Kimkim Trip Reviews

Emily did a super good job building a trip around my existing constraints and interests. Two wishes for the kimkim platform:
- Itemized cost shown both as the trip gets built and when I’m billed.
- Not asking me to review twice, once in TrustPilot and once here.

We had a fantastic holiday in Norway. Our 11 day trip was planned and booked last minute and the KimKim service in designing the itinerary and booking hotels was definitely something we could not have done at such short notice.

All the hotels had distinctive character - we particularly liked the Steens Hotel in Bergen, the Knutholmen in Kalvåg, and the Eplet in Solvorn.

Ingrid did an amazing job of organizing our trip, keeping us informed, sending appropriate materials and tickets in a timely manner, and answering our questions with helpful answers. Both of our city guides, Stig and Flemmet, gave us unique perspectives of their cities, an off the beaten path stroll through the city and excellent recommdations of where to eat. Hiking through the hills around Kalvag was enjoyable, even in the light rain. The ride on the ferry from Bergen to Aurland was memorable. The beautiful sunshine made it even more impressive. The 2.6 km hike up to Stegastein viewpoint in Aurland was exhilarating and fun. We ate at a variety of different local restaurants and had some very delicious dishes.
When we first started looking at how we wanted to see Norway, we were looking for something, where the transportation and lodging were taken care of, but where we could do the things we wanted to at the different places. Kimkim's tour offerings and flexibility to add things seemed to offer this. Our 12 day tour, as you described it, is exactly what we wanted and what we got. If anything it exceeded our expectations.
Thank you again to all, who were involved with planning our trip. We are very appreciative of your efforts. We will highly recommend you to anyone, who is considering seeing Norway.
Tusen takk,
John and Sharon Nichols

Being as this was the first time to travel to Italy, I was at the mercy of a travel agency to help me set up and arrange certain aspects of our trip. My husband and I did not want the typical tour group travel as we like to travel at our own pace. I reached out to KimKim as they offered services for independent travel. I felt as if our specialist just threw some stuff together and changes that we wanted made was a struggle, because the reply at the other end was always, well we are here and we know what is best or what works best. One change that I am so glad I fought with was getting the specialist to change a Pizza Making class in Florence to a Pizza Baking and Limoncello Making in Sorrento, which was a highlight of our trip. I wanted a Pizza Baking Class in a Farmhouse.
Another issue we had was travel documents are suppose to be sent to you within 3 weeks of travel, we had to reach out several times to get all of our official documents. We had missing documents and it took until few days before our trip to get everything correct and in-hand, the first time being agency related and the second due to lack of my use of technology.
Keep in mind is in the US we are 6-9 hours behind so communicating with your specialist will be hard, as you are getting out of bed they are going to bed and if you work a day job an accepting phone calls are challenging for you at times this will be frustrating, even with the use of email.
We had KimKim to arrange hotels, train travel, a few VIP tours, three group tours, travel to and from hotels between train travel and travel to and from airports for us for our journey from Venice, Florence, Sorrento, and Rome.
I loved the suggest of the specialist to extend our stay in Venice so we could take a day trip to Verona as that gave us more time in Venice and not have to worry about keeping up with luggage for our day trip to Verona. I did not like the hotel that our specialist chose for us in Venice and once again this was something I tried to change, but the specialist said he had actually stayed at this hotel and that we would love it. I even went as far to state that I read tripadvisor reviews and room 103 was the worse and guess which room we received??? Room 103 and the desk clerk said the hotel is full so no room changes! I am allergic to mold so those 3 nights were a big struggle to me. Also we were quoted a double room with a balcony and guess what this resort doesn't even have balconies!! This hotel like all but one we stayed at was far off the beaten path, but it was convenient to the private water taxi for our luggage due to their dock on main canal. Our resort in Rome was so far off the beaten path that a taxi ride to any attraction was $10.00 to $15.00 bucks each way! But, as far as the employees at all resorts they were outstanding and went over the top to help with any of our needs!
The location of our Florence hotel was the best of our hotel stays. The second being Sorrento, but once again I asked the specialist to upgrade our room to a balcony with a full ocean view and he immediately stated it was not available, without even researching, but we were happy with our partial side view room once there.
Another issue was once we received our travel documents I noticed we failed to arrange transportation from our hotel to the train station for a day trip to Verona and when I asked the specialist how much it would cost for him to arrange for us, now keep in mind our vacation package was over $10,000.00, his reply was it would be to expensive for him to arrange, but it would be easy for us to do on our own.
In Rome I became ill and wasn't able to make the group tour to the Sistine Chapel and Vatican the specialist had arranged for us, we did receive a call from the specialist wondering if maybe we were lost which was very nice, and I stated no I was ill and maybe we could reschedule and his answer was no, no offer to help us set up a new tour, but my husband and I were able to set up a private one on our own which was very nice.
Also, two of our private drivers between trains and hotels did not speak English and one driver even told us that it was mandatory for all new drivers and guides to speak English.
We did like the fact that we had a travel agency to help us set up a few things, to take the some of the burden off of us, I just wish the communication was better and more emphasis was focused on our needs and wants.

