Ashley Nguyen

Our nearly two weeks in Vietnam were great and Ashley did an amazing job setting up the details. The accomodations we had at each destination and the in-country travel were all quite good with no complications. Each of the guides and drivers did a great job. The guides had different personalities which added to the interest. We especially enjoyed our experience trekking with Zozo in Sapa, the overnight Doris cruise at Ha Long Bay, Hoi An, and the Delta trip with Nhu-y.

Our time at Krabi in Thailand was not as enjoyable because the choice of Krabi was not a good match for us. We anticipated a relaxing three days at a beach resort between our time in Vietnam and the 10 days in Japan planned by another Kimkim associate, but we did not investigate sufficiently what was offered at Krabi or ask Ashley about alternatives that might have been available in Vietnam or in Thailand closer to Phuket. The drive to Krabi and back to Phuket were tedious. The guide and driver did their jobs well, but we didn't really need a guide to do this. A driver would have been sufficient. Also we learned in Krabi that we could have flown directly to Bangkok from there to continue our trip to Japan. The Panan resort was fine, but it was a 10 minute walk to the beach, and the town of Krabi was not our vibe. It is much better suited for younger couples or singles or young families.

Overall, we commend Ashley for a job well done, and we will certainly recommend that our friends consider Kimkim to help plan a trip to the far East.

Hotel Reviews

Panan Krabi Resort

Krabi

About a 10 minute walk to the beach. The room was quite nice and the staff was excellent. The pool meanders through the resort and was a nice place to relax and is set up very nicely for children to play. The food in the restaurant was good.

Silverland Mây Hotel

Also an excellent location, room, staff, and food. The rooftop pool was very nice.

Laluna Hoi An Riverside Hotel & Spa

Excellent location, room, staff, and food. We enjoyed the convenience of the pool and poolside bar.

Eldora Hue

Hue

Conveniently located, great food, luxurious room

Activity Reviews

Authentic Mekong Delta Tour By Luxury Speedboat

Ho Chi Minh City

Very interesting experience. Nhu-y and the boat crew did a great job and she answered many questions about the people and their life along the delta. We enjoyed visiting the family home.

Hoi An Night Market and Boat Trip With Lantern Releasing

Hoi An

Same guide and again an interesting experience.

Hoi An Half-Day Sightseeing

Hoi An

A charming smaller town and the guide was knowledgeable about the history and points of interest.

Imperial City Tour of Hue Half-Day Exploration

Hue

Interesting and the guide was knowledgeable but it was a very hot day and considerable walking was required.

Hanoi guide Mai was excellent and the apartment at the Somerset was perfect for our 3 generation family. Sapa guide Zozo was different in personality but equally excellent. We enjoyed trekking with her and the accommodations at the eco lodge. Nok escorted us to Ha Long Bay and back and made sure we got ticketed and checked in to our flight to Hue. At Ha Long Bay we all enjoyed the Doris Cruise featuring scenery and kayaking.

Hotel Reviews

Doris Cruise

Nice room. Great crew. Beautiful scenery.

Laxsik Ecolodge

Beautiful setting. Great accommodations.

Somerset Grand Hanoi

Excellent accommodations for our 3 generation family. Nice pool and restaurant.

Family Friendliness

Apartment accommodations.

Activity Reviews

Lan Ha Bay – Dark & Bright Cave – Disembark Cruise (Doris Cruise)

Vietnam

Nice views. Enjoyed this aspect of the local culture and scenery.

Onboarding - Lan Ha Bay – Ba Trai Dao/ Tra Bau (Doris Cruise)

Vietnam

Great crew. Beautiful scenery.

Fansipan mountain with Cable car

Sapa

Fun but it was raining and cloudy. Would have been much better if the weather had cooperated.

Trek to Lech Dzao & Thanh Kim Villages

Sapa

Zozo was an excellent guide and being assisted by the women of the area was a unique experience.

Walk To The Love Waterfall And Heaven Gate

Sapa

Lovely waterfall. Clouds hampered the views in the mountains.

Explore the History and Beauty of Hanoi - Full Day Sightseeing

Hanoi

Good overview of Vietnamese culture.

We took our children ages 10 and 12 to Việt Nam for the first time in 2024. We knew we wanted to do some sightseeing in addition to visiting my husband’s family in Huế and had decided to go for three weeks. In all of my googling for ideas for how to sequence the trip, I kept coming back to the trips on the KimKim website. That’s when I realized what I needed was an old school travel agent to help me and I found the perfect person in Ashley. We were able to converse seamlessly back in forth through the KimKim platform. She took care of all of the logistics and made things so simple. As a busy working mom, it saved me so much time not to be endlessly searching on multiple websites but simply choosing amongst the amazing options Ashley presented. If I wasn’t sure something was exactly the right fit for our family, she took that feedback and adjusted things within hours. When my 75 year old parents decided to join us for a week of the trip and extend their travels on to Thailand and Japan, she handled that with ease. Ashley was also very engaged during our travels. While we never needed her help because everything ran perfectly, she checked in daily via WhatsApp to be sure it was all great and going according to plan.

And the trip itself - wow! Realistic Asia is the way to go if you want door to door service and top notch local guides. My husband and I have traveled extensively on our own but it was so easy with kids and grandparents to know someone was always meeting us and taking us all the way from point A to B. Mai in Ha Noi was an encyclopedia of knowledge and a great first guide to orient us to the country. We loved Train Street, the Old Quarter, and the Temple of Literature. Our absolute favorite of the trip was Sa Pa. It was so peaceful and cool! We loved staying a bit outside the town in an ecolodge with an infinity pool overlooking the fields. Our guide Do was incredible. She shared so much about local Hmong culture and took us on a walk with the Red Dao people - we were the only tourists in sight. Sa Pa town itself was lively at night and beautiful by the small lake. Our Doris Cruise in Ha Long Bay was a perfect end to our tourist week in Việt Nam.

Hotel Reviews

Doris Cruise

Really lovely and the sunset happy hour was perfect. We would have liked more swimming time and a boat with more water activities (slide, SUP) would have been grand.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Goes to Lạnh Ha bay which was fewer boats

Staff

Kevin and Michael were the best!

Cleanliness & Comfort

Laxsik Ecolodge

Our stay here was the highlight of our trip. The infinity pool overlooking the rice and corn fields was perfection.

Authenticity & Character

Loved the Hmong architecture

Location

A 10 minute drive from Sa Pa but an easy taxi and the views and peacefulness are worth it

Staff

So friendly and helpful

Cleanliness & Comfort

Somerset Grand Hanoi

Location

Easy walk to old quarter

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Some of the rooms were a little dated

Activity Reviews

Onboarding - Lan Ha Bay – Ba Trai Dao/ Tra Bau (Doris Cruise)

Vietnam

Loved the kayaking and the sunset cruise

Quality of Experience

Food

It was just ok, typical of cruises

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Did not love having to stop at the tourist area on the way to and from

Fansipan mountain with Cable car

Sapa

Sadly the rain and clouds kept us from seeing the views but we still appreciated the feat of engineering as well as the village museum

Quality of Experience

Only due to weather

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Trek to Lech Dzao & Thanh Kim Villages

Sapa

The hands down most memorable part of our trip - a must do

Quality of Experience

Food

The food at the local home was just ok and there were tons of tourists there - would have preferred a quieter spot

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Do is the absolute best. She is from the valley and shared so much of her life story and also taught us about the farming.

Transport

Walk To The Love Waterfall And Heaven Gate

Sapa

We love to hike and the waterfalls were great. We didn’t get to go to Heaven’s Gate as it was too foggy.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Explore the History and Beauty of Hanoi - Full Day Sightseeing

Hanoi

We were sad the Museum of Ethnology was closed but the Women’s Museum was a good substitution. The lunch place was just ok.

Quality of Experience

Food

Would have preferred a more local spot, less tourists

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

This was our first visit to Viet Nam. We wanted to see as much as possible in 12 nights so our itinerary was pretty full on but it gave us the chance to have a fantastic look at and feel for the country.

It has made us want to return, do a more leisurely trip and choose to stay at the places we liked the most.

From the moment we made contact with Ashley to organise an itinerary, until the moment we boarded our last flight the entire trip ran like clock work and Ashley made herself available to us at any time should we need advice or extra info.

There were many highlights, we really loved the Vespa food tour in Saigon and the Capella cruise in Halong Bay. But seriously everything was brilliant.

Do not hesitate to book with KimKim travel, they are truly professionals and their ground staff/tour guides are amazing too. Special shout out to Vic for the Vespa tour for making us feel safe amongst the millions of bikes 👍.

Prepare yourself to eat some amazing food, and all the local beers hit the spot exactly after a long day (or a coconut coffee ). Just do it.

My wife and I were celebrating our 60th birthdays and this was a bucket list trip so we wanted it to be special. Ashley was great in putting together a hassle free trip just for us. We had a limited amount of time and she managed to include most of the highlights of Vietnam and Cambodia. The hotels were excellent and private guides were very informative and friendly. We especially wish to thank our guide in Siem Reap who provided an amazing experience taking us to the temples as well as the night markets and recommending various food to try. It was exceptionally hot and we were able to rearrange the day on the fly to avoid the hottest part of the day.
The drivers were excellent and made us feel relaxed so we could enjoy the scenery and we welcomed the chilled water each time we returned to the vehicles.

Ashley was a great support, she was always on top of everything always checking on us and very quick in return to our requests. Amazing! Totally recommend

Ashley did a great job for us.
From planning the trip, to the necessary paperwork. And once we were in Vietnam she was very attentive to our needs. She made sure all arrangements were followed through and met expectations.
Her involvement really allowed us to fully enjoy our trip to Vietnam!

I wanted to do a motorbike tour of the Ha Giang loop but was feeling very overwhelmed by all the different tour operators online. I was very worried about having a bad experience, as i had seen reviews of people who went on bad tours.

Thankfully, I reached out to KimKim and Ashley helped me to book the perfect tour! I let her know what I was looking for, and she got me set up with a great tour group. She also fully managed my travel to and from Ha Giang, making the whole trip totally stress free. She was very responsive to any questions I had, and also reached out independently to make sure things were going well. Overall a great experience!

Ms Ngoc Bich / Jade is a perfect guide.
She is kind and helpful

Hotel Reviews

Erina Cruise

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Le Clos Du Fil Hotel

Ninh Binh

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Silk Path Boutique Hanoi

The Hotel has an excellent location in the center near the lake.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Visit Dark & Bright Cave – Disembarking cruise (Erina Cruise)

Ha Long Bay

One of the cave was closed

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Cycling At Viet Hai Village – Kayaking & Swimming (Erina Cruise)

Ha Long Bay

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Onboarding - Lan Ha Bay – Ba Trai Dao/ Tra Bau (Erina Cruise)

Ha Long Bay

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Morning Hanoi Half Day City Tour

Hanoi

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Boat Trip Exploring The Natural Beauty of Trang An & Visit Hoa Lu Ancient Capital

Vietnam

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Hanoi Street food walking tour

Hanoi

Quality of Experience

Food

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport