Your calls always answered within 5 rings.
Fabulous holiday, beautiful resort, perfect in every way. Could not wish for better. Thank you Gareth and DialAFlight
Elliot was fab at sorting our trip
Michael very helpful
Seamless arrangements. Thank you
Thank you for your valued service once again. I always feel assured by DialAflight wherever I go and will continue to book with your company - one of true quality.
Once again Darryll at DialAflight and his team delivered what they promised. The flight, hotel and all other information were spot on.
Perfect. 5 stars
I had a wonderful time. Brought back so many memories. Thank you
Everything went well. I can recommend Blue Beach Hotel Waduwa. A lovely room with large balcony overlooking the garden and pool areas and wonderful sea views. Flights were OK but long journey. Thanks to Patrick and Liam
Saf, as ever, was amazing. Available, responsive, dealt with everything even our last minute room requests on a Sunday! Thank you so much!
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.
Couldn’t have been any better. Usual high standard. More than happy to recommend to anyone.
Excellent trip, everything went to plan. Thank you to Oscar!
5 stars
Nothing was a problem. We bonded through great rapport. Excellent service
Thanks to your helpful team, excellent service as always.
Roger found the best flight times as always Thanks, will book again soon
Our holiday was professionally planned and went very smoothly with all aspects (flights, hotel transfers, etc) delivered as expected. The DialAFlight app was a useful tool for keeping track of our itinerary details, with the temperature guidelines for our various stopovers a nice touch. Overall, great service and we will definitely recommend.
Very happy with the service, thank you
Great service, thank you!
Very grateful for your support
Always great service and options offered
Thanks Cody for all your help. Excellent service. Will defo use you again
I always know that I get the best advice on availability and cost from Dennis at DialAFlight - it is my ‘go to’ travel agent.
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
Chloe always goes the extra mile - would always use them and wouldn’t hesitate recommending
I would be reluctant to recommend Jetstar. Although cheaper, it fell short in terms of comfort and service.
Yet again Edward kept us informed up until the day we left, phoning several times to enquire and confirm things. Well done
A massive thank you to Deborah OliveiraSoares. She arranged a complex holiday to Sri Lanka, Singapore, Borneo and Kuala Lumpur. She very quickly picked up on the type of trip we wanted and worked out a fabulous itinerary. She found us amazing places to stay, booked flights and looked after all the details. Everything worked to plan - with Deborah's eye for detail we were looked after all the way. Unlike most travel agents I could always reach someone at DialAFlight easily and Deborah stayed our main point of contact throughout the many months of planning. We will definitely be using your expertise again.
Ho Chi Minh City, known as Saigon until the end of the Vietnam War, is a vast contradiction. Despite communist rule, its teeming residents are enthusiastic capitalists offering an Aladdin's cave of goods from tumbledown shops.
Whole families work night and day preparing mouth-watering food in thousands of impromptu pavement restaurants, providing the most delicious street food in the world.
As it happens, the last days of the city under its former name was recently highlighted in Britain, when Miss Saigon the musical celebrated its 25th anniversary with a nationwide cinema performance of the West End show.
In Ho Chi Minh City there is a wonderful range when it comes to choosing where to stay. Not-withstanding its ramshackle appearance, anarchic traffic and jumbled shops, the city has benefited hugely from investment in hotels from the former enemy America.
The colonial Saigon Grand Hotel has added a 20-storey new wing but I was happy to stay in the old part, for the atmosphere.
Similarly, one's spoilt for choice as far as eating and drinking is concerned. A good start is to whizz to the 20th floor of the Saigon Grand and get an outside table at the Terrace Café. Here you can enjoy a pre-dinner cocktail for 100,000 dong (about £3.50) and admire the view of the Saigon River far below.
For a sublime Vietnamese meal, you can do a lot worse than to book a table at Maxims in Dong Khoi Street, where you will feel more of a native. The trendy Vietnamese younger set congregate at The Deck on the west bank of the river.
Night markets
The city turned out to be some-thing of a shopping heaven too. A visit to the My Hoa Night Market on Cao Thang Road is an essential part of the itinerary. With 250 stalls lining the street there is an amazing range of cheap designer goods. But don't forget, you must haggle - even if you're a committed non-haggler, this is one time you must be brave and put on a good show.
A friend and I decided a pincer movement was the best tactic, so we joined forces to bring down the cost of three Mulberry purses to 2.2 million dong - that's £25 each. It was a fearsome display of no-nonsense negotiating.
Were the purses genuine Mulberry? What do you think? But they were certainly genuine bargains.
There are some unusual options available for getting about. One of them is to take a tour aboard a former U.S. military Jeep. The powerful vehicle seemed to scythe effortlessly through the extraordinary suicidal stew of motorcyclists.
Near the top of the list of what to see are the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Re-Unification Palace, built by the French. The latter became the HQ of the country's beleaguered puppet presidents that were installed by the Americans.
Nearby is the former U.S. Embassy, where thousands of terrified Saigon residents shook the gates, begging for entry as the last U.S. helicopters fled in 1975. The world looked on in fascinated horror at the images of desperate people attempting to scale the walls and fences of the embassy compound, as communist forces closed in on the city.
U.S. Marines held back the terrified crowds as helicopters took Americans and many Vietnamese who feared reprisals from the communist forces first to the airport and later to ships of America's Seventh Fleet in the South China Sea.
The capture of the city on April 30 was preceded by the evacuation of almost all the American civilian and military personnel in Saigon, along with tens of thousands of South Vietnamese civilians associated with the southern regime. The evacuation culminated in Operation Frequent Wind, the largest helicopter evacuation in history.
The contrast now in some parts of the city with those frantic days is poignant in the extreme. For calm and peace you should make your way to the Jade Emperor pagoda, where Buddhists offer incense, food and prayers.
And close by is the Vietnam War Remnants Museum, which provides a harrowing chronicle of the death and destruction inflicted on the Vietnamese.
Cu Chi Tunnels
It's possible, although those who suffer from claustrophobia should be warned, to explore the Viet Cong's tunnels. Viet Cong guerrillas hid and fought in a warren of tunnels just outside the city.
You can go underground and see how they evaded the might of the U.S. Marines. On display are the horrific man traps used to kill the enemy, including hidden pits filled with razor sharp pointed bamboo sticks. You can also indulge, if you wish, in target practice with M60 carbines and machine guns used in the war.
This is a city that has enjoyed a remarkable resurgence. But it is right that, while celebrating its vibrancy and warmth, its traumatic recent past should never be forgotten.
First published in the Daily Mail - February 2017
More articles below...
Not quite what you're looking for?
We can easily customise an offer to suit your exact requirements