Thank you Helen Jones - you remain our star.
You are always my go to for flights .. you take the stress away and are empathetic and competent.
Aegean has a lovely lounge for its customers at Athens
As usual , Sadie was terrific and everything went as planned and hoped.
Harvey Edwards is awesome, would certainly recommend him to anyone!
Michelle was absolutely fantastic, could not have been better. Door to door was effortless. Incredible service. Would not use anyone else and will recommend to everyone. Absolutely 1st class service which is amazing in 2022 when customer service no longer exists!
Amazing in every way. Thank you.
Hotel was fantastic, quiet, right next to lovely beach. Staff extremely friendly and helpful. Found great taverna nearby. All travel arrangements went very well. So thank you for arranging such a lovely break in such a great spot.
Always helpful, beat all quotes. Great communication
You never disappoint
Everything went seamlessly. We had a marvellous holiday. EasyJet is a very good carrier and look after their customers. Knowing that DialAFlight have your back should it be needed is reassurance when travelling
You were extremely helpful - wish I'd booked earlier though to get cheaper flights
Thanks again to Teddy and team. Got the best seats on the plane with loads of leg room. Excellent professional and friendly customer service.
Reliable, friendly, always there if and when help is needed.
Always a pleasure to deal with DialAFlight. Callum has looked after us very well but if he is unavailable then anyone I have spoken to in the team has been great.
Very helpful staff
Real people, correct and prompt attention. Extremely helpful when an issued occurred and sorted out within no time all to our satisfaction. Highly recommend this company
First class organisation as always - thank you to Vinny.
Always excellent especially Nadia
Kylie always really good from start to finish
Libby and Raphael were great throughout the booking process and when we needed to change the destination they were very helpful and accommodating. When we arrived everything was smooth from transfers to checking in.
Gino and Amy were so helpful! We had to move flights and at one point thought we couldn’t go. The holiday was fab and I will continue to book through DialAFlight. Thanks guys!
Once again an excellent service from Bobby and the DialAFlight team, everything went as planned.
Once again Guy Foskin came up trumps - even arranging an upgrade. Excellent service. My go to holiday company.
Brilliant service, thank you
Have now used Simon Pitman several times to book holidays and they have all been great. He is very knowledgeable about the places we are going to and the hotels are always superb for quality and service
Matt Power excellent as usual! DialAFlight never fails
Daniel booked an amazing holiday and made it as special as possible. I would never book anywhere else. DialAFlight are the best
Doug is a fantastic knowledgeable person who represents DialAFlight at the highest level
Everything went without a hitch - we got the room we wanted at the hotel and enjoyed three weeks of glorious sunshine. As ever, thank you Kylie.
Vassilis was born in a boat.
His mother was trying to make it from her home on the island of Ammouliani only a mile across the Aegean to the mainland, but she was too late.
And so a boy came into this world at sea, and there was only one life he was fated to live.
Today, tall and bronzed, like a warrior from the legions of Alexander the Great, Vassilis is at the wheel of a speedboat thrumming across the sparkling seas off the Mount Athos peninsula in north-eastern Greece.
As we fly along like a turbo-charged bronco, dolphins breach the surface and plunge below, and then a sea turtle, almost 5ft long, slides alongside.
Vassilis's eyes instinctively scan the water - and then he shouts with delight. The man who has sailed these waters all his life hasn't seen a turtle here in 25 years.
Vassilis is the boatman at the Eagles Palace, a long-established family hotel designed to look a little like one of the many monasteries further along the coast.
It's 90 minutes' drive from the airport at Thessaloniki along a road that meanders through olive groves and low-lying wooded valleys into a corner of Greece that's a world away from the fleshpots of the party islands far to the south. We were afforded the warmest of welcomes.
Set on tumbling levels down to its own beach, the hotel is a labyrinth of terrace restaurants (serving food and wine from local farms, vineyards and its very own olive grove), cooling courtyards, beach bars and a large saltwater pool.
The beach itself shelves gently into water, which is astonishingly clear because the Aegean sweeps into the bay and then out again every 20 minutes.
There is a kids' club, probably more suited to younger children than our son, Mike, 11, and daughter Alice, seven.
Pavlos is the man if you want to take out a sea kayak or do some light paddle-boarding or more strenuous mountain-biking.
Unlike most dudes you meet at a watersports hut, he's got an MBA from New York — oh, and he runs ultra-marathons, too. He does a brilliant job of shepherding Mike on his first sea kayak outing, helping him steer his boat nimbly around rocks jutting from the sea bed.
Pavlos has just introduced a specialist course for children, which will see them developing their skills on the water as the week goes on.
If Pavlos is the urbane young face of adventure sports, Mr Dinos, the watersports supremo, is the salty sea dog who looks as though he might have sailed in his youth with Odysseus. Crinkly blue eyes smile out from under his weather-beaten cap as he waves his walnut arm and asks: 'What will it be today?'
Somewhat more costly adrenaline watersports include parasailing (70 euros for two people for ten minutes) and jet-skiing (50 euros for quarter of an hour). But, hey, you're on holiday.
While Alice yells to go faster on the jet ski, Mike chooses the more sedate but vertiginous thrills of parasailing.
As he is winched up into the piercing blue sky attached to a harness in front of his nervous mum, his face cracks into a huge grin and, despite his legs jiggling around like a demented frog, he calls it the 'best fun ever'.
This area of Greece is known for its astonishing panoply of monasteries.
Prince Charles is a regular visitor, spending time in the company of the monks in the Simonos Petras monastery, which crouches on top of a rock high above the sea.
Such is said to be Charles's fascination with the Greek Orthodox religion that he has installed Byzantine art in his Highgrove garden. Far above the twinkling domes, on the peak of Mount Athos itself, sits a stone building.
Who would build a chapel on top of a mountain 6,000ft high?, I wonder out loud.
'They have faith,' Vassilis tells me.
Then he recounts the story of the monk who tumbled over a cliff and plunged 150 metres. Surely, his fellows thought, he is dead. But he dusted himself off and trundled back up the hill. Miraculous, you might say.
One morning, Pavlos takes us boys on bikes into the town of Ouranoupoli - where an ancient watchtower stands sentinel above seafront tavernas - then we head out along a gravel track. Here, trees heavy with wild figs strain over the roadside and olive trees offer dappled corners of shade.
And at the end of the path? A monastery which is probably 10th-century, and the first of all those built along this peninsula.
It is a reminder of the history that seeps through the earth in this land — and courses through the veins of Vassilis and the other descendants of the ancients who shaped this Greek marvel.
First published in the Mail on Sunday - July 2015
More articles below...
Not quite what you're looking for?
We can easily customise an offer to suit your exact requirements