Behind Les Journeys

I travel to eat.

Not in the casual “I love trying local food” way that everyone says. I mean, I have planned full trips around single restaurant reservations and gone back to a restaurant years later because I couldn’t stop thinking about a single dish.

I’m Leslie. Food is how I understand a place — through tasting menus and Michelin stars, yes, but also through the coffee shop I stumble into because it looks right, the local bar where I end up talking to whoever is next to me, the neighborhood spot I bookmarked six months ago when I discovered it while doing a Reddit deep dive. When I travel, I pick an area, start walking, and see what finds me. When you travel with genuine curiosity, people find you too.

But I do it all. The Louvre, Fushimi Inara, Xochimilco — the iconic things are iconic for a reason and I’m not going to pretend otherwise. The difference is how. Private tours, small groups, never more than a handful of people. No buses, no headsets, not feeling like you’re being rushed through a place on a conveyor belt.

I move slowly and intentionally — but there’s always something to look forward to on the calendar. A cooking class, a private museum tour with a local historian, a wine tasting, a market visit. Just not something every hour of every day. The best trips have breathing room in them.

I’ve spent years traveling solo, which means I’ve gotten very good at it. When I’m alone I immerse myself in a place — talking to the waitstaff at the restaurants and bars I visit, the local tour guides who show me around, the taxi drivers who take me places. That curiosity translates whether you’re traveling solo, as a couple, with family, or in a group. Because what stays consistent is the approach: boutique and luxury properties, the right restaurant over the famous one, and every detail handled so you can just show up and be present.

I’ve traveled trhough Japan, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Spain, Portugal, Costa Rica, and beyond — always eating, always curious, always looking for the thing that makes a place itself.

So, if you travel to connect, not just to see — you're in the right place.