Kimkim Trip Reviews

Jordans 5 days and 4 nights.
Thanks for the organization. We liked Jordan very much. Hotels very good, the driver Haitham perfectly english speaking and actively explaining jordan traditions and routes.
To your future guests We suggest: even in very short tours, take at least 2 hours In Dead sea hotel before leaving for south tour (Petra and WadiRum) for unforgettable time floating in the dead sea. In Petra, try to visit Petra entering from back with a guide: a one way walk was much appreciated by our group.
This is a great trip and we thank all of your group for the great support. Paolo

We had the most AMAZING time in Iceland and it's all thanks to Preeti and Halldor! Booking was a so simple and we got to see everything and more. Kimkim set us up with the best tour companies! From the time we landed and had our taxi waiting it was fantastic. We landed very early so she found us a cute cafe to have breakfast and taught us proper Icelandic pronunciation lol! Our kayak guide Tim at Jokulsarlon glacial lagoon was so knowledgable and since it was just the two of us we had our own unexpected private tour. At Myrdalsjokull our guide Elsa from Arcanum was on point! On our second to last day we missed our snorkeling tour at Silfra Fissure (our own faults) but Preeti and Halldor came through and got us booked on the next one!! We saw and experienced so much on this road trip. Wow and a million thanks for making this post graduation girls trip the most amazing!!

Katja was wonderful to work with and planned a fantastic holiday .

she was attentive to all our needs and really went out of her way to make sure we had a great time

We always felt that she was available to us at any time if we had any queries or questions

Would 100% recommend her to others

Slovenia was awesome. I loved the trekking - quite challenging sometimes, especially in the Alps/ mountains/ hills , but always interesting. The River Soca is beautiful and Piran is a gorgeous town on the Adriatic. But lots of other lovely places. Domen was superb. Always responsive and kept in touch to make sure I was ok. The accommodation and treks he organized were perfect. Thanks Domen, SLO trips and kim kim 😀 10/10. Nga mihi Karen, New Zealand.

Almost all of the trip when exactly by the itinerary, except when one time a driver waited to pick us up at the train station where instead we were to be picked up at our hotel. Another time, one tour was rescheduled with no notification to Karin or us, but we were able to get in touch with the tour guide who cancelled and said our tour was rescheduled for the next day which still fit into our schedule. Most memorable places were the Douro Valley and wine and port tasting, and Tomar, the beautiful monastery. Also Sintra and walking up the old castle walls was memorable (it was very hot the day we went up, but we made it and the views were very rewarding.

Nicaragua far out weighed our expectations mainly due to Kim Kim. The tour and itinerary were excellent. Thanks Lucia.
Oscar was there to meet us at Managua airport and transfer us to Granada. The tours in and around Granada were great and the highlight for me was the zip lining at Mt Mombacho. That was amazing.

Rene gave us a great tour to Mt Masaya and his knowledge was diverse and enlightening.
Juan the driver was also a happy guy and he transferred us to San Juan del sur.

Sadly San Juan del Sur is suffering since the drop in tourism, so it was a quiet time there.
Rafa then transferred us to the border of Costa Rica (Penas Blancas) and helped us through the Nicaraguan immigration and customs, which we were most grateful for. It is also worth mentioning that the drivers were very safe which we appreciated.

Thanks again to Kim Kim

Jordan May 8- May 13, 2019
Lena Sluga, our travel specialist for Visit Jordan. She is the best! She made perfect itinerary for 6 nights & cover almost every place. We visited Amman, Jerash, Madaba, Mt, Nebo, little Petra, Petra, Wadi Rum and Dead Sea. She is so prompt & particular to answer our questions. We changed our itinerary so many times, but she is always helpful and so cool to us.
And our trip make more memorable our Driver Waleed Al Sabbah and guide Nasser Abu-Rezeq. Waleed was so calm and helpful to us and taking care of all small things. And guide Nasser full of knowledge of Jordan and World. We really enjoyed.
Thanks Lena, Waleed and Nasser to make our trip to Jordan memorable 👍👍👍

While Carla was great planning the trip, our guide, Rolfi, left much to be desired. Rolfi was rude, uninformed, unpleasant, unhelpful and unprofessional.

He was late picking us up by almost 20 minutes. When he finally arrived, he muttered something like the flight was early (by 10 minutes), it's only 10 minutes you had to wait. No apologies. Nothing. At lunch, Rolfi insisted that we order the baked Guinea Pig (which was very expensive) and reminded us that our drinks were on our own but failed to mention that his drink was on us too. We also had to pay for a side order of corn, which he put it on his bill and asked me to add it to my payment (which I corrected). Rolfi is also inaccurate in his account of local history, i.e., that the Inca towns and Machu Picchu were built several thousand years before Christ. When asked how far is Peru from the equator, he replied 6000 miles. Rofi also took us into a village shop, gave a short talk on everyday life and then told us to either buy something or leave a tip. Rolfi also asked a young boy to sing for us and then told us to give him money, which I find totally inappropriate and offensive. Rolfi gets irritated if he had to repeat something and like to test us to see if we remembered his lectures.

We wanted to get into Machu Picchu as early as possible and Rolfi agreed that earlier time is better, so we made arrangement to meet at 5 a.m. to catch the 5:30 bus in order to enter the park when it opens at 6 a.m. Rolfi failed to inform us that our tickets for entering Machu Picchu is for 8 a.m. After failing to persuade the park officials to make an exception for us, he then blamed the problem on us because we wanted to be at the park early. We had to wait over 90 minutes before we were allowed to enter. Again, no apologies, nothing. We incurred $21.49 for coffee and tea while we waited.

Rolfi told us that we are limited to 3 hours in Machu Picchu and we felt rushed through the park. And to fill the 3 hours, we came to the end and sat around and waited to fill the time. We then had to wait an hour before a terrible buffet lunch was ready, and another 90 minutes before going to the train station for the 2:30 train. The entire day was very poorly planned even if the park admission time fiasco had not occurred.

Overall, we were really pleased with our trip to Jordan. The itinerary suggested by Carmen took into account our interests, while also connecting us with some experiences we wouldn't have thought of on our own.

We really enjoyed meeting Nile, who was our hiking guide in Petra, and enjoyed the iftar with his family. Petra was, of course, a highlight of the trip, but Wadi Rum was also amazing, and floating in the Dead Sea was an incredible experience!

Things that could have been improved: We had a number of different drivers, which was sometimes a bit confusing. The hotels were just okay.

This was a wonderful tour. Any glitches that came up were quickly resolved through the kimkim site. The guide for our tour in Naples was outstanding and our hotel in Maori was simply gorgeous. We did get stuck in a small elevator for about 10 minutes, perhaps the kind of thing that might happen in a three star hotel. The hotel in Naples was ok but not terrific. On the whole, a wonderful experience. I suggest that you add advice about taking the ferry from Amalfi to Positano, which is more expensive than the bus, but much less nerve- wracking. Overall, 8.5 out of 10.

Tummas was a wonderful, patient and knowledgeable guide. Excellent!

I am not sure who David is, our local specialist was Tummas. Tummas was very knowledgeable, flexible, and in great physical condition. We had wonderful hikes and on a very foggy day, which occurs often in the Faroes, we had a great road trip to remote picturesque villages driving through spectacular scenery. His personality provided pleasant company. I would highly recommend him.

KimKim, at a higher level of the experience, was difficult to communicate with and sent rather confusing emails at times. The problematic KimKim communications lost 4 people to the Faroe trip.

My experience in Nepal was simply superb! I met a number of great people along the way including my trekking guides and porters as well as other local guides and and touring specialists.

The trek around the Manaslu circuit was simply breathtaking with incredible views and a moderate amount of physical exertion it was the best trekking experience I could have asked for.

Additionally my sight seeing tours in Kathmandu were fantastic and i managed to see an incredible 5 out of 7 UNESCO world heritage sights within the Kathmandu valley.

In summary I would recommend a similar trip to anyone. Reshma my local specialist was a fantastic facilitator in organizing the whole experience for me and I would recommend her to anyone I know . All in all it was a great trip and I would definitely do it again!

Ingrid did a fabulous job helping me plan a 3 week trip to Norway.There are so many positives to share. Ingrid did a fabulous job communicating with me in the planning and was very receptive to all my questions and quick to respond.The hotels chosen were all good. The itinerary with the maps was absolutely wonderful to have and and really made going from location to location very easy. She also was great in an in an emergency situation when my husband’s airline went on strike and he was stranded in Spain and Ingrid helped me find other airlines to get him to Oslo.
I feel very lucky having gone to the Lofoton Islands I would put their beauty in the top three places that I’ve seen in the world.
From a learning and planning perspective one of the things I learned is many things are closed on Sundays (especially in small towns ) and sometimes it was hard to even find restaurants open ( in the small towns) so Sundays would be good travel days if possible.
Overall working with Ingrid was a very positive experience and I thank her for all her work in making this trip so memorable for us.

My family and I just got back from Norway few days back and we're currently nursing on our severe jet lag. But despite the lack of sleep, we all had an amazing time there. The itinerary planned by Ingrid was so much fun and many of her suggestions outside of our initial itinerary were even better!

We really want to thank Kimkim and Ingrid for this lovely and well planned trip. The hotels provided were comfortable and surpassed our expectations. Other than a minor issue with the train tickets (train station updated the schedule but didn't inform us), everything else went swimmingly well.

Would definitely use kimkim again for my future travels.

Sri Lanka lived up to our expectations and then some. The people, the places, the food. Incredible! The vast majority of accomodation selected by Shalindra was fantastic, whilst our guide Indika was knowledgable, friendly and kind. In spite of the horrible attrocities that occurred during our time in Sri Lanka our memories are treasured. Sure to be back one day!

We had a fabulous time in Columbia. Cami did a super job in setting up
the middle part of our week, which I think was so successful because of the several conversations we had on kimkim.

We were picked up promptly by our driver, Luis. I know he was called in late, as our our original driver was unable to. My one concern was that he had driven through the night to get us and we had a 6-7 hour drive ahead of us. In spite of that, he was a very cautious driver, talked with us, stopped when we needed to, or when we had to though out the construction zone. I learned much from him about Columbia and never felt in danger.

We arrived late to Hacienda Venecia, but still took lunch and had a very informative tour of the coffee farm by Johan. Again, we learned a lot and he was most generous with his time.

We loved this place and wished we would have had more time there, if only to watch the birds! Just beautiful and the accommodations and staff very nice.

Milton and Victor picked us up promptly in the morning for our trip up to Nevada. Milton gets an A+ in my book. He has a broad and deep knowledge of the region and was eager to share that with us. The paramo was awe inspiring, but I think he felt that way about it too. I did not expect him to stay with us long when we returned to Manizales, but he did and we enjoyed our tour there as well.

The one place I had mixed feelings about was the place we had lunch at. We decided not to take in the hot springs, so enjoyed watching and feeding the hummingbirds in the garden. I also enjoyed talking to one of the employees about the hummingbirds, who obviously was quite taken by them as well.

Milton had asked if we could have lunch in the warmer room, and it seemed that they agreed to it, but when we returned they had put our food in the colder room (we had just come down from the paramo) even though there were no other guests. Two of us had also wanted the traditional soup and lunch, and our driver I think wanted something off the menu, but we were told we could only order off the menu and that Milton and our driver had to have the traditional food. It did not seem quite right, but I do not know if that is culturally accepted. If not, I feel the treatment would have been enough for me to not want to use this place (which is too bad because the hummingbirds were such a treat). By the way, the little cafe we stopped at on the way to the paramo was a treat where we had the traditional cane soup and cheese. Perfect!

After touring Manizales, we were dropped off at the Quo hotel. Very modern and nice-much more than we needed, but very comfortable.

Victor picked us up the next morning and promptly delivered us to the Pereira airport. It was fun to talk to him about the area.

Thank you SO much for putting together a package that so perfectly suited our needs. We loved Columbia! Everyone we met was so friendly, kind and helpful. I hope we get back someday, but in the meantime will highly recommend it to friends (and kimkim). We wish the country and its people well.

With much gratitude,
Cindy

Our Costa Rica trip was amazing! We had such a great time. The activities were well spaced out giving us time to explore in our downtime. The rides were perfectly structured so traveling was a breeze. The activities were so much fun.

The kayak was really fun. We really enjoy sport activities and it was so nice to get out on the water and view the volcano from another view. It was a bit windy that day but we were up to the challenge. Our guide Pedro was awesome. He showed us different birds and stories of the Volcano. Seeing all the birds in their environment was exciting. We even saw a beautiful macaw. After the kayak we had some fresh delicious fruit. Some of the best fruit we have ever eaten. Along the drive back they stopped on the side of the road to show us some animals. It was very exciting keeping our eyes up and looking for nature.

Horseback riding was really fun! It was a rainy day but we didn't mind. It was fun trotting along through nature. Along the ride to the waterfall we encountered some howler monkeys. That was quite the experience. The waterfall was huge and beautiful. So cool to feel the power of the water at the bottom.

The cooking class was so great! We learned a lot about the different plants that they grew on the farm. Drank some guaro and had a great time. The family that hosted it was so friendly and informative. The food we made was delicious along with the different meats they provided. When we left they even let us have some guaro for the rest of our trip. We enjoyed that every day until we left.

Our trip to Monte Verde Cloud Forrest was amazing! I have never had so much fun in my life. Despite me being scared of heights, the zip lining was exhilarating! Would 100% do it again! We felt safe the entire time and enjoyed meeting the people around us. We even ran into people that were from the same part of New York that I grew up in. Small world.

One thing we hadn't anticipated was all the animals that walked around. We must have fell in love with 5 different cats and dogs. They just roam around and are mostly ignored by the locals, but we couldn't help but give the little animals some love.

Would def book through kim kim again. We had so much fun and it was nice that everything was scheduled for us and all the hard work of the trip was taken care of.

Karin was so easy to work with. Booking the trip could not have been easier.

The trip to Cuba was really seamless and eye opening. Everything went off without a hitch and was well paced. We loved all of our guides. Fernando was waiting for us at the airport in Havana and was with us both days in Havana. He was knowledge, fun and accommodating. His love for Cuba was evident.

He drove us to Trinidad where we stayed at the Casa de Mi y Osi. It was in a perfect location and we could not have asked for two better hosts.

Kirenia promptly met us for an interesting and educational walking tour. We not only saw the tourist spots but also the neighborhoods where many locals lived. We also went to a fantastic pottery making studio.

Luis picked us up the following day for a tour to the mountains. We went to a small coffee farm and hiked to some beautiful waterfalls. Luis was an exceptional guide - so knowledgeable, informative, and a great conversationalist.

The trip ended with Fernando picking us up to travel to Santa Clara. We flew back to the US from Santa Clara. Thank you to all the hosts and guides - we are so happy to have met you all!

We have decided to break our review down into a review of Kimkim.com and Travel12, our local agent in Greece.

Kimkim.com

Pros: feeling of security from an American company and guarantee; beautiful itinerary provided free of charge; great communication platform.

Cons: no breakdown of cost provided; chance of being arranged with a bad travel agent; some judgment when questioning the cost.

Booked and completed a 10-day tour in Greece. Overall happy with the service. They put us in touch with a local agent. Kimkim reached out in our first few days to see how things were going. Our first agent was not helpful in explaining the price break down or in getting the price cheaper. The Kimkim agency helped us get a new agent. I did feel a little judged by the Kimkim agent when we explained we were not happy with the cost estimate provided. When you first start you take a short survey to provide the local agent with an idea of what you want. We chose the “mid-budget” option (other options budget and luxury). I forget the exact amount but around 100-150 a day. So we were expecting/hoping for around $1250 but we were provided a cost of $2000 and only 8 days of activities. This was a bit of a shock; when we tried to get a cost break down to see where the money was going to so that we could cut cost, we were told this would not be provided. When kimkim reached out we told them we were not happy with this. They at first tried to see if we could work with our first agent but we wanted to switch after some negative exchanges and unwanted/unauthorized changes to our itinerary. The kimkim rep was okay but they did make us feel a little judged by emphasizing that this was a custom tour but they did switch for us. We ended up paying around $1800 with 7 days of activities and 10 nights of hotel (3 travel days to different islands). The next travel agent provided a better breakdown but we never got a complete breakdown. We had a lovely vacation. Unsure if the travel agent treated us better because of kimkim but overall happy and will use the service again because of the guarantee and the assistance in finding a new agent.

Travel 12.

Pros: Responsive, cost-conscious, and flexible.

Tasos, was very responsive to our needs. He took the time to call us from Greece so we can understand what we were looking for and met us in person on our first day. One of the greatest benefit with Tasos is that you get access to the whole Travel 12 team. We could send them a What’s Up message or an email with any questions, double check tour times, and they did the same.

Tasos created a great itinerary that was customized to us. One of the experiences we were looking for were local Easter celebrations, and Tasos arranged for a private driver to take us to ancient Monastery in Pyrgos were the most beautiful celebrations were taking place.

Tasos was very cost conscious and took into consideration how much we wanted to spend on certain activities. On top of that, Travel 12 assumed all costs for any changes in the itinerary that were beyond our control (like a local protect that required Tasos to cancel our ferry ride and book a flight instead at no cost to us).

Travel 12’s professional driver Lampros was very nice, dressed very well, gave us a bunch of tips and local info, and even made a detour on our last day to show us a beautiful view of Athens. The whole team of Travel 12 was very caring and it was a great feeling of comfort.

Cons: The only con we could think of was that not all possibilities for upgrades were not communicated to us. We would have upgraded our ferry ride from Athens to Santorini if we knew that was an option.