Travel from Home
This week Sphere Travel Club reveals, in its first article, how to travel from the comfort of your own home, in the hope of making the most dreamy of people travel and giving ideas to the most pragmatic.
Covid-19’s international data is scathing and the future of the travel industry has never been more uncertain. With more than half of the world’s population in total confinement, it is difficult to hope to resume a normal life within the next few weeks, let alone envisage a summer holiday like every year.
This global crisis will undoubtedly have many repercussions on our habits and especially on the free movement of people in the first instance. It is therefore essential to rethink the means of travel available to us, thanks among other things to new technologies. Moreover, since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, many of us have realized the importance of refocusing on family values, on mutual respect and trust within our entourage. This is why we believe in the importance of an exchange community for second home owners. They make their property available in complete confidence so that they can enjoy a holiday elsewhere, in a comfortable family atmosphere, while discovering new horizons.
In this article, we offer you some innovative ideas, made available to you during the confinement, to travel from home.
Virtual tours
Since the beginning of the quarantine, many cultural and tourist sites have made virtual tours available to Internet users. For example, YouVisit Explore allows 360-degree panoramic tours based on photos or videos of certain tourist sites, public events, American universities, restaurants or museums. In the hundreds of destinations available on the site, some virtual tours, such as Machu Picchu, are accompanied by descriptive audio for an even more complete visit. Whether you are looking for a guided tour of your dream destination or looking for the ideal campus for your teenager, YouVisit will make some of you happy.
Similarly, Airpano, winner of the Runet Award in 2012, offers more than 4,000 panoramas of 360 different locations, with one new destination per week, as well as over one hundred 360-degree videos with a historical description of each location. From paradise islands in French Polynesia to the snowy landscapes of Lapland, via a panoramic night view of Tokyo, on Airpano you will find all the most visited, but also the most secret destinations on our planet.
Some cities have themselves set up virtual tours via their official tourist websites, such as Bruges and Paris. Visit every nook and cranny of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Montmartre, with an audio or written explanation of most of its ornaments. For the more adventurous, wander the normally crowded streets, walk along the canals and admire the medieval buildings of the Venice of Flanders. This way, you will discover the essential tourist places to visit in these cities and avoid the queues!
Several of the most visited museums in the world have also made virtual tours of their most popular collections available on their websites. Indeed, the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, considered as the most complete museum in the world, can be fully visited both from inside and outside on the official website. You can admire the Elizabethan Baroque building, founded in 1764, from the tip of Vasilyevsky Island opposite the museum. From inside, you will appreciate the unmissable works of Velasquez, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphaël or Gauguin and Matisse, but also the famous sculptures of Michelangelo and Bartolini. Similarly, the Louvre, the largest art museum in the world, has made some of its collections available for virtual visits on the official website. Often inaccessible due to long queues and groupings in front of the museum’s most prized works, you now have access to some of them from home!
If you wish to have more virtual access to museums, Google Arts & Culture offers a multitude of virtual or image tours.
Online and Video Libraries
For those disconnected from technology, there’s nothing like a good book to take your mind on a journey. Thus, the World Digital Library offers free access to countless maps, texts, photos, recordings and short films from all eras. You will also have access to an explanation available in seven different languages, explaining the cultural gems of every library in the world. In the same way, the Milan Film Library Foundation also offers access to a catalogue of free streaming films.
For the younger ones, one month ago Amazon dropped the paid subscription to books and audio stories for children and students of all ages. As a result, they now have access to an incredible collection of stories in different languages. These stories can be downloaded to the device of their choice from this link.
Social Networks
Many bloggers on Instagram and Facebook pages are offering travel alternatives from home at this time. From a simple repost of old trips to online conferences, the net is full of travelers eagerly awaiting the opportunity to fly abroad again.
According to Forbes magazine, the best Facebook page is that of TripScout Nation, a community of travelers who share travel tips. Since the beginning of the lockdown, the Travel From Home site has been created by this community, where many online events are available to Internet users. Its events are mainly conferences or online conversation tables on a travel topic, led by experts and adventurers, such as Alison Levine, who climbed the highest peak on each continent. For example, the next conference will discuss how the quarantine can be turned into a memorable adventure.
Finally, Sphere Travel Club will feature two of its most popular destinations in the Instagram story each week during the confinement, and the destination with the most votes will be published on the Facebook page. So, on your marks and vote on our Instagram page on Wednesdays and Saturdays to discover the most beautiful images of the winning destination on our Facebook page in the following days!
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