Kimkim Trip Reviews

The hotel accommodation arranged were overall good and the travel map was well marked with the route and locations of hotels and places of interest clearly indicated.

However the following negative experiences limited the extent and the peace of mind for us to fully enjoy the trip despite a well planned itinerary.

i) Upon arrival, to our surprised we were informed that Hong Kong currency (eventhough it is a major currency which is accepted internationally) was not accepted at the money changer at the airport; which led to some initial concerns and delays resulting in our arriving late to Reykjavik.. This was a disappointment as we had chosen the itinerary to spend an extra day in Klauster instead of Reykjavik and had planned to explore Reykjavik on day of arrival.

ii) The pickup by Enterprise Car Rental was late and we have to call a few times to chase them. We were also surprised that the pickup to their office was only for 2 instead of the group which meant that the rest had to wait at the hotel. This delay resulted in a rush to cover the place of visits and we only arrived at the hotel in Henna very late.

iii) The rental car developed some noise after we went off-road to visit some of the places of interest on the very first day which was a Saturday. Eventhough we managed to contact their helpline, we were unable to have it checked at a service centre since it was a weekend. This created a overhanging worry over us for the next 2 days as we were worried that the car may fail any time and in a remote location.

iv) We managed to send the car to a service centre in Klauster on Monday. The time spend waiting and checking again cause further unnecessary delays. We also had to pay for the maintenance in advance.

v) As we only reach back to Reykjavik after 5pm, we could only drop-off the car at the bus terminal parking area and email the claims for reimbursement as we had opted for a Zero access insurance coverage. To-date we have not received even a acknowledgement of my email nor reimbursement.

vi) There was an initial error in the number of pax (2pax instead of 4pax) stated on the voucher for the Flybus transport to airport. After we reported this, a replacement voucher was subsequently received via email. We only realized that the new voucher was issued with a wrong travel date when pointed out by the staff at the bus-station. Prior to that we had to endure suspense and worries of missing our flight as there was no pickup from Bus Stop at the designated time and repeated calls to enquire and chasing for a pickup. Eventhough it was our error to only check that the number of pax was correct and not double checking the travel date on replacement voucher, we had not expected an error since the first voucher had the correct date. Luckily the management at the bus terminal was kind enough to arrange for a taxi to send us to the airport at no extra cost so that we could be on time to catch our return flight.

Regrettably the above bad experiences soured what could otherwise had been a great holiday and tour for our family with what Iceland has to offer.

Regards

The guides were amazing, charming, warm and knowledgeable. Jamaal was a lot of fun to spend two days with in Fes. His English is impeccable, and he is sweet, funny, and so likable that everywhere we went in the city he ran into people who enthusiastically greeted him with hearty handshakes and hugs. The time he spent living in the US has informed him well about our culture, making him an even more effective cultural ambassador for his home country and city. The tasting tour was fascinating, and we pushed out of our comfort zones with the gentle guidance and good humor of Jamaal. I would recommend him to anyone!

In Marrakech, we had the pleasure of spending a full day with Hassan, who was lovely. He was very amenable when we wanted to add the Jardin Marjorelle to our tour, and at all times made it clear that whatever we wanted was exactly what he wanted. He was extremely knowledgeable and imparted his information in a very clear and interesting way. He took great care of us!

The rep greeting us at the airport was courteous.

Our guide Richard was very knowledgeable. He even bought us some delicious food treats. We had the best experience with him.

The Siam Niramit Show was great. But we wished the audience could be warned ahead of time about the "Hell" scene. Little children could have been scared.

The Food Tour on the last day was not very special, unfortunately.

Our 13 day journey through Morocco was very memorable. Our driver, (Youseff) was very punctual and shared with us his personal knowledge and experiences along the many roads we travelled.

In the city of Fez, we were greeted by our local guide, Fatima. She had vast knowledge of the local markets and attractions within the city. Certainly one of the highlights of our trip.

Overall our trip was well organized and tailored to what we were looking for. We plan on returning to Morocco again in the future, and look to build upon the experience we had.

Cody & Leyla

The whole trip throughout South India was very well organised and executed by the Kim Kim team.
Unfortunately, one incident near the end of the trip ruined my final memories and has caused me to cancel future plans to visit North India.
On the last day in Kerala, the driver (Tency) who had been with me constantly since Chennai stopped the vehicle in a deserted industrial area and demanded, in a most threatening way, that I give him the tip (gratuity) immediately.
This behaviour was so 'out of character', that I was most disturbed and, in fact, frightened for my life.
This incident has caused me to review (cancel) my intended trip to North India with Kim Kim.
Ralph Watkins

The experience in Jordon itself was fantastic. It is a beautiful country and we enjoyed Petra and Wadi Rum immensely. The experience with kimkim was good at first, but a lot of important details were missed that soured our experience. Imke never sent us the name or contact info for our driver, despite her assuring us that she would and I reached out to her days before we left to get that info. We felt rather lost when we landed, not sure where to find him since there were groups of drivers/guides at many different places in the airport. Then we got to one of our hotels and it hadn't been paid for and the host at the desk rather aggressively insisted it was my responsibility to pay. I had to call the emergency line to get it resolved, and the whole process took over an hour from our time in Petra as we weren't allowed to leave the hotel without paying. Then, less important but most disappointing: despite confirming with Imke twice that we wanted to do the hot air balloon in Wadi Rum, she did not make the booking and it was already full when we got there so we missed out on one of the parts of our honeymoon that we were most looking forward to experiencing. And our driver was nice but we felt pressured at times to buy things from the gift shops and restaurants that he took us to (I know this is standard on tours but it shouldn't be). And then on our last day we had planned in our itinerary to explore Amman for a few hours but our driver insisted that we should stay at our hotel until 5pm (well past checkout) instead. We pushed back a bit but he was very insistent and so we felt uncomfortable and just agreed to that. Overall, we liked Jordan but I'm not sure I would go through kimkim again.

We loved the convenience, prompt reply and local insights. The local walking tours were fun and informative. The hotel in Aurland was really charming, and the fjord ferry cruise from Aurland was fantastic.

Ingrid and Vilde were helpful in offering local tips, packing tips, and so on.

I've recommended Kimkim.com's service to many friends already and many are keen to try out!

Everything went very well - the planning as as well as the trip itself. Lena was very helpful when it came to answering my many questions before the trip.
The driver in Jordan was very good and was always on time for our trips/activities. We would definitely use him again if we visited Jordan on a second trip.
There was only one small snafu during our trip and it happened while we were visiting Petra. It wasn’t clear to us on the second day of our visit to Petra how and when we were to go there. Consequently, we made arrangements with our driver. It turned out that a guide and driver had already been hired for this, and so this had to be worked out, which it was, with minimal fuss.
I want to thank Lena and KimKim for making our visit to Jordan a really great experience! We will definitely recommend KimKim to our friends and relatives when they travel and will use KimKim for planning our future trips.
Cris Kenudson

We were a party of 6 from Australia. The booking experience with Kim Kim and Off the Beaten Track was 1st class. A great team effort congratulations to Yassine and his team.

When we arrived in Tangier the pickup details had not been detailed and I was surprised to find a driver whom I had not been given his name. Nabil - a lovely man. Nothing was too much trouble for him even though his command of English was patchy at times.

I will address each part of the trip keeping in mind one of our party had been unknown to 4 of us prior to the trip. (not a great idea) This man had not been forth coming with his health issues and the fact he suffered from COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) meaning his ability to walk any distance or climb was severely impaired.

Accommodation: The accommodation was excellent in every stop - Tangier, Fez, Desert, Quarzazate, Marakesh and Casablanca. The Riads in Fez and Marakesh were beautiful and the hosts wonderful. Our Fez host went out of her way to help our impaired traveller. The desert speaks for itself and an experience all should have. Ait-Ben-Haddou in Quarzate is 6th century with the whole area under restoration. Sadly we arrived here after sunset and the "getting there" was a little troublesome in the dark. The property has no electricity and lit by candles - not that that is a problem however, not having been able to orientate ourselves in daylight did put a dampener on the night's experience. Next morning was a whole different scenario - a fabulous area and I could not recommend it more highly - just get there in daylight. Our unhealthy traveller just could not make it there and the host went out of his way to arrange alternate accommodation. The host himself was horrified that we arrive after dark.

Meals: All meals provided were great with hosts providing lovely meals on our arrival. Breakfast everywhere excellent

Travelling by Car: Nabil was an excellent safe driver. The 4x4 vehicle comfortable and well maintained. Our travel times were challenging for him time frame wise. Arrival times were really impossible given the state of the roads in some areas and the trucks, buses etc filling the roads. ( I might say some of this was my fault as I had tried to put so much into the trip and Yassine has gone out of his way to accommodate this - in retrospect I had been a little ambitious - an extra day would have made so much difference especially Fez to the desert) We were due to drive Marrakesh-Casablanca on the Saturday morning for a 11.45am flight to London. This truly was not possible - the road over the Atlas mountains is being rebuilt and consequently slow. I didn't know this at the time but given the time it had taken to get everywhere else I cancelled the last day in Marrakesh and added an extra night in Casablanca. The Kim Kim team did this effortlessly for us - thankyou it was the right thing to do.

Guides: The local guides in Fez *** , Quarzate *****, Marrakesh ****** Desert Experience ******
My only comment is that travellers need to understand the driver is not a tour guide as well sadly
and as a result we travelled a long way with no local commentary which would have been very nice. Nabil did his job so well and this comment is in no way a mark against him. He could not have done more.

The Experience would I do it again = Most definitely I could not recommend it more highly

Well done Kim Kim and Morocco Off the Beaten Track
Marion Patrick

Overall experience was good. There was one time it took almost 3 days to hear back from Mads regarding what gear I should bring on the trek so I had to wait to know if I needed to buy anything or bring anything that I didn't have on my list. My 2 guides is Nepal were great -- Dawa and Prathicksha. Both were knowledgeable about the areas they took me. The best part of the trek was being on the trails. The worst part was trekking on the roads, especially the 30 minute walk when it was hot and dusty and trucks were coming and going from Panauti to the trail we turned off at the rice fields (past Khopasi village).

I would say be leery of going to the Herb Nepal Farm overnight -- the experience was great, so was the food, but I got a small abrasion on the front of my right shin there going up the narrow stairway in my cabin and ended up having surgery to cut out the infection and then came home early so did not go to Bhutan for 12 days as planned, and landed in PDX in the emergency room for continued care of my infection which will take a long time to heal.

It turned out I got the bacteria acinetobacter, which the infectious disease doctor said in Portland was rare and that bacteria is mostly found in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq, so he was surprised this bacteria showed up in Nepal. Just something to be aware of if you have other clients you are taking to that area -- they cannot get even a small scratch on them or cut or it may turn serious.

I should not let my injury deter my experience as I enjoyed my whole trek overall.

Tasos did a superb job setting up what is, perhaps, a somewhat unique trip. No islands but remote, ancient Byzantine churches. No beaches but many monasteries. No classical sites but every Byzantine site within reach. With other travel agents we've had to go back and forth several times to convince them we knew what we wanted. With Tasos - one time and he had it. Thank you.

In 3 1/2 weeks there are so many spots we loved that we can't list them all so here are some highlights:
Thessaloniki: great city for walking, Byzantine sites around every corner, great climate and sitting on the bay, enjoying a great ice cream cone and watching the ships come and go can't be beat.

Kastoria: fascinating old town best suited for wandering and discovering. At the Byzantine Museum we discovered Achilles, a guide who took us on a walking tour of the town. He knew the history and culture and, most important, he had the keys to the locked churches we wanted to visit.

Meteora: monasteries in the sky. All I can say is that they're worth the hard work of climbing the hundreds of stairs. See as many of them as you can.

Nafplio: laid back port town - this was a great place for us to kick back for a couple of days at the midpoint of our trip.

Monemvasia: a medieval town built on a large rock in a bay. A map can't do it justice for walking around - you have to be aware of all three dimensions. Climbing to the upper city for sunset was a wonderful experience (the sunset, not the climb.) The town did help me appreciate how tough people had to be in the Middle Ages and why the life expectancy was in the low 30s. But today, the town is full of great places to stay and eat.

Athens: 3000+ years of history and a third of the population of Greece make it a daunting city. For this, our first trip to Greece, we concentrated on the museums: The National Archaeological Museum (where the Antikythera device resides and is being researched), The Acropolis Museum and the Benaki Museum stand out.

All in all, I'm not sure why it took us so many years to get to Greece but I'm glad we did.

Edy was the best!! Local tour guide made the trip an awesome experience.
Kimkim company meet our needs but there would have been less travel stress with increased communication form the company. More emails, quick call or check in would have been easy to do and made our travels much better.

Great guide, great porter, great trip!

This is the 2nd time my husband and I have used kimkim for a travel excursion and they worth it! From start to finish they make sure your needs are cared for and you have many options to choose from.

For this adventure, we were celebrating our 25th anniversary and wanted to go on a safari! We were settled in a wonderful lodge at Hammerkops and everything was spectacular. On our actual anniversary date, the lodge even made us a special cake!

There are not enough words to express our thanks to kimkim. You have a customer for life!

Sent the following to the agent, have listed reasons below
out of pocket expenses in which we are seeking a refund and received a partial refund as agent blamed those he booked with and if they refused refund so did he. Quotes given in AUD then US then AUD, became confusing, advised we were from Australia early on. Communication with agent before leaving Australia was that using WhatsApp was fine and he would contact day before on WhatsApp with info, this regularly didn't happen and we had to chase him up, he blamed us for not getting a local simcard yet we had free wifi to get information the day before. Sending the information before he finished work each day would have been more reasonable. Anyway trip is finished, won't use this agent again and hope that no-one else is let down by them:
Payment for 2 pax turtle viewing that we made but as per our texting this never happened. Our tour on this day was less than 50% of what was expected tin the outlined itinerary you gave us - day trip that ended at 11am, very disappointing, lunch for 1 person to share among 2 with a piece of fruit only for the second person, very average.
Yellow taxi pick up from Ferry Terminal to White Sands on return from Bohol - drivers were very rarely who you texted through and number plates matched maybe once. This yellow cab guy held up our names across the road then we chased him to his yellow taxi, someone grabbed our bags and put them in the taxi boot demanding money. Driver sat in seat on his phone and did nothing, had to pay driver and bag man total 580 peso.
Canyoneering - we sent a message early on asking if there was anything we needed, that is on KimKim messages. We didn't get a reply so presumed nothing. Once arriving we had to pay for waterproof bag and reef shoe hire 700 peso.
Group van El Nido as we ended up organising private ourselves. Your messages didn't get through before our pick up around 6.30am that you had said was coming later than that at 7.30am. No chance to communicate and our tour guide for the day had no information for us either until the end of our tour when we had already arranged a transfer ourselves.
Taxi to airport due to your transfer being too late to get us there 500 peso.
We forgot also the 240 peso for luggage and ferry terminal charge.

Review of trip with reasons for refund requests;
We were told by Yoav to call or message anytime and that he would let us know day before who would be picking us up for transfers. I would often have to chase up our following day transfer well into the evening as he hadn't contacted me. It seemed once we arrived in the Philippines we were forgotten. I even got a message from him telling me he'd be up at 6am and asking me to appreciate it - the only reason was that he hadn't organised things earlier and let us know at a reasonable hour the day before what was going on. This service was poor.
Day 1 mostly worked as per the itinerary. Got in later than expected due to the insane traffic as advised. Met Yoav, given $4500 peso refund for the cancellation of the Pagsanjan Falls cancellation from company he had been working with.
Day 2 was as per itinerary, great guide who spoke English, Had a great guide for the day who spoke English well, this was extremely rare for our guides and transfers which made it very difficult to communicate or know what was going on. It also led to not getting experiences we had paid for.
Day 3 as per itinerary
Day 4 Our tour on this day was less than 50% of what was expected that was outlined in your itinerary - day trip that ended at 11am, very disappointing. English speaking guides weren't on our boat, no one had a phone that would contact our agent, no one would give us the right information. Shipped on and off the snorkelling turtle island after a 30 minute snorkel and a shared meal (paid for 2 lunches, given 1 and a piece of fruit).
Day 5 Went well
Day 6 Ferry back, with unexpected charges, taxi at terminal for our transfer holding up our names and calling out to us. Drove terribly and charged us. This was supposed to be an included transfer. not a paying taxi.
Day 7 people need to know this is a 4 hour drive each way to the Canyon. We would have stayed a night down that way rather than in Cebu. Very long day. Had to pay for items needed and not advised about on this trip. Reef shoes, waterproof bag.
Day 8 Given firefly tour as an apology from agent for everything that had gone wrong thus far. Firefly tour was listed on our itinerary and my husband and I couldn't recall 100% if we'd cancelled it or not but agent said we had so agent paid for this.
Day 9 Only found out late evening before of transfer from river to El Nido details. Cancelled and moved to private transfer as after experiencing canyoneering group trip we realised groups meant waiting a long time for people (canyoneering 4 hour turned into 7 hours plus 8 hours of driving - very long day). We also didn't want to have to come all the way back into town to head out again and begin the 4-5 hour drive. Paid for this ourselves, agent advised going private night before when we chased him up to find out about what our transfer was meant to be.
Day 10 as per itinerary
Day 11 Meant to be on a group jet boat, agent forgot to organise and reconfirm, ended up on a group standard boat.
Day 12-15 as per itinerary
Day 16 driver didn't turn up, had to organise taxi, another out of pocket expense. Arrived at the airport 10 minutes after flight was closed off for check in. Had to beg staff of Cebu Pacific to see if they could find a way to get us on as we had international connecting flights. They were amazing, Cebu Pacific staff, and got us on. Not a great way to end a tour that hadn't gone as expected.

