Melanie Rapuano

Overall I was decently happy with the KimKim experience. I think that the platform and agents as a whole are not really geared towards someone who is a first time user. There were many many things that I either missed or was not informed about that seemed to be "common sense" for the platform/agent, but were just never communicated. These are things that I will know for next time, but would have appreciated being informed about this time.
One example is the installments. I asked for 3 (maybe 4, can't remember.. not important) installments for the payment. When I was told yes and that this was no problem, I took this at face-value and with the standard accepted definition of an installment. The payment is divided up and due at interval due dates. This is how a car payment works, how a credit card payment works, how literally every industry in the world defines an "installment payment". I checked the site, and the next due date was XX/XX/XXXX. Great. I would have my next installment to pay on that date. Given that I have the ability to make random partial payments at anytime through the site on my own (without it being "called" an installment), it makes absolutely no sense that "offering installments" wasn't actually offering to let me pay in installments, it was just the agent doing the math to calculate the total cost divided by 4. I could have done that myself and made partial payments.... that was not helpful. What was also not helpful, was being told that I had to come up with $13k in four days because "oh your installments aren't actually installments and you have to pay everything by the first installment date". What I expected was divided payments due at staggered due dates. What I got was the agent telling me that I had to figure out how to get $13k in four days... and only because I asked, not because I was informed.
I get that this is a budget platform and that it is my responsibility to read/study everything, but a little communication would have been helpful.
Another example.... we had private transfers for nearly everything. I asked about the car for the lemon tour about an hour before, and was told "ohh we think it's a nice walk so I planned for you guys to walk to that". Yes, I should have read the plan a little more carefully and realized that. But if you are "planning on us having a nice little walk"... maybe tell us?
There was some kind of taxi strike issue so it took us 45 minutes of trying to get a cab before we gave up and walked, and missed the tour entirely.
Not the agents fault we missed the tour, that was our fault for not reading and studying the plan more carefully, it just would have been nice to be informed that this particular outing had a different game plan when every outing so far had a driver.

All this to say- Melanie was nice, the trip was awesome, and the vendors she set us up with were lovely. I wish a bit more focus was put on communicating the little things that were "assumed" we would know, but again I just didn't realize I needed to be that vigilant in combing through all the fine print.

Hotel Reviews

Hotel Conca Park 4* Sorrento

Sorrento

Incredible hotel, loved it. By far the most uncomfortable beds I've ever slept on in a hotel, BUT the room-service food was awesome.

Authenticity & Character

awesome art, cool entryway

Location

very walkable

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

very clean but the beds were wildly uncomfortable. I think we all need a massage after those beds

Hotel Le Meridien Visconti - Marriott

Rome

Clean, nice staff, helpful, awesome family room (s)

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Renaissance Naples Hotel Mediterraneo - Marriott Naples

Naples

Stunning views while eating breakfast. Loved this hotel. Kinda felt like the toilet was going to fall out of the wall every time we sat on it, but might just be old

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

little rickety, but nice overall and awesome views

Activity Reviews

City Tour of Naples

Italy

It was fine. Exactly what it says it is, nothing negative to say but also nothing crazy outstanding. It was a good way to see the city.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

N/A

Full day excursion along the Amalfi coast with private driver

Italy

Good excursion

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Lemon tour and lunch in Sorrento

Sorrento

Didn't make the tour but my husband said it was fine. Not super interesting for the kids, but short enough that it didn't matter too much. Broke my molar on the ravioli, but that could have happened in any restaurant. human error.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Our trip to Italy was FABULOUS!! Melanie did an outstanding job planning our 40th anniversary trip. She was always available and right on top of things. She had wonderful recommendations and worked very hard to make our dream trip come true!!
Our tour guides were very knowledgeable, most especially Claudia at the Vatican, Katie at Pompei and Mina? in Venice. Each tour guide brought the specifics of Italy alive and left us wanting MORE. All of our guides and drives were friendly and accommodating, helping us manage a new experience. We loved sharing stories with them and hearing about how they ended up as guides or drivers
We will be recommending this company to friends and family in hopes that they have the same experience.
Thank you for a trip we will always remember and we WILL be back
Nina and Bob

Hotel Reviews

Ambrosio Relais

Sorrento

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotel Navona Colors

Rome

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Vatican & Sistine Chapel Tour

Rome

Claudia was a wonderful guide, my anticipation of the Vatican experience was lessened just a bit by the crowds. Rather loud and too many. Maybe less people in the groups

Pasta & Tiramisù class

Rome

Outstanding, it was a wonderful learning experience and lots of fun. Friendly staff and the group number was perfect.

Special Colosseum tour: Colosseum, Arena Floor, Underground, Roman Forum

Rome

Katie did an outstanding job explaining the past history up to the present, like an enjoyable history class. :) The undergroud tour was amazing!! Thank you Melanie for making that happen.

Ravello, Amalfi & Positano

Sorrento

Could have used more time in each area to enjoy and investigate this beautiful area.

Olive and Wine Tasting in Tuscany Countrtyside

Italy

We very much enjoyed tasting at 3 different wineries. Lunch was delicious and our tour guide Chechi? did a fabulous job keeping us interested and entertained.

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Venice Walking and Gondola Tour

Venice

Again, the tour guide was outstanding, very knowledgeable and entertaining.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Melanie was a huge help planning our trip to Italy. All her suggestions and tips were super helpful.
The transfers were all on time and comfortable and the excursions and guides were amazing, especially our Wine Tour in Tuscany.
Planning our trip with KimKim took a lot of pressure and worries out of the process and made our trip that much more enjoyable. During the trip, if we had any questions, Melanie was always just a text away and she always responded immediately.
I would definitely use KimKim again or recommend them to anyone planning a first time trip to Italy.

Activity Reviews

Ferrari Museum Tour

Italy

The Ferrari museum tour is a fun experience for any car lover. You can take as much time as you like and there are options to do the simulator for an extra cost. I didn’t do it but it looked super fun.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

The Accademia Gallery and Uffizi Masterclass Experience

Florence

The Accademia and Uffizi gallery tours were excellent. I wasn’t sure if I was going to enjoy them but I’m so glad we added it to our trip. We had the best guide for the Uffizi tour and I couldn’t imagine going through that gallery without one. There is so much to see but our tour guide gave us all the history behind the museum and showed us all the most important paintings and exhibits. Seeing David in person was surprisingly emotional and he is amazing!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Olive and Wine Tasting in Tuscany Countrtyside

Italy

This was one of my favourite experiences of our trip. We had such a great group of people on our tour and the 3 wineries we visited were beautiful. We had a great driver and the whole day was amazing. Highly recommend!

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Boat tour along the Amalfi Coast

Sorrento

We had a private cruise along the Amalfi coast. Our driver spoke little English so he was a little difficult to communicate with but we managed. The itinerary was a little different than what was listed. I wish we got to actually get off the boat in Positano but we just cruised by. We only got 20 mins in Amalfi but we had an amazing lunch in Priano at this restaurant called Il Pirata which the company booked for us in advance. We ended up asking to stay there for an extra hour to swim on a Little Rock beach that was so cute otherwise we weren’t sure if we were going to get to swim at all.

Quality of Experience

I wish the tour had more stops and the boating time was at a quicker pace.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Colosseo and Roman forums adventure

Rome

This was a great tour and our guide was amazing. She had a lot of knowledge and made the tour very interesting. It was so cool to learn of all the history behind the Colosseum and the Forum.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff