Personalized trips to United Kingdom
for independent travelers

This mother-daughter trip was organized by the awesome Aleksandra, who helped us in every step of the way with hotels, activities, tours, and everything we needed to have a great trip. We visited London, Edinburgh, Inverness, Glasgow and Dublin.
I will write as much as possible for each city.
- London: The hotel in London was comfortable, although the beds were very small, everything else was good, especially the room cleaning service. The breakfast was excellent. Our private Royal tour with Diana in Spanish was very good, the walking pace was calm and she explained in a detailed way the places we visited. The Shakespeare's Stratford and Cotswolds tour was nice, however, the time in each place was short and the group was very large which made it difficult for us to follow the guide. The Afternoon tea at Fortum & Mason was amazing, we had a great time and the manager explained every single detail about this tradition to us.
- Edinburgh: The hotel in Edinburgh was nice, the room was comfortable, large, and clean. The breakfast was good but limited in the dishes that they offered. We asked for a decaf coffee and they reluctantly gave us a press full of coffee, it wasn't until we spoke to the manager that they brought a cup and apologized. The hotel's location is excellent, you only need to take a bus to get to the center and the hotel's area is calm. Please, warn others NOT to take the tram, it is too far from the hotel. The Old Town private tour was rushed, full of relevant information and interesting historical facts. Gains, our guide, is an amazing guide, and patient, he allowed me to translate to my mom the information he was sharing with us. Possibly not fully appreciated because we visited the old town at night. The St Andrews & Kingdom of Fife tour was very nice, our guide shared great information, and he gave us the correct amount of time for each stop without rushing. Many places, especially the cathedrals like St Giles and St Andrews were closed during the whole time we were there.
- Inverness: The Ness Walk Hotel is the best hotel we've ever visited. It is a gem of Scotland. Inverness is a really small town but the hotel has a great location. Everything about the hotel was amazing, from the customer service to the hotel room, simply wonderful. The Ultimate Isle of Skye Tour was great, Emma showed us relevant sites during the tour. The bus was full and it was kind of uncomfortable but everything we visited was amazing.
- Glasgow: The Adress Hotel has very basic and small rooms. The bathroom is too small, especially the shower. Service upon arrival was slow and the hotel keys were disabled when we wanted to go up to the room. Absolutely NO ONE helped us with our bags, we were just told “There is an elevator”. I recommend this hotel for a few days for its good location but everything else is bad, to be honest. We booked a free tour online in Spanish with "Somos Escocia", highly recommended.
- Dublin: We honestly didn't have enough time in Dublin. This city is amazing, the people are warm and nice, and the city is lively and fun. The Cliffs of Moher was a great tour, the weather was amazing that day but the description said "small group" and it was a big group! like 40 people in a big bus. The tour was not bad at all but it wasn't a small group tour.

Got back a week or so ago from a 'UK Highlights Trip.' Trip itself was 14 days, including 2 days for air travel. We were able to hit Ireland, Scotland, and England....overall, I would say every interaction I had with locals was pleasant, everyone was very friendly, and didnt feel unsafe....

Planning for the trip through KimKim took a lot of the guesswork out of the plannig the logistics for going city-to-city, offering suggestions on the top things to see and do in each city, based on our preferences, and they were able to set a lot of it up and manage for us (domestic flight, trains, tours, etc). Would like to thank Emily, Romane, Salome, and Stephen, who were all very helpful.

With taveling 14 days, we did understand and anticiapte the potential of a fewtravel hiccups, here and there (train delays / cancellations, for example). Any issues we did have, KimKim was very responsive in getting back to us and making sure the they were resolved in a reasonable time, and we were satisifed.

these are some highlights from each spot we hit:

-Dublin - really cool city. if you're going, definitely plan at least 2 days... would recommend getting a drink at the Brazen Head, one of Irelands oldest pubs (going back to 1100s). We also checked out the Viking Museum, Church of Christ Cathedral, and Guiness Factory... we closed one of the days out at the Church Bar and Restaurant

Day 2 was St Patricks Cathedral, Dublin Castle, Dublin Masonic Lodge, Trinity College Library / Book of Kells Experience, and the popular Temple Bar!

Day 3 - Galway Ireland - take a train from Dublin, to this cool, underrated city...some of the medieval fortifications are still standing, and one of the guides did mention that Christopher Columbus had visited it at one point.

Day 4 - we took a bus trip, which featured a short stop to Dunguaire Castle, and Cliffs of Mohr

Day 5 - we took a flight from Galway to Edinburgh, Scotland....would recommend taking a walk to Calton Hill, one of the highest view points of the city. we had dinner at The Dome, which featured wonderful ambiance, and if you're a fan of Harry Potter, would check out The Department of Magic, where you can make magic 'potions'

Day 6 - Edinburgh walking tour, and Edinburgh Castle - you can easily spend a whole day here...right next to it is St Giles Cathedral. Very underrated pizza place btw, check out Dough Pizza

Day 7 - Inverness, Scotland...we took a 3-4 hour train ride to Inverness, Scotland, where we took a tour of Clava Cairns, which were an important place for ritual activity, and thought to be older than Stonehenge, going back 5000 years...as well as Culloden Battlefield - now more well known, due to 'outlander,' it was the site of the last battle of the Jacobite uprising. Food and Drink, check out Aye Eat, and Scotch and Rye

