Aleksandra Sheb

We had a great trip and Aleksandra was super helpful planning and booking our trip! She was also readily available during our trip to re-book lodging and tours due to missing our flight to England. The app was a great and easy way to store all of our bookings. Our lodging in the Cotswolds was fabulous and we liked the York lodging as well. The tours she booked were also very good.

Some things we think could be better are: 1)being able to see a line item budget of our trip in the planning phase thus making budgeting easier; 2)knowing the duration of our tours and the anticipated number of people on each tour in advance; and 3) (a small detail) the app should show the day of the week and date, not just date.

We did have a hiccough due to missing our flight. Somehow the place we were staying was not notified of our delay so our first couple nights lodging was cancelled when we didn't arrive on the expected date. When we told Aleksandra we missed our flight we had assumed she would take care of the notifications. If we were supposed to reach out to the hotel it would have been good to know. Nonetheless Aleksandra and the hotel worked hard to help us out and get us settled.

Finally some things we learned that you may want to share with others: 1) we travelled from the Cotswolds to York on a Friday - the train was packed and there was no room for our luggage. In the future we will try to avoid point to point travel on fridays to mondays; 2) we had two tours a day booked a couple of days in London. It was too much. It was difficult to get point to point and have a minute to sit and refuel and 3) we might have preferred first class train travel and it would have been useful for us to consider that with Aleksandra and 4) in light of missing our flight and losing a day of our trip, in the future we will avoid planning anything the immediate day after our arrival.

Overall we would recommend KimKim to someone looking for a travel agent and appreciate all that Aleksandra did for us! Thanks!

Kimkim representative, Aleksandra was fantastic! Always friendly, responsive and professional! Our drivers, were first rate! Thanks to all for the help in making the experience awesome! Doug Johnson

Overall the trip was wonderful. The cities that were selected for our journey through Ireland by Aleksandra were a diverse mix of Irish old and new. Dublin, Waterford, Cork, and Galway were incredible. The history of the Viking conquest and settlements, the ancient castles that we visited, the uniqueness of each city was unforgettable. The guides in each city were genuine and so open to explain whatever we asked.
Our accommodations in each city were right where we had asked then to be, near or in the central part of town. They are different from American hotels but the were comfortable and provided what we needed. Overall, the hotel breakfasts were good, especially at the Dooley in Waterford.
Tha transportation that was provided was good. Most drivers were in contact with us the day before and got us to our destinations on time.
Overall a great first overseas trop for us. The only negative I have and it's a small but important one is that when there is a need for us to make our own transport to a location that was booked for us, that it be stated in the itinerary not left as a surprise.
Thanks again for the experience and we will be using your services again.

overall a good itinerary, hotels were great and most transfers arranged. however, we did not have transfers for our trip to killarney but Alexandra did help up on what to do. we really expected all transfers and perhaps we didn't notice that one also the trip to Birr- DO NOT send anyone there on a trip. we had no transportation arranged, we contacted alex and she helped get us a taxi which you all paid, however, we should have been warned on this - taxi was around 350 euros so something we would have not done. there is nothing to do in Birr, there is a castle but one we got in we only had about an hour the castle was not open for tours effective in August. and the grounds closed at 5:30 we walked around the grounds. no restaurants in Birr except the hotel we stayed at and the hotel in town. it was really a waste of a good day and we could have stayed either one more day in Cork or Dublin. we expect you all to guide us on the locations.

We enjoyed all of our private tour guides:
Mydie in Dublin - she had a deep knowledge of Irish history and we had an informative two hour plus walk through Dublin. Chris in Edinburgh - he too was very informed on Scottish history and the city of Edinburgh. Our two hour plus walk through Edinburgh was fantastic.
Stuart for our day in St. Andrews - the day was fantastic and a bucket list item for us. Stuart was full of Scottish history as well - and was able to get us around St. Andrews to our desired stops with ease.
Our nine-day, eight night trip was everything we had hoped for and more. Aleksandra of Kimkim put together a great itinerary, working with us to ensure we'd see what we wanted plus added some great recommendations. All worked out well.

Hotel Reviews

Moxy Dublin City

Dublin

Convenient location; tiny rooms

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

The Glasshouse, Autograph Collection

Edinburgh

A fantastic hotel. Convenient to everything. The rooms are large. The Snug Bar is a fantastic place to hang at the end of the evening.

Authenticity & Character

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Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Loch Ness, Glencoe & the Highlands

Edinburgh

This is a good trip if you are interested in seeing the Scottish highlands. The boat tour on Loch Ness is only 45 minutes and perhaps not worth doing. We instead ate lunch in the village and walked around - enjoying seeing boats go through the locks.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Our driver was knowledgeable and kept the group on time. He talked the entire twelve hour trip - it was a bit much.

Transport

Dublin Private Walking Tour

Ireland

Mydie was our guide and provided us a fantastic tour of Dublin. She shared the history of the city and the history of the Irish Republic, visiting many locations relevant to 1916 rebellion. I highly recommend this tour and Mydie.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Edinburgh Castle & Old Town Private Tour

Edinburgh

Our tour guide was Chris. He was fantastic. We walked through all of Old Town, with Chris describing historic sites along the way. We highly recommend this tour and Chris.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

St Andrews Private Tour via The Forth Bridges, East Neus and Standing Stones of Lundin Links

Edinburgh

This tour was tremendous. Our guide, Stuart, picked us up at our hotel and the fun began. He provided us an incredible amount of information about Scotland as we drove first to Falkland Village in the Kingdom of Fife - where the first episode of Outlander was filmed. We then made our way to St. Andrews where we walked the course (it was a Sunday - the course was closed for golfing but open to the public for walking). We spent the day touring the course and the town of St. Andrews. We highly recommend this tour and Stuart.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

We had such a wonderful honeymoon in Ireland. Thank you, Aleksandra, for getting this trip together for us so we could enjoy the visit without having to fret with booking hotels, tours, and experiences. We loved the walking tours learning the history of Dublin, Jameson, and Guinness, the food and culture tours in Kilkenny and Galway, our free day in Cork where we got to enjoy the English Market, the incredible views at the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren, and capped off with a relaxing stay at the K Club. Usually, after a vacation, we're ready to head back home and go back to our day-to-day, but we could have easily spent another couple of weeks in Ireland. We can’t wait to come back.

Activity Reviews

Aran Islands and Cliffs of Moher Day Return Tour

Galway

Dublin Private Walking Tour

Ireland

We did a self driving tour of Ireland. What a beautiful country! We probably took on more than we should have in our driving portion of the trip, not being fully knowledgeable of distances and roads. In retrospect we should have just scheduled a day exploring Cork rather than leaving Cork to explore other areas. Don’t get me wrong the other areas were beautiful, but you can’t see it all in six days. We particularly enjoyed our time in Dublin because we just stayed in Dublin and could fully enjoy it. We did a food tour with Ciaran that was delightful. A good chance to slow down, get some Dublin history, sample local specialties and have a lot of laughs. We also scheduled on our own the duck boat Viking tour. What a hoot! Tons of laughs with some good history lessons added in. The people of Ireland were so welcoming and gracious. A big thanks to Aleksandra for planning our vacation.

Hotel Reviews

Moxy Cork

Cork

A fun boutique hotel in the heart of Cork. Great location for restaurants and shopping.

Authenticity & Character

Very hip, my adult children loved it.

Location

Close to restaurants and shopping

Staff

We didn’t have a lot of interaction with staff.

Cleanliness & Comfort

The rooms are small but efficient.

Hotel Riu Plaza The Gresham Dublin

Dublin

A beautiful hotel close to the heart of Dublin.

Authenticity & Character

It was a beautiful hotel that I greatly appreciated, but I think my kids would have preferred something a little more trendy.

Location

It was in walking distance to restaurants and shopping and all the local attractions.

Staff

We didn’t have much interaction with staff, but the times we did everyone was very friendly.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Very well kept hotel.

Activity Reviews

Guinness Storehouse Experience Tour

Dublin

It was a good experience. Guinness did an amazing job with their visuals on there self guided tour. The pint at the end was very welcoming and I loved watching the pour!

Titanic Experience Cobh

Ireland

It was a good interactive and informative tour.

Dublin Secret Food Tour

Dublin

This was a great food tour! Maybe because our guide Ciaran was so energetic, knowledgeable, and provided loads of laughs. The food was also enjoyable, especially the Irish coffee,

The Rubens Hotel was beautiful. The staff was wonderful and very attentive. We did a day tour to Stonehenge, Bath and Windsor . That was great and our tour guide, Carlos , was so knowledgeable. I think the Churchill War Room was one of our favorite tours .
Alekasandra who put together our trip was wonderful. Very responsive to our questions

I initiated this trip as planning for my parents and then had Aleksandra communicate directly with them on specifics later on. She did such a fantastic job and communicated well. Made me feel at ease in using this service, and felt that my parents were in good hands in their planning of the remainder of their trip.

Amazing trip, well planned and put together by Aleksandra.

Our tour guides Chris in Edinburgh, Rhona MacKenzie in Inverness, David in Oban, and Leire (food tour in Glasgow) were all amazing. We can not recommend them enough.

This was our first trip in 23 years and, as an introduction to Scotland, well it was just incredible.

Thank you Aleksandra and KimKim.

Hotel Reviews

N°11 Boutique Restaurant and Rooms Hotel

Edinburgh

Great room, location was wonderful, staff very helpful, food was amazing. Would stay again.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Walking distance to just about everything

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Avalon

Inverness

Room was beautiful. Host amazing, food incredible. Homemade jams just WOW.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Creag Mhor Lodge

Onich

This was our favorite. The view of the loch, breathtaking. Room was comfortable. Shower amazing. Great whisky bar. Staff was extremely nice. Location was a bit far from any walkable city but the view...wow.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

The Ranald

OBAN

Room was clean but so very tiny. Staff was very nice and the location was good. The shower was also so tiny.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

The Social Hub Glasgow

Glasgow

Fun hotel. So much to do within the hotel itself. Food was good, staff was so nice. Location was great!

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Outlander Castle Tour

Edinburgh

Tour guide was very funny. Castles were grand and lovely. Just a wonderful experience.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Skye and Eilean Donan Castle Small-Group Day Tour

Inverness

Again, tour guide was amazing and funny. Driving those roads, I don't know how anyone could do it. WOW. Just a beautiful place and amazing to see.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Three Isles Tour – Mull, Iona & Staffa

Oban

Unfortunately due to weather this was cancelled. So it is not fair to review.

Edinburgh Castle & Old Town Private Tour

Edinburgh

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

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Private Glasgow Essentials Tour

Scotland

Our tour guide was just ok on this tour. We had a better tour guide on the food and drink tour.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

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The Real Mary King’s Close

Edinburgh

This was our fault, we missed our time window due to getting caught up at a cathedral. So can't honestly review this.

Oban Guided Town Walking Tour

Oban

David was great, very knowledgable. Wonderful day in Oban.

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Guides, Drivers and Staff

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The Wee Food Tour of Glasgow

Glasgow

Leire was just wonderful. Go do this!

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Guides, Drivers and Staff

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Private Inverness Walking Tour

Scotland

Rhona was very knowledgable and fun. Great walking tour.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

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Oban Distillery Visit

Oban

Well I love Oban whisky so is it fair to review this...YES! If you are in Oban for a couple day, just do it!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport