Travel

Armchair Travel Experiences That Let You Explore the World From Your Living Room

Bring the world-and maybe some snow monkeys-to you.

Andreas Stutz/Unsplash
Andreas Stutz/Unsplash
Andreas Stutz/Unsplash

We managed to stave off pandemic-era cabin fever through summer road trips and campsite trial-and-error, but as the mercury continues to dip and most borders remain closed, wanderlust has become a way of life. We still long to go to the zoo, or browse a museum. We miss the smell of jet fuel as much as an island breeze. And while those things might not be in the for most of us cards at the moment, virtual travel can at least fill a void until we can finally resume globetrotting.

Below you’ll find VR tours of haunted locales, digital days at the beach, and voyages into World Heritage Sites, subterranean caverns, and space. Plus, you’ll be able to tour the Louvre pantsless without getting arrested (again).

Dive deep into a new world

Mark our words: Underwater tourism is the future of socially distant travel. Start planning now by taking a digital diving tour. Explore the Great Barrier Reef or the Palmyra Coral Coral Garden. Swim with sharks without the danger of peeing your wetsuit. Dive into a centuries-old shipwreck and convince yourself you didn’t see the ghost of an ancient mariner in the background. Then maybe get scuba-certified: you’ll need it if we’re right (we are).

Get a stranger’s-eye-view of the world (at random)

Remember Chat Roulette? This is like that, but with 99.99% less unsolicited nudity and way more scenic views. Click into Window Swap and you’ll be transported to a stranger’s windowsill for up to 10 minutes. Bored of somebody’s panoramic view of London? Click a button and you’ll be warp-zoned somewhere else. In the last 5 minutes alone we’ve been transported from a Singaporean sunrise a view from underneath the Brooklyn Bridge to a Slovakian goat farm, a busy Egyptian street,  Greek garden, a rain-soaked Shanghai high-rise, and a the mountains of Tehran. Does this have serious Rear Window potential? Absolutely. But are there cats to spot? Yes. So it’s worth the risk. 

Visit somewhere cold without wearing a coat

One way to seriously counteract the bone-chilling effects of winter is to metal put yourself somewhere much colder. Game the system with a 360-degree tour of Antarctica’s ice caves with legendary explorer Sam Baugey. Or venture up to the North Pole, where you can take an interactive trip above and below the ice with Poseidon Adventures. If you prefer your frozen experiences more whimsical, you can also catch a live cam of Bergen, Norway, which inspired the town Frozen and is also very, very cold. 

Skip the lines at your favorite amusement park

Citizens of The YOLO State may have their run of Disney World and Universal Studios, but the majority of the country is going through theme-park withdrawal. But those longing for OG’s Disneyland’s wholesome/terrifying thrills (lookin’ at you, Mr. Toad’s Wild DUI Simulator) can still get them in VR form. In fact, amusement-park junkies are in luck: There are virtual rides on some of the best roller coasters in the world, plus tours of such parks as Legoland, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and Dollywood. Sure, it’s not the same as coming across the park’s hologram of the country legend in person, but even a little Dolly is always a balm. 

Take a virtual trip across Japan

The Olympics are uncertain and the borders are closed, but this 360-degree VR movie from the Japan National Tourism Organization is here to tide anyone who wishes to visit the country over with glimpses of everything from bamboo forests to sushi making. Meanwhile, this live feed of Shibuya Crossing, a popular Tokyo “scramble crossing,” provides a look at the relative normalcy of Japan at any given minute. Want to get out of Tokyo to look around? You don’t have access to the bullet train, but you can tune into a live feed of a Tokyo’s railways, then pretend you were transported to Kyoto for a virtual tour of its ancient shrines and geisha district, or to this live feed of a natural mountain hot tub full of snow monkeys

Explore the coasts of Northern Ireland

Step onto the land of giants without worrying about spilling your Guinness. Giant’s Causeway is full of basalt columns, history, and ancient mythology, making it the perfect place to get lost in for a few hours. The hexagonal landscape was formed around 60 million years ago due to slow-cooling lava. Immerse yourself in this world of wonder by starting your virtual tour at the Giant’s Port, then make your way to the hexagon-lined coast of the Grand Causeway

Hike the Great Wall of China

Walking along the Great Wall has been at the top of many “vacation goals” lists for centuries before hashtags were invented. Now, you can take a virtual hike in lieu of actually exerting physical effort. This virtual tour spans six and a half miles of the wall between Jinshanling and Simatai, a stretch known for having some of the most quintessential views in China. Lots of handy educational material to accompany the view, too.

Explore the natural wonders of Chile

Download Chile 360, a free app that will help you virtually explore wonders from the Torres del Paine to the Atacama Desert to Easter Island. The National Historic Museum of Chile is offering virtual tours, too. And in very excellent news, you can enjoy the European Southern Observatory’s virtual tour of the famed astronomical observatory in Santiago. If you happen to have a VR headset, there’s a whole other world of experience open to you there, but those of us doing this from our cell phones should jump to this link and choose from the VR options that follow-for soothing views of the brightly colored galaxy above, start with La Silla.

Tour dozens of World Heritage Sites

Google Earth is offering 3D virtual tours of 30 iconic World Heritage Sites. Taj Mahal? Yes. Sphinx? Yup. Stonehenge? Why not! Choose your own adventure. You’ll start with a zoomed-out view of planet Earth, from whence you can click on any of the flagged locations and zoom in from a space-station view to a bird’s-eye one. Or, you can scroll through the list of sites that appears on the right side of your screen-the first one you’ll see is the Pyramid of Khufu in Egypt. Boom, there you are, on the street at the Great Pyramid’s base, right next to the mule carts and tourists.

Explore the world’s best beaches

Until we can lay out on the white sands of our favorite beaches again, we can imagine we’re there through 360-degree virtual tours. Float in the crystal clear waters of the Maldives or admire the mountain ranges surrounding Myrtos Beach in Greece. Each beach offers breathtaking views that may just make you forget you’re not actually there soaking up the sun.  

Plus all your favorite national parks

Google Earth is also offering 3D virtual tours of many national parks, from Acadia to Zion.The process here is similar to the way you explore World Heritage Sites, although for this one the flagged locations you’ll see from “space” do have nice lil photos of the respective parks instead of just that orange dropped-pin thing. Choose from there or from the list on the righthand side of the screen, and you’ll be promptly zoomed down into the park of your choice like one of those 3D IMAX movies. And if you’re inspired, you’re in luck: Most of the national parks are now open again in real life, too. 

Aaaand the world’s most celebrated art museums

Check out these Google Arts & Culture tours of museums like the Van Gogh Museum, the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, and the Louvre, finally representing a chance to see the Mona Lisa up close and personal without getting bumped around by throngs of fellow tourists. Each tour is a little different-try using Google Street View to explore a luxuriously empty Guggenheim, or scroll your way through a digital timeline of events at the British Museum.

Dive deep into the world’s most mysterious caverns

There are so many attractions and sights to see around the world above ground, but a trip underground can be just as rewarding. And as a bonus, now you can do it without fear of being mauled by bats. Explore ancient caves like the Carlsbad Caverns, Luray Caverns, and Chauvet Cave, which has Daisy Ridley as your tour guide. May the Force be with you. 

See Mount Everest from a helicopter  

Getting up close and personal with the world’s tallest mountain generally involves a lifetime of training, and that’s before you factor getting there. This tour, courtesy of Discovery, takes you on the journey of helicopter rescue pilots through Mount Everest, making for the most low-stakes way to take the dangerous trek imaginable.

Tilt your head to look at the Leaning Tower of Pisa 

One of Italy’s most visited sites is available for your virtual viewing pleasure through this 360-degree tour. The 186-foot tall structure is currently closed, but this tour does a great job of simulating the experience of visiting it in person, including the massive crowds. 

Hit the ski slopes of Canada

Ski season is here, and while international travel restrictions mean the famous Lake Louise Ski Resort in Alberta, Canada isn’t an option, you can take a trip down powdery slopes from the comfort of your home. Travel Alberta offers a 360 tour featuring breathtaking views of snow-covered mountains and trees. Make sure you watch in 4k for the best quality, and feel free to watch next to an open freezer for maximum effect. 

Get a close-up view of Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls is one of the most visited natural wonders in North America, but usually getting close to them involves wading through a sea of tourists wearing garbage-bag ponchos… and that’s after you’ve traversed the tourist trap-laden streets to get there. A digital experience means you skip the crowds and it guarantees you get the best views, whether you’re gazing at them from a cruise ship, or while virtually ziplining alongside the American and Canadian Horseshoe Falls

Get up close and personal with Mount Rushmore

If your deepest desire is to climb Mt. Rushmore without the fear of coming into contact with Smash Mouth fans, today’s your lucky day, you very specific person. CyArk partnered with the National Park Service to give you the opportunity to admire it in all its glory through this virtual tour. After getting acquainted with the details of former presidents’ faces, mosey on down to the Presidential Trail and get your virtual leg day on, or continue on to a virtual tour of the Badlands and make it a virtual SoDak road trip. 

