Virtual Vacation: a clickable list to cure wanderlust
Chantelle KincyThis list of virtual vacations is sure to help keep you entertained while being under stay at home orders.
Are you bored? Are you itching to get back out “there”? I AM! I want to go somewhere, anywhere, every where! I’m like Belle from Beauty and the Beast right now, with an urge to bust out of this town.
“I want adventure in the great wide somewhere
I want it more than I can tell
And for once it might be grand to have someone understand
I want so much more than they’ve got planned”
We all know the responsible thing to do is to stay inside. I am willing to do my part to help everyone get through this. That being said, I still have wanderlust and am always searching for ways to feed my desire for travel.
I just found THE best site for curing boredom! It’s called Earth Cam, and I’m super hooked on it right now! There are cameras that link to animals and zoos, small towns, tropical destinations , tourist spots and skylines! 360° panoramas like the Zhangjiajie Glass Bridge, China and the Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. Check our iconic landmarks like Wrigley Field, Niagara Falls, or the Eiffel Tower! You can visit Stadiums and Arenas and see the time lapse of their construction. On the #trending cam, you can watch the cherry blossoms, or an eagle nest, or city streets.
Earth Cam can potentially keep you occupied for hours. But if you are looking for something more specific, I hope this list will help! I’ll update it periodically so check back in!
Virtual Vacation: Zoos and Aquariums
Photo by Jamshed Ahmad from Pexels 
Photo by Blue Ox Studio from Pexels
- The Cincinnati Zoo: At 3 p.m. the Zoo holds a daily Safari on its Facebook Live Feed. You can also check out the zoo’s Youtube channel where you can watch all their videos.
- Atlanta Zoo: You can watch their Panda Cam as well as find many more interesting videos of the animals and keepers
- Monterey Bay Aquarium:One of my all time favorite Aquariums. This link will take you to multiple live cams such as jelly fish, penguins and sharks.
- Georgia Aquarium: They have an awesome learning library. There are many live cams here too, including Alligators, Beluga Whales, and Pirhana’s
- National Aquarium: You can take a virtual floor-by-floor tour of the this famous zoo.
- San Diego Zoo: This zoo is awesome in “real life” and also super fun virtually. There are a ton of keeper blogs and learning experiences here. There is also quite a few live cams here as well!
- Houston Zoo: There are flamingos, elephants, gorilla’s and even ants on this zoo’s webcams. You can find them here.
- The Shedd Aquarium: This soothing web cam is footage called underwater beauty and is super relaxing! They have numerous videos on their Facebook page too!
- Seattle Aquarium: Has super cute harbor seal and otter web cams as well as many other videos and and activities.
Virtual Vacation: National Parks
The US National Park system has an extensive amount of webcams, videos and photos. You can access the list here. From these links you can jump to a few different areas within the parks that have photos attached. You can also “Walk” through some of the parks by clicking on the arrows that are in the path. As of this writing, these are the parks you can visit.
- Acadia National Park
- Arches National Park
- Badlands National Park
- Big Bend National Park
- Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park
- Bryce Canyon National Park
- Canyonlands National Park
- Channel Islands National Park
- Cuyahoga Valley National Park
- Death Valley National Park
- Denali National Park
- Dry Tortugas National Park
- Everglades National Park
- Glacier National Park
- Grand Canyon National Park
- Grand Teton National Park
- Great Smoky Mountain National Park
- Guadalupe Mountains National Park
- Joshua Tree National Park
- Mesa Verde National Park
- Mount Rainier National Park
- Olympic National Park
- Redwood National and State Parks
- Rocky Mountain National Park
- Sequoia National Park
- Shenandoah National Park
- Virgin Islands National Park
- Wind Cave National Park
- Yellowstone National Park
- Yosemite National Park
- Zion National Park
Virtual Vacation: museums
Google Arts and Culture is a site that links to Virtual tours of famous libraries, art tours, book tours, and many other activities. You can spend some time here. I started out looking at the art of sushi, and ended up way down the rabbit hole, I went from sushi, to Harry Potter, to the Taj Mahal. In addition to this, there are other museums that are offering “tours”.
- National Museum of History
- The British Museum of the World
- Van Gogh Museum
- Museum of Modern Art
- The Louvre
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Virtual theme parks
We spent the better part of an hour yesterday “riding” rides at DisneyWorld and Universal Studios. On you tube there are many ride experiences to different theme parks. Look for one that is POV (point of view) and in 4K for the best experience. Here are a few that we enjoyed. There are so many more.
- Disney Splash Mountain
- Universal Studios Harry Potter and the Escape for Gringotts
- Disney Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
- Universal Studios Jurassic Park
- Disney Pirates of the Caribbean (cant you almost SMELL it?)
Virtual Travel shows
These shows will help cure your wanderlust and may inspire your next trip.
- Aerial America
- Idiot Abroad
- Anything from Anthony Bourdain
- Globe Trekker
- The amazing Race
- Departures
- Ugly Delicous
- Planet Earth
- Our Planet
Other bits of virtual goodness
- Astronomy– Ok, the actual astronomy isn’t “virtual” but this cool webpage takes your location and shows you the sky where you are. It maps the constellations and planets and shows you where to look!
- National Geographic has a “fly through” interactive video of Son Doong , the worlds largest cave in Vietnam. Turn your sound up for this and be fully immersed.
- Similar to Earth Cam, 360° cities is a fun way to explore different places
- The Metropolitan Opera is streaming performances for free nightly
- Andrew Lloyd Webber! You can watch, CATS, PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, and more streaming on Fridays at 7pm BST
If you want to take a break from “virtual travel” and need to disconnect and unwind, read my post on Finding Peace, or Quotes on finding peace. I know we all want to get back to our lives. Please take this time to help our medical professionals, and first responders by staying home and staying healthy. We can use this time to connect with each other on different levels, we can plan, we can dream, we can prepare for the future. We are all in this together.
What did I miss on this list? What is your favorite virtual vacation?
XOXO- Chantelle
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This is such a great post! There are so many wonderful ideas in this post thank you for sharing!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thank you so much for including it in your blog as well!
I really enjoyed this post–especially the virtual Disney rides. Fun! I included the link to your post in my Shareworthy Saturday post https://thelifeweshare.com/shareworthy-saturday-3/) (so that my readers can enjoy the virtual vacation too. We all need a break right now!
How fun! I look forward to exploring virtually this week.
That’s a great idea!
Love all these ideas – I used to work at a senior home and these ideas would be great for them any day and every year!
I know! Thats true for sure!
Great list, thanks for sharing
Wow, what a helpful list! I will surely look at those museums, and national parks I have not been to. National Geographic virtual stuff would be great, too! Thanks!
Great! I know it’s not the “real” thing, but I’ll take it for now!
This is a great resource and one I’ll be coming back to. I’ve always wanted to go to Song Dong cave in Vietnam but the hefty price tag and long waiting list makes a virtual tour more realistic!
I hope you guys have fun! The animal cameras are super cute!
Wow, so many great places to virtually visit! I don’t even know where to start, lol! Can’t wait to do this with my son.
What a list and love the idea of virtual travel!
This is such a great idea! I can’t wait to check it out.
I have never heard of Earth Cam before. This is a great way to cure our wanderlust in the comfort of our home. I’m going to check it out. Thanks for sharing.
I have done a couple of musuem tours during this lockdown phase in India but it is not as satisfying as being present at the spot.
This is a great list with wonderful ideas for virtual vacations! I am reallllllyyyy wanting a vacation, I’m going to try some of these instead! I especially love the zoos! Thanks
fantastic and comprehensive list!
I sing Disney whenever possible in my life! My kids “love” it 🙂
I’m glad you can still work! I know its difficult trying to do it from home.
The penguins are great! I’m constantly adding to and updating the list too!
Such a great list! I’ll definitely check some of these out when I’m feeling like climbing the walls!
I actually discovered something like this recently when I did a virtual tour of a museum I had been to. It was great being able to retrace things in my mind. I have a lot of travel ideas at the moment and will probably search for similar tours of places id like to visit
This is such a great idea!! I always try to have another trip planned to ward of the blues of being home, but it’s been so hard to not having any idea when this is going to be over.
Thank you for putting this list together! I’ll definitely be back.
The penguin cams are my favorite. 😊😊
This is an awesome roundup. Of course, not the same as actually being there in person, but definitely cool to have all these alternatives!
This is great! I can’t wait to show it to my daughter. We had to cancel so many trips lately that she will love this.
This is such a great activity whilst we are all in isolation, I have loved seeing that various ways people have managed to scratch their travel itch during these times! I think I fancy the national parks myself!
Oh we wish we were bored! But we’ve both been working full time, and home-office means no time limit… But it’s good to know about these places that let us travel without leaving home! If we find some time, we’ll definitely check out a few museums.
Such a creative post and so helpful considering the hard times that we are in. Great content!!
I had no idea so many options were available for virtual experiences! great post! Also great Beauty and The Beast Reference.
I love the animal field trips!
LOVE this list! I have been following the Shedd online for their animal field trips around the aquarium!
Great idea! Atleast we are all can travel while staying at home 😀
I love all the animal cameras!
Awesome! Enjoy 🙂
Yay! Have fun 🙂
What a great resource. I am going to explore the San Diego Zoo! I have heard amazing things about it and can’t wait to see it in person. In the mean time, I will take a peek through your link. Thanks!
This is the coolest resource list! Thank you so much! I am going to share some of these experiences with my daughters.
Thank you so much for this great list! My family will love to “visit” some of these places during our isolation time!
Love this list. Ready to tour as we speak!
Fab post! I guess we are all itching to be out and about after a few weeks indoors, so I love the idea of the national Park virtual tours!! You are right though, we all need to do our bit and stay home!
I think you could pack light, but definitely wear appropriate attire! You cant be touring Denali National Park in your bathing suit 🙂
What a great idea. This would be so much fun as a group. Thanks for the post. I have a lot of planning to do – and what should I pack?
This is fantastic. What a great way to dream, discover new places for your bucket list and have an awesome experience while staying home! I love it.
Great list! I’ve seen some of these posted on Facebook, but I usually forget about them or forget who posted it so I can’t find it again. Thanks for putting them all in one place!
What a great list! I am going to save this for later when my grandkids are here. Thanks!
This is a great list! I loved ‘riding’ Thunder Mountain again. It has been a while, lol. I’m thankful we live in the day of technology so we can travel virtually even though we are all stuck at home.
This is great! I think we’re all feeling a little housebound these days, so your list of virtual trips is perfect. Thank you!
These are fantastic. We’ve been soend ng alot if time on Google Earth and Earth cam.
What a great way to travel when we’re stuck at home. I didn’t realise zoos and aquariums had virtual tours too.
This is an incredible list. Thanks for sharing. I know what I’ll be doing today!
These virtual trips and tours are a great idea!
That’s a handy list of virtual vacations
We are looking for U.S. destinations to visit later this year since we are having to cancel our trip to Europe. These are some great ways to get some ideas and see what might interest our age range of kids (3-11).
This is awesome. I am going to show my kids this today!
I was trying to spend less time in front of the TV. Going to have to change that now!
Love this! I pinned it to my Travel board so I can come back later and check it out a little more. 🙂 I’m dying to get out of the house too, but obviously that’s not happening, so virtual travel is a nice alternative.
You’ve put together a great list! Excited to check several of these out.
This is a great list! Thank you for putting it together.
What a great list! It’s so cool that this all is available to us!
This is an awesome list. You can tour from the comfort of your home. Thank You
Oh my goodness, perfect timing! I’ve been holding in the sight seeing bug for a couple of weeks now, and it’s driving me crazy. Ha! Pinning to save!
Much needed during these days .. Great resources 🙂
Who would have thought virtual tours and vacations would be such a big thing. Welcome to 2020! I just had to go check out the virtual Gringotts Escape.
I love this idea. I’m going to check some of these out.