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Sri Lanka Specialist, Colombo Office
Twenty-six years in travel have taken Nicola a long way, from a Nile cruise past Abu Simbel to her first snow in Switzerland and a camper van on Australia's Great Ocean Road. But the place that keeps pulling her back is Sri Lanka, and she brings the rare perspective of someone who has watched it change. Nicola first saw Jaffna during the war and has returned over the years to find it transformed into one of the island's most vibrant cities.
The trip that changed things
My favourite wildlife memory is a weekend camping in Wasgamuwa, tents pitched on a dry riverbed, meals cooked over a fire, and days spent bouncing through the park by jeep.
The magic came at first light, when we woke to a herd of elephants crossing the riverbed to drink, emerging quietly out of the morning mist. Heavy rain had turned the tracks to mud, so the jeeps spent about as much time sliding sideways as going forward, which only added to it.
“One life, live it.”
Honeymoons and luxury travel are where Nicola is at her best, along with trips for couples and families and holidays built around adventure and wildlife. Years of planning and first-hand travel mean she is quick to steer people towards the right choice and away from the wrong one, all grounded in deep specialist knowledge of Sri Lanka.
I have been lucky enough to travel widely, from Egypt, Italy and Switzerland to Cuba, the Caribbean, New York, Paris and Australia, plus a long list across Asia. Closer to home, I love the uncrowded beaches of Sri Lanka's East Coast and the cool, green Hill Country with its tea estates and slow train journeys.
The most remote place I have reached is Meemure, back before the road was built. Getting there meant crossing the Knuckles mountain range and going over Corbett's Gap. We camped on an abandoned tea estate, with nothing around us but old tea fields and the cold, clean mountain air.
It is the depth of local insight behind every itinerary, and the fact that it comes from living in Sri Lanka rather than selling it from afar. That means honest, practical advice on where to go, when to go and, just as usefully, where not to bother, with a better alternative whenever there is one.
Outside work I am happiest with family and a few close friends, whether that means flying off to catch a favourite artist in concert, finding a new corner of Sri Lanka, or simply a good meal and a cocktail as the sun goes down.
Nicola's address book
Off the record
From their travellers
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