Duckwyn's Travel Blog

Most lighthouses tower over rocky cliffs or sandy beaches. This one stands about 15 meters tall on a Venetian island, watching boats glide past centuries-old churches reflected in the lagoon. The Faro San Giorgio Maggiore lighthouse is the 52nd addition to the DuckAbroad lighthouse sticker collection. Built in the early 1800s near the church of San Giorgio Maggiore, it remains one of Venice’s most photogenic maritime landmarks. A lighthouse built for a floating city Venice do

Your family drives six hours to Zion. You park at the visitor center. Your kids ask what there is to do. You pull out a map with 47 numbered stops and vague descriptions. Your seven-year-old loses interest before you finish reading the first paragraph. Two hours later, you've seen three viewpoints. Your kids are complaining. You're not sure if you're missing the best parts or just hitting the obvious spots everyone else photographs. The park ranger said something about hidden

Your family's car winds up narrow mountain roads. Trees give way to glimpses of colorful towers. Then you round the final bend and there it is: a palace that looks like it teleported from a storybook, perched impossibly high on a rocky peak. Welcome to Pena Palace , where families trade flat museum walks for mountaintop exploration. This isn't your typical palace visit. It's an adventure. From earthquake ruins to royal retreat The story starts with disaster. The 1755 Lisbon E

Your kids can now collect Acadia National Park . The newest card in the DuckAbroad Travel collection celebrates Maine's coastal treasure. Acadia holds a special place in national park history: the first national park east of the Mississippi River and still the only one in the northeastern United States. President Woodrow Wilson established it as Sieur de Monts National Monument in 1916. It became Lafayette National Park in 1919, then was renamed Acadia in 1929. Why Acadia wor

You hear it before you see it. A low thunder builds in the distance, rolling through the trees. Then the mist rises, a shimmering cloud that catches the sunlight. Step closer, and the roar of Victoria Falls fills the air. Stretching 1,708 meters wide across the Zambezi River and plunging 108 meters into the gorge below, this natural wonder forms the largest continuous sheet of falling water on Earth. Locals call it Mosi oa Tunya, meaning The Smoke That Thunders, a name that

Imagine standing in the heart of the Canadian Rockies, surrounded by towering peaks and ancient ice. Banff National Park , established in 1885 as Rocky Mountains Park, is the oldest national park in Canada. By 1930, the Canadian National Parks Act officially gave it the name we know today. Here, families can explore some of the most impressive glaciers in North America. The park is home to several major icefields, including the famous Columbia Icefield, the largest uninterrup

Stand on the Yorktown battlefield where cannons once thundered. Walk the Jamestown shoreline where English settlers first landed. At Colonial National Historical Park in Virginia, your family traces 174 years of American history from fragile colony to independent nation. Two sites tell this story. At Jamestown, you see where it all started in 1607. At Yorktown, you stand where it was won in 1781. Together, they bookend two pivotal moments in early American history — colonial

Saxon Switzerland National Park, established in 1990, is one of Germany’s most dramatic natural landscapes. Located just south of Dresden, the park is divided into two sections within the Elbe Sandstone Mountains, an area famous for its towering rock formations and deep forested gorges. The scenery rises sharply from the Elbe River valley, where calm waters wind through the countryside, to rugged peaks that reach up to 556 meters above sea level. Families can explore narrow r

Here are 5 national parks in Iceland, Austria, Croatia, Germany, and Turkey that you should visit along with our recommendation for what you should not miss while exploring each of the parks. Göreme National Park    Göreme Historical National Park in central Turkey features soft tuff rock carved by wind and water over thousands of years. The rocky formations are connected by an ancient network of caves. Back in the 4th century, people built underground communities, including

Plitvice Lakes National Park is one of Croatia’s oldest and most breathtaking national parks, and it feels like something pulled straight from a storybook. Families come from all over the world to walk its wooden pathways, listen to rushing waterfalls, and explore a landscape that looks almost unreal. The park’s most famous feature is its chain of 16 terraced lakes, all connected by a network of waterfalls and limestone caves. As you move from lake to lake, the water shifts

