Jordan is very helpful and professional
We always use DialAFlight for our bookings and Adam Siu is always very helpful
Really appreciated the call a few days before we left
DialAFlight is unfailingly brilliant
Joe Orton is amazingly helpful. I rely on him for all my travel arrangements.
Philippa was very helpful and I particularly liked receiving a call a few days before our holiday. It was very reassuring
Excellent hotel and flight. Superb service as usual from Bradley. Very pleased.
It took us 45 minutes to come through passport control on our return to Stansted!
The very best service, always.
We've used DialAFlight many times and twice in this past year - both with Jessica. Excellent service and will continue to use and recommend
Great service, recommended flight went well, will use again!
Just brilliant all the way through
Easyjet had no food available going out or back...not great.
As ever Elizabeth was excellent and the service we received from DialAFlight was spot on. Thank you.....
Special assistance was excellent - flights both ways on time. Good service all round
Everything worked out fine.
Tara McConnell from DialAFlight, was extremely helpful. She listened to what we required from our holiday and delivered, at a competitive price. We have used the company before, and found Tara extremely approachable and responsive to our many questions. We are using them again for our next trip to Brisbane this year, and have no hesitation in recommending Tara and DialAFlight .
Although this booking was flight only I received the same level of excellent service and attention to detail that I receive when I've booked holiday packages. We later added an overnight airport hotel before our early flights and received an excellent rate better than the web
Thanks to Zoe - fabulous service!
Howard and Russell were great as usual. Anyone we speak to is always so helpful.
As always DAF delivered a great holiday and excellent service. Shame that BA are not the same though!
Excellent service. I have and will recommend you
Thank you again. You never let us down.
I am so impressed by DialAFlight service - they deal with “useless old ladies” brilliantly! So reassuring and kind. I have recommended to many friends.
Just a big thank you!
I used you for the first time and I was very happy.
They would not let me on the flight as I had filled in the locator form incorrectly. Had to stay the night and buy a new ticket. Grrrr
Thank you so much once again Sally for all your assistance in booking our holidays. Another great one for sure and everything went really well. Very much appreciated
Jet2 did well (first time with them) though we could not land at Madeira because of bad weather. We went to Tenerife overnight, all well arranged by Jet2. Hotel we used in Madeira we would not stay in again, but that was our choice.
During these unprecedented covid times it gave us peace of mind that we would be looked after. We will book again
The Pearl of the Atlantic, the island of eternal spring, a veritable Eden - these are all ways that Maderia has been described since its accidental discovery by some lost Portuguese sailors in the 13th century.
But there's one thing that keeps getting overlooked in the breathless reviews of this stunning island with its undeniably impressive flora and its jaw-dropping scenery of volcanic rims and craggy cliffs…Madeira is FUN.
The archipelago has a reputation as being a destination for the older traveller. The traveller who enjoys long walks, and beautiful scenery - and it retains this reputation with good reason.
Madeira's breathtaking gardens and walks along the levadas – trails beside disused mini-canals - will make anyone feel like they've escaped the stresses and strains of modern life.
But the island is also so much more than this...it’s a destination for families wanting to get away from it all, loved-up couples seeking solitude and girls' weekends of sunshine, spa treatments and evening cocktails.
It’s into this final category that we two intrepid travellers, myself and my friend Nicola, fell as we headed south from drizzly London.
Stunning scenery, lazy sun-filled days and long nights in the best restaurants and bars; this is the Madeira that we discovered during a whistle-stop break.
We had only a long weekend to explore - but by Friday lunchtime we were relaxing in extremely pleasant 22°C heat with sunglasses on and a glass of wine in hand.
The true beauty of Madeira is that it has such an unspoiled feel – even the busy cobbled streets of Funchal Old Town retain an atmosphere of being off the beaten track despite having been given a young and trendy makeover. We thirty-somethings really took a shine to the Old Town.
The recent Art Project Open Doors is a vibrant introduction to Madeira’s art and culture which sees the old wooden doorways of the back streets painted in colourful graffiti, a real case of 'street art'.
The streets are laden with outdoor cafes and bars and the alleys get more lively as the night wears on and locals come out for a drink. Rest assured, this will never be a full-on party town because the vibe here is completely different, more relaxed and less frenetic.
It is entirely driven by the people who actually live in Funchal who gather in the square around midnight at the weekend to drink a few glasses of the famous (and very tasty) plancha spirit.
There’s a mix of restaurants - some geared entirely towards tourists, but with a few gems with a great selection of local food and wine and a fantastic welcoming atmosphere.
We ate superbly at the Gaviao Novo where the specialities include swordfish with banana (interesting), flambé steaks with sauces and Roquefort cheese, and of course the ever present scabbard fish, which seems to be the dish of the day everywhere on the island but is very tasty despite its less-than-appealing name.
Our hotel - the five-star Quinta da Casa Branca - is an oasis. It's just a 20-minute drive from the airport, and a 15-minute downhill walk from Funchal town centre (and a five-minute taxi ride into town). It has just 26 rooms and is tucked away in a lush botanical garden filled with what seems to be Madeira's signature flower - the bougainvilla.
Every room has a pair of sunbeds on a small patio outside the room, and the pool never seemed over-busy.
There was an excellent spa, always a bonus on any holiday, and a tasty selection of cocktails and Portuguese wines served by the poolside.
The hotel also has a fantastic restaurant - Casa Da Quinta - considered to be among the best on the island. Each item on the Mediterranean style menu has a selected wine to match and is absolutely delicious.
It is here on the restaurant's terrace, while eating and drinking some of the finest produce Madeira has to offer, that we fully appreciate the hotel's stunning gardens and the hills of Funchal in the distance.
We had certainly found our own personal paradise.
First published in the Daily Mail - October 2019
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