Your calls always answered within 5 rings.
The lounge used by Air Mauritius at Gatwick was a vast improvement on the dreadful lounge used previously at Heathrow. We were informed by email of checking in procedures. Everything went very well.
First class service as usual from Elliot
This was an amazing trip! Everything was beyond our expectations. We would highly recommend DialAFlight and have done many times.The Oberoi won the travel awards for 2024 whilst we were there as the best hotel in Mauritius. In our opinion, well deserved!
Mason is amazing - knows exactly what we require from our holiday and delivers - backed up by great customer service
Just perfect!
Fabulous service for fabulous holiday
Excellent service, thank you
Thanks for your help sorting out the new schedule after the unexpected airline change
Amazing holiday beyond our expectations. Troy was so right recommending the resort - can’t wait to go back!
I had been recommended to you and you did not disappoint. Excellent service - will definitely use you again and recommend to colleagues and friends.
Our first holiday in the Maldives was wonderful and everything went smoothly from start to finish.
Happy with the service I get every time. Theo is the best.
Kylie put together an amazing trip for us that we will remember for the rest of our lives. It was seamless from start to finish and I'd reccommend the service to any of my friends or family. A great success!
Thank you George
Absolutely brilliant, we will always come to you for a quote.
Arthur never fails to deliver the best holiday with attention to detail and a very personalised.service
Keep on doing what you're doing. It's first class
I have travelled with DialAFlight many times. I often deal with Orlando Spragg and his team. They are always extremely helpful, friendly and knowledgeable.
Bobby Tuggey was excellent - he worked tirelessly to help us on our trip
Tammy is just amazing, everything was SO perfect and I’m very grateful for her diligent attention to detail. Every trip is just perfect and she is over and above what I could hope for in a travel planner.
Roy Copeland was lovely and helpful, he went above and beyond to help us
As always excellent customer service from Kennedy and everything ran smoothly
Five star service
As ever, the service provided was absolutely first class
Good holiday thanks. Well organised by Taylor
Everyone is always helpful, always clear, and we had great trip all round.
Wonderful trip as always. Thanks for organising everything
We were extremely pleased with the customer service we received from Annabelle and her colleagues. Many thanks to everyone
Just the best service
Thanks Fergus... you are a gem!
Whoever wears a silk tie in the Caribbean? Prime ministers and funeral directors, perhaps - yet, here, in Gustavia, capital of the minuscule French territory properly known as Saint Barthelemy, they are on sale for £155 a pop.
Hermes, Prada, Louis Vuitton - all the designer stores have mini outposts here, lining Rue de la Republique like courtiers eager to impress visitors who step off the superyachts glistening in the harbour.
In the winter season, St Barths becomes a magnet for billionaires and celebrities, from Sir Paul McCartney and Simon Cowell to Pippa Middleton, whose in-laws, the Matthews, own the iconic Eden Rock hotel.
But this gorgeous island, classy and seductive, is also ideal for a pampering break for us mere mortals.
St Barths is a well-groomed and sleek island, where they heat the pools and chill the red wine.
Bizarrely, all the street names are in French and Swedish - so Rue General de Gaulle is also Ostra Strandgatan. This topsy-turvy isle was part of Sweden for almost a century - the only Caribbean island under Swedish rule for any length of time - and you can bet your woolly socks the snowed-in Scandinavians still rue the day, in 1878, when they gave up this little speck of paradise. France's Louis XVI had given the island to Sweden in 1784 in return for trading rights in Gothenburg - and Sweden returned it to France following a referendum!
Framed by bougainvillea and palm trees, the little church of St Bartholomew's delivers an amusing coup de theatre at noon, when its bells ring Praise To The Lord, The Almighty across the Gallic tin-roofs.
As far as the eye can see
From the Beach Club at the Hotel le Toiny on the island's Cote Sauvage you can spot a number of other islands. The hotel's English co-owner, Mandie Vere Nicoll, kindly gets off her sun-lounger to settle a dispute my wife and I are having about exactly which ones are visible - Saba, St Eustatius and St Kitts it turns out.
'This is my office,' says Mandie with a grin, pointing to a palm-roofed palapa where her little dog Gladys is standing guard.
And away from peak season, says Mandie, when the celebrities have moved on, can be the best time to visit - and it's easier to get reservations at the restaurants.
We hired a car, a tres sportif Mini Countryman, from a local firm - and found, admittedly, that driving was the only stressful thing here; think dodgems on top of a rollercoaster. Steep hills, sudden bends, potholes, goats, crazy Frenchmen.
The narrow roads are a Wacky Races of quad bikes, mokes, electric cars and scooters - plus trucks, vans and cement mixers as the island rebuilds after the devastation of Hurricane Irma in 2017.
There's little evidence of storm damage to be seen now, but it took St Barths more than a year to get its mojo back.
The majority of the island's 28 hotels have reopened, looking better than ever. A quarter of these are five-star, with lavish rooms and gastronomic restaurants.
Glamour and sophistication
If you're content with a big pool, but no beach, Hotel Christopher has a St Tropez-style glamour, while Hotel Le Toiny is quiet and sophisticated, with breakfast served beside your private plunge pool. If swimming from your front door appeals, Hotel Le Sereno is set beside Anse de Grand Cul de Sac, a lagoon with turtles, stingrays and richly-coloured coral.
Wherever you hang your straw hat, superb sands are nearby. St Barths is only ten square miles but has 16 beaches.
Colombier, Gouverneur and Salines are the stars, but when we arrive at the latter, it’s clear we’ve made a mistake.
I’d assumed there’d be all the usual beach bars, loungers and hawkers you find across the Caribbean, but non! Here, the glorious bay looks as unspoilt as it did in 1493 when Christopher Columbus named the island after his brother, Bartolomeo: a blaze of spotless white grains and turquoise waters with not a rum shop or boombox in sight.
Sheepishly, we head back up the hill in search of cold water and le pique-nique, marvelling at how the French have managed to create such a fabulous playground while still preserving its beauty.
First published in the Daily Mail - May 2019
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