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I don’t think you could have helped more. We were very impressed.
Sadie Stallion is quite simply the best travel consultant I have ever worked with. She understands us, knows our likes and dislikes and provides us with informed recommendations that exceed our expectations over and over again. It is a pleasure to work with her as our trusted travel advisor.
Very approachable, flexible and accommodating with itinerary changes, suggestions and overall efficiency of the holiday booking. We had an amazing time and everything went perfectly! Many thanks
Another excellent trip! Thank you
Gordon is the man!
Charles and the team were fantastic from Day 1. Everything was perfect. Thank you for the transfers and the hotel recommendations. We had the best holiday.
Fantastic from start to finish. Finley made the process smooth and easy. Hotel was wonderful and they also upgraded us, so we felt really looked after. Great service from DialAFlight
Nicholas always gives us great holidays. We have passed on his email to friends. He is very friendly and excellent at his job and clearly loves what he does.
Kitty did a very good job of arranging our holiday without any fuss, getting back to me when promised and keeping us informed. Will definitely be using DialAFlight again.
Transfers from the airport were not included but DialAFlight did not tell us this, nor was it mentioned in the advert. We bought the package with free golf but the resort did not agree with this when we arrived. DialAFlight sorted this quickly.
Great holiday with support every step of the journey - thank you and looking forward to holidays in the coming years.
Ian was unreal once again, service delivered emphatically. Won’t fly Air Mauritius again though.
I have used DialAFlight and Lee for over 30 years for business and personal travel and the company has never let me down. Ist class service, competitive flight and holiday prices, no more than 5 rings before the phone is answered plus a 24hr emergency number if you do get into trouble (and it does happen). For end to end service DialAFlight is the company to call.
Marty was excellent. He managed to upgrade us for our honeymoon with the honeymoon package which was just amazing. He also suggested using the Gatwick lounge as we had our 6 month old baby with us and arranged for our transfer to have a car seat (which I only thought about last minute!). We would absolutely book another holiday through DialAFlight
Sugar Beach is one of the best hotels we have stayed in. A fantastic hotel. Food is excellent and all the staff are super friendly and welcoming. Bruce had organised transfers and they were there waiting for us and had children’s seats as requested. We had a superb holiday.
Kirsty always does her best to support our travel plans making sure everything goes smoothly
After years of working with Mason he knows exactly what I want and I trust him with all my arrangements
Excellent as usual!
Ian Newton was a great help - good communication, quick responses and very patient ensuring I got the perfect holiday
Sophie was wonderful when we had to rearrange our trip at very short notice. It was stressful, but having her deal with the airline and hotel was brilliant. Thank you for a fantastic holiday.
Liam Rush is knowledgeable, helpful and very professional.
Your follow up service and personal contact is very good. Keep it up!
Tristan was fantastic as ever
Lucas Moore has excellent knowledge - this isn’t the first trip he has organised for us. We are already in contact with him for the next one.
Patrick is brilliant. He listens to what I am looking for and goes above and beyond in terms of customer service.
We got very good advice. Our stay was perfect.
Fabulous attention to detail. Consistently great service
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Philippa was great. She made sure all our complicated bookings worked.
Sri Lanka is a destination of glorious, shimmering sandy beaches, enthralling wildlife and relics of ancient civilisations.
Serendip is the island's ancient name, so it can claim to be the spiritual home of serendipity - lucky discoveries by accident - and this is the feeling you get all the time here.
Hoteliers and the rest of the tourist industry on this beautiful teardrop-shaped island are keenly looking forward to welcoming holidaymakers back following the relaxation of Foreign Office warnings about travel to Sri Lanka after the tragic terror attacks at Easter.
On one of my early starts for an excursion, serendipity was seeing dozens of candles flickering in the dense dark outside a Buddhist temple. Then a schoolgirl in brilliant white uniform striding through the dawn mists along a levee between paddy fields, while an equally white egret paced daintily in the water.
Or an old lady, knee-deep in a swamp picking blue water lilies, the national flower. And everywhere, games of impromptu cricket, with a stick for a bat and a plastic drum for a wicket, on bare mud patches, in gardens, on roads.
The island’s unique subspecies of elephants are a vestige of ancient Sri Lanka. You can’t miss them.
My most memorable jumbo encounter was at the Uda Walawe nature reserve.
We watched in awe as an extended family ambled across our track. One juvenile pushed over a tree, just for fun, it seemed. Last across was a harassed young mother, sheltering a three-week-old baby.
You might see 200 elephants at the lake in Minneriya National Park, while the distinguished star in Yala National Park is the ‘prince of the night’ – the leopard.
The nearest thing to cool in Sri Lanka is its green and hilly heart, where tea plantations are a fascinating sight. Kandy, where the British beat the last king of Ceylon in 1815, still feels like a charming, antique outpost of empire.
It is dotted with guesthouses that recall Tunbridge Wells. The colonial throwbacks include a bus station clock that chimes like Big Ben. There are red King George V post boxes and immaculate old Morris Minors, Hillman Minxes and Ford Anglias.
I stayed at the Queen’s Hotel, all echoing wooden corridors and polished staircases. In the Botanical Gardens I found the tree that Queen Elizabeth planted.
In the serenity of the Temple of the Tooth, what is said to be the Buddha’s tooth is kept safe within the innermost of seven caskets.
Sigiriya is a quarter the size of Ayers Rock, topped with the 1,500-year-old fortress of the playboy King Kasyapa. He killed his father and surrounded himself with a crocodile-filled moat to exclude his vengeful brother.
I decided against the one-hour, 900ft climb to the top for the ancient frescoes and spicy graffiti.
Instead I strolled into the jungle that smothers the massive defensive stones at the rock’s base.
Huge, golden-green butterflies fluttered past. A strange symphony of birds burbled out of the trees – Sri Lanka has many wonderful avian species.
In a gap in the canopy I caught a flash of orange at the top of the rock. It was a Buddhist monk in his vivid garb. Yet more serendipity.
Most visitors stay on the west and south coasts where there's a growing choice of chic boutique hotels. You can book trips by coach or car (with your own private driver) to most parts of Sri Lanka. For short distances the ubiquitous motorised tuk-tuks are fun.
My advice is not to even consider hiring a car. Roads are an all-day adrenaline rush. You need an expert at the wheel to dodge the massive Ashok Leyland Tusker lorries painted with idealised landscapes, jam-packed buses and wobbling bikes with impossible loads.
The little station on the Colombo to Galle line close by my hotel felt like a slumbering country halt from 1950s Britain. Behind the ticket office’s narrow arched window, a clerk consulted his tomes and solemnly outlined my choices – I opted for a 90-minute trip in second class for about 50p.
On the platform I joined goats and men there just for a chat. We lurched off down the beautiful coast to Galle. Another epic rail journey is Colombo to Trincomalee, a city on the east coast.
First published in the Mail on Sunday - August 2019
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