Kimkim Trip Reviews

I so appreciated Anna-Maria's help in organizing our trip to beautiful Croatia. She did an amazing job adjusting to our requests and was responsive to our needs day to day. She was wonderful and I would recommend her to anyone who is planning a trip to Croatia!

We received great service from Wolfgang when planning our trip to Ireland and England. He provided great options for activities and wonderful hotels with great locations. Everything was really easy to plan and follow-up to questions or issues was always very prompt. The planning and coordination made for seamless travel and we had a great trip.

Hotel Reviews

Hotel Riu Plaza The Gresham Dublin

Dublin

Great location close to all the top spots in Dublin. Service was exceptional and staff was very attentive. Breakfast in the morning was really good.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Location is close to key spots in Dublin.

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Menlo Hotel

Galway

Really nice hotel. Rooms were really comfortable and the staff was helpful. Breakfast was great.

Authenticity & Character

Nice hotel that has rooms that have been updated and were really comfortable.

Location

Easy to access hotel a bit outside the central area of the city.

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Park Plaza London Riverbank

London

Absolutely beautiful hotel with incredible views of London right along the Thames.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Kilbeggan Distillery

Kilbeggan

The tour was great. Our tour guide Rose provided great history of the property and was very knowledgeable about the process. She gave us a great tour.

Quality of Experience

The distillery is quite historic and really beautiful.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Our tour guide, Rose had a wealth of knowledge and answered all of our questions.

Tower of London & Tower Bridge

London

There is so much to see here and so much history it is definitely worth the time.

Quality of Experience

The guides that are available every half hour provide a really good tour. Make sure you see the towers where prisoners were held and the messages they carved into the stone walls.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

We had a phenomenal time on our trip! We had been talking about going to Norway for years, so we had incredibly high expectations, and thanks to Maria, our trip exceeded all of them. We saw so many places we never would have thought of on our own, so I highly recommend getting Kimkim to help plan your trip!

Anna-marie and her colleagues provided a fabulous trip of South Africa to us on 3 weeks notice. It is a long story, but our world cruise was diverted from traversing the Red Sea, and the excursions offered by the cruise line were in about 8 ports averaging 6-7 hours with 22 sea days around Africa. We decided to take vacation from the cruise!

She helped us plan the trip and made reservations at very good to great hotels, camp and resort. She arranged all driving, land excursions, and provided great advice on restaurants and activities.

Our trip to South Africa was pretty much flawless. Anna-marie kept in close contact with us and quickly addressed all questions and concerns. One of our concerns was how my husband could go on a safari with his major back surgeries and his needing a cane to walk. She found a safari camp bordering Krueger National Park where they did accommodate him by not traversing the more typical rough roads. Our guide/driver, who was phenomenal in tracking wildlife, did go off road but was careful to avoid substantial jolting. We saw a lot more than the Big 5 in 3 days, and our driver took us to places where we could sit and watch elephants, lions and other wildlife interact. It was amazing!

When we were to reboard our cruise, there was a Category 9 storm with high wind gusts in Capetown. After the ship tried to dock twice unsuccessfully, I reached out to Anna-marie, and she said that she would help us get hotels and transportation to the next port in Namibia if needed. Thankfully the ship docked on the 3rd try.

The cost of the trip was very reasonable. We felt safe at all times in a country, which unfortunately has a high crime rate. We are very grateful to Anne-marie and her team for providing us with a trip of a lifetime. I have traveled extensively throughout the world, and I can say without hesitation, she is the best travel agent with whom I have ever dealt.

Planning our trip to South Africa, Botswana, and Zimbabwe with Steph at Salty Travel went very smoothly. She accommodated our requests and suggestions and adjusted the proposed itinerary accordingly. All of the flight arrangements and transfers went smoothly without any surprises. The hotels were all extremely comfortable and spacious and activities were very informative, fun, and beautiful.

Our guide in Johannesburg, Tableto, was knowledgeable and friendly. We really enjoyed the day we spent with him touring the Apartheid Museum and Soweto. At Elephant Valley Lodge, our guide, Lebo, was masterful at spotting wildlife in Chobe, and he told numerous stories and shared facts about the animals. We spent 11 days on a garden route roadtrip with Ben as our guide. He was warm and friendly and knew all the insider restaurants and things to do. He's spontaneous, as are we, and the three of us enjoyed starting out each day with minimal plans and taking routes as the mood struck.

This trip was one of the best we've ever taken. The beauty was overwhelming. Thank you, Steph, Tableto, Lebo, and Ben.

We just returned from a tour organized by KimKim and all 4 of us were delighted. None of us had ever hired a private driver/tour guide before when traveling so didn't know what to expect. While not ideal for many places, I highly recommend doing this for first trip to Morocco. We were able to see many cities/locations with ease. Our driver, Saadane, was excellent. A great driver, extremely personable and knowledgeable, kind, easy-going - perfect for us. At no point did we feel anything but spoiled, honestly, with comfortable transport, always fresh water, stops along the way for coffee.

Really good service with good assistance. Hakim was really helpfull und did a great Job!

Hotel Reviews

Hotel Odyssee Center

Casablanca

Ok for 1 night, not the best

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Riad La Perle De La Médina

Fès

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Riad Ksar Ighnda

Ait Benhaddou

Great hotel and location, unluckly the food was the worst of the trip!

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Riad la Clé d'Or

Marrakech

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Riad Madu Desert Camps

Merzouga

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Review

Morning Guided Tour in Casablanca

Morocco

We had a few problem at the start and half of the tour was done by another guide (inside of the Moscow the guide couldn't enter?). The visit of the Medina was however really good

Transport

Driver was the best

We just returned from the most wonderful, stress-free two week vacation throughout Greece (May 4-17, visiting Athens, Mykonos, Santorini, Chania, Heraklion) which was made entirely possible through the assistance of the team at Be a Greek operating within the kimkim interface.

For general context, we are a married, American couple traveling without children. We entered the country May 4th and departed May 17th. Before booking our trip, we had a general understanding of some of the highlights and quote unquote “must-see” spots to visit, but wanted to get an insider’s perspective on how we could transform a simple tourist trip into a once in a lifetime, authentic Greece experience.

Months before we even left, we had two face-to-face sessions with our main contact person, Dimitrios. Dimitrios was a wealth of knowledge on all things Greece and a great communicator throughout the entire process. After discussing the basics such as; what time our flight was arriving, had we traveled to Greece before, what our budget was, and what our “need to see or do” checklist items were; he then dived deep, asking many questions regarding the kind of couple we are and what we like to do for fun. After our first conversation, he generated a mock itinerary comprised of; days spent in each location, travel options between each destination, and the daily plan or “event(s) of the day” so to speak. He then scheduled a follow up meeting where he provided more context for each of the proposed experiences and hotels, asked for our thoughts, and discussed what we thought needed to be added or subtracted. As an example, we originally did not plan on going to Crete, but after discussion with Dimitrios we decided we could not miss it. And those days ended up being some our favorite of the trip!

After finalizing the itinerary, we set up a payment plan for the total to be paid in chunks over the next couple months. Dimitrios then said, “do not worry, we will take care of the rest”. And we took that to heart! In fact, the weeks leading up to our trip coincided with some the busiest portions of our work schedules and we did not even finish packing our suitcase until the moment before leaving for the airport, let alone try to coordinate inter-Greece travel. And our faith was completely rewarded.

Before we delve into the trip itself, a quick aside regarding the ease of travel. As mentioned above, we started in Athens before traveling to Mykonos, Santorini, then Crete (3 days in Chania, 1 day in Heraklion). Upon arrival at each destination we were personally greeted by a driver holding up a sign with our names written out then promptly delivered to our place of lodging. All of our in-country flights and ferries were booked beforehand on our behalf. The Be A Greek team set up a WhatsApp group chat with us before leaving our home and while traveling, they would send us our flight/ferry tickets the day before, along with the next day’s full itinerary (pick up times, helpful info, etc). All of this was entirely seamless without any major delay, allowing us to enjoy spending more time at each destination.

Now delving in to the particulars of the travel days themselves.

We arrived in Athens after a long international flight and were greeted by our personal driver who quickly delivered us to our hotel. In Athens we stayed at the Oniro City. The Oniro had impeccable service staff, great breakfast, and was centrally located to allow us to easily walk to each destination.

That first evening in Athens we were moderately jet lagged and, after exploring a bit, fell asleep rather early and rather quickly. Our first full day we went on the Exclusive Myths and Philosophers Private Guided Walking Tour with Giannis. This was the perfect way to first experience Athens. Giannis was extremely knowledgeable about Greek history and showed us the major highlights of the city, stopping at strategic locations to provide more information and context about what we were seeing. The fun, overarching theme of the tour was the emphasis on the titans of Greek philosophy, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, and how their ideas not only shaped the political landscape of Ancient Greece but also their impact on the Greece we were seeing that day. And on a personal note, Giannis was a really great guy and we thoroughly enjoyed chatting with him about all things Greece, from ancient history to the Greek basketball team’s chances in the upcoming summer Olympics.

The next day was The Acropolis & Acropolis Museum Private Guided Tour with Katerina. Katerina must have given that same tour thousands of time based on her deep knowledge and ability to answer all our obscure, miscellaneous questions, yet she still presented the information with the fascination and wonder of somebody seeing the true marvel that is the Acropolis for the first time. The Acropolis and the Parthenon live up to the hype! The museum is also a great excuse to get out of the sun and is filled with many fascinating artifacts that help provide more context for what we had just seen up on the hill. We had scheduled free time that evening which we used to re-visit some of our favorite spots Giannis showed us our first day.

The next morning we departed for Mykonos by ferry. Upon arrival we were picked up in the port by a personal driver and delivered to our hotel. We stayed at the Argo Hotel, located a 1 minute walk from the pristine beach of Platis Gialos. The Argo was perfectly located and our room was very unique, appearing as if carved out of a giant limestone slab. While staying there, we briefly misplaced a sun hat and after looking all over we turned in desperation towards the employees, asking them to keep an eye out. At this point we assume an entire battalion was sent searching, because the hat was blessedly found at a restaurant near the beach in less than 30 minutes and hand delivered to our room.

The first night and next full day were scheduled free time. We took the advice provided in our Be a Greek itinerary and divided our time lounging at the beach and traveling over to the main town to experience the delightful limestone houses and the charming Little Venice.

The next morning we set off for the Concierge-Class Small-group Sailing Cruise to Delos & Rhenia islands. As always, we were picked up in an already coordinated shuttle from our hotel. We boarded the sailboat with 6 total passengers (us included). I wish I could remember the names of our crew because they were all absolutely fabulous. They had tons of refreshments on board and continued to generously refill our wine glasses while sailing. Our first stop was the small island of Delos where Katerina (our tour guide) gave us a personal tour of the remarkably preserved ruins found on the island while providing many interesting tidbits and asides throughout. After the (~100 minute long) tour we were given half an hour to; explore the rest of the island, climb up Mount Kynthos, and re-visit some of our favorite spots. Once back on board we had a short sail over to a bay nearby the island of Rhenia. While anchored in the most breathtakingly blue water either of us had ever seen, we were given about 2 and a half hours to swim, mingle, and finished our time off with a very tasty, traditional Greek lunch (the Greek salad in particular was incredible). We sailed back and arrived on shore around 4 in the afternoon where our shuttle was waiting to take us back to the hotel.

The next morning we were shuttled to the port and boarded a ferry to Santorini. Upon arrival, our driver (who remained our driver throughout the entirety of our stay in Santorini and was a really great guy) greeted us with a sign bearing our name then drove us to our lodging.

We stayed at the Christou Estate in Pyrgos, a complex made up of individual, secluded villas on a lot filled with well-kept olive trees, overlooking a vast vineyard. We were specifically in the Kota (chicken) Villa. We truly cannot say enough great things about the Christou Estate and the staff working there. After being dropped off, we were greeted at the door by one of the managers who provided us with a map of the island, locations of nearby shops and grocery stores, and recommended several restaurants and things to do/see nearby. Each morning, a vast breakfast filled with delectable Greek staples was personally delivered down to our villa, allowing us to start our day with great food, great coffee, and a remarkable view. During that first conversation with the aforementioned hotel employee, we asked if he could help direct us to where we could do some laundry nearby. He instead asked us to leave everything we wanted to be washed on the bed, then coordinated with the housekeeper to have all our dirty clothes cleaned and folded by the time we came back at the end of the day. The second day, we absent-mindedly left some of our dirty clothes from the day before near the bed before leaving for the day, and returned with these having been cleaned and folded as well. Without any prompting! It honestly felt like staying in our own personal paradise, we did not see another guest our entire time there.

Regarding our activities while on Santorini, our first full day we went on the Santorini Island Discovery Small-group Tour led by Maria (maybe Irene? Sorry we aren’t the best with names). Along with one other couple, we were driven around some of the quaint, small villages scattered across the Santorini countryside and even stopped at several for a closer look at various points of interest, all of which were wonderfully elucidated upon by our tour guide. We were also dropped off at the Akrotiri prehistoric town and were given the opportunity to stroll through the ancient civilization, remarkably preserved following the Minoan volcanic eruption back in ~1600 BC. We finished the tour by stopping at a combination winery/museum/art gallery where we enjoyed a thorough description of the techniques used to make wine in Santorini across the generations while perusing unique and stunning art pieces adorning the walls throughout. This was followed by a Santorini wine tasting led by one of the sommelier’s employed there. Not only was the wine incredible, the sommelier’s passion for both the wine itself and the history of wine-making across Santorini was very evident. This whole morning was a true highlight amongst highlights for us, one of our favorite memories.

We were then dropped off at our hotel and had free time that afternoon. Per the suggestion of our villa manager, we decided to walk all the way from Pyrgos to Oia, traveling along the Fira-Oia walking path. The path wound its way atop the caldera cliffs and through various villages along the 9 mile trek (14.5 kilometers). This is the activity we would probably recommend to future visitors of Santorini above all else. Several hours of absolutely indescribable cliff-top views capped off by watching the sun set over the beautiful blue-topped domes of Oia felt like a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

The next morning, after enjoying another outstanding breakfast only slightly bested by the aforementioned gorgeous views from our villa, we hiked up to Mount Profitis Ilias to see the entirety of the island from the highest point and revel in the architecture of the monastery built up there. Later that afternoon, we were picked up from our villa for the Santorini Caldera Small-group Sunset Cruise with BBQ on board and Open Bar. We were onboard with 10 people, 5 couples (including ourselves). Perhaps even better than the delicious Greek dinner served on board or the incredible views of the island as seen from the caldera, was the phenomenal staff! Led by the catamaran’s captain, Giannis, the entire crew was comprised of wonderful individuals, whom through their insights on various points of interest along our sailing route and general conversation, made the night unforgettable. The unlimited drinks and stunning view of the sunset from the boat didn’t hurt either. We arrived ashore around 8:30 pm and were driven back to our hotel.

The next morning we were picked up from the villa and driven to the Santorini airport for our flight to Chania, connecting through Athens. Perhaps the only slightly negative part of the trip due to bulk of the day being devoted to travel and a prolonged Athens layover, though we are unsure whether earlier flights would have been feasible given our departure time from Santorini. We were picked up at 6 AM and our the flight out of Santorini left around 8 AM. After the ~30 minute flight to Athens we had a ~5 hour layover in the airport. We landed in Chania around 3 PM and were thus unable to make it to our planned event that evening, which was scheduled to begin at 3:45 PM. That being said, we alerted the Be a Greek team when we landed that we would likely not be able to make the event via the WhatsApp group text and within minutes we were offered the same experience for the next evening. This is just one example of how attentive and expeditiously the team handled any minor inconvenience we had throughout our travel.

We stayed at the Mossa Well Being Hotel while in Chania. This wellness themed hotel had so many fun activities available to us, from guided group yoga and even dancing classes, Unfortunately, we were unable to partake in any due to already scheduled conflicting activities. Additionally, we would like to mention another positive interaction regarding the hotel staff at Mossa. We had a scheduled free day planned for our 2nd full day in Chania and, after consulting the “recommended activities on free days” portion of our Be a Greek itinerary, decided we wanted to book a hike through the Samaria gorge. As we were getting ready to leave the hotel to visit Old Chania our first morning there, we offhandedly mentioned our intent to book a hike through the gorge to the front desk staff. They quickly and graciously offered to coordinate the entire experience for us, even arranging for hotel curbside pick up early the next morning and providing us breakfast boxes to take on the bus so that we would not have to buy food on the drive up to the trailhead..

Regarding our time in Chania; after rescheduling our first night’s event, we had a free first evening. We used the time to eat at a taverna with traditional Cretan food nearby our hotel (we ate about two entrees too many!) then strolled along the beach and enjoyed the marvelous sunset. As mentioned above, we also had a free morning in Chania the next day and decided to visit the old city of Chania. The old city was incredibly beautiful and we thoroughly enjoyed walking around down there.

Later that afternoon we were picked up for The Authentic Cretan Cooking Small Group Experience nearby our hotel by Giannis. This experience was shared with 10 other people (12 including us). We are maybe contradicting our earlier claims (it’s hard to pick just one favorite after all), but the evening spent learning about Cretan history and being instructed on how to prepare traditional Cretan dishes was perhaps the absolute highlight of the trip. The class took place in the shadow of the White Mountains outside of a centuries old home in a vast orchard of olive trees. Giannis has lived in Crete for nearly his entire life and his passion for the island and Greece as a whole was infectious. From the moment we stepped on board his van around 3:45 PM to when we begrudgingly had to say our goodbyes around 9:30 PM, he was engaging, informative, and incredibly congenial. He stood by us throughout the entire experience; providing further context of the ingredients we were using, sharing Cretan wines with us, and detailing customs and cultural idiosyncrasies that make Crete such a special place. Giannis ended the evening with a discussion about the history of Crete spanning 50 million years; starting with the shifting of the tectonic plates that precipitated Crete’s emergence from the sea, then swooping through prehistoric civilizations, the Minoans, and the Iron Age, before touching on the Hellenistic, Byzantine, Venetian, and Ottoman eras, and finally detailing the progression of modern Crete up to today. Beyond informative, his words were inspiring and powerful. Furthermore, the women who directed us throughout the cooking class elegantly wove instructions in how to properly prepare the ingredients sitting in front of us with stories detailing the traditions and culture of the island, leaving us with a truly authentic sense of the people who inhabited this place we were so fortunate to be visiting. We will never forget that evening and also just how much olive oil goes into essentially everything consumed on Crete.

The following morning was our Samaria Gorge hike booked through the Mossa hotel. We were picked up by a bus at 6:15 AM and arrived at the trailhead by 7:45 AM. Beginning the trek surrounded by snow capped peaks before descending through a colossal gorge and finally emerging from the mountains to be greeted by a deep-blue ocean view felt like a singularly unique Cretan experience. Basking in the grandeur of this incredibly varied topography within a relatively short 5 hour excursion highlighted the inherent climate diversity which has made Crete such a bastion of civilization for over 100,000 years. After the hike we ate lunch, enjoyed a beer, and toasted to our accomplishment with some much deserved Raki. As Agia Roumeli (the town at the exit point of the gorge) does not have roads which reach its limits, we had to board a ferry to nearby Sougia, where we were then loaded back onto our bus and returned to the hotel.

The next morning we were picked up by our personal driver around 11 AM for a cross-island drive from Chania to Heraklion. We stopped in the small port city of Rethymno along the way to stretch our legs and walk through the old Venetian streets. We arrived in Heraklion around 3 PM. Our driver for the afternoon (we believe his name was Manolis, though not positive) was a funny guy and kept conversation going throughout the bulk of the drive, pausing intermittently to point out worthwhile sights viewable through car windows.

We checked into our final hotel, the Legacy Gastro Suites upon arrival in Heraklion. The hotel was very nice and had a beautiful window view of the port and plateia eleftherias. We had an early check out the next morning after only one night and they graciously supplied breakfast boxes before we left.

Not long after our arrival, we were picked up for the Knossos Palace Small-group Mythological Tour with Katerina. During the winter months, Katerina works as an archeologist uncovering nearby ruins, and as such, she was a wealth of knowledge regarding both the labyrinth itself and the ancient Minoan and eventual Mycenaean inhabitants. After the ~90 minute tour we were driven back to our hotel to begin our final night in Greece.

We were picked up at 7 AM the next morning and driven to the Heraklion airport for our last Be a Greek booked event; that being a flight to Athens. Shortly thereafter we boarded our return flight home.

We cannot express just how much this trip meant to us and it would not have been possible with the efforts of the Be a Greek team. We cannot recommend Dimitrios and his entire staff highly enough. Thank you for making our dream of an authentic Greek experience a reality.

Efcharistó!!

Kendall and Michael

We loved our guide. Sa-ade was very nice and knowledgeable and friendly and made our trip a big success. He also was a great driver. We all loved him!

Jesse planned a very last minute trip for myself, my husband, and our one year old that was wonderful for our family! We felt like we got to see a lot during our 12 day trip but the pace was not so rushed that we were exhausted. I would highly recommend visiting Chile and Argentina, they are beautiful countries with very friendly and kind people. Jesse was there to answer all of our questions and had a very quick response time when we needed a last minute change. We felt confident traveling with the itinerary she planned for us and would do it again in a heartbeat!

Hotel Reviews

Renaissance Santiago Hotel

Santiago

Very nice hotel with a great location and friendly staff.

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Amerian Park Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

This hotel is in desperate need of room upgrades. The door to our room looked like it had been kicked in with marks and debris on the floor and a broken/missing doorstop. We did request to change rooms however the other room the staff showed us looked very similar. The tub/shower was falling apart with pieces of tape across the tile and a moldy and cracked shower handle. Breakfast was included with our stay however the options were very limited and of poor quality. The location very central and the lobby is very modern and up to date which is why I did not give this hotel a one star review.

Location

Cleanliness & Comfort

Very small beds with only one pillow per person. Room needs upgraded and deep cleaned.

Calafate Parque Hotel

El Calafate

Small hotel with a great location for downtown walking and a great breakfast. We did not have a chance to use the jacuzzi/sauna but loved that it was an option.

Hotel Costaustralis

Puerto Natales

Stunning hotel with beautiful waterfront view. Our room looked out over the water and we loved that we could open the window to catch the sea breeze. Breakfast was delicious and the staff were very kind and helpful to us.

Activity Reviews

Full-Day Tour of Torres del Paine National Park & Surroundings

Chile

This was our favorite day of the whole trip with stunning views of Torres del Paine National Park. Our guide was Jhon Pineda and he was super friendly and helpful and took some absolutely amazing photos of our family. He truly went above and beyond to make sure we got the best quality photos and videos and we appreciate him so much. He made sure we were comfortable with our baby all day and always checked on us. This tour cannot be missed!

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Jhon Pineda is an amazing tour guide!

Transport

Alex was our driver and he made sure everything went smoothly for the entire day!

Dinner & Tango Show

Buenos Aires

Amazing food and service with a tango show that was out of this world! The dancers, musicians, and singers are so talented I could have watched them perform for hours! Truly talented!

Food

Large menu to select from and very generous staff who kept the wine flowing!

The trip was wonderful and memorable. Organized, on time, well planned with amazing guides throughout. I am going to be a lifetime Kimkim client. Your planing and services surpassed my expectation.
Luis in Bogota, Sergio in Amazon region, Claudia in Medellin and Kaley in Cartagena were amazing , knowledge able about the area. They went above and beyond to make our experience even more special.

This was our first trip to Europe and we were traveling with our children, ages 11 & 9. Jane and her team could not have been more amazing. Before our trip we met and communicated about our interested and they designed an itinerary that matched our specific family needs. Even the details of where we stayed included our children's interest in Harry Potter. The team designed a trip that was well rounded to meet every individual wants and needs.

When the time came to travel we had very specific directions and timetables of what to do and when. Our tickets were all in an easy to access location as well. When we ran into a snag (completely caused by us), the team was there on a Sunday to help us solve the problem. Jane also checked in with us throughout our week there.

I think our favorite tour was the all day bus tour to Windsor, Bath and Stonehenge. Our guide Toby was fantastic and managed a large group very well.

Another favorite was the Harry Potter Tour in Edinburgh with Kieran. He was knowledgeable, fun and engaging for both kids and adults.

I would absolutely use Kim Kim and Jane again when we return to Europe in the future.

Activity Reviews

Hop-on, Hop-off Bus

London

This was a fantastic way to see so much of London in a short amount of time.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Windsor, Stonehenge & Bath from London

London

This tour was fantastic and our guide, Toby was wonderful. He was knowledgeable about each stop and very helpful. He also did a good job keeping some disrespectful tourists in line so the rest of us could enjoy our time.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Toby was fantastic.

Transport

Afternoon Tea at the Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh

This was planned for our daughter but our whole family completely enjoyed the experience and the food.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Harry Potter Guided Walking Tour

Edinburgh

Kieran was fantastic with our children and the adults. We all thoroughly enjoyed this tour.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Saran was a gem that I found on the website. It was a trip for a family of 3, we had our 21 year old daughter with us. So it had to be the right balance of free time vs arranged tours.. Sarah created a great itinerary that even our daughter said, ok this is not bad 😭. But kidding aside, Sarah patiently changed the itinerary and listened to my needs. She was also available all the time on what’s up when I was asking her questions. Everything was arranged to perfection. We loved Croatia and will be back with our friends !!

It was a very remarkable trip. Everything was planned out perfectly. All the people who had been there for us were very nice and friendly.
Patrica was always available to answer any questions we had.

We had a great trip to South Korea planned by Jessica. She provided a lot of options for activities in each city and made helpful suggestions for things to do and places to go during our free time. She also checked in with us during the trip to see how our day went, and how each of the local guides did.
The local guides were, for the most part, very accommodating to our needs. Jessica provided us with some of their names and phone numbers in advance. But two of them were substituted at the last minute - "Jake" became "James" in Seoul and "Kevin" became "Jake" in Busan. The KimKim website says that their local guides all have years of experience, but Jake told us that he had just started guiding and we were his second tour ever. James' English wasn't that great, so he didn't understand some of the questions that I asked. Clover, our guide in Jeju, was terrific. She modified the tour to our interests and was very easy to chat with. I'm not sure we would have purchased a private day tour of the DMZ had we known that there was a mandatory bus within the DMZ area that all tour groups had to use. Jones, our guide, was very nice, but he probably should have warned us that the walk down (and back) from the Infiltration Tunnel was VERY long and steep. (We probably would have skipped it, had we known.)
Some of the communication between KimKim and the local guides could have been improved. In one case, the guide didn't realize that the admission to the observation deck of the tower was included, so we paid for our (and his) admission fees, since we wanted to go up to see the view. Later, when I was recapping the day's events to Jessica, I told her that we paid for the admission fees. She told me that the admissions were included in the price that I paid KimKim, so KimKim promptly refunded that amount to me.
Overall, I'd say that KimKim is a useful service for people who are traveling to another country for the first time and don't want to do all the research on their own to figure out where to visit and what to see (or even how to find a private tour).

I would absolutely recommend to friends kimkim to help plan their trips. Paula was an amazing resource and helped us tremendously in navigating all of the areas we wanted to see while in Australia. Her planning helped us be stress free and helped make this a great experience for us. All aspects of the itinerary worked as planned (car services; tours; hotel check ins; etc). Highly recommend using Kimkim when you are trying to plan a trip for 3 weeks in a place you have never been.

The trip was great. Everything was very easy to do and follow. One of the things that made it incredibly easy were the day trip plans set by Hanna - we never questioned where we were headed as all we had to do was click a link and we had all our directions preloaded in google maps.

The main reason for this trip was to see the Northern Lights ( bucket list), knowing it might not happen however the first four nights in Iceland I was gifted with sightings! The itinerary Rinolda put together for me was incredible, amazing, awesome! She really listened to my wants and made my adventure all that we talked about and more! Just one hiccup with one of my tours and it was me not giving the correct means of contacting me for directions but Rinolda took care of the miss communication and got me on the tour the next day, again outstanding! This was my first time on a self drive tour and the car was fast and easy and ready when I got to the rental company. My accommodations were outstanding, comfortable and the staff and owners were super nice, friendly and very helpful. Iceland is a beautiful country and its people are wonderful. So much diversity from volcanos to glaciers and all the waterfalls and geography, the history and the weather made for one of my top five vacations and I’ve been to many wonderful places! All and all Kimkim was a great find in my research for an Iceland adventure and will use them again and again for other places and countries. I went in November and will definitely use Kimkim again for a summer adventure in Iceland!

Hotel Reviews

Hotel Langaholt

Stadarstadur

Great staff, amazing breakfast (included) and had dinner one night and was so very good! The rooms were very clean and comfortable. I would highly recommend and would stay there again.

Authenticity & Character

Easy to find and remote in the best way!

Location

Was my first night in Iceland and saw the Northern Lights!

Staff

The chef was really great and all were so nice and friendly.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Rooms and the bed was awesome!

Hestakrain Guesthouse

Selfoss

The owner was delightful, the guesthouse is on a horse farm and watching and listening to the horses was so soothing .

Authenticity & Character

Had a hot tub on the back porch to star gaze and watch the Northern Lights!

Location

On a horse farm!

Staff

Very accommodating.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Rooms were rustic just the way I like and all was very clean.

Activity Reviews

Dog Sledding

Iceland

Ok my favorite part is the dogs! So beautiful sweet friendly to me and I wanted to take them all home with me! The hides and staff were great too!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Lava Cave Explorer Tour

Iceland

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Local specialist: Paula was excellent. She researched and provided us with all our requests for the perfect Australian vacation. I was especially impressed with all the transfers that were organized. Not one driver was late and they were very professional. The assistance she provided with reserving our flights while in Australia was also awesome. Paula even answered some of our questions during our trip which was super helpful.

