Your calls always answered within 5 rings.
Everything was planned to precision and went smoothly. An exceptional holiday and service provided
I have been using your company for over 10 yrs and have no regret. Nice staff and good approach with listening skills.
Michael very helpful
Once again Darryll at DialAflight and his team delivered what they promised. The flight, hotel and all other information were spot on.
I had a wonderful time. Brought back so many memories. Thank you
Advise any clients leaving from BHX that they need plenty of time to get up to departure gates and through security. It was a shambles there on the day that I flew out.
Hassle free, thank you.
Always satisfied with service. Daniel knows exactly what is right for me and I appreciate the time he takes to help me through all the decisions. Wouldn't go anywhere else
Yet again Edward kept us informed up until the day we left, phoning several times to enquire and confirm things. Well done
You are so much better to book with. We appreciated the personal attention, the care, the way we could phone with queries as they arose. We will certainly recommend and use your services again. It is a joy to speak to your staff at the end of the line!
As usual. Fantastic holiday. Thank you Des for all your help and support arranging supporting and recommending this fabulous hotel.
As always I have nothing but praise for your service. I will be back and am also spreading the word!
Nicky made the whole process a breeze. Top class customer service.
Poor service from Etihad airlines on 2 of 4 flights tarnished this trip. Still awaiting a response from Etihad
Excellent customer service
Have been using DialAFlight for 20+ years. Always excellent service. Travis in particular is always so helpful and makes you feel you're his only client.
Thanks for the advice and guidance!
Billy has exceeded our expectations.
Great to have the pick up at the airport
Arthur was so helpful he went above and beyond to ensure we had a good holiday. Highly recommend.
incredible service as always. Thank you Dexter
Can not thank you enough for your wonderful service. I have given your number to my friends and family. Highly recommended
I had loads of issues due to flight cancellation but no fault of DialAFlight
It was 5 star all the way
Always recommending you to our friends
Helpful and dependable as always
Everything was great from booking our holiday to arriving back home. Special thanks to Helen Jones for taking care of it all, great job.
As usual, the whole process was made easy and we received excellent service from DialAFlight. Continue to recommend to everyone!
Kennedy is a pleasure to deal with and always gives us the best advice on the UAE products.
Many thanks to Ray Taylor for a very good, quick service
A BIT OF HISTORY
In his 1891 book Palms And Pearls: Or Scenes In Ceylon, Alan Walters highlights a 14th century Icelandic work which names Paradise as an island off India 'studded with flowers', which he believes to be Ceylon, renamed Sri Lanka in 1972.
And French author Hugo Victor is believed to be referring to Sri Lanka when he writes: 'Paradise is a spot in the Orient productive of all kinds of woods and pomiferous trees: it contains the Tree of Life; there is neither cold nor heat but perpetual equable temperature.'
Arrival in Sri Lanka, with the chaos of Colombo airport and the surrounding roads, seemed some way from that early notion of Paradise.
But once you reach the areas of natural beauty, you'll see why the Paradise description is so apt. There are 26 national parks in Sri Lanka, each one teeming with wildlife. I stayed at the Uga Escapes resort of Chena Huts, in Yala National Park.
A PLACE TO RELAX
The hotel is intimate, with just 14 luxury suites, and they're spread out to ensure maximum privacy.
A sign on the path to the hotel declared that an elephant had last been sighted here just three days before.
One lunchtime, we were enjoying a watermelon martini at the bar when four monkeys sat down just yards away. And on another occasion, we wandered down to the sandbanks below the resort and heard a huge crash. Turning around slowly, we came face to face with an elephant. He was unfazed, but we were overcome with emotion. It was one of the best moments of my life.
You might think that the staff would become blasé about living so close to wildlife, but they delighted in showing us photos of leopards, crocodiles, wild boars and elephants which had all meandered into the hotel grounds. The private suites at Chena Huts are similar to safari lodges: vintage camping lamps, a freestanding bath, a huge bed, colonial style rugs and - a safari essential - Nespresso machine.
There's a plunge pool in the garden of each suite, too - as well as an enormous, lagoon-like pool moments away.
Meals and alcohol are inclusive and you can turn up to eat at any time. And once you've tasted the Sri Lankan fish curry, you'll want to sign up for the cookery classes offered by the head chef.
At 6.30am every day you can set off on a safari tour of the park (or at 3.30pm, though morning gives you a better chance of leopard sightings). Driving through the park, you'll suddenly come to a clearing which looks as if you've been transported to Africa, with huge lakes covered with water hyacinths, and mountains looming in the background.
We saw toucans, elephants, leopards, monkeys and water buffalo - a fabulous experience.
Following our stay at Chena, we set off on a three-hour drive to Weligama, a popular surfing beach on the south coast. Here we stayed at Cape Weligama resort, perched on a clifftop.
The resort has an activities centre where you can take out surfboards, snorkels and paddleboards. There are also scuba-diving courses. I was happier sitting by the Moon Pool - an infinity pool fringed with palm trees where you can watch the surfers bobbing like buoys, waiting for the next big wave.
A VISIT TO GALLE
The nearby town of Galle is one of the most distinctive on the island. It features a 16th century fort built by the Portuguese. We had tea at the Galle Fort Hotel, the most chic destination on the coast.
Back in Colombo,Residence, another Uga Escapes hotel, is the
perfect sanctuary. It's a ten-minute walk from the Town Hall and near the
Gangaramaya Temple, so ideal for sightseeing. We sat by the hotel pool sipping
a gin and tonic and plotted how to return to Paradise as soon as
possible.
First published in the Mail Online - September 2018
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