What 5810 DialAFlight clients thought of Australia

Thanks to Jonathan who was excellent

Felt I should have tipped those that wheelchaired me long distances as there were tight connections in Perth and Dubai on the return journey.

I always use DialAFlight for long haul - excellent service

Went smoothly as always.

Excellent service again from your Travel Manager Kieran Greenfield.

Just to say a big thank you for a wonderful trip! Everything went smoothly

Great trip and felt very well supported by Doug and his team

Excellent service from Gino. Will definitely use again and will recommend to others. Thanks for all your help and for making everything so easy.

After spending hours trying to sort flights myself and getting very frustrated I called DialAFlight and Larry saved the day! Next time I will save my sanity and ring him straight away

Not the best flight route home for me and would not take that route again. Other than that all great

Noah’s support and help were excellent

It is so good to talk to a real person who is helpful and knows what they are doing, without queuing or having to press a sequence of numbers!

Excellent service. I had a couple of problems with my return flight and it was so reassuring to be able to phone someone, have the phone answered almost instantly and my problem sorted quickly and efficiently. Well done Ash and your colleagues!

From the moment I spoke to Ash I felt everything was completely sorted with my flights to Sydney. Thankyou for your help and patience with someone who worries about EVERYTHING

Every time I phoned they were very helpful and nothing was too much trouble.

We were very impressed with the excellent service and many thanks to Ash for all his help.

Everything worked well

Micky was great and communicated clearly whilst offering a competitive rate.

I will only ever use DialAFlight as they have never let me down through the many years that I have used them. Gordon arranges my fabulous holidays every time

Sally and her team were amazing. They were all very helpful. Very pleased with the service.

Always a joy to book my trips with Robert at DialAFlight. Knowledgeable, patient and supportive

Was concerned that it took a couple of attempts to ensure that my name was spelled accurately. Although the ticket was corrected in good time after cancelling the first booking some of the other file references continued to include an extra 'e' in my name. This worried me when that sort of accuracy is so important.

Marcus was great. Knowledgeable and helpful. Unfailingly pleasant.

As always, everything ran like clockwork. Many thanks to Orlando and the team.

Everything worked out very well.

Everything went according to your schedule. Wish you’d been in charge of the weather!

Our agent was very patient and helpful

As always the team at DialAFlight are very knowledgeable and pick the best options for flights or hotels

Very smooth trip assisted by Oliver, who kept in contact throughout and was always quick to answer queries and give reassurance. I would recommend DialAFlight and will definitely come back for my next trip.

Great service, would use again for next trip

Food and wine

Adelaide uncorked!

From delicious wine to fabulous festivals, Etan Smallman finds this South Australian gem the perfect blend

A city book-ended by vineyards and beaches, with quaint Victorian houses sitting alongside tidy parkland, Adelaide is Australia’s emerging hot spot.

A favourite haunt with Britons relocating Down Under, this lovely city with its Mediterranean climate is home to one of the world's most prestigious art and culture festivals.

Which is how I came to find myself blindfolded in a theatre being accosted by a group of young Belgians - all in the cause of cutting edge drama at the Adelaide Festival.

Visit the Adelaide Fringe Festival for the wildest ride of your life

ENDLESS VARIETY

As well as the festival this South Australian city boasts entertainment such as the Adelaide Fringe, the WOMADelaide world music concerts and the Adelaide 500 road-racing extravaganza.

At the festival’s writers’ week, Booker Prize winner Thomas Keneally, author of Schindler's Ark, explained why the jewel of the south has been attracting him since his first appearance at the festival in 1968.

'It's a beautiful place,' he told me. 'It has this wonderful dry heat and the citizens exist among a torrent of wine, flowing out of the Barossa Valley and out of the McLaren Vale.

'Foreign writers love this because it's so warm in the middle of the northern European winter. It's hard to move in my hotel without tripping over some great British novelist or biographer.'

In South Australia exceptional food and wine are a way of life

WINEMASTERS

The area is also the country's grape capital, bursting with boutique wine makers, but the giant Jacob's Creek dominates.

I’m treated to a wine master class by Jacob's Creek expert Sacha Bown. The Sensory Experience is billed as an interactive workshop that helps increase your knowledge and enjoyment of the complexities of wine. As a complete wine novice, that isn’t hard. It’s great fun putting my smell and taste to the test with a strange tray of treats, from petrol-scented balls to a strawberry dipped in black pepper.

After a delicious lunch on the balcony of the Creek’s award-winning restaurant, I whizz off to Penfolds winery.

The ‘make your own blend’ experience makes you feel like a winemaker for an hour. It involves mixing three different types of wine in an oversized test tube - you also consume far more wine than you realise.

The Barossa may get the lion’s share of tourist attention but one of South Australia’s other wine regions, the McLaren Vale is a hidden treat.

Ben Neville, who set up his own tour company after leaving the corporate rat race in London, showed me the secrets of the Vale.

Ben is beyond passionate about the area – while providing a rip-roaring four-wheel drive adventure starting with a quick ‘snack’ in the middle of the bush.

A snack involves a table, chairs, gingham tablecloth, china plates, champagne, a view of untouched bush that’s to die for – and an array of mouthwatering canapés freshly prepared that morning by his friend, chef Nigel Rich.

Etan takes a 4x4 tour of deserted beaches and lofty lookouts

ADVENTURE TIME

We hop back on the vehicles and cruise through Yankalilla and Onkaparinga districts via superb off-road tracks offering vistas across the Fleurieu Peninsula.

We even speed along the mesmeric Silver Sands beach before lunch on a secluded hilltop encapsulated by some (more) breathtaking scenery. Sandwiches on a picnic blanket?

No. Chef Nigel, who trained in some of London's top hotels before setting up his restaurant, The Elbow Room, in McLaren Vale (and, incidentally, whose English mother went to school with Margaret Thatcher) is cooking up a surprise.

The feast is being prepared on the back of his ‘ute’, before being smoked with a curious gadget and some apple chips. It is complemented by wine served by Thomas O’Donnell, who works at the nearby Samuel’s Gorge vineyard.

And in case I was in any doubt about how laid back these people are about their fine product, the owner of Samuel’s Gorge, Justin McNamee sets me straight.

'In the McLaren Vale, we're not in a hurry and never have been to tell the world we are the best.

'I think because we don't overtly jam it down people’s throats, when people actually finally discover it, they go "holy bloody Nelly". And when you drink great wine here and then you go to the beach and you see great art, and then you see the sunset - people are forever saying "I don't want to leave".'

Holy bloody Nelly, he’s right, I don't want to go anywhere.

First published in the Mail Online - September 2017

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