Kimkim Trip Reviews

Our trip to Northern Norway and the Finnish town of Kilpisjarvi was a dream come true. Our tour guides, Gareth and Amanda from Adventure by Design were awesome. I loved that We were treated like family and they were so patient with my kids. Traveling with a young family is always s challenge and Gareth and Amanda definitely made it easier. We got to see some amazing Northern Lights, reindeers, beautiful frozen lakes. It was a wonderful trip which was very well planned in a short time.

I have to say that this trip was well planned and organized and Yassine was available to our group for any questions we had. The gem of our trip was our driver, guide, security, translator and now friend Mohammed he made our trip amazing, we had over 22 hours of driving and he made us feel safe and assisted us along the way.

Yassine curated an amazing trip for my group of 6. From the very start of the planning he was extremely responsive and helpful in organizing the entire trip. I can safely say that each one of us had a fantastic time on this trip! The trip was better than we all expected and Mohammed, our driver was just amazing. We are all more than happy with the service we received, especially the fast response to any issues that may have occurred. The entire trip went smoothly and the only thing we would change would be to spend and extra night in the sahara! The boys especially loved the sahara, and we were very grateful to Mohammed for being flexible with us and allowing us extra time there to ride the quads/dune buggies on both days. Every single accommodation was just breathtakingly beautiful and we enjoyed the coziness and personalization of all the riads. The guides in both Fes and Marrakesh were very helpful in navigating those two big cities. Hakim (our guide in Fes) was especially helpful in taking us to places to buy specific items we wanted to take home, we would never have found those places on our own. Needless to say we came away from this trip with a experience of a lifetime and we are all truly grateful to Yassine and his team for accommodating this.

We are very pleased with Kimkim and Megan. We were most pleased with our driver Mohammed. We were told our driver would be Yassine who got rave reviews on line. We were met by Mohammed which was a surprise to us. When we checked into the hotel in Casablanca, we were told we would have to pay taxes, and breakfast was not included. Our itinerary said taxes and breakfast were included. We also missed the Jewish Museum as promised by the itinerary. We had to wait to be able to enter the Mosque when we probably would have enjoyed the Jewish Museum more. So we didn't get off to a great start on day 1. When we spoke with the guide and our driver Mohammed, the issues were resolved, but we shouldn't have had the problems in the first place. Where meals were provided, and we mentioned we needed vegetarian for at least 2 of us, they were not aware of our requests in advance (ie. Auberge Chez Pierre). These places should have been aware our dietary needs in advance. All the riads were great. We loved the Chez Pierre the best. The food was amazing! Mohammed turned out to be a fabulous driver and very attentive to our needs. I got very sick and he was truly concerned and helpful.

Kimkim connected me with Sangita to help me plan a 12-day solo trip to Nepal during Tihar. She listened to all of my requests and planned the perfect trip for me. I started in Patan, then flew to Lumbini, and then traveled by bus to Pokhara, Chitwan National Park, and back to Kathmandu, ending the trip in Bhaktapur. Sangita took care of all of the domestic travel, accommodations, and tours. While I did meet her once, we were in constant communication during the trip. My guide throughout the Kathmandu Valley was actually her husband, Bipin. Both Sangita and Bipin were knowledgeable, warm, and welcoming. I felt like a family friend the whole time. I can’t say enough good things about them. As for the destinations, I liked them all. Patan is a beautiful city with a lot of culture. I went on a special street art tour there, and learned about the local scene there. In Lumbini, I was on my own. I hired a driver to take me around to the different monasteries. They were all beautiful and unique, designed in the architectural style of the host country. I couldn’t pick a favorite. In Pokhara, I had a guide named Bharat who was also amazing. He was so kind and taught me a lot about the Himalayas, Pokhara, and the Tibetan refugees. Chitwan National Park was one of my favorite parts of the trip. I stayed at Hotel Parkside, where the staff is fantastic. Gopal was my guide for the excursions. He can spot a bird from miles away and tell you exactly what kind it is. I told him about my love of rhinos, and we actually ended up finding five of them during my stay. They were so cute! It was amazing to see them in the wild. I would definitely stay at Parkside again. In Kathmandu, I had free time to celebrate Laxmi Puja with my friend at her home. Then, in Bhaktapur I met back up with Bipin to tour the city. It is a beautiful, historic city. I stayed at Vajra Guest House, which I also highly recommend. The two owners Sajan and Sujan are so sweet, and they really made me feel at home. Overall, I had a great time in Nepal. My favorite parts were the wonderful people I met there and the beautiful Chitwan National Park (with the rhinos.) I would love to return again, and if I do, I will definitely contact Sangita. Thank you all so much!

