Kimkim Trip Reviews for India

Overall, our first trip to India was a memorable one! We love to experience new cultures on our trips and India has a unique one! Because my daughter and I are on a two-month, 12-country trip, we were only able to spend five nights in India. However, we experienced some of the best places India has to offer by visiting Delhi, Agra and Jaipur.

Our local guides in each city were professional and knowledgeable. We learned quite a bit from them! Our driver the entire time, Mr. Puran, was awesome! He took care of us traveling from city to city and on all of our tours. Kudos to him for be able to navigate what we would consider ‘crazy’ traffic!

The hotels hand-picked for us in Agra and Jaipur (The Grand Imperial and the Dera Rawatsar respectively) were excellent! Highly recommend! Alternatively, in Delhi, I would likely want to stay somewhere else on a return visit. While it was clean and the staff was accommodating, the rooms were a bit tired, and some common things not provided in the rooms such as tissues and bath mats. And while the breakfast each morning was good, it was a little ‘unorganized’ if you needed/ordered something. Again, not a show-stopper, just providing some additional feedback that might be considered for clients coming from the US.

If I had to book the trip over again, I would likely not be so aggressive in trying to visit three cities that are each about 5-6 hours driving distance apart in 5 days. It was a lot of driving in such a short amount of time. It would have been helpful to know in planning the trip if this were called out so I could make a more informed decision. I may or may not have opted for something different, or even extended our stay, but at least I would have a little better idea about drive times.

Thanks to Active India for taking such good care of us while in the country and for selecting tours and sites that interested us. I would certainly recommend them to anyone traveling there!

Hotel Reviews

Hotel Udman Ferns N Petals

New Delhi, Delhi

Clean rooms, accommodating staff. Rooms were not tired looking. Common hotel room items like tissue and bath mats were not provided. A little unorganized for breakfast in ordering or asking for items. But nice selection of breakfast items.

Authenticity & Character

Location

In a location were you really couldn’t walk out anywhere.

Staff

Professional and accommodating

Cleanliness & Comfort

The Grand Imperial

Agra

Embodies Indian culture, very nice open spaces and very roomy accommodations. Staff professional and accommodating!

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Dera Rawatsar

Beautiful rooms reflective of Indian culture! Very spacious and clean! All amenities needed! Very accommodating staff!

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Taj Mahal Sunrise Visit

Agra

A MUST SEE!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Bathe, Paint and Feed - (Un-forgettable - experience with elephants!)

Jaipur

Once in a lifetime opportunity to interact with these gentle giants!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

We planned a 6 day trip covering some of the coastal and temple towns in South India.
Right from planning, answering questions and arranging for logistics- hotels, guides, car etc, Ravi and team were on top of everything.
We had a wonderful experience with our 2 guides, Sam Benjamin and Marimuthu who were extremely knowledgeable about the area and provided us a lot of insights and also recommendations on places to eat, shop etc.
Ajith, our driver for the trip was always on time and kept us on schedule
Overall, a memorable experience!! Looking forward to planning our next India trip with this team!!

Resort at Kanyakumari was not up to the mark.Food quality was poor .

We really enjoyed our trip to North India (Golden Triangle). Booking/Planning was good and the team responded well to our change requests. There was a mix-up with the booking name, which was not fully resolved at the end, but did not cause any troubles. The local guides and our driver for the 10 days have been excellent and we had a superb experience. There could have been a few more activities, but this way it was a very relaxed trip.

The tour was ok, 2 out of the 4 hotels were excellent , the other 2 below average.
The driver was fantastic but the tours all felt a bit bland - like the guides had delivered the same tour for 20 years - nothing spectacular.
Kimkim removed all the hassle and risk of making any decisions ,was good to know we had support if anything in India went paired shaped.

Hotel Reviews

Haveli Dharampura

Delhi

Hotel was excellent- beautifully renovated and authentic to historic past, excellent rooftop bar. The hotel has an excellent restaurant but had functions both nights that dominated the restaurant space. Staff were excellent and attentive

Authenticity & Character

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

The Grand Imperial

Agra

Hotel is tired, was a challenge to get drinking water, room not serviced - there is construction going on around it. It appears that there was no one managing the hotel or a change in management at the time we were there .

