Kimkim Trip Reviews for Norway

This was a trip of a lifetime!! Linda was amazing in planning and coordinating for our group of 6 in all differing age ranges. She was great in getting everything on our wish and things to do and see and most of all giving us the opportunity to stay at the family farm. Staying at the farm was the most memorable part of the trip for all of us and getting to meet some new family. We had great tour guides in both Bergen and Oslo! They were super friendly, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable and made us feel welcomed in a strange new place.

Valde our guide in Bergen was amazing and super friendly. She had our updated itinerary ready for us when we arrived and tons of great recommendations of places to eat and things to see and do in Bergen! Thank you Valde!!

Miriam was our guide in Oslo and truly gave us a local insight to Oslo. She was very accommodating to our group and my 77 year old mother who kept right up with our 3 hr tour. Thank you Miriam!!

All of our transports from trains, ferries, buses and rental cars were flawless and made it easy to get to all of our destinations. I would highly recommend Linda and Kimkim to anyone for their next adventure and will be booking with them again in the furture.

It feels like my wife, Roxanne, and I have developed a personal relationship with Ingrid. Her "front end" or "pre-trip" communication with me was excellent and incredibly responsive (timely). We communicated back & forth so she could understand what we liked, which enabled Ingrid to tailor a trip to our desires.
Once the trip began, I was shocked how she was monitoring our trip daily and checking in on us to ensure we were fine and that the trip was going well. She even sent me her cell phone #, in the event, we needed anything and I did have to call her once for clarity on a hotel billing item. She was all over it. We texted each other and again.......she was all over it. I love this girl!
I believe KimKim does work in other countries and, if all of your agents are even 1/2 as effective as Ingrid, I will be using KimKim again. Our next scheduled trip in most likely Italy next year (2019) and I could use local help again.

Ingrid.........you are outstanding "young lady" and you deserve and have earned our felt heart accolades. We hope to return to Norway for a tour of the North someday!

Thank you KimKim but all praise goes to Ingrid!

Dave Amrhein

Ingrid was incredible! We had a short time to visit the Bergen-Egersund portion of Norway and Ingrid arranged all our hotels (fantastic breakfasts!), train trips (schedules, tickets, maps from hotel to station), fjord boat trip, bus trip, etc. She was unfailingly patient responding to my numerous detailed questions promptly. She even went out of her way to deliver some tickets to our hotel and met us there at the start of our trip to make sure we had all our questions answered. She paid particular attention to our special needs with regards to limited walking ability and tracking down relatives. We had a busy week but I feel that with Ingrid's guidance, we saw everything we hoped to in the least stressful way. I would never plan another trip without using kimkim's local experienced travel team!

Ingrid was such a great helped for us, literally I just gave the name of the hikes I was interesteda at and she suggested a full itinerary. Everytime I needed support she was so responsive.
The holidays were great, was a busy and active holiday and managed to spend some time, enjoying the city as well. I will totally recommend to my friends and family to visit Norway and connect via kimkim, for sure I'm planning to come back.
The Hikes I did were: Kjerag, Pulpit rock and Trolltunga, hard to choose a favorite one

Thank You Ingrid for all your help, you rock!

My wife and I traveled the Fjord region of Norway Aug. 31- Sept. 7, 2018. Our weather was perfect every day, we were so lucky! We began in Bergen and used a combination of public transport including ferries and buses to travel to Rosendal, Odda, Aurland, Flam, Bergen, and then used the Hurtigruten ship to travel north to Alesund for a couple of days. The whole trip was fantastic and surpassed our expectations. We enjoyed the natural scenery of the mountains and the fjords, and enjoyed some hiking as well. We hiked Trolltunga in a small guided tour group; the hike was long and difficult but the experience of doing it and the views were well worth it! We also had a great guide and met a funny guy (from Australia) in our group which made the day a lot fun too! Although it was a tough 12 miles and 12 hours, it was probably the highlight of the trip. We also did an awesome hike in Alesund that was about a half-day and much easier than TrollsTongue! It was called Sukkartoppen (SugarTop) and the views of the ocean and Alesund were perfect on a sunny, blue-skied day! We enjoyed the views of both Bergen and Alesund after walking/hiking up the hills to the lookout points. The Bergen Beer Festival was going on and we checked that out too. We enjoyed a scenic fjord cruise to Rosendal and also on the Naerofjord to Aurland as well. Kayaking the fjord in Flam was enjoyable (The weather was so nice that day we even took a quick dip in the fjord at Flam Beach!) The Flam Railway to Myrdal was very scenic and relaxing too. Our hotel accommodations were great and in great locations to make walking to things easy; they also all offered a great breakfast to start the day off. Our travel agent via KimKim Travel was Ingrid and she did an excellent job of organizing and setting the trip up. She was very thorough and detail-oriented. She was quick to respond to messages and questions in the trip planning stage. We would highly recommend her in planning travel in Norway. She will customize a trip to your interests. We have some other European destinations we would like to see, but would love to come back to Norway one day!

