Everything as good as I expected from DialAFlight
We are returning customers and have booked with Adam Siu over a few years now. Without doubt Adam is the best. We always have very specific requirements. Our first family holiday since the pandemic and he supported us throughout making sure we were comfortable with everything.
Superb service yet again.
Drew arranged everything perfectly. He provided several options for us to choose from that matched the exact criteria we asked for. His advice and knowledge was exceptional and the hotel we stayed in was exactly what we wanted. I have already recommended Drew
Philippa was outstanding. She was always there at the end of the phone line to answer all my questions. We had a wonderful holiday
Another great holiday organised by Darren and the team - couldn't recommend highly enough.
The seats Gavin got for us by the emergency doors were great.
We have been using DialAFlight for many years and they have always had the best customer service that anybody could wish for. My advice to anyone who has not tried them - is to do so - ask for Daniel Webb - and you will come back time and time again.
So impressed with DialAFlight. From start to finish Natasha went above and beyond to ensure we had the most memorable holiday. We will definitely be booking with you again.
Jeff Lee was amazing from start to finish. So helpful and knowledgeable. First time I have used DialAFlight but would highly recommend
Ryan always delivers on customer service, focus and care, used DialAFlight multiple times now and will not be looking to go elsewhere.
As always, Gavin provides us with the best service.
I've booked with you a number of times. Would and do recommend DialAFlight to everyone. Manny is brilliant.
Once again excellent service. Thank you Danny Sharma
Second holiday booked by DialAFlight and as usual everything went to plan. Big thanks to Stacey Rayner who has been excellent to deal with.
Incredible service
Great work as usual by my travel manager Oli de Bernier
Really valued pre-flight call to check all was well…..a reassuring gesture! Thank you for all of your help.
Superb service from Matt as usual. Attentive and great advice and guidance as well as delivering on yet another superb holiday. Looking forward to the next one now….
First class service as always. Very efficient. Austin and his team are awesome
I have used DialAFlight for many years. Rupert has been my contact mainly and he and the company are brilliant in all aspects including offering good prices.
Kempinski hotel in Muscat a big let down.
DialAFlight were amazing - keeping us updated with everything and helping us with all changes
I will definitely book with Tommy again! Everything went smoothly with no issues with flight, hotel and transfer. It was my first time booking with DialAFlight and the extra mile they went was faultless.
Great service and communication from Chris and his team
Les and Teddy - fantastic service as always - would not use anybody else
I have been dealing with Ryan for more years than I can remember and his service has remained consistently amazing. He is always looking for the best deal on flights and hotels and before I book anything he will always suggest a different day or time to leave or return if it will save me some money. Top guy!
Wonderful service. Lloyd could not have been more helpful.
Thank you Jordan our trip to Dubai to visit family went well. You never let us down.
Excellent service from Matilda and will continue to book with DialAFlight
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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