Online Adventures

Traveling the World With a Few Clicks

Now is NOT the time to leave your home to travel. Most, if not all, non-essential businesses have closed to the public. A few stores and restaurants in Kirksville have remained open but changed their policies to fit the current pandemic. Walmart and Aldi have signs posted throughout their stores to remind customers to stay 6 feet apart, and Walmart is restricting the amount of people that can enter at a time. To Die For Bakery, Maxwell’s, Bonzai and a couple other eateries aren’t completely shutting their doors. The three mentioned are providing curbside pick ups or carry out orders. 
As a liberal arts student, I am interested in learning about a variety of topics. As a young college student, travelling to new places with cheap flights is tempting. But due to our social responsibility and my overwhelming conscience, I am choosing to social distance myself to stop the spread of COVID-19. 

And you should too. 

Just because we’re stuck inside, doesn’t mean we can’t see the world. Museums, zoos, aquariums, natural landmarks and even theme parks are allowing virtual visits. This is a great opportunity to go places you’ve never been before because 1) you’re in the comfort of your own home 2) you don’t have to be cramped in a small space or sleep on uncomfortable beds 3) you can bring all of the snacks you want and 4) it’s FREE!

Here are some of the places I recommend virtually visiting (separated by category)! A link to more places is provided at the end.

Museums:

Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Google Arts and Culture provides a virtual tour of Rijksmuseum exhibits. This museum is well known for its works from the Dutch Golden Age.

The Louvre (Paris, France) 
The Louvre is offering virtual tours where you can see collections from Ancient Egypt, the original perimeter of the Louvre’s moat, the Galerie d'Apollon and an exhibition titled ‘The Advent of the Artist’.

Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City, US)
Google Arts and Culture also allows the viewing of a large number of exhibits from the Met. (The rooms with the Smiling Figure and Figure of Isis-Aphrodite are some of my favorites!)

National Museum of Natural History (Washington D.C., US)
This virtual tour is one of my favorites. This tour provides you with a look at the entire museum. There are exhibits with dinosaurs, gems and minerals, mammals and more!

Zoos/Aquariums:

San Diego Zoo (San Diego, US)
The San Diego Zoo provides 11 live cams and 1 pre-recorded video of its residents. Check out all of the cameras to see what these animals are up to.

Monterey Bay Aquarium (Monterey Bay, US)
Monterey Bay Aquarium also has live cams for people to view its animals. The sea otters are especially cute!

International Landmarks/Wonders: 

This is the world’s largest cave. Prior to my research, I had not heard of this cave before. But the pictures were enough to take my breath away. I cannot stress how much you need to visit this place! Also the camera resolution gets an A+.

Kiyomizu-dera Temple (Kyoto, Japan)
This landmark is a gorgeous Japanese Buddhist temple. I never really appreciated how amazing this style of architecture was until I saw it up close (virtually of course).

Northern Lights (Kiruna, Sweden)
This is only one of the many places you can view the Northern Lights. Since we aren't able to travel to see them in person, here’s the next best thing.

The Palace of Versailles (Versailles, France)
This place is one of the fanciest to ever bless my computer screen. The paintings, wallpaper, woodwork and even windows combine to make an inspiring and lavish environment.

If these mountains look familiar, it’s because they were a partial influence to James Cameron’s Avatar. It even has a mountain that was renamed Avatar Mountain. Besides the familiarity, they are absolutely stunning and worth checking out. 

Namib desert dunes (Sossusvlei, Namibia)

These sand dunes make me nervous, but the pictures are still a sight to see. The national park is home to the largest sand dunes in the world. 

Petra (Jordan)
Petra is a city completely made of stone. This tour is voice-guided and interactive. By clicking around you’ll have no trouble being in awe of the ancient city. 

_________________________________________________________________________________

 This list was compiled using articles from The Guardian, Good Housekeeping and Business Traveller. Also shoutout to Google Arts and Culture for virtualizing most of these recommendations!

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Come back tomorrow for more health related content!

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