Guestbook of Villa Monique ,private holiday house in Diani Beach Kenya Africa

(important note : all testemonials are genuine and true from real people ,they can be contacted on request with their consent)

Dear Karl and staff at Bourgonvilla,

now we've been back in DK for some weeks - it seems like yesterday, we
spent some wonderfull days in villa Monique.

When we arrived at the trainstation in Mombasa, we were a little
worried, that no one was there to pick us up, but all of our worries was soon
to be forgotten. Just outside the station, a very friendly driver
picked us up and drove us to Bourgonvilla. At the villa everyone was
friendly - and soon our welcome drinks were ready! In the afternoon Citron
made us delicious food (we already miss him!), and the watchman Jonas made
us feel secure.
In the morning, we met Geoffrey and Miriam and they took so good care
of us and helped us get around in the neighbourhood and had answers to
all our questions.

And a big thanks to you, Karl - taking us fishing (allthough Nadia and
Camilla threw up), and inviting us to the dinner and party. We'll
recommend your place to everyone, we know!

We spent a week in June in that little paradise on earth - and we'll
definitely be back!!

Nadia, Mette, Stephan & Camilla, Denmark

Carma

Hi Karl,Just wanted to let you know that Matano and I really enjoyed out stay at Villa Pierre.The staff are wonderful and feel like old friends Sabia the housekeeper who helped in everyway possible, Citrion our fantastic cook who made us the most wonderful meals far better than eating out anywhere, Jeffry the gardener a slave to his work but what a wonderful garden, and Marian our lovely smiling house maid.The benefits of having a private house and buying the wonderful fresh cheap produce for Citrion to cook was wonderful we shopped for fruit and vegetables in the village and bought fish off the beach straight from the sea. Citrion sourced large prawns and lobster locally and cooked them to perfection and when we ate at the best local restaurant we knew Citron could do even better.Added to that we were minutes walk from the beauitiful almost deserted beach but still a Matatu ride from the village and the heart of dinai beach area,We cannot wait to return and although i would like to return sooner rather than later my first definate dates with be in January/ february and looking to rent the house for possibly 8 weeks from1st January 2007 so can u tell me if Pierre is available and at what cost would the weekly rent be for long term rental. Many thanks. Toni from the United Kingdom,April 2006

Dear Karl,I just got back to work this week from my wonderful Holiday of Mombasa. I must say that I am very grateful and words cannot describe how grateful Iam for the kind genorosity, warmth and care we got from mrs. Khan and the staff at the cottage.Special thanks to you for accepting us to stay there at such a short notice and trusting us in your property, we hope we were good guests. We hope to come back again in October and its our wish that you will once again allow us in. Thanks alot.Regards Samuel Aloyo from Kenya,April 2006

Dear Karl, Having just returned to the UK from our visit to Kenya, I felt that I must write to thank you for the welcome that my wife and I received at Diani.Having travelled 300 miles back to Nairobi (long story!) to catch the train down to Mombassa overnight,you can imagine that we were not in a particularly fit state when we arrived at Mwangi.The welcome could not have been better and more importantly, the friendliness of Sabi, Mirriam and Geoffrey continued through the ten days of our stay.As for Florence, what can we say. The meals were outstanding and my wife did not expect that part of the holiday would involve a cookery course....we loved it!The whole experience was better than we had hoped for and trust that it will not be too long before we get back in touch to make another booking.Thanks again,Dave and Doreen Ollis from the United Kingdom March 2006

hello karl,first of all thank you on the best 90 pounds i have ever spent! auguastine the cook , the things he could conjure up with the food we purchased was amazing and definitley the best steak i have ever had.the cottage complex was great and the garden was like eden. all of your team were extremley helpfull. the location was great. the only thing we did not like was the amount of beach boys who would not take no for an answer. but beacause your garden was so nice we could retreat there to relax.overall an excellent holiday and definitley the best villa i have stayed in.thanks. Daniel Nagre from the UK, March 2006

Dear Karl, Our stay in your villa was lovely, the outside space where we spent most of the time was cool and the gardens were very well tended by joffrey.On the down side,l know the pool is only a plunge pool but when lots of people want to cool off it gets a bit crowded, and the shower head could do with a bit of descaling as the water comes out around the edge and nothing in the middle. Apart from these two very minor niggles it was fantastic and we will be back, l have also recommended your villas to other people. Best Wishes Lynn Jackson from the United Kingdom, January 2006