You expect a couple of hiccups when travelling, I've travelled extensively for the past 20 years and all booked through flight centre with minimal hiccups. The service through Kimkim was nowhere up to standard. A holiday shouldn't be stressful, travellers shouldn't be chasing up agents to get information, to find out why things have gone wrong, why daily incidents have taken place. I hope this isn't the service provided by all travel agents through kimkim.

Shalindra planned an awesome two week experience for us in Sri Lanka, adapting the itinerary to suit our needs and communicating very efficiently with us. He touched base with us throughout our trip to ensure we were having a good time and to see if there was anything else he could do to accommodate us.

Dhilshan was our guide and he ensured that we had an amazing trip. Nothing was too much trouble for him and he was knowledgeable and had a fantastic sense of humour.

Our accommodation was simply stunning. Each place was more and more picturesque than the last and it was such a joy to stay in such luxury. The sites, sounds and tastes of Sri Lanka were stunning and we had a really special experience.

Our 15 day, self-drive tour of Romania was exceptional! Raluca and her team put together a terrific itinerary which brought us to a wide range of scenic, historic, urban and rural sights. In addition to the ‘must-see’ stops and historic town centers, the itinerary provided the opportunity to visit a variety of unique, out-of -the-way places like former monasteries, wooden and fortified churches, and castles and fortresses, all in varying states of repair. There were also great country drives through farms and pasture land and some truly impressive rides through the mountains. Don’t miss the Transfargarasan mountain road to Balea Lac!
We stayed in a mix of city hotels and country pensiuneas. These rural B&B ’s were all different. Most were unique. All were good.
We drove 1300 miles in 15 days. We were surprised and awed by the scenery. We saw an agrarian and pastoral life that will likely disappear in the next 25 years. We learned about the history and culture of a people of which we knew relatively little.
If you are travelers who are comfortable on your own, like to discover new places and learn the ‘what and why’ of its people, we highly recommend this trip to you.

Hi! Fantastic trip, can’t say enough about Maurice; very courteous, responded very quickly to any concerns or questions. Excellent trip organizer. Only negative comment is that the written road directions provided need to be updated. For example., “ turn RIGHT leaving the Skibbereen heritage center parking lot” We’ll it’s actually a LEFT turn. So this happened on a few occasions where the GPS and written directions were in conflict. Who to believe? This added a challenging dimension to the trip. Not a big deal, still an amazing trip. Thank you for everything. I would definitely recommend your company! Pierre

This worked out great!

We got to have input into where we went and what we did and it was easy. I worked on line with Anura before the trip to set our schedule and work out what we wanted to see.

When we arrived they meet us at the airport and every thing worked really well. My wife's suitcase as delayed and they helped with getting it sorted and getting us back out to the airport to pick it up.

The best:
1. This was not a group tour. We did not ride a round on a bus and get herded from place to place. This was very individual (my wife and myself).

2. We felt cared for and looked after. We knew that if we needed help we had a local resource. Travel in Nepal is wonderful but very a different experience. Just knowing that we had someone working for us was wonderful.

3. The value was great. Transportation (including in county flights), hotels and many of the meals, were all included.

4. We really liked the approach of Social Tours. They want to show you the real Nepal and believe they can be socially responsible as well.

Highly recommended.

Akko-San was an incredible guide - she literally anticipated our every need and was such a delightful, thoughtful person. She is truly perfection! We were all bowled over by her professionalism and warmth. It was a sad moment when we had to say goodbye.

The tour was an incredible once in a lifetime experience. The Nakasendo is fascinating and the post towns chosen for the tour were beautiful and interesting. The accommodations were terrific. The first night was quite rustic which really fit the trail and made the next two nights’ accommodation all that more special and luxurious. And the food! The breakfasts and dinners in all of the accommodations were excellent and over the top plentiful. The service at each of these places was gracious and friendly. The side trip to Matsumoto was such a highlight - it was a gorgeous fall day and the castle literally gleamed in the sunlight. The town of Narai is the prettiest and more delightful of the post towns.