DialAFlight is the UK's top travel company with reviews on Trustpilot

What 10904 of our customers
thought of Asia...

It was a perfect trip.

Again another great trip - first class service from the team.

Vinnie Gornall's travel arrangements were just perfect.

Great support from great staff. Peace of mind ensured memorable holiday. Thanks to Jonathan

Always get good first class service

Very helpful from start to finish

I’ve always used DialAFlight and have never been disappointed. I highly recommend this company for anyone who’s thinking of booking a vacation.

Couldn’t get any better

Great service again, would wholeheartedly recommend

Professional and helpful

Gino always very helpful and sorts out last minute panics

Very helpful, especially with the cancellations and rebookings due to Covid.

Very helpful all the way through

Ash, who helped me with everything, was an excellent travel agent - our 4 week holiday to Thailand was perfect

All went well thank you.

All worked really well. Special thanks to Calvin Ali who dd a great job!

Everything went very smoothly. Communication excellent at all times. Thanks to Russell Harrison for all his help. Would definitely use DialAFlight again.

Jerry Bushnell and team always go the extra mile and are ever helpful. Always there to reassure and help. BRILLIANT

So good to be able to talk plans through with a real person! Would definitely recommend

Great assistance whilst away travelling

Everything went like clockwork. Many thanks for everything!

Great service. Many thanks

KLM has too many delays - in the Philippines it was a two hour delay and same in Amsterdam on the way back to Scotland

Always a great service from Cody...been using them for over 20 years

Tony was brilliant as always with a “personal touch” you will struggle to get with other tour operators

All went according to plan. No fuss, no problems. Great job.

Excellent service from start to finish. Expert advice with excellent communication and updates.

Tara never fails in doing everything she can to help with a booking. I have used her many times and recommended her to others. She is professional, extremely helpful, knowledgeable and friendly

Brilliant service from DialAFlight

Very helpful when I booked my flight First class service

Phuket for food lovers

Temptations of tasty Thailand

Five-star foodie treats on the shores of Phuket and Koh Phangan were waiting for Laura Millar - even if she had to cook her own dinner

On my first full day at the Anantara Layan hotel, I’m told that lunch will be cooked by...me!

Perhaps this is pay-back time from dinner the night before, when the chef presented me with something I can only describe as edible art.

I had been faced with amuse-bouches of olives hung on a miniature tree; a plump, pink disc of yellowfin tuna tartare; seabass smoked with Jack Daniel’s, revealed with a flourish from under an opaque glass dome.

It transpires that Anantara, on the northwest coast of Phuket, does things differently.

To immerse guests fully in the local culture, a cooking school called Spice Spoons is offered - and you get thrown in at the deep end.

It starts with an 8am visit to the food market in the small, dusty village of Talang, a ten-minute drive away, with the hotel’s chef. The market is a cavernous covered space full of stalls selling everything from fresh seafood on ice to buckets of coconut cream, and displays of garlic, ginger, green papaya, mint and more.

Local delicacies at the Phuket food market

FRAGRANT FEAST

There are containers of home-made red, green and yellow curry pastes, fragrant Thai basil and weird fermented cabbages.

The cooking class takes place at the hotel’s Dee Plee Thai restaurant, which overlooks the rest of the sprawling resort (comprising 77 villas and suites).

On the menu today are shrimp tartlets, green chicken curry and mango with sticky rice. Before I know it, I’m mixing batter for tartlet cases, marinading mini-aubergines in coconut milk and curry paste, and simmering the sticky rice (the trick is to ensure there is just a finger’s width of water over the rice).

Phuket is roughly the same size as Singapore, with a population of 600,000. It is under two hours away from a truly exquisite archipelago that includes Phi Phi Leh (where The Beach was shot), Khai (home to nothing but a bar) and an island nicknamed ‘Bamboo’.

A boat trip that takes in all these is the perfect way to get a flavour of what draws so many visitors. We speed across the turquoise water, passing giant granite islands covered in greenery, stopping off at Phi Phi Don, the larger sister island to Leh.

Pausing to go snorkelling near a reef among swarms of colourful fish, we then pull in to Pileh Lagoon, a body of crystalline, emerald green water surrounded by more hulking stone outcrops of the kind you see on postcards.

That evening, the head chef does the cooking, thankfully. He serves up a delicious soft-shell crab curry, a local dish called Khao Soi - a tangle of spicy, crispy egg noodles served with chicken, onion and lime - and a light coconut sorbet. Somehow, Thai food just doesn’t taste like this back home.

Sip on a cocktail while you relax in the pool

KOH PHANGAN

For a different island experience we also visit Layan’s sister resort, Rasananda, on the much smaller island of Koh Phangan. Its population of around 8,000 doubles once a month as hordes of partygoers descend on Haad Rin beach, to the south, for the infamous full moon parties which started here in the Eighties.

Apart from those wild nights, though, it appeals mostly to families and couples, while Phuket draws a younger crowd. The Rasananda is bang on the beach, but has all the design touches of an elegant resort: an infinity pool featuring a swim-up bar, spa and 64 villas and suites, each with their own private plunge pool.

Mine has a carp pond outside, and all have a free mini-bar. Everything seems to move at a different pace: slowly. But there’s plenty to do such as snorkelling or kayaking around the Ang Thong National Marine Park, which contains more than 40 tiny islands. And you can also go elephant trekking, commune with local monks, or indulge in yoga every morning on the sun terrace.

Yes, there is a cooking school here, too. And yes, I could sign up to perfect my Pad Thai - but I demur. It’s time to let someone else do the hard work.

First published in the Mail Online - May 2017

More articles below...

For more inspiration, read what travel writers have to say...