Some Of The Best Virtual Tours And Experiences

I miss travel. Not just jumping on a plane and exploring a new city, but just simply heading into London for the day to explore. I know a lot of us are feeling the same, especially those who’ve had holidays cancelled. We didn’t plan to do too much travelling this year due to the house. So our trip has been postponed to November so fingers crossed. But in the absence of travel, there are loads of virtual tours and experiences you can do to satisfy your need to travel.

There are only so many jigsaw puzzles you can do. Or so many Netflix documentaries you can binge-watch. But you can virtually travel the world. You can explore museums when they’re empty, or do an activity you may have never had the chance to do. Here are some of the best ones I’ve found.

Virtual tours and experiences- Museums

You can do virtual tours around museums like The Vatican and The Louvre so soak up some history and culture. How often do you get a virtually empty museum without tourists bumping into you? Never! So take advantage of these virtual museum experiences.

At The Vatican, you can explore the iconic art, sculptures and architecture. You’ll get 360-degree views of the sites including the Sistine Chapel where you can see the famous Michelangelo ceiling. Virtual tours and experiences of The Louvre won’t take you face-to-face with the Mona Lisa, but you can join a virtual tour of exhibits including Egyptian Antiquities and artwork from Rembrandt.

You can tour the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History which is a huge three-floor museum in Washington DC. You’ll see exhibits including human evolution and dinosaurs alongside seeing a 52-foot long model of a mega-toothed shark. If you want something a bit closer to home try The British Museum. You can explore the Anne Frank House and see where she spent two years hiding during World War II.

Adrenaline pumping experiences

You can be a thrill-seeker and live life on the edge from your sofa in the comfort of your own sofa. There are loads of 360-degree experiences, and they even support a VR headset if you have one. You can swim with sharks or dolphins thanks to National Geographic. I watched these via my laptop but I bet on a VR headset it would be absolutely insane.

You can step into an active volcano, which no one should do in reality, but a group of climbers did. You can enter stage right onto the stage at Disney’s Lion King.

Virtual tours and experiences- Explore wonders and tourist sites

You can do virtual tours and experiences of some of the most beautiful places on earth. Without even having to leave your sofa. Google Arts & Culture is a huge resource where you can see some of the biggest landmarks around the world. Popular virtual tours include Grand Canyon & other US national parks. You can save the strain and do a virtual walk to 18 different viewpoints around the Grand Canyon in Arizona. You can go to the Everglades in Florida, Glacier National Park in Montana and Yosemite in California among many more.

One of my favourites was the voice-guided tours of the Fjords, Volcanoes and Caverns. You can fly over the active volcano in Hawaii which I’ve experienced in reality. My favourite was swimming through the third-largest coral reef in the world.

There’s also a 360-degree view of Machu Picchu and taking a peek into Royal residences.

Watch theatre, opera or ballet from your sofa

It makes me really sad that all entertainment is on hold but there are loads still going on. The National Theatre is streaming full-length plays every Thursday on it’s YouTube channel. On the Royal Opera House YouTube and Facebook, you can watch full-length ballet and operas. The West End production of Showstopper! The Improvised Musical was performed to an empty theatre and streamed on Facebook which you can watch back.

Live streams from wildlife parks

Zoos and aquariums around the globe are closed to the public, but with the use of a live camera, you can still see the animals going about their days. Lots of the cameras are operated by volunteers so they can help you actually see the animals. As sometimes outside of standard times you may not be able to see the animals.

You can watch live cameras in Africa including Gorilla Forest Corridor, Tembe Elephant Park, Tau Waterhole and many more. These virtual tours and experiences are incredible as you can see the animals in more of a natural setting. It feels a bit like being on safari and is as close as we’ll be able to get.

Places you can see live stream include San Diego Zoo, Houston Zoo, Melbourne Zoo, Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Georgia Aquarium.

Have you done any virtual tours and experiences?

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