Kimkim Trip Reviews

Bipin was an absolute gem. We loved him so much!

However, we were charged extra for a boat ride at Tiger Tops, which the people there initially said was included. They made it seem like it was KimKim's fault for not including the additional boat ride. Regardless of whose fault it was, we ended up paying $60, after initially being told it was included and taking the ride. This was the most outstanding instance of a few in which it felt like KimKim representatives could have better communicated with the places where we stayed. For another example, even though our itinerary said we'd be hiking in Nagarkot, we had to specifically ask for a hike from Bipin because he said it wasn't originally included.

The itinerary also was very vague. Maybe a more detailed itinerary cold help with these problems, and it would definitely help on our end in terms of knowing exactly what we'd paid for and what the days will look like.

Successfully attached this trip to Norway after a work trip in other areas of Europe. Couldn't have asked for more responsiveness from my local contact Ingrid. I'm very detail oriented and she always gave me all the information I requested as we planned the specifics of each day.

The Lofoten area at the end of March had perhaps the most finicky weather I've ever seen so be ready with appropriate clothing and gear. Expect to have some activities cancelled or moved and try to go with the flow. I found the drive down the islands on my own with no schedule to be one of the best parts. Though do your best to avoid a one-way car rental as they are very expensive.

I also really enjoyed hanging out on the Hurtigruten ship for most of a day after running around for so long beforehand.

A word for anyone looking for the Northern lights. I found it to be much more about luck with the weather than it was about going on the northern lights chase tours. If you're up for driving to the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night to try for clear skies go for it, but the longer your trip the less necessary it probably is.

I compiled a video of my experiences that anyone is welcome to see here:
https://youtu.be/f-tFAZfqaeE

We've just returned from a 9 day trip of Sri Lanka.

We had an amazing time. It was very straightforward to organise our trip online. We were connected with Sadun from Experiential Journeys and he provided great service. Updating and amending our itinerary so we could fine tune it was also easy.

When we arrived we were met by Dammika at the airport. He handled our trip seamlessly. He was a great driver, in the crazy Sri Lankan traffic. He was also very knowledgeable about all things Sri Lankan. He also arranged a surprise birthday cake and present!

Our highlights would be the train trip from Kandy to Nuwara Eliya, the amazing scenery and a visit to a tea plantation. Udawalawe would have to be a standout. We saw so much wildlife - peacocks, water buffalo, crocodiles, lizardss, birds and 6 elephants! The coast was stunning and relaxing. Then there was the people, day to day wildlife spotting and a turtle sanctuary too.

The hotels were all great, only one was a little out of the way. As it was towards the end of the tourist season we often had the run of hotels. Our favourites were Seasons Villa, glamping in Udawalawe, Joes Resort and the Galle Face Hotel.

Great trip that KimKim and the local team in Colombia managed to fit into my tight schedule. I had been worried that my short amount of time available would hinder my experience, but with the help of Laura and the whole Colombia team, I felt that I got a great view of the country in even just a few days. Everyone made my trip easy, smooth, and full of activities, even when a last-minute change had to be made. Great job! I plan to use KimKim for another trip in the future!

Me and my wife had a 12 days trip in Colombia, more specifically in the coffee region (Cauca Valley / Quindio), Medellin, Cartagena and Isla Grande. It was a lot to pack into 12 days, but Jess, our local expert from KimKim, managed to strike the perfect balance; it was a great mix of the things we asked for: adventure, coffee and food tasting as well as a bit of relax! We also had some bumps along the way (such as forgetting our mobile phone in a taxi), but Jess and her team managed to help us and fix things!

A few highlights:
1) Do visit the Cauca Valley and Quindio areas: beautiful villages, nature and obviously coffee. Also, if you plan to hire a tour guide you should really ask of David: he was the best guide we ever had, incredibly passionate and knowledgeable, as well as super friendly and fun.
2) If you love food, ask for a cooking class: Colombian food is superb, we did one in Cartagena at Oh La La and it was amazing.
3) If you love history, and want to know more about Colombia's own history, visit Medellin: Real City Tours and the Memorial Museum are a must.
4) If you love sea life, go to the coral reef around Isla Grande and ask for snorkelling or diving, there will be plenty of opportunities.

Thanks again to KimKim and all people involved in this great trip!

It is difficult to award “stars” for this experience – but something like 8 out of 5 would perhaps do it justice!

Equally difficult to pick a highlight in a trip full of them:

It started with a warm welcome from Ingrid in Puerto Varras. After a spectacular flight to Chaiten the next morning, a walk to a glacier and a first night in a nice lodge at Lake Yelcho, the trekking started in earnest the next day.
We started at our lead guide Ricardo’s family home in Futaleufú before setting off on a strenuous trek to Lake Las Rosas where we set up camp in an untouched wilderness area. Dinner was great Italian home cooking on open fires! Next morning Ricardo rustled up a perfectly cooked breakfast before we embarked on an exciting horse ride over a steep, rocky and exposed path and eventually out into the valley to Lake Espolon for a paddle across the lake.
Accommodation this day was with a local family, dinner in their home and an interesting stroll the following morning.
A strenuous walk then got us up to the Tree House – a fantastically set out camp with cabins clinging to trees that leave you just about out in the open, overlooking a little pond – and the first of the wood fired spas we came to treasure in the next two camps!
Then came a walk down the ridge for some zip lining into the Futaleufú River! Another great camp – Cave Camp – with cabins open to the rapids just outside. After lunch, a short climb up a huge crag lead to some phenomenally spectacular abseiling. Another spa to bring down the adrenalin before - another - great open-fire dinner!
Rafting some of the serious rapids on the Futaleufú was the main, crowning event before the last stop in Nun Camp – named after the mountain opposite; and my cabin hanging right at the cliff’s edge over the river! A relaxing spa was followed by a lavish feast with a lamb on the spit and a selection of great Chilean wines as the farewell from the whole team and families.

I cannot think of much at all to improve this trip - it went so completely well: First there is Ricardo’s great leadership – making me feel safe (and pampered!) all the way through; the continuous help with a smile from his father-in law Claudio; then there was the flawless execution of the logistics in an exceedingly extreme terrain; and absolutely excellent professional help from all of the team all along the way.
If really pressed I could perhaps comment that paddling on Lake Espolon is good exercise – but is it equally good adventure value?

But, in a nutshell: this was one of the very best trips of my life.

We were fortunate to book with ‘KimKim’ during our 8 day trip to this beautiful country. Thanks to Tamara who accommodated my million changes .Our itinerary took us from Amman , kingsway sights, Petra , wadi rum , Aqaba and finally the Dead Sea.

In Jordan Mohammed operations takes personal interest and ensures everything goes according to plan and we are happy . He was kind to accommodate last minute changes with no hesitation and always checked on us to ensure we are having a good time.

Our driver - Mohammed Ali ( see pic ) was a real gem . He always made us comfortable and was very patient with my 6 year old. He had many interesting stories and history trivia to share which made the trip more fun.

Jordanians love children and are very kind and friendly people. We have lots of memories and experiences we will treasure from this holiday. The highlights being , trekking in Petra , sleeping under the stars in wadi rum , snorkel the beautiful reefs in the Red Sea , floating in the Dead Sea .

Thank you for a great holiday.

What a great experience! Ngima was extremely helpful during the booking process and accommodated all our needs. The trip was extremely well planned and we left Nepal with the certainty we will visit again this wonderful country.

Our tour of Costa Rica, organised by Randall through KimKim was perfect. Every area we visited and the local guides we used were fabulous and shared a great knowledge of their areas which made for a genuinely phenomenal experience. Our standout tour guide was Warner in Tortuguero who exuded a love for nature and the locale. He was approachable during every stretch of the time spent in Tortuguero and not just when his guided tours were on. Our stay in Monteverde was made greater with the stay at Grace and Renzo's B & B. Grace was such a fantastic host and gave superb advice on places to roam, visit and eat throughout the small town. She made what would have been a great leg of the tour into one of our favourite sections of the holiday. KimKim really excelled in their planning with every section of the vacation running smoothly and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them to anyone travelling to Costa Rica.

My guide was Mr. Marco Herrera. Good English and excellent guide. Very helpful and adaptive to changes.

Overall the trip was perfect. It was my first time in Ecuador, but Mr. Marco and the people from kimkim.com helped in giving many options to explore. From lagoons to national reserve parks and forest, all was arranged perfectly.
People at the hotels were very nice and polite.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone and I, most definitely, would arrange future trips with them again.
5/5

