Sandy Ren

All the guides assigned to our group of 4 were excellent, however special mention goes to Mizuho in Kyoto and Cherry in Osaka who were just superb and gelled effortlessly with us.

Sandy’s organisation for the entire trip was second to none and anything asked however small was no problem for her to review or organise.

We just returned from an excellent two week trip to Japan organized by Sandy san of Odynovo in Japan, through kimkim! Some highlights were biking the Shimonami Kaido, spending the night in a ryoken on Miyajima with multi-course Japanese meals included, visiting the Hiroshima Peace Park and Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, plus the cherry blossoms, temples and shrines, and beautiful terrain. We had a mix of time on our own, group, and private tours.

The group tours were through Magical Trip: Kaiori san for the Hiroshima Peace Park and Fuji san for the Tokyo foodie tour were excellent. The groups were generally small, like 5-6 guests. Those were a lot of fun and well planned, and we learned a lot.

Our private guides Chinami san in Hakone, Hisako san in Kyoto, and Yuki san in Kanazawa were all knowledgeable and easy to be with. We ended up canceling one tour in Kyoto because we just needed a break, but since it was too late to get a refund, Jun san still showed up to drop us at the train station, and we instantly liked him too and felt a little sad that we missed his tour. The private tours can be interactive and customizable and are a great opportunity to learn more than you would on your own.

Accommodations and travel within Japan that were arranged by Sandy were all well planned. We had shinkansen tickets with luggage space reserved for most of the hops, and hired taxis between train station and hotel (easy!). Twice during the trip we shipped our checked luggage ahead with the help of hotel staff. The first time was required so we could do an overnight on bikes, the second time was just to avoid the hassle of big luggage on the ferry to Miyajima, although we probably would have been fine taking it with us.

We would probably do a couple of things differently next time:
1) On the Shimonami Kaido, we should have brought along a multi-tool so we could adjust the bikes along the way, and we had too much stuff in our backpacks. WAKKA turned out to be an excellent resource for us - super kind and helpful people who do bike taxi and rental returns, among other services for bike riders in that area.
2) We got excellent mileage from the tiny bit of Japanese we learned for the trip, which increased our enjoyment. Although we never really had any trouble communicating with the locals, we would like to learn more Japanese for next time.
3) We might spend more time in each location next time. Although this trip was a good first trip because it gave us a kind of overview of the highlights of Japan, it would have been nice to do more exploring in each location.

There are so many things to love about Japan (the food, the natural beauty, the public transportation, the clean cities), but I think what we will remember the most is the many kindnesses we received from random people, not just people in the hospitality business. For example, while biking we took a wrong turn and an older gentleman on a motorcycle stopped to tell us we were probably going the wrong way, then insisted that he meet us down the road to take our picture near a landmark! Japanese people are just so nice in general - at least that was our experience.

Anyway, kimkim and Sandy san took very good care of us. There is no way we would have had this good of a time if we had booked everything on our own.

Interactive development and tailoring of trip itinerary was excellent. Communications during trip were excellent. Local guides were excellent.

Hotel Reviews

Asakusa Tobu Hotel

Authenticity & Character

Authenticity & Character

Location

Location

Staff

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Cleanliness & Comfort

Lake Biwa Otsu Prince Hotel

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Daiwa Roynet Hotel Kyoto Terrace Hachijohigashiguchi

Kyoto

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Sheraton Grand Hiroshima Hotel

Hiroshima

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotel Forza Osaka Kitahama

Osaka

Authenticity & Character

Authenticity & Character

Location

Location

Staff

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Cleanliness & Comfort

Sotetsu Grand Fresa Takadanobaba

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Full Day Tokyo City Tour with Shinjuku Gyoen (cherry blossom)

Tokyo

Quality of Experience

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Transport

Full Day Arashiyama Bamboo Grove & Sagano Scenic Railway

Kyoto

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Chase Cherry Blossom in Osaka with Osaka Castle

Osaka

Quality of Experience

Transport

Osaka Private & Personalised Local Food Tour

Osaka

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Full Day Mt. Fuji with Lake Kawaguchi, Oshino Hakkai and Oishi Park

