day 2 took us to the historic Greek / Roman site of Apolonia, but then on to the lesser known, and less accessible Bylis (which we had to ourselves) and also the magical Ottoman city of Berat where we had a fabulous tasting meal of local Albanian dishes. Day 3 took us to stunning mountain scenery and we had the chance to hike through pristine landscapes. Our meal of lamb at a local hostelry was mouthwatering! Ed provides adventure, exceptional local experiences and the chance to reach remote and unspoiled parts of Albania. Highly recommend if you are looking to discover the lesser travelled places in this fascinating country that is only just opening up to tourism.

My experience with kimkim looks a lot like the daily temperature chart on my weather app: high at the very outset when a friendly woman in Tennessee took down the personal particulars of our well-traveled four person group (whose ages ranged from 84 to 78), descending to a series of lows when the first agent assigned to our group persistently erred in the details of our trip (how many days and nights, how many days for car rental, etc., and ultimately sent us a final bill before ever providing us with an itinerary). The temperature graph went up dramatically when competent Preeti arrived on the scene, and stayed up during our first 4 nights in Iceland, all on the incredibly beautiful Snæfellsnes peninsula. It’s hard to pick a single high point, but the setting and lunch at Budir, and the setting (amidst hundreds of breeding Arctic Terns in the fields and Kittiwakes in the cliffs) and the elegantly restrained rooms in the cottages at Arnarstapi, our lobster lunch at Hraun, and the wide, wide waterfalls at Hraunfossar and Barnafoss- these things come to mind immediately.
We were incredibly happy travelers, in fact, until having picked our way through a maze of small and smaller roads, we arrived in the rain at the doorstep of the Hotel Kriunes, replete in all its faded southwestern/Mexican splendor. Construction in progress, extremely unwelcoming owners, gloomy corridors, no handicapped access to the badly lit lower level, etc., etc. I’ve been through all this before at some length with Preeti, so refer you to that correspondence for details. Whatever Preeti and the owners may say or think (and i’m not sure whether Preeti has ever seen the place), the Kriunes was nowhere near the level of quality that any of our group would ever find acceptable, nor could the offer of a $50 discount and free sandwiches, or even free rooms, have ever made any difference. Preeti says it was three-star, and maybe it once was, but i have to say that the ambience of the place was positively disagreeable; it did not measure up in any way to the charming little places we stayed in all the other nights. So, not wanting to ruin our entire visit during an endless argument pitting my opinion against Preeti’s and the owners, we made alternate arrangements on the spur of the moment, cancelled our rooms, paid for our sandwiches, tipped the helpful women at the reception desk. And found our way to a very nice hotel in Reykjavik’s city center.
So what did we think of kimkim’s services? We loved almost every minute of our short stay in Iceland, and we have Preeti to thank for much of what we enjoyed, but the gigantic mistake with the Kriunes - and her failure to understand why we felt the way we did and most particularly her inability to fix things for us (she appeared to be taking the side of the hotel, not we who were her direct clients), leaves me with decidedly mixed feelings about what added benefit we got from kimkim’s management of our travel arrangements in Iceland. I hope to hear back from you.

I highly recommend Kim Kim, and in particular Sajith. He created an itinerary that was perfect for us. We loved every moment of our Sri Lankan experience! Thank you for an amazing time!

Our guide, porter, and drivers in country were all wonderful; knowledgeable, reliable, friendly, and helpful.
After spending 7 months planning the trip with Amanda, it was disappointing to be redirected to other individuals for the final lead up, and then also during the trip.

Linda helped us plan a trip through Norway that was a nice overview with a few touches just for us. We did the usual things of seeing Bergen, taking ferry trips on the fjords, riding the train to Flam, and even hopped on the Hurtigruten for a few days. These were really lovely. We loved best our time in Tromso and our car trip in the Lofoten Islands. It was a great solution to get us out of the crowds and into nature, which is always what we prefer. Well done Linda. The stay at Eliassen Rorbuer was a special treat.

