Whew! I almost wrote that but then I changed my mind at the last moment since experience has taught me that Duolingo doesn't like us writing natural-sounding English. :-P
Why is 'near to' wrong when 'near' and 'close to' are accepted? I also agree that 'nearby' and 'close by' should be acceptable. Is there a grammatical reason for this or is it just that the Duolingo programme needs to be taught by its users?