Rachel Wong

Grief Trips didn't begin as a company. It began with a loss. When Rachel's father died in 2021, she found that the world had very little room for grief that lasts, and even less for grief that wants company. So she started writing about it, honestly and in the first person, and discovered she was far from alone.

That writing grew into Happy Grieving, a community of around 67,000 people who found each other through open conversation about loss. Grief Trips is what happened next: small-group retreats where grieving people travel together, do gentle grief work, and are met exactly where they are.

How she works

Rachel facilitates the retreats herself: six to seven nights, eight to twelve people, built around grief workshops, one-to-one support and real travel. A grief retreat isn't therapy, and Rachel isn't a clinician; what she brings is lived experience of loss, a community built on honesty, and years of holding space for people in the thick of it. Everything on a trip is optional, and no one is ever asked to share more than they want to.

Who facilitates alongside her

Rachel is joined on trips and in the wider programme by independent grief practitioners: grief yoga teachers, sound-healing facilitators, and resilience specialists including Blair Kaplan Venables of The Global Resilience Project, who co-delivers the six-month Happy Grieving Group online programme for people who can't travel yet.

Why she does it

Because the trips do something everyday life rarely offers grievers: dedicated space to feel, a small group of people who understand loss the way you do, and unexpected joy alongside the sorrow. Rachel started Grief Trips to make that space real, and to keep her father's memory in the work.

Rachel handles first conversations personally. If you're considering a trip, the easiest first step is a no-pressure discovery call or a quick application, which just starts a conversation.