Tired of still life in quarantine? Visit the world from your sofa

By Albina Retyunskikh on April 29, 2020
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

From New York to Paris, museums, theatres and art galleries and other sites are offering virtual tours—and the bonus for bargain travellers is that access is almost all free!

Photo by Patrick Langwallner on Unsplash

As we continue to deal with the difficult reality of living with the novel coronavirus, travel and culture lovers are wrapping their minds around the fact that it could be several months before we’ll be able to catch an international flight or even visit an art gallery.

If, by this point, daily visits to Puerto Backyarda and New Kitchen are feeling repetitive, take comfort that there are ways to escape, at least virtually, with famous tourist sites offering online visits—almost all of them, free. Many of these are offered by Google Arts & Culture, which has partnered with more than 2,000 leading institutions to provide breathtaking immersive virtual tours, online or via the free-to-download app (available for Android and iOS). Here’s a small selection of what’s available:

Paris: The Louvre

After years of complaints about long queues and overcrowded rooms, the Louvre Museum is finally accessible to all. You can now visit one of the most lauded museums of all time (home of the Mona Lisa), without having to put up with any of the discomfort.

Rome: The Vatican Museum

Italy is one of the countries that got hit the hardest by the coronavirus, and was forced to go on complete lockdown. But you can still visit The Sistine Chapel via virtual tours on its own app (also available for Android and iOS), including some of Michelangelo’s most famous works.

Amsterdam: Van Gogh Museum

This Dutch museum houses the world’s largest collection of Van Gogh’s paintings, drawings and letters. Visit online to view many of them up close.

New York: The Guggenheim Museum

Whether you’re most into design, architecture, visual art or sculpture, you can check out The Guggenheim’s entire collection virtually.

London: British Museum

If childhood viewings of The Mummy have you dreaming of the Rosetta Stone or Egyptian artefacts, you’re in luck. You can also “walk” the museum’s outdoor grounds and indoor spaces with 360° online tours.

St. Petersburg: State Hermitage Museum

With its staggering 3 million art and culture pieces, the Hermitage offers a unique one-take video journey to visit this iconic gallery. The tour lasts around five hours and covers the whole museum.

Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum

Take a 360-degree Google Street View tour of the museum, get an intimate walk through the artworks acquired in 2019, and view pieces of its collection spanning from the eighth century to the present day.

New York: Museum of Modern Art

Here’s your chance to check out Claude Monet’s “Water Lilies,” Vincent van Gogh’s “The Starry Night,” as well as the pop art of Andy Warhol and sometimes shocking work of Cindy Sherman, among many other works of modern art.

Washington D.C.: Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

For lovers of natural history, dinosaurs and the universe, the Smithsonian offers a virtual, self-guided tour where visitors can walk room by room through the slate of exhibits.

Washington D.C.: National Museum of African American History & Culture

Check out exhibitions ranging from jazz, to poetry, to exhibitions of the life and work of legends such as author James Baldwin.

California: Yosemite National Park

This natural site is one of the more than 30 National Parks open for virtual tours, complete with sound.

The Great Wall of China

Take a virtual tour of the most famous parts of the 2,000-year-old marvel, considered one of the seven new wonders of the world.

Vancouver Symphony

For lovers of classical music, the Vancouver Symphony has live streamed their final performance of the BeethovenFest, and it’s available to view—and listen to—at any time.

New York: BroadwayHD

For $8.99 USD a month, theatre lovers can stream all the Broadway plays you want, from the comfort of your sofa.

The Social Distancing Festival

Still haven’t gotten your arts and entertainment fix? Visit The Social Distancing Festival, created by a theatre artist who’s gathered livestreams and videos of a variety of performances in one place.

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