Hi there! If you’ve landed here, you’re probably either a fellow travel lover looking for some tips on an upcoming trip, or you Googled “Dinkwads” thinking it was some awful derogatory new insult. Both are welcome!
Let’s start with the name, because yes, it deserves an explanation. DINKWADS stands for Dual Income, No Kids, With A Dog. That’s us summed up in a nice little acronym. My husband Beau and I have been together for 14 years as of 2026, married and traveling the world together for 10, and in that 10 years, travel became less of a hobby and more of a sustenance for life. It’s what fuels us throughout the year, always giving us something to look forward to. Oh, and there’s Duke, our dog, our mascot, and the reason we always come home from our adventures.
We aren’t travel influencers. We don’t do this full time, and we certainly don’t get any sponsorships to travel. We’re two regular people with regular jobs, regular schedules, and a genuine obsession with seeing as much of the world as those jobs and all of other life’s obligations will allow. One week here, two weeks there — we take every opportunity we get, and we’ve gotten pretty good at making the most out of the time we do get. If we’re not actively on a trip (and, let’s be honest, even when we are on a trip), I’m planning the next one, whether that means reading blogs like this, watching Instagram reels, reading Rick Steves’ posts, or starting my beloved, all-encompassing spreadsheet, even if the destination is just theoretical at that point.
This blog is for people like us. Not the ones who quit everything to travel indefinitely, but the ones squeezing two weeks out of their PTO and trying to make every single day of it worth it.
So what can you expect from Dinkwads Abroad? Two things, mostly. First, I’ll be documenting our travels as they happen — the planning, the reality, the highs, the inevitable “well, that didn’t go as planned” moments. Second, I’m going to do a rewind on the trips we’ve already taken over the past decade. We’ve been collecting experiences for a while now, and it feels like a shame to let those stories and tips just sit in our journals and camera reels.
In between the far-flung adventures, you might also catch a post about our home base, Kansas City. It’s long been called a flyover city, but it has a lot more to offer than people think, and we love exploring it (with Duke, whenever possible) and would love to share it with you!
More than anything, this blog is about sharing the passion. Traveling has genuinely changed the way Beau and I see the world, and we want to pass along whatever we’ve learned so others can see the world from a new point of view, and have some fun experiences along the way. Or just learn from our mistakes and not get stranded in the remote highlands of Scotland for a day. Whatever you’re looking to get from this.
So whether you’re here to plan a trip, scouring the internet to see if anyone is talking about that cool hole in the wall place you just can’t remember the name of, or just daydreaming for future adventures, settle in and subscribe to see where we’re headed next.
See you on another adventure soon!
— The Dinkwads (and Duke 🐾)
