Being stuck in the house is not fun at all, and with every day of the quarantine, the urge to travel grows inside all of us more and more. That’s where VR and 360-degree videography comes in handy! Take a look at the best virtual travel experiences you can enjoy right now!
Sports And Activities
Craving some unique and extreme travel destinations? Go scuba diving while still sitting on the couch or lying in bed! Grab an Oculus Quest VR headset and explore nature out and underwater thanks to National Geographic and their 360-degree videos. There are many great spots to explore, including swimming with Humpback Whales in Antarctica or diving in Indonesia’s coral reefs!
If you prefer to stay dry, there are tone of virtual tours of the exotic locations around the world available online, many of which look good with or without a VR headset. Google Earth has quite a few 360-degree videos of countless national parks all over the United States, including Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, National Park of Yosemite, and the Everglades. Meanwhile, Google Arts carries films for a more cinematic look at national parks like Alaska’s Kenai Fjords.
Going On A Journey
While many tourists love diving and hiking, plenty of tourist boards and attractions have made calmer experiences available online as well. For instance, Switzerland has an entire country tour that will take you hours to get through and includes video of 22 lakes, five alpine passes, and 12 UNESCO sites! This virtual trip doesn’t require a VR headset or anything special, just two eyes and a laptop. You can check out St Moritz, stare at Zurich’s cathedrals, and watch the waters of Lake Lugano. The same goes for Austria, which has tours of spots like the Ice Caves of Werfen and Mozart’s residence, along with boat tours along the Danube river.
Of course, no trip is complete with a stay at a hotel. Believe it or not, you can even relieve this part of your experience online. Places like Jamaica Inn hotel in Ocho Rios and Chablé Hotels in Mexico blast live music and hold classes online.
Enjoying Art
If you want to take in some art, once again, Google Arts comes to our aid. The branch of google has partnered with some of the biggest art museums in the entire world, like Vatican City’s Sistine Chapel and the Louvre, to put their complete collections online for viewing. Now you don’t even have to wait in line to see your favorite pieces of art.
Meanwhile, plenty of theater performances are also being live-streamed right now. London’s iconic Globe Theatre, for example, is streaming Shakespearean plays, of course, while Tokyo National Theatre pulls at the heartstrings of viewers with Tokyo Kabuki performances online.
Of course, none of us know when we’ll be out and traveling once more. So, for right now, even if these virtual reality travel experiences don’t exactly seem like the real thing, we’ll have to make due. The best part of all? Many of these places will be waiting for us when coronavirus ends!
Sources: Boat International, The Independent.