Kimkim Trip Reviews

We just came back from a hiking trip to Macchu Picchu in Peru via the Salkantay route with HakuExpeditions wich we had booked via kimkim earlier this year. Our trekking along Salkantay as well as the visit to Macchu Picchu were just awesome. Nicole from Haku Expeditions was very flexible in setting up our itinerary and upon arrival in Cusco she organized a briefing with our trekking guides.

The guides were absolutely fantastic. Both were very friendly and helpful, and had tremendous knowledge about the trek, the culture and environment. We did not trek by tent but from cabin to cabin. The accommodations were basic and clean, typically for what I've expected on a trek like this (no unnecessary luxury - but a good bed and a good hot shower every day). The food was above expectations. The Peruvian cuisine at high altitude, on the beaten track, tasted so delicious that we hiked almost every day without even having to rely on our snacks during the hike in between the main meals, there was plenty of good food and great hospitality. Definitely a trip we would like to do over sometime.

Was really impressed how nothing was too much trouble. Communication was excellent

Rate Wai Lin very highly. Extremely helpful and flexible. Any questions or changes were no trouble

We toured a vineyard with the ninth generation winemaker, hiked along the Camino de Santiago, learned local favorites at a cooking school, saw the Running of the Bulls, and had a Pintxos tour with a native. I could not have planned this trip on my own, and there are no travel companies who sell a tour that happened to be exactly what I wanted. I loved being able to customize the trip on KimKim!

Inaki's recommendations were fantastic! I so much appreciate his guidance in planning a trip that included so many highlights that could not have been arranged with out the expertise of a local guide.

Well, it was between really good and perfect. We had a great time. The itinerary allowed us to see everything without feeling too overwhelmed. We only missed one thing on the super rainy and windy day. We are already planning our return trip! Turns out that where we spent our first night (and also our last) is a great place for seeing the northern lights, we are thinking of coming back for that, hopefully this winter. Thank you for your help in everything, you made our trip trouble free and memorable.

Chris from Kimkim was a tremendous help, from beginning to end. He helped with all kinds of planning, even calling hotels I had booked separately to make sure they had the right kind of beds ready. Kimkim literally made the difference between a high anxiety trip and a relaxed one. Very highly recommended!

Chris went above and beyond what I would have expected. As a result, the trip was both better and easier than it would have been without his help.

Can't say enough great things about our trip to Croatia! Andro and his team really made it wonderful. The tours were fantastic and the transfers were seamless. Would absolutely recommend them for your trip!

Andro was extremely helpful and responsive to all of our questions. Really it was fabulous!

Everything was perfect like we want it to be. Linda did wonderful job helping us with everything. We had no issues. Very happy great trip.

Kimkim and Halldor provided a great service for us.

I have planned fairly long international travel before and found it exhausting. It was great to just say what we wanted to do and have it taken care of. Everything worked out great in terms of having the vouchers we needed to do all the excursions we wanted.

Iceland is an incredibly beautiful country. Laugevegur deserves its position as one of the top hikes in the world! It is also totally doable in 2 days (but painful). This was by far the highlight of our trip.

Would definitely use this service again.

We had a great trip to Iceland! Loved the country and expansive and beautiful landscapes. Kimkim (Chris) provided us with the inside knowledge we needed to plan this trip. The accommodations were good. Two weeks was about the right amount of time for this trip, as we covered a lot of miles.

Chris was great to work with and was very patient in answering my numerous questions. Glad that he recommended that we visit the westfjords, as this was one of our favorite parts of the trip. For some of the things that we did it would have been nice to have some more detailed information in our itinerary so that we knew what to expect. For example, the road out to the Latrabjarg bird cliffs was a long, windy dirt road with not much room for vehicles to pass each other - and this whole excursion took us much longer than we expected. But, overall, the trip was a fantastic one and went smoothly!

The team was able to work in my added side trips to the schedule in a very efficient way.

Halldor and the team were great, answering all my "silly" questions about how things work in Iceland.
The communication initiated by the team did stop abruptly once my balance was paid though. It would have been better to at least drop me a line a week or so before my departure to verify everything was arranged.

Overall the hotels were excellent and the trip-planning advice was spot-on. I was thinking of renting a car in Amalfi but was VERY glad I did not! Great job.

One hotel was not great, since it provided little in the way of service. We wished we had a guide in Pompeii. I'm sure I'm the one who didn't want it, but it would have been good to have one.

Probably open by saying that nothing is ever perfect so that's my standard. Overall was very good! Was a little concerned about getting the confirmation that things were booked, etc. until ~60 hours before leaving. That said, the arrangements were 99% there (first night accommodation apparently sent email with instructions - Golden Circle Apartments (a code to access key box for identified apartment) - that I didn't have). Apart from that, the bookings were on the money. The google maps and itineraries were extremely helpful - the pacing seemed right on the money - and the things we discussed were all good additions. A couple of places the roads were unexpectedly bad (from Dettifoss to Horseshoe Canyon on north coast - which threw off our timings - but all other dirt roads were fine. The details for restaurant reservations were good. No, overall is was a good "A" - and I tend to think that nothing is "perfect".

Again, good - trip was good; see earlier page for comments about being a little late with getting confirmations. I would have been happy even if i got just more of an update and a bit of dialogue to provide reassurance. I would suggest a little more proactive communication. BUT, the trip was very good; the pacing was right; the content was right; the accomodations all worked; and the day to day itineraries were very good to follow. Evidenced by "when we tried to add things - that's when we started to push timings, etc. I think some general remarks could help at the beginning - e.g. "you might be tempted to try and drive around some of the early fjords for a view but given them a pass - we've got some great ones to see later" - the itinerary was very good and covered all of the bases. It is easy to try and add - and we tried - and usually we saw something better later that was on the itinerary already..

Fantastic trip. Amanda did a great job getting everything set up for me. And Suman was an excellent, conscientious, and able guide. I was very happy with everything.

The written itinerary and maps didn't match exactly which caused us some confusion a couple of times - nothing too major but when you can't understand the place names, it added some challenges.

Same as above - but by and large everything went really smoothly. For those days where we needed to arrive somewhere at a specific time (ie to catch a ferry), it would have helped if the itinerary had said we would need to leave our hotel by a certain time to view the suggested stop along the way - it was only when we plugged the map in that morning that we realized we wouldn't have time to go to one of the stops we would have liked to make. All the reservations and vouchers worked well so we really appreciated that.

Well, perfect is hard to achieve! Overall, the trip was once in a lifetime and an epic experience. The one critique we had was regarding the stay in Yara. Though we liked the austere tea houses along the way, Yara felt different. Not sure what the difference was from the others. One thing--the guest house was run by a teenage girl--the parent owners were on vacation, perhaps. She wasn't very helpful. They village vibe seemed much more unfriendly than all the rest. We understand that the Yara stop is likely because of the distance to the next logical stop AND we understand that village conditions are NOT in your control. We were happy to get on our bikes and leave that village. We are not overly concerned with that situation--but that is my one kindly written critique!

There are many positives. Here are a few: Dawa is a very good guide and aided the ability to feel comfortable in a FAR away place. :) The stay in Lo Manthang was excellent--the guest house, the owner, the food, the hospitality were excellent.

An accommodations critique: .after staying in guest houses that we thought were comfortable...they Mum's Garden stay seems "expensive"--if that makes sense. Mum's Garden seems somewhat excessive compared to the other accommodations--VERY nice, but perhaps a cheaper stay makes the overall expense for us better? Again...this is NOT a complaint, just an insight. Last thing: the accommodations a Maison du Kathmandu are worth praising. The value for that place is very good--the owners, the food, the location...we thought, were excellent. It's a little paradise!

Overall...a trip of a lifetime.

thanks.

Mark

I wish we could have kept the same guide throughout the entire experience. Our first guide, Reuben, saw us through the Choquequirao trek (which was fantastic) but we had a different guide for Machu Picchu and unfortunately he wasn't nearly as good. After several days on the trail with Reuben, we were very comfortable with him and his team, and it was jarring to switch to someone new on the last days of the trip.

Overall, booking with Bill and Nicole was great. Nicole was always in contact making sure we had what we needed (she even gave me advice on which restaurants were good, what to pack to deal with the constantly changing weather in Peru, etc). It put my mind at ease being able to have such an open dialogue with her up right up until the day we left for the trip. That is definitely not something you get when booking through a regular travel agent.

I have nothing but great things to say about Bill and Nicole. They were easy-going, helpful and always willing to answer our questions. As I mentioned previously, the open communication with them throughout the planning stages of this trip really helped us prepare properly for the trek. I felt like we experienced Peru from a 'locals' perspective rather than a 'tourists' perspective thanks to their tips and suggestions. I would have loved it if they could have accompanied our hiking guide, Reuben, when he met with us to conduct the 'briefing'... actually I would have loved it if they could have come with us on the hike itself! They are such good people and did a great job helping us plan this trip.

I absolutely loved my (2) treks with Expediciones Colombia (in partnership with the other two companies my guides were from). To make the trip better, I would have liked to hike with others. I was alone with my guide and was hoping to make some new friends! So, that was disappointing. I'm not sure why Expediciones couldn't find more trekkers since I made the reservation months in advance for that purpose (of finding other trekkers). The trek itself and the scenery were excellent. Thank you!

Tara's emails were excellent, but I was corresponding with Jules. On the day I needed to contact him, he was held up in an area that didn't have good reception (returning from his rafting trip). It would have been helpful to have had Tara's phone number or my guide's (Erwin's number) so I could speak with someone else instead regarding packing and logistics for the following morning.

Everything on my trip was planned so thoroughly and the whole trip went very smoothly. I was very impressed that the hotel staff and tour guides knew our itineraries as well -- when the bus from Mandalay to Bagan wasn't at Mama Guesthouse at 7:30am, I asked the man at the front desk to call the bus company, only to find out that he already called for me! Little gestures like this made me and my mom feel very well taken care of and safe.

Anne was wonderful to work with -- very responsive and enthusiastic and really wanted us to experience and enjoy Myanmar in a way that most tourists might not be able to. Anne also came to welcome us at our hotel when we first arrived, which was a very sweet and personal touch.

Thanks KimKim! This was an excellent trip and having KimKim back-up was comforting. You connected me with Picos de Adventura, a superb tour company and their "adventures" could not have been more fun or beautiful.

Catia was great -- I also worked with Tiago and they were both tremendously helpful with getting my trip organized and with any questions I had along the way. This is a great company clearly focusing on the best possible customer service.

An amazing job by the entire Quechua Treks team. From all of James's work picking the trek. Then preparing for it, to Mayra's work leading us on the trip it was simply amazing. I plan to use Quechua for any future trips to South America. I consider them a tremendous resource to have access to and will suggest that any of my friends looking do something in South America contact them.

As mentioned earlier James's responsiveness was tremendous. He seemed to be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. No question went unanswered for long.