I highly recommend using this site to plan your trip. It saves a lot of headache and hassle and definitely worth the extra free for some piece of mind. They picked really authentic places that were very high quality, but not crowded by typical tourists. The Lares Trek + Machu Picchu plan was a very good combination for us since it provided a nice challenge through the trek and an amazing experience with the historic world wonder. If you are hesitating, look no further for an easy to use method of booking your next trip.

I cannot say enough about Kimkim and Miha. The trip was perfectly planned, just the right amount of days and activities in one place. They made everything so easy. Except the driving, which by the end of the first week got easier. And of coarse is not Kimkims fault. Plenty of information and directions to every place we went. The Hotel and other accommodations were perfect! Thank you Kimkim for the great trip!

Bhutan has a special place in my heart, not least due to the superb, seamless organisational efforts of Vishal and Sonam at Trophel Tours, and the excellent, informative and gracious care of our "walking encyclopaedia" guide UT. Pre-trip communications built an impression of courteous, lovely people who know their country intricately, and I felt in capable hands before we even set foot in beautiful Bhutan. Such a relief to have all the administrative intricacies of permits and visas dealt with fully and efficiently on our behalf. All t's crossed and all i's dotted. Given our relatively short time there (only 5 days of activity), we packed in a huge amount without feeling squeezed and rushed - many thanks for all the suggestions and working them into a terrific short itinerary. Bumdra Camp, "sky burial", the wonderful hot stone bath (what a lodge!), CheLa Pass, the forest/rhododendron walk to the nunnery and the exhilarating downhill cycle were unforgettable, ditto the visit to Tigers Nest monastery, without which no trip to Bhutan is really complete! So lucky also to be there for the final of the national archery competition. The cultural visits and museum are fabulous (and I'm not generally a museum person). UT's knowledge brought everything alive - a big thanks to him, and for the careful driving by our lovely driver in a superbly comfortable vehicle. The food - well, yum! I would happily travel with Trophel Tours again; many thanks to all concerned.
On a general note, I hope that Bhutan develops a strong policy to take care of its pristine environment well at this relatively early stage in its touristic development - it was sad to see a large quantity of toilet paper and human waste scattered amongst the trees and bushes around Bumdra. Could something be done about this by the local and tourism authorities so it doesn't become a huge problem like on Mt Everest and parts of Nepal? I hope so!

We had a wonderful trip, my son LOVED the zip line and the horseback riding. We also booked a chocolate tour in La Fortuna, and a naturalist-led tour of the rainforest in Manuel Antonio. All of the hotels were great, in perfect locations. I was a single mom traveling with my 9 year old son, and I felt safe the entire time. Thank you for setting everything up for us, it will be a trip we never forget :)

Communication overall was very good. It was easy to have contact with Thierry and also with our guide, who was a good translator between us (the group) and the hosts where we stayed. We were happy with Benjamin, he was a good guide who took time with the group, he took care of us and he was very adaptive. He learned us a lot while walking and had some good stories. Unfortunately we weren't able to climb the Maglic Mountain because one of the girls didn't have 'high' hiking shoes because she didn't knew this was a pre, so maybe it's good to notice this when people are booking. The rafting was good for the diversity in the week. Overall: very happy with Kimkim and would book again here. No further recommendations and thanks for all.

We genuinely felt the holiday met and exceeded our expectations. The hotels at Split and Dubrovnik were excellent - the Villa Nora in Hvar was also very good but slightly let down by faulty air conditioning. Veselka met us at Split airport and explained the itinerary well, delivering us to our hotel as promised. Ivan took us to Plitvice lakes, and was prompt, very friendly and informative.
Natalia from Villa Nora met us from the ferry and gave us good service there, very approachable - she recognised the problem with air conditioning and was awaiting an engineer to fix it. The guide who took us on the 'lavender fields and old towns' day tour in Hvar was first class (sorry can't remember his name) this included a great lunch at a tavern on the way, which was prepared specially for us and it was memorable. We walked all the way into Hvar town which was a challenge for one of us and he managed to keep us cool and resting along the way! Excellent.
Dubrovnik old town was if anything, quieter than we expected and Anada gave us a tour round late afternoon. She was very good (if we had any comment it was almost too much detailed information to take in re history facts). But it did mean that we knew where to eat, and we then walked the walls the following day.
Our kayake experience was cancelled in Hvar due to weather, but Veselka transferred this to our last day in Dubrovnik and we really enjoyed this, our guide was 'Sirjon' and he was relaxed, friendly and helped us with photos as we did not have our camera with us. We value the fact that this trip was transferred and not cancelled!