Trip highlights:
The Great Ocean Road tour was fantastic. Our guide was Bronson and he was well versed on the local history, culture, wildlife, etc.

The LimoCentral driver that took us to Yarra Valley was great. He was very flexible as we asked him to make an extra stop at a winery.

Uluru A Night at Field of Light was fantastic!!!! So amazing to wander through the outback amongst the art display.
I wished I had more time to hike around Ayers Rock.

Cairns- The Reef Magic was really neat and one/two dives was excellent. The currents were really strong for the second dive and almost every person in our party got sick during the trip. Should recommend to use a scopolamine patch or meclizine for motion sickness prevention.

The Daintree River Cruise was so interesting. Learning about crocodiles in the wild was so unreal.

The Blue Mountain Tour was great and led my Matt. He was so well informed and all his knowledge really added to the experience. Sadly, it was foggy that day, but Matt made the time enjoyable.

The best experience we had was the Sydney Harbor Cruise. What an amazing way to close out two weeks (despite it raining all the days we were in Sydney).

Considerations for others using Kimkim:
Make sure you give specifics to the trip planner. They cannot read your mind and ask questions once tours get scheduled. One example of something that would have been nice would have been to have more private tours just with our group. We did not think to ask for that and planner would not have known.

Laundry- would have been nice to know that we would have laundry facilities at most of our accommodations. I would have packed less clothes. We had laundry facilities at 3 or 4 accommodations. I am not complaining because it was a pleasant surprise to see the laundry facilities.

Overall, the Kimkim experience was excellent and I look forward to using Kimkim on future trips.

Hotel Reviews

Clarion Suites Gateway

Melbourne

Was centrally located and we had a fantastic view from our room of the river. They have an amazing fire show every night that was cool to watch from our balcony. Our room had a washer/dryer. We had 3 people, and the laundry was not available in the rooms for 2 guests. We arrived very early and the front desk was helpful in keeping our bags and taking them to our rooms when we arrived once the room was ready.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Near good restaurants and a good view

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Desert Garden Hotel

Uluru

They have free laundry facilities which was helpful. walking distance to a grocery store and easy to get around the are from the hotel.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

We had ants in our bed and the staff quickly changed us to another room.

Mantra Esplanade

Cairns

Location was perfect and walking distance to anything we needed. The staff was nice and let us know to become a member of the hotel chain and we would receive a complementary breakfast. The day we left our flight our ride was at noon and checkout was at 10AM. We were not able to have a late checkout because it was Labor Day,

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Amora Hotel Jamison Sydney

Sydney

This was a very nice hotel. The rooms were impeccable. They had showers and a separate bathe which was nice. The wifi was did not reach our room which was one complaint we had. We also had a bad experience at the Brooksy. The manager on site ran after us because he thought we walked our bill. This was not the case. He realized his error but it was very off putting. The bar tender at the Silo made up for him.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Full-Day Great Ocean Road Trip

Melbourne

Bronson was a great tour guide. The lunch at Apollo Bay was great.

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Would have been nice if they could have picked us up at our hotel

Private VIP Healsville Sanctuary Tour

Melbourne

Steph was a fantastic guide.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

A Night at Field of Light

Uluru

A must do experience in Uluru

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Full Day Outer Reef + 2 Certified Dives (all equipment included)

Australia

The Reef Magic was super neat. Had many different activities at one area. The marine biologists also gave talks which was super interesting. Also enjoyed the didgeridoo performance and experience.

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Full Day Blue Mountains Deluxe Day

Sydney

Matt was great. Enjoyed driving around to all the sights. The lunch was good.

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

We loved our trip to Switzerland and Valentine did a fantastic job planning the trip and supporting us.

Our favorite was a six hour e-bike trip from Interlaken to the Lauterbrunnen Valley known as the valley of 72 waterfalls. Effortless pedaling and non stop beautiful scenery.

Also Grindelwald was amazingly beautiful. The country is so clean and the engineering is incredible. Swiss buildings actually enhance not detract from the natural beauty of the country.

Activity Review

E-bike tour Lauterbrunnen & Valley of 72 Waterfalls (small group/6 hours)

Switzerland

Do this for sure!!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff