Kimkim Trip Reviews

Our group of 4 arrived in Athens on Aug. 28th. Our driver was there to transport us to our hotel, the Pi Athens Suite. The hotel was nice, although it’s location (1/2 block from major road) made road noise a bit of an issue. The staff was friendly and they served a made-to-order omelet with your breakfast. Our welcome dinner at Mauro Parvato was delicious. There was confusion as to whether the cost of this dinner was part of our package, or on our own, but this was readily resolved. It was within a pleasant walking distance from our hotel.
Our first full day in Athens started with a Mythology tour lead by Maria from Alternative Athens. It was just excellent! Her knowledge and enthusiasm made it such a memorable experience. We appreciated our small group size (our group of 4 plus 4 others). Any and all questions were welcomed and completely answered. It was a great experience.
Our second day, Aug. 30th, began with an Athens Food Tour, lead by Maria Boli. Again, another wonderful experience! Maria lead us (our group of 4 plus a family of 3) on an extensive and delicious walking tour of various culinary sites in Athens. Well organized, informative, and so enjoyable! Maria’s enthusiasm was contagious! By the end of the tour, we were taking pictures together and exchanging email addresses with the former “strangers” in our group. What a fun time! Bravo, Maria!
Aug. 31st started with a ferry ride to Mykonos. Our accommodations on Mykonos were provided by Aletro Cottage houses, a beautiful small hotel with a breath-taking view of the Mediterranean . The staff was very friendly and treated us like family. A wonderful breakfast and a beautiful pool were just two of our favorite things at Aletro . In fact, when it came time to leave and our transfer to the ferry was late, the owners of Aletro offered, and did, drive us to the port so that we would not miss our ferry!
Our event for this day was a trail ride at Mykonos horses. The horses were good, and the hosts were very friendly. However, the ride itself was underwhelming. Not to the level of our expectations.
The next day, Sept. 1, we scheduled the traditional farm visit and Mykonian dinner. Other than the delay caused by confusion regarding our pick up time, the evening was a lot of fun and we were more than impressed with the delicious food served at our dinner. It was an added treat to have the chef stop and visit with us as we dined, to answer any questions and enhance our experience! A very nice evening!
After a day to transfer to Naxos via the high speed ferry, we arrived at the Adriani Hotel and were pleased to find an attractive hotel with very nice rooms, located within walking distance of the seaside shops and restaurants. The morning meal provided by the Adriani Hotel was outstanding! At least three entree dishes, along with several dessert-type options were included with many other items to make this an outstanding dining option for breakfast!
Sept. 3rd started with a transfer to a small village outside of the main city in Naxos. It was here that we met Katarina and began our cooking classes at her home, along with her mother. The opportunity to spend part of our day in their home was such a treat! They were fabulous hosts and wonderful chefs! An added bonus was the opportunity to meet the local historian and tour his museum. Truly an enjoyable experience! Once again, we had a communication glitch between our driver, our hosts and the organizers. It was quickly resolved, but had us a little concerned.
Our final scheduled event was a bike ride lead by Michalis (Mike) Manios and his son at Real Bike. What a great adventure! High quality equipment and the care and expertise taken by Mike and his son to ensure that we had a safe, yet challenging ride made this day one of our favorites! The route included beaches, city streets, the countryside and an added bonus of a historical site. They were so friendly and accommodating and welcoming. We all had a great time!
Although I cannot say that our trip went off without a hitch, I can say that whenever we encountered a “hitch”, our contacts at kimkim were readily available to quickly resolve any issues. We felt that we would have had a difficult time securing the quaint, family-owned hotels, the local guides and business people and wonderful experiences without the use of kimkim. We will definitely consult with kimkim when planning our next vacation!

Everything about working with kimkim and Nico and the team was top notch.. I am in the travel and customer service industry, and I was incredibly impressed with the thoroughness and service we received - 5 stars!

Where do we start!
We were feeling overwhelmed. We only had 8 days and wanted to see as much as possible. My brother contacted Kimkim and Robert got back to him immediately. Between them they crafted a trip that was one of our best ever. Don gave Robert our parameters and he flew with it, choosing the very best accommodations, organising a car rental, planning all of our transfers.........
it worked like a charm, and it was all basically remote control, every evening or the day of, we got our reminder updates. Our accommodations were amazing, small (and I mean small - 3 room hotels), and absolutely charming, we never would have found them ourselves. The rental car, ferries, assorted drivers all just clicked along, we didn’t have to worry about a thing. Goran ( our driver from Orbic to Ston on the Peljesac peninsula, then the next day to Dubrovnik, was a treasure.
We were, as well, happy to have an opportunity to meet Robi at on of the wineries we were visiting with Gorman.
This is a beautiful part of the world and given our wonderful experience with Kimkim, we would love to return to see more!
Thank you!
Diane Capozzi
Don Myles

Ingrid was great, the whole process made easy.
All hotel bookings and transport bookings ran smoothly.
Always available and ready to help
Will definitely refer and use KimKim again
Highly recommended

KimKim is a brilliant idea expertly executed. How to find the perfect in-country help for just the kind of travel you prefer? Ask KimKim. They put us in touch with Nicho and Diego at Peruvian Soul for our self-drive, self-guided trip in Peru. And while driving yourself in Peru is not recommended, we set out anyway to discover that it's true that the worst drivers in the world are Peruvian. But Nicho checked on us almost every day, and we did fine. At Machu Picchu, Peruvian Soul had arranged our tickets and Wilson, our guide. The experience could not have been better. Wilson was friendly, knowledgeable and flexible. Peg suffered from altitude sickness and had to miss some of the recomended highlights but got to know the towns a little better. Peruvian Soul gets 10 out of 10.

Considering how packed our schedule was for this trip, things ran smoothly. Service by Marcela in Buenos Aires was amazing. Thank goodness for her because we didn't know about the weight limits in our carry on to fly to El Calafate. Tour around Buenos Aires with Nicolas was fun. It was nice that we were the first to get picked up so we could talk about other things that interested us about Argentina
There was a small hiccup when we got to El Calafate and nobody was there to pick us up. It seems like someone missed our reservation entirely since our hotel was also closed for business when we got there. Luckily, another hotel owned by the same company was available for us.
Tours and service after that was great. Noelia was with us during our tour to Perito Moreno. We loved she had lots of information about the area for us.
Private Service from Puerto Natales was a bit scary sometimes. A three hour long trip was done in two hours and 15 minutes. We were going FAST!
When we got to Santiago, the driver was not waiting where we were told. He didn't know he had to wait for us there. All got sorted after I called.
Hotel in Santiago was super convenient. Perfect way to finish; close to parks and restaurants.
We liked that we had a combination of full service hotels to smaller boutique ones. We liked that for the most part things were confirmed for us by Say Hueque before we had to do so.
Thank you Mery for helping us plan this amazing trip!

Working with Brahim was a wonderful experience from beginning to end. I travelled with friends as well as my 9 year old children and he addressed all my concerns. He was attentive and responsive and we got everything we were looking for.. Brahim answered all of our concerns about traveling throughout Morocco and developed an itinerary that catered to our needs taking into account that we were traveling with children. Our 9-day trip was filled with adventure including Morocco’s famous blue city, Chefchaouen, nestled in the hills, Historical Fez with a great guide who helped us navigate the bustling maze of the Médina, Ifrane the Switzerland of Morocco with inquisitive monkeys who loved taking peanuts out of our hands, a guided tour of the Sahara and sleeping under the milky way, the Todgha Gorge which reminds you of parts of the Grand Canyon and the most scenic drive over the Atlas Mountains! The trip was fantastic - Great hotels, awesome excursions and wonderful taste for local food and culture. Our driver was awesome! One of my kids wanted to stay behind with his family! Our trip to Morocco was a breathtaking adventure from beginning to end and Brahim made this dream a reality!

My week in the Westfjords was beautiful. I felt comfortable navigating all the roads knowing I had the KimKim team within reach in case I needed help. Being someone who does not drive much in New York, driving through the steep gravel mountains of Iceland became more daunting as the week approached. As usual it was the most breathtaking scenery. I also met with Preeti who compiled my itinerary and answered all my neurotic New Yorker questions. 10/10 would use KimKim again for future travels.

Overall great experience! We were very pleased with our travel and everything was perfect! We are so thankful we used Kim Kim. Chris did a great job choosing hotels and excursions for us to do. It was everything we could have asked for! Lampros, our driver in Athens, was great! We loved getting to meet him and he provided excellent service. The staff at the Ammos Hotel went above and beyond to meet our needs. Loved every second of the trip!

My only recommendation is if anyone else is going to hike the Samaria Gorge, more information needs to be provided. Before the trip we were told we would have a guide and would be riding a bus. It wasn't until we were picked up by our driver at the hotel that he told us he would take us and pick us up (driver was much more preferred over a bus, but it did cause confusion!) and we did not have a guide (which was also much preferred because we were able to go at our own pace!) but still caused confusion. Also, we were unsure how the ferry tickets and entrance all worked. When we got to the top the people at the cafe told us they were the only ones that sold ferry tickets and that we couldn't buy them at the bottom. So we spent money not knowing any better. Once we got to the bottom we realized this was for a ferry off to the side and not the main ferry. It was a little sketchy so we decided to buy tickets for the main ferry and lost out on the money for the first ferry. In the end it all worked out, but a little more detail would have been preferred!

Using KimKim was definitely the best choice for us and we are so thankful for all the time and effort that Chris put in to make our vacation a once in a lifetime trip!

We enjoyed the trip and our guide Anderson was very good and pleasant. Many thanks for arranging.

We were so happy with our kimkim experience! André was responsive and very nice to deal with. He set up an itinerary that reflected our interests. All transportation, information, transfers, hotels were nicely chosen and there were no problems or glitches. André gave us great recommendations for restaurants, as did our guides in Bergen, David and Vilde. These two were so important in terms of our overall experience in Scandinavia. They were knowledgeable and fun; it was like going around town and on a hike with friends. David's tour was personalized and quirky while encompassing the city's history and significant places. We got a real sense of contemporary Bergen from him, deeper and more interesting than on a typical tour. Vilde took us on a rigorous, enjoyable hike. We learned more about Norway while talking to her about her life.

The trip was great. Everything was well organized, and the guides were very knowledgable and flexible. Highly recommended.

Just wished our initial briefing contained more information on the android phone operation and bike cover use with android. Miha was very responsive and really facilitated my recovery of my Fed Ex package!

We had an amazing time in Costa Rica. The communication with Olman during the planning process was excellent. He was extremely responsive. The trip was extremely well planned and well organized. All the transportation and transitions went off without a hitch. All of the hotels were lovely, but Tabacon was the winner. The rooms and grounds were beautiful, especially the hot springs and the breakfast was sumptuous. All of the tours were great and well run but the wildlife tour and turtle nesting tour in Tortuguerro were incredible (and Willis, our guide, was extremely knowledgable) and the white water rafting trip with Wave Expeditions was the highlight for all of us. Our guide, Yorjani, was incredible. He made us feel safe and kept us laughing the whole time. And thanks to the kayaking photographer for preserving our memories (and saving our cameras and phones from being submerged). Thank you for a wonderful and well-planned trip. Our kids keep saying how much they miss being in Costa Rica and can't stop talking about all the animals they saw. thanks kimkim!

Chris was an amazing travel planner. He listened to what we were looking for in our trip to Greece and nailed it. We couldn’t have had a better time. The hotels were boutique and beautiful. Everything fell into place. Drivers were there and on time and courteous. Tours were set up for us by Chris and were outstanding! I can’t say enough about our experience. We had a blast. And I will definitely choose kimkim for our next travel!! Lots of love to your team!! Lynn

Outstanding service from Ingrid and the KimKim team before and during my trip - including helping me though an unplanned hiccup in my itinerary!

I absolutely loved my stay in the Lofoten Islands and especially Reine. I'll definitely head back there some day to explore some hikes I had to cancel due to the inclement weather I experienced on my trip.

Bergen was a ton of fun too - great charm, cool vibe along with tons of great shops and restaurants / pubs!

Transportation throughout the country - airfare, buses, trains and taxis - were all super easy and convenient too.

With only 8 days before departure Emanuela put together a great trip to Iceland. Before contacting KimKim, I had an idea of where in Iceland I wanted to go and some must do activities. After finalizing the details, such as driving distance for each day and the type of accommodations that I wanted I received a detailed itinerary for the trip. The trip was fantastic. I always book my own vacations unless I am doing a specialized tour (photography tour etc). Due to timing logistics I reached out to KimKim. It was the best decision for this trip. All my accommodations were great. Most of the hotels where smaller with maybe only 10-20 rooms except for one that catered to tour buses. That hotel was good except for the pushing and shoving at breakfast as the tour groups dominated the breakfast. I received a detailed itinerary with suggestions for each day in terms of what to see along with a detailed driving map and restaurant recommendations. I knew exactly what order I would come across the sights and what side roads to take. Emanuela also had some suggestions for hikes and other natural wonders that I had not come across in my research. During the trip Emanuela reached out to me to ensure everything was going ok. The tours she booked were all first class. Good guides who truly enjoyed their job and offered us a wonderful experience. I did three different tours and there were never more than 10 people in my group. I did a glacier hike with Icelandic Mountain Guides lucking in with only one other person on the tour. We were able to cover a lot of terrain and get quite close to the fissures. This along with our guide Brook, who is a geology master's student added to the experience. Every day had detailed suggestions such as the history of a street, or inclusion of a site in literature, or additional museums to visit made for a wonderful trip. On my last day I stayed at the hotel at the Blue Lagoon, all details where taken care of to ensure I could check in and enjoy the lagoon. If you are able to go to Iceland and have Emanuela organize your self drive trip you will have an enjoyable time. From kayaking in Jokulsarlon lagoon amongst the ice, to hiking a glacier, seeing the beautiful colors of Landmandalauger, hiking to Gylmur waterfall, discovering gorges and seeing the beauty of Snaefellsnes Pennisula, lounging in geothermal pools as I shed a winter jacket for a bikini, and viewing Kredid Crater the trip offered beauty, nature and new discoveries every day. I would not hesitate to use Emanuela, or KimKim again.

Accommodations, hiking and biking suggestions, food at restaurants and huts -- all were excellent. We especially enjoyed our stay at Kekec Homestead in Trenta. And the private cave tour at Skocjan was perfect.

We had just 4 nights to explore outside of San Jose and no time to plan, so we took a chance on Kimkim and Randall after randomly finding Kimkim online. Randall put together a plan based on the info we gave him, tweaked a few things at our request and then put it into action via the local contractor Coast to Coast Adventures. Every activity on the pretty busy schedule went off without a hitch -- ALL drivers arrived on time (or early!), ALL activities were pretty much as described, ALL hoteliers were expecting us and the rooms were as described, and ALL the guides for the various activities were well-trained, knowledgeable and personable.

- Day 1 La Fortuna Arenal Volcano nature walk; Tabacon Hot Springs
> The nature walk was less of a hike than we were hoping for, but really beautiful scenery around the volcano and Nestor, the guide, was very knowledgeable and great at spotting birds/wildlife.
> Of all the experiences Kimkim/Randall/Coast to Coast Adventures arranged for us, we might have skipped Tabacon Hot Springs just because it was very expensive, crowded and super touristy (we live in Japan and the hot spring experience here is very, very different!), but it was good for a laugh just the same, with the wall of water and hidden nooks and crannies. Other visitors, beware -- the footing around some of the pools is very slippery and we really recommend water shoes or flipflops or something grippy to keep you on your feet. We were both fine, but we saw a visitor in bare feet slip and fall hard on some tiles, banging his head and tailbone pretty hard. A medic was called to tend to him.

- Day 2 La Fortuna Cano Negro Wildlife Refuge boat trip
> Hermann, the boat driver, didn't speak English but he was REALLY good at spotting wildlife even as he drove the boat, and Gustavo the guide was good at both spotting and explaining. This was a brilliant day -- we saw SO MANY birds/animals. Sloths, 3 different kinds of monkeys (we were actually treated to a big monkey drama as 2 troupes of white-faced monkeys shrieked at each other across the river), "Jesus Christ" lizards, snakes, tiny little bats, one caiman, and an incredible number and variety of birds. TAKE YOUR BINOCULARS if you do this trip. They were glued to my face the whole time. It was a rainy day but the boat had a roof and we were very comfortable. A tasty homemade lunch was also provided after the morning voyage.

- Day 3 La Fortuna & transfer to Santa Elena - Kayaking on Lake Arenal in the morning
> The kayaking was fun and easy, and the guide, Joseph/Jose was one of the nicest guys we encountered. Earnest, hardworking, friendly, knowledgeable, curious -- he was a great representative of Costa Rica. We really enjoyed spending the morning with him, while the views of the volcano towering over the placid lake were pretty spectacular.
> The bus/boat/bus trip to Santa Elena was a laugh -- the boat pulled up on a completely undeveloped shoreline and we were asked to get out with our bags. Without explanation, we were led down a dirt path, across a makeshift bridge and up to a dirt road were, magically, a bus appeared! Then off we went on the bumpy, mostly unpaved road to Santa Elena. Loved the green green green views of farms and jungle along the way. BEAUTIFUL Costa Rica...

- Day 4 Santa Elena / Monteverde Cloud Forest
> Morning hike in the reserve was great but here we did find our guide to be a bit ... what... jaded? Too used to tourists, maybe? Bored? All the same, he did spot some fantastic wildlife for us that we would never have seen on our own, including the Resplendent Quetzal (several, in fact...) WOW! On this hike, we found there was a lot of standing around -- we might have liked a smaller group that went a bit further afield.
> "Night walk" -- it POURED rain on us, but we were prepared with rain gear, etc. The animals were not so keen to be out in the rain, so it was harder to spot things, but we saw snakes, spiders, Costa Rican porcupines and sloths all the same...
> Our B&B -- Grace & Renzo B&B -- was excellent. We talked a lot with Grace and enjoyed their hospitality.

- Day 5 Aventura Ziplining and transfer back to San Jose
> Great thing for thrill seekers! Screaming through the canopy -- don't miss the Mega Tarzan Swing -- HEART STOPPING! Good fun for us and the weather cooperated. We enjoyed getting to know other travelers in our group.
> The Interbus transfer back to San Jose was punctual, comfortable, and uneventful.

SO, overall, we had a fabulous trip thanks to Randall, Kimkim, and all the local service providers. Randall arranged exactly what we asked for -- a taste of Costa Rica on a limited time budget -- so all in all, we are very satisfied.

Trip was wonderful overall, and Parque Hotel was exceptional. Receipt of itinerary details could have come earlier. Also, itinerary should include address and phone number of Hotel (some confusion since several hotels have similar names in Guayaquil). Katie was very pleasant and responsive .