Kimkim Trip Reviews

All of our guides were top notch. Very knowledgeable and very kind and gracious. We loved them all. Apollo and Labrina were magnificent as were the guides for our wine tasting tour in Athens but I can’t remember their names. By the end of the tours we became good friends with all and enjoyed very meaningful conversations getting to know about each other and the country of Greece as well as sharing our about our country. Having private tours are priceless

Recently returned from an amazing adventure to Namibia, Botswana & Zimbabwe which was meticulously organised by Lize at KimKim who was brilliant. Always helpful and responsive throughout the trip, would not hesiate to recommend her if you are planning a trip to Africa. Thank you Lize!

Our agent Jessica has been so efficient and professional during our trip. She keeps in touch with us daily and has made our trip flawless and worried free. Thank you Jessica
Our guide in Seoul is very knowledgeable and professional.
Our best guide is Mr Jade Kim , he is very knowledgeable, professional but same time very friendly, he makes our trip so enjoyable, especially when he introduces us to his favorite lunch spots . We love so much tofu restaurant that we still talking about it on our way home , not counting the fish market . Thank you so much Mr Kim .
Ms Suzie in jeju island is so nice that we have adopted her as our younger sister!
Thank you so much for choices of guides.

Hotel Reviews

Hotel 28 Myeongdong

Seoul

Best for location , service , room cleanliness and confort Breakfast is a bit poor in choices.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Best staff , friendly, caring , professional

Cleanliness & Comfort

Modern nice room , mattress so comfortable

Lahan Select Gyeongju

Gyeongju

Great hotel ,amazing choices for breakfast Comfortable room , huge hotel

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

SIGNIEL BUSAN

busan

Best hotel of whole trip

Authenticity & Character

Huge modern hotel , but still manage to make us feel comfortable and homey . We have access lounge, as extra which is absolutely amazing after a long day . We have tried also infinite pool , amazing .

Location

Amazing location , right on beach

Staff

Very professional and helpful

Cleanliness & Comfort

Room is very clean and well situated , we have corner room with view on beach and city . The best !!!

Lotte City Hotel Jeju

Jeju

Not very update hotel

Authenticity & Character

Room is old looking, some furniture is falling apart

Location

Very good location , walking distance to shops and restaurants

Staff

Professional but old staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Full Day Seoul City Tour with Gyeongbokgung Palace and Bukchon Hanok Village

Seoul

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Full Day Suwon and Yongin Tour From Seoul

Seoul

We can skip Suwon

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Half Day Gyeongju National Museum and Tumuli Park Tour with Night View

Gyeongju

Good experience, museum interesting, tumuli tour surprising

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Half Day Bulguksa and Seokguram Grotto Tour

Gyeongju

Great visit

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Half Day Gamcheon Village, BIFF Square and Jagalchi Market

Busan

Good visit , interesting visit of old busan , jagalchi market for lunch is a must

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Half Day Busan City Tour with Haedong Yonggungsa Temple

Busan

Busan is general great to visit , so many things to do and see

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Half Day Hyeopjae Beach, Spirited Garden and Green Tea Plantation Tour and Arte Museum

Jeju Island

Visit of beach , spirited garden , Arte museum is great Can skip green tea plantation tour for us,

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Our trip to Norway was a wonderful experience. Hotels were well located, close to centres of towns and close to departure and arrival points for tours and public transport. All accommodation was clean and comfortable.
The excursions and day trips which Eliise recommended were relevant interesting and operated smoothly and all our tickets were accessible and easily presented to the tour operators.
The only small disappointment was the view from our hotel in Bergen which did not match expectations or other hotel views. Although the room was clean and comfortable standard room the only window looked out on to a brick wall dominated by a huge aluminium heating duct. An upgrade which we would have been happy to pay for was not possible as all rooms were fully booked.
However the overall experience with kimkim was positive and well researched, giving us a trouble free holiday in a beautiful location. Eliise recommended a sea eagle experience in Lofoten which was one of the highlights. Thank you very much to the team at kimkim for organising such a beautiful holiday in a truly spectacular country.
Regards Jenny Baxter

Nikola did a fabulous job of planning the trip and then touched base every day to make sure everything was fine.

Hotel Review

Kempinski Palace Portoroz

Piran

Beautiful hotel. The room was comfortable and actually had a side view of the sea. The breakfast buffet was excellent. The location was good as it was close to the promenade with good access to restaurants and bars.

Authenticity & Character

Just a. Rey nice hotel

Location

Lose to everything

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Review

Hot Air Balloon Flight Over the Bled Lake

Slovenia

Great trip with beautiful views. You end the trip with a champagne toast.

Quality of Experience

I am afraid of heights , but I was mesmerized by the trip.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Our guide was amazing.

Transport

The balloon was very comfortable

First off, Sandy is amazing. From the first day of planning to the end of the trip, she's always there with us. She answered all our (4 of us) questions. And is always one step ahead of our trip. She had always informed us 1 day ahead as who is our driver or who is our local guide, and what to do next. When we contacted her for a little hiccup, she and her team immediately jumped on it to resolve the situation. (BTW, the hiccup was from the other place booking, not Kimkim).

Jennifer, Fiona, Mike, Jade, and Micky are flexible and knowing their locals well. Drivers are on time. We like Hotel at Kyoto and Osaka best. La Valse at Busan has a very nice view, but the room is not too functional due to a not useful countertop. So it's just ok. All hotels are very clean btw.

All in all, I'm glad I found Kimkim and more so when having Sandy as our specialist. We'll look for Kimkim for our next trip, and hopefully we got Sandy again. And for sure, I'll share our experience about kimkim with our friends.

Thanks for wonderful memory.

Hotel Reviews

Lavalse Hotel

The view is amazing. But the room has the countertop (like kitchen countertop) which take up a lot of room. I would trade the view for the more functional room.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Great view.

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

clean but not comfy due to the countertop takes up a big chunk of real estate.

Cross Hotel Osaka

Osaka

Best hotel chain for my trip. Both lobby and room are nice and roomy. I would love to stay here next time.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Cross Hotel Kyoto

Kyoto

Best hotel chain for my trip. Both lobby and room are nice and roomy. I would love to stay here next time.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Daiwa Roynet Hotel Ginza PREMIER

Tokyo

Location is good but the lobby is so tiny. Room is clean but ok. I'm ok to stay here next time.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

NINE TREE PREMIER HOTEL MYEONGDONG II

Seoul

Good lobby, room is ok but one annoying thing is about the motion detection light. I would like to have an option to use it or now. At night if you have to go to the bath room, this light will be wake you up or your partner up.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

I had to leave at 7:00am at the same time, the buffet would just got open. The staff ordered our breakfast packed for us the night before. And actually they were ready before 7:00am. This is great.

Cleanliness & Comfort

annoying night motion detection light

Activity Review

Osaka Local Foodie Tour in Dotonbori and Shinsekai

Osaka

I was really looking forward to experiencing the local food in Osaka, but honestly, it didn’t live up to my expectations. Maybe it’s because I’ve had amazing street food in places like Thailand and Vietnam, which are hard to beat.

Kudos to all involved in setting up and executing the trip plan for 8 days in Madagascar. My trip planner, Esther was outstanding. I had looked in a guide book to determine areas/things I wanted to see/do. Esther worked with "local boots on the ground" in Madagascar to determine what could be accomplished and set up a schedule.

I was picked up from the airport in Madagascar's capitol by my local guide -- Nick. Nick spoke better English than me. He was a joy to spend time with. He was very knowledgable, easy going and knew what he was doing. It was a real pleasure to have Nick guide me around his country.

Things to keep in mind is that Madagascar is a relatively poor country with only a few paved (or sealed) roads. This can make traveling in the country a challenging and often slow journey -- but Nick had the appropriate vehicle and was an outstanding driver.

The bottom line -- Esther did a wonderful job in developing a plan to fit my needs -- Nick did a wonderful job in executing the plan and was a great guide and a pleasure to be around.

Mission Accomplished ---

Hotel Review

VOCO Hotel Rosebank

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Drive through Baobab Avenue

Morondava

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Tsingy of Bemaraha National Park

Bekopaka

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Nocturnal Visit of Kirindy Forest

Madagascar

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Amazing service received by KimKim at the time of booking and with the local agency Serendipity Adventures. Our driver and tour guides were the sweetest most amazing people. They made our trip 10x better! They went above and beyond to make this trip memorable for us.
I highly recommend them to anyone planning a trip!

The website made planning and booking a breeze. The ability to share comments back and forth about suggested locations, tours, and hotels streamlined the process. We felt we received a good value for our money and appreciated Vincenzo's efforts to stay within budget. Having local contacts who were available as needed gave us peace of mind. Upon arrival, we didn't have to worry about a thing—everything was booked and ready for us as expected.

The companies, guides, and drivers booked for us - from the amazing Cristina for the history and food tour in Milano to our excellent driver Giovanni for a rainy day trip to Lake Como and Tommasso for our walking history tour of Rome - were all exceptional. Their expertise and companionship made our experiences memorable.

My only negative feedback is that it would be helfpful if after the hotel is selected and the price point determined, provide reprsentative photos that depict the hotel rooms booked rather than the premium version to set the right expectation.

We will definitely keep KimKim in mind for future travel.

We firstly want to acknowledge how absolutely wonderful it was working with Tina over the months of planning. She was very patient with our needs and questions. We were extremely happy with the hotels she selected, the tours/excursions that she booked, and the overall sailing experience that we sought. While we were in the country, Tina was in daily contact, and we were able to make some adjustments in a timely fashion. The KimKim chat feature was easy to use everywhere.

We found this section of the Dalmatian Coast beautiful and welcoming. The people that we encountered were all friendly and spoke English well enough that we were never lost. The Croatian areas of Split, the islands of Hvar, Vis, and Korcula, and Dubrovnik were very special. The history of that area is very interesting, and we learned a lot from our tour guides and our sailing boat captain.

The sailboat experience out of Hvar, including the owner/captain James, was all that we had hoped that it would be. the weather didn't cooperate for some of the days, but we made the most of it. I would highly recommend James and his 43' Grand Soliel boat to anyone who wants that kind of sailing adventure.

The hotels that we used were 4-star properties and each of them were unique. They were independent properties, not part of a large chain. All of the staff in each of the four hotels were friendly and helpful. The buffet breakfasts were more than sufficient. We think that the favorite hotels were the Piazza Heritage Hotel in Split and the Villa Filaus in Dubrovnik. The locations of all 4 hotels was ideal to our needs.

We really liked and appreciated the transfer services that met us at each new stop and took us and our luggage to the hotels. The services that we had in Dubrovnik were particularly good and very conversational. We learned much about the area as well as the local customs from these drivers. They were very professional.

In summary, we would absolutely consider using KimKim travel services in any future planning of international travel!

Paula was a huge help with the planning of our trip to Australia. We only had 2.5 weeks and were at a loss of where to go and what to see beyond Sydney. She helped us come up with a really nice itinerary to see as much of the culture and wildlife of Sydney, Outer brisbane and GBR. We loved sydney as a city...beautiful. We stayed out in the glass house mountains while in Brisbane region and loved our accommodations at the Crocodile Hunter lodge and all of the wildlife experiences if offered. Our time in Port Douglas was also lovely, with a few days out on the barrier reef. We combined stays at both hotels and Airbnb's. The only place we did not care for was our one night hotel in Brisbane...under construction and not clean. Aside from that, all were great, and we appreciated the help booking tours and adventures.

Hotel Reviews

Parkroyal Darling Harbour

Sydney

we were just here for a quick overnight before our international flight early in the morning. We liked the location and ability to walk to many restaurants and sights.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

very nice room in a great location. updated bathrooms and comfortable beds

Mercure Brisbane Spring Hill (was Pacific Hotel Brisbane)

Spring Hill

hotel room was tired (in need of a refresh) and dirty, especially bathroom with a soiled toilet. Lots of construction and the location was average...not much near by. Would not recommend staying

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

clean the bathrooms!

The Crocodile Hunter Lodge

Beerwah, Queensland

Authenticity & Character

attention to detail

Location

beautiful area

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Climb the Harbor Bridge

Sydney

we really liked this!

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Full Day Private Blue Mountains Diamond Day

Sydney

enjoyed the farm visit as this is where we spotted our first koalas and kangaroos. Learned a bit about the state/national rehab and breeding program of the koalas. The mountains are beautiful. This trip was primarily a drive and see with little opportunity to get out and explore. We would have loved an hour or so to do a hike. lunch was delicious.

Quality of Experience

beautiful scenery

Food

delicious lunch!

Guides, Drivers and Staff

if the drivers offered more information...meaning if information was volunteered. our guide was quite knowledgeable, but only if we asked the questions.

Transport

spacious and comfortable

Full Day Daintree Cape Tribulation 4WD Bloomfield Track Tour

Australia

it was a long day and not much opportunity to get out and explore, with the exception of the boat tour.

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

I needed a few adjustments because I am traveling with a dog. Aleksandra was so helpful with finding excellent accommodations where my dog was treated well. Thank you!

Hey Katya, I thought you did a great job planning our trip. It can be very difficult to know what a client wants, but I thought you hit everything to a T. The weather was fortunately great and we did not need a guide for our Bin Nevis hike. The local tour guides that you used (Molly In Glasgow and Emma In Edinburgh) were fantastic. Both fun and very knowledgeable. Your choice of hotels at the Black Sheep hotel in Ft William, Ullinish House on Skye and Balloan Cottage in Inverness were perfect. Restaurant choices of West Pier on Skye, Hootenanny in Inverness, and Witchery in Edinburgh were spot on. Thoroughly enjoyed the tours at Edinburgh castle and Holyroodhouse Palace. We greatly appreciated how quickly you responded to all our communications! Thank you again for creating this amazing trip for us!

Hotel Reviews

Black Sheep Hotels Cabins

Spean Bridge

Beautiful location, amazing staff.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Ullinish House

Isle of Skye

Wonderful couple ran this beautiful home. Breakfast was delicious, location was delightful!

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Edinburgh Old Town Tour

Edinburgh

Emma was the most fun, informative guide we have ever had-wonderful experience!

Quality of Experience

Seal Spotting Loch Linnhe Cruise

Scotland

Learned so much from the talented boat captain.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

We had the best time exploring Ireland, thanks to Emily and the KimKim team. The entire process made trip planning so much easier and saved us countless hours of research. One of the highlights was spending our last night in a restored castle—a truly unique experience! We felt there was a perfect balance between planned activities and free time, which made the trip enjoyable and flexible.

KimKim added estimated driving times for all our activities, which was incredibly helpful in planning our days. When our flight into Dublin was delayed, the support team was quick to rearrange our first activity, making what could have been a stressful situation feel seamless. For future trips, we would suggest keeping the first day more fluid with flexible plans rather than scheduled tours, especially for long-distance travelers in the circumstance of all too often delays.

One area for improvement would be an initial call during the planning phase. Although the quiz was a good starting point, it took a bit of back-and-forth to finalize our itinerary. A conversation could have streamlined this process. The initial recommendations did not quite match up with the quiz, either.

We also hope to see more price transparency and competitiveness. Initially, we planned to add our rental car to KimKim's services, but after removing it, we realized it would have been significantly more expensive ($600). While we’re happy to pay for the excellent services provided, it’s hard to justify this particular cost when we used expedia for a measly $167 for the entire grip. Additionally, having a better sense of costs for individual activities would help us weigh the value of each option for ourselves. Potentially overpaying so much for rental car services reduces our trust in KimKim’s price competitiveness.

Despite these suggestions, the local insight provided by KimKim was invaluable. We especially loved discovering the Fiddle + Bow Hotel in Doolin—a gem we might have missed on our own!

We worked with Stephan to book our Tanzania safari and Zanzibar trip this summer. Kimkim arranged our travels with Truly Swahili. We were traveling with another couple and Stephan smoothly coordinated all of our input. We originally told Stephan what we wanted, he then put together a wonderful itinerary that included all of our wishes. We then fine tuned the itinerary and conveyed this to Stephan. He made the adjustments quickly and expertly. We were very happy with the process and our trip. We had an amazing vacation!

Our local ground team in the mainland (from Truly Swahili) included Irene, the trip coordinator, Kaka our guide, and Simba our driver. Kaka and Simba were an amazing team (we think they are brothers). Every day when they picked us up at the lodge, Kaka would ask each of us our goals and animals we wanted to see for that day. Simba always knew where to go to achieve that goal. Together they always made sure we were in a position to get the best photos and experiences. Kaka would teach us at least three Swahili words or phrases for the day. He always had an energetic smile and wonderful stories about the animals. Simba, the (quieter brother) had an extensive knowledge of the animals and their behaviors. Together they made sure we stayed safe and happy.

Our mainland itinerary included a Rufiji river cruise and a safari in Nyerere, Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti, Lake Manyara and Tarangire. We achieved our goals of seeing the "Big 5." We did this in one day in the Ngorongoro Crater. Each park we visited had it's own unique personality, terrain, and variety of animals. We are very happy we did each one of them.

After the safari's, we spent the last couple of days in Zanzibar where we could relax and enjoy the exquisite beauty of the resort. Our Zanzibar guide, Khamis, was an encyclopedia of knowledge of the island in it's culture and history.

All together, we can not recommend Truly Swahili enough! Irene and her team's choices of resorts, lodges, and experiences were amazing! The guides, accommodations and food were always top notch!

Thank you so much Stephan, Irene, Kaka, Simba, and Khamis for making this vacation a trip of a lifetime!

We are so grateful for this experience. He nailed every aspect of what we were looking for in Greece!! Each hotel that he found was so special and provided a unique experience. The food was incredible. Thanos was very supportive in any requests we had during the trip and even got to share a drink together, which was great! Highly recommend him.

Elen did a wonderful job of transferring our vacation wishes into a detailed itinerary. We went through a couple of iterations before settling on the final plan, and she was very patient with our changes. Once in Italy, our local contact Maria made sure we were always informed about pickup times and tour guide details, ready to support us if necessary.
Florence was awe-inspiring (as expected) - in hindsight I wish we had spent a couple of more days in Siena, but that was our choice, not a criticism of Elen.
Will definitely use Kim Kim for planning our next vacation!

On a scale of 1-5, our guided Croatia tour with Robi, was a TEN. Croatia is a beautiful country with several wonderful scenic locations, including the lakes region, the large cave national park, and marvelous cities including Ljubljana, Dubrovnik, Ston, and Split. Our guide Robi, a lifetime citizen of Croatia, is a genuine insider. He worked tirelessly to make our tour a pleasant, exciting, seamless, and a truly memorable experience. Robi was very attentive, adapted to unexpected changes (replaced the transport van when it experienced transmission problems), and made itinerary changes due to weather changes (scheduled a sailing day from Ston). All the people we met during our trip were friendly, helpful, and in love with Croatia. When we completed our Croatia tour and we were on the way to Dubrovnik airport, our group was saying how much we enjoyed our tour with Robi, our van driver said, "you must be Robi people". We all agreed that we were definitely "Robi's People". Thanks a million, Robi for a wonderful tour.

Activity Reviews

Goodbye Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik

Outstanding tour, Thans Robi!!!!. We are "Robi's People".

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Zagreb - Arrival Day & Sightseeing

Zagreb

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Zagorje region and castles visit and Zagreb overnight

Zagreb

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Zagreb to Ljubljana

Zagreb

Just loved this city. We walked along the river, enjoyed the scenery, and ate lunch. Truly a pleasant way to spend a day.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Postojna and Škocjan Caves in Slovenia

Croatia

The caves are a must see when in Slovenia.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Exploring Plitvice Lakes National Park and visit to Zadar

Plitvice Lakes

The Lakes are beautiful.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Inland of Istria - towns on hills and truffle country

Croatia

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Rovinj and Pula visit

Rovinj

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Explore Split area - Trogir and Klis

Split

Split is a very busy city. Can be noisy at times.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Explore Split and Diocletians palace

Split

Diocletian's palace was very interesting

Quality of Experience

Transport

Pelješac Penisula and Ston- Triple Atraction

Ston

Ston was an excellent place to relax and enjoy the local citizens. Ston is very small and quiet, a welcome change after visiting Split. Robi arranged a sailboat trip from Ston. Our sailboat trip through the islands around Ston was a highlight of our tour. Thanks, Robi, Job well done!!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Dubrovnik Old Town and the City Walls

Croatia

Very picturesque city. Our hotel near the cable car was excellent. Hotel had lovely courtyard that was excellent for morning coffee. Bakery nearby has excellent croissants. Our tour guide was knowledgeable and helpful. Explained olive oil production very clearly.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Original travels organized the trip of a lifetime for us. Abdel was very responsive to our questions and our preferences when we were in the planning stages, and Saïd regularly checked in throughout the trip to make sure we were happy and our needs were being met. Our driver/guide Karim was fantastic - he was so knowledgeable, sharing his love for his country with us, and his positive energy made our trip a delight. At one point heavy rains closed roads we were meant to take to Merzouga in the Sahara- Saïd quickly made new arrangements for us to make sure we didn't miss out on anything, and Karim was a reassuring presence with his good humour throughout. Thanks for a magnificent holiday that opened up so much of Morocco's magic for us.

James the trip was truly amazing, Mark and I enjoyed everything about it . It was a pleasure to work with you .