EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14/CBS4) — For Alex Duhl, moving to El Paso was a cross-country leap of faith.

Three years ago, Duhl, her husband, their young son and two dogs packed up their lives in Ohio and made the 26-hour drive to El Paso.

“We came here for my husband’s work and just fell in love immediately when we got here,” Duhl said.

Duhl said the weather was one of the first things that stood out to her after coming from Ohio.

“The weather is amazing,” she said. “That’s what really spurred the want to move here, because Ohio’s not so much of that.”

Before moving to El Paso, Duhl had already started experimenting with travel content. She had a blog focused on traveling with children and had worked as a high school English teacher in Ohio.

After arriving in El Paso, she decided to turn her interest in travel into something bigger.

“When I got here, I kind of wanted to do more with travel and got more into social media,” Duhl said.

In October 2024, she changed the name of her account to El Paso Travel Family.

The idea behind the account came partly from something Duhl kept hearing about her new home — that there was nothing to do.

“I noticed anytime I would post about this particular area, there was this curiosity, like, ‘Oh, what’s there to do there?’ You hear the age-old, ‘There’s nothing to do in El Paso.’ And I’m like, there is so much to do here,” Duhl said.

Instead of simply telling people that, Duhl decided to show them.

She began posting about family-friendly activities, including a Monster Jam outing with her son and hiking around the Borderland.

“I did a Monster Jam tip because we were going there with our son, and then I did a hiking reel, and that kind of blew up,” she said.

That focus on experiences families can actually recreate became a major part of the account.

It was just really picturesque things to do and I think people saw it and envisioned like they could do that too,” Duhl said. “So we just really, I started to play off of that of like just seeing people like seeing us do the things.

Today, El Paso Travel Family has grown into Duhl’s full-time job.

The account is approaching 50,000 followers, and Duhl works with local businesses and brands to showcase restaurants, attractions and activities around the region.

“We work a lot with brands and local businesses and promoting their stuff on our page,” she said. “So we’ll go into a restaurant and showcase that.”

Duhl also creates seasonal guides for her followers, highlighting activities and places to visit throughout the year.

Her guides can include everything from water parks and patios to pumpkin patches and other seasonal activities.

The guides are free to her followers and can run dozens of pages.

“It’s usually like 50-plus pages of things, too,” Duhl said. “Whether it’s like an outing, a bucket list. It is a complete guide of things to do and then lots of local places to go check out.”

And her recommendations aren’t limited to El Paso. Duhl said road trips are another major part of the account, especially because of how many destinations are within a few hours of the Borderland.

“We do also do a lot of road trips,” she said. “That’s where we get a lot of the hate too, is like, ‘Oh, this isn’t in El Paso,’ because we’ll do like, ‘Oh, here’s this, this is an hour from El Paso.’”

But for Duhl, that is part of the point.

“We do a lot of road trips too and try to bring in that travel where the travel family comes from, because we do love that,” she said. “We love like going out camping and getting on the road and going fun places too.”

For visitors who have never been to El Paso, Duhl said she would start with food.

“I think the food here is amazing,” she said. “So definitely having kind of like a little culinary tour.”

She also recommends exploring local patios and getting outside — particularly in the mountains.

“You can’t come to El Paso and not go out in the mountains,” Duhl said. “It’s such a rarity for a mountain to just cut right through the city.”

For Duhl, that view is one of the things that makes El Paso different from other places she’s lived.

“It’s amazing everywhere you go, like you see the mountain,” she said. “I think you have to get up in there and see how beautiful it is because — and then just take a look at the city.”

From higher elevations, she said, visitors can get a sense of just how unique El Paso’s location is.

“You can see New Mexico, you can go over to Mexico, you can see El Paso, and you can really see how it’s really cool,” Duhl said. “It’s a unique place.”

Follow their Instagram account here.

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