Wouldn't use anybody else.
First class as usual
Very impressed with follow up calls.
Zac's team triumphed again.
Smooth booking. Good seat allocation and good times for flying. All went well with easyJet. On time with no delays!
Dylan top man - everything well organised
Thanks for sorting out our check in home. The flight was delayed but made tolerable by an upgrade
Great mini break. Lily was super helpful
All very good and very helpful
Excellent as always.
Richard Warren was wonderful in checking that everything went smoothly. I can’t speak highly enough of this company.
As always excellent professional, efficient and friendly service from Luke.
Last minute booking. Excellent all round.
Aegean has a lovely lounge for its customers at Athens
Superb customer service as always.
Fantastic customer service from Larry
Always excellent
All international and internal flights were well organised and this helped the trip run very smoothly from start to finish
Booking, information, helpfulness and professionalism of Hayley was magnificent. Also the inclusion of the ‘app’ for digital tickets was sooooooo helpful.
Excellent communication from Lee Coughtrey with follow up call.
Many thanks again to Donovan and staff for all your help in booking our flight and hotel. We had a really fantastic time in Tenerife and look forward to going back again.
All extremely helpful and very polite throughout
Thanks to Jim for all his help.
As always, a great service with competitive prices. Good customer service. Would not book on the net as DialAFlight took all the stress out and were cheaper!
Only problem was was that there was no personal assistance on arrival in Munich!
As always, superb, personal service. Can't fault it.
Excellent in every way. Thank you so much Claire Doherty. Once again you have come up trumps!
Three different airports in one day was daunting but thanks to DialAFlight and Gino Lamonby it was painless. Very happy
Had a great holiday - thanks for arranging our flights
Always available to answer any queries. Very professional, friendly and helpful.
A statue on Funchal's quayside of the footballer Cristiano Ronaldo has golden boots, hands and groin, the bronze buffed by the touches of adoring fans. I take hold of his right hand and have my photo taken.
The former Manchester United and Real Madrid player is Madeira's golden boy – the island's airport is named after him and here on the quayside is the CR7 (7 is his shirt number) museum, shop, hotel and café.
You can also have your picture taken inside, where there are models and a computer simulation of the great man, now plying his trade for Juventus in Italy. There are cabinets of fan mail, signed footballs, shirts, boots, medals and trophies. There are also detailed instructions on 'how to score a free kick like Cristiano'. I'm sure it'll come in useful, even to a non-football fan such as myself.
In the museum shop I note that you can buy mini replicas of his golden boot and Ballon d'Or trophies at the knockdown price of €80 per pair. In the hotel my travelling companion Kate is astounded to find that the door handles in the lavatories are shaped like Ronaldo's hands – put your hand in his.
Despite him plainly being the most famous person to come from Madeira, this, we agree, is a step too far.
Until Ronaldo opened his museum of greatness in 2013, the most quirky tourist pastime was being pushed by men in straw hats down the steep streets of Funchal, the capital, in a wicker toboggan.
The Portuguese island, 250 miles north of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic, has been named by the Association of British Travel Agents as one of the 12 hot destinations to watch. In its Travel Trends report, it says: 'The island is increasingly gaining a reputation for adventure and activity holidays, with mountain biking, canyoning and climbing in its dramatic landscapes.'
And indeed a short drive from Funchal we find ourselves surrounded by lush tropical mountains and steep-sided valleys. We decide to leave hiking along the island's irrigation canals, known as levadas, for a longer visit and opt to cover the greatest distance in the shortest time with a four-wheel-drive tour.
Our driver, David, is a talking encyclopaedia, barely drawing breath while pointing out the different types of vegetation on the steep terraced fields as he negotiates numerous tunnels and hairpin bends.
'On the right you see bananas, our main crop. On the left sugar cane, from which we make rum. We use the rum in the traditional poncha cocktails. Oh, look at the waterfalls. Winter is the best time to see them; it's too dry in summer.'
We emerge, slightly shaken, on the north coast. Here you really appreciate the rugged beauty of this small volcanic island. Its red cliffs drop straight into the ocean, occasionally giving way to a narrow beach of black sand. We stop to admire the scenery, and in Santana we stop to admire traditional A-frame cottages, some with thatched roofs.
The skywalk, a glass viewing platform at Cabo Girao in the south, is one of the best places to appreciate the dramatic scenery. In the north, less scarily, we have lunch on the terrace of the Quinta do Furao restaurant in Santana, noted for local delicacies such as garlic limpets, beef kebabs barbecued on laurel skewers, black scabbardfish in banana sauce and sweet potato bread. While we eat we admire one of the most stunning views on the island.
We burn off the calories with a walk in the restaurant's vineyard and lush garden, where there is a huge traditional grape press, the site of harvest celebrations in the summer.
Almost every restaurant we visit produces its own wine. The beachside restaurant of Faja dos Padres in the south is famous for its dark vintage that dates from the 15th century – and its inaccessibility. A cable car transports you down a steep cliff into its vineyard and garden. Mario Fernandes, a winemaker, claims that the soothing sound of the waves, and the classical music he plays while working, helps to improve the taste of his wine.
He tells me that Ronaldo's mother recently used the garden to film an advertisement for Madeiran bananas. 'Maybe it was these bananas that helped to make him so famous,' he says. I immediately eat one.
First published in The Times - April 2019
More articles below...
Not quite what you're looking for?
We can easily customise an offer to suit your exact requirements