Ashley Blake, Founder & CEO

Well hello traveler, I’m so glad you’re here! 

Let me introduce myself. 

I am Ashley, the founder of Traverse Journeys, a story that started in 2017 and involves a decades-long prelude of global ventures, entrepreneurship and academia. My experiences have taken me to 70+ countries across Latin America, Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. I work to leverage the transformative power of travel to build confidence, clarity and connection in daily life.

At its core, Traverse Journeys is a reflection of how my own life has transformed through travel. My path began when I was young growing up in the high desert of Central Oregon, adventuring in its natural beauty while learning about the world from my Danish grandparents who would send me postcards, stamps, and coins from their global travels. I started studying Spanish in high school, followed by German, Arabic, and Portuguese and today, Danish. 

Language was the first key that unlocked the door to culture for me. I then started finding other keys: food, music, art, nature. After obtaining my MA in International Studies and MS Print Media, I worked in concert and production before a travel job found me: Running festival tours in Spain and Germany and then sending me to China and Canada to host clients at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics - my first foray into the travel industry and foundational skill-building for what would later become Traverse Journeys.

I continued to dive deeper into culture through personal travels, work and academia. My undergrad thesis explored music in Costa Rica and I paralleled this subject in my Masters program, focusing on music for social change in Brazil. I then took off to South Korea to teach business English while simultaneously running a natural foods business (another story for another time!).

What I came to recognize is that culture is about getting curious and letting it challenge your own perspectives. I also began to observe how travel affected not just me, but those I encountered.

The restaurant owner in Marrakech with the most delicious eggplant in my life and the stories he told me about his organic farm that it came from. The sweet old lady in Peru who rented out her extra room in Puno and gave me oxygen and chicken soup when I got altitude sickness, fretting over me like I was her own daughter. The ochre reds of the Namibian sand dunes with skies so dark it looks like the stars spilled out of the heavens.

So as I look back to when I filed documents in Austin, Texas to create Traverse, the throughline of it all is connection: With the communities you visit, with the land you’re on, with the culture you encounter, with your fellow travelers, and - critically - with yourself.

It’s a dynamic dance between all these points of connection.

As Anthony Bourdain so aptly put: “Travel changes you. As you move through this life and this world you change things slightly, you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life — and travel — leaves marks on you.”

So on the job, I infuse everything I’ve learned from my travels and in leadership into Traverse itineraries, the myriad relationships we have on the ground with global partners, and with my incredible team. Without them there would be no Traverse. 

My free time is filled with much of what Traverse entails: Lacing up my boots for a hike, cooking up something globally inspired with local ingredients, dipping in the ocean where I live in Copenhagen, connecting with friends over a good cup of coffee, stretching out with a yoga session after a long run, or out foraging the season’s best. I’m also learning - like we all are! - how to rest and play more, strive and hustle less. 

“We travel, initially, to lose ourselves, and we travel, next, to find ourselves. We travel to open our hearts and eyes. And we travel, in essence, to become young fools again—to slow time down and get taken in, and fall in love once more.”

–Pico Iyer