Kimkim Trip Reviews

We had a superior experience with Drive Albania! Thanks to the Drive Albania team -- host Ed Reeves, our guide Ardi Zhugjeli, and their supporting staff -- our trip to Albania was fabulous and beyond expectations. Ed planned our activities meticulously, accommodating our wishes for backcountry hiking, bird-watching, and botany. Ardi obviously loves his country and has an outstanding knowledge of everything Albanian. His fun-loving personality made our two weeks an unforgettable experience. He showed utmost concern for our well-being and drove expertly on some exciting mountainous roads. We enjoyed a great variety of local dishes prepared by our hosts at guest houses in remote villages, as well as locally grown, organic five-star cuisine in lively urban settings. We highly recommend Drive Albania without reservation if you wish to experience the stunning scenery and friendly people of Albania.
Vera Markgraf, Kathy Hilton, Mindy Bell (May 2019)

We have just returned from our two week tour of Norway arranged by Linda. It was wonderful!! Our lodgings were perfect and all transportation went smoothly. We had great personal tours in both Oslo and Bergen and especially enjoyed our stay in quiet Aurland combined with a sea safari out of Flam. Thank you for a Very memorable trip!

Donncha was the highlight of the trip. His knowledge and love of Ireland history, geography, politics, music, etc. deepened our experience. His singing was an unexpected treat and helped define Irish culture. My favorite memories include the Burren, Cliffs of Moher and Dingle. We had a great trip.

This is the second trip we’ve arranged through kimkim, and it was again excellent. Abdullah was very patient with juggling 3 different groups with a variety of itineraries, interests, and length of travel times so that we could travel together when possible.
We especially enjoyed our time hiking in the Atlas Mountains and exploring the area around Aït Ben haddou. The drivers/guides got us everywhere comfortably and safely. They were available to answer questions but allowed us to absorb our surroundings quietly when we wanted to. We had a couple of donkeys with us on our Atlas hikes, led by Ibrahim and Ibrahim (I think). They - the Ibrahims - were so sweet and encouraging to one of our hikers who had a problem with her leg and had to hike more slowly. The donkeys can be ridden by tired or injured hikers, but they’re pretty small for us big Americans.
Marrakech was both invorgating and enervating, not to be missed. Riad Pasilla was a gem, quiet and beautiful, and a welcome haven from the frenzy of Marrakech. We didn’t want to leave!
Thanks to Abdullah and company for providing a wonderful experience.

This was my first experience with booking a trip through Kimkim and I happy to say that it was an absolute pleasure. The website was very informative and extremely transparent. Their curated tours is an excellent starting place to plan and then customise a trip.

My expertise with Carlos was also fantastic. Carlos is extremely knowledgable and very cooperative. He really helped my customise my holiday down to the smallest details. He was very patient and helped my make several changes to the plan over time. He was quick to reply back to all my queries, give proper feedback & suggestions and make the required changes quickly.

My entire experience with Kimkim and Carlos was great. I will highly recommend them both to any traveller.

There were 10 of us hiking together during the first week of May in 2019. The KimKim team made our planning requests easy to book and were able to adjust the trip and tailor it to our needs. We would without a doubt use KimKim for any of our future travel plans. The response I received from all our friends after the hike was how everything from transportation, lodging, communication, and the hiking went without a hitch. We have never been on a trip where everyone from Maurice to the drivers and the owners of of our accomodations we stayed in, were so accommodating and quick to respond to our needs. Maurice in particular, prior to our trip was quick to respond to some of our unusual transportation changes we needed to make throughout our trip . He also assisted us in changes we needed to make during our trip due to a few of our travelers not able to complete a few legs of the hike. The response time and solutions, were completed in most cases less than 1 hour. That was amazing. We have never in all our holidays been treated so well. The hike itself was above what we had expected . Beautiful countryside, great views and just enough challenges to let you know you were actually hiking and earned your Guinness at the pub at the end of the day. The Wild Atlantic Way Hike is not to be missed. Thank you for making our Holiday a memory we will never forget.

Great trip! Donncha was such a wonderful guide . His knowledge, witt ,sense of humor and passion for his country made for a great trip. Not to mention his singing of his repertoire of Irish songs.
I enjoyed our hike of the cliffs of Mohr as well as the walk up the gap. Cape Clear was also a special place. We were fortunate to have great weather to enjoy all of the places we went.
All of the accommodations were good as well as the suggested restaurants. The owners and staff of all the accommodations were great. My favorite was the Quay house .

8 Day Trip to Jordan

When you hear about Jordanian hospitality, take it to heart. Amanda Qardan with In2Jordan went above and beyond our expectations. She not only ensured we were well-taken care of throughout our stay in Jordan, but even after we left the country! It was nice to hear from her throughout the week – but we were completely blown away that she had arranged to have us looked-after during our 12 hour flight back home. This is world-class service and hospitality!

I’m glad we decided to use KimKim. Amanda allowed us to fully customize our last-minute, 8 Day Trip to Jordan. You can tailor your experience to what’s important for you. And she took our budget seriously, even when hotel availability became a challenge. While there were a few hiccups – mostly because it was peak travel season – our overall experience in Jordan was once in a lifetime!

When we arrived in Jordan, we were connected with Akram, our personal driver. He was very professional and accommodating. He offered us a personalized experience visiting various sites that we wouldn’t have gotten by renting a car and booking the trip on our own. Akram offered interesting commentary and his experience showed as he took us around his country. We enjoyed our time with him!

There’s almost too much to cover in this review, so let’s start with the food. We asked Akram to make a special trip to Habibah Sweets to indulge in Kanafeh while in Jordan. Simply bliss. Akram also made sure we had our fill of Turkish coffee throughout the week. As far as other food highlights, both the Maqluba AND the Mansaf are must-haves! After a grueling but awe-inspiring day in Petra, a local family hosted us for home-made Maqluba. Words cannot describe it! And Akram also took us to a local restaurant known for Mansaf. Incredible in its own right. When you visit Jordan you must eat both dishes, you won’t regret it.

If you can afford to upgrade your Petra experience, I highly recommend the Marriott. It’s perched above Wadi Mousa and offers a great sunset view of the Petra site.

A 4x4 Jeep tour in Wadi Rum is a must! Personally, I wish we could have had an extra day to see more of Wadi Rum. We also would have liked another day to explore the city of Amman. We stayed near Paris Square which was amazing, but just wish we had more time. You may need to consider your priorities, seeing archeological sites, (Jerash, Petra, or Citadel) natural wonders, (Wadi Rum, Dead Sea, or Petra) or local and city life. We were able to do it all.

Visit Jordan, you won’t be disappointed!

The Saxon villages of Transylvania sounded to me like an intriguing place to visit on a bike. it is marketed as a region full of history, social upheaval and change, all set to a backdrop of stunning scenery. it is all of these things and more, the little medieval villages inhabited by industrious saxon farmers for over eight hundred years lie in amongst the pretty wooded meadows and valleys.
Due to economic deprivation over many years, these once prosperous villages are now set in a time freeze. unchanged in over a century. beautiful castles and fortified churches sit beside well constructed houses set out in the neat linear fashion of the Saxon village.
Since the communist era many of the Saxon people left their houses and businesses and returned to Germany . much of the land is common ground, grazed by the romany shepherds with their flocks of sheep, usually assisted by half a dozen big dogs helping to guard against the bears and wolves also living in the area!
Poverty is evident in this area, the villages and churches are very run down, though there are signs of funding and investment to repair and maintain.

It is a fabulous place to tour on a gravel bike, in fact just made for gravel bike touring! some of the roads are well surfaced, but many are either really badly potholed or just clay and rubble surfaces. there are many footpaths throughout the region which make great cycling in dry weather, beware though, when it rains the mud becomes a tenacious sticky clay that will stop any bike in its tracks! The topography is gently rolling hills with some steep but short climbs. all the while travelling through open meadows, woods and forests.