Normally, I like to plan my own trips, but decided to try KimKim because I was too busy with work to research everything myself. Thanks to Ingrid, my boyfriend and I had the most wonderful and memorable 7-day whirlwind trip to Norway. As an active couple, we requested hiking, biking, kayaking and city sight-seeing (via train and ferry) all in just 1 week. Somehow, she was able to make it all happen.

I am so grateful to Ingrid for suggesting activities I might not have found on my own, like the 12-mile hike through the "Grand Canyon of Norway" in Aurland. It was the best hike of my life! The 33-mile bike ride from Finse glaciers to Flåm fjords was simply incredible as well. Leading up to the trip, she had worked with me patiently in revising our itinerary until I was happy with it, and it ended up being perfect for us.

Most notably, our initial flight to Norway was canceled and we had to book another flight the next day. Ingrid was amazingly quick to respond, very sympathetic to our situation, and messaged back and forth with me to make sure that we made it back on track with our itinerary. I am so grateful for her support and patience throughout our trip! I would 100% recommend using KimKim, and especially booking a trip to Norway with Ingrid.

Amazing coordination, Ingrid is top notch guide and trip organizer. Would HIGHLY recommend this to anyone traveling to Norway!!!!

I am SO happy that I stumbled upon KimKim and, more importantly, Ingrid! I was feeling very overwhelmed at planning a trip to Norway, as it is such a beautiful country with so much to do and see. Ingrid shared her expertise and worked with us to plan a custom trip that fit in everything we wanted to do! We kayaked, hiked, boated, and explored our way through the country and couldn't have done it without the guidance of Ingrid. She was very patient with us in the planning process, making multiple itineraries for us to choose from. And it was so comforting to have her contact info on hand while we were travelling, because we did have a few minor questions throughout the trip (i.e. where to buy the best/coziest Norweigan sweater!? or, what time are we supposed to be at the boat terminal again?!) Her attention to detail was amazing. She booked the major bus and boat trips for us, sent us tickets, and even sent us maps with walking directions. I highly recommend Ingrid to anyone traveling to Norway, I've already told all my friends/family/coworkers about her!

One word to describe this whole experience and adventure: AMAZING! Linda has gone above and beyond in making sure the trip was curated to accommodate my needs and requirements. Searching for the best prices/affordable trips always takes time and energy, however kimkim made it seem effortless, and the best part is that they offered a great price value relationship. If I had to do it again there would be no hesitation in working with kimkim again. Hands down made the experience memorable and rewarding, which is what it’s all about. Thank you for being phenomenal Linda, and thanks kimkim for making my first time experience with you special.

Ingrid and Vilde were very responsive and kind in the trip planning and I enjoyed the KimKim platform. I was hoping the itinerary would help my group make the most of our time in Norway- but unfortunately the itinerary didn’t achieve that. Our first full day in a location put us in Ålesund on a Sunday when everything was closed. A few museums were open from 12-4 but it made for a long day waiting for the Hurtigruten in our hotel lobby until 1am. I would have expected recommendations on tours to book in advance or thoughtfulness to what is open. I was really looking forward to the Hurtigruten- but found that the view wasn’t very good and our ticket didn’t include lunch. Stranding us as bored captives until 2pm. We didn’t accommodate any fjord cruises or boat trips thinking this would be a cool experience and I feel like we really missed out. This itinerary was a big splurge for us and I thought it would be worth it and we would get local insight to the best things to see in country. We would have been better off just flying into Bergen and booking ourselves a few days in the fjords.

My husband and I went on a trip to Norway organized by Elina in March this year. Start to finish it was a truly perfect trip. Our first three days were spent at Malangen, an absolutely lovely, modern hotel with breathtaking views of a fjord. The staff at Malangen was extremely helpful and friendly and there were wonderful activities to choose from. We snowshoed, went to a campsite owned by the hotel to see the Northern Lights and had a fascinating session with someone who taught us about Sami culture.

