When I got home from Washington D.C., my goal was to write something that would be useful to the Duffel community while giving D.C. its due for the effect it had on me.  The following was the result.

As a time-constrained D.C. tourist, power walking around and through as many historic and popular sites as possible in a short two day stint, I didn’t anticipate feeling a whole lot different - or less overwhelmed - than I did during similarly abbreviated stops in Paris or Rome, Buenos Aires or Lima.  I was right on one count: trying to see so much in so little time was overwhelming.  However, the feeling in D.C. was certainly different than during my past touristic adventures to other destinations in the U.S. and abroad.  The feeling was, in a word: patriotic.

Now, I suppose it’s not surprising, abnormal or a new concept that one would feel patriotic on a visit to his or her nation’s Capital, but I thought it would be useful to discuss how patriotism can enhance an event, trip or vacation.  For an example, look no further than the FIFA World Cup which is now in full swing, or the Olympics, or the Independence Day celebrations that take place in different countries around the world every year.  These events are wildly entertaining, popular and action-packed.  But the pride ingrained in them set them apart. 

The timing of my trip was ideal for keeping the next part of my post patriotic.  I guess that’s only fitting.  So, as the United States approaches the 234th anniversary of its independence, here are the top three events to catch/cities to visit on 4th of July this year - duffeled up and ready to go, of course:

The Boston Harborfest

A San Diego 4th

Independence Day in The Capital

Have a great 4th!

Duffel up and go!

Right from the start, the versatility and flexibility made possible by our Clip-it Bookmarker tool was a big part of what set trip planning on Duffel apart from other planning interfaces and tools.  When you use Duffel, freedom blends seamlessly with travel organization.  And the freedom to add-in pieces of your trip from anywhere on the web is brought to you courtesy of the Clip-it Bookmarker.  Well, the Bookmarker just got a shiny new set of rims and a supercharged engine.  Check it out:

Go to any page on the web and find what you want to add-in to your Duffel.  Highlight the important stuff and click the “Add to Duffel” button on your toolbar and Voila…the tool does the work for you and all the info is inserted.  It’s a huge time saver, and definitely cool.  And if you’re on popular websites such as Yelp and TripAdvisor, address gets auto-added too!  In the above screenshot, I added a dinner to Dante’s Kitchen in New Orleans to my upcoming duffel NOLA Jazzfest (I know, I know, it’s going to rock).  Once I click “add to duffel” in the clip-it window, it gets auto-populated onto my duffel’s corkboard like so:

[golf clap]

And there you have it.  Want to learn more?  Check it out.

Duffel up and Go!

With warm weather upon us, the outdoor event and festival season is about to kick it into high gear.  On www.festivals.com, there are over 1,600 different events and festivals happening between April 20 and August 30 (a random “nice weather” date range we picked).  And that’s just in the U.S.A. 

Festivals and other events with daily activities in different places at different times are a natural match for Duffel and can be a very useful supplement (or even primary go-to guides) to attendees.  We’ve had a lot of fun duffeling a couple big ones and a couple “smaller” ones so far, and we want to keep the ball rolling all the way through the summer here are a couple samples:

We’ve also got the Kentucky Derby, Coachella, and Earth Day Food and Wine Fest so far if you want to check those out too.  We’re going to put the pedal down and duffel up as many festivals and events - from around the world - for this season as we can.  You’ll be able to see them all on Duffel_Demo’s dashboard.

And, as always, if you have one (or 10) that you want to suggest, or if you’ve created one of your own, email evan@duffelup.com and we’ll feature it.

Have a great warm-weather season and Happy Duffeling!

We’ve recently added a new way to add activities to your duffel, making it even easier to browse and add great tours to your trips’ itineraries.

Now, when you click on +Activity, you will be able to select and add-in from a pool of 100,000+ popular tours in over 450 destinations around the world.

Of course, you can still choose to custom-design your own activity (choose the “from scratch” option), but the new wealth of ideas is sure to help spice up and enrich your trip planning experience. 

Check out the tours, duffel up and go!

In case you missed any of our users’ featured duffels this week, here’s the rundown:

Jesse’s NYC Trip showed how you can forgo the itinerary and simply lay out everything on the corkboard.  Making game time decisions on exactly what you want to do each day can surely spice it up:

Nizza’s 3 Weeks in the UK showed a great combo of using the corkboard and itinerary simultaneously:

Bkarman’s Berlingasm stood true to its name and packed tons of activities into the itinerary:

Viviana’s Santiago de Compostela Pilgrimage was our first foreign language Duffel and had the most awesome looking map view we’ve seen to date:

And finally, Becktheanglophile showed much love for London in an activity-packed duffel with a corkboard full of ideas:

Have a Duffel you want to share? Email evan@duffelup.com.  Duffel up and Go!

Daily Duffels are users’ Duffels (either future, present or past) that we feature in our online community because we think they look fun, interesting and well put together. To see all of our Daily Duffels, check our All Stars Page or follow us on Twitter.