No complaints
Liam was great as always. I needed to book an urgent flight home and he was great, supportive and patient. I highly recommend
So disappointed and embarrassed with the condition of the arrival hall and baggage collection area at Edinburgh airport. Toilets were a disgrace and I will be complaining. All our connections were on time and baggage did not get lost! Thanks DialAFlight
Great, informative service would definitely use again.
We had an issue with Bluu car rental charging us over a thousand pounds despite our pre paid voucher being given. Spoke to Jeff our travel consultant on our return and the issue was resolved in 24 hours, refund paid.
Excellent service and easy to use
Oli de Bernier is excellent and I look forward to him assisting me with my next holiday.
A great professional service. Thank you Monika!
Tony is amazing. Everything went well and when we needed help he was right there for us. Amazing. Inspiring!
Very helpful. Bay hotel not quite as good as hoped
I only use DialAFlight now as Shane Graham provides excellent service and is available at all times to support me.
Thank you Paul once again. All worked perfectly.
All superb - BLUU car hire was excellent. Many thanks for the advice and bookings Lloyd
A disappointment was that there was no business class lounge available to us at Zanzibar airport. KLM apparently doesn’t have a contract with the lounge and we would have had to pay to enter. No notification of this so 3 hrs waiting at the gate. Not acceptable on a business class ticket
BA flight late so missed connection and lost a day's holiday
Missed an outbound connection due to BA flight delay. Good job that we had booked with Teddy. Next flight sorted eventually even though we arrived at our final destination 11 hours late.
Everything went according to plan. I don't feel confident booking online and you chaps held my hand throughout. Definitely would recommend you.
Best travel agent. Thank you Scott.
Noah was very helpful
Roger was great.
Isaac is alway very helpful and professional. Thank you as always.
Reid and Vinnie fab as usual
Roger Smith was simply outstanding in meeting our requirements and very 'hands on' with seeing our travel arrangements through without a hitch. I would not hesitate to recommend DialAFlight to anyone and will most definitely be calling on their services for our personal family use in the future.
Great service again from Bradley.
I’ve had fantastic service every time. Good quotes/quick service/helpful staff. It’s such a pleasure booking flights through DialAFlight
Nicky was amazing, professional and very committed. Will be using her again
We had a problem when arriving at Kilimanjaro Airport as nobody was there to meet us. Apparently Leopard Tours had not been advised of our new flight time. This meant we did not get to our hotel until 5am which was not a great start given we started the trek the following day
Samuel was super helpful and we will always come back to him and DialAFlight
Thanks for prompts and support
Michelle as usual was amazing
South Africa is one of the most remarkable places you’ll ever visit and with the pound strong against the rand, now is the perfect time to see this beautiful and rewarding rainbow nation.
As a South African and animal lover, it’s always the wildlife that draws me back to my home. This time I’m on the hunt for the Big Five: lion, elephant, Cape buffalo, leopard and rhino.
And there is no better place to spot all these in their natural environment than at Sabi Sabi Private Game Reserve - a National Geographic 'Unique Lodge of the World'.
Adjacent to the Kruger National Park, the animals are free to roam the non-fenced boundary between the national park and 65,000 hectares of the Sabi Sands. I plan to drive from Joburg’s O.R. Tambo airport to Sabi Sabi before heading to the Drakensburg Mountains, a World Heritage site, and on to Durban, where I grew up.
The reserve does do its own transfers and has a landing strip for guests but what I enjoy most about SA is the vast landscape and the interesting sites along the way, so I’ve chosen the five-hour drive.
LUXURY LODGING
I’ll be staying at Sabi’s Earth Lodge, which is simply out of this world. When I arrive, welcomed by a cool drink and a smiling member of staff, I can see exactly why. It’s surrounded by lush vegetation and is chiselled into the landscape to make it invisible from afar.
It also has the wildlife and on my first morning at sunrise I'm lucky enough to watch a large herd of elephant making its way through the camp.
The lodge has 13 luxurious suites, each with a plunge pool and stone bath. It’s late afternoon when I arrive and I’ve missed the usual departure of 3.30pm for an afternoon drive, but my ranger Justin and his tracker Petro still offer to take me for some sundowners where we can hopefully catch sight of some wildlife.
We drive barely a few miles before we come across a herd of elephants and in no time we’re surrounded. As they rumble past, manoeuvring their trunks through the trees, my heart feels like it’s going to burst.
I was lucky enough to grow up in South Africa and have spent time in the bush before but I’ve never been quite so close to a herd as large as this.
But my main request for Justin and Petro is that they find me a leopard and a few days later, I’m lucky enough to spend a good hour with one.
Maxabeni is a powerful and confident young male leopard who allows us to follow him. Watching his sleek body move through the vegetation makes me realise just how powerful and nimble these cats are. And they’re smart, adapting and using their environment to hunt.
Justin explains that Maxabeni had become so comfortable with the safari vehicles that he had learned to use them as cover before pouncing on unsuspecting impala.
RELAX AND REFUEL
Sabi Sabi knows how to feed its guests. As soon as you wake, you’re given a selection of pastries and yoghurts, before being taken on a morning drive. While out you stop for hot drinks and rusks – a twice-baked bread, popular with South Africans – before returning to the lodge for a full breakfast.
You get a few hours to relax before lunch is served - followed shortly by afternoon tea.
At around 3.30pm you’re taken for a drive before returning to dinner – usually six courses
Be prepared to put on weight! After four days my waistline is screaming to leave, but I want to stay longer. There's nothing like going to bed with the sound of lions reverberating through the night.
And as I wave goodbye to Justin and Petro, I feel I’m leaving old friends. I drive to a hotel in the Drakensburg Mountains – a four-hour trip – but stop at Joburg along the way, the perfect place to stop for lazy lunches and curio shopping.
FINAL DESTINATION
Driving through the long, winding roads makes you realise how vast the country is and you get the chance to glimpse the lives of locals. Villages are bustling with schoolchildren who dance and wave at you.
I’m staying at Cathedral Peak Hotel, perfect to relax for a weekend with its golf course and swimming pool. It’s a splendid base for hiking, off-road biking or horse riding.
After a few days in the mountains I head to Durban for some sun and surf. The combination of centres has made for one wildly brilliantly trip.
First published in the Daily Mail - June 2017
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