Monarch Houseboat

Tasty food cleared rooms and bathroom inhouse shopping of shawl and kosher of good quality. Friendly host.

In kashmir one would want to experience the houseboat stay. Nigeen lake is peaceful and awesome. Monarch houseboat is a well maintained, beautifully designed and decorated boat. The owners are amazing and very hospitable.

Made my life horrible to reach the actual house boat as the present property location is pointing to wrong location with no car access.

I checked in 31st may, 2022 night for 2 days. Houseboat was not what its shown in pictures. On enquiry owner told that they have multiple houseboats with different names and they give based on availability. Rooms are pathetic, only 2 charging sockets in entire houseboat. Bedsheet were dirty n had holes in it. Blankets were torn n smelly. In breakfast they provided 8 parathas for 6 people which was not at all sufficient. Although they provided olmet to cover up. Still vegetarian family members had no options but to skip breakfast. During discussion with caretaker i came to know that last guest who stayed here had fever. So this houseboat do not follow covid protocol. Most disappinting was that when i highlighted these issues with owner he was too rude and not at all cooperative. Their 7 houseboats got burnt and this is the reason given by owner I wonder do they really have houseboats? spending for 2 nights for such experience was total waste of money n worthless. Really disappointed.

Beware when u book houseboats u see the best houseboats in picture and book that, but when u reach at the location the owner will show u other houseboat and convince u to stay in it, instead of prebooking everything and giving money, they gave us dirty bad houseboat first, then i had to tell them that is not the houseboat which i booked by seeing pictures and and after wasting 1 hour of us, finally got to the houseboat which i actually booked, after 30 minutes, the father of the owner comes and starts shouting and telling us to move to another houseboat as he said my other guests are coming, after almost 40 minutes of argument with that man we finally went to sleep after a long day, very disappointed, instead of prebooking this hastle and waste of time and mood happened on our trip

first of all, plan to visit Neegin lake in month of May/June (the time when lotus and lily comes. Houseboat is beautiful but does not have power. it looks so terrible that other houseboat was lit in evening but we were forced to sleep in dark. no charging point for mobile. the 2 points fan and bulb one was not fitting any standard charger. they have fixed shikara for roaming in lake and he charged for tour where in dal lake we have option to choose shikara and prices ranges. at night time, the person forced us to keep window open for ventilation as there was no other ventilation point. to summarise it was really bad experience

Stay at Monarch was the highlight of our trip. We only had to book the houseboat and the rest was taken care by the lovely owner's Jam bhai and his son Ajaz. The shikara ride to the houseboat was a lovely experience to begin our trip with. The view from the boat is mesmerising and you can enjoy sunrise from the patio while sipping on a hot kahwah every morning. Ah h the memory itself brings joy to my soul! ) the rooms are spacious with lovely traditional decor, bathrooms are clean and the meals are deliciously home-cooked with options for both veg & non-veg. And whatever i say for the hosts won't be enough. Their warmth and hospitality will touch your heart. A perfect stay!

The arrival by Shakira over the lake was spectacular and we had a wonderful reception on the stunning terrace of the houseboat. The view over the lake to the mountains was breathtaking. The food was ample and delicious and the service was faultless.
The finishes and decoration were reminiscent of a colonial club. Great attention to detail. A unique place to stay.