Leisure Travel Advisor
Leslie has been sending people out into the world since 1990 — a career that started in Florida with two nights a week of travel school after work, because she wanted to take what she already loved and turn it into something she could give other people.
She began where a lot of travelers begin: the Caribbean and Mexico, mostly by ship. Then Europe pulled her in and never let go. Italy, Greece, France, and Ireland are where she’s deepest, and she’s walked Germany and Austria firsthand — Munich, Salzburg, Zell am See, and Rothenburg ob der Tauber, the walled medieval town that stole her heart. Closer to home: Alaska, Hawaii, and San Francisco (twice, and she’d go again tomorrow).
Ask her about the most extraordinary place she’s been and the answer isn’t the one you’d expect. Bermuda. After crossing the Triangle, the ship pulled into the prettiest harbor she’d ever seen — pink sand, two lighthouses, crystal caves full of stalactites, and moongates: limestone arches tucked into gardens and hotel grounds all over the island, brought back by a sea captain in the 1800s and said to bring good luck to anyone who walks through. That’s Leslie’s whole approach, really — the history underneath the place, and the detail nobody told you to look for.
Egypt is next on her list; the pyramids have been at the top for years, with Scotland close behind. Fall finds her in the mountains, and having grown up in Florida, summer will always mean the beach. When she’s not planning trips, she’s usually redecorating something.
A trip we planned
Bali, for a fiftieth birthday
Nicole came to Leslie wanting to mark Eddie's fiftieth somewhere they'd never been. Not a resort holiday — they wanted to see how people in Bali actually live, the markets and the daily routines and the culture behind the postcards.
So Leslie built it around three very different properties rather than one: Wapa di Ume in Sidemen, Royal Pita Maha above Ubud, and Soori Bali on the west coast. Each in a different part of the island, each with its own character. The last had the wow factor, and it was saved deliberately for the end.
The other decision was one guide and driver for the whole trip rather than a new face at every hotel — and that turned out to be what they talked about most. The pair took them to local markets and taught them how to bargain. At one attraction, one of them carried Nicole's handbag so she could climb freely. They answered every question about Balinese life, and there were a lot of them.
It was absolutely wonderful. It just kept getting better and better.
— Nicole, on returning home
Eddie put it more simply. The best trip they've ever taken.
