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Everything was planned to precision and went smoothly. An exceptional holiday and service provided
I have been using your company for over 10 yrs and have no regret. Nice staff and good approach with listening skills.
Michael very helpful
Once again Darryll at DialAflight and his team delivered what they promised. The flight, hotel and all other information were spot on.
I had a wonderful time. Brought back so many memories. Thank you
Advise any clients leaving from BHX that they need plenty of time to get up to departure gates and through security. It was a shambles there on the day that I flew out.
Hassle free, thank you.
Always satisfied with service. Daniel knows exactly what is right for me and I appreciate the time he takes to help me through all the decisions. Wouldn't go anywhere else
Yet again Edward kept us informed up until the day we left, phoning several times to enquire and confirm things. Well done
You are so much better to book with. We appreciated the personal attention, the care, the way we could phone with queries as they arose. We will certainly recommend and use your services again. It is a joy to speak to your staff at the end of the line!
As usual. Fantastic holiday. Thank you Des for all your help and support arranging supporting and recommending this fabulous hotel.
As always I have nothing but praise for your service. I will be back and am also spreading the word!
Nicky made the whole process a breeze. Top class customer service.
Poor service from Etihad airlines on 2 of 4 flights tarnished this trip. Still awaiting a response from Etihad
Excellent customer service
Have been using DialAFlight for 20+ years. Always excellent service. Travis in particular is always so helpful and makes you feel you're his only client.
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Billy has exceeded our expectations.
Great to have the pick up at the airport
Arthur was so helpful he went above and beyond to ensure we had a good holiday. Highly recommend.
incredible service as always. Thank you Dexter
Can not thank you enough for your wonderful service. I have given your number to my friends and family. Highly recommended
I had loads of issues due to flight cancellation but no fault of DialAFlight
It was 5 star all the way
Always recommending you to our friends
Helpful and dependable as always
Everything was great from booking our holiday to arriving back home. Special thanks to Helen Jones for taking care of it all, great job.
As usual, the whole process was made easy and we received excellent service from DialAFlight. Continue to recommend to everyone!
Kennedy is a pleasure to deal with and always gives us the best advice on the UAE products.
Many thanks to Ray Taylor for a very good, quick service
Pandas are notoriously elusive - you’d probably get similar odds for spotting a mountain yeti in the wild. Even in captivity, you must time your visit very carefully.
I’m told to get to Chengdu Panda Reserve early as its prized residents tend not to venture out after lunch. So when fog delays my early-morning flight for hours I don’t hold out much hope of coming face-to-face with its star attraction.
For a while all I can see is thick vegetation as I join a group of tourists peering over the barriers at one of the panda enclosures. Then a flash of black and white appears between two trees and a furry form lumbers into view.
He's joined by two of his playmates and the trio ambles sleepily towards us, one behind the other.
We hear shouts from the far end of the enclosure and the pandas prick up their ears, breaking into a trot as they cross the bamboo platform in the direction of the cries.
Another five pandas emerge from their concrete shelter and head for the pile of fresh bamboo that has been thrown by park staff on a spot carefully chosen to give us all a perfect view.
There's a chorus of ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ as smartphones and cameras are aimed.
The bad weather may have delayed my flight from Jiuzhai Huanglong, in the north of Sichuan Province, but it's also kept the pandas cooped up and now they’re making the most of the break in the rain.
Chengdu Panda Reserve isn’t China’s biggest such centre (Wolong Nature Reserve is a massive 200,000 hectares) but it does boast the largest captive-born giant panda population in the world, thanks to a successful breeding programme.
Remarkably, techniques to give nature a helping hand include showing the animals videos of other pandas mating - and apparently Viagra is dished out too.
When that fails, researchers turn to artificial insemination and the hi-tech incubators in the Sunshine Nursery House ensure that even the most vulnerable cubs survive.
There are just 1,500 giant pandas left in the wild, a handful of which live in the mountains of Jiuzhaigou National Park, in the province's far north.
It's a major tourist attraction, drawing more than two million visitors a year.
When I arrive at 8am, crowds are spilling out of coaches and queues snake down the hillside.
This 72,000-hectares of forest, lakes and waterfalls in the Min Shan mountains was 'discovered' by the Chinese only in the Sixties. Its preservation is guaranteed thanks to UNESCO World Heritage status.
With my guide, Irish ex-pat Kieran Fitzgerald, we strike out along wooden boardwalks and eventually get ahead of the crowds, pausing in the sunshine at the Nuorilang waterfall.
Jiuzhaigou is Chinese for ‘Nine Village Valley’, which refers to the nine Tibetan villages scattered throughout this region. The main villages sell handicrafts and souvenirs.
After lunch, Kieran takes me on a hike in nearby Zharu Valley. We pass rows of colourful prayer flags, an abandoned Tibetan village and the odd docile yak.
There is a wide choice of hotels in the region - including Zhou Ma’s Tibetan homestay. Billed as the ‘only authentic Tibetan homestay’ in the Shang Si Zhai Valley, it offers three basic but comfortable bedrooms, at around £20 per person per night.
Zhou Ma is the perfect hostess while her mother Amma serves breakfast, lunch and dinner.
The family also owns the excellent A Bu Lu Zi restaurant near the park entrance and you can book Tibetan cooking classes with chef Ke Zhu, Zhou Ma’s brother.
I re-join the crowds at Huanglong National Park, a three-hour drive from Juizhai Valley. This second UNESCO World Heritage Site boasts equally impressive natural beauty; its travertine (a form of stone) bank is said to resemble a huge golden dragon sweeping through the valley.
Here too, the route follows miles of boardwalk and takes around four hours, peaking at 3,580 metres.
As the gradient steepens I become short of breath and seek refuge in an oxygen hut. For a small fee, I can lean back on a large cushion full of oxygen and breathe in its restorative powers through a thin plastic pipe.
Rejuvenated I continue up to the Five-Coloured Pool where I’m rewarded for my efforts; here the beautiful travertine pools are scattered in front of me like giant frilled pieces of jade, stretching down to Huanglong Temple in the distance.
The next day Kieran takes me to Zhi Ma Tibetan eco-tourism village, a remote Tibetan settlement two hour’s drive from Jiuzhai Valley.
After being welcomed with a cup of yak butter tea by villagers, we stroll to the monastery, passing the old village and mountainside barley crops.
The monks greet us warmly as they turn the prayer wheels. ‘Tell people about us’, one monk urges me, ‘tell them to come here.’
First published in the Mail Online - February 2015
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