Your calls always answered within 5 rings.
Ash Pankhania was excellent - he guided me through my options and worked quickly and efficiently to get me booked and on my flights. Communication following my reservation was also excellent and I will certainly book through you again
Everything went beautifully. Thank you.
Great service and a fantastic trip Lovely to have personal service and attention from Robert .
Thank you for a very smooth trip
The only problem we had was at Sao Paulo on the outward leg where we had great trouble getting boarding cards via Gol Airlines. I failed to do it on my phone and a girl at the desk took some time to achieve it too.
Had an issue with a flight from Salta to Buenos Aires being cancelled and moved so we would arrive at the estancia around midnight. But Rosie managed to get it changed to a morning flight which made the experience better as we would have had only a full day there otherwise
Manny and his team couldn't have been more helpful - including rescheduling a missed flight. I've used DialAFlight for many years, and friends I've recommended have also been delighted to find they offer prompt and friendly service. You can actually talk to one of the team 24/7, they are unfailingly helpful, efficient and nice.
Thank goodness for the 24/7 helpline. On a bank holiday Monday we had to reschedule our flights home. Out of ten other people doing the same our new flights were sorted in the hour. Others could not even get to speak to their agents! Imagine the stress when this situation occurs.
Everything went like clockwork. PERFECT.
Luke helpful as usual
Love Abbie!
Mollie was excellent. She did exactly what we asked, kept in touch and helped us with any queries we had.
I was going through a different agent who messed me around. I spent the weekend trying to arrange something with them having been told it was confirmed and then they told me they couldn’t secure the seat and I’d have to pay a different price. I called Bradley at DialAFlight on the Monday and within 15 minutes he managed to resolve my issue. The price I was given was 2nd to none and I was very impressed with his conduct and his after service. Thank you so much DialAFlight
Will be back if and when I fly again!
Thank you Gavin. Professional and honest advice and service every time.
Smooth process from start to finish - great work again and DAF remain my go-to travel agents.
Great service, thank you.
We were really impressed with every aspect of our experience and highly recommend Ethan.
Everything worked out perfectly
Edward Scudder is an asset to your company. Not only did he alleviate any worries I had. But his overall professionalism was fantastic. I’m advising friends and family to use DialAFlight
Very efficient!
Been with DialAFlight for a few years and always receive the best service. They are very helpful and responsible.
Tommy was fantastic - the whole trip ran smoothly and would definitely reccomend
Harvey and Abbie were brilliant... please tell them!
Keep up the good work and looking forward to my next travel with you!
Excellent support
Excellent, attentive, personal service
I wouldn't use anyone else to book our holiday/flights. From luxury holidays to daughter's gap year flights. Joe Orton sorted everything. He found us an upgrade to First Class and the BA service to Santiago was very impressive and was definitely worth doing as it's a 15 hour flight. But we flew back from Buenos Aires and the BA business class was very disappointing, as was the food. Very poor.
Marshall a superstar as always
Everything went well
The morning’s topic of conversation has turned to the strangler fig. The parasite in question stands there tall, defiant, wrapping its sinuous energy around the ironwood tree which has found itself the choking focus of its attention.
Five yards away, Irshad Mobarak breathes deeply and prepares to play devil’s advocate. 'In the business world, this would be fully understood,' he muses, arm extended, tracing the long shape of the arboreal aggressor to his left. 'Just think of it as a hostile takeover.'
A powerfully built man, well over 6ft, he says these words with a composure that is impressive for two reasons. The first is that, directly behind him, a five-star resort swimming pool shines in the 10am daylight, the sun-worshippers around its fringes listening as they lie on loungers. The second is that one of Britain’s most fabled botanists is his main partner in this discourse. David Bellamy nods quietly as Mobarak speaks. He knows this stuff, of course – but he's happy to hear it from a fellow expert.
'The strangler fig has a terrible image problem,' Mobarak continues. 'It can take up to half a century to kill its host. Yet it has a positive effect. It only picks on trees which are past their best, which are going to die. The death brings nutrients and renewal which benefit the surrounding ecosystem.'
This might seem an odd topic for just after breakfast on a warm Friday in a luxury hotel. But then, the Datai is no ordinary hideaway. It is slotted into thick foliage on the north-west corner of Pulau Langkawi - the tropical island in the north-west corner of Malaysia.
This is Bellamy's second visit to the Datai, having stayed 13 years ago when he was a speaker on conservation at the 2002 Asia Pacific Ecotourism Conference (Apeco). The two men forged an immediate connection – and Mobarak was meeting his hero.
'I grew up watching David on television,' he grins. 'I was weaned on his shows. When I was nine, my father asked me what I wanted to be. I recall pointing at the TV and saying "I want to be like him". His enthusiasm was infectious.'
Now 82, Bellamy still looks at nature around him with a fascinated eye and the jungle still holds great allure for him.
He is staying at the Datai with Rosemary, his wife of 55 years. Mobarak has been The Datai’s resident nature expert since it opened in 1993. The resort revels in creature comforts – 125 rooms, villas and suites; a small spa near the beach of powdery white sand; four enticing restaurants, including The Dining Room, where miso-glazed black cod is served under the tutelage of executive chef Richard Millar; and the Naga Pelangi, a grand wooden schooner, anchored and ready to take guests on genteel cruises in search of orangeade sunsets.
Mobarak's nature walks are popular and informative. An evening amble with the Bellamys has barely started before Mobarak spots a local character. The colugo is an odd beast – a winged mammal which seems to be a close relation of the bat, but is nearer in genetics to the primate clan.
Camouflaged against a tree trunk, she suddenly - Mobarak can even tell the gender - switches from stillness to motion, racing up the bark before spreading her wings and gliding some 50ft down to the next cluster of branches. 'I’ve only ever seen these animals in books,' Bellamy admits, with a broad smile.
On verdant Langkawi there are options for exploration further afield.
Mobarak joins the Bellamys for a voyage along the Kilim River, chattering with his childhood hero about the cycads – fern-like plants so old that dinosaurs used to eat them – that hang on the rock walls here, and the crab-eating macaques which dart down to the water to grab crustaceans. Above, a pair of white-bellied sea eagles swoop and soar.
The day’s crowning episode is saved for last. Gunung Raya rears up at the heart of Langkawi – a 2,890ft granite bluff, 204 million years old. Its peak is a fine spot from which to watch the sun go down, when some of its bird population are at their most active.
And so it proves, midway up the mountain. Mobarak calls the car to a halt and beckons its passengers on to the roadside verge. A group of great hornbills – brightly exotic birds, with extravagantly curved bills, common and colourful inhabitants of the Malaysian heavens – has gathered in the canopy.
As the light starts to slip, they take off one by one from their perches, floating without any perceptible effort across to a meranti tree with ripe fruit. There they dine amid a whoosh of wings as the entire flock flutters in.
On the ground, the two naturalists stare at the scene in raptures.
First published in the Mail Online - January 2016
More articles below...
Not quite what you're looking for?
We can easily customise an offer to suit your exact requirements