The trip was amazing, I enjoyed every moment of it. Chhiring, our guide, was incredible, helped us all the time.

We spent 5 days and 4 nights in Morocco and it was great. One of the highlights of our trip was spending the night in the Sahara desert where we were able to watch the stars by the campfire while also enjoying some local music.

Our trip was spent mostly on the road however which at some points of the trip can feel quite boring. However it is understandable due to the size of the country and the distances we had to travel between each place. Nevertheless, the scenery during the drives were beautiful ranging from rocky mountains, desserts, and valleys. The cities we visited were also very beautiful we visited Ourzazate, Marrakech, and Boulmane Dades.

Our driver was very helpful and very informartive and we enjoyed the trip very much. The accommodation provided by Larbi was of very good quality. We opted for the 3* option and the places we stayed in were very clean and provide very good service.

Some negatives/feedback from our trip:
- we did not get information on the time that our driver would pick us up on the first and last day. It would be more efficient for us and for the tour to provide us this info as we had to ask the hotel manager to phone Larbi a couple of times.
- when we were dropped of in Marrakech by our driver we had to walk to the riad we were staying and our driver agreed with a guy with a cart to take our baggage for 50 dirham. When we arrived I was forced to pay 150 dirham by him.

Despite some minor stuff we enjoyed our trip very much and would recommend using Larbi's services if you are going to visit Morocco.

Larbi planned a wonderful trip for us. It was exactly what we wanted for the time available to us. His driver was excellent, obliging and knowledgable. When we had to make some changes nothing was too much trouble for Larbi.
Thank you for putting us in touch with him.

Iceland is an amazing land of natural beauty. There are impressive waterfalls throughout the country. The weather in early June was for the most part sunny and pleasant with 2 days having rain. On 1 day there were issues of fog and some sights were missed.
The highlight of the trip for both of us was the Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon and Diamond Beach, where the glacier meets the ocean and massive icebergs are everywhere in the lagoon. The ice pieces that litter the black sand beach look like expensive works of art made of clear glass.
The people of Iceland are friendly and welcoming.

We took the Mythological Walking tour trip. We had asked for a private tour but ended up with many other people; I guess private tour is not the same in Greece as other places. It was good trip and Iffy our tour guide was great.

It would be difficult to point to a favorite activity. Our snorkeling (Andy), kayaking (Reiner) and ATV guides were all terrific. Really friendly and helpful with driving and dinner suggestions. Our hotels were all really nice and well-located. It was nice to have both city and outside of the city accomodations. We loved everything.

We had a wonderful trip to Iceland. All of the logistics and reservations were great, and seamless throughout the trip. Really appreciated some of the locals favorites recommendations. All of the excursions were great. The daily itinerary was great and well planned. We had one snafu in that an activity was cancelled due to weather, but they were quick to recommend an alternate plan. Would have liked bigger rooms in a few of the places.

I had a great experience with kimkim. The chat is great and made it very easy to book everything. Imke was extremely helpful since the first contact. She accommodated all our changes and answered all my questions. I was quite happy with the support and overall service.

Drive Albania (Ed Reeves and Company) planned this two week trip faboulously. Our personal guide, Ernest Markeci, was top notch professional and knowledgeable as well as personalable. He became our family for the two weeks. I would highly recommend Drive Albania to anyone who wants to see this wonderful country in the manner in which we did. A true treasure.