Virtual Travel May Keep Wanderlust at Bay

The best thing about travel is all the sights, smells, sounds and local cuisine to be discovered on the journey. But with in-person travel still restricted, there is a passable and free alternative. While they may not appease all your senses, you may be surprised at the quality of most virtual tours.

Try a few of these to start:

• Attenborough’s Great Barrier Reef – Sir David Attenborough, who has been diving into Australia’s coral reefs for 60 years, takes you on an interactive excursion into the Great Barrier Reef. The platform allows you to plot your journey as you explore five key locations across the reef, providing information about each, showing how coral and certain species live and giving users the option to listen into the sounds of the ocean. Tune in online at attenboroughsreef.com.
• The North Irish coast – Pour yourself a pint of Guinness and sit back to watch the National Trust’s array of virtual tours of Northern Ireland. The Trust offers AirPano’s 360-degree imagery at dusk, with sound effects, enabling users to navigate the areas with the swipe of a mouse. Start the journey at panoramas.nationaltrust.org.uk/giants-causeway/1/
• Explore an Egyptian tomb – Explore the 5,000-year-old tomb of Queen Meresankh III for free – and without the soaring heat – thanks to Matterport’s 3-D modeling provided by the Egyptian Tourist Board. Full of great information and computer reconstructions, it’s a travel treat you can access via my.matterport.com/show/?m=d42fuVA21To
• Watch the Northern Lights – If you’ve never witnessed the beauty of the aurora borealis, you can do so now with a five-minute ‘trip’ courtesy of the Norwegian Lights over Lapland project. The ‘visit’ provides 360-degree videos of the famed Icehotel in Abisko national park, plus northern Sweden, reindeer sledding and a hut at the bottom of Mount Noulj. Alternatively, you can view the Lights via a webcam located in Manitoba, Canada. Access it all via explore.org/livecams/zen-den/northern-lights-cam.
• Tour the Louvre – Travel virtually to Paris for a tour of the Louvre, arguably one of the world’s greatest museums to view the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory and many more. 

See it all at www.globotreks.com/tips/best-virtual-tours-world/#museum