Gordon is a massive help. No issue with changing flight dates - he couldn't be more helpful. A great asset for DialAFlight
Brilliant!
Excellent service from start to finish.
Very reliable. Always available if you have any questions. I feel very happy to have booked with DialAFlight.
Fantastic service by Dale Walton. His hotel suggestion was exceptional! Will definitely use DialAFlight again. I have passed his details to a few friends, one of whom booked their summer holiday this year through him.
Marcus and Tommy were excellent from start to finish (as usual) and I will definitely be contacting them again for my next trip.
Bruce as ever kept us informed with everything. Thank you for great service
Have been using DialAFlight for over 20 years and never had a problem
Really pleased with the services from Lucas, Harriet and team. We were treated very well, even when we changed our minds about hotels and locations. We were notified at every stage of the process and they saved us money overall.
As always Cody extremely helpful .
All flight arrangements worked well. Singapore Airways were excellent - on time and good service. I was a bit concerned about only 50 minutes between the Bali -Singapore leg landing and the Singapore -London departure time but it all worked out!
Jason was very professional and we’ve booked again to Antigua.
A very good trip well organised and provided by DAF
An excellent service - will be booking again for next year
Very good service and will use again when needed.
Philippa returned my email straight away and helped me change my flight from Bali without any drama or stress. She will always be the one I call for my travelling.
Jessie was fantastic! Will definitely be in touch again for our next trip
Finn is excellent. We have always looked to him over the years for our holidays. His recommendations are always spot on and service is impeccable.
As travel plans went it was a simple enough plan but had numerous opportunities to go badly wrong - from layovers to airport hotels being available etc. Courtney ensured everything went smoothly with a knowledgeable, experienced and well travelled eye on our plans. I’m very grateful as it was the first time I’d taken my young family longhaul so it was very important it worked out.
The team were amazing and looked after us so well when we needed to change our flight due to illness.
I want to thank Ralph Summers for helping me book my travel to Bali. Also a massive thank you to Karina Evans on the 24/7 team who helped me with flight issues after missing my connecting flight. DialAFlight have been amazing and will definitely be using them again.
Everything worked as planned and as someone who doesn't travel much, it was very reassuring.
Jonathan was very helpful booking the flights and kept in touch right till take off.
Amazing service by DialAFlight from start to finish.
The assistance I received at the airports was very efficient and helpful. Thank you for arranging
Michael is always excellent
Courtney was really great right from the beginning. All the flights worked well and it was easy to change the last one, with Courtney's help. Fab service
Great service.
Everything as expected. I didn't even bother checking or researching anywhere else and just trusted DialAFlight to find me the best deal to fit what I wanted.
Amazing service from Travis, quick response when I had a question on holiday
We had only just set off white-water rafting through the jungle gorges of the Ayung River when our guide began flinging water over us with his paddle.
The water was too calm for his liking – this was his way of livening up the trip.
We retaliated in kind until we were all soaked, but then, just to make sure we were fully drenched, he beached the raft under a pipe ditching a small stream into the river and made us stand beneath it for photographs. They like a giggle in Bali.
SETTLING IN
By then, we'd been in and around Bali for a week and had acclimatised to the warmth, the drifting scents of incense sticks, the greeting of everyone with a hands-in-prayer Namaste gesture, and the gaiety of the little temples that peek over the walls of family compounds, their pillars decked out in bright fabrics.
And we were getting hooked on sambal, the tangy, spicy tomato dip that comes with crackers wherever you order drinks. We had also learned that not taking things too seriously is a way of life here, even in the tranquil, opulent surroundings of the Four Seasons at Sayan, set in the jungle just outside Ubud in the middle of Bali.
SO MUCH TO LEARN
I thought our cycle tour guide, Agus, was joking when he suggested we stop for a cat-poo coffee. We had been deluging him with questions as we pedalled through open countryside north of Ubud. How many rice crops did this green and fertile island yield each year? Four.
What were the tall, frondy bamboo decorations going up outside every house? Penjors, to celebrate the national festival of Galungan.
The cat-poo-cino turned out to be for real. It's made with coffee beans that have been eaten, and excreted, by a sad, fierce-looking creature called a Luwak, which makes the beans milder in flavour, once they have been washed, roasted and ground. Oh, yes.
A TOUCH OF LUXURY
The Four Seasons at Sayan is an extraordinary building that clings to the steep side of a river valley, like some retro James Bond baddie's lair.
You sashay across a treetop-height walkway towards a large lily pond that appears suspended in mid-air. The hotel is beneath said pond, with a stupendous view across the river valley. The Obamas stayed here last year.
I knew from friends who honeymooned here in style that Bali is not just for backpackers, though even in the luxurious hotels lining the Ayung, the vibe is relaxed. Everyone is friendly and laidback.
WHERE TO VISIT
Most people hang out on the pale-sand beaches at its southern tip. They might get as far inland as the hippyish town of Ubud but, with its yoga centres and art studios.
We started on the beach. Steering clear of Kuta – the Magaluf of Bali – we stayed in the beachy, more upmarket Seminyak district.
Then, in search of an island paradise of the sort that brought the first hippies here in the Sixties, we ventured across the Lombok Strait to the Gili Islands. Gili Gede, off the south coast of Lombok (the next Indonesian island to Bali), boasts the super-chic hotel Kokomo Gili Gede
Back on Bali, my husband Matthew had a massage using milk and honey scrubs at Sayan. Then he agreed to spend our final afternoon enjoying a three-hour 'Blessings of Bali' ceremony.
A BIT OF PAMPERING
By now we had moved on to another Four Seasons hotel, at Jimbaran Bay on Bali's southernmost tip, where the blessings take place in the seafront pavilion. We did aerial yoga, we meditated. We 'bathed' in the reverberating din drummed up by the massage ladies on 3ft gongs.
After a muscle-probing massage, we donned sarongs and sat, eyes closed, as the priest chanted prayers – and concluded the ceremony by tipping a litre of blessed water over our heads. It was my turn to giggle – respectfully, of course.
First published in the Daily Mail - April 2018
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