Does it feel like it’s been ages since you’ve last travelled? For us, it certainly does. But don’t worry. Even if you can’t travel at the moment, you can still explore the world from your couch.

We have plenty of articles on here that can inspire you to dream about future trips.

But today, we want to go even further. All of this dreaming is amazing, but what if you want to see new places right now? Then you’re in luck. A lot of tourist attractions all over the world allow you to visit them online. Virtual tours are becoming more and more popular. Here are some that you can visit right now, with little to no preparation, all from your living room.

#1 The British Museum, London

One of the best museums to visit online is the British Museum. Yes, seeing those exhibits on a screen is not the same as standing next to them. But wow, this museum put a lot of work into making their exhibits available on the internet and giving you lots of information about them.

Plus, you can find many different ways of exploring the museum. My favourite one is this timeline, which highlights the museum’s most important exhibits. Plus, it sorts them not only by time but also by continent and by topic. It’s a lot of fun to click on the different objects and listen to the audio to learn more about them.

With Google Street View, you can also take a virtual tour through the museum. Be warned. This place is giant, so you will most likely get lost.

The British Museum has a great overview on their website about all the things you can look at while stuck at home. We urge you to go and explore. The Maya special exhibition is also pretty cool. It even allows you to go and take a virtual tour of the Mayan ruins of Palenque! In fact, this museum has so many different things listed online that you can easily spend a day or two just exploring everything they have to offer.

#2 Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park

The British Museum is great. But sometimes, it’s nice to get outside.

We have “see a volcano erupt” on our bucket list. And wow, that’s a huge item and we have no idea when that’s going to happen. Especially now, with everything in lockdown. And while it’s going to be very hard to see a volcano erupt, even online, we can at least go and see the volcanoes in Hawaii. On your online visit, you will go into the rain forest and into a lava tube. And you’ll even fly over an active volcano!

Go and check out the Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park!

#3 Sistine Chapel, Vatican

We should probably call this the Vatican Museums. But the highlight of these museums, the one room that everyone comes to see, is the Sistine Chapel. To be honest, when I visited, I found it a bit underwhelming. It was packed with people and we weren’t even allowed to stop and take our time to properly look up at the ceiling.

The good news is, now you have the chance of visiting the chapel online and exploring it properly. And you can even go and take virtual tours of other parts of the museum. Or you can just look at the exhibits in the catalogue and read up on their history.

If you want to learn more about the Vatican, you can also take a virtual live tour with a proper guide. If you combine both, the Sistine Chapel and the live tour, then you’ll get a pretty good overview of this unique country.

#4 Stonehenge, UK

Did you know you can visit Stonehenge online? The website is really cool, offering you different experiences. First, you can explore the site by day. While you look around the stone circle, you have the chance to click on various objects. Videos will pop up and explain to you more about those parts of Stonehenge.

My favourite part by far, though, is the skyscape. You can get a really great look at the skies and the stars above Stonehenge. If you visit at night though, as we did, you should quickly clean your screen. Those stars were quite hard to see with all that dust! Oh, and if your timing isn’t right and it’s during the day? Don’t worry. You can just skip to whatever time of the day you prefer. Morning, midday, night, you can select everything.

Once you’re done with that, make sure to also check out the virtual maps. There are lots of them. By the time you’re done, you’ll know as much about Stonehenge as if you had been there.

#5 Louvre, Paris

The Louvre might be closed right now but that doesn’t mean you can’t visit. Your online tours are just one click away! My favourite one is the Petite Galerie, which, unfortunately, is only available in French. It’s really well-made though, giving you the option to explore lots of paintings in detail. And if you have a VR-headset, you can even explore it there!

Since we seem to have a problem with Flash on this computer, we have been unable to open all of the galleries. We loved the ones that were easily available, though.

As an alternative, if you prefer a live tour through the Louvre, then you can now easily book one through Amazon Explore. As you have a personal guide, you can ask questions and point out items you’re more interested in, that your guide will then explain.

If you want to see more museums online, by the way, we have put together a post that features many online museums from around the world.

#6 San Diego Zoo

What’s better than watching cute animal videos? Watching animals live, as they enjoy themselves at the San Diego Zoo! Yes, we are aware that this section is titled “For Kids”. But come on! Even adults can enjoy watching a koala munch on eucalyptus leaves. And don’t get us started on the cute penguins! Or the owls.

Did you know, by the way, that owls are one of the most stupid birds out there? Yeah, we know, it’s very sad. Believe us, we were just as shocked when we learned that in Costa Rica.

Talking about learning. The San Diego Zoo website has lots of resources if you want to learn more about animals. From educative videos to fun websites about lots of different animals, where I learned that there’s a species of kangaroos that lives in trees. It’s really worth checking it out.

#7 Yosemite National Park, California

If you’ve always wanted to go to Yosemite National Park, then this is your chance. This virtual visit is one of the best park visits we’ve found. You can easily spend hours just clicking through the park and exploring the beautiful scenery. It almost feels like you’re walking amongst the giant sequoia trees. The nice sound effects also help to make you feel like you’re really there.

The views are amazing but my favourite place is the Mariposa grove because it makes me feel as if I’m really in the middle of a forest. And if you click through it enough, you will also end up at a really cool viewpoint, I promise!

One day, when we can travel again, I’m sure we’ll go here. This online tour has definitely inspired me to visit Yosemite at one point in the future.

#8 National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City

It took me a moment of walking through this museum online before I realized that I had already been here. The National Museum of Anthropology, located in Mexico City, is a brilliant museum if you want to learn more about indigenous culture from Central America. In here, you can find relics from all over the country, including the famous Stone of the Sun (click on Street View once you’re done reading up on it, to see it inside the museum).

You can also see relics found at Chichen Iza. And while you’re at it, why not quickly visit the Mayan ruins themselves in a virtual tour?

But back to the museum. Make sure to go up to the second floor. I found that one very interesting because you can see a lot of cultural items here, from baskets to clothes and even reconstructed houses. Most of the labels are, unfortunately, not digitalized. But some of the big signs are such a good quality that you can actually read them and learn lots of interesting facts about the people from Mexico.

#9 The Metropolitan Opera, New York

Right now is not the best time to go to the opera. But you are lucky because these days, you can watch performances without even having to change out of your pyjamas. The Metropolitan Opera has always had an on-demand service, where you can watch performances for a monthly prescription fee. These days, however, they also offer a daily stream of one of their top plays. That video is available for you to watch for 23 hours, so you can look at it whenever is convenient for you.

I watched a bit of Macbeth and both the sound as well as the picture quality were amazing. Tune in at the right time next week and you’ll be able to watch Aida. So far, we’ve only seen pictures but the costumes looked absolutely amazing.

#10 El Prado, Madrid

I was a bit conflicted about whether or not I should add the Prado to this list. It does offer a virtual tour, and it’s pretty innovative. On Instagram, once per day, the museum puts up a video where they focus on one item in their collection and explain it in detail. You can even watch them live, from 9:50 – 10:00 am local time. Unfortunately, this tour is only available in Spanish.

And explaining art in Spanish is complicated! While I’m able to have basic conversations with Daniel’s parents and can understand lots of what people talk about, this one is really hard.

If you’re still brushing up on your Spanish skills, take a look at the Prado’s collection online. Here, you can find suggested “itineraries”, highlighting the most important pieces of art shown in the museum. When you click on them, you can take a look at the painting and read up on it. And some of them even link to very informative videos, in English this time.

#11 Yellowstone National Park

If you want to visit a landscape very different from what most people can see outside their window, you should visit the Yellowstone National Park online. This website has many features, including guided virtual tours through different areas of the park. While it isn’t quite as interactive as Yosemite National Park, it is still lots of fun to see.

With many geysers and thermal activity, Yellowstone is a very unique area. The website will explain to you where all of this activity comes from. Not just that, you’ll also learn that you can see lots of different natural phenomena here, with different names, appearances and causes. It’s a great inspiration and makes me want to visit as soon as we can travel again!

#12 Guggenheim Museum, New York

We included lots of museums on this list, and we wanted to include one more that is very famous all over the world. The Guggenheim Museum in New York shows impressionist, early modern and contemporary art and receives more than a million visitors every year. Of course, that number will go down for 2020, but you can still go on a virtual tour through Google Arts and Culture. It’s worth it already for the interesting architecture.

You should also go to the museum’s website where you can find lots of information about the museum and its expositions. Here, you can also find videos in which staff members explain about the museum and show you their favourite pieces of art, as well as short interviews with artists.

Bonus: Northern Lights live cam

Did you think this was it? We happen to have a bonus for you! While not directly a fixed tourist attraction, this natural appearance is one of the most impressive sights in the world.

We’re talking about the Northern Lights! We were lucky enough to see them on our recent trip to the Arctic Circle. Even if you don’t have a chance of going there right now, you can still watch them from the comfort of your house. Just tune in to the live cam in Churchill, Canada! You do, of course, need to be lucky to see the lights. It’s just like in real life. You’re going to spend lots of times waiting and then, suddenly, they will be there! So have fun with this one and good luck!

Bonus 2: Virtual live tours

Did you know that Amazon recently opened up a new section called Amazon Explore? We already mentioned some of their tours above. These experiences allow you to delve even further into your dream destination. You can visit Japan with a guide,  learn to make Mexican tacos through a virtual cooking class or see orchids in Costa Rica.

I participated in a virtual theatre show the other day and am looking forward to trying some online cooking classes to prepare food from around the world!

The 12 attractions mentioned above only represent a fraction of the museums and natural sights you can see online at the moment. If you go to Google, you will find lots more and almost all of them are very well made. These ones were our favourites, though, and we hope that we covered a wide range of topics, from national parks to operas and art.

Which one is your favourite? Or hasn’t it made it on the list yet? We know it sucks, being unable to travel. But maybe these virtual tours will allow you to forget about coronavirus for a moment. Have fun exploring and remember to stay safe and at home!

If you need more inspiration on what to do while you can’t travel, we have put together a list of ideas. We also have a whole blog post dedicated to online museums, so check it out if you want to discover even more amazing museums than just the ones listed above.

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