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The help was there when needed. All the information was well presented and given in plenty of time. It made this first time, flying solo on a long trip, feel very confident.
Everything OK till Dubai airport on way back. Total mess, no organisation, no help. The airport can’t deal with a crisis. Just pathetic.
Can’t fault the service I received by Graham and everything went according to plan. It was great to get a pre-flight call from him to ensure we had everything in place that we would need. As it happened, we hadn’t so it enabled us to get the missing documents. But I would not choose to fly Air Malaysia again. On the other hand, New Zealand Airways was outstanding. Probably the best flight I’ve ever had and I’ve had a lot.
Yet again excellent service from the team at DialAFlight. Will definitely use again.
As always, DialAFlight have been excellent in organising our flights to Australia. Jordan Fell has usually been our contact and is professional and friendly but all agents we have spoken to have been great AND the phone is answered within seconds….always a bonus.
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Just keep up the good work. Impossible to fault you.
All went very smoothly. When I phoned Ruby from Brisbane with a query about my flight home, she checked immediately and phoned me back and confirmed that all was in order. Very reassuring. I will definitely use DialAFlight again. Very grateful.
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Everything was spot on. Good to know you could be contactable at any time. You responded to my query very quickly setting my mind at rest.
Great service from Ivor who kept us up to date with everything before we left. The app is great having everything listed. We did have a problem with not being able to check in with the airlines in New Zealand but think this was an airline error.
Always very friendly and very helpful - nothing is too much trouble.
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From start to finish the process was excellent. I've used DialAFlight a few times and i would definitely recommend
My only comment is to let people know there might be a terminal change at Dubai.
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Excellent service. Very professional and friendly. Good follow up customer service. Have already recommended to friends.
My travel Manager - Jackson - went over and above to assist and was first class
Dexter put together an amazing itinerary - very efficient but not rushed 17 day trip to Australia.
Another successful trip to Australia booked through Olivia at DialAFlight.
I have been with DialAFlight for 20 years and have recommended you to my friends. Keep up the excellent service
Very satisfied with your advice and attention to detail.
Perfectly organised and arranged which made for a wonderfully relaxed trip. We asked for assistance at the airport for my disabled brother which Karl Patel sorted and this worked like clockwork and was so helpful. Thank you and we will definitely use DialAFlight again in the future.
It could well be the emirate of which you've never heard. It's not far down the coast from Dubai - but in many other ways it's a world away.
Ajman is the smallest emirate (it's about two-thirds the size of the Isle of Wight) but has some wonderful attractions - lovely natural beaches among them. A handful of five-star hotels are dotted along its ten-mile coastline - and an increasing number of Brits are attracted here for a sunshine holiday that is both quieter and cheaper than the glitzier side of the Emirates. And believe it or not, its most popular attraction is a dusty museum.
I checked in at the five-star Ajman Saray, a Marriott hotel, which is right on the beach and boasts a spa, two pools, four excellent restaurants and rooms staring out to sea.
Dubai's glitz is on the doorstep
The top hotels here have free shuttles throughout the day to and from central Dubai 30 minutes down the coast, so all aspects of the Gulf are available - but at a very attractive price as far as luxury accommodation is concerned.
Ajman's beaches are white sand and shelve into warm water all-year round. The weather is bankably balmy – even December temperatures are about 20C.
Its malls aren't a match for the Gulf's glitziest, and its souks are not olde worlde, but it's friendly and laid-back.
When I go for a jog along the corniche, a one-mile seafront promenade buzzing with juice bars and falafel joints, a group of locals draw me into their game of beach football, then invite me for a juice afterwards. At the entrance to the creek, I haggle for a shimmering mackerel at the fish market and have it grilled over a barbecue on the quay.
I get chatting to my Yemeni mackerel-griller, Mubarak, and his mates, who ply me with enamel-dissolving coffee and photos of their kids. 'Why did you move to Ajman?'I ask him. He gestures to the sea and the sinking sun, and shakes his head in the international language for 'Why do you think?'
'It is a relaxed place, friendly,' he tells me. 'Not crazy modern,' his friend says.
Modernisation is inevitable
Not crazy modern, perhaps, but it's getting there – at least if Al Zorah is anything to go by. Wedged between mangrove and beach, it's a 1,300-acre villa, hotel and leisure development in high-end isolation across the creek from downtown Ajman.
Much of it is still under construction, but there's a wakeboarding park, a golf course designed by the Nicklaus group and a sleek new Oberoi hotel (with a 280ft infinity pool) that combines concrete and glass design with Italian textiles and Arabian antiques.
The beach here is long, white and empty, with a wild feel.
Wildlife in abundance
Better still, Al Zorah borders a 250-acre mangrove reserve, where I recommend doing the two-hour kayak tour in search of the 60 or so bird species that shelter here. At one point, a flock of flamingos blaze past in a fiery crimson flyby; later, as we paddle below twisting branches, a rare collared kingfisher zips past in the late-afternoon sun.
That evening, on a sunset dhow cruise on the same creek, my guide recounts Ajman's pearl-diving past, then opens an oyster and finds one inside. 'Keep it,' he tells me. 'Ajman welcomes you.'
In the end, I even fall for that dusty museum. For one thing, it's housed in an 18th-century fort, the oldest building in Ajman and home until 1970 to the emirate's royal family; for another, it has some fascinating exhibits, including an ancient Koran and Ajman's first car (a 1940s Land Rover owned by the current sheikh's father). But it's my guide, Tariq, who really swings it, clucking at the exhibits as if they were his grandchildren.
'I really love it,' he says, leading me through ancient teak doors into the oldest working barjeel, or wind tower, in the UAE. We linger, fanned by the cool air from the vents above. It is a moment of ancient, mesmerising peace. 'Wonderful,' Tariq whispers. 'Wonderful.'
First published in the Sunday Times - July 2019
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