Your calls always answered within 5 rings.
Many thanks to Raphael in particular, but to the whole team. You helped us out of a very difficult situation and took all the worries away so that we had a stress free and very enjoyable trip. Can't thank you enough.
Exceptional flight with outstanding service and lovely staff. Will book again very soon. And you found us the best deal!
Excellent communication from DialAFlight staff - thanks Harvey.
I've booked with DialAFlight multiple times and have always been very happy dealing with them and getting the best dates and times to suit my requirements. They are always friendly and answer the phone very quickly with no annoying pre recorded messages or push button navigating. They are reliable and you can always phone again to check any concerns.
Deborah was absolutely amazing with her help when I needed flight changes in Dubai due to the flooding. I wouldn’t have got back to the UK so quickly without her.
Becky was my link for the holiday of a lifetime. She did an excellent job of keeping me updated and although we didn’t have to call on her for help it was a big reassurance that someone was there at the end of the phone.
Thank you to Daryll and his team at DialAFlight who allowed me to travel with complete peace of mind!
All the flights were really good. However coming back home from Auckland to Shanghai, I wish I’d been made aware that my suitcase would need to be collected at Shanghai and then rechecked in. It wasn’t a pleasant or particularly easy experience. Anyway it all worked in the end.
You are not to blame for the poor service I received on my business class flights from LHR to AKL via Dubai but I will not be booking Emirates in the future
No issues from your end but Dubai airport and Emirates were very poor as far as communication went during our six and a half hour delay.
Great friendly service. Makes life so much easier using them. They find you exactly want you want in a matter of minutes whereas in the past it's taken me hours
Great service and prompt attention
Great service as usual. Excellent phone pick up, good prices and wonderful advice about which airlines, stopovers and timings.
Zoe always delivers.
Annabelle C is amazing and I'd book again with her!
Lloyd was very helpful at all times
Thank you for an excellent service
You guys are great….will return to you when (all being well) we head back to Kiwi in 3 years time. Lots we didn’t get to do!
Thanks so much to Jim for his consistent help with my trip!
Again you excelled. Hotels were fantastic, close to all amenities and attractions. About to book again with you.
Great service as usual.
I appreciated the prompting and information regarding online check-in and luggage. The cherry on the top was the personal call to confirm all was in order for my trip.
Good service as usual. Just the one small hiccup
Our journey with Emirates went smoothly & the flight timings worked very well for us to minimise our jet lag.
Fantastic as usual, superb communication throughout.
I had to change my flight at the last moment because of a family emergency and the staff could not have been more helpful.
We were unimpressed with BA cabin service. The cabin staff were grudging and slipshod compared with ANZ and other Asian airlines. I will take this up with them separately; and second, transiting through Shanghai is pretty awful with lots of uncertainty and unnecessary bureaucracy which made many of us on my flight pretty fed up. Not a patch on Singapore, Hong Kong or Seoul.
Always an excellent service. Very professional in all aspects of the travel industry. Would always use and will always recommend
Always give the best service and advice. I always recommend you to others. There is always someone ready to help when needed
My thanks for your help in booking my trip to New Zealand . I will definitely use you again and recommend
Laguna Beach in the late 1960s was overrun with hippies. It was home to Timothy Leary's Brotherhood of Eternal Love movement, on a mission to spread peace, love - and acid - to the world.
The focal point was a gallery and bookshop that supplied locals with its famous Orange Sunshine acid tabs. Surfboards were filled with them, and on one occasion Laguna Beach was showered with acid blotter dropped from a helicopter.
These hippies and surfers became major-league suppliers of LSD, and achieved superstar status among the psychedelic movement. Doug Oyen, our guide during a morning hike through the canyons above Laguna Beach, shows us some of the caves where hippies used to hang out.
We couldn't wish for a better guide. Doug is the first of many people we meet straight out of SoCal central casting: laidback, suntanned, wraparound shades and long blond mane.
The trek is painfully steep at times but worth it for panoramic views of the beaches and towns fringing the Pacific. A late afternoon walk in Laguna Beach confirms its counterculture days are over. Forget the 1960s ethos of 'Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out' - today's buzzwords are 'Tone Up, Tummy In, Work Out'. LSD has been replaced by the yoga mat.
They're everywhere: beside Gucci handbags in restaurants; in shopping baskets next to quinoa and kale; or clutched under the arms of shoppers looking at $200 ripped jeans in boutiques.
On a stroll through Heisler Park we see a timeless SoCal sight: rows of surfers in the ocean, waiting for the big wave that will make them the envy of their friends. A long line of brown pelicans in V-formation flies just above the water.
We dine at Driftwood Kitchen, a fabulous new beachfront restaurant serving classic surf and turf.
We stay the night at The Ranch at Laguna Beach. Transport is by a golf buggy, or else in a cool 15-seat Chevy Stageway. Next day we head up the Pacific Coast Highway to Huntington Beach, where we're greeted by two giant inflatable swans in the new Pasea Hotel's pool, facing the large sandy beach.
In the hotel's Tanner's bar, the centrepiece is a large, twisting tree trunk with a canopy of hanging lights. Hearing our English accents, our waitress reveals she's moving to London to take a drama course. Later, a surferdude taxi-driver blasts out Brahms from the stereo: SoCal folk can be so surprising.
After heading further north to Santa Barbara, we eat delicious ice cream at McConnell's and wander along Stearns Wharf, where children jump off into the sea.
We're treated to a helicopter ride over Santa Barbara, and fly above the huge Clark Estate, home to a former copper magnate and, later, his reclusive heiress. We also spot Michael Douglas's place and Oprah Winfrey's house.
We stay at luxurious El Encanto, in the Santa Barbara hills, where actress Hedy Lamarr once lived. The accommodation is luxurious Spanish-style villas among palms and lemon trees.
Next stop is a little bit of Denmark: Solvang, in the Santa Ynez Valley. In 1911, almost 100 Danish settlers arrived looking for farming land and built what now resembles a Danish village, with windmills, bakeries and their own version of Copenhagen's Little Mermaid statue. We pop into the Solvang Restaurant, famous for aebleskiver, a traditional, spherical Danish dessert served with raspberry jam and sugar.
This is the heart of southern California's wine region - the celebrated Sonoma and Napa valleys are much further north. Downtown Solvang has many bars and wine-tasting rooms, serving wines from local producers. In The Wandering Dog, we're soon swaying on our stools but this is due more to the all-American sounds of Boston, Kansas and Don Henley on the music system than to the chardonnay, syrah and, of course, pinot noir.
Later, we drive up winding roads of Ballard Canyon to a vineyard called Rusack to taste its wines. When veteran American comedian Shelley Berman visited, he launched into an impromptu rendition of Que Syrah Syrah, which was met with delight from surprised guests. The estate's Marti Martin told him: 'You see, you're still getting applause wherever you go.' Who needs LSD when you have a good bottle of syrah?
First published in the Mail on Sunday - July 2017
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