Last week we asked how many of you are using AI to plan your travels and the results were almost 50/50 between “Sometimes, for certain things” and “Nope, I’m old school too”.

Clearly, plenty of us still enjoy doing the digging ourselves. So we’ve been making it a little easier to do exactly that on TRAppe.

Our Explore Map now has new filters and a search bar
AND because many of you have been loyal readers of this newsletter, you’re the first to know we’ve just launched something new:

Group Trips & Retreats 💁🏻‍♀️

We’ve always had partners running them but with group travel becoming increasingly popular, it was time to give these trips their own home on TRAppe.

And before you ask... no, TRAppe isn’t about to become a group tour company. BUT I’d happily jump on one of our partners’ trips with you lot.

If you’d join me on a TRAppe community trip, reply to this email.
If there are enough of us... why the hell not? 🤠

xoxo,
Gabby & The TRAppe. Team

Listen in as our TRAppe. partner, Santorini by Maria shares how she navigates overtourism in Santorini, uses her local knowledge to avoid the crowds, creates experiences around what travellers actually want and explains why small, local operators deserve more recognition for the work happening behind the scenes.

🎧 Share your go-to travel playlist or podcast with us. Whether it's road trip anthems or deep-dive travel stories, we want to hear and feature what fuels your adventures.

🧳 Passport memories: One illustrator transformed her late father's passport into a series of paintings inspired by his love of travel.

🔴 Gotta catch 'em all: A handful of lucky Pokémon fans will get to sleep inside a human-sized Poké Ball overlooking a lake in Hokkaido, Japan.

🚗 Destination unknown: Hand over the itinerary and let locals guide you around the Faroe Islands on a mystery road trip.

💼 For job seekers: The Plant Native is looking for a fully remote part-time freelance Website Coordinator to help keep their website organised.

📍India
Website | Instagram

India is often experienced through its famous landmarks but Suitcase With Soul wants travellers to discover the people, traditions and everyday life that exist between the big-ticket sights.

Their tailor-made journeys are built around each traveller's interests, bringing together culture, nature, food and local life across India. You might meet artisans and producers, share food with local communities or learn about traditions passed down through generations, while still experiencing the places that brought you to India in the first place.

Founded by Anuradha after leaving a 15-year career with the United Nations, Suitcase With Soul brings together her love of travel with her experience in social change.

Local livelihoods are considered throughout the way each trip is planned, with small businesses and communities playing an important role in where travellers stay, who they meet and what they experience along the way.

Whether you're drawn to India's food, nature or culture, Suitcase With Soul creates journeys that give you more time to understand the places you visit and the people behind them, while helping more of what you spend stay within the communities you travel through.

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In this week’s What’s Hot & What’s Not, meet Matt & Jade, co-founders of Give Back Guide.

Give Back Guide is a growing directory of travel experiences, tours and accommodation, all of which have a positive impact on people, places and the planet. The free platform makes it easy for travellers to make small changes to their existing travel plans that benefit the places they visit. They currently have over 400 listings in over 60 countries, with more being added each week.

🔥 What’s Hot

Cabins on NightJet sleeper trains in Austria, lie-flat business-class-like beds on overnight buses, fare caps for buses in Scotland (and the fully electric fleet of long-distance Ember buses honouring the cap), social enterprise cafes (never enough of them), sustainable and ethical travel conferences (so good that our niche is finally getting itself organised), the rise in the number of tourist taxes (helps to solidify the message that communities should see and feel the benefit of tourists), supporting local and ethical businesses, leaving a positive trace in the places you visit.

❄️ What’s Not

Cruises (high emissions and a major contributor to ‘tourism leakage’ - https://giveback.guide/blog/tourism-leakage/), visiting countries just to add to the country count, extreme day tripping that involves a flight (only the individual’s follower count benefits), visiting a place without thinking about what you can do as an individual to make that place better.

🤫 Hidden Finds

📍Scottish Highlands

Dundreggan Rewilding Centre (@visitdundreggan)
An incredible organisation who’re returning huge swathes of land to nature

Ledge Climbing Wall (@theledgeclimbinggym)
Dedicated to using climbing as a therapeutic tool

Ness Islands Railway (@Ness Islands Railway)
A miniature railway whose profits go to Highland Hospice, a local charity

Want to get featured too? Drop your details here.

Curated stays and experiences around the world that are
kind to the planet and good to it’s people ✌🏻