So its a great place to cycle tour, but if like me you prefer to stay in bed and breakfasts rather than camp then logistically its very difficult to make a plan. I was unable to confirm any bookings until I contacted Silviu Martin of Martin Adventures. Silviu was terrific, he arranged all the accommodation along the way , no mean feat as even with use of the native language tying down bookings was difficult. Silvui is the consummate professional, he is conscientious, and really cares that his clients get a good experience. We were a self guided group, but Silvui kept in touch to ensure everything went smoothly. I would highly recommend Martin Adventures

Our week long trip to Croatia was planned out by our new Croatian friend Veselka. We had conveyed our interests in climbing, canyoning and outdoor fun to her. We had such a fabulous adventure. Veselka helped us dance through and around the rain/wind when our schedule needed to be amended and provided she also provided us with the best restaurant recommendations. Her personal touch to our itinerary was spot on. All of our drivers and tour guides were as pleasant and informative as could be as we traveled the Dalmation Coast and visiting the National Parks. Our itinerary included canyoning down the Cetina River, visiting Paklencia and Krka National Parks, sea kayaking in Hvar, staying in and seeing Split and then ferrying down to Dubrovnik for a marvelous Game of Thrones tour. We stayed in touch with Vese daily as she was just such a wonderful person to work with and get to know. I cannot recommend her highly enough. Thanks Vese - Steve and Sherri

This first trip to Sicily was a truly wonderful experience for us. The suggestions of sites and locations to visit as well as the selection of accommodations throughout the trip have been great experiences, thank you Carmelo. We really liked the small accommodations in the rural country side (especially the Terra des Mezzo near Riposto) as well the amazing hotel Palazzo Failla in Modica. The food was truly amazing. It was always a pleasure to talk to people (most could speak English and we also understood a bit of Italian) and get their perspectives, tips and advice (about the excursion to Etna for example which we did ourselves). All local guides were fantastic: Katia di Dio in Piazza Armerina; Eva Greco in Syracuse; and Ambra in Catania who showed us around the markets and other special places and introduced us to a variety of local street foods. All three guides were very approachable, easy to talk to and full of insight of their topics. We can highly recommend them all. Through them we were able to get a deeper insight of history, local customs and food culture, so important for understanding a new country and their people. Thank you Carmelo!

Everything worked out perfectly. Maro, our local specialist was very helpful in putting a plan together, responding promptly to messages, and making changes where we wanted them. Our English speaking driver, Tahir and our walking guide Babek were friendly and very helpful. We were very well looked after. We had a great time!

Costa Rica Trip

Kim Kim Review
My wife and I are from California, and we decided to take a trip to Costa Rica. We were looking for an adventure trip that would involve enjoying the Costa Rican rainforest. KimKim made this trip happen! It was such a comfortable, stress-free, and convenient way to book all our travel arrangement in one convenient site!

As I never used KimKim before, I was doubtful that it was this easy to book an adventure. However, it was this simple. It was merely chatting and emailing back and forth to brainstorm ideas of what we wanted to do with a Kimkim representative. Kimkim will assign a country expert to provide you with a real perspective of what activities, sights, and ideas are great or not or unrealistic.

The private tour was money well spent! After, agreeing with all the activities for a 5-day trip; lodging, lunch, and tickets were all included in the price. Danny greeted us, our driver for the majority of the trip, right outside the airport, with a clean and private van. He was excellent and very professional, knowledgeable, and safe.

Our first stop was downtown San Jose. We visited some sights and tried some Costa Rican cuisine. The next day traveled and hiked almost six waterfalls! The highlight was The Bajo del Toro waterfalls. Expertly guided by our tour guide Kenneth, we were able to get to the waterfalls safe and sound. For the next few nights, we stayed at El Silencio spa and hotel. A charming hotel situated in the heart of jungles of Costa Rica. It was an eco-friendly and environmentally conscious hotel. We loved our stay here! It was quiet, clean, beautiful, impressively well-maintained, but most of all while eco-friendly, it creatively integrates activities with the surrounding community.

For the 5-days, we were able to see six waterfalls, zip line, and aerial tram in the Braulio Carillo National Park.

I highly recommend using Kimkim. I know my wife and I would be using them again for our next adventure. Pura Vida!

We were not aware that we are creating permanent memories while having super fun.

Kimkim has organize perfect holidays and have selected our stay at the place where no indian has visited so far . It was our first time as a cycling tour and first time hosting any Indians .

Tour map was so precise that we have stopped viewing our google maps .

We can’t thank enough for the relaxing holidays .

My wife and I found Chris from Old Towne through KimKim. he responded before any other companies I contacted. We put a wish list of places to go/things to do, and Chris put it together. And when we had to make some choices, we followed his advice. We ended up stretching the 8 day package into 11 days. It was well worth it!

We visited Antigua, and stayed at Hotel Meson de Maria. The hotel was really beautiful, and the service was outstanding. Very clean. It had a great rooftop sitting area, and it was only a block or so from the main plaza. Lots of great food, wonderful old architecture, and many churches (including ruins) to see. I actually got a great photo of Fuego erupting, from the roof!

Our guide during this part of the trip was Pepian, and he was amazing. We hiked the volcano Pacaya, which was a blast. The coffee plantation bike ride and tour was more than we expected. Tomateo and his wife were was a gracious hosts. We took a boat ride across Lake Attitlan, with Isaisus (sp?) as our local, and proud, guide. We saw local art and textiles being produced. What wonderful hosts the locals were. Casa del Mundo was gorgeous, though it was a good hike to our room...but it gave us such great views! Pepian guided us on our kayak trip, and the hike back around the lake. Thanks Pepian, you were wonderful to us, and such a great diplomat for Guatemala. Danelo and Alejandro were our drivers...and we had fun being around both of them!

Next was a 3am wake up call to make a 6:30 flight to Tikal. Alejandro had our plane and park tickets ready to go, and by 9am, we were with Andres touring the amazing ruins. There is so much to see, it is almost overwhelming. We saw toucans, parrots, howler monkeys, and spider monkeys.
The facilities at Tikal are nice, but the restricted electricity (2 hours in the morning, 2 hours at night) made fans and hot water scarce. But it was fine. The howler monkey yelling at his friends right outside our window all night let us know we were in a jungle!

Fernando took us next to Las Conchas. This was a recommendation from Chris, and it was a great stop on the way to Rio Dulce. This was a bit out of our comfort zone, but Felipe, Miho, and their darling daughter, Hannah, made us right at home! Felipe's enthusiasm for the area, and his place, is catchy, and we swam in the falls. Miho cooked some of the best meals we had during visit, with a rather romantic setting. And Hannah is a special young lady, who never meets a stranger.

Fernando then took us to Rio Dulce. We stayed at Tortugal Hotel & Marina, which requires a short boat ride there. Our room was beautiful. We visited Finca el Paraiso, which was nice, but the fun we had with some extremely friendly locals was a blast. Daniel was our guide here, and Anna was our translator. The second day there we took a boat trip on Rio Dulce from Lake Izabel to Livinston. The river was calm, and the scenery was fantastic, with gorges, mangroves, and wildlife (manatees!). This was one of our favorite days of the trip.

After a long , yet scenic, drive back to Guatemala City, Carla took us on a perfect tour of Guatemala City. We visited a stunning small church named Iglesai Yurrito, which happened to be open for another event...Carla said it is only the 3rd or 4th time she has ever been in it. We loved it!
So, it is easy to see we had a great time. What a special, wonderful and beautiful country that Guatemala is. At no time did we feel unsafe, and the coordination of the trip, the quality of the guides, and the accommodations, were perfect for us. Thanks, Chris, Pepian, and the entire Old Towne team!

Awesome suggestions and super friendly guides throughout our trip - we really had the vacation of a lifetime.

We had a wonderful experience in Nepal. Seeing the Himalaya’s were magical. Nguma set up our trip. He gave us an awesome experience. Definitely a trip of a lifetime. Although trekking through the Himalayas is challenging Ngima set us up with an awesome guide and porter. Our guide’s name was Ngima also. He did a great job of guiding us through the mountains with no altitude sickness. He was super nice and tried to help us at every turn. During our trip there was a cyclone that hit India. Ngima made sure we were safe and made sure we got on our flight off the mountain. Our hotel in Katmandu was great and quiet. The people were so nice. Ngima set us up with a driver and a guide to show us the sites in Katmandu. As we exited the car at the airport, Ngima wrapped us both with white scarfs, for safe travel and good luck. He also bought us lunch at a really good restaurant. We really enjoyed ourselves and would highly recommend this company. It is perfect Thank you so much Ngima and company.

Awesome experience!! Ayu took care of everything.

They have planned everything well in advance. They were very courteous and always available for questions and queries. Will definitely recommend and use them again.

Planning the trip was great! Christos gave us quite a few plans to pick from and tried to stay within our budget. We ended up picking a great package to Greece!

Our time in Athens was fantastic. We had an afternoon to check out the city. The following day, was our Mythology tour which included visits to the Temple of Zeus, the Acropolis, and the Agora. Our guide Marika was amazing! Very detailed tour and she stopped often to talk, so it was nice to give our legs a bit of a break. The only downfall was that although our breakfast was included at the hotel, we couldn't take advantage of it because our tour started early and then our ferry was leaving early the next day before we could have breakfast.

Then we went to Milos by ferry. We were in Milos on the weekend, so most places were closed. We were close to some shops and restaurants, but a little ways from Plaka. We ended up walking from our hotel to Plaka (an hour and a half walk, one way) which was a nice walk, but a lot of the shops were closed. Our hotel there was great though! Panos brought us breakfast in our room both mornings, a very nice spread of some traditional Greek foods as well as fresh orange juice and coffee. He also picked us up and dropped us off at the port and gave us tips on where to eat and how to get there.

Ferry to Santorini was pretty rough due to the enormous waves and high winds. Most of the passengers were sick on this ride, myself included. But we had reserved a shuttle from the port to our hotel, which was very close to the beach and many restaurants and shops. Not overcrowded. Our suite there was big, with a kitchenette and living room. Breakfast was also included which we got to enjoy only one morning since we were leaving early the second morning. We had a free morning on our first day in Santorini, so we enjoyed gift shopping and walking around. In the afternoon we had a Gems of Santorini and Wine Tour. This tour was fantastic! We got picked up just steps away from our hotel, and we were just a small group (only 6 of us). Our guide Sophia talked to us about the history of the island and brought us to the popular spots (Oia, Thira, the monastery, etc) and other places she believes get overlooked. Our driver would drop us off and we would walk around the towns to see some interesting buildings, and he would pick us up at a different spot (our guide wanted to make sure we didn't see the same thing twice). Our last stop was the winery. By this time I think we were all starving (since the tour started around 3 and lasted 5 hours) so I would recommend bringing a couple of snacks. Sophia gave us the scoop on the winery and how it all began. Then we enjoyed a wine tasting along with a charcuterie board. Perfect timing, as we then went up to watch the sunset and take lots of photos. It was a great way to end our trip. We were then dropped off again near our hotel.

I have already recommended Christos to my friends and family since we had such a wonderful experience planning our trip with him, and I will continue to rave about the hard work he put in to put together the perfect plan for us.

Thank you so much for Christos and the tour guides that made this trip so memorable!