Get an astronaut’s-eye view of Earth

Cue up the Bowie and get ready for lift off with actual astronauts in National Geographic’s first ever 3D virtual reality experience filmed in space. You’ll see Earth how you’ve probably never seen it before, all while zipping around it at 17,000 miles per hour. If you get a little spacesick, adjust your view and get a cool look at what an actual spaceship looks like. 
 

Journey through a South African safari in Kruger National Park 

Offering a rare chance to get close to lions, and tigers, and bears without those pesky mosquito nets or Netflix documentary crews trying to get you to admit to killing your spouse, this experience brings a full-blown safari into your home. Kruger National Park is one of Africa’s largest animal reserves and without having to book a flight, you can ride through it and observe rhinos, giraffes, and antelopes here

Take the scenic route through Switzerland

Do a brief scroll through any travel account on Instagram and it’s likely you’ll see at least one photo of Switzerland’s striking mountain ranges and distinct architecture. With this virtual Grand Train tour of Switzerland, you may even be able to feel the crispness of the air at higher altitudes. 

Just keep swimming with aquatic animals

There’s something so calming about watching animals casually mind their business and interact with each other. If you need to forget that you’re a human for a little while, many aquariums have livestreams and pre-recorded streams available. Monterey Bay Aquarium in California currently offers live cams of critters like turtles, sharks, penguins, and sea otters, while the Seattle Aquarium has you covered with their Harbor Seal Cams. The National Aquarium in Baltimore also offers live streams of exhibits featuring sea creatures such as jellyfish and stingrays. Then hit up Seamless for a little sushi, in case you’re being morbid/want a theme for the day.

Live vicariously through YouTube’s best travel channels

YouTube offers so much more than videos of people getting hit in the crotch and/or opening boxes. In fact, it’s practically bursting at the digital seams with excellent travel shows. Want to vicariously live a life at sea with a young adventurous family? There’s a channel for that. Want to follow a young Brit as he tries to visit every single country? Take a peek behind the former Iron Curtain to see what’s poppin’ in post-Soviet Europe? Just chill on a beach while folks tell you what to eat when you can finally visit yourself? YouTube is basically the world’s most robust digital travelogue library. Start your digital journey and dream big with our favorite channels here. 

Kastalia Medrano is a New York-based journalist and avid traveler. Follow her @kastaliamedrano.

Kristen Adaway, Kastalia Medrano, and Andy Kryza scoured the internet to make this list. 

Travel

Ditch your Phone for ‘Dome Life’ in this Pastoral Paradise Outside Port Macquarie 

A responsible, sustainable travel choice for escaping big city life for a few days.

nature domes port macquarie
Photo: Nature Domes

The urge to get as far away as possible from the incessant noise and pressures of ‘big city life’ has witnessed increasingly more of us turn to off-grid adventures for our holidays: Booking.com polled travellers at the start of 2023 and 55% of us wanted to spend our holidays ‘off-grid’.  Achieving total disconnection from the unyielding demands of our digitised lives via some kind of off-grid nature time—soft or adventurous—is positioned not only as a holiday but, indeed, a necessity for our mental health. 

Tom’s Creek Nature Domes, an accommodation collection of geodesic domes dotted across a lush rural property in Greater Port Macquarie (a few hours’ drive from Sydney, NSW), offers a travel experience that is truly ‘off-grid’. In the figurative ‘wellness travel’ sense of the word, and literally, they run on their own independent power supply—bolstered by solar—and rely not on the town grid. 

Ten minutes before you arrive at the gates for a stay at Tom’s Creek Nature Domes, your phone goes into ‘SOS ONLY’. Apple Maps gives up, and you’re pushed out of your comfort zone, driving down unsealed roads in the dark, dodging dozens of dozing cows. Then, you must ditch your car altogether and hoist yourself into an open-air, all-terrain 4WD with gargantuan wheels. It’s great fun being driven through muddy gullies in this buggy; you feel like Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park.  As your buggy pulls in front of your personal Nature Dome, it’s not far off that “Welcome…to Jurassic Park” jaw-dropping moment—your futuristic-looking home is completely engulfed by thriving native bushland; beyond the outdoor campfire lie expansive hills and valleys of green farmland, dotted with sheep and trees. You’re almost waiting to see a roaming brachiosaurus glide past, munching on a towering gum tree…instead, a few inquisitive llamas trot past your Dome to check out their new visitor. 