Hello Karl .We enjoyed our stay at Villa Monique and were especially satisfied with the support, friendliness and service of Myriam and Geoffrey. They both are great and Geoffrey is a true jewel.One constructive critcism: it would be very helpful to get a new mattress for the bedroom on the right side.(NB from the landlord : there is a new mattress now ! ) The stage of the mattress is rather bad and it is extremely worn out. I pointed this out to Anke, but she was not very responsive to the issue.Best regards, Daniele Hoffmann from Belgium,January 2006

Hi Karl, We want to thank you and all your wonderful staff, we had a terrific week !!!The only sad thing was that the week ended to fast.We will contact you again the next time we travel to Kenya, it will be in 3-4 years.Some friends of ours will go to Kenya in march this year, we will recommend your place to them andhope they will contact you soon.There is nothing to complain about, if we should have any suggestions it could be to have a fan for the bed upstairs, maybe a portable to use if the heat is to high.We wish you can forward our grateful thanks to Anke, Cetron, Geoffry, Miriam and Mutua (forgive me if the names are misspelled)for a wonderful week, they were all very nice and helpful and we hope we weren’t to much of a trouble for them. Best regards Lars Johansson and family from Sweden , January 2006

Dear Karl . I can tell you this way: It was the best decision ever to book Villa Pierre. The staff was wonderful and the Villa much better than expected. Best regards .Peter Ball from Germany , January 2006

Dear Karl We had a fantastic holiday at Villa Mwanga. What made it so special for us was the attentiveness of the staff all of whom were so willing and helpful to us. Geoffrey who keeps the gardens so beautiful that there is not a dead bloom in site, and makes one feel that nothing is too much trouble for him to do.I think that if you asked for the moon from the sky he would try to get it for you. Matano who cooked for us was so accommodating as to our likes and dislikes. One of us in particular has a very limited diet which meant that Matano usually cooked two types of evening meal for us, and did it so good humouredly. He also helped us learn some of the Swahili words and phrases and we think he would make a very good teacher. Miriam was very friendly and helpful nothing was too much trouble for her. She even brought her two children to meet us just before we left. The Night Duty Guard (I’m in charge) made us feel very safe and he was always smiling and friendly. When we left we were very sad as if we were leaving our family which they were for the two weeks we stayed. We did feel that Matano could have used a few more kitchen utensils, such as a frying pan because he had to borrow one from another villa. We could have done with a tin opener also as some of the food we bought in tins had to be opened with a knife. These observations were all ours, because I did not hear Matano complain at any time. (In fact I think he disapproved of our purchase of tinned food.) We enjoyed the beach and surrounding area very much and spent a lot of time at Ali’s beach bar. We went on Safari to East and West Suavo and enjoyed it very much seeing lions, leopards, giraffes, elephants, hippo’s ….but no Rhino’s. We went on a Dhow and went snorkelling with lots of help from the crew. This was a marvellous experience for us all in our seventies…quite an achievement. However the everlasting memory we will have of Kenya is the smiling people, the little children who waived and called out “Jambo Jambo” as we passed. We feel that they all deserve a little more out of life than they have got and we came back to our Western homes and throw away society a little humbled. We will go back some day and hope to return to Villa Mwangi. Jill,& Rex Cory Brian and Marcia Gibbs from the UK , December 2005

Hi Karl

Arrived home yesterday- my daughter and I had an excellent stay—in fact we enjoyed Diani so much that we stayed an extra day! (arranged with Anke and paid on site).The accommodation was excellent, and the staff were first class. Joffrey the gardener was extremely helpful, and Kassim the cook was particularly good. Since I have an interest in cooking myself I learned about local dishes from him, and we ended up swapping recipes!If I have a criticism it is that I was not prepared for the fact that there are 3 villas sharing the same jacuzzi and pool table. In our case it did not matter, since it was quiet during our time there. Apart from that, a good break, and one I will recommend to friends and family. Thanks and kind regards Steve Shorney from the UK ,December 2005

Hello Karl. Lucy and I had a wonderful time at your cottage. The morning of our arrival we were met by 4 smiling faces, Anke, Geoffrey, Miriam and Augustine. Anke showed us round and took us shopping the next morning. Where did you find Geoffrey? The man is a treasure, always smiling, will do anything to help. He even went for fish for us in his lunchbreak. I cannot praise him enough. Miriam was also very pleasent and helpful, doing our laundrey and cleaning, we even had Ugali and fish. My one critisism would be Augustine, he made us some wonderful meals, but also some not so good and his personal hygine left a little to be desired. We met some nice people at the Tropicana Bar which we visited most days and went to the Bull restaurant on our last night, had a very nice meal, excellent service, met the German owner and his Kenyan wife, and had a drink off him, Chilli vodka which nearly blew my head off.I will definately be back in the near future, maybe May next year. One thing I missed was a TV or radio. All in all it was wonderful and I shall recommend it to my friends who come to Kenya. Give my thanks to all your staff.Regards Roy.Roy and Lucy from UK and Kenya,October 2005

