Trip My France

Another perfect trip arranged by Josee!
This was my second trip to France arranged with KimKim - the support and service have been so remarkable we already have a third trip planned.
The selection of accommodations are excellent. In Paris with so many beautiful boutique options, Josee provided a select few to choose from all perfect for my identified needs and wants. So perfect it’s hard to pick but you cannot go wrong in the end.
The reliability and security of the arranged transportation is my favourite feature.
On this trip we had a chocolate and pastry tour of Saint Germain des Pres- which was so much fun. The pastries featured were outstanding! So much so my daughter went back the following day to try some treats again! We lucked out and were the only two in our group which made it feel like we were walking around with a friend not a guide!
We spent a lovely rainy day in touring Reims and the Champagne region! Despite the downpour all day it was so much fun.
The hand selected activities offered to us by Josee were perfect for our trip. This was my daughter’s first trip to Paris… and will not be her last.. she fell in love with Paris… with a large part of that reason due to the perfect itinerary arranged for her! It was a perfect trip, thanks so much for them memories KimKim!

Hotel Review

Hotel La Bourdonnais - Tour Eiffel

Paris

Great location… a few minutes walk to the Eiffel Tower but tucked away so you were not in the chaos of the Eiffel Tower.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Saint-Germain-des-Prés Pastry and Chocolate Tour

Paris

This was perfect! Lovely tour guide, the pastures and chocolate tasted far exceed our expectations and I think we had 9 stops! Everything was the best ever! Our biggest surprise treat was Aux Merveilleux… this is a must try!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Nighttime Seine River Cruise with Dining Experience

Paris

We enjoyed this experience so much last year - was a highlight of last years trip.. I wanted to share with my daughter on this year’s trip. Unfortunately, while still enjoyable I would say the food quality was less than last year, the live entertainment was good- but so loud. It was a struggle to hear my daughter across our small table for two.. and she struggled to hear me so it was not just my aging ears! Service was fast.. and efficient but not as pleasant than last year. When we arrived back at the dock there was approximately 25 people hovering around the door to waiting to disembark, we were 2 of them. This was not the case last July when we took the same cruise. The boat is comfortable and enjoyable to be on.. and the cruise in the evening is a beautiful ride.

Quality of Experience

Food

It was obvious food had been plated hours before, you could see a change in colour and skin on outside of cold food as if it had been exposed to the air for sometime. I had the veal as a main, which was cold.. cold to the touch even. I did not send back as our waiter never returned.

My husband and brother in law teamed up on planning this trip with KimKim support and their close coordination with Clothilde was essential. The hotels were well located and for the most part the service staff were charming and kind. Our guides and drivers: Fernando in Zurich, Mateo in InterLaken, and the 2 gentlemen from Zermatt to Geneva (from Alps transfer) were prompt, knowledgeable, and engaging, as was Aude who was beyond kind. The concierges at Lucerne- Patrick, Isabelle and their colleagues gave us excellent recommendations to spend our time in the lovely city and where to dine for an authentic experience.
Some suggestions on improved communication:
1. emails - when informing customers of changes, it would help to specify what items have been changed in the body of the email itself, rather than have the customer check the 11 page itinerary against the last version, for what could possibly have changed. for example, "Dear Customer, we are enclosing an updated itinerary with the following changes:
page 1 paragraph 2 line 4, Please note that pick up time has changed as the local tour company does not have availability at 10:00 am. Instead, your local city tour will start at 2:00 PM pm on the same day."
2. for airport pickups it might help to instruct travelers about specific locations to meet drivers - our pickup was on the lookout at one end of the airport and we were at another. It could help to be specific - "upon exit from the double doors take the exit to the left where your pick up will meet you next to the cafe illy sign (example)". It would save time and the cost of calls.
3. Inconsistencies between itinerary and vouchers based on last minute changes between the company, its distributors or local contacts need to be coordinated by you and not your customer as that is an expected part of service.
4. The hotel Bristol was wonderfully located and was clean and offered excellent value. The lady in registration expected us to have signed in online but that expectation was not communicated to us ahead of time. The pad offered to accomplish the online check in was nonfunctional and the staff's frustration with the technology reflected in their treatment of the guests. Our pick up was scheduled for 9 am, but we were told we were late at 8:30 - it turns out our driver had also just called them to inform them they would be at the pick up at exactly 9 am. We objected to a drop off at the train station as we needed to meet our driver at the pick up for private vehicles. This showed a clear lack of coordination unexpected of a professionally run travel outfit.
These minor irritations are all fixable with personal attention, interest and care. We are hopeful KimKim can address these issues .

Justine was amazing...terrific, flexible and easy to work with. There were some issues with prepayments that we encountered but Justine took care of those for us. I think it would be helpful to have one zoom prior to the start of the trip to understand all of the bookings. We had an issue with Hertz that was due to not understanding what was booked. I'm sure it was in writing somewhere but there was a lot of verbage to go through...sometimes it is easier to discuss the info. Overall, just great!

The guides were all very friendly and informative. The chauffeurs were all on time and very helpful aswell."

All the tour guides were VERY knowledgeable and super friendly.
We especially enjoyed the Nice part of our tour and Xavier as our guide.
Resihome in Nice was not as nice as we hoped.
Marriot was nice and the staff very friendly.
Train ride was ok. Difficult to navigate due to our large luggage and inexperience traveling on trains. Would prob prefer not to travel via train in the future.