As country after country closes its borders and more cities and states institute shelter-in-place guidelines due to the COVID-19 pandemic, travel is becoming irresponsible at best, and impossible at worst. But staying home isn’t the same as being trapped there—not while we have unprecedented access to the great travel destinations of the world, even from our own couch. Here are some great ways to travel from home.
If you don’t have Google Earth, you ought to. This free app is like Google Maps on steroids, allowing you to investigate in detail nearly any place on the planet. And many great locations have hand-crafted tours available on the app. For instance, Discover Hawaii is a beautiful photo tour of the state’s islands, beaches, and volcanoes.
Some of America’s national parks offer virtual tours. The best of these is probably Yellowstone’s, which features many hot springs and the incredible scenery of the area. Also amazing is Virtual Yosemite.
Farther afield, The China Guide offers the chance to travel from home and see almost 3,000 miles of the Great Wall of China, with guided links to the most interesting portions, mostly done in full-360 panoramas.
Many zoos worldwide have webcams up for the public to watch their inhabitants. The Georgia Aquarium is a particular recommendation: You can watch seals, belugas, and even whale sharks. The San Diego Zoo has polar bears, koalas, and apes all on live cams, and at Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, you can watch tigers, grizzly bears, and bats.
If museums are usually the first thing you hit up in a new city, make sure to check out Google Arts and Culture for its aggregation of museums that have made their collections public. Here you’ll find the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Palace of Versailles, the British Museum, and many, many more. Even cave art is represented, with the inclusion of the Grotte Chauvet in France.
And if none of these scratch your travel itch, there’s always Mars.
So, while we may be unable to physically travel for the duration of the COVID-19 crisis, there are plenty of ways we can use technology to travel from home.
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