Sun Pyramids Tours

It was difficult to connect with my trip planner in Cairo. Only working through the KimKim website worked well. Phone calls were difficult to connect and difficult to understand. Not enough information is included in the .pdf provided with the itinerary. It is provided too late not giving us time to check on company names. There was no listed company providing the “Luxury Dinner Cruise of Dubai”. Our guide pulled a switch on us and we had an inferior experience. We did not recognize that we had been put on a different boat because we had no name for the company. By the time we realized what happened it was over. The trip planner said we should have reported it right away but if someone is speaking another language and it just “seems” wrong how could I report it. It was also after work hours. We missed out on what was probably a $100/person dinner with hotel transfer for a lousy pontoon boat with cold food and music loud enough for hearing damage. I feel cheated on that one.
Our tour of Abu Dhabi went well until our guide wanted to end the day before we saw two things we had tickets for: The Presidential Palace and the Etihad Tower. He said we didn’t have time. I texted our trip planner immediately and she made sure we got what we paid for. We got back to Dubai at 8:30 pm. The guide substituted a tour of Emirates Palace Mandarin Oriental Abu Dhabi instead thinking I wouldn’t notice one palace for another. A hotel is a hotel not a palace.
The hotel upon check in had our name wrong from the agent. We got twin beds instead of a King as they were fully booked and only assigned on check in. Our agent never said this. We assumed we would get what we paid for. The hotel said the room prices were the same. If it’s the policy of the hotel to assign rooms on check in I should have been told ahead of time. On the whole I felt we overpaid for the experience

Hotel Review

DoubleTree by Hilton Dubai Al Jadaf

Dubai

Type of bed only assigned on check in. If you want a King bed for certain pick another place. Otherwise the hotel was nice.

Authenticity & Character

Modern

Location

Staff

No complaints

Cleanliness & Comfort

Very good

Activity Reviews

Dubai Heritage Land Rover Desert Safari with Traditional Dinner

Dubai

The experience was great and lots of fun. A good view of desert culture. I did not like that my only water source was a gift thermos. They were filled from a big wrapped container. I made a mistake in drinking from it or eating food from the Luxury cruise. One or the other made me ill.

Quality of Experience

The atmosphere of the desert

Food

Better water please

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Dubai full day tour with Entry ticket to Burj Khalifa at the Top

Dubai

Please be aware that the line to get into the tour was 1 hour 45 minutes long with no where to sit. I’ve been told it can be longer. The view took all of 15 minutes long to see then a 20 min. Line to go back down. It was interesting but not essential.

Quality of Experience

Offer the premium entry

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Driver's English not great. Looked up facts to tell us while driving

Transport

Dubai Luxury Canal Dinner Cruise

Dubai

This was a disaster. We think our guide did a switch on us changing our ticket for a lesser boat. ( or not buying it at all). We were on a two deck pontoon boat with plastic garden chairs, warm water and inferior food that did not even keep up with the local women and kids who attacked it like the last meal. The music was deafening and I had to cover my ears waiting for the food line. The entertainment was a Disney style LED lighted Sufi dancer that shames the religion. The GI issues I got in Dubai probably came from this lukewarm food buffer. We didn’t realize we were being taken to the wrong boat. The guide lied multiple times. He gave it away at the end contradicting himself. We felt cheated of this experience. The company name was not on the .pdf given to us nor a photo of the boat we should have been on. It’s like going to a party with no address

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Guides who take you where you are supposed to go

Transport

Abu Dhabi Full-Day Sightseeing Tour from Dubai

Dubai

This was amazing because we fought to see the Presidential Palace that we paid for. Our guide substituted the Emirates Palace and was going to skip the Etihad Tower. This time I was more careful about our itinerary and contacted my trip planner. She had the guide take us to the two sites we had paid for. We got back to Dubai late but we were glad not to miss the real Presidential Palace which was spectacular. The Etihad Tower had no line. This was a better experience than in Dubai

Quality of Experience

Food

Only a mall fast food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Fine until he tried to bring us back to the hotel without completing the itinerary we paid for.

Transport

Timing of events was not ideal even though we gave our information ahead of time. We had to pay for additional items that were supposed to be included. Tour guides were great and reliable.

I have planned several trips through kimkim and this by far was the worst. the communication was poor. here are some examples
1. we never got an updated itinerary with exact times
2. we did not received contact info about the driver or tour guides
3. the tour described by the agent were not the same as what was provided
4. we were supposed to go directly to the dessert from the airport. instead we were taken to the hotel through dense traffic and one hour late for our tour
5. our trip to burj khalifa was booked during a scheduled dinner
6. we ended up paying for several things which were supposed to be provided: burj khalifa and monorail tickets

based on this experience, we are not sure if we willl use kimkim again

Hotel Review

JW Marriott Marquis

Dubai

love the hotel

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Red dune Desert safari without dinner & with camel ride

Dubai

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Dubai full day tour with Entry ticket to Burj Khalifa at the Top

Dubai

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Initially there was poor communication regarding additional tours requested by us but they were sorted out via Aya just before we checked in for our flight from Addis Ababa. It lead to Mohamed waiting for us on arrival while we took personally arranged transport to our hotel for the firts night. We have assumed (maybe wrongly) that the first night stay was not included in our trip cost.
I'm a bit unsure regarding the "local specialist" as the Tour Guide who collected us from the Novotel Cairo Airport hotel and took me took the market on the first day was diappointing as he was not providing any guidance/information regarding landmarks as we drove to the market and/or around the market itself at all.
All our other guides were exellent. As they were all named Mohamed in one form or another I would rather refer to the location. The guide for Luxor was the best of all followed by the one in Cairo and lastly the one in Aswan.

Hotel Reviews

Pyramids Park Resort

Giza

The room itself and service was good. However, the sound proofing of the door to the room was very poor which resulted in noisy nextdoor guests, who were coming and going all night, kept us awake and spoiled our stay. We were tired and could not enjoy our visit to Egypt (Aswan) the following day.

Authenticity & Character

Modern but no special caracter. Could have been in any city.

Location

Very far from the Cairo International Airport. Close to the Giza Pyramids though.

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

The sound insulation was poor as stated elsewhere in the review.

Obelisk Nile Hotel - Aswan

Aswan

We enjoyed the location on the Nile. Our room was comfortable and felt private.

Authenticity & Character

Felt as if you were part of the life on the Nile and the local urban life when you visit the backstreet shops virtually accross the road.

Location

Location on the Nile and within walking distance from local shops.

Staff

Very friendly and helpful.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Ibrotel Luxor

Luxor

We enjoyed the atmosphere of the location on the Nile.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Location on the Nile and views from the poolside deck while enjoying sundowners.

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Tour to Pyramids, National Museum, and The Egyptian Museum

Cairo

Our guide was very professional and knowledgible. We learnt a lot regarding Egypt and the pyramids from him.

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Tour to High Dam, Philae Temple, and Obelisk

Aswan

The guide was too self-important and repeated the same facts endlessly. We nevertheless gained a lot of knowledge regarding the area and venues.

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Trip To Abu Simbel By Coach

Aswan

We did not go on this tour as we were tired from our stay in Cairo and the very early departure to Aswan from Cairo. Was not prepared for a successive day starting at 3:00.

Quality of Experience

Did not go.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Did not go.

Transport

Did not go.

Transfer from Aswan to Luxor Via Kom Ombo and Edfu

Egypt

Exellent . The best guide of our trip to Egypt. Extremely knowledgible and professional. Respected the privacy of his guests and did not make frivalous talk about private matters. Learnt a lot from him.

My family’s experience with Dubai left us with some good memories but not a place we would revisit. It started off with me telling our Kim Kim agent, Habiba, the wrong arrival date. This lead to her scrambling to rebook everything which is credit to her and my fault.
The booked events left something to be desired with a combination of tourist traps that were often backed by cold service.
Mr Zain gave us the city tour our first day and it felt very canned with short stops to pop out and snap a picture, then move on to the next spot. It didn't factor our personal interests and showed poor use of time. We got swindled by a vendor he personally took us to which was a head scratcher.
The safari experience epitomized tourist traps with a super lame quad ride on the dunes which we upgraded to side by sides at a significant expense. We had to follow a guide around who drove a quad on a path through the dunes making us feel like….tourists. The SUV trip our driver/guide took us on the reach the dinner spot was the highlight showing some very skilled and daring driving giving us a thrill. At the dinner location was a camel ride that amounted to one circle about 50’ in diameter. Every step along the way this evening provided opportunities to pay for pictures that were constantly being snapped throughout the desert safari embodying the tourist trap vibe.
We got to see the Burj Khalifa on another event which was worthy.
Durgesh (worked directly for Navita tours like Mr Zain) drove us to several events displaying a great personality and genuine interest in us having a quality experience. He personalized some unscheduled detours once he knew our interests.
My summary: Dubai has some pretty amazing food, especially Indian, a super conservative culture (good luck getting alcohol at a store on New Years Eve), and lots of mind boggling wealth. It felt like a combo of Vegas, Scottsdale, and Salt Lake City with a super conservative and mostly cold Middle East-Arabian/Muslim twist.

Activity Reviews

Dubai Marina Yacht Guided Tour with Breakfast or BBQ & Sunset

Dubai

Nice Indian guys who drove us around the protected inside water offering a great unique very of the city. The captain shared his personal beer when they saw my disappointment there was no alcohol served.

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Dubai full day tour with Entry ticket to Burj Khalifa at the Top

Dubai

We separated the Burj experience on a different day than the city tour. Burj great, city tour not so much.

Quality of Experience

Our driver on the city tour (Mr Zain) was cold and condescending.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Great driver to Burj, lousy city tour guide.

Transport

Two different drivers leaving contrasting experiences.

Desert Safari, Quad Bike, Camel Ride & Al Khayma Camp

Dubai

Tourist trap.

This was a dream-come-true. Very impressed with the talented, well-informed guides(Mrs. Walaa Farah, Mohab Ahmed, Mohammed) who accompanied us every day and brought history to life. The Nile river cruise was very, very relaxing. Thank you Kimkim.

Hotel Reviews

Royal Great Pyramid INN

Giza

Loved the warmth of every receptionist and associates. Breakfast was great with a lot of variety.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Wish the hotel was closer to some shopping.

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Royal elite Nile cruise

Aswan

Loved the associated who decorated our room with charming towel characters every day. Food was great.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Trip to Pyramids, Memphis, and Sakkara with riding a camel

Egypt

Quality of Experience

Our guide, Mrs. Wallah Farah was excellent.

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Check-in on Board/Visit East bank

Luxor

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

guide was excellent. Impressed that any guide at different places were aware of our whole plan and was able to assist even remotely.

Transport

Day Tour to El Fayoum

Egypt

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Tour to National Museum, Moez St. and Khan El-Khalili

Cairo

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Luxor West Bank

Luxor

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Edfu, and Kom OmboTemples

Aswan

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Tour to Alexandria

Egypt

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Abu Simbel Temple

Aswan

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Tour to High Dam, Philae Temple, and Obelisk / Check out

Aswan

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Tour to Egyptian Museum, Citadel, and Coptic Cairo

Cairo

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport