Your calls always answered within 5 rings.
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
Just to say thank you for making my trip trouble free
Travis and his team were just amazing. I would definitely use them again
Gary, as usual, went above and beyond to make sure we were very well looked after
Very appreciative of all aspects of your help and service. A great trip - thank you
A thrilling safari in the heart of Africa is on the must-do list for many, an essential element being to tick off the Big Five - lion, leopard, buffalo, rhinoceros and elephant. Grab your binoculars and let our experts guide you to the ultimate safari holiday…
Lion : South Africa
The Shamwari Game Reserve, in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, works with the Born Free Foundation and maintains Big Cat Rescue and Education Centres. It’s the mission of Born Free, founded by actress and conservationist Virginia McKenna and late husband Bill Travers, to ‘Keep Wildlife in the Wild’.
Both Shamwari and Born Free protect big cats and many other species and have rescued animals from all over the world. On Shamwari's morning and evening game drives you'll see lions and the rest of the Big Five.
Accommodation is in a choice of individually styled luxury lodges, in glorious settings giving the opportunity to interact with nature in its purest form.
Leopard : Namibia
The Okonjima Nature Reserve, is halfway between the capital Windhoek and renowned Etosha National Park.
As they're nocturnal and well-camouflaged, leopards are the most elusive of the Big Five and you need an expert guide. At the family-run Okonjima, home of conservation charity The AfriCat Foundation, small groups go in rough-terrain vehicles and stay out for as long as it takes to snap your prey.
Staff use radios to share sightings. What looks like a patch of bare scrub can hide a gloriously languid leopard.
Accommodation is in luxury villas with vast picture windows. Guests can sponsor a leopard and receive updates once home.
Rhino : Botswana
Moremi Game Reserve is on the eastern side of the Okavango Delta, where black and white rhinoceros have been introduced under the Botswana Rhino Reintroduction Project. It has seen a zero-tolerance anti-poaching policy result in rhino once again inhabiting areas where they had been virtually extinct.
As well as the Big Five, on Moremi game drives you'll see a wealth of bird species by the lagoons, including the African Fish Eagle, Pel’s Fishing Owl, Crested Crane, Lilac-breasted Roller, Hammer-kop, Ostrich and Sacred Ibis.
Luxurious accommodation is in Belmond Khwai River Lodge, idyllically set at the forest edge with views over the floodplains.
Elephant : Kenya
Samburu Intrepids Lodge is a lush oasis on the banks of the great Uaso Nyiro River in Samburu Game Reserve. Elephants love to play in the water and guests have a front-row seat from their room - with several impromptu shows a day.
The tented luxury camp is at the edge of a forest and cooled by the river breeze. It sits on raised decks overlooking the river, where crocodiles also often lounge by the bank. The jagged peak of distant Mount Kenya is in the background.
On Samburu game drives you'll see the other members of the Big Five.
Buffalo : Kenya
The Porini Mara camp is in the Serengeti-Mara wilderness. Dubbed 'the widow-makers', buffaloes are probably the most deadly of the Big Five and reportedly kill 200 people a year.
Guides explain what to do if a buffalo charges: lie flat, face-down, so they can't gore and toss you on their horns. The ones we found were too busy rutting and sparring to charge. But the sense of danger makes it feel all the more real.
Accommodation is in tents, all with hot showers, flushing loos, comfortable beds and living areas with sofas.
Fine-tuning your trip
All of these wonderful safari options are just a starting point for your African holiday adventure, why not add on hotels before and after a safari or include any additional tours or excursions.
The Africa Bush offers many awe inspiring experiences, it is not all about the Big Five. Some reserves are expanding 'walking safaris', where you get close to nature on foot, such as on a mountain gorilla trek.
The great migration, the annual journey of two million wildebeest from the plains of the Serengeti to the grasslands of the Masai Mara, is an astonishing sight.
And a safari/beach combination is possible, for example, in Kenya or South Africa.
First published in the Mail on Sunday - February 2019
More articles below...
Not quite what you're looking for?
We can easily customise an offer to suit your exact requirements