Your calls always answered within 5 rings.
All good with JAL. Excellent flights and food on both and excellent time between!
Faultless service as always!
We wouldn't travel as easily without all your help. Thank you
Jerry Bushnell was very thorough and very helpful and actually followed up giving me confidence regarding what luggage I could take. I will certainly use DialAFlight again.
Everything went as planned and we enjoyed out time in Tokyo very much. Booking the flights via agent is stress free and suits us better for long haul travelling.
Very helpful and efficient as always
Had a great holiday. Charlie was very helpful.
Sam and other colleagues were amazing! We are unseasoned travellers with lots of anxious questions and they steered us through our adventure promptly and reassuringly. We had a truly wonderful trip
On the way back there was a delay in a connecting flight, so I emailed DialAFlight, as advised by the airline. Despite this being Saturday/Sunday, I got prompt advice from the office. Thank you for being there!
Keep looking after your clients as well as you did me. Keely was highly responsive at all times.
My travel manager, Jane Garfield, put together a fabulous self-guided trip to Japan for me. As always, she kept in touch from booking to departure and made the whole process stress free.
Great service as always DialAFlight. Especially helpful when our flight was cancelled and then again when we couldn’t check in. It’s good to have someone you can talk to when things don’t go to plan! All worked out really well in the end and we had a fantastic trip.
Our trip was way beyond our expectations. Brilliantly organised (which was important as we were doing a self guided trip involving a lot of travel). The accommodation was impressive and in just the right locations. Our contact at DialAFlight was friendly, very efficient and clear. We will definitely use again and would not hesitate to recommend them.
Troy was excellent as always. He managed all my travel plans right up to a courtesy phone call the day before my trip to make sure everything was in order. If only every company was as good as DialAFlight!
Doha was easy. Qatar Airways fine. A good trip, thanks
Good to speak with someone to organise flights .. which is why we always use you!
Throughout the planning of our trip DialAFlight staff were very helpful, changing hotel bookings a couple of weeks before departure and they kept in touch right until the day before our flight.
Fantastic trip. Perfect planning.
Thanks for doing a great job at short notice.
As always, Callum Patel provided an excellent service
I always recommend DialAFlight to friends and family
It was lovely to have a phone call from you the day before flying just to check that everything was OK.
Can’t thank Rupert enough for everything he did to make our trip effortless and memorable
Great support and communication from Eric at DialAFlight and from Wendy Wu whilst on the trip
Our only problem was nothing to do with DialAFlight, but with BA baggage handling at Frankfurt. We made our connection but our luggage did not. Japan Airlines delivered them to our hotel 32 hours after we had landed in Tokyo. Had they not turned up when they did, we might not have been able to go on our cruise the next day, without any clothes!
Everything went as planned, very happy with the whole trip
We knew we wanted to go to Japan but lacked knowledge of where to start. Hannah took on my sketchy requirements and built a wonderful itinerary for our trip. 6 hotels and all travel arrangements spot on. Turned a dream into a reality. Thanks so much to Hannah and the team
Received excellent service from Brody throughout and particularly when BA cancelled our flight 4 days before our departure date. Gave us some really helpful info regarding our stay in Japan which proved invaluable. Excellent service and will be recommending to friends and family.
Our go to agents for whenever we travel. Never been let down.
It would have been useful to verbally highlight the need for an ETA for Australia. Trying to arrange one at the airport without Wifi is stressful.
Hiro raises his bare thigh and slams his foot on the ground, spreading ripples across his man mountain of a body.
He bows at his opponent and, in a vision of manboobs and giant wedgies, they engage in combat; wrestling, pushing, heaving and tugging until one emerges victorious.
Suddenly, it's my turn. I step into the ring and stare ahead towards the sumo wrestler a few feet away - all 26st of him. A moment later I'm pressed up against his folds of flesh, my face alarmingly close to his armpit as I push with all my might. My feet scramble at the salt-strewn floor while Hiro - a wrestler for 22 years - stands there chuckling.
I'm in the small city of Katsuragi, considered the birthplace of sumo. Located an hour from Osaka in the Kansai region, this is a corner of Japan that has just become more accessible thanks to British Airways direct flights from Heathrow.
Kansai is an area of misty mountains dotted with remote shrines, tropical beaches and tea plantations which will appeal to visitors keen to explore what lies beyond the capital Tokyo. After putting Hiro through his paces ('You have great potential,' he jokes), it's time to move on to Osaka.
Home to three million people, the city is a patchwork of 16th century castles and 21st century glass skyscrapers. From my room on the 36th floor of the Conrad Hotel, the view of Dotonbori district, the main restaurant and entertainment area, is dizzying.
This 164-room hotel gives off a Lost In Translation vibe – think Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson – and is filled with 389 artworks including one by local boy turned renowned sculptor, Kohei Nawa.
While Osaka is certainly worthy of a few days' exploration, the experiences awaiting further afield prove to be the real temptation.
Travelling south, urban sprawl gives way to delightful rural scenes. Before long we're surrounded by the crumpled green peaks of the Kii Peninsula. These mountains are the gateway to Wakayama.
Occupying the southern tip of Kansai, this city holds the key to much of Japan's ancient spiritual heritage.
For more than 1,000 years, everyone from emperors to humble farmers has walked these peaks seeking peace and purification. The Kumano Kodo Pilgrimage ranks as one of the world's great pilgrim routes. A network of trails, it has several options, from gentle hour-long strolls to arduous multi-day treks.
Opting for the easier and shorter route, I slice through silent bamboo forests and inch along paths that hug plunging wooded ravines. I pause to enjoy panoramas splashed with cherry blossom. I am feeling more peaceful by the moment.
The climax is our arrival at the grand Shinto shrine of Kumano Hongu Taisha, the hallowed ground where all trails meet. The silence of the forest is broken by the rhythmic chiming of bells and the flapping of flags in the breeze.
I watch as worshippers cross the gravel courtyards, clap their hands twice (to announce their arrivals to the deities) and bow their heads in prayer. This is a special, unforgettable place. Just down the road, in the valley and dissected by a stream of healing thermal waters, is Yunomine, an onsen village centred around natural hot springs.
These healing waters were discovered 1,800 years ago and became an important part of the pilgrimage by offering hot water purification along the way.
Pilgrims enjoy a spiritual soaking by stripping off, as is custom, for a dip in the stone plunge pool housed in a rickety shed. Barely big enough for two, it makes for quite the intimate experience.
I choose instead a riverside dip in the thermal rockpool at the Kawayu Midoriya. A spa hotel somewhat stuck in the Seventies, it models itself on the traditional inn, the ryokan. Expect sliding paper screens and legless chairs.
No trip to this part of Japan would be complete without the glittering jewel in its Imperial crown, Kyoto.
Reached in 15 minutes from Osaka by Shinkansen bullet train, this enchanting city was the nation's capital until 1868. It retains much of its ancient character, particularly in the Gion district where geishas once scuttled between teahouses in their elaborate silk costumes.
From the comfortable Ritz-Carlton hotel, it's a pleasant 20-minute stroll along the Kamogawa River to Gion.
Delving into the backstreets, I discover deserted gardens and teahouses serving fragrant cherry blossom tea and sit with elderly locals painting watercolours of a pagoda.
Hunched over their palettes, they look long and hard and produce thoughtful brushstrokes. They seem lost in their individual reveries, drinking in the beauty. It sums up my experience perfectly.
First published in the Daily Mail - November 2019
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