I think we were very fortunate to have Aldo as our guide. We were a very inquisitive group and Aldo was able to answer all our questions and provided us with educated information and in-depth explanations of what we were seeing. He was always calm and very patient. He had us prepared for all our destinations. Although we did miss seeing the Machu Picchu Temple of the Sun. We arrived 5 minutes after it closed. All our drivers were punctual and transported us safe and sound to our destinations. There were several "wow" moments that I will never forget, but our arrival at the Sun Gate, after a challenging hike, was my most memorable moment.

Preeti and the team were fantastic and answered all of our questions and created a unique and memorable trip for us. I want to go to Iceland again and I know who I am going to ask for help in the future!

Our experience in Nepal was magical. It was a return visit for my husband and I and we were not disappointed. The place remains amazing, the people warm and welcoming and our overall experience reinforced our love of the country. The Kathmandu Guest House was a good start with a great location in the bustle of the old town. Amit, our guide in the city, was sensitive to our wishes, thoughtful and informative. He did not rush us at any time but gave sensible advice on how long to stay and where to be. The Balthali Lodge was our only disappointment, not a view shared by our travelling companions I don’t think! We thought its location 2 hrs east of Kathmandu added unnecessary travelling for a view of the hills we could have found west of the city. The road to the resort was shocking, even by mountainous Nepalese standards! This made our drive to Bandipur long and required an earlier start than would have been necessary from a more westward location. This left us with little time to explore the beautiful old town again before it was dark. Another half day here would have been better - possible if we had been that side of Kathmandu the previous night. The Old Inn was as lovely as we remembered! Our trek lived up to all expectations. Our guide Nema and his assistant Nema Tassi were excellent. They set a brilliant pace and were attentive to our needs and safety at all times. Accommodation along the way was first rate and the morning views from Gurung Lodge, La Bee Lodge and Himalayas Lodge were all stunning and worth waking up at dawn for. The tea house in Tadapani was basic but adequate, the cold and damp were simply due to altitude and cloud! The morning view made up for it and was quite stunning. The Hungry Eye Guest House in Ghorepani was much better than “just a tea house”. Our trek up Poon Hill was worth every step and we enjoyed wonderful views of the Dhaulagiri range and the Annapurnas. We were genuinely sad to say goodbye to our team, including two splendid porters who always raced ahead to get us the best rooms they could! The drive down from Ulleri was exhilarating, made more so by the brilliant and thoughtful driving and I’m sorry I don’t know the drivers name. Arriving at Temple Tree Resort in Pokhara was a treat. Lovely hotel in the Lakeside area and a great place for R&R. I’m glad we chose an extra day here. Next was the rafting trip. It was enormous fun and as people who’d rafted before exhilarating and made us smile the whole way. We had been led to believe it would be a drift, we were glad it wasn’t but if we’d known there were rapids involved may have dressed differently! Sukra Lama was a brilliant boatman and his team provided us with amazing food and a comfortable camp in lightning time great team work! Recommend him to anyone. Our next location was Tharu Lodge in Chitwan. A lovely place, great food and comfortable accommodation. Our jungle walk, elephant day, Jeep safari and river safari were all magical in their different ways but the highlights were 5 grazing rhino in the meadow and watching the elephants bathing and playing n the river. Our return to Kathmandu gave us an extra day to explore Patan. On reflection perhaps we should have asked for a hotel that end of the city for a change but the central location of KGH in old Kathmandu was still great.
Our driver over the visit was good. Always
punctual, helpful and polite. My only reservation was that he seemed to rate speed over comfort and at times his determination to arrive on time made for scary moments and a bumpy ride. However, he is not responsible for the state of the roads!!!!
As you can tell we thoroughly enjoyed our return visit and would happily recommend you to friends wanting a tailored tour and indeed all the individual operators.

What a fabulous introduction to Kathmandu ! Raj of Socialtours arranged for us the perfect exploration of the city and its surrounding areas. He understood that we were looking for contacts with the locals and this is exact what we did in the few days ( too few) we spent in Kathmandu. From the Aarthi ( sitting in the midst of the Nepali faithful) at Pashupatinath to the exploration of the local markets , and the walk in the Newari villages of Bungamati and Khokana we really felt the connection with the locals . We especially enjoyed the dawn walk of Bhaktapur ( not to be missed !) . In all of our travels , we never had a similar experience : we tasted street food breakfast , witnessed the morning prayers and offerings in the street and in the temples and got the major sightseeing spots all to ourselves. I especially want to commend Raj , Sarita and Bikram our extraordinary guides , not only did they explained to us what was happening but we also shared many laughs and had a lot of fun with them . Bikram in particular knows everyone in Bungamati and Bhaktapur and was able to introduce us to a lot of the locals. Naturally our experience would not have been the same without the kindness and the warm welcome we received from the Nepali people . We will be back !

We booked our 7 days trip through Kim Kim. Our agent - Ms Ingrid was very helpful. This was our first time we visited Norway, our ultimate aim was to chase the Northern Light and indeed we were lucky enough to see lot and lot of them! Thanks to the guide - Ms Trine. Also never forget our experience with Reindeer and Sami Culture and the reindeer soup provided was awesome!
We had a good time in Tromsø as the city was beautiful with snow. The hotel in Tromsø was fantastic and the breakfast was the best of all!
Lucky that our 2 days stop-over in Bergen had a three hours guided cultural tour with a local - he really know the in and out of the city. The stop over was too long for us as we had not much things to do. The hotel location was just beside the train station but the hotel room was not that cosy.
The train to Flåm and Fjord cruise were a great experience as well. We like the cool weather and beautiful surrounding in Flåm.
We had a short stay in Oslo, just walked around the city and visited the World War II site.

Carmen organised our trip and took into consideration the amount of activities we wanted to do and managed to arrange the perfect itinerary. She was easy to communicate with and get a hold of whenever we had any queries. The mobile app with all the information provided exceeded my expectations and really made a difference as I was able to keep track of the trips itinerary with the added bonus of extra info on Jordan e.g. tipping etc which was really useful to have. Our drivers throughout were safe which I was really pleased about, we felt comfortable with them and appreciate their professionalism throughout.

We feel our money was well spent and we would definitely recommend Carmen and her team.

The only downside is that we wish we would have more time in Jordan 🇯🇴

Thank you for your wonderful and professional service

I have traveled in Peru on my own and my experience was that there was one difficulty after another. However with KimKim, almost everything went smoothly and our experience was beautiful. People at KimKim must have worked very hard to make the trip go so well.
The food KimKim chose was great, the hotels were wonderful, the guides and drivers showed up on time. Our guides Jorge and Juan were knowledgeable, courteous, and personable, providing us with many insights into ancient Peruvian cultures.
Anne, who was our tour director, was very flexible in designing our trip as we had to postpone the trip 3 weeks before the scheduled date and reschedule for a month later. We decided to add a few more days to our trip after the postponement, and Anne graciously and gracefully added to our itinerary seamlessly. She also arranged for us to go to places a little off the beaten path such as Aspero, (which I highly recommend as the tour there gave us so much insight into the Caral culture.)
The only thing KimKim asked us to do on our own was to buy plane tickets to and from Lima to Cusco. Somehow LATAM got my wife's last name wrong, assuming that it was my own, and supplied us with bogus passport numbers. (The customer service agent at LATAM said the bogus numbers were due to us having purchased the tickets in the United States. This does not make sense to me.) It took my wife and I three hours talking to the LATAM central office to correct these difficulties. Given that at least the bogus passport numbers were predictable and the assumption about my wife's last name probable, KimKim might take it upon themselves to purchase these tickets for their customers to obviate these difficulties. However, that only made plain to us what a marvelous job the personnel at KimKim had done in making our trip comfortable, delightful, and extraordinary.

My husband and I visited Peru for our honeymoon in October. Jesus and his team at Peruvian Soul planned the perfect trip! We began our trip in Lima, traveled to Paracas, and then returned to Lima before making our way to Cusco, the Sacred Valley, and Machu Picchu. Having all of our transfers and transportation pre-arranged by Jesus/Peruvian Soul allowed us to relax and focus on enjoying the sites and culture.

Peruvian Soul’s tour guides and affiliated tour experts provided invaluable guidance, insights, and local experiences to enhance our trip. In Cusco and the Sacred Valley, we had the same guide for several days, Julio. His spirit and pride in the local culture and history is contagious! Our Andean Wedding was one of the special highlights that Peruvian Soul and Julio coordinated for us. It was truly a spiritual, unique, and unforgettable moment that connected us with the beautiful landscape and living history of the Andean people.

Another highlight was hiking Machu Picchu. Even though it was raining, our guide Eddy brought a positive attitude to the day and showed us a great time. We also recommend people see the less visited Paracas and Ballestas Islands, where we had a helpful guide, Alexander. This area is very remote and filled with beautiful vistas of deserts and wildlife, such as penguins, sea lions, cormorants, and terns. In Lima, we enjoyed exploring what is a modern, cosmopolitan capital city. The food was awesome throughout Peru, but especially in Lima. For a high-end treat, Kjolle located next to the famous Central restaurant, our dinner there was one of the best meals of our lives.

Each day in Peru brought a new adventure. Now we know why everyone recommends to pack layers—each day we experienced a wide range of temperatures. Also, note that the sun is very strong even on chilly days.

Overall, we had an amazing honeymoon and would recommend Peruvian Soul to anyone visiting Peru for the first time!

We want to thank Kripa for arranging this awesome unforgettable vacation. This goes beyond my expectations. Love the Hotel both the Dwarika's in Kathmandu and the Pavilions in Pokhara. Walking in the streets of Kathmandu is an experience and seeing the UNESCO sites (Pashupatinath, Boudanath, and Swayambunath). Being on the off the beaten path Trekking is also great, with varied terrain, and scenery and scanty tourists. Our guide Suma made our trek interesting who also carried my backpack. And of course our porter Mikma, carrying our load. Tadapani and Dobato and Ghorepani sunrise is spectacular. What an experience sleeping in those teahouses. But the highlight of this trek is the Muldai viewpoint trek with spectacular, breathtaking view of the mountains so close. Interesting to see the local (Gurung culture), and getting inside the shepherd's hut. Overall wonderful experiences. Almost all the people we met are very nice. Well, I hope to see Nepal again maybe during Spring in the near future before I get too old. Thanks again Kripa for the wonderful trip and excellent service.
From Cesar Alcid.

Our experience with Kimkim was excellent. We began researching our October, 2019 trip to Morocco in March of 2019 and came upon Kimkim. We have never used a travel company in the past. Instead, we do all of the planning ourselves. However, due to the amount of driving, language issues, and general lack of familiarity with Morocco, we decided to consider taking a different approach. From the very beginning, our communications with Abdellah were prompt and informative. He was quick to outline an itinerary that would get the most out of our 13 days in Morocco. We were able to adjust the itinerary ahead of our trip so that it included everything we wanted to see and do. Abdellah was even very helpful during the trip when we had a minor issue that needed to be resolved. The communication from Abdellah was one of the most impressive things about Kimkim. The other was our guide, Ayoub Nibil. There is no question that he made our trip extra special! He was friendly, thoughtful, knowledgeable and eager to share everything he could about his country. He is also a talented musician and we shared many conversations around our common love of music and introducing each other to some of our favorite artists. Ayoub and his big smile were always there to greet us each morning. He and our driver Mohammed took great care of us. We strongly recommend Kimkim, especially if you are traveling to a country where you haven’t been before and need some assistance with planning and executing an exciting itinerary. Our advice is to be as specific as possible with what you want out of your vacation and get all of your questions answered in advance. That way, they can tailor the itinerary to you and surprises will be minimized. We will look to Kimkim in the future when we need their expertise to help get the most out of our vacation.

Megan was able to provide a nice 2-day trip on very short notice. I went to Meknes, which is much less known and at this time, was not full of tourists. My driver got me to my guide, Rachid, and we went to walk around the medina and markets. He was very knowledgeable and helped me to purchase some spices. Then I was taken to a family just outside of the city. They were lovely and took me to the local market with them to buy ingredients for lunch. We even had to go around the flock of sheep that just ran into the square.
They showed me how to make the traditional foods such as mint tea, Moroccan salads and of course, tagine. Then we ate. A very welcoming and enjoyable experience.

I stayed overnight in the old city at a place called Riad D'Or. Inside the maze of the town but not too far to get lost. The riad itself was 3 homes combined and was itself a maze to get around. Charming and very authentic.

Lastly was a trip on the return to Volubilis, the ruins of an ancient Roman city. Very interesting and some beautiful mosaics still remain.

All in all a really nice side trip.

In October/November 2019 two sort of old Australians (>65 y.o.) with heaps of hiking experience undertook the Three Passes Trek with our guide Dafuri Sherpa and porter Bimba Sherpa. Web searching had led us to the kimkim site and we had an absolutely trouble free time organising and booking our trek. Ngima Dorji Sherpa was always able to quickly answer our questions and provided us with flexible booking options which led to us taking a private trek at only a little extra cost.

We were well looked after from the moment we were met at Kathmandu airport. Dafuri was a wonderful guide. He quickly summed up our walking experience and interests and was able to take us through the Three Passes without mishap and with a few extra side trips thrown in as well. I particularly enjoyed the day walk we had from Chukhung to Island Peak Base Camp via Imja Tsho - the lake that is forming behind terminal moraines and which could catastrophically fail and lead to severe flooding downstream.

I also enjoyed our two nights at Gokyo with a walk up Gokyo Ri on a perfect sunny afternoon followed by a day walk beside Ngozumba Glacier to Gyazumba where there are wonderful views of Cho Oyo, Everest, Makalu and everything in between. We crossed Renjo La the next day. What a feast!

So thank you Dafuri for your strength, good humour and expert knowledge of the track and accommodation options. We also enjoyed learning from you about Nepalese customs and society. Bimba, you were also so strong and helpful.

Our trekking trip to Nepal was a wonderful experience and we cannot thank enough Ngima and his team for making it such a success.

Peter Hatherly, Sydney Australia

We truly loved our driving tour around Morocco with our ever helpful and friendly driver and guide, Karim. Everything was organised seamlessly by Abdellah, staying in lovely riads, a posh cave room and an even posher desert tent. It was fascinating to visit diverse and vibrant cities such as Marrakesh, Fes, Tangier, Casablanca and Rabat where we felt very welcomed. The landscape of Morocco was endlessly engaging: high mountain peaks, rolling slopes of olive groves, oak and cedar forests, desert and plains, and a beautiful coastline. Activities never before carried out included traditional drumming sessions ( addictive), and evening and early morning camel treks (happily with a night for the legs to recover in between). We are already planning to return and explore further and would not hesitate to use Kim Kim and their specialist Abdellah, who organised such a brilliant trip and was always contactable and responsive.

We arranged a five day, four night trip to Jordan. We saw the Dead Sea, Little Petra, Petra for a full day, Mt. Nebo, Kerak, Madaba, and a half day in Jerash before returning to the airport. Our driver, Badr, was incredible. He was very flexible with leave times and helped to tweak times at the destinations if needed. He was prompt and extremely courteous. The hotels Carmen had booked were perfect for the trip. Carmen was also prompt with responses and easily walked us through all of the details of the trip. If I had an email question, she was always there with an answer. I would highly recommend using Kimkim to book a trip.

A few comments.

Perfect Hotels ! Authentic , clean , good breakfast , very nice service. ( Bantu and Punta Faro at Isla
Mucura )

Uncomfortable feeling in transfers and overall pick ups as I did not have direct contact - until I asked for WhatsApp contact and even with that not always responded to in real time. I ended up talking to Laura once as we planned - internet communications is uncomfortable as I can’t reference back as I can with emails.

Overall all transfer were fine, as was the Cartagena city tour with Ingrid.

The fishing village was a disappointment . Both the trip and the guide. Inexperienced young kid , poor English and the trip itself - was not clear for us. We expected something else hence a real disappointment. All tourist should be aware this is a very poor place , where I was afraid ... and full of bugs , mosquitos etc.... definitely not for us Had we understood.

Isla Mucura is a unknown paradise. It was a amazing choice and we should have spent more brights there and less in. Cartagena. Had Laura knew us better , she may have advised us as such.

Thank you again for the opportunity.