Alex Reynolds is an American travel photographer, writer, and solo female traveler whose work has been featured on Lonely Planet, BBC Travel, AP News, and more.
She’s scrambled up fortress ruins in Afghanistan, galloped horses across the Kyrgyz steppe, and motorbiked from Pakistan to France.
In between her trips, Alex blogs at Lost With Purpose to encourage others to do the same (responsibly), runs motorcycle and women-only tours of Pakistan, and co-owns a small sustainable hostel chain in Pakistan.
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Join us by this Friday with an Accomplice membership to hop on our first group call! It's a space to call in, ask questions, and be in community with like-hearted people.
Listen to the Episode
What you’ll hear:
- What it was like traveling to Chechnya
- What Gaza has taught the world
- Traveler or tourist: why Alex thinks it doesn't matter
- Traveling as a woman in the world of creepy men
- Does Alex still have faith in humanity?
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"I've had a lot of existential dread, asking questions like how can we fix this, and am I contributing [to overtourism and colonization]? At some point I realized that instead of freaking out about the bigger picture, I should focus on being a positive force of change in the circle that I have access to, because I cannot fix the world unless I become dictator and that's not going to happen." – Alex Reynolds
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Building a radically different hostel
What it's like working in Pakistan's Ishkoman Valley
- Building with natural local materials and traditional methods: stone walls, mud plaster, and local repurposed wood.
- Hiring 100% local people to get the job done—and their staff are 100% local, too. The land is leased from the local community, not purchased.
- Hiring women and paying staff proper wages year-round, unlike most seasonal hotels in the country.
- Buying local as much as possible.
- Building with the environment, not against it: relocating trees rather than cutting, using mountain streams to water the soil, and planting trees to reinforce the land against climate change-related floods and heat waves.
Check out our interview on YouTube →
Featured on the Show
- Follow Alex on Instagram @lostwithpurpose
- Read Alex's post on tourist privilege
- Follow Alex's Chechnya stories
- Check out Alex's Pakistan motorcycle tours
- Support the hostel with this GoFundMe campaign
“Most people are good and kind to each other when given the chance.” – Alex Reynolds
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Our first group call for Accomplice members is this Friday at 12pm EST!
Member discussion