Diani Beach cottage rental

Diani Beach at the South Coast of Kenya: a wonderful and relaxing place

Kenya is a country that has to offer an enormous variety: long sandy beaches, wide plains with all the African wildlife you can imagine and mountains with tropical rainforests. This and the fact that one of us is original Kenyan made us to decide to buy some property in Kenya. The location is at Galu Beach which is even further south than Diani Beach and is more quiet and relaxed than some parts at the North Coast. It is the most beautiftul beach in Kenya and also not so affected by the tides as other beaches. Even at low tide you are able to reach the water which is not the case in all parts of Diani and also not at the North Coast. Furthermore there are no hotels directly at the beach with the exception of Neptune Paradise, so it is very peaceful. Kenya has a very pleasant climate, temperatures around the year are around 30 degrees with the exception of June and July where they are around 25 degrees. There are two rainy seasons: a heavy one in April and May and a not so heavy one in October and November.

Description of the cottage and the garden

The cottage is located 10 minutes walk from Galu Beach and built in African style with a Makuti roof (palm tree leaves) with all European luxury. Therefore it does not get so unbearably hot. Downstairs there are two separate doublebedrooms, a bathroom with toilet and a kitchen. The kitchen offers a cooker (gas and electricity), an oven and a fridge. Sufficient kitchen utensils are available. The dining area is outside under the covered terrace. Upstairs is a very big open space with sofas and another single bed. All the beds are equipped with moskitonets.
The villa is on a compound with another villa and 1 other cottage (Villa Peppercorn and Old Mombasa) and is surrounded by a very beautiful and large tropical garden with several palm trees and other bushes. The swimmingpool is more or less in the middle of the garden, 12 m long and 6 m broad with a very agreeable temperature at around 30 degrees and is shared with the other 2 houses.
For the guests´ comfort there are five employees: 2 housemaids who will do all the cleaning and a swimmingpool attendant and a gardener. There is also a security guard at night.

Surroundings of the cottage

The cottage is located among many houses built in the same style. The next restaurant Tropical Garden (former Boko-Boko) is about 5 minutes by foot. It is recommended to rent a car in case you do not want to travel by matatus (Kenyan public transport by minibus). The next bigger shops are about 5 – 6 km far away which means about 10 minutes by car. In Diani Beach there are many restaurants, bars and bigger hotel complexes. All of them are within 5 – 15 minutes drive from the villa. To Mombasa town it takes about 1 hour depending on the ferry which you have take to get there. The nearest National Park is Shimba Hills where you can see elephants and lots of other wildlife. This also takes about 1 hour to get there, further south are Wasini Island for dolphin watching and Wazaro Beach, one of the most beautiful places on the coast.
At the beach itself you can do more or less all kind of watersports (swimming, surfing, sailing, snorkeling, diving etc.) If you want to go on a longer safari, there are several travel agents i.e. in Diani Shopping Centre who can organise such trips to any other location in Kenya such as Rift Valley, Mount Kenya, Tsavo, Masai Mara, Amboseli etc.

This is the general location

Outside this Self catering cottage in Diani, Kenya

The cottage is in a very quiet area. It has a private south facing swimming pool, a south facing garden, a east facing patio area. If you are driving there is private parking with the outside areas of the house having external lighting.