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.