These unprecedented times have created far from ideal circumstances for those of us who love to do nothing more than explore different corners of the world; we now find ourselves confined to our homes for the foreseeable future in a bid to slow the spread of Covid-19 around the globe. Of course, everyone must heed the Stay At Home plea and do their bit to keep our family, friends and the vulnerable in society safe from contracting the virus, which means jetting off to exotic destinations and backpacking across continents is firmly off the cards, for now.
However, that doesn’t mean you have to stop exploring new places and learning about different countries, landmarks and communities across the globe completely. While it’s not, and never could be, the same as visiting somewhere in the flesh, I’ve put together a list of resources, places and institutions which have opened their virtual doors to people around the world – and you can access it all from the comfort of your sofa!
Visit 12 museums from around the world
Travel and Leisure has pulled together a list of museums ‘from London to Seoul’ offering free virtual tours and experiences for people to enjoy while at home, included in Google’s Arts & Culture collection:
- British Museum, London
- Guggenheim Museum, New York
- National Gallery of Art,
- Washington, DC
- Musée d’Orsay, Paris
- National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul
- Pergamon Museum, Berlin
- Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
- Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
- The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
- Uffizi Gallery, Florence
- MASP, São Paulo
- National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City
And if museums aren’t your thing, then perhaps you would like to explore the Great Pyramid of Egypt, take a tour of Rome’s famous Colosseum, or take in the wonders of Inca civilisation at the top of Machu Picchu, instead? These 360-degree tours and much more can also be found alongside the museum tours in the full Google Arts & Culture collection.
Other cultural institutions are also taking it upon themselves to provide online, virtual experiences for people to enjoy. The Louvre is offering an online tour of its exhibits, while some of the Museum of Modern Art’s display can be accessed via its YouTube channel, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art has provided access to its online series, The Artist Project.
The Metropolitan Opera is also live-streaming a free series of encore Live in HD presentations during its Coronavirus closure, with each stream available for 23 hours. The Berliner Philharmoniker is also providing free live-streams of performances and on-demand access to broadcasts, and so is the Chamber Music Society of the Lincoln Centre.
And it’s not just museums and cultural institutions which are providing online experiences during the lockdown period. Should you wish, you can visit Lapland’s Icehotel and experience the Northern lights through 360-degree videos, explore the city of Jerusalem through this virtual reality (VR) tour, watch the sunset over the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland with 360-degree views and fully immersive VR headset capability, and take an interactive tour of English Heritage site Stonehenge.
You can also take a virtual stroll around New York’s Central Park, tour the archaeological excavations along the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park, and listen to birdsong and wildife soundscapes recorded from the Rocky Mountain National Park, all while sitting in your living room with your feet up.
Know of any other travel and culture related online resources not included in this list? Drop me a line to get it added!
Hayley Everett 