We are so happy we chose travel 12 to plan out first trip to Greece. Harris and the team were so accommodating and flexible, as we booked last minute. They listened to what we wanted and planned an amazing tour for us!
Athens was an incredible however short visit. From the moment Lambros met us off the plane we felt comfortable. Even with coming in late from flying standby and not catching the mythology tour our hotel was in a convenient location to walk the Acropolis and make it to our welcome dinner. Mani Mani treated us royal with an amazing Greek feast. Just scrumptious. Yamas!
The ferry system in Greece is incredible as we were transported to Santorini! So appreciated the driver pick ups upon arrival when it was so congested! We enjoyed staying at the Aegean Gem hotel in Kamari. Lovely! Mary was so helpful there. The beach village offered a lot!
The hidden gem Argyros tour was great to get all around the island and hear incredible history. Sophia was an exceptional guide. We learned and saw so much from Fira to Oia to Meghelehori. The sunset and wine taste at Venetsanos winery was beautiful! Too light on the wine though. Pack your own snacks for the tour.
The wooden boat tour was a perfect adventure to tour the caldera! The crew and Kristina made it a blast. Walking the volcano and swimming the hot springs was so cool and BBQ feast and dancing after the spectacular sunset we will never forget.
Beautiful Naxos was our last island and we loved the pace. Enjoyed the Naxos Son food tour to partake in local delicacies and get our bearings around the old city. Great food and shopping, beaches and stunning sunsets by the Apollo temple arch. Don’t miss the outdoor movie theater! Staying at the Adriano Hotel was delightful, they were so accommodating to us! Delicious breakfasts! Before we knew it it was time to fly back to Athens. The flight was nice and quick but the delay at the airport made us question why we didn’t speed jet back. Good to experience hoping to save time. Our driver kindly stayed till we arrived late and delivered us to the beautiful Avra hotel. Perfect late dinner and rest and breakfast and we were off.
Appreciate Harris being available to contact and answer any questions we had and make adjustments we wanted! We will be using Kim Kim when we travel again, there’s more Greek islands we want to see! It was fabulous. Cannot thank you all enough!

I cannot thank Nina & kimkim enough for the help planning this trip. My friend and I had an absolutely incredible time in Norway – we were able to fit in so many activities/locations in only 10 days because the trip was so well coordinated. It was the perfect mix of cities and smaller villages (Oslo, Balestrand, Bergen, and Rosendal) – there is nothing we would have changed.

This was also a VERY last minute trip and I was genuinely nervous we were going to show up in Norway with no plans until I found kimkim when I was googling Norway itineraries. I was connected with Nina only about two weeks before we were set to leave. She was so helpful, responsive, and thoughtful when she was putting together our trip plan and she was also available for quick questions when we were in Norway. There is a good chance that our trip may not have happened without Nina – thank you!!!

Ingrid and all the supporting specialists were very helpful to make sure our Norway trip was amazing. All of our activity requirements were executed, which made for a VERY active vacation. We expressed that we wanted to do a lot of hiking, kayaking, eating and fly fishing. They were very much able to piece together a trip that made for a lot of memories and epic photos.

I will definitely use Kim Kim again, as having a specialist select your hotels, itinerary, book train/bus tickets, find a fly fishing guide, etc is extremely worth the money. Ingrid was more than communicative when planning, asking if we preferred one thing over another, sticking within our budget, giving us weather updates, recommending restaurants and mostly being available when we were in Norway for any questions.

Thank you, Ingrid for all your help!

Our trip to Nepal was everything we imagined it would be plus more, and it was all thanks to Kunchok Nima and all of our guides. We explored Kathmandu with a wonderful guide that took us to Hindu and Buddhist temples and taught us all about the culture. We then went to Pokhara where we white water rafted (Raju was an amazing guide) and started our two day trek. Our trekking guide Chhiring is one of our favorite people we met on this journey. His knowledge about trekking and his country in general was amazing. The trek was a wonderful experience and even though I wanted to give up multiple times I would do it again. Chhiring not only was our trekking guide but he did a tour around the city of Pokhara with us and even offered to take us to see a few places (the Kopan Monastery was beautiful) in Kathmandu when we got back. I can say Chirring is someone we love to visit with again. Our last stop on our trip was to Chitwan National Park. The resort was beautiful and the food was delicious. In Chitwan we got to explore the animals of the jungle on foot, on the back of an elephant and on a canoe ride. Our favorite part of the jungle experience was when we were able to bathe and play with them in the river. The last the we did was a flight to the Himalayan mountains which was breathtaking and highly recommended. The whole process of planning the trip and communicating with our local specialist was so easy. Kunchok was there to help me every step of the way and ease any worry or concern I may of had. We truly appreciate Nima, our guides, and all the people of Nepal that were so welcoming. We will definitely be using Kim Kim and Responsible Treks again on our next trip to Nepal.

I was looking for a personalised private tour for my son (8yrs old) and I, as we take adventure holidays over summer every year to a new country. Kimkim and Alice / Lemon, really helped make the planning of this trip to China, both special and memorable with there arrangement of standout guides in each location. The communication which was constant and fluid from the start to very small tweaking at the end made using this service a real game changer for me. I travel on many type of trips year round, this being fantastic for tour arrangements compared to the expensive tour travel agents I've used local to me.

Due to hotel costs being higher through Kimkim (inc fee) and the selection on offer, I decided to book hotels myself. However, the overall cost still worked out better then what a foreign firm was quoting. I was very happy being able to split this arrangement and customise exactly what I wanted assistance with. Superb.

We had 16days around China with the standout parts of each trip besides the main tourist attractions (which we did) where the following making the trip stand out even more:

Beijing - tour guide and Thai chi classes
Xian - cycle ride around the city wall
Chengdu - cooking classes and hotpot choice of restaurant, went there both days for dinner
Guilin - caves, great to cool down in the summer heat and city walk around the sites
LongSheng, - hike in the rice fields and eating rice/chicken cooked in bamboo
Yangshuo - bamboo rafting, kung fu lesson in the park, cooking class
Tunxi - tube rafting and hiking Huangshan

We were collected in each location by our English speaking guide making sure we were comfortable all the time, even helping us order our lunch, which I must save was truly a great experience in ever location. KingKong (Beijing) and Abby (Chengdu) were brilliant in making sure my 8 year old was enjoying himself and enjoying the trip which really made a big difference.

Overall I just felt very happy and content from the start, deciding which places to visit, to planning the route, and tweaking with my own activities. Best way I found to date to plan a trip. Will be using this service again, in fact, already am for big south America trip.

As a family who has self toured to 30+ countries, we were reluctant to use a travel service for our 6 day trip to Iceland. However, with limited time to see the country, I sought help from KimKim for guidance. They connected me to a local specialist, Preeti, who organized an amazing 6 day trip to remember. Leading up to the trip, we communicated via email on several occasions to work out the schedule and the package she delivered was well before the trip, giving our family plenty of time to study the route and plan for added stops, meals, etc.. We enjoyed an amazing week along the southern part of Iceland starting with the Blue Lagoon and a night in Reykjavik and stops and hikes along multiple waterfalls and other beautiful vistas. Tours included a zipline tour from the activity hub of Vik, a Zodiac Glacier Lagoon Tour in Jokulsaron, and an ice cave tour. The other days were spent stopping at spots such as Diamond Beach near Jokulsaron, Geysir to see the Stokkur geyser, plane wreck on Solheimasandur, hikes around glorious waterfalls, driving off the main roads through farmlands and on drivable beaches. Every turn along the way was a beautiful surprise and we loved every minute of our time in the majestic country. On our final day, we detoured to the Rekjadalur Hot Springs near the town of Hveragerdi where you hike about an hour to a delightful hot springs river for a delightful and relaxing reward! We finished with a great pizza dinner at Olverk Pizza and Brewery before driving back to Keflavik for the night before flying out the next morning.
Everything was well coordinated with plenty or room for detours and spontaneous stops and we without a doubt would recommend both Preeti and KimKim to others!

When we were planning our trip to Norway, we had two goals in mind - to see as much of this beautiful country as possible and to discover my family roots. With Linda Verasdal's help, we were able to do both. I presented her with a wishlist and she made it all happen. We like to travel on our own and not with a tour group but Linda took care of all of our hotel reservations, train tickets, domestic plane flights and great suggestions for excursions. We also LOVED our local guides -Stig in Oslo and Vilde in Bergen. With their help, we got an inside look of Norwegian culture - touring neighborhoods, having coffee at an "non-touristy" restaurant and a true feel of Norwegian hospitality. We are seasoned travelers and have used many different travel agents but Linda, in our opinion, is the best. We even had a chance to meet her for lunch. Please check her out if you want a fantastic Norwegian experience. And yes, I discovered my grandfather's family - uncles, aunts, the house he was born in (year 1884) and even his school records. Just awesome.

This was my first time using KimKim and I was definitely leery. I usually book all of our trips by myself. I have to say though that Adriana, who booked our trip to Costa Rica was wonderful. She answered all of my questions and rearranged our trip so that it fit what we wanted to do and our budget. She was even able to change a pick-up time in the middle of our trip when I requested it. All of the excursions we went on were run by top-notch companies and guides and the hotels she recommended and booked had amazing views. Everything was very smooth! I'd highly recommend her!

Thank you Preeti and also Pauline for your assistance in setting this up

Overall the drive/trip went very well

A couple of caveats for your awareness
1) The Google maps driving instructions were not always the most accurate; sometimes off by multiple kilometers (this is not your fault; but something to be aware of... not sure if there is a better way to map these trips) which did create some confusion

2) I would not stay in the Hotel West again; very very small room, no TV, no coffee, cold only breakfast, etc... I would barely consider this a two star hotel

We had a GREAT trip! everything went smoothly and we had a fantastic time! Highlights were the Trolltunga hike, the Oslo-to-Myrdal train (and the Flam train), and Fjærland, but everything was fantastic.

One thing that would be helpful is including a short overview of how to see schedules / pay for public transportation. It wasn't hard for us to figure out, but would be good to have folks download things like the Skyss app if they are taking a lot of buses and light trains.

The itinerary that Fridur provided was just perfect for us (lots of activities and sightseeing).

We had a great trip to southern Africa! Deb booked everything we asked for and more. Our favorite experiences included shark cage diving in South Africa, the Chobe photographic safari with Pangolin lodge in Botswana, a great Kruger safari, and the eye opening Soweto tour in Johannesburg. Beautiful parts of the world with comfortable lodging and memorable moments. Deb took away all of the logistical issues I was stressed about when I initially started planning, and incorporated experiences I wouldn’t have known about otherwise. Loved it!

Fantastic trip and wonderful country to visit . Adiyabold and team were excellent

Thanx Ingrid. Norway was great. So friendly, clean and beautiful. Kelvag was very special.

Well worth every dime
Amazing place and people 💓

Dimitris was such an excellent resource. I had many questions and emailed him A LOT. Every time I asked about my trip, Dimitris he always got back to me immediately with a reply. He was so helpful before and during our trip. We were 100% satisfied with his service.

When we arrived in Athens, our itinerary was a little tough at first. Since we arrived on a red-eye flight only sleeping a few hours, the morning/afternoon tour of the Acropolis grounds and museum was a little long for us, and it was very hot. The tour was very good and the sites were out of this world! We loved the hotel in Athens – Acropolis Hill.

Taking the ferry to Naxos was also a little rough. I think I would have preferred to fly between the islands, if I were to ever to return to Greece again. There are very long lines for the ferries and it was hard to handle all of the luggage with my daughter.

Naxos was out FAVORITE destination. It was such a great vibe for us. We loved the family friendly atmosphere. There were a lot of children (my daughter actually met a new friend also staying out our hotel). We loved the hotel in Naxos – Liana Hotel and Spa. It was an excellent location and the staff was really helpful. The hotel is beautiful and right on the beach. Everything was within walking distance.

Our paddle-boarding trip was a disaster. I love to go paddleboarding, so I was looking forward to this activity. We basically went to a place that had windsurfing (and I think for the times that there is no wind they offer paddle boarding). I would not recommend windsurfing for novices like us. Windsurfing is something that requires a lot of coordination and skill, and it is not something that people can just pick up in a morning. Moreover, since we wanted to go paddleboarding, it was a little frustrating because paddle boarding is NO FUN if it is very windy. We had fun, though. We basically beached out paddle boards and walked around the area. It was a beautiful part of the island to explore.

Speaking of disasters, the ferry trip from Naxos to Santorini was a complete disaster. The ferry was nearly 2 hours late. We had to wait in the hot sun. I felt like cattle getting loaded on and off of the ferry. Since we were so late to arrive in Santorini, we didn’t have a ride arranged. It took us nearly 2 hours to get to our hotel after our ferry arrive. The travel took almost the entire day – a day wasted. I would have much preferred to fly to Santorini so we could have enjoyed our time better.

The hotel in Santorini was also very nice. We definitely expected more of a party vibe and that is what we got. The location of the hotel was very convenient to many restaurants – they were also very helpful to help us plan our excursions.

The best activity on our trip was the Santorini Sea Kayaking. This was such an excellent experience. They really know how to guide a large group and make it a lot of fun. We got a serious adventure, and also got to see the red sand and white sand beaches. This was the best trip for our entire vacation.

Thank you very much for making such fantastic arrangements for our trip! We will definitely use Kim Kim again for another adventure!

Great guides. Would have been nice to have more I fo as what to wear on tours like proper foot wear recommended. Lots of walking hills, dirt paths, lava rocks. Bring old swimsuit for iron in water. Also on long tours nice to know where and when and what kind of time we have to grab food. Sophia was wealth of knowledge on our tour of Santorini.
A little disappointed we didn’t or could work out credit for missed hotel in Athens as Harris knew we were flying standby. Love the Greek dinner in Athens! Would prefer not to waste time on long ferry rides when flying was cheaper. Short one from Santorini to Naxos on fast ferry was fine.