To fully capture the awe of inhabiting a geodesic dome for a few days, a little history of these futuristic-looking spherical structures helps. Consisting of interlocking triangular skeletal struts supported by (often transparent) light walls, geodesic domes were developed in the 20th century by American engineer and architect R. Buckminster Fuller, and were used for arenas. Smaller incarnations have evolved into a ‘future-proof’ form of modern housing: domes are able to withstand harsh elements due to the stability provided by the durable materials of their construction and their large surface area to volume ratio (which helps minimize wind impact and prevents the structure from collapsing). As housing, they’re also hugely energy efficient – their curved shape helps to conserve heat and reduce energy costs, making them less susceptible to temperature changes outside. The ample light let in by their panels further reduces the need for artificial power. 

Due to their low environmental impact, they’re an ideal sustainable travel choice. Of course, Tom’s Creek Nature Domes’ owner-operators, Cardia and Lee Forsyth, know all this, which is why they have set up their one-of-a-kind Nature Domes experience for the modern traveller. It’s also no surprise to learn that owner Lee is an electrical engineer—experienced in renewable energy—and that he designed the whole set-up. As well as the off-grid power supply, rainwater tanks are used, and the outdoor hot tub is heated by a wood fire—your campfire heats up your tub water via a large metal coil. Like most places in regional Australia, the nights get cold – but rather than blast a heater, the Domes provide you with hot water bottles, warm blankets, lush robes and heavy curtains to ward off the chill.

nature domes port macquarie
Photo: Nature Domes

You’ll need to be self-sufficient during your stay at the Domes, bringing your own food. Support local businesses and stock up in the town of Wauchope on your drive-in (and grab some pastries and coffee at Baked Culture while you’re at it). There’s a stovetop, fridge (stocked as per a mini bar), BBQs, lanterns and mozzie coils, and you can even order DIY S’More packs for fireside fun. The interiors of the Domes have a cosy, stylish fit-out, with a modern bathroom (and a proper flushing toilet—none of that drop bush toilet stuff). As there’s no mobile reception, pack a good book or make the most of treasures that lie waiting to be discovered at every turn: a bed chest full of board games, a cupboard crammed with retro DVDs, a stargazing telescope (the skies are ablaze come night time). Many of these activities are ideal for couples, but there’s plenty on offer for solo travellers, such as yoga mats, locally-made face masks and bath bombs for hot tub soaks. 

It’s these thoughtful human touches that reinforce the benefit of making a responsible travel choice by booking local and giving your money to a tourism operator in the Greater Port Macquarie Region, such as Tom’s Creek Nature Domes. The owners are still working on the property following the setbacks of COVID-19, and flooding in the region —a new series of Domes designed with families and groups in mind is under construction, along with an open-air, barn-style dining hall and garden stage. Once ready, the venue will be ideal for wedding celebrations, with wedding parties able to book out the property. They’ve already got one couple—who honeymooned at the Domes—ready and waiting. Just need to train up the llamas for ring-bearer duties! 

An abundance of favourite moments come to mind from my two-night stay at Tom’s Creek: sipping champagne and gourmet picnicking at the top of a hill on a giant swing under a tree, with a bird’s eye view of the entire property (the ‘Mountain Top picnic’ is a must-do activity add on during your stay), lying on a deckchair at night wrapped in a blanket gazing up at starry constellations and eating hot melted marshmallows, to revelling in the joys of travellers before me, scrawled on notes in a jar of wishes left by the telescope (you’re encouraged to write your own to add to the jar). But I’ll leave you with a gratitude journal entry I made while staying there. I will preface this by saying that I don’t actually keep a gratitude journal, but Tom’s Creek Nature Domes is just the kind of place that makes you want to start one. And so, waking up on my second morning at Tom’s —lacking any 4G bars to facilitate my bad habit of a morning Instagram scroll—I finally opened up a notebook and made my first journal entry:

‘I am grateful to wake up after a deep sleep and breathe in the biggest breaths of this clean air, purified by nature and scented with eucalyptus and rain. I am grateful for this steaming hot coffee brewed on a fire. I feel accomplished at having made myself. I am grateful for the skittish sheep that made me laugh as I enjoyed a long nature walk at dawn and the animated billy goats and friendly llamas overlooking my shoulder as I write this: agreeable company for any solo traveller. I’m grateful for total peace, absolute stillness.” 

Off-grid holiday status: unlocked.

Where: Tom’s Creek Nature Domes, Port Macquarie, 2001 Toms Creek Rd
Price: $450 per night, book at the Natura Domes website.

Get the latest from Thrillist Australia delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe here.

Related

Our Best Stories, Delivered Daily
The best decision you'll make all day.