Travel, whether domestic or international, has ground to a stop with the threat of coronavirus hanging over everyone’s head. It is a tough time for everyone, but perhaps especially those who have wanderlust. For the safety of all, we have seen trips cancelled and plans changed. However, there are still options to get everyone out of their houses and experiencing the world…at least in their minds.
What are some options? First, Google has made it possible for many museum virtual tours online so people can “visit” from the comfort of their living room. For example, on the tour of the British Museum in London, I could pull up pictures of 1.8 million year-old items from around the world such as the Olduvai Stone Chopping Tool, the oldest exhibit in the museum. Some of the many museum sites and the Google entry to others are as follows:
- This website is the entrance to many museums around the world.
- The British Museum
- The Louvre
- The Van Gogh Museum
So museums aren’t your thing and you want interactive travel? Try the app GeoGuessr which can be played on your phone, iPad, or computer. This game allows visitors to be dropped into an unknown place and, by moving around and looking at clues, decide where they are. Some of the decisions are relatively easy, such as what language is that sign written in. Others are much more difficult. Visitors have choices of being placed somewhere in the world (I’ve been stuck on a small road in Argentina), in a national monument (My favorite was the Alhambra.), or in the U.S. You can play others or work together to discover your location.
You can also use this time to learn a foreign language using Babbel, Duolingo, or Rosetta Stone. All of these can be downloaded without leaving home. If you want more interaction, Waxahachie ISD’s Lighthouse for Learning offers online language classes in Spanish, French, Italian, and Japanese for a cost. Click here for more information, and to see the complete list of over 100 online courses.
Right now, I’m bingeing on travel videos and dreaming of the places I want to visit when travel is safe again. My list is growing quickly as I watch Rick Steves, Samantha Brown, Expedia, Viking Cruises, and many other vloggers I have discovered over the years.
Staying home isn’t easy for those with wanderlust, but it can be a time of planning and maybe filing all those brochures that you’ve collected over the years or making books with the many memory-bearing pictures!
Please share some of your favorite ways to travel while you are home so that we all can benefit from your experiences.