Day 8 - Isle of Skye Bus tour - highly recommend booking this 2 day tour

Short hike to Rogie Falls, followed up by a trip to Dunvegan Castle, which dates back 800 years to clan MacLeod;
additionally saw other famous landmarks of Skye, including Kilt Rock, Lealt Falls, and the Old Man of Storr;
we wrapped it up with a Highland Cow encounter, and short walk around the small town of Portree

-Day 9 - York - -We visited York for a quick overnight stay - would have liked to check that city out further had we have had time, as i found it interesting some of the city's original medieval wall was still standing

Day 10 / 11 - London - Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, and Churchhill War Rooms

Hotel Reviews

Harbour Hotel

Galway

Authenticity & Character

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Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Ashling Hotel Dublin

Dublin

Authenticity & Character

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Cleanliness & Comfort

Tigerlily

Edinburgh

Service, rooms, and breakfast service were all superb - i did however have to do laundry here, and it may have been cheaper just to buy new clothes from one of the gift shops than pay them to do it, so just something to keep in mind when traveling with light luggage

Authenticity & Character

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River Ness Hotel, a member of Radisson Individuals

Inverness

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

No.1 York

York

Authenticity & Character

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Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Park Plaza London Riverbank

London

Authenticity & Character

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Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Visit of Christ Church Cathedral

Dublin

Galway Private Walking tour

Galway

Cliffs of Moher Day Trip from Galway ( 15 pers max )

Galway

Secrets of Edinburgh’s Royal Mile - walking tour with castle tickets

Edinburgh

Tower of London timed entry tickets

London

Two-day tour of Skye from Inverness

United Kingdom

Churchill War Rooms Small-Group Walking (plus discovery of the area around Westminster) Tour

London

Tickets for St Patrick Cathedral, Dublin

Dublin

Trinity College Library : The Book of Kells Experience

Dublin

Culloden Battlefield private tour

Inverness

Tickets to Westminster Abbey

London

Fanny, Sarah and Pauline all helped us plan our perfect trip to London and Paris! Kimkim helped make the process of traveling to another country super easy and helped walk us through using their public transportation systems. We were very happy with everyone we worked with, and especially the response times of updating or rescheduling things that came up during our time over there. It made making changes on the fly super quick and easy. Thank you Kimkim. We will definitely use this service on our next European vacation!

Hotel Reviews

Hotel Fior d’Aliza

Paris

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Holiday Inn Express Southwark

London

Super nice continental breakfast every morning and lots of great pubs and coffee shops nearby. Pretty standard chain hotel accommodations. A little far some of the main attractions on the other side of the river, but very affordable to take an uber, and/or nice easy walk along the river to get back.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Somewhat far from the main attractions in London, but very easy to get an uber to get where you need to go. The walk along the river is also very beautiful and easy to get to with beautiful views.

Staff

They got us into a room way earlier than our check in time which was great since we had an early flight and were very jet-lagged!

Cleanliness & Comfort

Super clean and decent sized rooms, the beds were on the smaller size though and not super comfortable.

Activity Reviews

Harry Potter Studio Tour from London (with transport)

London

This was one of my favorite activities from our whole trip! Great for any Harry Potter fans! They did have three pickup spots along the transportation route which made the trips their and back take a little longer. Getting off and on at the last pickup spot might be more ideal so you're not waiting as long to get there. The props and tour was absolutely incredible to see and the food and overall experience though was a 10/10!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Tickets to Westminster Abbey

London

We loved getting to see such a historical and beautiful church! There is so much more to see even after we were done with the audio tour. The audio guide was super easy to follow and worked well with the size of the church. You could move and see things throughout the tour at your own pace. The line to get in also moved pretty quickly as well.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

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Tower of London timed entry tickets

London

The Tower and all the buildings were really cool to see, as well as the crowned jewels! The only thing I would have changed is using an in person guide instead of the audio guide. I didn't feel like it really gave that interesting of information and it was kind of hard to follow based on where you were since the area around the tower is so vast. We found ourselves more following the maps and physical information they put up around the castle grounds and not really listening to the audio guide. I just think having someone lead a tour might have been a little easier and more informational.

Quality of Experience

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Timed tickets to Le Louvre

Paris

It is definitely a must see in Paris, the architecture alone is very iconic. It was amazing to see some of the most famous paintings and sculptures in the world. I don't think the audio guide was worth it at all though. It was incredibly hard to follow and with the museum being so large we found ourselves following the physical signs around the museum to get to where we wanted to go and barely used the audio guide. I would have preferred to have an actual tour guide show us the most important pieces and talk about them more in detail. The information on the audio guide wasn't that useful or interesting.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

The audio guided tour was not worth it.

Transport

Night Cruise on the Seine with Music & aperitif (With drinks included - 1 glass of Wine)

Paris

We loved the boat cruise! The only bummer was they had to skip half of the stops due to the rain I believe, but the view was incredible from the water. It was kind of hard for us to find the loading point, so I would be a little more detailed in where the boat is actually picking them up, because just giving the port wasn't super helpful as it is a big area and hard to find what boat you are getting on at night.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport