Kimkim Trip Reviews

We are a family who travels a lot – for work, adventure, and play. We travel together and individually from places as diverse as Afghanistan and Ethiopia. So we are capable of organising stuff ourselves. Sometimes though life is too busy, and coordinating the views and opinions of 4 sets of people living in different places is just too daunting.

We knew we wanted to travel around Burma. I knew we needed someone to organise and advise. I can’t remember how I came across kimkim and their partner in Burma Myanmar Pure, but as soon as I was put in touch with Anne Cruickshanks at Myanmar Pure, I knew I was having a conversation and not being sold to. How do I know? Well, there are serious ethical issues surrounding the decision to travel to Burma and everyone in the family was uncomfortable. Anne did not shy from the questions we were asking but provided us with perspectives to help us make our own decision.

On the design of our trip and the itinerary we communicated a lot. Anne wanted to make sure she knew exactly what we wanted – what kind of experiences did we want? How active? How adventurous? How much travelling from place to place and to what? We went through a number of itineraries. Anne didn’t mind starting again if we felt it was not quite right. At the last minute Anne accommodated an extra person in our group – it was not trouble whatsoever (or rather it might have been, but Anne did not let on for an instant).

We had seven days and we went to Mandalay, Bagan, and Lake Inle. We had three separate young guides – obliging, positive and informed. They knew just how much to join in and how much to stand back.

Nay cycled us around Mandalay – round back streets, up hills, onto tiny ferries, around markets, into Muslim and Buddhist communities, along rail bridges and gave us a lovely Burmese picnic by the Irrawaddy surrounded by munching cows. In the evening we visited a proper local temple with rituals that were more fairground than religious. Then a really great barbecue shop. Nay was great company.

Thet Wai took over at Heho, meeting us with bikes almost straight off the plane to cycle to Nyaung Shwe. We had a truly lovely snack break in a village with exceptional food. Then we cycled to Nyaung Shwe on Lake Inle (through rice fields – stopping and asking farmers dumb questions). A great lunch.

Everyone travels by boat across Lake Inle, and everyone visits weavers and local crafts shops. It is touristy and it is designed to make you buy, but hell you have to give something back. Wai gave us a really good tour of the floating gardens and of the floating/stilt houses, shouting with joy when we found a pig house sitting over the water, inaccessible to dry land. A suggestion here – some of the houses are beautiful and spectacularly painted. Don’t waste time watching the sunset over the lake, ask to stay in the village on the water and watch the sun go down on the houses (we didn’t but I wished I had). Lake sunsets are boring – you can see them anywhere. We swam from a house in the middle of the lake and watched a couple having their wedding photos taken (people don’t usually swim…).

The undoubted highlight was Wai taking us to have lunch with his family (absolutely incredible food and so welcoming and curious about us), and then to great hilarity giving us a go with leg rowing on two of the family boats). We all had a go and it was brilliant. This is something people don’t do – and it was Anne and Wai that made it possible. I predict it will be the next bog thing at Inle.

The next day we had a gentle walk around the hills and good noodles in a place with a great view. Thet Wai is a legend.

The final stop was Bagan with a new guide called Arkar. He was laid back, patient and very good humoured. A really good guide. We had a day’s fun zooming around the temple complex on electric scooters (all coloured like Power Rangers) and eating in local places. Brilliant. We had final cocktails on our own boat watching the sunset over the Irrawaddy (best boat and best position).

All the hotels were very comfortable and well situated.

So thanks kimkim, Anne, Nay, Thet Wai, and Arkar. You are brilliant. It was an extraordinary holiday – open to what was going on in the wider country, but adding value to people working hard to make a living at a local level.

Koy, Hilary, Doy, Guy and Matt. December 2017

Both our guide in Yangoon and Bagan were very well prepared and considerate. In particular our guide in Bagan was a delight to work with and we are glad to have met her. All members of the guide staff were professional and pleasant to work with.

Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon is amazing, as one can read in many reviews. Perhaps the most memorable place we visited was the street market in Bagan.

Very knowledgeable and helpful!

We loved our time in Morocco! It was especially great because of our driver/guide Saleh. He was very professional and respectful to us. We were very satisfied with Hotel Amlal, beber camp site, and Hotel Casablanca. The only issue we had was with Hotel Akabar. It did not really meet our expectations and the hotel and dining staff were not great. It was the only accommodation that did not provide us with any water during our dinners, and did not give us an option for dinner like the other accommodations. We would go out to buy water for our meals at Hotel Akabar. Other than this, we truly had a great experience and we are so grateful for our driver and guide Saleh! Please give him a special shout out!

The trek was amazing. The views were spectacular and those in my group were really friendly. Ngima was an excellent guide, open to suggestions while also keeping us on a good schedule. The teahouses/lodges we stayed at were better than expected. The Poon Hill sunrise hike and our stay in the village of Ghandruk were the most memorable parts but, all in all, we made a good amount of memories and friends throughout the trek!

8 days tour Nepal Chitwan and Kathmandu Valley trekking - Kimkim organized a couple of fantastic tours for us whilst we were in Nepal. They ensured we were fully prepared and had all information at hand to prepare for out trip. Whilst there they ensured the local tour company took care of us and organised eveything during our trips whilst remaining adaptable if thing needed to be changed. We asked for a few specific things during the tours and kimkim made sure they were absolutely catered for. This is the first time used Kimkim and we will definitey use them for our next long haul family trip to South America (Ecaudor and Peru).

Our driver Mahesh was great. The van was beeping the entire time, some programming problem. We were in the van a lot and this was very annoying. The hotels were just okay, not 4 or 5 star like we asked. Some of the bathrooms were sub-par. The Colombo hotel was way out for the main city, which was very disappointing! We asked to go to a spa for a massage and they place was not good.

We (a group of 4) started planning our Morocco trip almost too late - by first week of December we were still discussing whether Morocco is our destination for 2017's Christmas - New Year break.

I was elected to be in charge of planning this trip.
We only have 7-8 days but we don't want to miss a thing in Morocco - eventually I was sitting there scratching my head looking at a list of 7 different cities/places and trying to weaver them together with almost no knowledge of how to get around when we get there.

So I made a decision of entrusting the entire trip to an agency.
I contacted two agencies (both N. America based) and got their fee proposals. The prices were exorbitant. I also found some Morocco based tours but they lacked the flexibility we needed.
Here's what we wanted to do:
Casablanca - Chefchaouen - Fes - Merzouga (camel ride and sleeping under the stars!) - Ouarzazate - Marrakech - Casablanca.
That's nearly 2000km.

Eventually I stumbled upon KimKim and gave it a try. Ian Hardie replied my message in under an hour and then we started talking. In the next 3-4 days we exchanged at least 20 messages discussing every detail of the trip. Ian was extremely helpful. He had extensive knowledge about the places we plan to go and what to be expected. He was always very patient and willing to accommodate our many requests. His partner in Morocco - Larbie Anzal - was helping us to book accommodations and arranging transportation. I knew I could trust these good people and the results proved me right.

It was almost a mission impossible to plan and execute such an intensive trip in such a short timeframe but we did it.
The trip in Morocco was very memorable. I'd even say it is one of the best trips I've had in my life.

Youssef our driver was a great guy who was always passionate to show us anything and everything about his country. He also stepped up and defended us when a local cafe vendor attempted to overcharge our espressos. But trust me we loved almost every encounter with Moroccan people. They were very welcoming and kind.
Youssef had a copy of our trip plan and it was executed in the best way possible. By comparison some friends of mine visited Morocco last year and they decided to be on their own - and had a lot of difficulties moving around trying to take a combination of trains, grand taxis and other means of transport. I did just that in Czech, Austria, Slovakia etc last year - in central Europe it was doable. In Morocco however, especially when you have a tight schedule and are planning on visiting the Sahara, having an exclusive car and driver is your best bet. My advise to people who are planning this trip: talk to Ian, and ask for Youssef to be your driver and trustworthy travel companion - you will find your trip extremely pleasant, easy, comfortable and hustle-free.

My friends just told me that their coworkers and friends who've been to Morocco were all surprised how efficiently we were able to visit so many places in 7 days and yet were still able to have a very enjoyable trip. My friends gave me tonnes of thanks and compliments for making this happen - I'd like to pass them on to Ian Hardie, Larbie Anzal and our driver Youssef. Without them our trip may not even be possible, let alone being awesome.

I won't hesitate to recommend Ian and Larbie to anyone who's planning their next trip to Morocco. You won't regret it.

There are so much about this trip and about planning for this trip that I wanted to write here and share with everyone, only if I had more time. Maybe some other day I'll come back and add more details to it.
Now I have to go back to the endless hardwork of sorting my 5000+ photos taken on this trip...hope I can finish before next trip starts.

We used KimKim for our December 9 day self-drive of Iceland. I feel like we received a hotel, vehicle rental and tour booking service. This is very convenient, although I was hoping for a detailed itinerary with a realistic schedule and addresses. We were given a broad general itinerary with points of interest. We found ourselves backtracking unfortunately and took roads to keep from backtracking and ended up losing an entire day (there are just 5 hours of daylight in winter) trying to take a different route. KimKim stated that hotels were booked since we contacted them just a few weeks ahead of the trip but we passed many hotels closer to the points of interests and feel as though we spent much to much time with limited daylight driving to our hotels. The hotels booked for us were great, no complaints about the accommodations just far from where we had been sightseeing.

We had an amazing time nevertheless Iceland is gorgeous and we realize in retrospect that we could have booked the hotels etc ourselves but didn't want the hassle. The weather was fantastic. cold of course (so wear many layers) we were fortunate to never have more than a snow flurry. I highly recommend Iceland in December!

One thing worth mentioning -
We also wish that Kimkim advised us against doing both the Ice cave tour and Glacier Tour. The Ice Cave tour was a disappointment and a waste of money given the glacier hike takes you into an ice crevasse which was absolutely amazing in comparison to the cramped tourist ice "trap" - hole. I requested the Ice cave tour. Caveat - the photos online are three years old. It has since shrunken and is not at all like the images. Ice melts and changes shape!

Overall our 12 days in Iceland were excellent. We did eveything we'd included in our trip specification, although mother nature didn't deliver whales on our Laki cruise or a spectacular northern lights display. However, we did have a magnificent White Christmas experience in Siglufjörður at the Herring House, which was the highlight of the trip for me. Other highlights were:

the dog sledding with Ispiration Iceland as we all got to drive our own sleds instead of just being passengers

our private super jeep tour into Thorsmörk with Iceland Activities which got us places we could have reached by ourselves in our rental car

New Years Eve in Reykjavik with it's joyous anarchic fireworks display laid on by the public.

Apart from some confusion about the quoted price, the service provided by KimKim and their Icelandic partner Wild Westfjords was first class. They proposed an itinerary based on our wish list and made the bookings for us, which I had neither the time nor the local knowledge to do myself. Our trip may have been cheaper if I had arranged it myself, but it wouldn't have been as awesome. The extra money spent organising this trip through KimKim was a good investment in terms of time saved during the planning and booking phase, the travel experience while we were away, and the asdistance provided by Preeti and Halldor of Wild Wesfjords before and during our trip. They even answered questions posed by members of my group which we could have answered ourselves with a quick google search.

Little things did go wrong along the way, like the rental car which didn't come with the ordered GPS, the broken heating in the snow truck which took us on our Into the Glacier trip, which resulted in us spending a couple of hours sitting in a deep freeze passenger cabin in temperatures below -10C, but none of that was the fault of KimKim and Wild Westfjords.

Thank-you KimKim, Preeti and Halldor for our best holiday ever!

We had the most amazing time in Norway. Linda went above and beyond for us and customized the perfect trip for my husband and I and our two young sons (1 & 2). It is probably the best vacation we've ever had. Thank you, Linda!

All of the guides were fabulous. Very knowledgeable and respectful. Most of our tours were in Spanish as requested. Drivers were on time, very courteous and hospitable. Every day on this trip seemed to top the day before. Don't miss the Valley of the Cocora (Wax palms) and a shopping trip through Salento. Staying in the coffee region was a great relaxing time between Bogata and Medellin and provided a feel for the more rural part of the country. Also great was the bike tour of downtown Bogota. Kimkim was attentive and flexible every step of the way. They made our trip! Thank you.

Jules and his colleagues made the trip a wonderful and memorable one. We cannot speak more highly of their guidance, hospitality, support and knowledge.

I could not have asked for a better experience! Mads arranged a perfect 6 day trek for me on short notice and it was absolutely perfect. All details were taken care of and he was extremely responsive and helpful. The entire team I interacted with were amazing, and the guide they paired me with could not have been more helpful and knowledgeable. The entire experience was amazing and one which I can't wait to repeat for a longer period of time. When I do, I'll definitely use Mads again - the service and experience I received were exemplary.

The trip was great! Nathalie was very responsive and tried to accommodate our requests for the trip. Everything from the hotel to the events for la Feria went extremely well and I would recommend travelers use this service. Especially first time travelers.

When Dimple and I first made our booking we had so many reservations about taking our two boys (9yrs and 5yrs) on a trekking adventure in Nepal. Both have grown up in Singapore and never been on any long walks nor seen that much of the developing world. With so many questions going through our head, being able to reach out to Ngima and the staff at Kim Kim in preparation for our trip, was just ideal. We were able to ask questions and get answers pretty much around the clock - everyone was so responsive.
The trek itself was everything we wanted it to be. Some of it was incredibly challenging for the children - especially the night climb to see the sunrise at Poonhill - in hindsight, I think we might have done better to have opted out of the night hike to let the boys recover from the previous day's exertions. In any case, Ngima and his team, took everything in their stride - including being so patient with our boys and then ensuring that they were safe throughout. In fact, I don't think I remember a time when the boys didn't have a chaperone during any part of the trek - and when they were ever too tired or not quite up to it, the porters would haul them on to their backs and help them along. The boys struck up a really nice friendship with the team and really enjoyed themselves.
So, all in all, it was a fantastic trip and a fantastic experience. Thank you Kim Kim - all of us can't wait to return for another circuit!
Dipak, Dimple and our two boys: Ishaan and Zayan
X

All the arrangements were great and professional. Medellin was the highlight. All tour guides were knowledgeable and professional.

This was an amazing trip. Everything in detailed arranged. So many different experiences. Guides were excellent.
The highlight of our holiday was Bagan, on the ebike. So beautiful.

12/20 our driver is very nice and did a good job driving us to our destination.
12/22 our driver came with a very old pick up truck, for the price we contract and discription from our agent we should have professional driver with Duster car brand, the driver not only driving super fast on winding road also passing car frequently, we were so worry all the way, the car does not come with air condition, we were suffer from the bad air, dust plus very hot, it was a very uncomfortable trip. We will not recommend this car company for future customer.
12/24 our pick and hotel pick are ok.
12/26 our tour with driver and guide are good.
12/27 airport pick up is good
12/31 we were waiting for airport pick up , when the time passed hotel front desk call Nathalie and found out there was no pick up , we paid and schedule for the pick up, Nathalie didn’t confirm for us and kept us waiting , luckily front desk checked for us and hurry arrange a taxi for us, so far I have not receiving any explanation from Nathalie, iwouldliketo request refund and apology for almost missed our flight.
Fran lee

We had a great experience with kimkim. We were three generations wanting to do different things. Sotiria helped us figure out options and set it up so the grandparents settled in Reykjavik while parents and kids did a two day excursion into other parts of Iceland. The snorkeling in Silfra was the best adventure of the trip. We checked out all the highlights created for our tour, and following the suggestion booked some time at the Secret Lagoon which warmed us up after snorkeling. Another highlight was being at the the black beach at Vik for sunrise. All in all a spectacular trip!