Take a virtual tour of some of the world’s most iconic museums, national parks, and historical sites. With the spread of the coronavirus, “social distancing” is the norm. Schools, museums, zoos, and public spaces are closed. But thanks to the internet and virtual tours, you can travel without leaving home.
Google Arts & Culture partnered with 2500+ museums and galleries to provide virtual tours and online exhibits. Visitors can visit museums and view online exhibits from their site. We’ve included some of those virtual tours here below, but also others including national parks, streaming services, and more.
Virtual Tours
If you are looking for entertainment and education to get you through, this is a great start.
With social distancing being the norm, a trip to a national or state park is a welcome reprieve. Yet for those that can’t make it to California’s Yosemite National Park, you can tour the park via Virtual Yosemite and visit 200+ different locations and iconic landmarks including the Half Dome, Yosemite Falls, Mono Lake, and Giant Sequoias.
Take a virtual tour of Frank Lloyd Wright's home, Taliesin. Walk inside Wright's studio, home, school and several locations on the estate grounds complete with audio from the staff historian at Taliesin Preservation.
The Smithsonian is is taking visitors on a virtual tour of select exhibits and areas. Visitors can go room by room through current and past exhibits as well as through research stations.
Stay in Amsterdam, at least virtually, and view the works of Dutch masters at the Rijksmuseum. This google virtual tour takes you past works by Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Vermeer, and others.
Take a virtual tour of one of the world’s top museums. Visitors can peruse the Louvre’s Galerie d’Apollon, Remains of the Louvre’s Moat, and Egyptian Antiquities collections.
Take this video guided tour and get 360˚ views of the Nahuku Lava Tube, Volcanic Cliffs, fly over an active volcano and more.
This interactive tour takes visitors on a journey of coming to America. You’ll walk in the footsteps of what immigrants did and hear their stories.
This may just be a 2 minute video, but it is a 360˚ view that let's you pan around to explore the surface of the Red Planet.
Take a virtual tour of George Washington’s home. Start with the video introduction and then set out on a self-guided through the mansion and the grounds.
Take a guided video tour with a park ranger and see an underground network of caves, information on the saves bat colony, and more.
Walk-through and explore this popular children's museum. Find additional learning resources to use at home here.
New York’s Met is hosting free nightly streaming of some of its iconic performances. Each show will go live through the Met Opera on Demand app for Apple, Amazon, and Roku starting at 7:30pm EST and be available to stream for 20 hours.
View the largest collection of Vincent van Gogh’s artwork here. Take a google virtual tour of this Amsterdam museum that includes views of over 200 paintings, 500 drawings, and 750+ letters.
The British Museum in London offers visitors the chance to walk its halls, see famous relics like the Egyptian mummies, and virtually tour the exhibits.
Take a tour of the nation’s museum from home. You can explore individual works from the gallery’s collection, get lesson plans, and resources for parents.
In addition to virtual tours, you can download the NGAkids Art Zone app for ipad. The app provides 8 interactive activities and a sketchbook for freehand drawing.
Zoo WebCams & Digital Experiences
Watch live streams of zoo exhibits around the country.
OKC Zoo @ Two at the OKC Zoo - Live broadcasts and behind the scenes streams broadcast daily at 2pm CT
Manatees - Blue Spring State Park and Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park
Naked Mole-Rat at the National Zoo
Giant Panda at the National Zoo
Facebook Live from the Cincinnati Zoo - New animal daily at 3pm EDT
Tigers at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park
Penguins at the San Diego Zoo
Polar Bears at the San Diego Zoo
Masai Giraffes at the Kansas City Zoo
Leaf Cutter Ants at the Houston Zoo
Wolves at the International Wolf Center
Using Google’s street view feature, tour the Guggenheim’s entire contemporary arts collection.
You can orbit the world from space, zoom into street view, and travel to anywhere in the world you can imagine.
This interactive mobile tour provides an audio tour, GPS maps, selfie filters, augmented reality experiences, virtual reality lite and more!
For more things to do with kids, check out:
- 15 Science experiments you can eat
- 45+ Indoor Activities for Kids
- Nature Crafts
- Take a Nature Safari
- Nature Scavenger Hunt
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