Kimkim Trip Reviews

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.

We had soooo much fun and learnt a lot so it might just be that these are things we know for next time but a heads up about the timing between getting to Pokhara and actually starting the trek would have bee nice, just to allow us to maybe leave more stuff behind. Then again we too way too much for the whole trip so will definitely do that better next time.

Amanda we immensely helpful and just so nice as well. She tried to accommodate all our requests and we felt very safe in her hands

This was our first time in Nepal and we fell in love with it. Our little adventure was perfect. Our guides, Chhiri and Birbol were amazing.
We truly felt like a little team over the few days we spent together in the mountains. The trek was out of this world. Staying in the little villages of Nar and Phu valley was a special experience, experience that we will never forget.

Our retreat in Pokhara was such a treat, so were the last couple days in Kathmandu.

Before the trip, Mads demonstrated so much patience with us with our constant questions and changes to the plans but it all came out absolutely perfect. We couldn't have asked for a better experience :)

Thank you Mads, Chhiri, Birbol and the rest of Kimkim team for making our Nepalese experience so special!

I was grateful to have found a resource like Kimkim to go to. I was overwhelmed trying to find a reliable tour company in Nepal and having your recommendation took all the guess work out and that was really awesome.

Ngima was extremely responsive right from the start and was actively monitoring how our trip was going throughout. We got an excellent pre trip catch up and post trip meeting.

Our trip was near perfect and we had a wonderful time.

Our only hiccup was the trek. We understood that we would just meander through the hills slowly rising, whereas this was not the case.

Amanda was really helpful and answered our questions promptly with lots of detail.

Great to have someone with first hand knowledge.

Our only suggestion would be that she does the treks as we were told there was only a few steps. Debbie's had a knee replacement so she was quite concerned about there being steps.

Only reason I went with not perfect was a couple of days didnt seem busy enough. But given the last minute nature of the trip, Harpa was Awesome!!!

The tour guide Begga was super nice , on time, and we always felt felt and comfortable with her.
A few things that could have been done better:
1- it would have been nice to have received a detailed itinerary before getting there (we had a 5 line itinerary before the trip).
2- more information (geography, history) about the places we were seeing/visiting

Kristin helped organize the trip and all that we decided to do, we did it.
Grimsborgir was pretty desolated so we would have preferred to be in Reyvajvik a few more nights. I understood that Grimsborgir was the best place to be doing excursions from. Unfortunately it rained all week and we did not see the northern lights which was another reason we stayed in Grimsborgir.

This was my first trip to Nepal, and my first trekking experience. Ngima and his staff took care of all the details. We were greeted on arrival in Nepal, which made us feel welcome and warm. In our initial meeting, we were introduced to Lhakpa, our guide for our 7 day trek. Lhakpa was a great guide. He was very patient and flexible. He was able to tailor our trek as we went according to our needs and abilities. After our trek, we decided we wanted to add an Everest mountain flight to our package. Again, Ngima took care of all the details for us. I would highly recommend Ngima and his staff.

Ngima and his staff are very professional. They offer the highest in customer service and attended to all of our needs. Their trip planning was very thorough and designed to maximize our stay in Nepal.

I had to follow up a pick up time and itinerary several times. The first guide was late, thought I was being transferred to a different hotel, because he had his bike we walked for a decent while before being able to get a taxi which would take us and the bike.

The cycle tour was quite good. But the ending was disappointing being a festival there was no pizza and a drink. We found a place to have a drink and I was left to pay for my own taxi back to the hotel.

The following day the monkey temple and the monastery were great. The monk was very illuminating and spoke very well. It was disappointing however that we could only talk for an hour and the monastery and library closed 15 minutes after finishing our discussion with the monk.

The welcome dinner was very nice and the social tours consultant (the young girl) she was very friendly and nice to talk to.

I enjoyed my time with Juman over the next few days hiking. The villages and scenary were nice even if majority of the time we were walking on the road.

I was disappointed that the hiking times were advertised 3.5-4.5 hours every day when the first day I walked for 2 hours and 10 minutes only and was eating lunch by 10am in an effort to stall time. On the second day we walked to Bhaktapur and again I was there much earlier then expected.

Juman was great company and the local guide in Bhaptapur had a lot of knowledge of the area.

Getting back to Kathmandu was very unorganised. I had to insist that the Peacock guest house organise and pay for the taxi back to Kathmandu as I was having trouble with my bank cards so couldn't get money out of the ATM's.

I was supposed to stop off at the coffee plantation on the way back which never happened, and the taxi driver asked for money when I arrived at the hotel implying that he hadn't been paid. He called the Peacock guest house and thank fully they sorted it out for me.

I thought that a transfer to the airport was included on the final day but this was not.

Whilst I liked the accommodation and it was very nice compared to the hostels I had been staying in, it was apparent that there was lots of other options (cheaper options) in the areas where I stayed which would have drastically reduced the amount which I paid for the trip, and I was disappointed that despite my request that this wasn't looked into.

Social Tours couldn't have been better - we'd recommend them to anyone. They pulled together a fantastic trip and were very accommodating of requests we made whilst out there. The guides were great, too.