You Love to Travel!

Virtual Travel - Right Now

The travel industry has been sharply impacted by COVID but, like other industries, industry thought-leaders have been tremendous innovative. So, while the vaccine promises an opportunity to begin to think about packing a bag and exploring our glorious world and country, there are some fascinating ways to travel-in-place in the meantime.

Museums, for example, have been among the leading innovators in bringing guests through their halls. Check out these museum tours:

British Museum, London

This iconic museum located in the heart of London allows virtual visitors to tour the Great Court and discover the ancient Rosetta Stone and Egyptian mummies. You can also find hundreds of artifacts on the museum’s virtual tour.

Guggenheim Museum, New York

Google’s Street View feature lets visitors tour the Guggenheim’s famous spiral staircase without ever leaving home. From there, you can discover incredible works of art from the Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary eras.

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

This famous American art museum features two online exhibits through Google. The first is an exhibit of American fashion from 1740 to 1895, including many renderings of clothes from the colonial and Revolutionary eras. The second is a collection of works from Dutch Baroque painter Johannes Vermeer.

Museé d'Orsay, Paris

You can virtually walk through this popular gallery that houses dozens of famous works from French artists who worked and lived between 1848 and 1914. Get a peek at artworks from Monet, Cézanne, and Gauguin, among others.

National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul

One of Korea’s popular museums can be accessed from anywhere around the world. Google’s virtual tour takes you through six floors of Contemporary art from Korea and all over the globe.

Pergamon Museum, Berlin

As one of Germany’s largest museums, Pergamon has a lot to offer – even if you can’t physically be there. This historical museum is home to plenty of ancient artifacts including the Ishtar Gate of Babylon and, of course, the Pergamon Altar.

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Explore the masterworks from the Dutch Golden Age, including works from Vermeer and Rembrandt. Google offers a Street View tour of this iconic museum, so you can feel as if you’re actually wandering its halls.

Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Anyone who is a fan of this tragic, ingenious painter can see his works up close (or, almost up close) by virtually visiting this museum – the largest collection of artworks by Vincent van Gogh, including over 200 paintings, 500 drawings, and over 750 personal letters.

The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

European artworks from as far back as the 8th Century can be found in this California art museum. Take a Street View tour to discover a huge collection of paintings, drawings, sculptures, manuscripts, and photographs.

There are also many travel agencies focused on both travel-in-place and vacation trips for those who are gracefully greying.

There are numerous ways to “explore” a city either before you travel in person or from the comfort of your living room couch. Check out virtualvacation, which offers walking and driving tours of hundreds of cities.  The National Park Service has virtual hiking tours of many of our national parks. Check out this list from TripSavvy which has some fun explorations, no matter what your age! 
 

For those wishing to plan a trip, Backroads and Tauck Tours have updated their models to accommodate not only those with physical limitations but also are limiting group sizes, taking extra steps to ensure safety such as more rigorous cleaning of vans, and additional health staff available.

Why not consider a staycation? If you are able to drive, or if you have a family member willing to chauffeur you around, get in the car and explore your hometown. Many cities have downloaded maps for just this purpose.

Article edited by Wendy Rose Bice, WRB Consulting