Kimkim Trip Reviews

Chaminda was our excellent Tour Guide with Atullah the Coach Driver & Sushi the Luggage/spare driver assistant. They were a top team that just got better & better every day of our intensive tour. Chaminda in particular led the way with a passion for everything about Sri Lanka. His knowledge was v wide & informative & could answer any query !! He couldn't do enough for us often going to a lot of trouble to make sure stays at hotels etc were the best they could be. All of us will recommend him to anyone we know who'll visit Sri Lanka in the future as we'll be confident they'll be so well looked after by Chaminda.
Brief precis of highlights; Galle Fort & history that set the scene for understanding recent Sri Lankan settlement history. Then because a couple of us had heard about Horseshoe Bay on the way to Yalla Nat Park, the Coach stopped there for a couple of hours. Stunning surf/beach setting.........just idyllic & one of us surfed & another swam out to enjoy a beaut swim. We all liked Ella v much + trek up Little Adams Peak. After that, a short walk to nine arches railway bridge was stunning where we watched train go over. V nice stay at Mountain Heaven too. Sigiriya Rock an outstanding visit. Spent a while there & at the summit. Afterwards a lunch put on by Villagers near a lake in their humble place was a real highlight. At least 8 ethnic dishes cooked over open fire & mostly prepared in front of us, that were delicious.........all of us declared best Sri Lankan meal by far !! Dambulla was good with the Cave Temples. While in Kandy went to an excellent Cultural show in a local hall prior to the Perahara Festival that night. Visit to the Tooth Relic Temple as well as watching all the elephants in the surrounds was great. Visit to Polonnaruwa was good even though v v hot !! Chaminda knew the history so well. We wanted to go to the Pilliwarra Elephant orphanage as a side trip & what a terrific occasion that was !! 3 of us drew tickets to bottle feed elephants, watched up to 40 elephants in river, then they all walked freely right past us in the access lane back to enclosures. Breathtaking !! Finally a drive around Colombo at finish excellent with a stay at Mandarina just beaut.....................best pool ever too on rooftop !!

We had a busy visit to Colombia and just time for a day's birding from Medellin. We were put in touch with Juan Ortiz who was great. He made some great suggestions but told us frankly what was going to work with our flights, and what no. In the end we went birding in two parks above Medellin with Ivan Lau. It was a great day, we saw 50 different species of bird and Ivan was incredibly knowledgeable and patient.

What especially impressed me is that Juan and Ivan offered us more experiences than we had the time or energy for, all including in the price. They are real enthusiasts. And I learned a lot about the culture and history of Venezuela and Colombia during the day.

Very happy,
Stephen and Mary

Guarav is amazing. He listened to what we wanted and put together a trip that was exactly what we asked for and much more. When any problems arose, he immediately responded and took care of them. He was always available to us. We loved listening to the monks chanting at the Dalai Lama's temple in Dharamshala. We enjoyed the beauty of sunrise over the Ganges in Varanasi. We explored the temples in Bodhgaya and the ruins in Sarnath. It was all the more interesting to hear Guarav speak of his life and the daily lives of the people we saw in this part of India. It was a fascinating adventure.

My husband and I returned from the Norwegian Highlights trip which was organized by Ingrid. Everything was perfect. Ingrid took the time to talk me thru the entire trip before we left which was great since I was a little nervous. Also, every stop we made, we were expected at. What I mean is everyone knew the Johansen's were due to arrive and welcomed us. All reservations Ingrid made went smoothly. It was very nice to have all that done and not have any problems. I would highly recommend Ingrid for anyone planning a trip to Norway.

We had an amazing trip, all of our guides made us feel welcome and our experience will be lasting forever. I will highly recommend your services to my friends and will also engage your services again on another trip to South America. The price was right and the level of accommodation was perfect for the trip. Maybe a tent each would of been a little better after a long days hike. We also enjoyed the company of the photo crew, they were amazing. We were promised a copy of the photos and film of the trip, but have not received this. Thank you for your services on behalf of our group.

We had a great trek in Nepal- we did a 6 day comfort Poonhill trek- and as it was monsoon season we had the mountains more or less for ourselves! Marie was super helpful with advise and helping us choose our trek. Our guide Daewon and porter was also super sweet. Would totally recommend!

Our 2 main guides Akkar and Nye Nye were amazing: professional, funny, accommodating. And they truly made our experiences so perfect. We found Myanmar magical. Loved going by e-bike through the pagodas. Akkar got us a romantic horse and carriage ride through the pagodas the first night and had recommended the restaurant Moon which was delicious. Nye nye was a total joy to be with. We particularly loved going to his village on Inle Lake, eating lunch at his family’s house and getting a tour of the village by dug our canoe with he and his Mum. Loved it all

Halldor did a great job organizing our vacation. We especially liked the first 2 days north of Reykjavík (the Snaefellus area) as there were very few tourists. We liked the hotels except the one in Reykjavik. The Blue Lagoon was fun and we liked the horse back riding. Thanks for the restaurant recommendations they were very good. We enjoyed the black sand beaches and all of the water falls.

Our three days touring the Athens area was wonderful. Our guides and drivers did a fantastic job fulfilling our wishes. Elias, Dominik and Denai were professional, friendly, flexible and, above all, knowledgeable! And Tasos developed a great itinerary after understanding what we wanted to accomplish during our time. Our main driver, Nick, was also excellent, safe and reliable. We toured three archeological sites, Mycenae, Corinth and Eleusis. We also toured two wineries in Nemea, which were both wonderful. And we spent time in the wonderful seaside town of Nafplio. Finally, we went to Athens for one day and toured the Acropolis Museum with Denai, our wonderful guide. It was a memorable trip, which was made more enjoyable by your efforts. Thank you! We will definitely book another trip with KimKim.

Hello! Thank you to Ingrid and Vilde from Ethical Travel for arranging everything to my taste and my budget. I also had a great time with Nikola from Gone Paddling in Balestrand and Flemmet, my walking tour guide in Bergen. I feel I had the chance to explore lots of things that Norway has to offer in few days . I definitely recommend visiting Balestrand, a unique gem on the fjord and their new museum of Travel and Tourism in Norway (Norsk Reiselivsmuseum ). Thank you for helping me realizing one of my traveling destination dream

Lucia was fantastic. Always available and extremely helpful. All the tour guides and drivers (Ariel and Umberto in Toro Toro and especially Carla and Narcisso for the salt flats) were fantastic. Please make sure you keep giving them work. Loved Bolivia and would recommend it as a holiday destination to all my friends.

Lena was EXCELLENT to deal with, we changed our minds 5 times in this trip and dates and she made everything so easy (thanks Lena). We loved our tour with Akram & we loved Jordan in general - it far exceeded our expectations. Mohammed (our guide through Dana nature reserve) was excellent & our favourite part of the whole trip was the 4 x 4 ride through Wadi Rum desert. Thanks everyone for an amazing holiday - we’ll be back!

I loved this company that I found through Kimkim - Ireland Walk Hike Bike.
I sent my dates, what I was going to do, and they arranged everything for me! They were so helpful for me as an independent traveler, and flexible with what I wanted to do, and available if I needed help. I was able to plan the travel between the cities I was visiting on my own (Belfast and Dublin), and they helped me figure out the hikes and transportation on the Dingle Penninsula. I was in wonderful bed and breakfast accommodations and had great directions on my hike. The hikes were beautiful- especially the hike where I saw the Blanket Islands from high up - 20 km a day was a perfect distance when I just had a small backpack to carry with needed supplies. The prices was great, especially for the quality I received. I would like to book with this company again.

Greetings! Everyone I interacted with during this process was kind and as helpful as possible. There are a few things I think you might find helpful for the next time.

Generally speaking, the logistics of having to figure out our own transportation was not smooth. Having someone meeting us at both airport and train stations, and generally ensuring those things go well, was missing. Case in point is arriving at the Oslo train station with limited instructions about finding our hotel on site at the mall, and not seeing a sign anywhere, nor was the hotel name on the mall directory. Finally after spending considerable time, with suitcases in hand, looking for the hotel in the dark (roughly 10:30 pm), I found the phone number to the hotel and they led us to a door which was locked and which they had to buzz us in through. This door was poorly marked, and again, in the dark this was a problem.

Another issue was the cost of the cab to get us to the airport when leaving. It was not our desire to use the tram or bus with luggage. It cost us $150 US for a 35 minute cab ride. At minimum, the overall trip cost should have included airport transfers. At certain points during the trip I began to wonder what we had really paid for.

Another issue is that we were not instructed to arrive early (as was the case with several other items in the itinerary), and we arrived 2 minutes past the time indicated on the itinerary for the boat to Rosendal. The boat had already left when we arrived. While I do believe there is some culpability on both ends of this one, the least you could do was reimburse us for the alternative trip we took which cost $138. I was told this was not an option.

When I asked for "City Tours", I did not mean "Walking Tours", and while our walking tours were both fine and enjoyable (David and Stig), they did not properly take the place of a more comprehensive day tour via bus, motor coach, etc., where you see the whole city. We saw very small parts of the cities, especially in Oslo. Luckily we found the beautiful buildings and harbor on our own or we would have missed a lot! Also, the harbor boat tour in Bergen was rather miserable. It was held in an open sailboat (sans sail), and it was pouring rain. It was very difficult to see anything, and while we enjoyed the guide, the type of boat was a poor choice for the frequency of rain there.

We did have an error on the itinerary at Balestrand which indicated we were staying at the Kvikness vs. where we ended up which was at the Midtnes. I did appreciate the view from the room, and Jon taking us via van to and from the harbor with our suticases, as well as the included dinners at the hotel, the amenities were quite lacking comparatively speaking. We had planned to use the gym at the Kvikness, and also there was no TV in the room, and the pillows were poor at the Midtnes. We also ended up spending evenings at the Kvikness since there was no restaurant/bar at the Midtnes. It just felt to me like we stayed in the cheaper hotel to keep your costs down.

In the end we accomplished the goal of experiencing the Fjords and cities of Norway, and that was really great. I think if you could implement a bit more 'service orientation' into the program, it would make it even better.

Many thanks for the opportunity to provide this feedback!

Lena is very efficient, replies very fast and organised a very fulfilling itenary customised for what we wanted to see in Jordan. Our guide Shareef was very friendly, punctual and informative and we loved going to each historical place with him. Would definitely recommend him and Lena as tour organisers for any of my contacts wishing to explore Jordan. Our favourite spots were Petra, Wadi Rum and Aqaba..not to say the other sites were any less amazing..each site had a uniqueness which we loved experiencing. Jordan is a beautiful country and we are glad we decided to visit :) thank u team kimkim

Had a great time, Silviu was very helpful and kept in touch with our progress, he was very professional. We will recommend you and Silviu. Thanks again. Steve, and rest of group.

This was an amazing trip! We saw many beautiful places throughout Slovenia. Our hiking, biking and rafting were planned out well. We stayed at lovely mountain huts and hotels. Domen and Anja were informative and pleasant staff! This trip is highly recommended!

My friend and I did a self guided trip, with Domen planning our route and arranging transportation and accommodations and extras. It was a spectacular trip! Hiking through the mountains to different places (only having to take daypacks) was great. Domen may have slightly overestimated our fitness abilities, but we felt awfully pleased with ourselves after! He was very quick to respond to any questions and we felt safe and secure the entire time. The only thing that didn’t work for us was trying to use the phone gps he had given us, but we had detailed directions and maps. It was most likely a user error!😀. Our trip ranged from Bled, through the Julian Alps to Bovec, rafting down the Soca river, then to wine country and ended with the caves on our way to Rovinj. I will definitely come back to Slovenia, it’s a jewel!
Cindy

Thanks to our guide Kappille (not sure about the spelling), we had a wonderful vacation in Sri Lanka. The drive was very relaxing and he showed us all the interesting places on the way. We enjoyed the hospitality at the various places and the food was very tasty. Enjoyed the tea estate, the climb to Sigiriya, the rock temple at Dambulla, the temple in Kandy and the interesting points along the way. Reminded us a lot about Kerala. Thank you for your help in putting the itinerary together.

Susan was wonderful with helping us plan our trip. She really listened to what type of experience we were looking for and made it possible. I’ve traveled to over 20 countries, but Kenya was by far one of the best experiences I’ve had. If you are going to Kenya, follow Susan’s recommendation, and go to Maji Moto! That was an experience of a lifetime. I will gladly recommend Susan for anyone looking to travel to Kenya.