Super service throughout, with the usual attention to detail. Thank you once again Gavin. Your service level makes me feel more like a friend than a client/customer.
Thanks Glen - excellent as always
Excellent service as always and looking forward to our booking for 2024
Very happy to recommend John - he is very professional and makes booking flights easy.
Complete peace of mind when booking with DialAFlight. All good
Thanks again DialAFlight for your knowledge and expertise. A great team.
Many thanks again to Jordan and team. Excellent as usual
Perfect service from the team expecially Richard Stumph, who went over and above for us two seniors. A big thank you .
Patrick sorted everything to his usual high standards and professionalism
Thanks Nadia and the team again. Always brilliant and professional.
I would like to take the time to especially thank Jarvis who booked the flights for 9 people. Some with different return flights. Marvellous work and a big thank you. Of course our organisation will definitely be using you again and again and will recommend you to our friends and family.
Excellent service again.
All sorted as usual and good communication
Jonathan Greaves was such a help to us and arranged everything we asked for. We flew Virgin and Delta and we found Virgin to be superior for premium economy. We had a wonderful holiday and would definitely use DialAFlight again
Try to find a different rental car company at reasonable price please.
Used DialAFlight on many occasions and have never been disappointed. Contact before, during and after our trip is polite and non invasive.
Kennedy is a wonderful successor to Marcus who looked after us for probably 10 years. I look forward to working with her in future
Our first time with Virgin Premier - would do it again.
Russell and Mason were both very helpful and handled any queries I had promptly and very well. Customer service was excellent and gave me real peace of mind both before we went and during our holiday. Everything went to plan. A great family holiday had by all.
Jackson Cowton was absolutely brilliant in sorting our flights and hotel stay. We call him every time we want to go away. He’s AMAZING.
Excellent service from Travis as always. Totally reliable and friendly at all times. Would and have recommended friends and family.
Excellent service from Callum as always
Have booked through Saf more than once and will do again. Excellent service from first call - very helpful and the best price all round. Great customer service
Had an issue but it was all sorted pronto. Excellent service
All top drawer service yet again from Tristan Chatburn.
Spent time looking at flights and different airports to find most economical route. Great communication.
As always excellent service
Everything was smooth - the only issue was the car hire was poor
Superb service as always. I would not go anywhere else when arranging flights and car hire. We very much appreciated the call before departure, nice personal touch. Darren was outstanding.
Unfortunately Virgin downgraded two members of our family on our return flight. We are waiting to hear back from them but it definitely put a negative feeling at the end of a lovely holiday
I've always longed to visit the Florida Keys because it sounds so romantic. I'm a huge fan of the 1948 movie Key Largo, which starred Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. And of course, the area has a strong connection with Ernest Hemingway - the author lived on Key West.
Fans still turn up in Key Largo every October for the annual Humphrey Bogart Film Festival. One highlight is a chance of a cruise on the fully restored African Queen, the original boat from John Huston's 1951 film of the same name starring Bogart and Katharine Hepburn.
Hemingway fans aren't forgotten either. The annual Hemingway Lookalike competition takes place in July at Key West bar Sloppy Joe's. An entire bar full of Hemingway clones sounds slightly frightening but each to their own.
My actor husband Trevor and I had long ago decided we wanted to visit the Keys, but never seemed to get around to it. However, a pleasure deferred is a pleasure intensified.
After our plane touched down in Miami, we rented a car and headed south. It may not look far on the map but from Miami to Key West is around 150 miles - a three-hour drive because the road isn't brilliant.
We were based at Sunset Key Cottages, reached from the Westin Key West Resort and Marina.
At the Westin we were ushered aboard a little ferry and whisked across to the amazing Sunset Key. It was a fabulous away-from-it-all place but had the advantage of the bustling delights of Key West on its doorstep.
NOSTALGIA
We immediately fell in love with Key West and its coloured clapboard houses. For many young Americans, this is a vibrant party town.
Main Street at night is a delight because so much goes on: music pouring from crowded bars and the occasional Hemingway lookalike waiting for his big day!
During the day there are several interesting places to visit. I enjoyed the Little White House, the holiday home of US President Harry Truman, famous for his remark 'the buck stops here'.
It was on his watch that atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki - the responsibility must have been immense. Another unmissable place is the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum. The writer lived here for ten years during one of his most prolific writing periods. The main attraction here is its 50 six-toed cats.
Hemingway was given a white six-toed cat by a ship's captain, and some of the cats who live in the museum grounds are descendants of that original feline, named Snow White.
There is also a good Tennessee Williams exhibition in Key West - the author had a home here for 34 years. It was in Key West that he is believed to have completed the final draft of A Streetcar Named Desire.
For most of the time, however, we were content to bask in serenity on our 27-acre island, which was a naval base before it was acquired by the Westin. It was a little piece of paradise.
ISLAND PARADISE
One minute we were in Key West, with its tourist bustle and huge cruise ships - the big Disney liners a particular feature - but when we crossed back to our island, all the noise disappeared.
We had an idyllic white-sand beach and azure waters. It was the best five days we've ever had. Sublime. Watching the sun go down is a big event in Key West - everybody stops to watch. And when it got dark we loved looking up at the stars.
After our Key West stay we drove back to Miami. We were staying in Miami Beach, at the very southern end of the resort. We met some really cool people.
One of my great pleasures was swimming in the ocean - so warm and silky. I'm a Liverpudlian and Liverpudlians have a special love for the US - Liverpool used to the main port for travel to America. Our city is where all the Cunarders used to sail from.
If you're staying in Miami, I would recommend dining at the fantastic Seaspice on the Miami River.
They serve what is described as a 'globally inspired menu' featuring a raw bar and dishes ranging from wood-fired casseroles to Dover sole and branzino, a type of seabass. The views over the city and the river are also very special.
A lot of people think that Florida means Disney World or the start of a cruise, but if you're prepared to search a little further you'll discover that there's much, much more.
First published in March 2017
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