Everything went to plan perfectly
Excellent service. Definitely recommend and will use again
All hotels/motels were fine with the exception of Redondo Pier Inn which was not particularly nice - rooms smelt of stale cigarettes. Thankfully only there for brief stop on road trip so no real impact. Appreciated being able to contact DialAFlight when we wanted to tweak itinerary whilst in USA - saved lots of unnecessary time in LA traffic!
We needed to make last minute car hire changes and they were dealt with swiftly with great communications. It was very reassuring knowing there was someone to help at any time of day
Ryan did an exceptional job and provided valuable customer service.
Everything was brilliant - thank you
Always helpful
Excellent choices of hotels for us in Boston, Napa and San Francisco. Thank you, a very good trip.
As usual we have been very happy with your service. We have recommended you to friends and family.
Great service as usual from Joe
Thankyou for all your help, particularly in negotiating a refund and sorting out a flight cancellation.
If everything had worked out as DialAFlight had planned the journey would have been seamless. Unfortunately British Airways managed to screw it all up again!
Very professional and helpful
Lily, everything worked very well.
I recommend them to family and friends. Noah especially goes out of his way to help me.
Everything worked out totally - Simon's suggestion to come home First Class was great!
Dont change anything
Another hugely successful trip organised by the very reliable DialAFlight
Excellent service as always
Superb customer service from Tristan
Very prompt, helpful and efficient! Could not ask for better service!
Ryan’s customer service was excellent as always. We’ll continue to book our holidays through DialAFlight.
Vinnie makes travel very easy .
Elizabeth is a superstar - if I get a day when she is off the other consultants always give me a higher rate and I have to push them to recheck or wait for her.
Great service - very professional and helpful
Fantastic as always
Thank you so much to Michael who was patient throughout the whole process
Andrew really helpful!
Excellent customer service, always prompt and efficient
As always excellent service from Noah
Sitting on San Francisco's famous Pier 39, sauce-stained children slurp huge bowls of clam chowder. In the background, Alcatraz's forbidding, mist-shrouded silhouette rises from the ocean.
The nearby gift shop is doing a roaring trade, churning out striped underpants and replica prison-issue toiletries bearing the tag line, 'don't drop the soap', all to a soundtrack of the pier's famous blubbery, barking sea lions.
WHERE TO FIRST
But the waterfront – with its many fresh crab restaurants – will soon look very different. The green-fingered team behind New York's urban High Line has now turned its attention to the Presidio – a beautiful, sprawling park overlooking the bay.
The tunnels burrowing through it will soon form the base of a spectacular, 14-acre park known as Tunnel Tops. When it opens in 2019, there will be beautiful views of the bay and meadows filled with fragrant wildflowers.
During 1967's Summer of Love, pier workers fought their way through crowds of garland-waving hippies who gathered here to shout about the Vietnam War.
THEN AND NOW
Now, more than 50 years on, hipsters have replaced hippies in Haight-Ashbury. A handful of psychedelic shops filled with tie-dye are squeezed between boutiques and organic cafes.
The closest encounter I have with a possible hippy is when I crouch down to take a picture of an enormous rainbow-themed piece of street art and accidentally disturb a dreadlocked local dozing in a doorway.
At Pork Store Cafe, a 40-year-old Haight Street institution famous for its huge breakfasts, I meet Amanda, a local, who tells me how the area's beautiful, Victorian, pastel-hued houses are being snapped up (and lovingly refurbished) by dotcom billionaires. She complains that prices have rocketed.
As I cycle towards the city centre, a smiling skateboarder shouts his encouragement and speeds past me – uphill. I realise his skateboard is battery-powered. I recall my chat with Amanda and wonder if it's Mark Zuckerberg or someone similar.
MOMENTARY ESCAPISM
On the recommendation of a friend, I stop by Hotel Zetta in downtown San Francisco. Since last spring, it's been home to the world's first hotel-based virtual reality room. It's free to try – those in need of a moment of escapism (without the mind-altering drugs) can simply walk off the street into the padded room and slip on the headset.
I do so and find myself standing atop a shipwreck, one of several colourful worlds to be explored.
VIRTUAL SIGHTSEEING
Neon fish swarm around me and when I turn around, I'm face-to-face with a huge, blinking whale. The next moment, I'm in a mountainous valley (apparently it's modelled on the landscape of Washington State).
Despite being just metres away from the rumbling trams, I can wander to a cliff edge and peer into a valley so deep that my stomach flips.
On my final night, I check out China Live, one of the city's newest restaurants. The walls are lined with hand-painted tiles showing local landmarks, such as the Transamerica Pyramid.
CHINATOWN
I sit at one of the communal tables and try jellyfish for the first time (it's salty, rubbery and delicious) with a potent, dragon fruit tea-infused cocktail.
Chinatown borders North Beach, a bay-side neighbourhood with a huge Italian community. I cycle home past Italian flags painted on lamp posts and delis blaring opera music.
In a nearby park, Chinese women perform perfectly choreographed tai chi routines near students making the most of California's decision to legalise marijuana. Suddenly, that Summer of Love doesn't seem quite so far away.
First published in the Daily Mail - May 2018
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