Authenticity & Character

Hotel is tired

Location

Staff

A few staff were working hard the rest sitting around

Cleanliness & Comfort

Service the rooms

Royal Heritage Haveli

Khatipura, Jaipur, Rajasthan

Oasis ! Excellent rooms, gardens, food and staff. Very enjoyable stay here.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Location was not a major issue as we had a driver

Staff

It was obvious the staff enjoyed their jobs - could not fault anyone from porters to the chef😀

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Taj Mahal Sunrise Visit

Agra

Didn’t happen as closed on Fridays for cleaning

Quality of Experience

Transport

Heritage walk in Neemrana

Neemrana

Didn’t happen - I think the hotel has a free walk for all guests

The trip was very well planned out. We appreciate all the effort provided by the driver, the guides, Ravi and Aditya. Thank you!!!

I had an amazing time in India! I appreciated everything about our trip!
I learned about India’s rich history, religions and culture. Love, love the food and guides. I especially want to mention our driver Ram. He was always punctual, attentive and courteous. I always felt safe with him. Thank you Ram. 🙂🙏🏽

We are so happy with our experience with Kimkim/Active India. Everything was well organized, which made our trip hassle-free. In particular, our two drivers (Mr. Puran and Mr. Sherin) were excellent. They made sure we were safe and comfortable the entire time we were with them, which was nice since they were the "constants" on our trip. While all our guides were good, Mr. Devinder in New Dehli and Mr. Virendra in Jaipur were superb. Devinder did a great job of being flexible with our schedule to make sure all of our time with him was used to its full potential. Virendra's historical and current knowledge of Jaipur made our tours with him very interesting and informative.

One thing to note: the guides will take you to vendors where they will receive a commission on sales. In general, the vendors offer quality items, but you have to be firm and comfortable putting your foot down to say 'no thank you' to your guide and vendor if you aren't interested in purchasing anything.

I already filled this out elsewhere and think it was a wonderful trip and am still high from it. Thank you. I did want to say a few things that I would keep in mind for future trips. The schedule was great, but it would have been good to have a planned down day in the middle of the trip. I realize this was hard with the Jennifers coming and going. The husband of the woman that did the cooking class was also wonderful. He does food tours and other kinds of tours. It would be great to have include his work as an option to split up the visits to temples and historic sites. Thanks for all. Best, Dorothy

We had a seamless trip put together in a short timeframe. Besides the amazing sites and people in India, we especially were grateful for transfer agents, guides, and drivers. They were all well versed in what we were doing, easy to commicate with, and made our trip to India very enjoyable.

Three of us were traveling to India with little time to plan, so we have a few parameters to Kim Kim who connected us with Active India Holidays and our travel planner, Ravi and his team put together an excellent itinerary for a 3-week trip with 3 different people coming and going at various dates and times. The platform is easy to use, we had smooth communication throughout the planning and travel. We were warmly welcomed and cared for the entire trip from Day 1 all the way through departure, with guides meeting us at airports for transfers, safe drivers (with clean AC cars) for every destination, and knowledgeable local guides who showed us the local sites and were able to provide top notch information, history and local insight everywhere we went. Our hotels were lovely and exactly as we asked for (mid-range, clean and locally owned). Our favorite places were Amritsar and the Golden Temple, the border ceremony, hiking to local villages in Dharmashala, and the boat ride on the Ganges with the Aarti Ceremony in the evening with excellent viewing seats. Our guides were flexible, patient with all our endless questions and coconut water diversions, and we had an amazing time. I would highly recommend working with Kim Kim and their local in-country companies - you won’t be disappointed! We will definitely use their services again!

Our trip to India went very smoothly from the time of inquiry through our return home. Ravi was very responsive to questions and feedback as we finalized the itinerary, and the Active India team was responsive while we were traveling as well.

Our drivers were fabulous - kind, considerate, extremely safe. They went above and beyond to make sure our family was comfortable.

The guides in each city were knowledgeable and flexible to the interests and needs of my family.

Hotel Reviews

Houseboat

The houseboat facilities were not great - no hot water, wet bathroom, a/c only in bedrooms. When the boat wasn't moving, the heat was uncomfortable. Staff was very kind and helpful.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Better facilities - bathroom in particular

The Lalit Hotel, New Delhi

Delhi

Our family was amazed by this hotel - the buffet was extensive, the staff was helpful, and the rooms were wonderful.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Not much in the vicinity to walk to

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

The House of MG

Authenticity & Character

Location

Not a great neighborhood to be able to walk and explore

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Cockroaches in our room.

Francis Residence

Location

Difficult to find, driver could not drop us at the door.

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

A/C was only in bedrooms so the common space was not comfortable.

Fragrant Nature Munnar

Authenticity & Character

Location

Beautiful location but not near anything else.

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Greenwoods Resort Thekkady

Authenticity & Character

Location

Walkable to some stores in our downtime.

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Grand Mercure Agra

Agra

Authenticity & Character

Location

Centrally located - we were able to walk to a store for some shopping.

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Taj Mahal at Sunset

Agra

Perfect timing for our visit - wasn't too crowded and the weather was perfect!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Boat cruise in the lake and experience the wilderness.

Periyar

Participate in Cooking demonstration activity at a Local Family House

Cochin

Great experience to cook with Rosy, but it was very hot!

Quality of Experience

Explore the marvelous and historic monument : Agra Fort

Agra

Half-Day Ahmedabad Tour 

Ahmedabad

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Our guide was so flexible to meet the needs and interests of our family.

Transport

Cruise through the backwaters of Alleppey

Alappuzha

Cochin sightseeing

India

Full Day Delhi Sightseeing

Delhi

Chandni Chowk - spice market was a bit overwhelming for our first morning. Restaurant for lunch was just ok.

Spice Plantation Walk in Periyar

India

Early morning Jungle Walk in Periyar National Park

Periyar

Experience a different world at Elephant Junction in Thekkady

India

India is a very interesting country, with lots of history and cultural traditions and also with extreme difference in social and economic classes.
The local representative from Active India Tour met us at our hotel in Delhi to greet us and provide us with paperworks for our tour. We visited Delhi for the day and the next morning we took a flight to Jaiselmar to start our tour through several cities including Jodhpur, Udaipur, Pushkar, Jaipur, Agra and return to Delhi. Rahul was our driver for the remaining of the trip. Rahul was an amazing driver, very kind, patient and punctual. In every city we had a different tour guides. All were very competent, knowledgeable and very friendly. would recommend all of them. All the places we visited were very interesting, stunning and with history that exceeded our expectations.

According to the pictures of the Hotels sent at the time we booked our tour, they all looked clean, beautiful and we agreed on all of them. To our surprise, the hotels were not what they looked like in the pictures. The room we were assigned at the Udman hotel in Delhi, was on a floor where there were several room assigned to a wedding party so the noise was annoying. After we complained they switched our room to the suite in the hotel. I guess that room had not been used in a while, I found a spider under the sheets and the sheets were not clean. (they changed them after I called to complain again. The bathtub was stained and everything was in disrepair. The Gulaal Hotel in Jaiselmar was a total disaster, we even found a bed bug, so we run out of that hotel as soon as we could. We were surprised, disgusted and appalled that, Active India who arranged our trip in India, would book these rooms in these hotels without checking and ensuring that the facilities were clean and up to standard to any passenger.
At that point, we decided to upgrade the rest of the hotels in our booking so we would not have any more surprises. We were charged extra for the upgrades and a card payment fee, again, for having to make another payment for the upgrades.

Apparently we visited India during "wedding season", which we had no idea, so please make sure that the travel agent books hotels that are not fully occupied by a wedding party. The Radisson Blu Resort, which was one of the hotels we were upgraded to, was almost totally booked by the wedding party, 210 of the 245 room in the hotels. We had to bear with loud music during the day and at night till 3am. At the Marriot Hotel in Jaipur, we could not use the pool area due to a wedding party.

Even though we had issues with our hotels, we tried to make the best out of our trip. Rahul, our driver, and all our tour guides made our trip to India great.

Logan our driver was great and our guide in Pondicherry was very knowledgeable. This was a fantastic trip with lovely hotels. We didn't need a representative to meet us at the airport hotel. We could have sorted this out ourselves and actually it made us think that there might have been a problem.

