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Duckwyn's Travel Blog
Become the author of your travel adventures


The $5,000 Trip Your Kids Won't Remember
Why family travel memories fade faster than you think, and the simple fix that changes everything In 2019, we took our kids to Italy. They were 13 and 11. We hit all the highlights: Milan, Florence, Pisa, Rome. The Colosseum. The Duomo. The Leaning Tower. Gelato on cobblestone streets. A few years later, I asked them what they remembered most from the trip. The Sistine Chapel? The Roman Forum? Tossing a coin in the Trevi Fountain? Nope. Their favorite memory was the Lego Stor

Chris
Jan 264 min read


The Night the Wall Came Down
For 28 years, East Germans were trapped. The Wall didn't just divide Berlin . It caged 16 million people inside a country they couldn't leave. No vacations to the West. No visiting relatives on the other side. Anyone caught trying to escape could be shot. By the fall of 1989, the pressure was boiling over. Thousands of East Germans had already fled through Hungary and Czechoslovakia, which had started opening their own borders. Massive protests filled the streets of Leipzig a

Chris
Jan 254 min read


Set-Jetting with Kids: A Guide to Movie and TV Filming Locations Your Family Can Actually Visit
Remember when your kids begged to visit "that place from the movie?" That impulse has a name: set-jetting - traveling to real-world filming locations from your favorite films and TV shows. And it is exploding. Set-jetting has become a potential $8 billion industry in the United States alone. Nearly 53% of global travelers say their desire to take a set-jetting trip has increased over the past year, and among Gen Z and Millennials, 81% now plan vacations inspired by movies or

Chris
Jan 1710 min read


DuckAbroad 2025: A Year of Discovery
2025 was a year of steady exploration at DuckAbroad. Every week brought new destinations, and by year's end, we'd added 57 new points of interest to the app, each one chosen to spark curiosity and help families plan adventures beyond the usual tourist circuits. The Numbers 57 additions across 6 continents 377 total destinations now live in the app 21 museums joined the collection, with a strong focus on WWII and military history 5 new cities opened up for exploration 23 d

Chris
Dec 31, 20253 min read


Kuelap: The 1,500-Year-Old Fortress You've Never Heard Of
Most people have heard of Machu Picchu. Almost nobody knows about the fortress that's roughly 900 years older. Kuelap, built by the Chachapoya "Cloud Warriors" in the 6th century, is now live in the Duckabroad app . Why Kuelap? Each of the fortress's three entrances narrows to a corridor so tight that a single warrior could hold off an attacking army. It's defensive architecture at its most elegant and the kind of detail that makes kids lean in and ask questions. The Cloud Wa

Chris
Dec 31, 20252 min read


The Future of Family Travel: Embracing Kidfluence in 2026
92% of families are traveling in 2026—but HOW they plan has changed. Discover kidfluence, multi-gen trends, and how to create trips kids actually remember.

Chris
Dec 27, 20258 min read


Visiting Chand Baori with Kids: India's Incredible 3,500-Step Wonder
Photo by Mustang Joe on Flickr Imagine a structure so geometrically perfect that it inspired the prison pit in "The Dark Knight Rises," and it was built over 1,200 years ago without modern technology. Hidden in the small village of Abhaneri in Rajasthan, Chand Baori is one of the deepest and largest stepwells in India, featuring 3,500 perfectly symmetrical steps cascading 13 stories into the earth. This is an ancient engineering marvel that solved a critical problem: how to

Chris
Dec 23, 20254 min read


New in Duckabroad: Castel Sant'Angelo
Photo by Henning Klokkeråsen We just added one of Rome's most fascinating landmarks to the app: Castel Sant'Angelo . This place has lived many lives. It started as Emperor Hadrian's tomb in 139 AD. Then it became a fortress where soldiers literally threw marble statues at attacking armies when they ran out of ammunition. Then a papal bunker with a secret escape tunnel to the Vatican. Then a prison that held philosophers and sculptors. Now it's a museum with one of the best ro

Chris
Dec 16, 20252 min read


When “Worldschooling” Becomes Real: What Families Are Learning on the Road
Photo by Jorge Franganillo on Flickr Have you ever wondered what happens when travel doesn’t stop at vacation? Lately, more families are choosing a lifestyle called worldschooling — living and learning on the road as they explore the world together. It sounds dreamy: new cities, new cultures, fresh mornings in different time zones. But sometimes it’s messy, hard, and deeply honest too. A thoughtful report published just yesterday dives into this movement with real family sto

Chris
Dec 15, 20253 min read


I spent the weekend vibe coding with Claude 4.5, here's what I learned
This weekend I took a departure from the work I typically do for DuckAbroad to see for myself the progress that is being made in the "Vibe Coding" space. Here's what I found. AI is supposed to handle the boring stuff so humans can do the creative work. This weekend, I experienced the opposite. Claude 4.5 did the parts I enjoy, writing code, designing features, solving architecture problems, and left me with a tedious cycle of test, copy, wait, repeat. And yet? I have a workin

Chris
Dec 8, 20254 min read
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