After Malangen, we went to Tromso. A charming small city where we went to museums and restaurants. We also had a driver pick us up and give us a tour of the fjords.

Every aspect of the trip went incredibly smoothly. Their was one glitch when checking into our hotel in Tromso, but Elina was reachable immediately and resolved the issue. Moreover, she was prepared to spend 6 hours driving if she needed to address the issue in person! Thank you Elina!

Overall, we would rate Linda & Ingrid's trip planning and travel services for our trip to Norway as 5 Star. They did a lot of work behind the scenes to make our vacation a smooth, seamless event. We made a very customized travel plan and they demonstrated considerable patience and much effort to accomplish our goals. Without their help and inside knowledge of Norway, we would surely have experienced a great deal of trouble, especially with the transportation.

The most memorable portion of our trip was our visit to Alesund and the Hjorundfjord & Grirangerfjord fjords. The Sagafjord Hotel in Saebo was outstanding.

My husband and I returned from the Norwegian Highlights trip which was organized by Ingrid. Everything was perfect. Ingrid took the time to talk me thru the entire trip before we left which was great since I was a little nervous. Also, every stop we made, we were expected at. What I mean is everyone knew the Johansen's were due to arrive and welcomed us. All reservations Ingrid made went smoothly. It was very nice to have all that done and not have any problems. I would highly recommend Ingrid for anyone planning a trip to Norway.

Hello! Thank you to Ingrid and Vilde from Ethical Travel for arranging everything to my taste and my budget. I also had a great time with Nikola from Gone Paddling in Balestrand and Flemmet, my walking tour guide in Bergen. I feel I had the chance to explore lots of things that Norway has to offer in few days . I definitely recommend visiting Balestrand, a unique gem on the fjord and their new museum of Travel and Tourism in Norway (Norsk Reiselivsmuseum ). Thank you for helping me realizing one of my traveling destination dream

Greetings! Everyone I interacted with during this process was kind and as helpful as possible. There are a few things I think you might find helpful for the next time.

Generally speaking, the logistics of having to figure out our own transportation was not smooth. Having someone meeting us at both airport and train stations, and generally ensuring those things go well, was missing. Case in point is arriving at the Oslo train station with limited instructions about finding our hotel on site at the mall, and not seeing a sign anywhere, nor was the hotel name on the mall directory. Finally after spending considerable time, with suitcases in hand, looking for the hotel in the dark (roughly 10:30 pm), I found the phone number to the hotel and they led us to a door which was locked and which they had to buzz us in through. This door was poorly marked, and again, in the dark this was a problem.

Another issue was the cost of the cab to get us to the airport when leaving. It was not our desire to use the tram or bus with luggage. It cost us $150 US for a 35 minute cab ride. At minimum, the overall trip cost should have included airport transfers. At certain points during the trip I began to wonder what we had really paid for.

Another issue is that we were not instructed to arrive early (as was the case with several other items in the itinerary), and we arrived 2 minutes past the time indicated on the itinerary for the boat to Rosendal. The boat had already left when we arrived. While I do believe there is some culpability on both ends of this one, the least you could do was reimburse us for the alternative trip we took which cost $138. I was told this was not an option.

When I asked for "City Tours", I did not mean "Walking Tours", and while our walking tours were both fine and enjoyable (David and Stig), they did not properly take the place of a more comprehensive day tour via bus, motor coach, etc., where you see the whole city. We saw very small parts of the cities, especially in Oslo. Luckily we found the beautiful buildings and harbor on our own or we would have missed a lot! Also, the harbor boat tour in Bergen was rather miserable. It was held in an open sailboat (sans sail), and it was pouring rain. It was very difficult to see anything, and while we enjoyed the guide, the type of boat was a poor choice for the frequency of rain there.

We did have an error on the itinerary at Balestrand which indicated we were staying at the Kvikness vs. where we ended up which was at the Midtnes. I did appreciate the view from the room, and Jon taking us via van to and from the harbor with our suticases, as well as the included dinners at the hotel, the amenities were quite lacking comparatively speaking. We had planned to use the gym at the Kvikness, and also there was no TV in the room, and the pillows were poor at the Midtnes. We also ended up spending evenings at the Kvikness since there was no restaurant/bar at the Midtnes. It just felt to me like we stayed in the cheaper hotel to keep your costs down.

