With over a reported 3 billion people now forced into their homes all over the world to quarantine from the fast-spreading COVID-19 virus, cabin fever's bound to heat up households everywhere like an irritating tick.
Avoid going stir-crazy and escape your limited reality once in a while by going online. No, we don't mean endlessly scrolling through social media (you're probably doing that already anyway). Below, continue to experience the world by learning to use the internet for recreational means like embarking on virtual tours, watching a live aquarium, exploring NASA, and more!
1. Visit over 500 museums
Get your dose of enriching cultural content even when you’re stuck at home with Google Arts & Culture. The online platform has partnered with over 500 museums and galleries all over the world to make them accessible online. You can even explore some of the museums as if you’re walking through exhibits themselves with their Street View feature. Included museums you can virtually explore are The British Museum in London, Guggenheim Museum in New York and National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul.
Explore here.
2. Tour national parks
Tired of the indoors? Step outside by taking nature into your home (or your laptop at least). Included in the experiences you can find through Google Arts & Culture are virtually guided tours around five of the United States’ majestic national parks. You’ll even have a tour guide in your ear to feed with you essential information about what you’re seeing. Among the parks to explore are the Kenai Fjords in Alaska, Hawaii Volcanoes, Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, Bryce Canyon in Utah, and Dry Tortugas in Florida.
Explore here.
3. Visit Disney World and Disneyland
You may not be able to travel to Disneyland and ride their attractions right now, but the good thing is, the parks themselves are wonders to walk through all by themselves. Once again with Google Street View you can take a virtual tour around Disney’s 11 theme parks to get the kids excited for when you actually visit the real deal in the future.
Start your tour here.
4. Watch sea creatures via the Monterey Bay Aquarium
Take a breather and immerse yourself with the creatures of the deep blue through Monterey Bay Aquarium’s live web cams. The video feeds feature relaxing views of their sea animals from penguins, jelly fish, sea otters, and more.
Watch here.
5. Explore NASA.
If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to be an astronaut and step inside NASA, now’s your chance. With NASA’s free app anyone can now walk across its space center with a tour guide educating you along the way. Alternatively its virtual reality feature allows users to explore the moon or watch a rocket ship get launched into space!
Download the app here.
6. Watch operas for free
Both the Royal Opera House in London and the Metropolitan Opera House in New York are now offering scheduled streamings of their shows for free! However, if you’d rather not wait , Opera Vision has over 20 shows full-length already uploaded for your viewing pleasure.
7. Read thousands of free books online
Looking for a different kind of escapism? Step into another world by simply burying your nose into a new book. While you can’t go out right now to buy physical copies in stores, online book and magazine distributor Scribd just made their entire collection free for a whole month! Read their message below.
Read here.
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