Ways to Explore the World from Home

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2020 has been a tough year for those who love exploring the world. Instead of going out to see the world, we have had to find ways to explore the world from home. Globetrotting trips, visits from friends and relatives from afar and even visits to the local attractions have all been cancelled, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Instead, we are all self-isolating at home, with no plans to go anywhere. Luckily, there are many ways we can still explore the world, safely from the comfort of our own homes.

Google Street View

When we first learned about Streetview, many of us went to check out their old home, but Streetview and be used for much more than that. Using Streetview, you can also take a walk down Champs-Élysées or Las Ramblas. My father built a system that connected his stationary bike to Streetview so he could bike all across the world. Google Streetview also has the benefit of being able to view places in the 4th dimension, time. Not only are we able to visit places Google Streetview also has the ability to view images from the past.

Google even has an entire page on Google Arts and Culture dedicated to place you can visit in Streetview, including guided tours of places Australian National Surfing Museum

Virtual Attractions

Doing a quick search on Virtual Attractions returns a slew of places that you can visit virtually. You can view the Penguins at the Monterey or go explore the Louvre. Searching Disney Magical Moments on YouTube brings up a bunch of their rides you can take virtually. The city of Toronto has even implemented a Bloomcam at High Park, so you can view the cherry blossoms from home.

Travel Videos

One of our favourite things to do, even before the pandemic is to watch travel videos.

Whether it’s for researching our next trip or deciding on where to go next, there are tons of great shows on all your streaming services and lots of great channels to follow on YouTube.

Reminisce

Undoubtedly many of us have already gotten notifications from Facebook, Instagram or Google Photos reminding us of the amazing trip we had several years back. Now is a great time to open up those old photo albums and watch your old vacation videos.

For those who collect souvenirs or tokens from your adventures around the world, take some time to hold your items and remember where they came from. We keep a memory box from our trips, which is great to open up and explore the things that we saved from our trips and the happy memories tied to them.

Imagine

As we get older, many of us lose the ability to imagine. It’s easier to go to our phones or turn on the TV than to imagine ourselves in a far off place or time. Now is the perfect time to brush it off. Set up a tent or blanket fort in your living room, have a fake campfire and pretend you’re in the middle of the forest.

As the weather has been warming up, get some play sand, make a tropical drink, play some ocean sounds and imagine your self at the beach. Something we’ve enjoyed doing is going all out for themed meals.

Playing some mariachi music while having taco nights or listening to the accordion, while playing videos of the Effiel Tower during your morning coffee and croissant. For those with Netflix there is a great series called Moving art that captures beautiful images from all around the world.