Been booking with you for years now. So happy I found you all that time ago. You never let me down.
Gavin brilliant as always
Seamless from booking to landing, couldn't ask for more. Joey Verner is absolutely outstanding - 1st class - advises on and sorts all my queries and bookings in a jiffy, without any fuss
The Iberia check in was more complicated than the British Airways
As always great service from DAF
Fantastic as usual - particularly when BA cancelled flight.
Thank you for sorting out BA's mess so seamlessly.
Thanks to Sebastian for the efficient service that he always provides
As always, everything ran smoothly.
Your service was splendid but easyJet's was quite appalling and we were delayed 3 days only struggling back via Madrid and expensively, too. I'll be in touch for advice on how to deal with my claim.
Luke was excellent! An asset to your company.
DialAFlight excellent, poor service from Iberia. It doesn’t understand how to treat its business customers. Check-in, departure gates and onboard not attentive or customer focused. Wasn’t a great experience from start to finish, felt like flying economy. Perfect service from DialAFlight.
Everything went smoothly - good hotel and travel manager Brody was excellent
Helping an 80-year-old and not the best with modern computer technology was excellent.
Blair is so helpful- a pleasure to deal with. Will always use DialAFlight because of him!Many thanks
Superb organisation, great staff, outstanding service. Always my first port of call for flights.
Great trip. Hotel was excellent as was your service. Will definitely use you again and have already recommended you.
Everything you do always works well for me.
Will be using your services again
Larry's help and thoroughness was absolutely brilliant. I can't contemplate using any company but DialAFlight.
The help and advice we received from your team was invaluable. I will definitely be using DialAFlight in the future.
Excellent service every time. Highly recommended.
Always a pleasure booking through DialAFlight. Curtis is consistently on the case, always returns calls and always resolves issues. His team are brilliant too, wouldn't go anywhere else.
Very well done, thank you
I strongly recommend this service.
Worked perfectly
Spot on service
Todd was absolutely amazing, if it wasn’t for this individual the trip would not have been possible in any way. He deserves a promotion, the best service I have ever received in my life! Extremely knowledgable, quick and down to earth employee! Thank you so much!
Gino was my travel manager. I can not recommend Gino enough. He was absolutely fantastic, always helpful and polite despite my basic questions. I have no hesitation to either recommend DialAFlight to any friends or family. 10/10!
Excellent help from Cody and his team; great hotel recommendation and very well organised arrangements.
You've heard of parachuting and paragliding and quite probably parascending… but I have just discovered a new and very rewarding experience and it's called paradoring.
It involves driving around Spain and staying in luxurious accommodation in stunning, historic and elegant hotels.
There are 94 paradors in Spain, in extraordinary natural settings, full of history and culture, and including former palaces, ancient convents and medieval castles.
I was familiar with the south of Spain but had never explored the north and the central plains around Madrid, so this was my chance.
You can fly to any of the big cities, pick up a hire car, and plan a parador to parador route of your choice. I began in Santander, on the north coast, and managed to fit in eight on a round trip.
First stop was the parador at Fuente De, in a dramatic setting in the beautiful Picos de Europa mountain range with a backdrop of towering limestone peaks. A nearby cable-car will take you to the top where the views are awesome.
This is great walking country, but it's even better at the wheel of a car and the next day I headed south over the 6,000-ft San Glorio pass in search of parador number two, driving for several memorable hours on roller-coaster, winding, but perfectly maintained mountain roads, where you hardly see another car.
I hadn't planned to stop at Leon, but one look at the parador 'Hostal San Marcos' in the heart of the city and I quickly changed my mind. This former 16th century monastery has been converted into a living museum. If you can tear yourself away from these superb surroundings it's worth taking a tour around the impressive cathedral, which has some of world's best stained glass windows.
Still heading south, my next stop was at the beautiful old town of Salamanca, with its architecturally perfect square. It also has a fascinating Art Nouveau and Art Deco museum rolled into one. The parador here is comparatively new, has been refurbished throughout and is in a great spot on a hill across from the city.
Next was the charming walled town of Avila, where a former 16th century palace would be home for the night. Walking the sandstone ramparts and walls is memorable experience.
The parador at Toledo was also on a hill overlooking the old city, with views across the Tagus River. The huge cathedral is truly mind-blowing and the alcazar is something special.
I was close to Madrid now and took a train into the capital - 30 minutes later I was at the Prado museum.
Visits to several other art galleries dotted along the wide tree-lined avenues followed, before indulging in a boyhood fantasy with a tour of Real Madrid's famous Bernabeu Stadium, alongside hundreds of gelled hair Ronaldo and Bale clones.
I headed back to Toledo for the car and then on to Alcala de Henares and the next parador. This was a super luxury ultra-modern conversion of the magnificent 17th century St Thomas Convent.
After another superb dinner - all paradors are renowned for their imaginative local cuisine - and good night's sleep, I skirted Madrid and headed back north to Segovia and the penultimate parador. This was in another stunning location with great views of the city and its iconic aquaduct and alcazar, said to have inspired Walt Disney's trademark castles.
The drive up to my final stop at Argomaniz was across more picturesque countryside and along quiet roads. Argomaniz is a tiny village with the superb parador dominating the landscape - and I had a good reason for staying there. My teenage fantasies didn't only revolve around Real Madrid - I had always been fascinated by nearby Pamplona's bull-running festival and had promised myself to take part one day.
But as the years went by I had decided that, at my age, it was probably better to do the run without any bulls chasing me along the narrow cobbled streets.
So after a night at Argomaniz I drove the short distance to Pamplona and, with a dog-eared copy of Ernest Hemingway's Death in the Afternoon in my pocket, proceeded to run the course from corral to bullring without the risk of being skewered by a raging bull's horn.
After Pamplona I drove up to the pretty north coast, visiting elegant San Sebastian then stylish Bilbao for the must-see Guggenheim Museum experience, before hugging the scenic seaside roads back to Santander.
Taking a road trip and staying at these historic and beautiful paradors is a great way to experience the real Spain and one that will leave you wanting to go back time and again.
And bearing in mind the quality on offer, the great food and the fabulous locations, the Government-owned paradors also represent great value.
First published in the Mail Online - March 2016
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