How is it already the fourth week of 2026? 😳

Our mini guide is taking a little longer than planned, so this week we’re back to the usuals and we really appreciate your patience.

As a brand that believes in slow travel and doing things properly, we’re learning
to apply the same mindset behind the scenes too. We’d rather take a little more time than rush something we’re proud of.

The timing also overlaps with a big moment for TRAppe. Next Tuesday, 27 January 2026, we’ll be expanding beyond Bali and officially becoming a platform featuring sustainable travel options from around the world!

The past week has been a bit of a whirlwind, including an unexpected invite to my first ever live radio interview on Singapore’s main news channel to talk about where our travel money really goes (listen to the interview below 👇🏻)

The mini guide is still coming, just not rushed. Thank you for being here and for supporting a slower, more intentional way of building and travelling ❤️

xoxo,
Gabby & The TRAppe. Team

In this episode of Channel News Asia’s CNA 938 Rewind, Singapore’s main news radio channel, our founder Gabby dives into where our travel money really goes. The conversation unpacks economic leakage in tourism and why being more intentional about how and where we spend can make a real difference for local communities.

🎧 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.

📝 Travel rituals: Think hotel stationery is useless? Here is how you can turn forgotten notepads into meaningful travel souvenirs.

🚆 No reason for planes: Starting March 2026, you’ll be able to travel by train from Amsterdam to Berlin and Hamburg, from as little as €10.

🌍 What’s up 2026: From “readaways” and farm stays to slower, more meaningful ways of exploring, this year’s travel trends are all about depth over distance.

💼 For job seekers: JUST ONE Tree is looking for a 100% remote (UK) Content Creator & Communicator to help tell their story and build their community.

📍Alentejo, Portugal
Website | Instagram | Google Maps

In the rolling Alentejo countryside of Portugal, Craveiral Farmhouse feels more like a thoughtfully tended village than a typical hotel. 38 whitewashed cottages sit among organic gardens, orchards and open fields, inviting slow days, farm-to-table meals and a deeper connection to nature.

The farmhouse is the passion project of Portuguese lawyer Pedro Franca Pinto, who left city life to build something meaningful for his children and the land around him. His vision was to create a place where people, the environment and the local community thrive together and where hospitality leaves the region better than it found it.

Here, water is carefully managed and reused, kitchen and garden waste is composted, solar energy reduces fossil fuel use and native planting supports local biodiversity. Much of what you eat comes straight from the farm, while simple experiences like harvesting vegetables or cycling through the woods ground you in the moment.

Walk orchard paths, swim under the Portuguese sun and gather around wood fires as the day slows down. Craveiral is a reminder that when travel cares for land and people, it feels different and deeply meaningful.

This week’s gem was recommended by Greta. Read her What’s Hot & What’s Not real traveller of the week feature here.

In this week’s What’s Hot & What’s Not, meet Megan, a lifelong traveller who believes where your money goes matters just as much as where you go.

Megan is the founder of Sororal, a travel company bring fearless women together for curated group trips that leave a lasting impact. She’s happiest somewhere unfamiliar, asking questions, supporting women-led spaces and proving that travel can be both joyful and deeply intentional.

🔥 What’s Hot

Travel that centres women’s safety, dignity, and economic power. Choosing women-owned stays, guides, and restaurants on purpose. Learning the local context before you arrive, not after something goes wrong. Staying in one place long enough to understand it. Slow mornings, early nights and listening more than posting. Knowing how to say hello, thank you, and no in the local language. Travel that gives back in real ways, not symbolic ones. Being curious without being extractive. Letting a place change you a little.

❄️ What’s Not

Travel that treats women’s safety as an afterthought. Calling exploitation “authentic”. Checklist travel and brag worthy itineraries. Overtourism dressed up as discovery. Ignoring local women’s voices while claiming cultural immersion. Travelling “on a budget” at the expense of local people. Performative sustainability Instagram first, experience second. Pretending travel is apolitical.

Want to get featured too? Drop your details here.

Hook your friends up with Help! I’m TRAppe-d and score a free copy of our Bali e-guide! Just refer 10 people, and the guide is yours ✌🏻

Psst… want to see what all the hype’s about? Flip through the Bali e-guide preview, to get a little taste of what’s inside: 100+ curated stays, eats, and experiences that are kind to the planet and good to its people ✌🏻

Or refer just 1 buddy and gain access to our weekly updated TRAppe Travel Cheat Sheet.