Kimkim Trip Reviews for Nepal

We had a fantastic time on our trek to Gokyo Ri and over Renjo La. From the time we landed in Kathmandu we felt safe and very well cared for. Naresh was a wonderfully thoughtful guide and we couldn't have asked for a better experience trekking through the mountains with him. The views of Mt. Everest and the other 8,000m peaks from Renjo La were even better than advertised. The lodges in Lungden and Thame were especially comfortable and welcoming, with the best Sherpa stew and momos in the region.

Mads was very responsive when I was in the process of booking my trip. My guide and porter, Chhiri and Suppa (sp?) were a 10/10 and I will most definitely request their services in the future. Chhiri's knowledge of the mountains were above and beyond expectations; he was able to provide the most amazing and memorable trek and I cannot thank him enough for my experience.

Everything about this trip, from planning to the actual trip itself, was wonderful.

Mads was extremely responsive to my every questions. I gave him the date range and what I wanted to do, and he planned everything else for me.

Our guide for the trip, Chhepal, was very experienced, knowledgeable, caring, and fun to hangout with (especially important since our trip was 20 days long). He took care of all the details, from airport check-in, finding a capable porter for our entire trip, to finding tea houses every night, so we didn't have to fight the crowd or worry about anything. During the trip, I developed diarrhea. Chhepal had a medicine box with all the necessary medicine to help me recover. Even though we lost a day to resting, he was able to rearrange our trip schedule so we ended up visiting all of the places on our original itinerary.

Towards the end of the trip, after speaking with other travelers we met on the trek and hearing their horror stories, from terrible guides and porters to getting lost in glacier crossings, we have a new appreciation for the services offered by Kim Kim, Himalayan trails, and our guide and porter. I will definitely use Kim Kim again for my future trips and Mads for my future Nepal treks.

We loved our trip! It was a great balance between tea houses and camping in remote areas. The views were spectacular and our guide, Gelu, adjusted our itinerary to suit our hiking speed (faster than initially planned for). The porters were knowledgeable and helpful the entire way and everyone seemed to be having a genuinely good time which put us at ease and made things even better!

Excellent in all regards. Sherpa Pemba and our Porter were terrific. Good guys, set a good pace for trekking. And are extremely knowledgeable. I can't imagine having better weather. We clearly picked right time of year for this experience. The lodges we stayed were perfect for the experience as well. Just enough amenities mixed with just enough "roughing it" as one would expect on a trek of this nature. From local cutlure, to wildlife, bouncing across suspension bridges, dodging donkeys, cattle and yak on the trails, simply amazing! Oh yeah, the incredibule views of Everest and a terrific Heli ride up to EBC and around many sites (Lakes, Glaciers, Ice Fields and the Himalayas!) Thank you so much!

We had a great time with our guide Karma Sherpa and our porter Buddha Rai.
They were supportive and friendly along the 16 days of the trek.

We had a marvelous experience in Nepal. Our guide was patient, attentive with us and showed us beautiful spots in Nepal. He took us to great, local places to eat which were genuine and fresh.

We would love to come back to Nepal to explore more, and we would definitely book with kim Kim again and request our guide Lhakpa again!

Well done and thank you!

Nepal is absolutely amazing! We had lots of great moments there and it's best lifetime memories, thanks to kimkim, Himalayan trail, our best guide Cheppal and porter Zambu, guys you made it all really unforgettable and cool! Pikey Peak trek is an authentic experience that still exists in Nepal, it's a pretty wild path with very little amount of trekkers and just local life and beautiful nature along the way. Scenery is great since you can see the whole range of mountains from Annapurna to Everest from the peak summit. Trek is tougher than the more explored ones with changing altitudes, very basic lodges and no reception. But it gives it's own pleasure to be disconnected from the busy outer world and live the most simple life for a week and then come back home and appreciate all the small things that you forget about having everyday. We will defo send our parents to Nepal for the easier trek iuring spring time to see all the blooming orchids and rhododendrons and will come back in some years to do round Annapurna or EBC one.

p.s. many thanks to all Nepali people that hosted us during the trek, every night was the best food ever and always different organic experience, everything comes from the garden to your table! We are coming back for momos and dal bhat!

Everything was perfect using Kim Kim. We had 3 guides in different parts of our trip plus a trip to Tiger Tops at Chitwan elephant camp. Rajeev was our first guide and we were impressed with how thorough his knowledge of the village and history was. Suman was our guide through our trekking stage and he went above and beyond. It was during this part of the trip that my husband wasn’t feeling very well to handle the full trekking days. Suman adjusted our plans and made sure my husband’s health was of primary concern. For this I am extremely grateful. Our last guide was Pratikshya and it was wonderful to see a woman guide in this male dominated field. There are some things that just need a woman’s touch and she provided that plus very detailed knowledge of the villages we went to.

Our time in Chitwan was priceless with Tiger Tops. Their values regarding the wildlife and how they particularly took care of the elephants was outstanding. Our personal guide/assistant was Bhim and he made sure we got to take part in all aspects of elephant maintenance and care. They took excellent care of us and the animals. Cannot say enough of how much this portion on the trip meant to me personally.

Keep up the good work!

Had a great trip in Nepal . I was greeted by the driver and Ngima at the airport.
Ngima was excellent to look after me from beginning to end of trip.

Also, Lhakpa (Guide) and the porter was knowledgeable and very helpful through the trek .
I would like to recommend Ngima team to everyone !!

Thanks for helping to make our trip to Nepal an amazing trip of a lifetime!

My experience was highly positive. I enjoyed the unique high country of Nepal immensely as well as the people I met both with Himalayan Trails and those along the trek. I was impressed with the wide range of ages represented by the trekkers and at times dismayed with the sheer numbers. The highlights for me were the climb of Chukhung Che and the trek over Kongma La pass and the Khumba glacier. Enjoying the trek with my son and brother was particularly gratifying and motivating. A highlight was meeting up again with Peter in Dzongla after he had to go back down to Pheriche from Chukhung. My son and I had little trouble with the treks or the altitude, which I ascribe to the great pacing set by our guide Ngawong. The porters Lhakpa and Dorjee were helpful, cheerful and worked hard to carry our "too much stuff".

The only slightly negative commentary on the trek was the time duration after going over Renjo pass. Its length was constrained by our return flight to the states (which had already been delayed by one day by China Southern). In my estimation the trek could be shortened by 2-3 days still leaving time for shopping/sightseeing in Kathmandu, if desired. We ended up staying three nights in Namche on the way back and 3 days in Kathmandu. Admittedly it gave us time to relax and hang out but we had already been gone >3 weeks and were ready to go home.

We had a wonderful experience with Kim Kim and Amanda Delecca from Himalayan Trails from the very beginning. Great communication was one thing we never had to worry about. Our guide was Mindu (sp?) and our porter was Chhong Nuri Sherpa. Amanda was very helpful answering all our questions before and during our trek. Our guide and porter were fantastic, knowledgeable and fun to be with.

Highlights were amazing views of the Himalayas, visiting the tea houses for lunch and spending the night and visiting the monasteries. We loved the scenery on this trek and it's not as populated . The tea houses were humble and we really enjoyed the hospitality. Being able to visit the monasteries was beyond imaginable. That is something we will never forget. We had a great trip and would love to do it again one day. Thanks so much!

Kamchha was a very good guide, very knowledgeable. Unfortunately he had to leave the trek a few days early because of a medical issue, which is understandable, but then he was replaced by someone who didn't speak English. I had a difficult time at the airport trying to fly out of Lukla back to Kathmandu. The Nepal Himalayas are absolutely amazing, incredible scenery all around. I don't know how they choose what places to stay at though and I wish there was a better price breakdown for each day. Had to sleep in a tent in freezing temperatures because it was not booked in advance.

Really liked Aditya, who helped pick me up from the airport twice, and speaks good English and is super nice and diligent.

Needed more info on what to expect with the weather and what clothing to bring
Would have liked a breakdown on prices as compared to other companies/guides, I paid quite a deal more than other people did
Otherwise he was very helpful and the trip was awesome

The trip was very well organized and we were in good hands. The trek did seem longer than it needed to be... we had a lot of free time on our hands.

Our guide was amazing and everything was very simple to set up

We had an amazing trekking in the Everest region.

Our guide was a real care taking person, so he was not only guiding us the way, but made the whole trip a really good experience. When one of us was not feeling well he helped to make the trip as best as possible (changing the itinerary a bit). It felt like an all inclusive trip :).
Also the porter was amazing, seeing us struggling in some parts he was helping us to get up, even though he carried all of our luggage.

The views on this trek were the best we ever had, on all days it was spectacular: stupa's, mountains, lovely villages, rivers, bridges, etc. We also loved our acclimatisation day from Namche up to the Everest hotel. The monastery in Tengboche is also very impressive to visit. Also all view points were worth it: Kala Pathar, Gokyo lakes, Gokyo Ri, Cho La pass.

No trip halfway around the world could ever be perfect. If you want perfect, maybe go to Monaco, not Nepal. I started working online with Kimkim in the early spring of 2017 to book a trip for my family to Nepal with no prior knowledge of where to go or how to get it done. The Kimkim website first impressed me with the large number of trekking options available. It was a bit overwhelming to the Nepal novice, but as I exchanged information with Mads at Kimkim, he patiently helped me come up with an itinerary. My family of 5 wanted to combine trekking and sightseeing during our trip. All of us are in reasonably good physical condition, but we came with no real experience with hardcore trekking, mountain climbing, high altitude activities, etc. Kimkim built a trip plan that took all of this into account, along with our preferences for lodging along the way.