Everything from the start to the end of my trip was amazing!

The guides were kind, knowledgeable and helpful. My driver Puran was the best! The plan was well curated and all schedule was punctual. Everybody on the Active India team made sure my 5-day trip in India was perfect with high level of professionalism. I also had the lovely opportunity to meet Ravi and he is a genuinely kind, generous person and an excellent travel agent who went above and beyond to make sure my experience in India was spotless.

Huge thanks to each one of you for arranging a dream trip! I wish I had at least 7 days to enjoy on the Golden Triangle at a slower pace but Active India made the best out of my limited time and showed me the wonders of India! THANK YOU:)

Hotel Reviews

The Retreat

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Dera Rawatsar

This is a beautiful heritage hotel with great character and authenticity. Breakfast and food was great, all staff excellent and rooms are all uniquely decorated. This was definitely the best hotel on the trip.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotel Udman Ferns N Petals

New Delhi, Delhi

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Jaipur Sightseeing Tour

Jaipur

Jaipur is BEAUTIFUL. The architecture of the Mughals combined with Hindu elements was incredible. This was definitely the highlight of my trip.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Raj was great and he was energetic. He was very knowledgable and helpful.

Transport

Take a stroll through the historic garden for the most magical views of the Taj Mahal by TUK-TUK

Agra

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Guided Heritage Walk through Lodhi Garden

Delhi

This was a great place to stop by in Delhi.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Taj Mahal Sunrise Visit

Agra

My guide Ronit was knowledgable and kind. He made sure I had the best info out of Taj Mahal.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Explore the marvelous and historic monument : Agra Fort

Agra

This is such a beautiful heritage site. Please don't miss it out. I want to go back!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

As always, Puran was great and punctual.

Transport

Our four local guides were excellent, each with the personality that suited the city. We cannot say enough nice things about Mr Pushcar, our driver! He was always on time, had water, hand sanitizer, wipes & candy. The car was immaculate. The Delhi local representative really made us feel comfortable & guided us through both the train station & the airport. Each one of the hotel properties were unique & very comfortable. Overall excellent trip!!

Hotel Review

Nahargarh

Ranthambore

Beautiful property which whisked us back to the time of the Rajs coming there for safaris. The service was very good & food was tasty.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Udaipur Sightseeing

Udaipur

Wonderful experience at the Jagdish temple & Summer palace. He also went above & beyond to find a lady to do henna on our hands, something my daughter really wanted to do.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Cooking Class, and Dinner with Local Family

Jaipur

Loved spending time with the Singh family. They were so welcoming & food was delicious!

Quality of Experience

Food

Old Delhi Sightseeing

Delhi

Visiting Old Delhi & soaking up the sights & sounds & incredible food was a great start to our India tour. A visit to the Sikh gurdwara was one of the highlights of the day.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Taj Mahal Sunrise Visit

Agra

What can you say when you see one of the 7 wonders of the world when almost no one else is there? I can’t find the world to describe how beautiful this is & the testament to a great love

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Jaipur Sightseeing Tour

Jaipur

Our guide Hans really exemplifies the vibrancy of this city! Incredible architecture! Elephant ride was so much fun!!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Afternoon visit to Bagore ki Haveli and enjoy a cultural evening of Rajasthani Folk Dance

Udaipur

We only went to the dance & the event was so crowded we saw almost nothing

Morning and Evening game drives at Ranthambore:

Ranthambore

Park was gorgeous & while we did not see a tiger we did see a leopards as well as lots of other wildlife . Unfortunately our naturalist seemed tired & bored, not engaging us even when I have a science background & would ask questions. Morning driver did an incredible job getting us to the leopard sighting.

Bespoke India Holidays and specifically Jay were great to work with. During the planning process they had great communication both via email and phone to discuss our trip and achieve our budget. All tour guides and experiences were great, especially the food tour, night tour, and bike tour in Jaipur. The hotels they selected were amazing especially the SUJÁN Sher Bagh in Ranthambhore. When there was a mishap with one of the tour companies (out of their control) they more than made up for it by offering two private tours (vs. shared). One of the best parts of our trip was Mr. Kumar who took us around India for our 10 days. They also arrange people at each hotel and airport to help make the check in process seamless.

Two notes of improvement. The Samode Haveli, while gorgeous, felt a little dated and you are awoken each morning at 5:30am by prayers. Also there are swarms of little bugs by the pool making it unenjoyable. To be clear, this wasn’t their initial selection however based on the photos we choose this hotel over the Marriott. The other thing is I wish they were clearer with was the start/end times of the tours as that would make any activities you want to plan on our own (massages, dinner reservations), easier to plan from the beginning.

Overall it was an amazing trip thanks to Bespoke India Holidays and I highly recommend them!

Hotel Reviews

Taj Hotel & Convention Centre, Agra

Agra

Samode Haveli

Jaipur

SUJÁN Sher Bagh, Ranthambhore

Activity Reviews

Jaipur Food and Market Tour

Jaipur

Cycle tour in Jaipur

Jaipur

Walking Tour – Temples & Havelis of Old Jaipur

Jaipur

This was the second trip that I worked with Jay Kajaria with Bespoke India Holidays to plan. The first trip was to Delhi and various areas around Rajasthan. It went so well and I was so pleased that I booked a trip to North Eastern India. And this was also a remarkable trip. Simply tell Bespoke what you are interested in and where you would like to go and they will take it from there. You are assisted every step of the way, from being picked up from the airport and later being dropped at the airport and being assisted in checking in for your flight from India.

Many of the famous tourist areas of India were covered by the first trip and now I wanted something different -- and this is Northeastern India. It is a land of unusual tribes, different topography and different animals. Make sure you go to Kaziranga National Park -- and also take the elephant safari in the morning.

Also impressive were the lodgings in which I was booked and my guide and driver were top notch.

I am so pleased with this trip (and the prior one) that I am already looking talking about and looking forward to working with Jay on a third trip.

Thank you Bespoke India Holidays (and Jay and my guide "Dee-poo" and driver "Harem."

We used Active India to organize our trip to Kerala. The trip was wonderful. Ravi did a great job planning the trip to cover all the highlights of the area. Our driver, Pramod, was excellent. His expertise of the country and driving skills made the trip stress free. He coordinated all the guides at each location and made sure we met them at the appointed place and was always waiting for us when we were done. The car was roomy, comfortable and always clean. The accommodations' were top notch. Each destination had something special and unique to offer. In addition, Pramod offered additional suggestions of things to do in our "spare" time. We would highly recommend Active India.

My friends invited us to their wedding in New Delhi this past holiday season. We were overjoyed to go, so we began the planning process. We decided that after the wedding, we wanted to travel around India to see some of what it had to offer. A good friend mentioned a site called KimKim.com, which is a fantastic aggregator for vetted travel agencies. We were presented with ACTIVE INDIA. We were quickly introduced to Ravi. We were impressed with his constant professionalism, flexibility, and attentiveness. We changed our plans a few times due to changing circumstances and some indecisiveness, and everything was always handled graciously.

When we got to India, we attended the wedding, which was incredible! After the wedding, our adventure began with the help of Active India. We traveled from Jaisalmer to Jodhpur, then from Jaipur to Agra, and then back to New Delhi. Below is a partial list of everything we loved about our trip.

- The tour GUIDES were terrific! At each stop, we had tour guides who were extremely knowledgeable, courteous, and kind. They took pictures of us anytime we asked. We even became friends with one of them. (Some pictures above are with our guides.)

- The DESTINATIONS were well curated. We felt like we saw the best attractions in each city. India is so rich, so clearly, we couldn't see everything, but we didn't feel like we missed out on anything either.

- Our DRIVER was superb. Driving in India is daunting, and Mahesh was always professional, on time, safe, and caring. We liked him and were sad when we had to say goodbye. (He is also pictured above.)

- The HOTELS that were curated all had a unique flare to them and were consistently well run, safe, comfortable, and clean.

- There is MUCH more to list, but you get the idea. We highly recommend ACTIVE INDIA to anyone looking to adventure and experience India. They went out of their way to ensure we had a great experience and were warm and wonderful every step of the way.