Your calls always answered within 5 rings.
Ray Taylor was always very helpful and responsive to any questions. We had an amazing trip!
This was a fantastic holiday and adventure experience of a lifetime as well as a relaxing holiday.
The Lacto OVO vegetarian meal on Thai is not vegan. We eventually found a vegan option for the return flight to UK by ordering something like the European Vegan option.
Efficient team especially Joe Orton.
Jeff provided an excellent service. All transfers went smoothly and we were pleased with the price. We were let down by one hotel which was under construction on arrival and did not offer the services advertised. This was disclosed less than 24 hrs prior to arrival.
Molly was a fab agent to deal with. Very helpful pre and during the trip. Abbie also was helpful in helping me sort out flight delays and chauffeur contacts
Lauren, who dealt with our flights was fabulous. Nothing was too much trouble. The only downside we had was being told by one of Lauren's colleagues that we needed to pick up our bags in Bangkok. This was incorrect
While not everything went to plan, you managed to resolve these issues quickly and without fuss
Matthew was recommended to me. I would have no hesitation in recommending him to others
Assistance organised by DialAFlight was perfect
Brilliant service, would definitely recommend and use again.
Charlie and his team could not have done any more - can not recommend them enough. A big thank you
Absolutely stunning 3 weeks away, beautiful accommodations and everything ran to schedule. Couldn't have asked for better. Well done to Libby Mcgarry
Absolutely fantastic from start to finish (apart from delayed return flight). Many thanks to Elizabeth for her vast amount of help and support!
Thank you Leo Thompson-Persaud for going above and beyond to organise an amazing trip for us!
Not all flights were satisfactory and seat choice was not available on online check in so a bit disappointing
Everything went to plan, well organised.
Very good service from young Fraser as always
Matthew as always was great, thanks for your help
Everything went to plan - no fuss or worry. Excellent.
All went very well, thank you
Received regular emails throughout. Everything went like clockwork. Brilliant flight but did pay more for extra leg room which wasn’t cheap.
Saf Patel was outstanding. Service went above and beyond to help us.
Vinny does all my bookings - he’s always very helpfu looking at all my flight options and he always gives me a courtesy call the day before my flight
Rosie was with us every step of the way planning our trip. We had several hotels and six flights, so it was quite complicated. Her knowledge, advice and professionalism was very reassuring. I had never organised a trip with so many bookings involved and Rosie was brilliant. The trip was brilliant, the hotels were super and the flights all pieced together perfectly.
Excellent service. Many thanks
My trip went as planned thanks to DialAFlight.
Keep up your good work. I would like to thank you again for organising my last trip back from Bangkok and wish you all the best for the future.
We had a fantastic holiday in Vietnam. Marshall Finnimore arranged everything and it all went like clockwork. We did not need to worry about anything other than enjoying our holiday. We will definitely be using DialAFlight again in the future.
Keep up the good work - you never fail me
The evening slams into action with a long blast of brass. Ronell Johnson has swung to his feet and is squeezing every last bit of jazz out of his trombone.
Rickie Monie, meanwhile, is tinkling the ivories at frantic speed. I'd been told the Preservation Hall in New Orleans was the place to see live jazz, but never realised it would be as moody-blues as this.
All the local jazz legends have blown their trumpets here, from Punch Miller and George Lewis to Sweet Emma Barrett and The Humphrey Brothers. The Preservation Hall continues to attract the best acts.
FINDING THE MUSIC
Jazz is everywhere in New Orleans - in the bars, in the streets and in the psyche. This, after all, is the city of Louis Armstrong, who played his way to fame on the paddle-steamers that plied the Mississippi river.
This, too, is where the early jazz legends Buddy Bolden and Jelly Roll Morton once jammed through the night. Their local haunt, the Little Gem Saloon, has recently reopened and serves cocktails and food along with the music. Even those paddle-steamer river excursions still serve up jazz with their Creole cuisine.
PRESERVATION HALL
'Welcome to New Orleans,' whoops the compere at the Preservation Hall in a pause between acts. Welcome indeed. New Orleans has to be the funkiest city on earth, where the
streets are filled with buskers and the back-alleys packed with cocktail bars. They even have drive-thru daiquiri bars where - I kid you not - the daiquiris are sold by the gallon. A visit to Louisiana's most beguiling city ought to begin with a government health warning: this is a place that takes partying very seriously.
The wildest district is Bourbon Street, the setting for some of America's most outlandish clubs, strip-joints and cocktail bars. It's about as raw as it gets.
Women dressed in knickers and nipple-tassels parade the street touting for photos ($1 a snap) while men hang out in doorways drinking 'hand grenades', a Bourbon Street speciality that will blow your socks off. It comes in a yard-long vessel that's tinted green and shaped like a grenade at the bottom. The recipe is a guarded secret.
FINDING THE CALM
Apart from Bourbon Street's excesses, the rest of the city winds down to a gentler pace at around midnight. Then it's back to the hotel - in my case, the historic Maison DuPuy - where the party continues in the inner courtyard at a more subdued pace.
In 2005 Hurricane Katrina caused catastrophic devastation. More than 1,200 people died and 400,000 left homeless. An excellent (if sobering) exhibition in the city's Presbytère - a branch of Louisiana State Museum - recounts the horror as the levees collapsed and a tidal wave hit the residential quarters.
THE FRENCH QUARTER
The only part scarcely touched was the historic French Quarter, home to many of the oldest buildings, jazz clubs and museums. 'New Orleans is not an American city,' explained John, my guide. 'It's half European, half African. It's unique.'
Founded by the French, ceded to the Spanish, sold to the Americans and besieged by the British, it was populated for much of its history by slaves from Africa. Allowed one day off work each week, they would congregate in local parks and improvise the musical riffs of their African forbears. This was how jazz was born.
Jackson Square is home to fine museums: the 1850 Museum, the Cabildo - the old town hall - the Presbytère and nearby Gallier House, with a preserved mid-19th century interior.
In the French Quarter, head to the Gumbo Shop restaurant to sample typical New Orleans fare: shrimp Creole, seafood gumbo (a thick Creole soup) and deep-fried alligator (straight from the swamps surrounding the city).
COCKTAIL HOUR
But I'm in need of a cocktail and take myself back to Bar Tonique, which serves the best sazerac in town (New Orleans's signature cocktail: cognac, absinthe and a shot of local Peychaud's bitters.) As the sun oozes itself into the Mississippi, I down a couple before taking myself back to Preservation Hall.
There's no Ronell Johnson on tonight's programme. But local star Clint Maedgen is on the sax, and that'll do for me.
First published in the Mail Online - April 2018
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