If you’ve ever dreamed of stepping inside a land shaped by ice and fire, Vatnajökull National Park in Iceland is the place to go. It’s home to one of Europe’s largest ice caps, a shimmering expanse that covers nearly 8% of Iceland’s landmass. Imagine a frozen world so vast it hides volcanoes, mountains, and valleys beneath its surface. A Living Glacier Shaped by Fire Beneath this icy shield, volcanoes are still alive. When the heat rises, the ice melts at astonishing speed, u

The Terracotta Army is one of the most astonishing archaeological discoveries in the world. Buried in 210–209 BCE with Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China, this vast collection of life-sized soldiers, horses, and chariots was created to protect him in the afterlife. Each statue is unique, and their heights reflect their rank — the generals stand the tallest, while soldiers and archers are slightly smaller. Together, they form a silent army that once stood ready for batt

At 2:41 AM on May 7, 1945, German General Alfred Jodl signed the document that ended World War II in Europe. The room where he signed still exists in Reims, France. The maps are still on the walls. The chairs remain in place. You can walk into that room. The Musée de la Reddition preserves General Dwight D. Eisenhower's wartime headquarters exactly as it was the night Germany surrendered unconditionally to Allied forces. Standing in Eisenhower's headquarters The museum occupi

Deep below the streets of London, hidden under the Treasury building, sits one of the most important places of World War II: the Cabinet War Rooms. These underground rooms became fully operational in 1939, just weeks before Britain declared war on Germany. From that moment on, this secret bunker never slept. Down here, military officers, intelligence experts, and Prime Minister Winston Churchill worked side by side. They tracked enemy movements, planned strategies, and delive

Planning an unforgettable family adventure? California has nine incredible national parks filled with giant trees, otherworldly landscapes, and wildlife your kids will never forget. If you’re looking for a mix of nature, learning, and hands-on exploring, these parks are some of the best places in the United States to start. A few summers ago, we rented an RV and road-tripped our way through Sequoia and Yosemite with the kids — and it quickly became one of our favorite family

If you love visiting lighthouses , Boston Light belongs on your list. Located on Little Brewster Island in Boston Harbor, this lighthouse marks the first lighthouse station established in what would become the United States. The first light from this site began on September 14, 1716.  A lighthouse with deep roots The original Boston Light tower was destroyed during the American Revolution.  The current lighthouse was rebuilt in 1783 and is the second oldest working lighthouse

If you’re looking for rugged mountains, sweeping glaciers, and wild wilderness your family will remember, the North Cascades deliver in every way. Located in northern Washington, this dramatic region is home to the most expansive glacial system in the contiguous United States, making it a standout destination for nature-loving families.  Long before modern trails and viewpoints existed, Native American people explored and lived in this mountain landscape. Archaeological evide

Great Basin National Park lies along Nevada’s eastern border with Utah, in a remote and beautiful mountain-and-desert region. The park takes its name from the Great Basin, a vast arid watershed between the Sierra Nevada and the Wasatch Mountains, and offers your family a unique mix of high peaks, ancient trees, underground caves, and clear night skies.  All 63 US National Parks have their own unique badge to collect in the DuckAbroad Travel app. What to See and Do with Your

Channel Islands National Park is located off the coast of California, just west of Los Angeles. The park protects five of the eight Channel Islands and features rich natural beauty and deep human history.  Archaeologists have found evidence of human activity on the northern Channel Islands stretching back more than 10,000 years. On Santa Rosa Island, remains known as Arlington Springs Man were dated to around 13,000 years ago.  The islands were later home to the Chumash peopl

63 national parks in the US. Your family can drive to most of them. You can plan a summer road trip, hit three or four in a week, collect the stamps in your DuckAbroad Travel Passport. Then there's the National Park of American Samoa. You can't drive there. You need a passport (the real kind) to visit. Around 10,000 people made the trip last year—meaning you're more likely to summit Mount Whitney than visit this park. We just added it to the passport. And it might become your