Ikshula Weerasinghe

Our guide/driver LaLa was very professional, always on time and drove with great care. The hotels recommended were excellent throughout. We restricted ourselves to the southern part of Sri Lanka which worked well for us as distances between our stops were short but take a long time. We spent a long time sitting in the car where every town looked the same. Sri Lanka is very green and surprisingly to us very clean unlike other similar countries. The people throughout were fabulous, happy smiling faces greeted us everywhere. We enjoyed a lovely holiday, well and efficiently organised and executed.
Would happily recommend Shalindra in Kim Kim who was patient and very efficient in helping us plan this memorable trip.
Best wishes to all.

Great trip and guide and local people who provided services as per the plan

Hotels all good with one exception on the last night when a local disco partied all night preventing sleep. This should have been known easily by Kim Kim with a little bit of research into reviews of the hotel by other people. This hotel should NOT be used again. Very disappointed that our trip conclude on this sour note

Overall a very enjoyable and enlightening trip. A real mix of nature, beautiful scenery, fascinating people, remarkable history, delicious food - and scary driving (not by our driver).
The diversity of the country was surprising - beautiful and relatively clean sandy beaches - better than most you will find in Asia.
The accommodation in general was very good - topped by the historic and immaculately presented Grand Hotel at Nuwara Eliya, although the Deer Park Hotel out close to the ancient remains at Polonnaruwa had a beautiful setting overlooking a broad lake and with interesting features. The only disappointment was the Yala Adventure experience where the glamping tents could have done with some maintenance and the mosquitoes were too friendly.
The history at Polonnaruwa and Lions Rock was amazing - equal to any we have seen elsewhere in the world..
We did enjoy our brief stay in Kandy but found the hotel selected - although providing a beautiful outlook across the broader Kandy area, was just too far out and on a steep incline to allow an easy exploration of this ancient capital. Our program had us somewhat stranded for the afternoon in the hotel when we would rather have been exploring.
The traditional meal preparation provided by some local families was surprisingly good.
Our driver and guide, Shan, we always very well presented, spoke excellent English and thankfully a safe driver - we always felt safe in his clean and modern Prius car. We would have appreciated it more if he had joined us climbing Lion Rock and when we were walking around Kandy and the botanical gardens so we could have learnt more of the history and culture of this intriguing island and its varied people.

We had a great experience with kimkim.

Shalindra was very helpful during the organising phase. He was quick to respond, adapt and had our best intentions at heart.

Our guide, Ossie was just as good. Not only did we get a personal chauffeur but a local who cared greatly about his country. He wanted us to experience Sri Lanka fully (which we did!). The experience wouldn't have been half as good without him!

The hotels selected by the local specialist Shalindra were all good quality and value options. The driver organised through the local specialist was a very experienced driver and a great tour guide with good local knowledge of the history and customs of the area. The trek to the Knuckles Mountain Range was a highlight, we had the expertise of a local guide, tracker and medic all accompany us on the tour. The visit to the local village was a little unorganised, the bike tour was short and not very well explained by our guide, but we had a great lunch in the village and the food was exceptional. We were a little disappointed by the tour of Kandy, which took in a gemstone factory and wood making workshop, which were not part of our original itinerary and were not of interest to us, so felt like a bit of a waste of our time, as we had not requested these stops and would have liked more time in the city. We also were unsure around tipping throughout the trip, as we had spent a significant amount of money already on hotels and food, to then be told by the driver that tipping at least $1000 RP per tour guide was expected this was annoying as we had assumed all tours and guides had already been pre-paid. I would suggest that the tour company should be more upfront about these additional costs, other it seems like there are many hidden costs, that although the tipping is voluntary, we were not made to feel like this was the case. Overall we were happy with the itinerary and tour organizer, but more detail from them around what was covered in the costs and the tours would have been invaluable before we arrived.

As someone who usually plans all my own travel.........I am happy we went with KimKim!
As someone who usually plans all our own (extensive) travels and doesn’t particularly like traditional tours, KimKim’s model intrigued me. I liked that they surveyed the type of trip I was looking for. I loved the fact that they use destination contacts local to the region. I loved the fact that they did all the vetting of guides and accommodations for me. Then, with so many options in my chosen destination and unfortunately a tight time schedule, I appreciated the customization based on all of the above.
We had a wonderful (albeit too short) tour of Sri Lanka. Shalindra listened to us well and put together the exact itinerary we were looking for. He was knowledgeable, communicative and responded quickly to any questions or concerns. He was available for support before and during the trip. Kapila, our guide, was friendly and knowledgeable. He was good company and a very safe driver at what appeared to us to be very challenging road conditions???
We loved the chosen boutique hotels and found the country fascinating. We will return to Sri Lanka to cover more ground when we can allot the amount of time that It deserves. Thanks to all involved.

We had plan to visit Sri Lanka this year, however after the events at Easter time we almost gave up this trip. We are glad we have done it. Just spend 2 weeks in Sri Lanka with Kimkim and I totally recommend it.
We had a great time here and we have visited amazing places. Sri Lanka is an amazing destination that combines awesome nature, landscapes, history, beach and food.
Anoj was great, always helpfull during the trip, making this a wonderful experience.

We had an absolutely amazing Time. Mr. K was a gracious host, extremely knowledgeable, personable and a great conversationalist. I would recommend this trip to anyone.

What an amazing tour. From the moment we considered this trip Shalindra offered assistance. We catered everything to our wants and our dreams were fulfilled. Kapudeh (forgive the spelling) was informative and helpful but also intuitive, giving us time to breath, time to enjoy and time to sit back and watch the amazing scenery of Sri Lanka pass by. Our guide went above and beyond. We stopped where we wanted, ate what we wanted and shopped where and when we wanted. We loved the Leopard Safari, the Elephant Safari and the home cooked meals in a working farm. The tea plantations were amazing. The hotels were all great but our favourites were Deer Park and Fern Gully. Deer because it was first class with first class food (dodgy internet but worth it for the breathtaking location. Fern because it offered an oasis of quiet. The grounds were spectacular and the peace was blissful. With only a couple of rooms, this hotel offered privacy in an old, authentic, colonial building. We met the happiest man on earth who worked there. Shalindra, you offered us a great trip and we received a spectacular one. Thank you

We were do happy we did not cancel out trip to Sri Lanka. The country felt very safe and we loved every minute of it. The Easter Sunday bombings were a terrible blow to this country but we hope in no time tourism will be thriving again.
Our specialist Shalindra was excellent at working with us in developing an itinerary that fit our desired and also our driver Mr Anoj, was great and we felt well looked after.
Thank you very much KimKim team for providing us with a memorable trip.