We know travel experiences can be 'luck of the drawer' but our experience with your company has been great.
Great trip.
Sally as always delivered our holiday plans perfectly. Can’t imagine doing what we did and booking with anyone else!
Very flexible in helping us make last minute changes - and always available to speak to.
I have used DialAFlight for many stateside visits. Stuart was fantastic at organising my bespoke itinerary
Will always use your service
Had a few issues with car hire firm which caused some inconvenience. We fed this back to car hire firm.
Once again Nathan Sparks and his team sorted out our flights and car hire to the USA. I’ve been using them for a number of years and they never let me down. They are very professional and nothing is a problem for them.
Excellent service as usual - as we have learned from the many years we have been booking with you.
Amy as always is a delight! Wouldn’t book our flights with anyone else.
Our original flight was cancelled after a 4 hour delay sitting on a hot plane. Calvin Ali was on the phone directly to me to make sure that alternative flights and hotel had been arranged for us. As usual, flawless service. And yes, I’ve made 2 further referrals to friends following our recent trip.
Requested a last minute flight change which was accommodated by your helpful colleagues. Many thanks to Mason and his team. 10 out of 10
Excellent advice and service - Tristan in particular was brilliant
Fantastic trip, excellent price. I’ve passed on your details to friends and family and would highly recommend
We have used DialAFlight for many years and have always had great service.
Fantastic service from Niall and his team, yet again. Would recommend them for flights. Best prices, no hidden fees and excellent customer service and attention to detail.
Have been using Sadie for 10 years - would never use anyone else.
The only major issue was the hotel in New York - The Manhattan at Time Square. The hotel was extremely poor and if we had been staying longer we would have asked you to change our hotel. Staff were extremely unhelpful and a promise of a refund of local taxes did not materialise.
Our holiday was lovely - we got married in West Virginia and honeymooned in Nashville. Just a small hiccup in the airport coming home but a good holiday, thank you
Very helpful when I contacted them and nothing a bother
Amazing holiday in great part due to the help and guidance given by your excellent Travel Manager, Gary Patel. We would not hesitate to use your services again - especially if Gary is there to help out! We will happily recommend you to friends and family.
We would strongly recommend using DialAFlight. Our itinerary to Canada and USA was complicated by our choice. But it was handled professionally and with attention to detail. Nothing we asked of Ethan and Conrad was too much trouble. Out of 5 stars l would give six
Special thanks to Hayley Hawtin who did the bookings for me. It was the third trip I’ve booked with her and she is the reason why I’ll come back to DialAFlight next time.
Great communication and support during our holiday.
Trevor Henderson came up trumps. Sofitel New York was superb - great room, excellent food, helpful staff and so very conveniently located. Our flights went like clockwork. All through the booking process and right before we left Trevor was in contact to make sure we had what we needed. DialAFlight don't just sell you a holiday, they usher you through an experience.
Sebastian is very helpful, my flights and stops were great and I’ve recommended him to family who also found him very helpful.
Thanks again to Jordan and Claire for a problem free holiday.
Superb service. Definitely would and have used again - take a few minutes to ring them you won’t be disappointed
Lucy was amazing organising our holiday. I will certainly use DialAFlight again
Very helpful when I needed to check stuff
We were in the Pump Room bar of a hotel on Chicago's Gold Coast, one-time favourite of the Rat Pack.
My friend Melissa, who has lived in the Windy City for decades, approached the full and large coupe of vodka martini with lips puckered. Her cocktail looked capable of stunning a bull elephant. 'Clint Eastwood was here last time I dropped by,' she said, casually.
We tripped into the night air and headed down to the junction of Rush St and North State. This is the apex of Viagra Triangle, where silver-haired 'manthers' with big wallets and young partners drink Napa Valley's grandest crus.
FIRST PORT OF CALL
'Let's check out Hugo's Frog Bar,' said Melissa. 'It's more French than anything in Paris.' She was right. I live in France.
'Hey look, it's JB Pritzker,' she said loudly, pointing at a portly 50-something sitting nearby. 'He's standing for Illinois state governor next year for the Democrats. He's also the owner of Hyatt hotels.' In a stage whisper, she added: 'He's worth $3.5 billion.' Two glasses of good sauvignon blanc came to $50, but Melissa coughed up before I had even fumbled for my wallet.
SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE
Chicago is the place to come if you are a food lover who likes sport, art, music and architecture. And bars. It's cooler than New York, easier to get around and, despite a reputation for violence, is one of the friendliest places on the planet.
After the Frog Bar and a stupendous dinner at upmarket steakhouse Maple & Ash, we went to Buddy Guy's Legends.
This is a sprawling cavern of a Chicago Blues bar where you could easily bump into Eric Clapton, Robert Cray or any number of big blues names. Buddy himself was playing to a full house. I nursed a pint or two of Guinness slumped on a barstool.
Above me were the Stratocast-offs of Keith Richards, John Lee Hooker and BB King.
Owing to jetlag I don't remember much after that, until waking up in the New York Life Insurance Building in the financial quarter. This elegant art deco early skyscraper was recently converted into the Kimpton Gray Hotel.
ARCHITECTURE
Built by William LeBaron Jenney, the father of the skyscraper, it's one of the finest buildings in a city whose architecture is more restrained and refined than that East Coast dazzler, the Big Apple (though Trump Tower strikes a jarring note on Chicago's otherwise elegant riverside).
Around the corner from the Gray is a very well-known location from many films, including the recent Batman films – the Chicago Board of Trade building, with its statue of the Roman goddess Ceres on the roof.
We later took a skyline helicopter trip, flitting among the rooftops, which put the scale and grandeur of the place into perspective.
Chicago rears up from the shores of Lake Michigan – from a swamp where Algonquin Indians grew onions and garlic.
Still a little jetlagged the following morning, I cycled the river path and then a short stretch of Lake Michigan before visiting the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the second-largest opera venue in the world (New York's Met is bigger).
It's a staggeringly grandiose palace of art deco and art nouveau, which opened a week after the Wall Street Crash. Maria Callas made her U.S. debut here. That afternoon, the echoey palace of sound was full of ghosts.
Down on the pedestrianised Chicago Riverwalk is the City Winery, beside the bridge made famous in the great car chase in the 1980 hit movie, The Blues Brothers.
A LOVELY END TO THE TRIP
The Winery buys grapes and makes its own wine, so Melissa and I shared a carafe before wandering across the river to the House of Blues, the music venue co-founded by The Blues Brothers star Dan Aykroyd.
It was pretty empty because it was mid-afternoon, but was still full of atmosphere.
After a delightful cruise on the vast lake and a spin around the Museum of Contemporary Art, it felt like my whirlwind trip to Windy City had blown itself out all too soon.
First published in the Daily Mail - February 2018
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