In the end we accomplished the goal of experiencing the Fjords and cities of Norway, and that was really great. I think if you could implement a bit more 'service orientation' into the program, it would make it even better.

Many thanks for the opportunity to provide this feedback!

We had the best guide in Oslo, Erlend Oyan. He was knowledgeable, engaging and connected well with the kids. My teenagers loved white water rafting with Serious Fun near Geilo. The staff at the Geilo Hotel was also fantastic. They happily helped us plan our short stay to the fullest. Our other favorite activity was the hike to the goat farm with Sam from FjordSafari, great day!

Overall, the trip was wonderful and we had a fantastic time! We can't wait to return to Norway to see more of that amazing country. Marrit (sp?) our guide was amazing and great at showing us the sites as well as reacting to changes on the fly. Even though some stormy weather kept us from doing the glacier hike we originally planned on, she identified several other options and shorter hikes we could do in the area to make the most of the day. The kayaking portion of the trip was magical and it was amazing that we were the only boats out there. The only critiques of the trip are as follows:
1) Through no fault of the guide or our local specialist, the hotel that we got the kayaks from seemed pretty disorganized (they said they had 4 boats, they only had 3, the paddles were in a different spot, some boats were locked up and they didn't have access when we wanted to go out, they weren't very well maintained making them harder to steer, etc.). It would have been nicer if this had been more of a professional operation so we could spend more time on the water.
2) I realized at our last stop before heading to the train station that Emily hadn't sent us copies of the train tickets we needed to get to Oslo. Marrit contacted her and got a link to the tickets, but there was some trouble downloading it to access the actual tickets so when we got on the train there was some confusion proving that we had tickets and sitting in available seats. This was quite irksome, especially since if I hadn't realized that we didn't have tickets before we left Skjolden, we wouldn't have been able to board the train at all.

Please let me know if you have additional questions. Overall we really enjoyed our time in Norway and can't wait to return. When we do, we would absolutely use KimKim and Emily for assistance in planning our next adventure.

Linda and her team were terrific. They put together a custom itinerary that took into account the varied interests of a family with teenagers and made everything easy. The trip was very fun and educational and, coming from someone that hasn't used a travel agent in years, it wouldn't have been possible without their help. I highly recommend Linda and her team for a Norway adventure.

Excellent service provided by my KimKim representative Ingrid. She let me know everything down to bus times and numbers, and even went above and beyond finding me a ride home one night after I missed the last bus and the only taxi company in Aurland was fully booked. Really great help overall!

Just returned from a totally epic trip to Norway, planned with great care by our awesome specialist Linda. Linda service was nothing short of perfect. She listened to what we wanted to do during our visit, understood and respected our budget and planned a trip for us that maximized our dollars and used our travel days very efficiently. Without Linda's help I am certain that we would not have been able to see so much of the country in such a smooth and logical manner and would never have found the interesting, charming and cost efficient accommodations that she did. In addition that tours she planned were spot-on and unique to our family. I was really impressed with Linda's ability really get a sense of what we truly wanted out of the trip (i.e. to experience the "real" Norway, not a tourist version). We had so many wonderful experiences, but I would say the best was probably our stay in Aurland. Our accommodations were amazing (cabin overlooking the fjord) and our tour of the area with Mathilda was just amazing, and included a hike to a beautiful lookout and glassblowing with a local artist. Our tour through Bergen with David was equally awesome. He gave us a local's view of the "scene" in Bergen and had so many great recommendations for restaurants, kafe's, shop's etc. that were off the tourist-path. I think the best part of the tours were that both guides were lovely and engaging and happy to chat and share about what life is like in Norway. We also took the Hurtigurten which was really interesting and fun and ended our trip in Trondheim which is a simply beautiful, young, fun city. I think it is worth mentioning two very important things: 1) Linda really did a great job ensuring all of our booking and travel transitions were smooth and easy to follow, including arranging taxis and pick/ drop off and being considerate of train/boat/travel times to ensure we were not wasting time waiting or were stuck in one place with hours to kill and nowhere to go. 2) When there were a couple of (very minor) hiccups with hotel bookings, Linda was accessible, available to help and dealt with the issues immediately. It was very comforting to know that she was available to help during our travel. Well done Linda! Truly was a trip of a lifetime and my mother was so impressed and happy. Best, Katie