Travel

Let the world come to you

With international travel restricted due to COVID-19, Maryalicia Post explores the wonders of virtual travel

For many of us it’s been a long time since we last routinely packed a bag and hopped on a plane for a short break or a business conference. Who could have imagined a few months ago that a virus would put a stop to that familiar lifestyle? COVID-19 might have cancelled our travel plans but it hasn’t taken away our desire to explore and to travel. Nor has it diminished the determination of tourist boards to keep our interest in their city alive. It’s fair to say that by diving into their updated websites we might see and understand more of iconic cities like Paris, Barcelona and Amsterdam, among others, than we ever could ‘in person’.

I’ll admit that the queues at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum have always discouraged me from exploring one of the world’s most renowned museums. So it was enjoyable to make a private visit online (https://www. rijksmuseum.nl/en/from-home). I thoroughly 2026. A virtual tour offers more detail than with an online exploration of the Louvre recommend the tour of the most famous anyone could access ‘in person’. The online museum – there are five itineraries to masterpieces on show, from Rembrandt’s visit offers remarkable 360º views inside follow. Would you prefer a moment of quiet Night Watch to Vermeer’s Milkmaid. If you and out as well as the work-in-progress contemplation? Let yourself be immersed in are already familiar with the museum, dip areas closed to ordinary tourists. https:// the beauty of Sainte-Chapelle. Explore Palais into #rjksmuseumfromhome to connect with sagradafamilia.org/visita-virtual Garnier, the Paris opera house, from the a series of YouTube videos in which curators The Picasso Museum is another underground lake to the view from the roof; talk about the works in their care. Exit Barcelona museum that showcases its there are four virtual tours to guide you. through the gift shop. treasures online. http://www.bcn.cat/ Then stretch your imagination, if not your

Even if you’ve visited the Van Gogh museupicasso/en/collection/highlights. legs, with an online tour of Montmartre or a Museum previously, you’re sure to find html. For a change of pace, check out visit to the Eiffel Tower. something new on their website. For me, the Camp Nou website for an up-close London and other major cities also put it was the trove of Van Gogh’s translated look at the famous stadium. Visit the their best touristic feet forward online. letters. Never has the artist seemed as pitch, the stands, the VIP boxes, the Find them on Google’s fascinating arts contemporary as he does here, thanking official store, the locker rooms and the and culture portal. https://artsandculture. his brother for some much-needed FCB Museum. https://www.youvisit.com/ google.com/search/partner?em=m0k3p&ca money, gently critiquing another artist’s tour/campnou. Otherwise, you can treat tegoryid=place work, describing his own plans for future yourself to a leisurely virtual tour of the But what if you’d rather get away from it paintings to his mother and sister. Browse whole city. https://www.youvisit.com/tour/ all.? You can’t get much further away than the correspondence online at https://www. barcelona?pl=undefined outer space. The NASA website includes vangoghmuseum.nl/ As the Parisian tourist website puts internal views when the crew is on duty and

Barcelona reaches out to the virtual tourist, it: “Can’t get to Paris? Well then Paris Earth views at other times. https://www. too; Gaudi’s unfinished church, the Sagrada will come to you!” And it does. https:// nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/iss_ustream. Familia, is endlessly fascinating. Construction en.parisinfo.com/what-to-do-in-paris/info/ html. Or you might be interested in the started in 1882 and is due to be completed by guides/virtual-visit-paris. You might start Palmer Station — the only US research facility on the Antarctic Peninsula. It’s online at all times. Sit back and observe I thoroughly recommend the tour of either the penguins or the researchers braving sub zero temperatures: https://www. the most famous masterpieces on show, from Rembrandt’s Night Watch to usap.gov/videoclipsandmaps/palwebcam. cfm. Warm yourself up with a cup of cocoa and a safari in South Africa courtesy of Vermeer’s Milkmaid Africam: https://www.africam.com/wildlife The whole world awaits. Virtually.