Janel Doyle

Iceland was a spectacular trip. Janel gave us lots of good tips on places to see while in Iceland and mapped out everything great. There were a couple map points which were a little off but we figured it out. Everything was breathtaking. Our favorites were the Glacial Lagoon and Ice Cave Tour. Both highly recommended and not to be missed!!

Hotel Reviews

Gljufurbustadir Holiday Homes

Hveragerði

Was a little disappointed that we had to fill and empty the hot tub ourselves but otherwise was great. Nice location near the Viking Restaurant and a cute little town as well as places to hike. Comfy beds and plenty of room. Watched a great sunset from our porch.

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Vík Apartments

Vik I Myrdal

Great location in the amazing town of vik. Beautiful view of the mountains and short walk to the black sand beach.

Authenticity & Character

Location

great great view.

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Vatnshellir lava cave tour

Iceland

Our guide was friendly, knowledgeable and helpful.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

The Secret Lagoon

Iceland

Hjalparfoss

Iceland

Stunning like all of the waterfalls we saw. Lots of cool rocks to climb around on to see from a different view.

Quality of Experience

Katla Ice Cave Superjeep tour

Iceland

Our guide Maria (from Greece) was amazing. Super helpful and fun. It rained when we went but it didn’t take away fro the magic at all. To walk in the glacier and see the enormity of it was breathtaking!!

Quality of Experience

Simply stunning. Well worth it.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Maria was amazing!

Transport

Nice view on drive out.

Janel didn’t an incredible job mapping out all the locations and making it an incredible easy to follow along.

However leading up to the trip, she was very slow to get back with responses and when we needed help with something on the trip she never responded to us.

Activity Reviews

Silfra Snorkeling

Iceland

One of the coolest things I’ve ever done

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Solheimajokull glacier hike & ice climbing

Iceland

Incredible experience, but for about 1.5 hours you are just standing around.

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I just returned from a one week trip to Iceland with my teenage daughters. It was an incredible trip including Reykjavik, the Snaefellsness penninsula, the south coast, and east to a see a glacial lagoon. The organization and planning of the trip by Janel enabled a seamless vacation. Janel took time to answer all my questions and very helpfully, arranged an hour phone conversation the week before the trip to verbally go over the whole itinerary. Ironically, the things I was most concerned about initially - all the driving and staying at so many different hotels - turned out to be my favorite aspects of the trip. The driving is easy and the scenery beautiful. It felt like a real adventure. We loved every single hotel Janel picked. They were clean, modern, charming and easy to navigate. Langaholt hotel on the west coast was a real standout. Do not miss their nightly buffet dinner! I also want to give a shout out to a lovely, woman-run shop called Llomalind Farmer's Market in the the small fishing village of Borgarnes also on the west coast about 1 hour north of Reykjavik. Everything was handmade (with the name of the person who made it!) and that was where I finally landed on a fabulous Icelandic sweater. And some soaps. And some felt decorative sheep. Better than the more commercial findings along Laugevegur street in Reyjavik. Also, there is an adorable cafe one block from the Skuggi apartments where we stayed in Reyjavik called Emilie that served these amazing Nutellacinnos. Don't miss it!
The waterfalls and the hikes were aces. Highly recommend going all the way east to the big glacier. Great food truck serving lobster rolls. I would return to Iceland in a heart beat. Oh! And Janel was right on with starting the trip at the Sky Lagoon. Set the mood perfectly for the rest of the trip. We will be back to Iceland in the future and will certainly be using kimkim again for future travels.

Hotel Reviews

Hotel Langaholt

Stadarstadur

Charming hotel! It is the perfect blend of hotel and bed and breakfast. Gorgeous location. Helpful staff. Comfortable and welcoming. I like the sitting areas near check in. There was coffee, tea and hot chocolate available at all times near the dining area. The rooms were clean and spacious. Best breakfast of anywhere we stayed. The dinner buffet was absolutely fantastic - filled with unique local and other European dishes. I live in NYC and I can say it was still one of the best meals I've ever had. Great fish soup. When I return to Iceland, I would stay another night or two at this hotel.

Authenticity & Character

Absolute charm. More like a B&B

Location

right next to Ytri beach where there are seals. Feels like the Hamptons!

Staff

friendly, efficient and yet never you felt like you had the place to yourself

Cleanliness & Comfort

Clean like everywhere in Iceland. Big rooms

Stracta Apartments

KIRKJUBÆJARKLAUSTUR

The Stracta Apartments were adorable and comfortable, albeit a bit challenging to access. Their location was a 15-minute drive on a gravel road from the main highway. The doors were quite difficult to open and close, which was a bit of a hassle. However, once inside, the apartments were fantastic and the kitchen was well equipped.

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Akkeri Guesthouse

Stykkisholmur

The Akkeri Guesthouse was very small. It required ducking to navigate up the stairs. It was just okay for me, nothing spectacular, but it was clean and organized.

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Activity Reviews

Reykjavik Food Walk

Reykjavík

This food walk was the highlight of my trip. It was a fantastic experience, highly enjoyable and I highly recommend it.

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Jokulsarlon glacier lagoon amphibian boat tour

Iceland

The glacier tour was really good and a real standout during my visit. It was a unique and memorable experience.

Quality of Experience

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I wanted to go to Iceland and had no idea how to plan the trip. Janel did a great job of putting together a trip for my son and me that was just about perfect! Kimkim was so responsive, even helped us make changes once we wee in the country. We got to snorkel, ice caves were perfect and Blue Lagoon on the last day was the perfect end to a beautiful trip.

We were looking forward to have the best family vacation ever. So we choose to travel to Iceland. I found Kim Kim agency at the web. Janet help me perfectly. The instructions and the logistics of the trip was amazing. She gave me a Google driving plan around the Island, with fabulous views. Our idea was to stay in Farms so we can have the full experience, and she made that possible, so it was perfect. The only thing I will change will be that the first day was a very long drive, and we were super tired of the flight from the United States. But everything else was amazing !

Good planning overall. Was helpful in taking out a lot of the work for us to plan and book and organize.

What’s missing:
1) The order shown for site visits and hotel check ins shown on a given day in the summary and detail plan needs to match the order shown on the driving maps. On most days, they didn’t.
2) Every tour and site visit on the plan needs to show (without having to look at vouchers or tour company websites):
- Total time at site (with ranges or estimate for self-guided sites)
- Total time round trip from hotel
- More logistical info - for example distance/walking time from site parking lot to site (frequently walks were much longer than we knew and messed up our timing - we ran behind). Every night, it took us half an hour or more to plan the following day step by step in order to make tour times, dinner reservations, factor in time and logistics for eating lunch, etc. And we had to look up missing information
3) For a couple of the self guided tours, way too little time was factored in when planning the day - in one case a visit was suggested that we figured would take 30-40 minutes but including a critical scenic cliff walk tour that was was a highlight of the day but took 1.5-2 hours. We didn’t know, missed most of it and saw later from people posting on a Facebook page that it was amazing. We would have planned the day differently had we known.
4) Driving times and distances between individual stops on a day’s driving map
5) Too many separate links are provided for the plan, driving directions, geo locations, vouchers, special driving tips and instructions, etc. Should all be included in the plan. 1 single link. 1 single document. Creates too much self-organizing, printing, arranging and cross-referencing when preparing for trip.
6) Every agent needs to have their cell number on the site.

The trip planning experience was relatively smooth, and we really enjoyed our family vacation to Iceland. Our advisor, Janel, quickly answered questions during the planning stages, and listened to our comments. The itinerary she put together included all of our areas of interest, and all of our bookings went well.
That said, I feel like the level of service was relatively generic and did not appear to leverage any specific insight or knowledge from someone based in country. I would have liked to have more options to choose from when deciding on places to stay, and the ability to customize a bit more. I would have prioritized lodging better suited to having 2 young kids, for instance. Also, knowing that we would be arriving to the airport after the rental car shuttle closed, would have been helpful to start off. Or knowing that during our time in Reykjavik, there would be a major event (marathon) occurring that would impact driving and parking at our hotel.
Overall, KimKim and Janel provided a useful service for making a wonderful country accessible. Next time, I would do additional diligence to make sure all the details fit our needs.

Hotel Reviews

Room With A View Apartment Hotel

Reykjavík

Do not book this hotel on the weekend - our room was next to a nightclub that was open til 3am with extremely loud music.

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Fosshotel Hellnar

Hellnar

Authenticity & Character

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Héradsskólinn Historic Guesthouse

Laugarvatn

Decent and roomy. lacks a few amenities like hand soap. towels like sandpaper. restaurant at hostel across the street was very good.

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Farmhouse Lodge

Vík

Nice place, but a little cramped for a family with 2 young kids.

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Vík Apartments

Vik I Myrdal

Modern, roomy, and functional. great for families. grocery store across the street a bonus.

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Activity Reviews

The Secret Lagoon

Iceland

better than I expected, nice relaxing environment. however, my son's sneakers were stolen from the locker room.

Quality of Experience

Jokulsarlon glacier lagoon amphibian boat tour

Iceland

pretty typical tourist attraction, wish they had gone closer to the glacier. was raining during our trip, which was not ideal, but still a beautiful sight.

Blue Lagoon

Iceland

relaxing, as advertised. the water did leave my skin feeling weird though.

We just returned from our second amazing trip to Iceland using KimKim as our trip planner. Janel, our local specialist was very attentive to our wishes to make this a fantastic trip for our family with two teen boys and she delivered. We spent most of our trip in North and West Iceland and enjoyed so many splendors of the country including a spectacular whale watching trip and coastal horse tour out of Husavik, to visiting several of Iceland’s finest hot springs, waterfalls and epic scenic drives. We ate great food along the way and many of the recommended restaurants and while we mostly stayed in hotels, we enjoyed our one night stay in a adorable seaside house rental in Borgir. We couldn’t have asked for a better return trip and can’t wait to return again to explore the Westfjords someday!

WOW! What a Magical trip! A big thank you to Janel for the excellent service and putting together a stunning itinerary! An unforgettable adventure!

Activity Reviews

Activity options for Reykjavik

Iceland

Quality of Experience

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Activity options for Snaefellsnes

Iceland

Quality of Experience

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Blue Lagoon

Iceland

Quality of Experience

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Activity options for the Eastfjords

Iceland

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Activity options for Lake Myvatn & Husavik

Iceland

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Activity options for North West Iceland & Akureyri

Iceland

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Activity options for the Golden Circle

Iceland

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Activity options for the South West Coast

Iceland

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Activity options for the South East Coast

Iceland

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

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Janel and team were great. I had a few changes during the trip and they were there to help and coordinate. The trip was well thought out. We had a lot of coordination/ hotel accommodations to make and I felt everything went according to plan.

Hotel Reviews

Berjaya Hotel Myvatn

Myvatn

Great place-

Tips for future travelers

Restaurant was ok- there is a bar / pub right next to it which actually shares the same kitchen but food prices are lower. I would just go there for dinner. Same menu...just less expensive.

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Hotel Borg by Keahotels

Reykjavik

Great location. Very central to the active part of Reykjavik. Hotel was well appointed and the rooms were typical European style (smaller - which is to be expected in a city) and nice.

Tips for future travelers

Parking and can be tricky- there is a parking garage maybe two blacks away. I didn't feel 100% comfortable leaving the car on the street so I used the garage. The garage was more expensive but probably worth it.

Authenticity & Character

Great character - fit in with the city/ area

Location

Proximity to city center / activity

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Hotel Laugarbakki

Hvammstangi

The outside needs a little care but it looks like the interior was update not too long ago. I think this structure was an old dormitory Al that was converted over. The rooms were fine.

Tips for future travelers

Give it a try and I don't think there are many other options (better options) in the area.

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Hotel Vík í Mýrdal

Vík

I think this is part of a chain of hotels - I saw at least three different hotels with the same brand name. This one was "earthy". It was well done And very nice

Tips for future travelers

Restaurant was great.

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Hotel Grimsborgir Luxury Rooms and Apartments

Ásborgir

Great place. My son and I shared a 2 bedroom suite which was perfect. A little outside of town but great.

Tips for future travelers

I would definitely upgrade to a suite / apartment if traveling with family or just need a little extra room.

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Activity Reviews

Blue Lagoon

Iceland

Great - it is worth a few hours of your time.

Quality of Experience

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Grábók Crater

Iceland

Great but all the sights in Iceland are great - not sure I would make a special trip for this but it was cool.

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Katla Ice Cave

Iceland

It was ok- thought it might be a bit bigger and longer in the ice cave- it was more of a mountain trip than a cave trip but it was good to see - wouldn't do it again but glad I did it-

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