Firstly we would like to thank Jeff for such wonderful communication throughout the planning, all the information we received before we began the trip and all the info in our packet on arrival. Everything worked like clockwork( except running for the wrong bullet train) because of the attention to fine details such as every ticket for transport, cards for each check-in and particularly the pocket wifi.
We had two guides, one in Tokyo and one in Kyoto . Ms Junko Dogauchi was helpful and we enjoyed our day which helped us with the subway,but it was difficult to understand her English. Ms Fukiko Teramachi was excellent with good English and conversation. We had a different kind of day at her village as well as a couple of tourist spots. She was also helpful with places to eat.
The most memorable experience was at Yamanochaya in Hakone. It was a lot of fun with such pleasant staff. Mikoto Aoki as our attending staff was wonderful. She helped us with our 'little' Japanese and we helped her with her English. We managed to use theHakone free pass on both days which made it simple to travel around. We really liked Kyoto and enjoyed doing our own thing there. Did some shopping in the markets which was reasonable as most things in the department stores etc too expensive for us.
On our last day in Tokyo we got to see the Cherry Blossoms in full bloom. It was beautiful weather and one street was closed with groups partying and the Rugby players interacting with the public. Very different.
Hotels were great, usually good location but we did not like the hotel in Takayama the Hotel Associa Takayama Resort. It was huge and definitely catered for big tourist groups. At any one time there were up to 10 buses. Consequently we could not get into the buffet restaurant. We used the shuttle bus for one dinner but when it started to snow we decided to stay in. The breakfast was chaotic in the restaurant with so many people. We would have preferred to stay in a smaller hotel.

I recently wrapped up an amazing trip to Greece that Kimkim out together for me. Harris and his team took care of every detail with precision and care. Travelling by myself, it was especially meaningful to feel so taken care of and looked after. The team checked in after each excursion to ensure my satisfaction, handled cancellations due to bad weather, and ensured that my trip went effortlessly. The hotels, the excursions, the transfers; all exceeded my expectations! I will definitely be using Kimkim again and will recommend them whole heartedly to any of my travelling friends. Thank you!

We had an amazing time. Warner was the perfect guide: knowledgable, easygoing, fun, funny, flexible, everything! We all missed him so much when he dropped us off in Dublin, like we had left one of our family members! Our favorite place was Adare Manor, along with the falconry and archery there. But all of the planned activities were great fun, including the ghost tour in Kildare, the bike tour in Kilkenny, etc. We will be back on day to explore the north of Ireland!

We, a family of four (two adults and two kids, one boy 8 yrs and one girl 11 yrs) had one full week of dream vacation in Greece , thanks to Tasos and his team’s dedicated arrangement! Yes, This is a dream trip that we print out those photos and frame, rather than just post them on social media; a dream trip that turns us into artists, spending hours to record those moments by drawing; a dream trip that could serve as fodder for party conversations for year from now on……..For this, we would like to give a big shout out to Tasos and his team, for helping us develop the most suitable itinerary for our family; for booking most amazing accommodations at each destination; for offering best options/services on means of transportations; for providing 24/7 real-time support and overseeing all details to ensure the perfectness at each stage of the trip.

1) Itinerary
The trip itinerary that Tasos put together for us embraces two types of experiences: immersing ourselves into the world of Greek Mythology and ancient history; living like a local through mountain hiking and farm visiting.

We had spent two days in Athens, visited Sounio (a breathtaking scenery of the Temple of Poseidon at sunset), Temple of Zeus as well as Acropolis through a Mythology tour, Plaka (eating and shopping), Roman Agora (seeing the Tower of the Winds), the Parliament Hill (watching the Changing of the Guard ceremony). Then we drove to Kalabaka, where we had a marvelous mountain hiking with our fantastic tour guide Kris from Meteora Thrones; he took us into the routes where ordinary tourists may not be aware of (thus we could see unique views); we also visited four of the six UNSECO monasteries. The next day we drove south to Delphi Archaeological site (another UNSECO heritage site), where the ancient Greeks considered as the central of the world. Through a private guided tour, we soon understood how those ancient ruins were originally constructed following a holy-path as the Sanctuary of Apollo and the significance of the site of the ancient Oracle in Greece. On the sixth day of this trip, we drove towards the Peloponnese through the impressive suspension bridge of Rio, visited another two UNSECO sites. It was a spring windy day, we thought we saw the best part of the “rich in gold” Mycenaean civilization centre at the Mycenae archaeological sites through the signature Lion Gate and the beautiful “Mask of Agamemnon” (although it is a replica and the real one in National Archeological Museum ); we were also lucky enough to perform in the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus, where we enjoyed the astonishing acoustics designed by ancient Greeks 2,400 years ago. Then the next day we had an amazing full day with Stavroula's Grecopaths team. We went to an ancient theater performing mimes and dramas with local elementary students; We visited a local farm, getting to know Greek wine, olive trees, orange trees, lemon trees as well as many types of herbs; We had a delicious lunch and pleasant afternoon tea with the farm owner’s family; we also visited a small Greek pyramid (a hidden gem of Nafplio, many visitors may not know of) in the afternoon. With the excellent guide of Stavroula’s team, we were experiencing the real Greeks for one full day, which became the highlight of our one-week Greece trip.

2) Accommodations
The hotels and B&B Tasos booked for us at four destinations are amazing.

