Monika Vinsova

Monika, we can’t thank you enough for helping us plan a trip of a lifetime. After a couple itineraries, you were able to put together one that fit exactly what we were looking for. We got to see the beautiful South Island of New Zealand by doing the “fly-cruise-fly”, renting a car, glamping and multiple hikes/walks. We had an amazing time!!!

Our Travel Pro, Monika, was very patient with us while we worked through the itinerary for our New Zealand trip. In fact it took us (not Monika) 3 months to finally settle on the detailed schedule. We just kept asking questions and Monika developed options for us to consider. In the end her original itinerary was close to what we chose; well we added a few excisions and some of the hotels and B&B's changed.

I will say all the options Monika provided were excellent. Monika was very responsive to reschedules (due to weather) and in fact moved an excursion up a day, to keep us on schedule and allow us to do a challenging hike the next day that got cancelled because of weather.

If I had one recommendation to the reader, 16-days is not enough; if you are driving. We saw many highlights and are already thinking of our next visit to New Zealand. Monika was very cognizant of the travel times and provided us guidance to minimize our hours on the road and provide useful, fun, entertaining, & amazing stops along the way.

Monika will be our go-to for our next New Zealand adventure. It was so helpful having a local (she is based in Queenstown) expert.

Thanks,
Tom T

Hotel Reviews

Naumi Hotel Wellington

6141

Quirky mid-town hotel.

Authenticity & Character

Quirky, what more is there to say! In a really good way.

Location

Well except the parking, but we were RIGHT DOWN TOWN

Staff

Pointed us to a few interesting things to see.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Great bed and linens

Kamana Lakehouse

Queenstown

Excellent location, great view of the lake. Great Staff

Authenticity & Character

It is called Lakehouse and it didn't disappoint with the Lake Views

Location

Staff

Came to get us when one of our excursion drivers showed up early!

Cleanliness & Comfort

The staff was responsive to a messy towel day

M Social

Auckland

Modern Hotel in the middle of everything! The first 2 days we just walked everywhere we needed to go.

Authenticity & Character

Modern and Modern

Location

Right on the waterfront

Staff

Helped with some tech issues and made recommendations

Cleanliness & Comfort

just great

Beaufort House Akaroa

Akaroa

The hostess and host were excellent and this is an incredible B&B

Authenticity & Character

French town with this chateau feel

Location

Small town and this was a walk to the waterfront.

Staff

Excellent Omlete

Cleanliness & Comfort

These linens I really want to know where they get them, was unbelievable comfortable!

Activity Reviews

Redwoods treewalk by night

Rotorua

Just fun and interesting in the evening!

Starlight Gourmet Kayak Tour - Glowworm Caves

Rotorua

Really glowworms only exist in 3 locations in the world, our guide was excellent and we really enjoyed the adventure.

Zealandia - Night Tour

Wellington

Everyone should do this excursion because it tells you about how New Zealand is reintroducing native birds.

Fly Cruise Fly – Queenstown to Milford Sound by scenic flight

Queenstown (NZ)

Everyone has pictures of Milford, but you need to experience it yourself!

Working with Monika was a pleasant experience. She did a phenomenal job helping us plan our trip. Once we arrived in New Zealand we had a few changes to our itinerary due to weather and Monika was quick to respond and help us with our updates. We would highly recommend working with Monika if you are looking to travel to New Zealand.

Knowing what I know now, I will never use Kim Kim again. To be fair, it has a market. If you aren't willing to do any trip planning and want someone to do everything for you for a 50% mark up, then Kim Kim is the tool for you. My main complaint: if a company is unwilling to give you an itemized bill for what they are charging you, then it is at least in a grey zone in terms of scams.

I stumbled upon this service when trying to plan our honeymoon to New Zealand and Fiji. I was simply looking for things to do and before I knew it, I had a lovely Kiwi helping me plan a trip. The time zone challenge was not her fault and to be fair we were running up against the clock for a popular holiday time in New Zealand. This made communication difficult. I felt rushed and that all my feedback into proposed itineraries was not acknowledged. For example, I wanted to use Marriott points, but I'm sure they don't have a deal with that brand and couldn't make money off it so they kept pushing us elsewhere. I felt pressured to do things I had zero interest in doing. They weren't able to book a rental car so I had to do that myself anyways. I think my main frustration was being in the dark of what we were paying for. I asked for a itemized bill, but they would only give total cost. So when we would remove things from our itinerary and our price didn't go down correspondingly, a lot of red flags were going off in my head. My wife and I literally booked the final itinerary separately and saw just how much we were paying for the service. We ended up going along with it out of guilt for the time spent by our specialist than anything else.

The Good: accommodations were great, insight into what activities were available, and ideas.
The Bad: everything else

Hotel Reviews

M Social

Auckland

Super cool with a robot butler. Loved it

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Tongariro Suites

Horopito

Staff was the highlight. Loved everything about this place. Very homely

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

QT Wellington

Wellington

Botique but odd. Not my cup of tea, but memorable

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

The Martinborough Hotel

Martinborough

Super cute

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Waiheke Explorer Hop-On Hop-Off Tour

New Zealand

Must do in Auckland

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Star Safari Group Tour

New Zealand

Super cool just pray for no clouds

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

I drove

Ahi Restaurant - 4 snacks and 4 courses

Auckland

Good but not great

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Monika did a great job thinking through the pacing of our trip. This was a last minute decision to go to New Zealand, we only had a week, and we were pretty tired so not up for a lot of driving.

Because it was high season Monika told us from the start that she couldn't book a South Island trip for us since their service providers were already booked up. While we had to limit ourselves to the North Island, we wish she had suggested some off the beaten path options such as going North from Auckland for a day or two. The advantage of booking with an agent is that you are all set and don't need to think about it when you travel - the disadvantage is that you are all set, and it's hard to adjust when you learn about things that you might rather like to do. That said, Monika was mostly available throughout the trip and made some effort to try to accommodate us.

There were some snafus with the trip:

1. The instructions that Monika provided to us once we booked the trip were difficult to decipher. There were two PDFs: One had the vouchers with the times and the location for pick up and the second was the "Travel Book" with day to day activities and descriptions, but no times or pick up locations. In order to figure out what we were doing, we had to toggle back and forth. Also neither PDF gave us an indication of how far the activity is from our hotel, leaving us to figure out on our own how much time to leave. With the extra surcharge that KimKim charges, I had expected better.

2. Because of the difficulty in making sense of the logistics of the itinerary, we didn't realize until the last minute that Kim Kim had failed to provide transport to our evening kayak trip in Rotoura which was 35 minutes from our hotel. I had to figure it all out on Google maps and when I did I called an Uber. Only when we were in the Uber did Monika get in touch to say that there was a mistake and that she would reimburse me for the Uber. But that again made for unnecessary stress.

3. We loved the evening kayak trip and our guide, but the description had some errors. Besides not arranging for the service provider to pick us up, the Travel Book (or Voucher) told us to arrive at the launch spot 20 minutes early. When we got there 20 mins early we didn't see anyone - they arrived at the start time instead and told us they never stipulate arriving 20 mins early. Finally, the even is billed as providing a "gourmet BBQ with special Kiwi dessert." It was a basic BBQ with no dessert.

4. Monika didn't ask me during the planning whether we are into adventure sports. The Mt. Tawarera crater walk near Rotoura is very cool, but as soon as we got the launching spot and I saw what it was, I decided not to do the walk. I am afraid of heights and not at all interested in walking on the ledge of steep crater in the wind and rain. My daughter went ahead but was only able to get through it by holding on to the back of the only guide. So a little more communication from Monika around our adventure tolerance level and what is involved in each activity would have been better - this turned out to be a wasted day and a wasted expense.

5. For the final day Monika had not planned anything and provided no options even though we had all morning until about 2 pm to do something. When we saw the problem we let her know and she created an option, but told us that it would be an extra expense. We learned, unsurprisingly, that the amount she would charge is 50% more than had we booked it on our own. That's a steep price for this kind of service!

