Kimkim Trip Reviews

Our trip to the Balkans, beginning in Tirana, Albania and terminating in Zagreb has been a wonderful trip for us. Ed helped me plan the trip and our Driver guide was Ardi. We cannot thank Ardi enough for taking us on this journey. We got to go high into the mountains of Albania and do some hiking, and visit many places throughout the Balkans... Ardi is a remarkable young man. He is prompt, responsible, kind and patient. Very good company and an excellent driver. Ardi speaks several languages which and was a great asset and he speaks excellent English.

Reno hotel-Yangon almost if not all non smoking room smells smoking if the aircon is not running.
Guide in Bagan not explaining the history of Bagan and each monument we went well enough or none at all.
Guide in Yangon, enle lake, mandalay were very good. All Drivers drive good and safe. Restaurant were averagely ok.
Tour generally are so so. Why..?? Market here today and everyday and last day in Yangon were 3-4 markets all day. Photography is not just all markets. Sunrise and sunset is a must. Tribes , customs, traditions, history, important monuments and etc.

We had a truly memorable time in Iceland. Sveindis did a wonderful job helping to assure that we were able to make the very most of our time. From kayaking a glacier lagoon, hiking a glacier, and horseback riding, we had the time of our lives. We would definitely use Kimkim in the future.

Whilst i did not have to do much organising (just added myself and a friend to the original plan) i found that the KimKim team were excellent to interact and communicate with. My only complaint is that on the first two nights I was given a room made up as a double bed (who has instructed it to be this way??), the first night Nancy and i managed but the second night i asked for the beds to be separated - this was not possible but could be done (with a sigh and "is that necessary" )on the third night. I then rang and asked that all following hotels be changed to have single beds in the rooms - this was done.
The tour itself was very well organised and despite the 4 of us arriving at different times from different destinations our first meeting with our guide Diogo went very well. Diogo went out of his way to take us somewhere interesting for our lunch whilst on route to our accommodation. We visited a small 'fair' and sampled local food and wine. He suggested local foods to try during our stay and was very knowledgeable about the area we were visiting. He assisted us in setting us up with our bikes and gear - a very pleasant service.
Accommodation:
*Monte Prado Hotel & Spa - superb, excellent restaurant, friendly staff
*Pousada de Valenca - another superb hotel - we were given a glass of bubbles upon arrival (very nice touch). Apart from the bed situation, staff were pleasant, food was excellent.
* Hotel Design and Wine - would NOT recommend this hotel - for its rooms. Rooms had no natural airflow (due to how windows/doors opened), air con operating made musty smell even worse and we were concerned that air con would NOT be good for health. Mentioned to staff but nothing was offered as "all rooms were booked". Nancy has asthma and did not enjoy our room at all. We asked to sit outside in our cycling gear as our rooms were not ready upon arrival and this was also frowned upon. We did not want to sit in the restaurant when we were hot and not dressed as per the standard, however the staff did allow us to join garden furniture together to sit and eat and drink whilst we waited.
*Casa Melo Alvim Hotel - superb - staff excellent and could not do more to help us. Food was excellent, staff excellent, location excellent. Top rate hotel.
*Inlima Hotel & Spa - superb. Staff helpful although not much on offer to eat when we arrived (wine and potatoes chips), great location, good breakfast.
*Hotel Teatro - superb hotel (even though my eyes struggled with the light). Friendly and helpful staff, great location, excellent breakfast.

Tour: i very much enjoyed the cycling - did not find it too difficult (as i haven't done much more than a few kilometres each day since leaving NZ where i regularly cycled). The couple of BIG hills on the first day (going to visit the Castle ) did make me wonder if i should have booked an E-bike, but other than then i managed with grinding through the gears to get up the hills. The routes were absolutely wonderful - road riding, alongside the river, along tracks, cobbled roads, through towns - so much variety and enabled us to see so much more. The only track that we found difficult was along the beach front (Moledo) as the sand was too heavy for cycling through so we took a road route and joined track further on. The last day riding alongside farmers fields was interesting and quiet but also enjoyable. I think the variety of riding was a good idea so as to not be bored with it.
Our final guide was Carlos who collected us and took us to Porto - gave us great recommendations of places to go and eat (and see a Faldo show), he also was a wealth of knowledge for the area and tours.

i would definitely recommend this trip to anyone and would love to do it again.

Very happy with all activities booked by the specialist (note they work for one specific company, and all activities are booked through them). Had a great time, all guides were extremely knowledgeable and friendly. However logistical aspect could be improved.

Prior to arriving on the island the only information received about timing and where to meet was that someone from the company would pick us up from the airport. He then told us what time to be ready the next day, only to find out our guide assumed we were meeting in a different location. No one called or reached out to us until I called them 30 min after our original meeting time, which resulted in them sending the guide to a hotel we were not at. Two more calls later, we were finally on our way an hour later.

So overall very happy with our trip, but would recommend future travelers ensure you push to receive an a detailed itinerary from the guide service before arriving that includes the departure time each day, and where to meet. Additionally, make sure you have access to a phone that works in case something goes wrong, and they have your number.

So my wife and I decided to spend our honeymoon/1st year anniversary on an African safari in Kenya, then to Seychelles, and Dubai on the way back home (Los Angeles).
I could not have asked for a better travel agent. Communication was very simple using the kimkim chat room, even though she was on Kenya time and I was at home. She guided me through everything and made the whole experience very simple and enjoyable.
She arranged our driver, Richard to pick us up from the airport and took us to all the places we wanted to go including the Giraffe Center, David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage and also do some volunteering at a local primary school to help give back to those schools in need. Richard is very kind and professional. He made us feel very welcome and comfortable throughout our stay in Nairobi.
The safari camps that Susan had me choose from were all very nice. I am happy we chose to go with the Tawi Lodge at the Amboseli National Park (our favorite part of our entire trip). The service was better than we could have asked for and it felt very serene and intimate. The Serena lodge at Masai Mara was more of a hotel resort but had the most spectacular views of the bush.
After our stay in Kenya, we went to Seychelles and stayed at the beautiful Hilton Northolme Resort and had a lovely time. The views of the Indian Ocean were beyond amazing. Susan also had set up an airport pick up and drop off service there.
We headed to Dubai after our tropical island getaway. Although Susan's services stopped at the Seychelles part of our trip, she recommended me to another travel agent who booked my international flight from home to Dubai and Seychelles to Dubai and back.
Overall, I am so very glad we decided to use kimkim as our travel agency and got lucky that we were able to work with Susan. She exceeded our expectations and allowed us to have the best vacation of a lifetime. Thank you

My trip to Croatia was wonderful! It is such a beautiful place :) Our itinerary was very well planned and Robi was always very flexible if we wanted to stay longer at a place. Robi was a great guide, he was always checking on us and made sure we were happy. The accommodations we stayed in were clean and well located. I would definitely consider Robi and Kimkim for future trips.

Emilia

Sotiria,
I can't thank her enough for all her help and kindness. She planned the perfect trip for us, just wish we could have stayed another 2 weeks.

I used Miha to organise our bike tour to Slovenia. the tour was tailored to meet our specific requirements and didn't disappoint. Eveything on the tour was to expectation from accomodation, to transfers rigth through to the detailed routes for the tours. I would highlty recommend Miha to anyone who wants to organise a trip to Slovenia.

Mike

It was a great trip. Ingrid was so thorough and available to us via email at any time. She was very prompt in responding to any inquiries we made and changes we requested.

We thoroughly enjoyed the tour with her in Bergen as we were able to see areas we never would have discovered on our own. The hotels were lovely and centrally located which was so helpful to us. We are still raving about the wonderful breakfasts we enjoyed. Bergen was certainly a favorite.

Balestrand was a real treat because of its size and location. We loved the kayaking and the trip up the fjord. It was a beautiful ferry ride up the Geiranger Fjord but it was spoiled a bit by the town, the cruise ships and the crowds. Of course, we were tourists just like all those people but we liked Balestrand better. Such a pretty town.

Alesund was another favorite. The architecture, the small size of the city, the food, the hotel. All of it was great.

Lofoten was unbelievable from start to finish. The looming wall as we arrived, the fisherman's cottages, the Viking Longhouse, the beaches. I think it was our favorite place. The Hurtigruten gave us a chance to relax for a couple of days but cruising is not really our thing. We preferred the ferries. But it was worth it to get to Lofoten.

Even though we'd been warned, we had a little bit of a hard time getting adjusted to the prices in Norway. Overall, a wonderful trip and Ingrid was wonderful to work with.

Karen and Bill Berkeley

My two weeks in Bulgaria was thoroughly enjoyable.

Thanks to the fantastic planning and organization by Simeon I was able to see many of the historical landmarks that this fascinating country has to offer. I had chosen the option to travel the country by train and I did not regret it. The train services were punctual and the folder/dossier of travel information provided by Simeon made all transfers quick and easy.

Hotels were aesthetically pleasing, clean, had friendly staff and provided tasty breakfasts, but best of all were the hosts at the Boyana Guesthouse and Deshhka guesthouse. Never have I felt so welcome in all of my life and despite the language barriers the nights I spent in the guesthouses were the best nights of the trip.

I highly recommend a trip to Bulgaria to anyone and I will certainly return soon.

We had a wonderful visit to the Botanical Gardens on Bali with Susan the bird guide who accompanied us was impressive with her knowledge of the bird song enabling us to have some really wonderful views of the birds.
The arrangements worked very well, we were collected promptly from our hotel by the taxi, had a lovely lunch in a local restuarant and enjoyed our visit to the local fruit amd vegetable market.
Overall it was a very enjoyable day.

Keith Gooday

We had a fantastic trip, trip of a lifetime really. Everyone was super helpful from the early stages of planning, a number of changes in dates and people right down to the actual trip where everything was organized well and worked out pretty much exactly how I imagined it. Northern Peru was amazing, super interesting and off the beaten path. The guides were amazing and we learned so much. English guides were hard to come by in the North, but all the Peruvians we met were super friendly and patient with us. The Inca Trail was just a fantastic experience all around. Zac and crew were amazing and we felt like we had the Andes to ourselves. Highly recommended.

So happy to meet Preeti, Halldor and their family! The itinerary was exactly what we wanted to do! Though some days were packed and we had to skip some things. But we got in plenty of hiking and excursions. We were very please with the hotels and guesthouses too! For the very few issues we had, they were so responsive and gave great service!

We loved all of the hotel choices except for FossHotel Lind. The shower smelled like sulphur and the room was too small to open your luggage anywhere.

Our favorite hotels were:
>Tungulending; loved the location and the novelty of it! We could have stayed here awhile!
>Hotel Hellnar was wonderful and we loved the costal walk to Arnarstapi
>Hotel Heydalur - we loved this place! It would be a great place to stay for a couple of nights! Nice pool, hot pots, horseback riding, hiking, and we loved the animals! (dogs and an arctic fox!)
Heydalur was hard to find.  The gps to a dilapidated building with broken windows! We were driving on a narrow dirt road. We went back to a sign for Heydalur. The only sign was “restaurant “ so we went in to ask and that was the place.
>Hotel Bork - we loved the large rooms and the location right by the small harbor with an easy walk to dinner on the harbor at KAFFI DUUS. The food was great!
>Glacier World hotel, loved the little glacier museum with the video explaining how the community built the walls to save their town from the melting glaciers

Our favorite Restaurants:
>Tjoruhusid in Isafjordur was fabulous! We talked about the food there the entire rest of the trip! We actually enjoyed going there for lunch when the price was cheaper and it wasn't so crowed.
>Sjavaborg restaurant in Hvammstangi - the lamb shank and cheese cake was fabulous
> Cafe Vogafjos in Mytvatn, food was great and it was neat it was attached to the cow barn
> Pakkhusid in Hornafjordur; the langoustine was soooo good! It was neat to see the boat that brought them in right out the window
>Efsti-Dalur, found this on our own on the way to the Secret Lagoon. A wonderful cow farm that makes their own ice cream. We stopped back here for dinner after the Secret Lagoon

Favorite Hikes:
>Hellnar costal walk to Arnarstapi
>Dynjandi waterfall - it took our breath away!
> Landmannalaugur! Quite a crazy road to get there, but that was my favorite place. It was so beautiful!
>Valagil gorge; loved the beautiful grass land, the blue berries and the "surprise" gorge and waterfall
> Dimmuborgir - Beautiful hiking trails through lava rock formations. The plants interspersed in the rocks were so pretty, they look like a garden.
>Seydisfjordur; we loved this little harbor town... so picturesque. We did a small hike to to the man made structure called the singing concrete.  It was a great view of the town from up there!
> westman island Heimeny

We loved this place! There were still some Puffins and the desk clerk at the hotel told us how to find them. We hiked around the cliffs near the golf course where we got a picture of some. We also enjoyed the aquarium and the volcano museum. We heard about the kids rescuing pufflings and ran across some caring a big box. Sure enough they had a puffling they were getting ready to release. It was so cool to share this experience with them.

Excursions:
>Hellulaug hot pot
We loved this little remote hot pot! The view was fabulous! We had a little trouble finding it. It was further up the road than we could figure out. Found someone walking down the road that helped us find it. Also, it would have been nice to know there was a restaurant right there. Based on the itinerary, the only place we saw for dinner was on the car ferry and that food was not good.
>Kayaying in Isafjordur
We loved the kayak excursion in Isafjordur. It would have helped to know a little more about the gear they were going to provide, but it worked out okay. It was also confusing on where to meet. The voucher was not correct.
> Inside the Volcano!!! We LOVED this! It might be helpful to warn people that it is about a 2 mile walk to the base camp and 1/4 mile up the side of the volcano. But it was so worth it! It would have been helpful to know they were going to feed us meat soup (or vegetarian version) afterward. It was so good, but didn't know and had brought sandwiches to eat.
> Husavik Whale tour was a bust, but I guess you can't always count on seeing whales. There was a beautiful sunset that evening and we would have rather eaten at Tungulending and enjoyed the sunset.
>Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon 
our kayak trip was cancelled because of wind and rain, but the lagoon was well worth seeing the beautiful blue ice

Helpful hints:
> 100Kr coins needed for many of the WC we stopped at along the way.
> The Driving plan link on Day 12 had the wrong starting point. We couldn't use it, but we loved the Driving plan links provided to us for the entire trip! FYI, you might let the customer know that link is in the itinerary, I didn't realize it was there until right before we left.

We had an absolutely wonderful time. The itinerary was perfect for us! Thank you!

This was a trip of a lifetime!! Linda was amazing in planning and coordinating for our group of 6 in all differing age ranges. She was great in getting everything on our wish and things to do and see and most of all giving us the opportunity to stay at the family farm. Staying at the farm was the most memorable part of the trip for all of us and getting to meet some new family. We had great tour guides in both Bergen and Oslo! They were super friendly, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable and made us feel welcomed in a strange new place.

Valde our guide in Bergen was amazing and super friendly. She had our updated itinerary ready for us when we arrived and tons of great recommendations of places to eat and things to see and do in Bergen! Thank you Valde!!

Miriam was our guide in Oslo and truly gave us a local insight to Oslo. She was very accommodating to our group and my 77 year old mother who kept right up with our 3 hr tour. Thank you Miriam!!

All of our transports from trains, ferries, buses and rental cars were flawless and made it easy to get to all of our destinations. I would highly recommend Linda and Kimkim to anyone for their next adventure and will be booking with them again in the furture.

Our Croatian trip was excellent. Booking through KimKim went without a hiccup and was very easy, however, the best part of the planning was the impeccable service that Robi and his team offered. Robi was very attentive at our requests and made sure we got what we wanted, for example, hotels and activities away from children.

Goran, our guide and driver was very knowledgeable and kind. He was flexible with the itinerary and accommodating to our requests. He took us to a small, family-owned restaurant next to a mussel farm and it was the best meal we had during the trip.

Robi was always available and happy to help with any issues along the way.

I highly highly recommend booking a trip with Robi and his team. They really do care about your wishes, your needs and they do so with a smile.
Thanks, Robi and Goran

We started planning our trip several months before coming to South Africa. Carla was extremely responsive, she worked with us on itinerary to accommodate our interests. She worked through small issues and we had a wonderful informative tour with our guide Mark. Highly recommend.

My partner and I had the most amazing trip to Jordan and Israel. Everything was seamless... from meet and greet at the borders to great accommodation to wonderful private guides at all the key sites. We had looked at doing a group tour and decided to book a completely private tour on the Jordan side, and a mix of day tours and group tours in Israel. You get the peace of mind of a perfectly organised trip created by a local expert, great local guides, and with the independence of a private tour, and very reasonably priced compared to group options. A great way to spend time one on one too with the lovely Jordanian people who were so welcoming and lovely. A special thanks to Tamara who organised our trip and was very easy to contact before and during the trip, and Hashim our lovely driver.

Amazing trip! Have not done much traveling outside the U.S., so was a bit nervous. Our travel specialist was James Mackender, and he made us feel very at easy with traveling abroad in Peru. Everything was perfectly planned--flights, pick-ups and drop-offs. Our guide for the Treehouse Lodge/Iquitos was Guido. Very knowledgeable, spoke excellent english, friendly, very personable. The Treehouse Lodge was beautiful, and the day and night excursions were once in a lifetime. Our next part of our Journey in Peru was seamless--the guide from the Treehouse took us directly to the river boat. The 7 man crew on the Spondias was amazing. They were so attentive, knowledgable about the amazon and Peru. My favorite part of this portion of the trip was when we spent time with a local family at the river village. They invited us into their home, we shared some food, and discussed the commonalty and differences of our daily lives. Our guide on the Spondias was Charlie, and he likes birds and was very knowledgeable about the different species of birds. Our chef, Francisco, was wonderful and his creations were excellent. Our waiter/purser was Jairo, he was a friendly young man, full of knowledge and we practiced english and spanish together. The only flaw was that we missed our connecting flight in Lima to Cusco. After an hour of being sent to 5 different desks to get our flight rescheduled, one phone call to James and in 10 minutes the whole situation was remedied. It relieved so much stress to know that James was looking after us. The last stretch of our trip was to Cusco and Machu picchu, and Zac was our guide. Zac was, hands down, the best guide I have ever had. He was so knowledgeable about Peru, Cusco, Incan history, Machu Picchu. The way he introduced us to Machu Picchu was perfect, and he even took video of our initial reaction to seeing this Wonder of the World. He was so kind, so enthusiastic, I definitely would do another trip with him as our guide.

This trip was just perfect. James did an amazing job listening to what we wanted to do, and making all of those wishes come true. Will definitely be using James and/or KimKim again when we travel!!

Erin, our local specialist, was really great helping us prepare for the trip, to the point that she helped us booking bus tickets between Kathmandu and Pokhara as well as researching various other things that we were asking about prior to arrival.

We initially booked a 5 day trek in the Annapurna range, but as our prior travels went on we realised that a 4 day trek suited our schedule better - Erin sorted this for us as well, and put together a more compact plan with our guide Naresh that meant we could cover the same trek in a day less.

The specific trek was the Mulde/Muldai/Muldei Peak and Poon Hill trek, with a maximum altitude of about 3600m, starting at around 1700m and ending at around 1500m. Apart from the unfortunate cloudy weather due to monsoon season, we got two clear magnificent sunrises, and if the weather had been clear on the second evening; a sunset as well at 3600m. We really had some great views, and an overall great experience, and just the view the first morning made our 6 week travel in India and Nepal worth it. Naresh, our guide, was incredibly nice, helpful and considerate, and helped us with everything from pointing out the mountain peak names to leech-protection, getting drinking water, and drying clothes in the tea houses.

I unfortunately reacted badly to the rapid increase in altitude and didn't feel too well the second and third day, but Naresh did everything in his power, including swapping backpacks with me, to take some of the strain off, as well as put the tempo down. This trek should be doable without any significant prevention of altitude sickness, and my partner was fine apart from slight loss of appetite, but some tablets for AMS could be useful, and make sure to communicate with you guide so he/she is aware, as well as be aware of the symptoms and react early if possible if any symptoms develop.

I would definitely do this trek again - next, maybe a slightly longer one to the Annapurna Base Camp. If you are inexperienced or new to the trekking aspects, or other aspects such as navigation etc (or just wanna enjoy doing the trek without planning it yourself), I would definitely recommend this way of booking.

Thank for a great time, kimkim, Erin and Naresh!