Your calls always answered within 5 rings.
When you’re paying lots of money for first class, it’s a poor show when you can't get your first, second or third choice of food. Lots of people were complaining. British Airways should do much better
American Airines had a a delay and I lost a connecting flight but all resolved in 3 hours.
First Class service and very personalised too. Thank you
Tommy Ellis was exceptional - he was patient, kind and very helpful when trying to book a flight following my father's death. I felt I was in the best hands possible during a difficult time.
Faultless holiday
Could have reminded me initially about different seats available e.g. premium economy as well as finding the cheapest seats.
Efficient as always
Everything worked out beautifully. Thank you, Lee.
Excellent booking service, unfortunately BA left one of my pieces of luggage at Heathrow and I got charged to get it to my final destination 3 days later! Not impressed...
Always there when you need them. Takes the worry out of travelling. Thank you
Joey was very friendly helpful and knowledgeable
The whole holiday was perfect - everything that was organised by youselves went like clockwork and we would certainly use you again.
I would not think twice coming back to use you guys - everything that I’ve requested was dealt with promptly and was clear in the email
Kept well informed
Christian and DialAFlight were very helpful and we had a great trip. Our room was not great when we got there but after 24 hours the hotel gave us a new one and after that it was fantastic. I would recommend DialAFlight any time. It’s a very personal experience and great help for anyone travelling around the world
A hassle free way to organise what was a fairly complicated trip.
One stop shop - everything on one phone call
DialAFlight are perfect partners for perfect holidays. We couldn’t imagine our holiday without DialAFlight.
After many years of being a client. You just get better and better. Keep it up guys. You are the best
Love DialAFlight. Daniel is so helpful and nothing seems too much trouble for him. We always book through him and he goes out of his way to find us the best fares.
Travel manager Katie Wallis was tremendous throughout, especially when a seriously delayed flight from Grenada to Gatwick meant we missed our easyJet connection to Edinburgh. One call and we were rebooked on a later flight. I have used DialAFlight over many years and have never been let down by their great service and professionalism.
Second trip booked by Ashley and again everything was organised perfectly. Great customer service from start to finish.
The person I deal with was excellent, friendly and very efficient.
Delighted with our first trip through you - already started the ball rolling for the next one.
Another great holiday through DialAFlight. Tony was superb and a great help throughout
Clear communication from start to finish. Excellent service thank you.
All good, app great addition. Thanks Sean for fantastic service
Five stars
Great advise and help from Darren Moseley
Excellent service from start to finish. Thank you to Erin especially. Very efficient and helpful. Will use and recommend to our friends and family.
Frankly, I was at the bottom of the learning curve when it came to Tampa. I had heard of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the local football team, but that was about it. Most British visitors to Florida make a bee-line for Orlando and Miami.
But the old pecking order is changing fast. That's probably why Virgin Atlantic, scenting a winner, is now offering direct flights to Tampa. Parts of the city are run down; public transport is pretty basic. Tampa has been up, down, up again, down again, like one of the rollercoasters in Busch Gardens, the family theme park to the north of the city centre.
But its overall trajectory is emphatically up. I stayed for three nights at the spanking new JW Marriott hotel, in the heart of Tampa, and had a blast.
The city combines the dynamism of 21st-century America with just a hint of old-fashioned Southern charm. It is quite a cocktail - and Floridians love their cocktails.
All around the sunlit bay, I unearthed parks and museums, terrific bars and restaurants, quirky neighbourhoods and, best of all, a wealth of history.
In its heyday, Tampa was known as Cigar City, thanks to Vicente Ybor, a Spanish born entrepreneur who moved here in the 19th century, bought up swampland, then lured thousands of Cuban migrant workers to join him. Soon Ybor City, as the area became known, was turning out more cigars than anywhere else on the planet. No longer, alas.
But I would not have missed Ybor City for anything. Like Little Italy in New York, or the French Quarter in New Orleans, it encapsulates the American Dream - beautiful but fragile - in perfect miniature.
After disembarking from a rickety old streetcar, I soon found myself in a rabbit warren of scruffy streets, some overrun with chickens, some featuring bars and businesses, both weird and wonderful. 'Save a horse, ride a cowboy,' read one sign. 'The only shop in Tampa where death and dysfunction dance a graceful ballet,' boasted another, with dusty skeletons in the window.
Should I risk it? Or play safe and visit the more sedate-looking J. C. Newman Cigar Factory and Museum? I played safe. I am scared of skeletons.
Newman is not just a world renowned company, but the last operational cigar manufacturer in Tampa. Watching highly skilled workers cut tobacco and hand-roll cigars with such loving care was a revelation.
Vicente Ybor wanted to build a community, not just churn out cigars. The 19th-century migrant workers were well housed, got a good education and, after work, met at a Cuban club, of which a local guide gave me a tour. It was built on a palatial scale, with a ballroom fit for a king.
Lunch beckoned - and what a lunch. The family-run Columbia restaurant has been a fixture in Ybor City since 1905. I have never had Spanish food of this calibre outside of Spain. Unable to decide between the grilled snapper and the shrimp and crabmeat casserole, I had both and was soon whinnying for more. Olé!
If Ybor City evokes Tampa past, Hyde Park Village, across the bay, embodies its future.
It's a substantial urban development, less than ten years old, beside a much older residential area - the sleepy pre-war Tampa of shady streets, rocking chairs on porches and tattered Stars and Stripes fluttering overhead.
There are no rocking chairs in Hyde Park Village because everyone is on the move: joggers, dog walkers, teenagers on electric scooters, friends snatching a coffee before repairing to their laptops. The village has already become a magnet for young people working in the creative industries. They hang out in shared work spaces and, after hours, meet at the sort of bars where everyone knows everyone else and the cocktails flow like water.
Want to watch an arthouse movie in a funky bistro? Here's your chance. Or eat excellent Italian food in stylish surroundings? Look no further than Timpano, another humdinger of a restaurant.
For lovers of museums and galleries, the new Tampa Riverwalk is another must, linking a string of visitor attractions, from the vibrant Tampa Museum of Art to the Henry B. Plant Museum, an oasis of tranquillity.
I had brunch at the nearby Oxford Exchange, a much-loved Tampa institution. Part cafe, part shop, the Exchange is a lovingly crafted shrine to books. They even present your bill discreetly folded into a dusty old novel. Class.
.
On my last morning, I had breakfast in Goody Goody, a retro American diner, then took a mini powerboat out into the bay.
The views were so thrilling that I nearly disturbed a nesting pelican just 50 yards from the general hospital.
My final port of call was Sparkman Wharf. Millennials in shorts and T-shirts sipped craft beer in refurbished shipyard crates, soaked up the sun and yakked about baseball, love and life without a care in the world.
It was hard to drag myself away to catch my plane home.
But isn't that true of all great cities? They leave you wanting more.
First published in the Daily Mail - November 2022
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