Kimkim Trip Reviews

Chris was incredibly responsive and helpful. Great trip, great planning, and great follow-through.

We asked a lot of questions and he patiently got responses to all, and he helped us resolve a dispute that was not of his making.

I've had the best travel experience with kimkim ever. The trip was extremely well planned and thoughtful, I'd definitely recommend this trip to everyone.

David, our local specialist, took great care of us and the attention to details were impeccable. I felt very safe and taken care of the entire trip.

Katherine worked very hard on our behalf, especially given the short time frame in which we were planning. She also was great while we were in country and got sick and had to revise parts of our trip. She was always available to help re-adjust. There were two of the lodging options that were disappointing. Cartagena, Tayrona and Silvia were the highlights of the trip for me.

All went well and as described. We had a great time and would recommend the Kempinski Hotel at the Dead Sea. The Movenpick at Petra was very well located and the service great in both. Our guide Mansour Mansour had our visa organised n collected us from the airport n took care of everything for our whole trip. Lovely and informative man. Our guide at Petra, Neal Hamadeen, was very knowledgeable and passionate about Petra. We decided to go to the Monastery so he charged us 50 JD extra. We were happy n he organised donkeys at 10 JD each. Worth it but not for the faint hearted as the donkeys navigate a series of old steps and rises. Petra incredible. Thank you Kimkim for organising a great trip.

I admire your professionalism and the attention, was amazing in trusting you guys our trip.

our guide Ali was excellent. He was very knowledgeable in all topics. We enjoyed his company immensely. Always helpful and accommodating.

Matt was very good advising us the best way to make the most of our time in Jordan

It was chaotic from the get go

she was really lovely, however a few things could have more clear

Everything was pretty great about our trip. Details were well drawn up and explained a lot of sites to see on the way as we drove. All very well done.

Only thing that was any sort of a snag was that our Waterfall Ice Cave tour that we booked for Jan 3rd at 10:30am apparently was transferred.... to another tour service without telling me? So as we showed up at 10:15 to the meeting area for our 10:30am tour - with my ticket saying 'paid in full' to Arctic Adventures (whom I had received my email confirmation from) they looked at them and then their lists and said 'you're not on our list'.
So the nice man made a call.
He came back with "Apparently this tour was Cancelled Dec 12th and your money was refunded".....
hmmmmm.
He said his guy was going to make a call and look into it further, but it was now 10:20 and tours were leaving at 10:30 so we were hoping it would be worked out before then...

He then came back and said 'So I guess due to scheduling or booking this tour was booked, cancelled, and then you were transferred to another tour company? So go over there to Iceguide van and they should be taking you now..."

So we did, and a nice man named Oskar said 'Yep, you're with us.' and we went on a tour.

But it was concerning that at no time was any info about us not being with Arctic Adventures was shared... Had the nice man not made a call to try and figure it out we would have just went home and the correct service provider may have just left without us and our two seats being wasted...

Just was bummed I never got any sort of 'your tour has been cancelled, or transferred to another tour service' update...... with another tour companies name to find.

Aside from that everything went off without a hitch!!
So thank you!

Such great input on all questions asked, he really helped make the trip happen.

Both our guide and driver were excellent. The major disappointment was the Al Capitan camp. The room lacked heating and the hot water was luke warm. We did not feel it was up to the standard we were expecting. I got a cold due to the coldness.

hi there: Our guide and porters were excellent! The first night accommodation was 1 star and that's being generous. I was under the impression that it was going to be a 3 star. Apparently our family of 7 cost $20 USD total to stay there, which is no surprise, as camping would have been more glamorous. I don't know why the tour company went so cheap on us, obviously to save money, but it wasn't fair, given we weren't told we were going to be in a 1 star of less, and if I had known this, I would not have booked with this company, as all the others who I inquired with were all going to put us in 3 star for the same price. The second night accommodation was HORRIBLE and would be given a negative 3 star rating! My family all said (and that's our 5 kids) that it was the WORST place we had ever stayed. There was vomit filling the bathroom sink when we arrived and no one cleaned it until I complained. The kitchen facilities were SO dirty, I refused to have food cooked in it for dinner, and instead bought chocolate bars down the street for my kids to eat. The food for that night was supposed to be included. We ended up paying for it ourselves. Breakfast left us no option but to eat white toast and have a few hard boiled eggs each. It was so disappointing. The beds had dirty sheets on all beds, and the toilet did not flush. There was no running water in the sink for brushing our teeth or cleaning up. Like the first night, our sleep was freezing cold, like we were camping outside. Windows were broken, or didn't shut properly. We could see our breath while eating our breakfast and dinner on both nights. For the price we payed to do this trip, we were ripped off. The third night was the only night that was acceptable with a proper three star hotel. Honestly, if the trip company we were introduced to through your sight told us we would be in 1 or negative star ratings for the first two nights, we would have gone with another company. As I said, the guides were excellent, helpful and very personable, and the last night of our stay was great, but the first two nights really left me no choice but to NOT recommend this company to any of my many, many expat friends. We were NOT satisfied, and very uncomfortable in our stay for the first two nights, and feared for food poisoning, catching a disease from the uncleanliness of the second place, with the vomit, other body fluids present, dirty bed sheets, as well as general uncleanliness. (cigarette burns in carpet, non functioning toilet ( already soiled when we got there) and non functioning water taps in our bathroom sink. Please understand as diplomats, a 3 star rating is a minimum, and if we had wanted to stay in a hovel, we would not have gone with this company in the first place. Though they get an A + on service on a personal level, the accommodations on the first two nights were completely , and utterly NOT acceptable and the second night, completely disgusting in all respects.

Raj was amazing. He hosted us lunch at the office, gave us t-shirts, took us to an outlet store to buy gear and arranged safe transportation, gave us his best guide ( wonderful!) and great porters, the first two nights accommodations were - first - 1 star and second night, - negative 3 star rating, as in "we wanted to leave, but were stranded" and no choice but to stay. I felt like I was a hostage.

The organization was superb. We do these kind of trips a lot and I can honestly say that we have never had one as well organized as this one. At every step, the drivers or guides were always ready for us and every aspect happened like clockwork. We live in Germany where you expect that kind of organization, but to enjoy it in Nepal hardly seemed possible. Our congratulations on a job well done! Also, the guides were all fantastic - friendly and knowledgeable. Most national parks in the world have guides who know the big animals and birds of prey, but our guides in Chitwan knew every bird and butterfly as well.

We discussed the trip and made changes to his original concept several times but he never tried to force us into his plan and cheerily re-worked the itinerary until we were happy with it.

Overall the trip was fantastic. While I think that it was near perfect, the number of things that were on our itinerary were too many and the number of daylight hours were just not enough.

I think that Chris could have been more clear advising us about the short daylight hours. (I too claim responsibility for not delving further into this) but otherwise Chris did a great job. He was accessible and was quick to respond to any questions before and during the trip. He offered a number of suggestions based on our first discussion.

So we are on our return now from our wonderful yet short trip. Nothing but praise and recommendation for the service and itinerary drawn together here. Thank you so much for the clear communication, ease of service, thoughtfulness and assistance. Everything went so well and with ease. My husband has really enjoyed his birthday surprise.

We were very pleased with the Northern Lights Tour by Amazing Tours. So much better than the mini-bus Tours on offer everywhere else. The guys we had running the evening (Nori? And his brother), were engaging and interesting. They added in a visit to a waterfall. Just really cool; we felt we had lucked out having them as our guides. So thank you, I am quite sure we will use you again. Our trip was outstanding. Best wishes to all involved in working with us.

I really appreciate this service and the help Matt Loveland provided. A couple things could help improve the process.

1) This is the first time I tried kimkim, I really like the idea and hope to see it grow. It really lends it self to setting up last minute plans. So with that in mind, it did take a while (2 days) to get an initial response. We were just about to make other plans when we finally heard back.

2) Some kind of printable confirmation to show to people when we arrive at facilities/tours/etc. There were times when people had no idea who we were or how we booked, it was difficult to explain to them. In the end it worked out though.

See comments in first section

Nathalie was fantastic in helping me plan my trip in such short notice (4 days prior to travel). All of my accommodations were in the heart of each city, and had an authentic local feel to them (Just what I asked for). Nathalie also sent me plenty of restaurant recommendations, and additional activities we could take advantage of on our free time. She kept in touch with me throughout the trip and she went above and beyond to quickly resolve a minor issue I had.
Overall great, despite one of the guides not showing up (he had the times switched), but that was resolved by Nathalie, the guides that showed up were awesome, their historical knowledge in Bogota, and the 2 in Villa de Leyva, was phenomenal. The people (guides, drivers, and locals) were extraordinarily friendly, and open to sharing their customs.

If I could change one thing it would have been longer planning time (not on you), because I would have altered my itinerary slightly to avoid a lot of movement from town to town, probably returned from Villa de Leyva to Bogota rather than go to Barichara just to avoid the transportation time, and likely headed to Cartagena a day earlier since it was a place I needed more time at. Nothing major, overall great support by Nathalie, and a fantastic trip.

Thanks, looking forward to using your services again.

Regards,

Howard

She was very helpful in such short notice and provided great recommendations. She resolved a minor issue and compensated the hiccup with a great dinner in Cartagena. Fantastic service, and fully recommend her.

Raj was extremely helpful from the very first day. He was very approachable. He was also very hospitable after we arrived in Nepal. We thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of our trip and will definitely be recommending both Raj (Social Tours) and Kimkim to future travellers.

Took great care in ensuring everything went smoothly

We have been home for about one and a half weeks now. We are really happy with how our trip went. The views were stunning and I think that both me and Victor would like to return someday for a longer trek. Thank you for all the help. It would have been some much harder to do without you two.

Ngima and our guide Lhakpa were great and everything just worked.

We had a great trip! It made planning easier as we could focus more on what we wanted to see and less about what hotels to stay in. One of the hotels in particular, the ryokan in Kinugawa, was definitely not something we would have chosen ourselves and was a highlight of the trip.

One of things that could have been improved would have been a clearer picture of how the process worked. It wasn't clear when hotels would be booked, when final payment would be required, and expectations of what I could ask for before/during the trip.

In addition to suggested places/attractions, it would also have been handy to have restaurant/food recommendations that are culturally unique.

Kishiko was very helpful and cordial throughout the planning process. Her travel plan was very thorough and certainly came in helpful. The extra mile she went to ensure our train tickets were sorted during the trip was really appreciated!

What could have been improved was more upfront communication throughout the planning process. It wasn't always clear where things were at and it was left up to me to periodically check in.

The group chat option made planning very easy for everyone to be involved in real time, and Alex and Amanda were both always immediately responsive.

Amanda was wonderful during the planning process in making suggestions, fulfilling our requests, and providing insight and advice on the local area. Again, she was also always available to us prior to the trip, and she made a point of seeing us three times when we were actually in Kathmandu, which was totally above and beyond what she needed to do and very much appreciated.