6. Also on the final day, Monika had the car come about an hour early to pick us up which made us have to wait nearly 3.5 hours at the airport for our flight.

All in all, while we were relieved not to have to do all the research on our own and are mostly pleased with the activities Monika set up for us, we are not sure we'd book with Kim Kim again.

Hotel Reviews

The Prince's Gate Hotel

Rotorua

We liked it a lot - good location and nice atmosphere. Our room was small though.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Most of the people were great, except for one woman who's name we don't know.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Sudima Auckland City

Auckland

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Starlight Gourmet Kayak Tour - Glowworm Caves

Rotorua

Quality of Experience

Food

It was okay - Kim Kim billed it as a gourmet BBQ dinner. We were expecting more.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Jamie, our guide, was fantastic.

Transport

Kim Kim forgot to set up travel from our hotel

Mt Tarawera Crater Walk Experience

Rotorua

This is a great experience if you are not afraid of heights and like adventure. Tour agents should be clear with clients about what this is before booking it.

Ahi Restaurant - 4 snacks and 4 courses

Auckland

The food is overrated. Two of the dishes were bad, a few were okay - only one was actually very good. It's located at the end of a cheap food court in a mall, which is odd.

Quality of Experience

Food

Monika did an amazing job of planning our New Zealand vacation and choose the perfect itinary for us to follow during our trip. It felt like we had a good friend who was available to help us during our stay so we never felt concerned abut the trip logistics or other events. There were several times where we needed to make changes to the original plans (weather cancelations, etc) and Monika took care of everything for us so we were able to see everything that we had envisioned.
We particularly liked the many activities she planned in Rotorua and the Hobbiton tour. The Sudima hotels we stayed at in Auckland and Roturua were exceptional.
The Waitakere Resort & Spa was a bit of a disappointment. It seemed like it was in need of significant updating and repairs. The people were very nice and helpful but overall it just seemed very dated.

Hotel Reviews

Auckland City Hotel

Auckland

Our stay at Sudima Auckland City was pleasant. It boasted clean accommodations, friendly staff, and good layout. The hotel's location was perfect and accessible, making our traveling and exploring of the city uncomplicated. However, the breakfast wasn't up-to American taste, but that could just be due to different customs. Overall, the service and facilities were commendable!

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Waitakere Resort

Waiatarua, Auckland

This resort wasn't quite up to our expectations. While it was clean and had promise of nice hikes, and waterfalls, many roads were closed and the hikes were hard to find. The wifi was weak and the hotel felt a bit outdated overall. Despite the resort's potential, it didn't quite live up to its prime. Regardless, it was a clean place to stay!

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Sudima Lake Rotorua

Rotorua

Much like the Sudima Auckland City, the Sudima Lake Rotorua was an excellent place to stay! The location was superb and the staff was extremely friendly. Our rooms were clean and comfortable. The breakfast was similar to the sister location, the bacon came off as a bit raw which was disappointing. Despite this minor hitch in the breakfast, our stay in Sudima Lake Rotorua was pretty good!

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Waitomo Glowworm Caves + Ruakuri cave combo

New Zealand

This activity was truly incredible. Exploring these unique caves was a blend of learning about stalactites and stalagmites and experiencing the wonderful light show created by glowworms. Our tour finished with an unforgettable boat trip in the cave river lit only by the glowworms above. Definitely a surreal and must-try experience!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Mt Tarawera Crater Walk Experience

Rotorua

Walking around the edge of an extinct volcano! Words can't describe the majestic views and raw natural beauty of the crater. The walk was a highlight of our trip and proved to be a thrilling experience!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Redwoods treewalk by night

Rotorua

The night walk through the Redwoods was an incredible, one-of-a-kind experience. The Redwoods were beautifully lit up, creating an enchanting atmosphere. The platforms and bridges made it a unique treetop adventure. This shouldn't be missed!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Hobbiton Movie Set Tour

New Zealand

This was an absolute treat for movie buffs like me. Getting the chance to explore the beautifully recreated Hobbit village from the movies was fascinating. The place was full of the furniture details like in the movies. This addition is new and is something exclusive which made our visit special!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport