“Travel changes you,” says Zinal Doshi, founder of ‘The Flapper Life’ — an experiential travel platform that is making solo travel possible for Indian women.

When she quit her 14-year-long banking career to launch a travel startup in 2016, Zinal was determined to create something of significance.

Conversations with friends and personal experience had led her to conclude that women were always “waiting for someone’s okay” when it came to travel.

“I realised women do not get to travel when they want to,” she says.

And so, driven by a desire to make travel a safe and enjoyable experience, Zinal started ‘The Flapper Life’ which is by women and for women.

The list of places that the travel startup curates trips to is endless, including destinations such as Nagaland, Meghalaya, Satpura, Ladakh and Tadoba.

But, as Zinal explains, it goes beyond just exploration.

“There is a certain power in women coming together. On these trips, we see a lot of sharing happen, and often these women return more powerful.”

While The Flapper Life has excelled at building a community of women who have each other’s backs, Zinal can’t deny it has come with its set of challenges.

“In the early days [of founding a startup], you have to play every role — that of a CEO, an accounts manager, a courier person, and this is easier said than done.”

But she adds, “You’ve just got to be strong enough to make sure that you are taken seriously by becoming persistent in what you want.”

Every trip is unique and women who have travelled with Zinal say the highlight is that it lets you break out of the confines of everyday life.

With 200 trips conducted so far across destinations like Bhutan, Meghalaya, Ladakh, Rajasthan, Chennai, Bali, Singapore, and Vietnam, among others, the bucket list is only growing wider.