BA outbound flights were not up to standard, inbound much better
My travel went very smoothly, couldn’t have asked for more.
We couldn't have wished for a better service. We were looked after incredibly well every step of the way by Daniel Webb. Our resort was beautiful, the transfers were managed well and we couldn't have wished for a better holiday. As regular customers of DialAFlight, we know we can always rely on you to provide a great service and lots of helpful advice.
Rupert and team were phenomenal. Thanks so much
Thank you Jason!
Justin was fabulous- personal touch, great communication - absolutely brilliant service
The best and only travel agent I use. Always a great deal, great service and very competitive. My agent is the best !
Perfect handling of my holiday from start to finish. Thanks again Ross for all you do.
The service was top notch help when need. Prompted about things that needed to be done. Out of hours service is a help in a pinch. Start to finish A1 service
Too many times airlines change flight times which happened twice to us. More pressure should be put on airlines to financially compensate for this. I can't fault DialAFlight.
Everything was sorted and worked like clockwork. We had the best honeymoon and didn’t have to arrange a thing.
Orlando was a star as always. From the original enquiry to just before we departed he kept in contact and made us feel that we were always in his mind. Great service from a very helpful employee
Fabulous holiday with room we wanted. Thanks as ever, Kylie. We had a great time. Not being a whizz on the computer, we found the Maldivian health online form a bit of a challenge. It worked much better on our phone, in the end.
Mark was very professional and gave us all the information that we needed for a successful and stress free trip
Very good service all round but it would have been really beneficial to have had our passenger ticket numbers earlier than the day of departure. This would have enabled us to check in online 24 hours before departure rather than on the day itself
Service was brilliant. Always updated when needed and contact with Niall was always quick and easy if we had any queries. Would definitely recommend and we will be using again to book our holidays
Amelia is excellent, always willing to help!
Had a great holiday, thank you for an amazing time
Not overly impressed with BA Premium Economy.
Great customer service
Arthur is the dream maker of DialAFlight
Yet another well organised holiday. Over 15 trips with DialAFlight and they never fail to deliver .
Troy Morris always does an excellent Job
Stacey arranged an amazing holiday for us!
Another wonderful trip organised for us by Eric. Can’t wait to rebook again soon!
Outstanding service from the outset. We had some difficulties due to personal reasons meaning our holiday had to change twice. Harvey was nothing put patient, courteous and professional. Out holiday was fantastic and went smoothly. I will definitely use again and would recommend to others.
John Huff arranged another perfect holiday for us. From start to finish he thought of everything. It’s so nice to travel stress free. The resort he chose was absolutely perfect. Big thank you's!
Over the moon with the experience from start to finish. We will definitely use you guys again.
100% perfect! Well done
Check in reminder for return flight would have been helpful but other than that DialAFlight delivered the goods yet again. Have been using them for over 10 years and their calm, professional and efficient service is always so much appreciated. A special thanks to Gino on this trip. It went like a dream in spite of some irritating last minute changes made by me.
We drifted with the current. Beneath us bannerfish, butterflyfish, snappers, spangled emperors and unicornfish flitted about. Turtles and manta rays were miraculously unafraid.
We glimpsed the occasional reef shark; a brilliantly-maned lionfish. Who could resist another little passer-by named the seal-faced puffer? My wife Penny and I are passionate snorkellers, and the Maldives are among the great playgrounds for our kind.
Every hotel amid the thousand islands scattered across the Indian Ocean south-west of Sri Lanka offers boats for watersports and fish-watching.
Through the glass floor of our villa set on stilts above the sea at the Lux resort on South Ari Atoll, we watched the octopus that lived in a heap of rocks ten feet below. Remind me not to be reincarnated as an octopus: you spend half your life waiting for lunch to swim within tentacle-reach; the other half hiding, to avoid becoming somebody else's entree.
Guests reach the Lux resort via a half-hour flight, itself a pleasing little adventure, on one of the fleet of floatplanes that services the islands.
South Ari is less than a mile-and-a-half long, and one of its joys is the absence of motor vehicles: everybody walks, rides an electric buggy, or bikes. As the place is dead flat, even pedallers of our age are unlikely to suffer coronaries, and we went everywhere on two wheels.
The four restaurants serve every kind of Western and Asian food. We rotated between them, especially savouring the Italian place's pasta arrabbiata.
The Lux's 400-odd guests are a three-way spread of British, European and Asian. Each evening we walked the length of the island's pristine beach, watching tables set for the honeymooners who opted for candlelit dinners on the sand.
We fell in love with Goni, the warm, tough, laconic boatman who took us out to the reefs. I had special reason to appreciate him, because I would never have made it back into the pitching speedboat without being heaved onboard by his brute strength.
Uninhabited escape
On our most spectacular day, we peeled away from our usual group to take a private 20-mile trip to an uninhabited atoll.
On the passage we trailed long fishing lines, and I took up a rod to bring in a 20lb wahoo. Then for an hour we snorkelled blissfully, without another soul or boat in sight. Once ashore, Goni and his boys barbecued the wahoo and a couple of snappers. Penny and I lay idling, revelling in the dazzling white sand and azure sea.
Lunch was a gastronomic triumph, though if I am honest, the heavily-spiced snapper tasted better than my own catch. In the afternoon we snorkelled again, then Goni bounced us home across the sea at 40 knots.
Penny and I agreed that the remoteness, amid so much beauty, placed that day among the best of any holiday we remember.
Paradise must be preserved
As wonderful as it is, or simply because of its beauty, there is reason to be anxious about this paradise. On our barbecue atoll, it was of great concern to see it hasn't escaped the global plague of plastic waste, with many plastic bottles beached above the tideline.
And much of the coral in the Maldives is in a bad way - a stark reminder of what we have allowed to happen to the planet on our watch. It again highlights that unless concerted and decisive, committed action is taken, our grandchildren are unlikely to experience a fraction of the natural wonders we have seen, either at sea or ashore.
The damage to the reefs will of course also affect the fish populations - sealife won't thrive if the reefs continue to become sterile.
On a couple of our boat outings, in search of the hugely popular, brilliantly spotted whale sharks, we decided to leave the area because we thought rather too many snorkellers and divers were entering the sea each time a whale shark briefly appeared and we didn't want to add to the number.
We adored our Maldives fortnight, and would recommend the Lux to anybody active enough to swim, bike, eat and drink: Penny had to be dragged away from the infinity pool overlooking the ocean outside our villa.
Those who love such things should head for the reefs quick… while some remain. And we should redouble efforts to make sure future generations can also enjoy such wonders.
First published in the Daily Mail - March 2019
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