TRAVEL TO VIRTUALLY ANYWHERE FROM THE COMFORT OF YOUR HOME

TRAVEL TO VIRTUALLY ANYWHERE

FROM THE COMFORT OF YOUR HOME

BY: CHRISTINA MORRIS

Let’s face it, one of the main reasons many of us choose to teach abroad is so that we can travel and explore new place. This quest has been interrupted by COVID-19 which has made travel either difficult or impossible in many scenarios. By this time in the academic year, many of us would have already carefully crafted a list of places that we would like to visit, during the upcoming holidays of the academic year.

Staycations are great and I do recommend them wholeheartedly. But how can we satisfy our desire to see and experience far-flung and exotic places. In light of the ongoing restrictions, many countries and tourist destinations are now offering virtual tours from the comfort of your own home. Check out our top picks below and feel free to tweet us your favourites @teachmiddleeast on twitter.

South African Safari

I am a big fan of safaris and have done quite a few over the years, so this has to be at the top of my list. To raise funds for conservation, a few safari parks in South Africa are now offering unique virtual experiences such as a private zoom session where viewers can chat to guides who will answer all of your questions, share their experiences from a recent drive or interpret the sightings recorded at the reserves together with you.

The fee from booking a virtual safari session is donated to the Africa Foundation as well as going towards essential habitat maintenance, sustainability and conservation initiatives at the reserves that would normally be funded by eco-tourism. To get involved, click here.

Virtual Scuba Diving Tours

If you had planned to go scuba diving and those plans have been thwarted, you may still be able to dive into a virtual scuba diving experience. National Geographic has created 360 degree videos of nature spots and dive sites which, when paired with an Oculus Quest VR headset, can

offer users the chance to swim with Humpback Whales in Antarctica or explore Indonesia’s coral reefs. This may not be as good as the real thing, but it is quite close.

Tour the Most Popular Tourist Destinations Virtually

Some of the world’s most visited tourist destinations, have made it easier to keep their visitors coming back for more in the virtual space. See our list below, of some of the world’s most popular destinations that you can visit virtually.

1. The Guggenheim is offering VR access to its entire contemporary arts collection through a partnership with Google Arts & Culture. Using the Street View feature, visitors can tour the museum’s iconic architecture, sprawling design and any of its galleries.

2. The largest Van Gogh collection in the world — 600 artworks and 700 letters — is housed in this

Amsterdam museum and can be viewed via a virtual guided tour.

View the inside of the museum along with insights into the

Dutch postimpressionist artist’s life through paintings including

“Sunflowers” and “The Yellow

House.”

3. China’s most famous attraction offers virtual tours of some of the most visited sections of the wall, 3,000 miles of which are walkable. With much of the country under quarantine measures, the virtual tour offers a reprieve from the crowds who normally come from all over the world to see the 2,000-year-old marvel.

4. The British Museum, which is the world’s oldest national public museum, is another space that has partnered with Google Arts & Culture to showcase a virtual, interactive gallery. Visitors can roam the halls of the museum, peruse the exhibits and see famous objects like the Rosetta Stone, the

Parthenon sculptures and Egyptian mummies. This could be a treat for adults and children alike so if you are a parent, you should definitely get your children involved.

5. The San Diego Zoo is known for its open-air, cageless natural habitats and is famous for being one of the few zoos that spearheaded conservation efforts of giant pandas. Even though pandas are no longer in the United States, the San Diego Zoo has set up live streams of its habitats for anyone to view the koalas, baboons and penguins that call the zoo home. Keep the kids entertained with a virtual trip across the world to the San Diego Zoo.

I hope this has peaked your interest in places you can visit virtually. Why not get online and do a search for virtual country tours. This is a great way to update your bucket list of places that you would like to visit when the world starts to travel again.