Bruno Martinović

Summary with details following: I would not recommend Bruno. He can be cranky and short tempered. This was a second trip with Kimkim and they were a disappointment also. I was planning another trip with Kimkim, that I have cancelled. Thankfully, I had not paid the deposit.
Bruno was good during the planning phases with customizing our trip. The trip was a 5* trip for a group of 6 seniors (3 couples). One of the main reasons for using Kimkim was that they had someone local that we could chat with whenever we needed to. Once when I was asking Bruno questions he came back with a response "You are not my only client". I was not expecting an instant response. I don't know why he got annoyed.
He scheduled us, based on our request, to go to Vrsic pass. The roads had been closed for a while and we just happened to find out when we mentioned it to the person at the hotel desk. As my agent there, he should have known this. We could have spent a couple of hours driving there and found out, but we lucked out.
We had rented a van that turned out to be a diesel van. Not understanding the nomenclature, we ended up pumping regular gas in the van. In the US, the nozzle typically will not fit, but apparantly not in Europe. Lesson learned. It was a Sunday evening and the van started sputtering and we got an "engine failure likely" warning. Luckily, we got off the highway and managed to get to a gas station in the boonies. Bruno was very irritated and kept telling me it was my fault and wanted to make sure to tell me that I had to pay for it. I never had an expectation that he would cover it. He later told me that because of this he lost family time and wanted me to feel sorry for him. Remember, it was 6 senior citizens stranded in some unknown village not knowing the language and dealing with an irritated specialist, Bruno. We lost a day of site seeing and Bruno had to do some re-arranging of our itinerary due to this. Yes, it was not his fault for sure, but shit happens. If family time is more important, get a 9 to 5 job.
One of the hotels (Pallazo) was a disaster. We stayed there for 2 nights and we had AC and internet issues the whole time. I had to move rooms twice (3 different rooms in 2 nights) and another couple had to move once and the third couple had to put up with boiling temperatures for one night. Remember, we had requested the best hotels and this was a disaster. The total cost of the 11 day trip was over $28K and I insisted on some compensation and the best they could do was a total refund of $340 plus $100 Kimkim credit for each couple. We were paying about $2500 per day ($5000 for 2 days) and the best they could do was $340. The credit is useless, since I don't plan on using Kimkim anymore. When I told Bruno that I would follow up with Kimkim, he told me to not bother and that they could not do anything. He was right. So having Kimkim as the parent organization buys you nothing, You just pay more since they take their commission off the top and provide no value when it comes to issues like this.
Kimkim's planning online interface is nice until you need to remove people that may have dropped out. The emails continued going to the people that dropped out and the message authors were mixed up with some message. Basically it seems to have some annoying issues. The group organizer cannot add and remove people. Simple email questions in the chat window ends up going to everyone creating a lot more communications than necessary. I could not send a chat message to Bruno privately.

Bruno was immensely helpful from start to finish…organizing the tour with great stop/hotels/guides in specific cities, providing daily guidance on the itinerary for the next day and being immediately responsive to address all questions…highly recommend Bruno and his team for organizing your Croatia vacation!

We benefitted greatly using Kimkim to plan such a big trip. Bruno was a tremendous help with all of the details (hotels, restaurants, drivers, car rental, walking tour guides and activities). He was also available and responded quickly to texts/questions via email before the trip, and using WhatsApp during the trip. Our drivers/guides were very friendly and, once they understood our sincere interest in the history and life in their country, were so interesting and informative. Mario and Oliver were great! While we drove ourselves a couple of days, having drivers and walking tour guides made such a difference to our experience since this was our first time to both Croatia and Slovenia. I feel like we learned more from them than just touring on our own. All of the hotels were very clean and conveniently located to where we wanted to explore. Besides breakfast each day at our hotels, we ate at restaurants for lunch and dinner. They were all very good (thanks Bruno!).

Activity Reviews

Private Guided Walking Tour of Dubrovnik Old Town

Dubrovnik

Quality of Experience

We started the day with a walking tour which was helpful in making our plans for the rest of our stay.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Our tour guide, Marianna, was very personable and knowledgeable. She shared personal stories when we asked about her family and we learned a lot about the history of Dubrovnik and Croatia.

One-day trip to the Alps

Croatia

Our guide stopped at the most beautiful spots.

Quality of Experience

What a beautiful drive!

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Oliver was a fantastic driver/guide. He chose beautiful spots to stop where we took great pictures. He picked a great place for us to explore and have lunch as well.

Transport

The vehicle was large and comfortable for the 4 of us (and our luggage).

Leaving Plitvice lakes - Rastoke visit- Zagreb

Plitvice Lakes

Plitvice Lakes are not to be missed. Even with some rain, we loved this park.

Quality of Experience

We loved our trip to Croatia and Slovenia! Bruno made it all easy, suggested great things to do, and touched base with us daily. I highly recommend working with him!
Highlights of our trip: Dubrovnik-what a charming, beautiful town; I would definitely go back; walking the city wall was amazing. Winery tour and wine tasting at Milos Vineyard-lots of fun. Plitvice Lakes-incredible scenery! Lake Bled and Lake Bohinj-so beautiful, like a fairy tale. Driving through the Alps-amazing vistas and our driver provided so much interesting information.
Marijana in Dubrovnik, Mia in Split and Irena in Zagreb were wonderful walking tour guides. They each knew so much history-both ancient and recent-about their country and respective cities.
Mario drove us from Zagreb to Bled and spent the day with us touring Bled and the castle, and hiking at Lake Bohinj; he was really interesting and shared stories, history and current information about Croatia and Slovenia.
Oliver spent the day with us, driving us through the Alps and ending the day in Ljublijana. He showed us not only the typical well-known places, but often took us off the beaten path to beautiful less visited sights. He shared so much history and current event information which we found so interesting.

Hotel Reviews

Hotel Degenija

Rakovica

The hotel is well-maintained, beautifully landscaped and the food was wonderful. Probably one of our favorite dinners during our trip. The rooms are simple and basic, but the setting more than makes up for the basic rooms. We enjoyed sitting in the gazebo, sipping wine, and looking out at the amazing landscape.

Authenticity & Character

Location

rural setting...nice to get out of the city; amazing scenery

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Bastion Heritage Hotel—Relais & Châteaux

Zadar

Such friendly staff! Definitely a highlight. Nice hotel with some "character"-felt quaint and cozy. Clean and comfortable.

Esplanade Zagreb Hotel

Zagreb

An incredible hotel! Beautiful and elegant. One of the nicest hotels we've stayed in. Very friendly staff. Nice outdoor terrace where we spent the evening with a glass of wine.

Grand Hotel Toplice

Bled

What an amazing setting! Looking out at the castle and the island in Lake Bled. By far the best view of any hotel on our trip. The hotel was clean and comfortable.

Hilton Imperial Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik

The most "American" of all the hotels in which we stayed. Very comfortable. Great breakfast with friendly staff and nice outdoor seating available.

Activity Reviews

Private Guided Walking Tour of Dubrovnik Old Town

Dubrovnik

Marijana gave us a wonderful tour. I highly recommend her. She gave us so much information about the city and the history of the area. She also recommended restaurants which were very good. We felt that we learned a lot! Dubrovnik is a beautiful town.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Pelješac penisula and Ston + wine tasting

Dubrovnik

Highlight was the wine tasting. It was relaxing and interesting. Stopping in Ston for a bit is definitely worth it-we walked the wall, it doesn't take long, viewed the salt fields, and had lunch.

Split Walking Tour with a visit to Diocletian Palace

Split

Our guide, Mia, made this day. She was fun, full of knowledge, and entertaining. We were glad we had a day in Split, although we spent 2 nights (just because of logistics) and we all agreed that a shorter time would be enough.

Krka National Park - Zadar

Croatia

So pretty! Definitely worth the stop!

Leaving Plitvice lakes - Rastoke visit- Zagreb

Plitvice Lakes

Plitvice Lakes was in our top 3 favorite days of our trip. Although we had some rain during our hike, it was still worth it. The most incredible scenery! Rastoke was a fun stop along the way. A pretty stroll around the falls and river.

Private guided walking tour of Zagreb

Zagreb

Irena was such a great tour guide. There are many sights to see in the city and so much interesting history. Irena spent an extra 1/2 hour with us beyond our alloted tour time...she was willing to answer all our many questions!

Bled and Bohinj.

Croatia

Wow such a beautiful place! Mario drove us from Zagreb and provided so much interesting information about the region. We visited the castle, then he hiked with us at Lake Bohinj-just beautiful. That afternoon we visited the island on our own. While I think everyone should visit the island once, I would not go back should I visit the area again. The best part of the island is viewing it (and the church) from afar, it's fairy-tale beautiful.

One-day trip to the Alps

Croatia

Wow! Amazing, jaw-dropping scenery. Every turn revealed more and more beautiful vistas. Oliver was our excellent driver and he showed us not only the typical tourist scenes, but also took us off the beaten path to less visited areas. He pointed out a local restaurant for our lunch which was fun, and he shared so much ancient and recent history of the area.

Walking City Tour of Ljubljana

Ljubljana

This was the only activity on our whole trip which was disappointing. We all left the tour agreeing that our knowledge of Ljublijana was no greater than when we began. Our tour guide, Claudia, was not able to answer basic questions such as "what's the history of the castle?" She continually asked us where we'd like to go and what we'd like to do, rather than leading us and providing information. Our tour was to last 2 hours, but after wandering about for 1.5 hours, she acted like there was nothing left for us to do, and our tour ended early.

Ljubljana - Departure

Ljubljana