In this episode of The Founders’ Odyssey podcast, hosted by Theodora, founder of Velout, our founder Gabby sits down to share how her journey across Singapore, Australia, China and Indonesia inspired her to create TRAppe. Filled with laughter, honesty and a healthy dose of humour, it’s a lighthearted conversation about some of the travel industry’s most serious questions.

🎧 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.

🎧 Walk this way: Explore European cities through local stories with this walking app that turns every street into a guided audio adventure.

🌱 The beauty of smallness: Travel writer Shivya Nath invites us to travel with humility, to become part of a story instead of its main character.

🌍 The other side: 80% of travellers visit the same 10% of destinations. Here are 5 incredible yet lesser-known places to add to your travel mood board.

💼 For job seekers: Questo is hiring a fully remote Growth Marketing Manager to help bring its city exploration games to millions of people around the world.

📍Flores, Indonesia
Website | Instagram | Google Maps

If you’re looking for a remote escape with jaw dropping rice field views and a stay steeped in local culture, Sun Rice Homestay in Flores, Indonesia is that place.

Run by Jeff and his wife, this family homestay embodies what community-driven travel should look like. Every experience offered here is powered by the local community, creating a ripple of impact that extends far beyond the homestay walls.

Days here begin with golden sunrise hikes over sweeping rice fields and end with shared meals alongside Jeff’s family. Guests sit together on the floor in local Manggarai family dining style, enjoying local vegetarian dishes cooked by his wife with ingredients fresh from the surrounding hills and farms.

This is community driven tourism at its best, created by the local community to empower the local economy.

Looking to book? Skip the booking platforms and reach out directly via WhatsApp through their Facebook page so your stay supports Jeff and his community in full.

In this week’s What’s Hot & What’s Not, meet Namrata, a designer turned storyteller, writer and content producer.

Namrata has spent the past decade working in the fields of crafts, slow travel, local culture, and conscious living in India. She began her journey as a craft-based entrepreneur from her home in Assam, in Northeast India, and is now focused on creating jargon-free narratives around travel, culture, and lifestyle. Through her newsletter Slow Ain’t Guilty on Substack and collaborations with like-minded brands, people, and communities, she explores storytelling at the intersection of communication, content, and creative solutions.

🔥 What’s Hot

Supporting small local businesses. Trying the regional food. Experiences led by local communites. Discovering culture and history through artisanal art & crafts (beyond museums). Community-first mindset. Respecting a region's culture. Living and interacting with people who call that place their home. Being respectful towards the local ecosystem. Exploring a place by walking, cycling or using local transport. Being a slow traveller.

❄️ What’s Not

Geo-tagging exact locations on social media. Revealing "hidden gems" on social media. Following sightseeing bucketlists to just tick boxes. Visiting a place due to a viral reel or only for backdrops. Counting the countries visited (Travel is not a competition or race). Looking down upon or being disrespectful towards local culture, food, lifestyles.

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.