Your calls always answered within 5 rings.
Michelle and the team were very helpful and we will use DialAFlight again
Very prompt and professional service.
Everything went smoothly from first telephone call with Jane to the actual flight back home. Everything was as promised including assistance at each airport for every flight.
Everything you arranged was top-notch. Your communication was first class and kept us informed. Would have no hesitation in using your company again
Very easy to use, friendly, professional
Reggie was exceptionally good explaining and answering my questions. Very helpful with flight details. Would come back to you should I fly again.
Excellent service
Don’t book clients onto Aerolineas Argentinas. Everything about that airline (aside from the actual flight itself) was awful.
Our flight was cancelled unexpectedly. Airline did not keep us up to date. Contacted DialAFlight emergency out of hours and they were amazing. Sorted it all out for us, which removed all the stress and anxiety in a difficult situation! Thank you, will definitely recommend to family and friends.
Perfect trip. 5 stars
Very good responsive service, all emails were replied to, quickly and clearly. Thanks DialAFlight team!
Rebecca always does an amazing job with every trip I ask her for help with. A true asset to DialAFlight and wouldn’t go to anyone else.
Always helpful and patient. No query is too insignificant. A great company.
Excellent service. George was first class and gave us great confidence all would be good. He arranged assistance for my wife which was slick and invaluable. I recommend DialAFlight to everyone
Jane was brilliant and helpful and always quick to respond. Nothing was too much trouble
Fantastic help, communication and support as always. Many thanks especially to Philippa Wales.
Really appreciated updates.
Thank you for all your help
All great thanks.
As usual Stuart gave an excellent service. Our journey was seamless and worry free. Having the app to refer to was great. Thanks again - and we’ll be in touch soon to organise our next trip.
Excellent, the best travel agent!!
Excellent service - highly recommended
It's been a friendly and straightforward process.
Robbie Kharbhari excellent as always - reliable and sorted flights. Pleasure to talk to and got the job done!
Great service, thank you
I have booked several trips with DialAFlight and always had Ivor as my booking agent. Frankly, I wouldn’t use any other agency and Ivor is simply amazing. He has saved me a fortune in the past and always helps my wife and I to create bespoke travel experiences.
Always excellent service!
Quick service, prompt responses to queries. Would recommend
Air Canada were awful but love DialAFlight
My thanks to Tony Judge
Laguna Beach in the late 1960s was overrun with hippies. It was home to Timothy Leary's Brotherhood of Eternal Love movement, on a mission to spread peace, love - and acid - to the world.
The focal point was a gallery and bookshop that supplied locals with its famous Orange Sunshine acid tabs. Surfboards were filled with them, and on one occasion Laguna Beach was showered with acid blotter dropped from a helicopter.
These hippies and surfers became major-league suppliers of LSD, and achieved superstar status among the psychedelic movement. Doug Oyen, our guide during a morning hike through the canyons above Laguna Beach, shows us some of the caves where hippies used to hang out.
We couldn't wish for a better guide. Doug is the first of many people we meet straight out of SoCal central casting: laidback, suntanned, wraparound shades and long blond mane.
The trek is painfully steep at times but worth it for panoramic views of the beaches and towns fringing the Pacific. A late afternoon walk in Laguna Beach confirms its counterculture days are over. Forget the 1960s ethos of 'Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out' - today's buzzwords are 'Tone Up, Tummy In, Work Out'. LSD has been replaced by the yoga mat.
They're everywhere: beside Gucci handbags in restaurants; in shopping baskets next to quinoa and kale; or clutched under the arms of shoppers looking at $200 ripped jeans in boutiques.
On a stroll through Heisler Park we see a timeless SoCal sight: rows of surfers in the ocean, waiting for the big wave that will make them the envy of their friends. A long line of brown pelicans in V-formation flies just above the water.
We dine at Driftwood Kitchen, a fabulous new beachfront restaurant serving classic surf and turf.
We stay the night at The Ranch at Laguna Beach. Transport is by a golf buggy, or else in a cool 15-seat Chevy Stageway. Next day we head up the Pacific Coast Highway to Huntington Beach, where we're greeted by two giant inflatable swans in the new Pasea Hotel's pool, facing the large sandy beach.
In the hotel's Tanner's bar, the centrepiece is a large, twisting tree trunk with a canopy of hanging lights. Hearing our English accents, our waitress reveals she's moving to London to take a drama course. Later, a surferdude taxi-driver blasts out Brahms from the stereo: SoCal folk can be so surprising.
After heading further north to Santa Barbara, we eat delicious ice cream at McConnell's and wander along Stearns Wharf, where children jump off into the sea.
We're treated to a helicopter ride over Santa Barbara, and fly above the huge Clark Estate, home to a former copper magnate and, later, his reclusive heiress. We also spot Michael Douglas's place and Oprah Winfrey's house.
We stay at luxurious El Encanto, in the Santa Barbara hills, where actress Hedy Lamarr once lived. The accommodation is luxurious Spanish-style villas among palms and lemon trees.
Next stop is a little bit of Denmark: Solvang, in the Santa Ynez Valley. In 1911, almost 100 Danish settlers arrived looking for farming land and built what now resembles a Danish village, with windmills, bakeries and their own version of Copenhagen's Little Mermaid statue. We pop into the Solvang Restaurant, famous for aebleskiver, a traditional, spherical Danish dessert served with raspberry jam and sugar.
This is the heart of southern California's wine region - the celebrated Sonoma and Napa valleys are much further north. Downtown Solvang has many bars and wine-tasting rooms, serving wines from local producers. In The Wandering Dog, we're soon swaying on our stools but this is due more to the all-American sounds of Boston, Kansas and Don Henley on the music system than to the chardonnay, syrah and, of course, pinot noir.
Later, we drive up winding roads of Ballard Canyon to a vineyard called Rusack to taste its wines. When veteran American comedian Shelley Berman visited, he launched into an impromptu rendition of Que Syrah Syrah, which was met with delight from surprised guests. The estate's Marti Martin told him: 'You see, you're still getting applause wherever you go.' Who needs LSD when you have a good bottle of syrah?
First published in the Mail on Sunday - July 2017
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