If you’re bored, stuck at home and just dying to go somewhere – virtual travel tours might just be the answer for now. A sort of staycation, if you will.
Whether it’s because of the pandemic and social distancing, or any reason, we all need to get away don’t we?
Plus if you’re stuck inside and actually not allowed to go anywhere, it makes the urge to escape so much worse!
Obviously most of us don’t or can’t be travelling all the time. So for the times that you aren’t off to somewhere amazing, virtual tourism *might* help tide you over until travel is a thing again.
So let’s try to fulfill our inner wanderlust from home shall we? From bed, outside, on the sofa… or wherever. (anyone else’s bum and back getting sore from all this inactivity?!)
Related Post: Things To Do While Social Distancing So You Don’t Go Crayzaaay!
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Keep Reading For The Best Virtual Travel Tours
Wishing You Were At The Beach?
Umm yeah… I think we’re ALL kind of feeling that way.
So here, let’s check out some amazing beaches – no sunscreen required.
Go mix yourself a tropical drink, light a beach or coconut scented candle and get comfy.
You’re about to enjoy a relaxing virtual reality beach vacation.
(Or… I’m not trying to kill your vibe – I promise! But you could, if you wanted to, kill two birds with one stone and work out while you travel virtually to the beach?)
Some of these beach virtual travel tours are pretty much made for jogging or walking.
They’re filmed along pathways so you can actually feel like you’re outside running by the beach, complete with all the beachy sounds you know and love.
First stop on your virtual reality beach vacation is… Hawaii!
1) Enjoy visiting some of the best beaches in Hawaii on Oahu:
2) Picture yourself at this incredible beach house on Maui.
Other amazing virtual travel tours of beach destinations are:
3) This 360 virtual tour of Curacao, a Dutch tropical island in the Caribbean.
4) Walk around the beaches of Florida here. You can choose your beach preferences, locations and the Florida Beach Finder will show you your recommended results.
5) Get super chill at the beach for a couple of hours in the Dominican Republic.
6) Just imagine yourself on your own private island in the Maldives.
7) Go for a walk along Patong Beach in Phuket, Thailand, immersing yourself in the atmosphere of it all.
8) Kick back and relax to the soothing sights and sounds of waves crashing at your feet in mexico.
9) Or watch the sun rising from another beach in Mexico on the Mayan Riviera.
Virtual reality beach vacations aren’t actually seeming that bad – right?
Visit Australia – Despite Your Cancelled Trip
I know, it’s not the same.
Maybe you had your trip completely planned out and were all ready to go. Then, suddenly your plans were kiboshed and now it’s all up in the air (the plans, not you sadly) indefinitely (*ahem* pandemic).
So fun.
But anyhoo, now you can visit the land of Aus from your bed – or wherever you like.
Preferably sitting outside with the sun shining would be nice, no?
Who knows – you might even find some new places or things you’ll want to see when you’re able to travel again.
1) Visit Hamilton Island in Queensland in this 360 degree virtual reality video.
PS. Don’t forget to grab the video with your curser to get the full 360 degree view!
2) Check out more of the eastern side of Australia in this virtual tour.
3) See the Sydney Opera House in 360 degree virtual reality – complete with music from the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
4) Go on a guided 360 virtual tour of Melbourne here.
5) And here’s a guided tour of Perth in Western Australia.
See The Wonders Of The World…
…and other iconic landmarks you might have not been able to visit yet! Virtual travel tours of historic sites are where it’s at right now.
1) Want to explore tombs in the pyramids of Egypt? Links to some incredible virtual tours can be found here.
You can see much more of Egypt with this Google Maps virtual tour and also this virtual Egypt website.
2) Visit The Colosseum in Rome on this virtual walking tour through the grounds.
You can also go on a 360 degree guided jaunt of the rest of Rome in this virtual travel tour.
3) Take in sweeping views of the city of Paris from the decks of the Eiffel Tower on Google Arts and Culture.
There’s more Paris to explore here, in this 360 virtual reality video. Including the Notre Dame (before the terrible fire).
4) See the amazing, infamous Basilica de la Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain.
This fantastic 360 tour is put on by the organization for the Basilica itself. It’s so crazy that it was 1882 when it was starting to be built – and it’s still not done!
For more on Barcelona, you can check out this 360 guided tour.
5) While Stonehenge is a pretty cool sight to see in person, the virtual reality tour version is almost equally as good. In my opinion.
The prehistoric site is kind of out in the middle of nowhere (depending on where you’re driving from, I guess). But also, you can’t even get very close to the stones to really see them.
6) The Great Wall of China is definitely a place I’d like to visit in the near future. I’m sure it’s one of the places to see on most people’s bucket lists.
For now, let walk along parts of the Great Wall in the virtual reality version! Bonus: No other tourists!
7) See Christ the Redeemer, in Rio de Janeiro up close and personal (from your living room) on Google Arts and Culture here.
You can go to this website too, for different 360 views of the famous statue and more of Rio de Janeiro.
8) Machu Picchu is of course, another one of the new 7 wonders of the world. It’s probably already on your bucket list, if you haven’t already been.
Check out this 360 guided virtual tour and this 360 walking tour of the ancient Inca ruins in Peru. No hiking required.
If you have a virtual reality headset, this tour is a good one too. Although you don’t really need one, it’ll make the experience that much better – allegedly. Or you might get motion sickness.
9) Travel virtually to see Petra in Jordan with Google Street View Treks. It’s an informative, guided tour that’s best experienced wearing headphones.
You can do another guided walking tour of Petra here, and while you’re in Jordan you might as well check out the Dead Sea too!
10) You can visit the mysterious Easter Island and the incredible Moai statues here. That’s without taking super long flights and spending lots of $$$.
Another great tour of Easter Island is this one, which offers the 360 view ability.
11) See the Statue of Liberty from the comfort of your bedroom without hoards of other tourists.
You can also take in the New York skyline views from the top of the Empire State Building here. Information on the other notable surrounding buildings included.
If you’re interested, there’s an interactive tour of Ellis Island you can check out as well.
12) One of the coolest places we’ve had the chance to visit is Angkor Wat in Cambodia. We explored the temple complex in two days – which is totally doable.
I’ll be writing a future post on that, but for now you can visit the temples and ruins virtually. And this guided 360 tour as well.
13) The Taj Mahal in Agra has got to be the most famous monument to see when you’re in India. If that was one of your near future plans and the pandemic ruined it, that really sucks.
At least we’ve got the good old internet – right?!
Just explore this stunning marble mausoleum from home, same thing. Except not, but sadly that’s all we have right now so here’s another link for it too.
14) Last one! Go on a virtual walking tour in London to see Tower Bridge.
No, it’s not called London Bridge as lots of people think. Trust me – it’s this one you want to see. London Bridge is a completely different and pretty regular looking bridge. Even Google Images is wrong!
If you want to travel more of London virtually, check out this awesome 360 virtual tour.
Come To Canada!
But don’t actually, ’cause like, the corona virus and all…
Pretty sure the border is still closed to visitors anyway?
Soooo crazy – super strange times we’re living in right now!
Also, everything’s closed to us too, so let’s all just travel virtually around Canada. It’ll be awesome, sort of – but it’s currently all we’ve got right now so…
Our National Parks Are The Best
But all of our parks are pretty awesome I have to say.
Experience some of the AMAZING great outdoors we have here, without any bugs flying around you! That’s the benefit you get with virtual travel tours.
1) Lots of our parks are available to explore through Parks Canada with Google Street View, so you can see some there.
2) Get a taste of Banff in the Rocky Mountains bordering British Columbia and Alberta.
With travel videos like this one and this one below, you’ll likely want to plan a *real* trip here soon.
3) Hike a portion of the 47 kilometre Juan de Fuca Trail on the west coast of Vancouver Island, in British Columbia.
4) Travel virtually to Niagra Falls in Ontario, without getting wet.
This 360 degree virtual reality tour lets you take in the view from several vantage points. Spraying yourself with mist is optional – for a more “genuine” experience.
5) See the beauty of The Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick. This is the incredible place where you’ll find the highest tides in the world, ranging from 11 feet to over 50 feet!
6) Watch for magical Aurora Borealis (or the Northern Lights) from your living room. You can watch these live webcams that are set up for viewing them in the North West Territories, and in Manitoba.
Then See Some Of Our Cities
British Columbia:
Check out historic little Gastown in Vancouver and then go for a virtual bike ride around the beautiful Stanley Park Seawall.
Sadly, because of the social distancing situation we’re no longer allowed to ride our bikes there – but you can still walk it. Luckily we got to ride around the seawall once this year before the closure.
Alberta:
Go for a nice walk through the city of Calgary on a hot summer day. You won’t even break a sweat.
Quebec:
This walking virtual travel tour will take you to see some of Montreal, and includes some helpful captions too.
Ontario:
Stroll through downtown Toronto in this walking tour of the city. After that, you can experience the Edge Walk at the top of the CN Tower!
Spend A Few Hours At The Museum
Craving some culture and education?
Since we can’t visit most museums right now – the museums can come to you!
Take a “walk” through some of the best and most famed museums in the world, without even having to get dressed.
Here’s a few tours to get you started: (But go check out my full Virtual Museum Tours post too!)
The National Gallery in London
The Museum of Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horses in Xi’an, China
The Acropolis Museum in Athina, Greece
The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam in The Netherlands
Travel Virtually To Zoos And Aquariums Around The World
1) Watch live cams of animals like pandas and elephants in the San Diego Zoo.
2) There’s penguins, tigers, koalas and pandas you can see with the cams at the Edinburgh Zoo in Scotland.
3) At the Vancouver Aquarium, you can watch the super cute sea otters playing, penguins and jellyfish.
4) Okay, so technically not a zoo – but who wouldn’t want to watch puppies playing all day on a live cam!? Omg they are sooooo cute! These pups are at the Warrior Canine Connection in Brookeville, Maryland. Learn about their organization and mission here.
5) Not a dog person? That’s too bad, I don’t think we can be friends… I’m guessing you probably like cats though – so you can watch kittens sleeping and being fed and taken care of at the Kitten Rescue Sanctuary in Los Angeles. Read about the Kitten Rescue here.
(PS. There’s also lots of other live animal cams that you can watch on the same website as the puppies and kittens.)
6) Watch meerkats on the live Meercam at Zoo Miami. Two pups were just born in January, so there’s littles to look forward to seeing. It’s actually the first time that Meerkats have been born and raised in the history of the zoo.
7) You can watch Snow leopard cubs and kangaroos, along with other cute animals on the Zoos Victoria website, in Australia.
8) Did your African Safari plans get put on hold? Or maybe you’re dreaming of ticking one off your bucket list someday. While it’s nowhere near the same thing, virtual travel tours let you at least see a sample of what you would on an actual safari. You can watch these live webcams in South Africa, care of Africam.
9) Watch out for sharks swimming by the underwater camera at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport. You’ll see plenty of other fish too, but sharks are the main event.
10) And finally, you can watch brown bears trying to catch fish and doing whatever else they do on the live cams set up in Katmai National Park, Alaska. It’s only live during the summer months when they are actually doing things, but you can watch some awesome highlights. Honestly, you’d probably think were live anyway if you didn’t know any better.
Hope you found this helpful – let me know what you’re doing to help cure the travel itch!