We just got back from our trip and all of us agree that Kimkim delivered on everything we asked for. To start with, the guides assigned to our family were outstanding. These were some very smart, impressive people. They taught us a lot about Nepal and made a huge difference in overall experience. Every step of the way, the local people assigned to my family were attentive, patient and friendly. We really couldn’t have asked for more.

I’ll be honest, the trekking was close to the limits of what we could handle, but that is not a complaint. We expected hiking around Nepal to be physically demanding and strenuous and it most certainly was. If you’re not in good physical condition, you need to be very thoughtful about signing up for this type of activity. The trekking route we took in the Khumbu region was physically challenging, often dangerous and busy with other people (and animals) headed in both directions. We loved every minute of it. A fascinating, beautiful place. My aching knees (get trekking poles) and altitude-induced headaches were a small price to pay for the experience. At the end of our 5 day trekking schedule, we were tired, sore, cold and sorry that it was over. I would have gladly gone on for another 5 days (assuming my knees held up). Great, great, great experience.

Back in Kathmandu, our guide took us to more amazing places than I can remember to wrap up our trip. It really was an almost perfect combination of trekking and cultural experience. I give Kimkim full credit for putting it all together for us.

It seems trivial to bitch about anything after such a great experience, but if you need proof I’m not an employee of the company, here is our list of grievances:
- We weren’t fully prepared for the possibility of flight delays getting out of Kathmandu into the mountains. It’s not that Kimkim didn’t warn us, we just didn’t pay much attention. We spent the better part of a day waiting for a flight because of bad weather. That was not fun. If I had it to do over again, I would either add another day or two to the trip to allow for this possibility or talk to Kimkim about hiring a helicopter to ensure you’ll get to your destination on time. Lesson learned.
- There’s no heat and often no hot water in the sleeping rooms, even in the more upscale lodges we booked. You realize pretty quickly that this is not unusual for Nepal. Bring the warm clothes Kimkim suggests and you’ll be fine. It wasn’t a big deal for me, but other members of the family were a bit more put off by this. You won’t always be comfortable, so just be prepared (thermal underwear helps a lot).
- Electricity is not easy to deliver to many places in Nepal, so it is generally dimly lit and downright dark in most of the place you’ll go. Bring your own lighting for reading if you think this will bother you.
- If a lodge advertises they have Wi-Fi Internet service, it doesn’t mean much. They may not have it at all or it may not be working when you arrive. You may go for several days without being able to contact friends and family back home. Just be prepared for this and unplug from the grid for a few days. Character-building. 
- Walking around Kathmandu is stressful. Some fun-loving Nepali decided it would be fun to run his motorcycle up the back of my leg a few times to mess with the tourist. I was not amused, but I kept myself under control (barely) and let him pass. You’ll need to be prepared for the chaos and traffic jams in Kathmandu and embrace them as part of the overall experience. There’s no avoiding it and it’s not a reason to stay in your hotel. Just get your game face on.

A few other comments: The food was great, we didn’t get sick, the people were generally very friendly and courteous, the airport is a bit of a hot mess and the prices are all cheap to very reasonable.

If you’re thinking of going to Nepal for the first time, all I can suggest is get yourself in good shape, practice being patient, bring all the cash you think you’ll need with you (don’t rely on ATM machines, credit cards generally worked fine) and use Kimkim to book your trip. They did a fantastic job for us and we can recommend them without any reservations.

Great trip and once-in-a-lifetime experience. Thank you Mads, Pasang, Rajive and Raj. I hope to book another trip with you someday in the future.

We wouldn't have changed a thing, except maybe that I lost the sole of my shoe five minutes into hiking!! Ha No but seriously, everything was perfect. Raj, Anura and team really put together a trip that included a little bit of everything, which truly gave us a clear taste and feel of Nepal. They were able to put together a full and comprehensive trip for us within our week timeframe, and I couldn't be more grateful!! We love Nepal!!! And I'll definitely be using KimKim for future trip planning!!!

Raj was always responsive and even downloaded a Marco Polo app so that we could communicate better, since our timezones were so different, which was very helpful. He was great from the beginning on and was very patient will all my million questions and worries. He was really great!!!

One of the best trips I've had arranged with an agent and I've done +20 agent coordinated trips. Impressed with Kimkim from top to bottom.

It was an excellent trip by Ngima and his team. We had one day that was less than perfect due to our guide (Tshering) under estimating our hiking time (5 hours vs 12 hours) which led to a challenging and over strenuous day. Other than that the entire trip was excellent, including the two porters (Lale - excellent; Bikram - good).