Tokyo

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Kimono Tea Ceremony at Kyoto Maikoya

Kyoto

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Full Day Nara City Tour, Overnight in Osaka

Kyoto

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Full Day Miyajima Island and Memorial Park Tour

Hiroshima

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

This trip was amazing! I personally like to research/plan my travels but life was hectic beforehand and having someone assist with our travel planning based off our preferences was amazing. The fact it was not much more expensive than doing it ourselves is always a plus. Also, the itinerary layout and portal for KimKim was very straightforward and was always helpful to look at when referring to travel events/timing. I loved how flexible your company is as well, accommodating to our “budget” travel style and self guided events so we could do what we wanted at each location without having to worry about booking timing/tour guides.

We really enjoyed the assistance Sandy provided, she booked domestic travel, checked us in, sent our boarding passes/tickets to us, and provided clear descriptions of where to meet our private transfers at each location! She was even helpful of providing information for where to meet family friends and websites that can help with reserving tables. Sandy was also very responsive the whole trip, helping us get our questions answered as well as being prompt with rescheduling/refunds as our trip changed.

A few points I think Kaelyn mentioned internally, but worth noting here:
-we had to ask Sandy for times of private transfers, reservation #’s, and timing of domestic travel. We didn’t have this info very close to our departure date, and it may have been provided around that time, but I’m sure other people would feel the same of wanting this info a bit beforehand.
-originally, when Sandy booked the Sapporo beer museum tour it said food was included, but the day that we booked it the food was closed all along, not sure how Sandy missed it, but we had to eat lunch somewhere else. Not a huge deal, our local guide Kana was very helpful with this and recommended a great soup curry restaurant that was probably our favorite meal of the trip. Also, Sandy/Kana figured out the refund for the Sapporo beer museum to be applied to our lunch which was great to not have to worry about.

Overall, I would recommend KimKim to most people. This was mine/my wife’s first experience with a travel agency as well, so there were some things that were confusing to us, but overall the trip ran very smoothly and a lot of stress was eliminated because of KimKim’s/Sandy’s assistance! I would definitely consider doing a trip through KimKim again. Thank you!

Hotel Reviews

Niseko Northern Resort Annupuri

niseko

You could tell it was an older building, but still a great vibe, good rooms, amazing that it had restaurants/breakfast on-site! It was a bit farther away from everything else in Niseko, almost an hour bus ride to the main village which we didn’t know. It would be nice if this place had a free shuttle to the village as the local bus took a while and was honestly expensive (so was the taxi service), which added up over the couple days. The fact that it was ski in/ski out was the highlight, also each room had their own ski locker which was amazing!!

Authenticity & Character

Location

Nothing, it is just far away from the main village/restaurants.

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

They made our beds everyday and gave us fresh towels, awesome!

The TOURIST HOTEL AND CAFE AKIHABARA

Tokyo

Amazing breakfast, and delicious coffee. We would stay here again.

Authenticity & Character

Very modern and clean.

Location

Right near electric city, great central location.

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Review

Half-day Sapporo City Discovery with Genghis Khan BBQ and Sapporo Beer Tasting

Sapporo

We thought this was a brewery tour not museum tour. And the food was closed. This may have been our fault for not researching when booking, but was fun to learn the history nonetheless.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

KimKim planned an incredible trip to Japan for my family. We (me, my spouse, my son (11) and daughter (8)) spent 12 days total in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Hakone. KimKim took care of all the details for us, from planning the itinerary to arranging transportation to finding lots of fun activities for my kids. The real highlight of the trip was a last-minute food tour we threw on the itinerary in Osaka. The guide was incredible and so great with the kids. We went to phenomenal little holes in the wall to try local foods, and visited interesting sites along the way. My kids, both of whom are fairly picky eaters, said the food tour was their favorite part of the trip.

Overall, just a fantastic experience. Everything worked perfectly, the KimKim team was responsive and helpful. I just can't recommend KimKim enough. I'm looking forward to the next trip I can book with them!