See The World With Virtual Tours, Live Streams & Interactive Guides

 We’re all self-isolating at home. Our travel plans are on hold indefinitely, but that doesn’t mean we can’t experience the joy of travelling. Around the world, museums, zoos, cities and gardens are going online to offer virtual tours and live streams. Whenever you feel the urge to see the world, log on to these websites, and give yourself the hope that things will turn around soon and you’ll get to experience all this in person.

Virtual Tours Of Museums & Galleries 

The National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai recently announced a virtual display of its artworks on the website. Many of the permanent collections are already up, and some exhibitions will be uploaded soon. Check out artists Amrita Sher-Gill, Rabindranath Tagore, and Jamini Roy here.

The British Museum in London. Photo by Viktor Forgacs on Unsplash

The British Museum in London, like all others in the city, has closed doors due to Coronavirus, but it has gone online with its collections, exhibits and galleries. Go to the website to check out prints and drawings, and take a virtual tour of Oceania. You can actually be inside the gallery, virtually, through Google Arts & Culture. Google has partnered with museums and galleries around the world to give you a tour from your couch at home. Now you can visit The Guggenheim, Museum of Modern Art, Van Gogh Museum, The State Hermitage Museum, Sorolla Museum, The Olympic Museum and The National Museum of Western Art, among others.

The Metropolitan Opera in New York has cancelled all shows and has started live streaming of Opera on its website. Check out the schedule for this week here and tune in for a culture trip for free. 

Virtual Tours Of Landmarks

Eiffel Tower, Paris. Photo by Thorsten technoman on Pexels

Always dreamt of visiting the Great Pyramids of Giza? Now you can virtually walk around the pyramids and explore the site with Google’s 360 degree Street View. You can even climb to the top of Eiffel Tour and view the Parisian skyline from its 324-metre platform on Google, and know more about the construction and history of the world’s most visited landmark. Google Arts & Culture offers 360 degree views and Street Views of many more monuments. You can virtually explore the White House’s Ground Floor and State Floor; virtually visit the Taj Mahal in Agra; or trek on Machu Picchu. 

Is Taj Mahal really worth a visit? Read here.

Meanwhile, HopOn is offering free audio tours of cities in India, including Delhi, Mumbai, Varanasi, Leh, Kolkata and Jaipur. Check out their Instagram page for more details.

Virtual Tours Of National Parks & Gardens

Bear Glacier at Kenai Fjords National Park. Photo by NPS/Bill Thompson

That’s not all for Google Arts & Culture. Google has partnered with five national parks in the US to offer educational virtual tours.

Lava Flow Field at Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park. Photo by NPS/Janice Wei

With interactive videos, you can explore Alaskan fjords–ravel into a crevasse, watch a glacier melt and kayak through icebergs at the Kenai Fjords National Park. At the Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park, fly over an active volcano and take a dive to explore the shipwreck of 1907 and swim through coastal reefs at the Dry Tortugas National Park in Florida. Check out The Hidden World Of National Parks here.