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How to virtually travel around the world

Written By Alejandro Maquinto
Published • April 9th, 2020
GuidesVirtual Reality
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They say traveling feeds the soul, and everyone must take on a journey to find themself. Unfortunately, not everyone is in a position to travel, especially during the quarantine. If you want to explore new areas, visit other countries, or just admire nature during these hard times, you can do so with the help of technology!

While we understand this wouldn’t replace traveling, it’s a placeholder while we continue striving for the actual thing. So for those who are itching to go out, looking for new destinations, or just bored at home, here’s a list of virtual travel locations you can visit!

Yosemite National Park

Ranging over 3,000 square kilometers, the Yosemite National Park is comprised of breathtaking sceneries, spectacular waterfalls, and is home to thousands of plant and animal species. If you want to explore the park in its entirety, including the Yosemite Valley, Half Dome Area, Tioga, and Glacier Point Road, then head over to Virtual Yosemite and start touring!

Navigating the platform is easy. Simply click on the location you want and it will direct you to the scene. From here, you can click and drag to pan, or click on the red dots to take a virtual tour and “walk” around the scene.

Hang Son Doòng

If exploring the Hang Son Doòng cave is in your bucket list, then you might want to check out National Geographic’s Son Doong 360 project. To digitally preserve the cave before tourist expansion, National Geographic captured the island for everyone to enjoy!

Much like Yosemite’s platform, you can pan and zoom the scenery to get a 360-degree view of the Hang Son Doong cave. You can move throughout its different parts by clicking on the arrows shown on screen, or by clicking the “!” marks on the map.

San Diego Zoo

If you like to go to zoos and watch animals, then definitely check out San Diego Zoo. They have installed 24/7 live cams for their enclosures, allowing people to view the animals in real-time from the comfort of their home!

Enclosures with cameras include baboons, penguins, pandas, polar bears, apes, koalas, giraffes, butterflies, elephants, burrowing owls, tigers, and condors. The cameras are, however, stationary, and you might not see the animals if they aren’t in the frame.

Monterey Bay Aquarium

Monterey Bay Aquarium is a non-profit aquarium located in Monterey, California. It’s home to 204 different species of aquatic animals, birds, and seaweed.

Interestingly, they host 24/7 live cameras of two types of jellyfish, sharks, penguins, the aviary, and the bay on their Youtube channel for everyone to see. If you’re particularly interested in sea life, check out their channel!

Museums in Vatican City

If you’re an art lover interested in Roman sculptures, painting, and architecture, then you’d want to check out Museivaticani’s site. It offers 360-degree virtual tours on famous museums and chapels, including the: Pio Clementino Museum, Chiaramonti Museum, New Wing, Sistine Chapel, Raphael’s Rooms, Niccoline Chapel, and the Room of the Chiaroscuri.

To start, choose a museum or chapel you’d want to go to, and start taking the tour! Navigation is similar to Google Earth’s street view, allowing users to move around with arrows placed on the 360-degree image.

Ambrym Volcano, Vanuatu

Have you ever wondered what the inside of a volcano looks like, but too scared to take on the adventure to look at one? Thankfully Red Bull has created an interactive 360-degree video with 4K resolution!

AirPano VR

If you’re just bored and want to view naturistic content online, then you right be interested in checking out AirPano VR’s 360 nature videos on Youtube! All of the videos on their playlist is interactive, allowing users to pan and enjoy a complete 360-degree view of nature in UHD while some videos are shot in 12K resolution.

There are over 83 videos to watch, including scenes from Mont Blanc in Italy-France, Island of Icebergs in Greenland, and the Great Wall of China.