As usual, professional helpful staff
Michelle as fab as ever!
Please let the airline know that they need to improve the diabetic meals. It is not only sweet things that need to be reduced but also the amount of carbs.
It was all very good, the room, the meals, and the facilities, including the beach and the service there. We had a good discount for the pool out of action, which did not affect us greatly. The pick up at the airport was rather casual with an old vehicle, but the return was fine.
Great work Gordon and team.
Gordon Hibbert, as ever excellent service
The only slight issue we had was when we arrived in Barbados there didn’t appear to be the private transfer there for us …no one was holding a DialAFlight board up. We eventually got it sorted
We will be using you again.
Flights and hotel really good. Had to get a room upgrade at Sandpiper - but no extra charge.
Everything worked like clockwork. Your local rep was excellent
You always look after us very well
Always a brilliant service
Your service is outstanding and I will be using you again
As always DialAFlight delivered. Recommend to everyone - especially Curtis who knows EXACTLY what we want
Great help finding our holiday - excellent support to book what we wanted and follow through to ensure we were organised to travel
I loved the personal service and the phone call before my flight to make sure everything was OK. Brilliant
Holiday was wonderful but would not go back to Accra Beach Hotel. We were told to ask for upgrade when we got there, as we has stayed twice before, they did not oblige. The room had no balcony and was tired, needed upgrading.
As always can rely on DialAFlight for worry free travel arrangements.
Great hotel, location and the staff were very friendly
Would always trust you to make life easy.
Telephone calls answered swiftly. Staff members courteous and knowledgeable.
I have been using DialAFlight for a few years but had not been away since before the Pandemic. Just used the company again and the standards and customer care is still the same. Excellent!
Keep up the good work.
Had a great trip. Hotels were good standard. All arrangements went smoothly
It was my first time booking with DialAflight and it was a great experience. Thanks to the team for making sure I checked in and asking if I need any help. I will be definitely booking again
Julie Harris is very helpful and keeps in touch
Simple, easy professional. A pleasure to do business with.
Marshall put together the perfect holiday to St Lucia for us. Will definitely return to DialAFlight
Paul Jones provides an excellent service. I couldn’t ask for more.
The House has gone all inclusive which is a big change. But the property Is in need of updating. Sunbeds were a problem as with 100pc occupation there simply not enough. That apart it was a really good break and the all inclusive option certainly helped control the cost on what has become an expensive island.
Whoever wears a silk tie in the Caribbean? Prime ministers and funeral directors, perhaps - yet, here, in Gustavia, capital of the minuscule French territory properly known as Saint Barthelemy, they are on sale for £155 a pop.
Hermes, Prada, Louis Vuitton - all the designer stores have mini outposts here, lining Rue de la Republique like courtiers eager to impress visitors who step off the superyachts glistening in the harbour.
In the winter season, St Barths becomes a magnet for billionaires and celebrities, from Sir Paul McCartney and Simon Cowell to Pippa Middleton, whose in-laws, the Matthews, own the iconic Eden Rock hotel.
But this gorgeous island, classy and seductive, is also ideal for a pampering break for us mere mortals.
St Barths is a well-groomed and sleek island, where they heat the pools and chill the red wine.
Bizarrely, all the street names are in French and Swedish - so Rue General de Gaulle is also Ostra Strandgatan. This topsy-turvy isle was part of Sweden for almost a century - the only Caribbean island under Swedish rule for any length of time - and you can bet your woolly socks the snowed-in Scandinavians still rue the day, in 1878, when they gave up this little speck of paradise. France's Louis XVI had given the island to Sweden in 1784 in return for trading rights in Gothenburg - and Sweden returned it to France following a referendum!
Framed by bougainvillea and palm trees, the little church of St Bartholomew's delivers an amusing coup de theatre at noon, when its bells ring Praise To The Lord, The Almighty across the Gallic tin-roofs.
As far as the eye can see
From the Beach Club at the Hotel le Toiny on the island's Cote Sauvage you can spot a number of other islands. The hotel's English co-owner, Mandie Vere Nicoll, kindly gets off her sun-lounger to settle a dispute my wife and I are having about exactly which ones are visible - Saba, St Eustatius and St Kitts it turns out.
'This is my office,' says Mandie with a grin, pointing to a palm-roofed palapa where her little dog Gladys is standing guard.
And away from peak season, says Mandie, when the celebrities have moved on, can be the best time to visit - and it's easier to get reservations at the restaurants.
We hired a car, a tres sportif Mini Countryman, from a local firm - and found, admittedly, that driving was the only stressful thing here; think dodgems on top of a rollercoaster. Steep hills, sudden bends, potholes, goats, crazy Frenchmen.
The narrow roads are a Wacky Races of quad bikes, mokes, electric cars and scooters - plus trucks, vans and cement mixers as the island rebuilds after the devastation of Hurricane Irma in 2017.
There's little evidence of storm damage to be seen now, but it took St Barths more than a year to get its mojo back.
The majority of the island's 28 hotels have reopened, looking better than ever. A quarter of these are five-star, with lavish rooms and gastronomic restaurants.
Glamour and sophistication
If you're content with a big pool, but no beach, Hotel Christopher has a St Tropez-style glamour, while Hotel Le Toiny is quiet and sophisticated, with breakfast served beside your private plunge pool. If swimming from your front door appeals, Hotel Le Sereno is set beside Anse de Grand Cul de Sac, a lagoon with turtles, stingrays and richly-coloured coral.
Wherever you hang your straw hat, superb sands are nearby. St Barths is only ten square miles but has 16 beaches.
Colombier, Gouverneur and Salines are the stars, but when we arrive at the latter, it’s clear we’ve made a mistake.
I’d assumed there’d be all the usual beach bars, loungers and hawkers you find across the Caribbean, but non! Here, the glorious bay looks as unspoilt as it did in 1493 when Christopher Columbus named the island after his brother, Bartolomeo: a blaze of spotless white grains and turquoise waters with not a rum shop or boombox in sight.
Sheepishly, we head back up the hill in search of cold water and le pique-nique, marvelling at how the French have managed to create such a fabulous playground while still preserving its beauty.
First published in the Daily Mail - May 2019
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