Virtual Travel Tours: 10 Ways to Travel The World Without Leaving Home
With travel restrictions of over 200 destinations across the globe within the past months, we stay at home to be safe and healthy. This is such a heartbreaking situation for every wanderer as the flight is canceled and the hotel booking has to be postponed. But still, instead of being down about it, you can still have fun and keep exploring. Check out these 10 ways to travel the world without having to leave your home.
Virtual Travel: Explore the World without Leaving Home
1. Virtual Museum
When you love spending time at the museum but you cannot do it anymore because of the pandemic. Now, these are museums at your fingertips. Several famous museums around the world are offering free virtual tours.
This means you will be able to take a trip into the past, learn about culture, and appreciate art pieces from your couch. Here are the top 10 museums that you can explore right now from Google Art and Culture.
- The British Museum, London
- Guggenheim Museum, New York
- Musée d’Orsay, Paris
- National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul
- Pergamon Museum, Berlin
- Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
- The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
- Uffizi Gallery, Florence
- Museu de arte de, São Paulo
- National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City
2. Zoo at Home
You have seen the news about penguins were get off of their captivities and comfortably walking around the aquarium because we cannot go outside due to safety reasons amid coronaviruses.
Now more than at all times, today is the day to open your new experience with home safari. Apparently, numbers of zoos across the world are arranging animals live cams for interested audiences and animal lovers. Also, there are many options that you can bring the zoos to life in your own comfort at home with keeper talks as well as several kinds of virtual updates.
- Cincinnati Zoo
- Atlanta Zoo
- Georgia Aquarium
- Houston Zoo
- Shedd Aquarium
- San Diego Zoo
- Monterey Bay Aquarium
- National Aquarium
3. Mars Expedition
Too bored at home, or even too bored on planet Earth? Then leave for Mars! Access Mars with Google in collaboration with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is now your guide to the Red Planet.
With technology that brought virtual reality to the web, you can easily explore a 3D replica of the Martian surface recorded by the Curiosity rover. On the other hand, you will be able to take a look at NASA’s international space station through their website and view videos, images and see testing in action.
4. Theme Park Thursday
Disney launched Google Street View a series of 360-degree panoramas featuring Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World Resort locations. Disney fans worldwide can virtually enjoy the tour from Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Pandora – The World of Avatar, and the list goes on.
Pay attention along the way, you may run across some of your favorite Disney characters, just keep your eyes on the screen! And for the rollercoaster fans out there, do not forget to check out the front row POV of Incredicoaster at Disney’s California Adventure in Anaheim, California and the FROZEN Ride at Walt Disney World Epcot, and the good news is there are plenty more on Youtube!
5. See the Northern Lights
Everybody’s bucket list, capture the magnificent phenomenon of the Aurora Borealis or the Northern Lights now in your browser! Shout out to a live stream from Churchill Northern Studies Center and Polar Bears International that provides us real-time experience from one of the best places on earth to watch the Northern lights.
With their all-night live camera, you can witness and embrace the colored night sky without having to walk through the freezing snow.
6. The Secret Door
The Secret Door is a website that allows you to transport to some of the most fascinating places across the globe. Just open your desktop or your mobile, enter their website and push that wooden door with a golden lion door knock.
You will be taken to a variety of exciting places by random featuring options to take a closer look around or just go on to the next one. Who knows, one day you can travel to a lovely ice cream parlor and another day you will just visit a cat cafe in Japan!
7. 360Cities – Panorama Trips
Visit 360Cities website, scroll to the world map then choose the continent and the desired destination, and click to explore. You will take home travel to the next level with their worldwide community of expert VR photographers and the newly 360-degree videos.
They are not kidding by saying the world’s largest collection of stock 360° images and videos. Without having to leave your chair, you can incredibly explore underwater panoramas, aerial panoramas, or even panoramas of the imagination!
8. Board Game Travel
Highly recommended if you have some family members to spend time with. With travel-theme game boards, everyone in a family can travel at the same time. The adventure through board games does not mean you only having fun together but also learning and expanding knowledge of the world together.
Moreover, some travel board game has such a beautiful and aesthetically pleasing presentation that satisfy your home travel just like an actual journey.
9. Learn to Cook Foreign Food
This way you will travel by taste, smell, and a full tummy! You can find online recipes of foods from different cultures or grab a cookbook that focuses on world cultures or any international cookbooks. Brainstorming with everyone in the house of any places you want to go and set up a theme night every week for dinner.
Also, thanks to the internet, there are virtual cooking classes from celebrity chefs and local cooks around the world. Take a look at these amazing Italian classics from an 84-year-old Italian grandmother, Nonna Nerina. Worth noting is also the award-winning chef Gabriel Rucker and his recipes on Instagram.
10. Travel Through Movies
Many times, you may find yourself inspired to travel to some specific location or place because you saw it in a movie. At the same time, you get so excited when seeing such a landmark that you have been traveled to in a movie.
During this hard time of traveling ban, keep the magic of traveling alive with mind-blowing travel movies. With major streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV+, you can now embark on your journey with the travel-inspired movie lists below:
- Eat Pray Love
- Under the Tuscan Sun
- Secret Life of Walter Mitty
- Midnight in Paris
- Mamma Mia
- Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
- Sideways
- The Sound of Music
- Life of Pi
- Cast Away
We hope this article is helpful for home travelers out there. Just keep your wanderlust soul prepared because soon we will travel again. Let us know where is your destination or what your plan looks like!