The NLH Fix at Athens has the best location you could have (close to everything); the room is spacious and service is fantastica. The Five-stared Grande Meteora Hotel has one of the best locations in the town, we could see the soaring monoliths from our rooms’ balconies and its sublime beauty cannot be conveyed in words or pictures. The Ippoliti Hotel in Nafpolio, sets in a lovely old pink mansion and is located close to the port, restaurants and cafes.

But our favorite is the Ganimede Hotel in Galaxidi, where we stayed in a family suite with two beds in the upper level and one main beds in the lower level. It locates at a very quiet street and nicely decorated. It offered us a wonderful night resting and “the best breakfast in the world”. We really hope we could be able to stay there longer.

3) Transportation
One convenient service Tasos offered is the airport pickup by our friendly driver Lampros, who gave us the warmest welcome and best introduction service to Athens. While in Athens, we walked to all interested sites as all of them are not far away from each other. The rest five days, Tasos helped us rent a car so we drove every destination with freedom and flexibilities. It is a great way to experience Greece by driving yourselves, the views are stunning and the roads (outside of Athens) are very clean and quiet (Maybe March is the low season?)

4) 24/7 Support and 360 Services
Tasos and his team offered us a local cell phone for communication – all destinations are uploaded into google map and linked to the itinerary; which saved us time and efforts so we could focus on experiencing everything in Greece.
During the trip, we could reach him and his team any time by all types of means. For example, we had an emergency on the way from Nafplio to Athens as we would like to see the Corinth Canal but not sure where we could get the best view. So we called Tasos to let him know our problem. Within less than one minute, he sent us the google map location of Corinth Canal and told us which bridge has the pedestrian cross (so its easier to take pictures).
In the same time, Maria from Tasos’ team also reached us regularly to check if everything is on track. When we asked her to recommend some restaurants along the Plaka while we were wondering there, she sent a list of restaurants within five minutes, each of them are highly rated and great choice for travelers. On the day we were going to leave Athens, Maria also called to check if we need the change the vehicle pick-up place from downtown Athens to the airport as Lampros told her that we were a little bit nervous about driving in the crowded downtown Athens. Although we did not take that offer in order to save time, we appreciate their attentiveness and considerations.

All those services helped us create the peace of mind thus we could enjoy every moment while at Greece. By the end, as my kids said, this is an amazing trip which makes them want to visit Greece again and again!

Great trip overall. Chris was very responsive and easy to work with and has been supportive of working with me to address the few issues that did come up on the trip.

The ease of planning this trip through kimkim was one of the notable highlights of our honeymoon! Harris, our local specialist, suggested some great things for us to do that we wouldn't have been able to coordinate if we were planning the trip on our own, and he was very quick to accommodate any requests we had. Stepping off each plane or ferry to find someone with my name ready to take care of our transfers really eased a lot of the logistics of traveling. You always know that the sights & foods, and people you meet on a vacation will be highlights, but with Harris and the team at Travel 12, the actual details were also a highlight of the trip - who knew?!?

The match with the local organisation was excellent. The local organisation turned out to be very flexible.
A porter who turned ill was quickly replaced and there was a great anticipation on changing wheather conditions.
Our guide was really amazing in her organisation and motivation on the group, the clients as well as the porters.
Great work!

If I'm being honest - I was skeptical at first. I'm typically the traveler who likes to book all my own hotels, excursions and transportation. However, I came across Kimkim online as I was planning my trip to Costa Rica and decided to send an initial message. I was partnered with Randall, who ended up playing a key role in making my trip to Costa Rica unforgettable! He was very patient and flexible as I customized the 9-day itinerary, with multiple iterations, and gave many recommendations for activities and places to see during my stay. We didn't have any hiccups during our stay and all drivers arrived on time. When we first arrived at the airport, our driver even provided us with a folder of our itinerary and all vouches required for the trip. The organization was impeccable! In addition, the activities were awesome and my mom and I had a blast! Some activities included: volcano hike, hot springs, hanging bridges, waterfall hike, ziplining, butterfly garden, guided hike through Manuel Antonio park + more. I highly recommend Randall to help you plan your trip if you are thinking of going to Costa Rica and want to experience as much as possible. I definitely plan on using the Kimkim service again. Thanks Randall!

From the very first conversation to the last day there Ingrid was there to make sure we had the time of our lives in Norway for 18 days. With no detail left out and the time taken to make sure we had everything throughout our trip. She answered our questions as needed was invaluable. Meeting a local with knowledge of the area makes the difference in planning a trip. Would highly recommend this service to anyone who needs assistance in traveling and would love to have a full time travel planner! Worth every cent!

We had a truly memorable experience in Nepal. The services rendered from the start was prompt and impeccable. Thank you everyone especially Naresh, Kunga and Erin!