Many tourist attractions, theme parks, museums, and theaters are closed because of the coronavirus outbreak and lots of us are following recommendations to practice social distancing, so we’re staying home. But that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy a tour or performance. Lots of museums and cultural attractions around the world are offering free virtual visits that we can enjoy from our couches, like these.
Fans of the performing arts:
- While theaters are temporarily closed, you can check out some of the world’s most famous performing arts centers with Google Arts & Culture.
- The Metropolitan Opera is streaming a performance every night at 7:30pm EST every night they’re closed and you can check out their schedule on the Met Opera homepage, where recordings will be available for 20 hours after they stream.
Magical Disney adventures:
- Disney parks are closed, but fans can still check out the magic by virtually roaming Disney Worldor Disneylandwith Google Street View imagery.
- And if you’d rather take a virtual roller coaster ride, YouTube is full of recordings from Disney attractions that let you envision yourself on rides like Space Mountain,Slinky Dog Dashand Frozen Ever After.
If it’s animals you’d rather check out:
- Monterey Bay Aquarium in California offers a look at penguins and sea creatures with its freelive camera streaming.
- The San Diego Zoo also has live video streamsas well as pre-recorded videos of pandas, polar bears and other animals.
For the art lovers:
- The Guggenheim Museum in New York City offers a free virtual tour of all its galleries through Google’s Street View feature.
- The Museum of Modern Art also offers one free virtual "walk-through" exhibit,plus select photos of its permanent artwork collections.
- The Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida has more than 2.400 works by Salvador Dalí for visitors to virtually explore.
- And the Metropolitan Museum of Art has a series of YouTube videosthat show its most famous buildings in a 360-degree format.
- The Louvre's official websiteincludes a few virtual exhibits and another site, YouVisit, has a 360-degree tour of the Paris museum.
Other cool tours and exhibits:
- Google’s Arts & Culture section also lets you transport yourself to world landmarks like the Taj Mahalin India or you can look down from the top of the Eiffel Tower.
- The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History offers in-depth 360-degreeviews of exhibits from dinosaurs to ocean creatures.
- Take in nature’s beauty with a virtual scroll through the Royal Botanic Gardens in London on Google's Street View feature.
- Virtually visit a national park in a digital exhibit featuring Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, Carlsbad Caverns National Parkin New Mexico, Bryce Canyon National Parkin Utah,Kenai Fjords National Parkin Alaska, and Dry Tortugas National Parkin Florida.
- NASA’s free Space Center Houston applets you explore virtual reality experiences, take astronaut selfies and take an audio tour of its educational space center.