I have just returned from three weeks in villa Mwangi and I wanted to let you know we had a wonderful time there. The house and gardens are beautiful and we really felt "at home".I cannot praise the staff enough as they were all friendly and helpful (especially Jeffrey) and Matano the cook was excellent.I hope I will get the chance to stay there in future someday.Thanks again,Alan Bailey & Maurine Tatu ,October 2005

Hi Karl, sorry for the late reply, been running round like a blue arsed fly since getting back! Very much missing pole-pole Diani.We absolutely loved the place, your website doesn’t do the place justice, when we arrived we were absolutely amazed by the size of it, much bigger than we thought it would be.Staff were great too, sorry, bit short of time, I will send some more feedback when I get the chance, Cheers, James September 2005, UK

Dear Karl, We had a lovely holiday in Kenya and the holiday cottage was great. Everyone was very friendly and helpful and the food was fantastic.Augustin(the chef) was wonderful! We had everything we needed or wanted in the cottage and as I said everyone (including Anke,housekeeping) were very helpful. The only suggestion we would have is that the jacuzzi pump needed mending as it was not working, but this did not spoil our holiday.Thank you for all your help. Chris Clegg and family from UK,August 2005

The time in Kenya was excellent. Some of us wanted more sunshine but for meit was ok (rain season was still continuing!). We enjoyed very much to stay in your cottage. It was enough big for our extended family and the staff was great.Jeffrey helped us in everything we asked (show us the places, went shopping etc.). We were worried about his working shifts because the guard was sick and Jeffrey(the gardener) made also his shifts (three nights) after his day shifts. But he was always very friendly and helpful. Our small boy (Lasse) and Jeffrey became good friends.Matano(the cook/chef) made great meals. First he used too little spices but soon he learned what we like. We enjoyed also that we didn't have to do dishes at all.Miriam(the housegirl) kept house clean and show us the places we wanted to go. She was always very friendly and helpful. Anke(housekeeping) helped us a lot even before we came to Kenya. We sent many SMS before seen each other. There was a taxi waiting for us in Ukunda when we came from Tanzania. And in the cottage there was fridge full of food and drinks, perfect. And every time we needed help, Anke was more than perfect. She found answers to our questions.So thank you very much for your kindness to offer us your cottage, it was a great base to start day trips to beaches, Mwalugandje and other places. We slept there like small babies. The surrounding area was silent during nights and everything in cottage was working. We used your pool table a lot even there was no tips for cues. And your swimming pool was also in frequent use by our children.Maybe if we are coming back to Kenya in future we can come to your cottage. Many thanks on behalf of the extended family Mertanen from Finland,July 2005

We were very happy with the arrangements particularly the transport to and from the accommodation to/from the Airport in Mombasa,which makes a big difference. I THINK THIS WILL BE APPRECIATED BY FIRST TIME VISITORS EVEN MORE.The welcome was great and the chef was very attentiveo all our needs with a suitable range of food to start us off. Anke(housekeeping and teamleader) helped us with car hire arrangements and Geoffrey(gardener) was his usual very helpful and smiling self. All the family enjoyed our stay.

We had a wonderful holiday and the Villa was superb ! The care and attention we received from Anke(housekeeping) ,Miriam(housemaid),Geoffry(gardener) and Daniel(night watchman) was fantastic .Many thanks . Fiona Walker from UK , June 2005

David and I are back after a wonderful trip.The trek to Mount Kenya was fantastic-as it was low season we had the mountain to ourselves hardly meeting anyone.We went to the rift valley and climbed Mount Longonot and then spent a day in Nakuru National Park. The Cottage was fantastic . Anke was so friendly and helpful and all the staff were charming and helpful too.What a nice chap Geoffrey the gardener is ! We had some rain but it did not spoil the holiday really . Great jacuzzi ! We drank plenty of Kenya Cane too ! Thank for refunding the fees for the time we did not spend at the Villa .I for one will definitely return . Timothy Lee from UK , May 2005

We really enjoyed our trip and were very happy with all the arrangements and the house. Your people on site were helpful in every way and the location is all that we want.Hope that this is of help as we have some eperience in the area of rental ourseleves ! Aidan Corr from Ireland/Ethiopa . May 2005

We loved our time at one of your homes in Diani. You have a terrific team there and they were the ones that made our holiday. It was super house.We hope to return one day !

Probably the best welcome I have ever had to a little piece of paradise in Diani. A perfect place to relax, unwind and be totally spoilt. I would have no hesitation in recommending Karl's Kottages to anybody, anywhere, at any time. The interiors of the cottages are interestingly and locally decorated, clean, comfortable and very very spacious... the gardens surrounding them colourful, manicured, full of beautiful flowers, birds and butterflies and absolute bliss. Lovely touches such as fresh flowers on the veranda, and the friendly and attentive staff, make a visit there absolutely memorable.... I really didnt want to leave, but will be back, as soon as possible...

December 2004 by Veronica Metcalfe , of Northwick House ,most beautiful family run bed and breakfast place in Bath, United Kingdom

Christmas in Kenya – Diani Beach.My 2 daughters and I left home tired, stressed, overworked and desperate for the opposite! From our flight arrival in Mombassa we holidayed!! Met at airport by pre-arranged taxi and whizzed off to Villa Pierre (about an hour, with ferry queue, and a good opportunity to savour our first experience of Kenya), where we received such a lovely welcome by the staff.

The cottage (one of three in a well-tended surrounding garden) is homely, comfortable, and clean, and has all amenities. It’s only 7 minutes slow walk to the most fabulous and unspoilt beach I have seen. The cottages are in a quiet location, which suited us, but access to lively places is easy, even without a car.

We prefer to be "travellers", rather than "tourists" and there were plenty of opportunities for this – we organised all sorts of trips and adventures, but welcomed the thoughtful input from our caring staff, who worried about us!! And it was so nice to come "home".

One criticism would be the small "dipping" pool, which had a leak, requiring frequent refilling, but I understand that this is to be rectified / replaced soon. Not that we used it much, but on a hot and sultry return from an adventure a cooling dip would have been a luxury – shower sufficed though!

"Kenya" from Diani Beach has so much to offer. Safaris (marine as well as the "Big 5") are easy to organise; flights to other parts of Kenya or to neighbouring countries are readily accessible and not expensive. And the people are lovely. Where better to start off than this place. So glad we stayed there. We had a lovely time.

The accommodation was excellent and the service of Miriam(Housemaid), Geoffrey(gardener) and Daniel(Night watchman) second to none.
However I think you should make it clear that the distance from the main road and Diani Shopping centre is a fair distance and Taxi Fares can be expensive if the "locals" realise you are a "mgeni". Of course for us as old ex-pats and speaking the language- no problem.
My only other comment is that I feel that your increase in charges are somewhat excessive. I realise that you need to cover your costs and the prices are good if you have 6 staying as a group but for two people such as myself and wife there are other properties much closer to amenities at similar prices to that which we paid.
When we were there many people were under the impression that because of the Tsunami disaster holiday makers would switch to Kenya instead of the Far East I am not so sure that this will be the case. The attraction of Kenya is that it has everything to give whilst being inexpensive and good value for money.
Hope my comments are of value.

The villa is a haven of peaceful tranquillity. I thoroughly enjoyed my stay at the villa, found all the staff very helpful and extremely polite (they wanted to wash up and wash all my clothes - excellent!). Anything you want one of the staff is always on hand to run an errand for you. The villa is very near to all amenities including the beach but far away enough from any hustle and bustle. I felt completely safe. The Property Manager was extremely helpful and gave us a local tour on the first day, she also arranged hire cars and recommended some good places to visit, restaurants etc. All in all a wonderful holiday and a great place to stay.I really did enjoy my stay and the villa/grounds were lovely

Hallo Karl Gundrum

Hier sind die drei Thüringer, die zum dritten mal das wunderschöne 
Ferienhaus nutzen wollen. Wir sind von unseren bisherigen Aufenthalten sehr 
Positiv überrascht gewesen und würden uns freuen wieder in Kenia bei 
unserer Villa PIERRE einen wunderschönen Urlaub  verbringen zu können.
Der Gastfreundliche Empfang und die freundliche Betreuung der 
Angestellten ist einmalig.
Es ist einfach jeden zu empfehlen der Kenia auf die besondere Art 
erleben möchte.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen KATI THRIEMER , from Germany ,Thueringen , March 2005

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