The Best 100+ Virtual Tours for an Armchair Tourist

It can be challenging for travel lovers when we can’t travel. Trust me, I know! The great news is there are so many creative ways to scratch that itch for travel from the comfort of your own living room!

It really just calls for more creativity and curiosity (and some online searching). Here are some of the best virtual tours that I found for an armchair tourist to celebrate your love of traveling while in your pajamas in your living room!

And don’t forget to support the businesses, museums, and organizations you love to make sure they will be around tomorrow and for future generations.

machu picchu, andes mountains, peru, virtual tour, virtual tourist — Machu Picchu, Peru

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What is an Armchair Tourist?

Believe it or not, the term “armchair travel” was actually around well before 2020. Previously, it was focused on sensory travel experiences for people who were either physically incapacitated or elderly and incapable of traveling.

An armchair tourist is essentially someone who participates in armchair travel.

Of course, now, this term has a much broader meaning. Whether someone is physically incapable of traveling or can’t for any reason, the label of “armchair tourist” still fits!

It doesn’t matter if it’s due to financial challenges or other restrictions. We can still get our travel fix right from the comfort of our own homes even when we can’t travel.

What’s It Take to be an Armchair Tourist and Is It Worth It?

Nowadays, anyone can be an “armchair tourist.” We can see so many places in the world without even leaving living our homes. There are so many different virtual experiences, and the opportunities have expanded dramatically with a recent surge of energy and creativity.

Take a cooking class, tour a museum, wander a city’s streets, or check out a watering hole in Africa. You can find almost any type of experience you’re seeking.

It may not be quite the same experience as being in person but just think — no flight, so you can instantly be transported to a new destination with a little imagination and openness, lower cost, and still a fantastic experience. Something to think about! There is an up-side.

I may be a tad late to the game on this personally, and here’s why—I thought it would make it harder for me while I can’t travel. That it might feel like a tease seeing the world and not being able to go, I was a bit resistant, but let me tell you, I’m so impressed!

I have been thoroughly enjoying the research I’m doing for this piece and plan to participate in many of the options I share. A number of them, I already have!

chairs in front of a waterfall, armchair travel, virtual travel, armchair tourist, airbnb online experience, airbnb virtual tours

Types of Virtual Travel

Virtual travel has been around for quite a while now. Necessity is the mother of invention, and of course, the volume of virtual travel and tours has increased exponentially. For this article, I’m breaking virtual travel into three groupings: live virtual tours, online tours, and live cams.

Live virtual tours are when you do something live online, whether it’s a walking tour, a cooking class, or the like. It may be private or a group of people.

Online tours for this article are either pre-recorded videos or short video snippets that are not recorded live. Live cams are cameras that display real-time on location. They may be fixed or moveable to provide different views.

There really isn’t a better or worse with these, as it depends on the experience you’re seeking and your budget. Some of these are free, and some, like the live virtual tours, do have a cost. Of course, the cost is relative as it’s much less than if you went in person!

Live Virtual Tours

A number of well-known and reputable companies are jumping on the bandwagon with live virtual tours. They started small, and with an enthusiastic response from armchair travelers, they are increasing their offerings.

If you don’t see something you’re interested in, flag the page and go back. They’re adding more tours regularly.

Get Your Guide Virtual Tours

This is one of my favorite tour companies when I travel, so I’m excited to check out their virtual tour offerings. Here are some that I’m looking at:

Live tour of Pompeii, a city frozen in time — Pompeii, Italy. Tour with a leading archaeologist!
Tour of the Acropolis — Athens, Greece

Places I have been that I highly recommend:

Vatican and the Sistine Chapel — Rome, Italy
Colosseum and Gladiators — Rome, Italy
The Louve Museum with an Art Historian — Paris, France
Venice live interactive tour — Venice, Italy

I went to the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel with a guide who was an art historian, and it was an incredible experience. If you’re (a tad nerdy and) an art and history lover, I highly recommend it!

They also have some fun cooking classes if you’re eager to try your hand at something new. I’m a huge fan of fresh pasta, so if you do that one and live in Phoenix, please invite me for the taste test. 🙂

Virtual pasta-making class — Rome
Live virtual cooking class with a professional chef — Paris, Rome, Philadelphia

making pasta, make fresh pasta, online experience, virtual tour, virtual cooking class, airbnb virtual tour

eatwith Online Experiences

Oh my, I may have just found my favorite new place for virtual culinary experiences.

I cannot wait to take some of these classes! I just learned about this organization, and I must say I’m smitten. I can’t wait to be able to travel to try out some of their live experiences as well!

Ice cream is one of my favorite foods, and gelato is the creme de la creme. What could be better than eating gelato, except perhaps learning how to make gelato so you can eat it all the time?! Wow. Dangerous!
Or learn how to make everyone’s favorite food: pizza! Three different ways. Learn from a master in Florence how to make the perfect ‘za.

They offer online cooking classes and workshops to tide you over until you can travel or in-person events when you’re away and looking for a fun time cooking with new friends. I don’t know about you, but I’m getting hungry! 🙂

There are a lot of different experiences offered by this company. Adding a live experience to a trip you’re on is a great way of making it even better and more personal.

Airbnb Online Experiences

There are so many online experiences with Airbnb that it’s impossible to choose! A friend of mine took an Airbnb virtual tour and couldn’t rave enough. Here are some of the ones I’m most interested in as well as a link to the main page. Check them out.

Take a Brazilian samba class with a dancer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where samba got its start! (Of course, you can do this from the comfort of your own home. So, who cares what you look like as long as you have fun!)
Learn to make a caipirinha while delving into life in Rio, Brazil. If you’ve never had one, be ready to have your socks blown off! They are great!
Delve into the secrets of Chaing Mai, Thailand. Journey into the past while immersing in the city’s unique and vibrant history, learning stories along the way.
Learn about nature in New Zealand on a farm. Enjoy the gorgeous landscape along with some adorable farm animals. Or, if you’d like to focus just on goats, check out this experience at a goat rescue.
Enjoy cooking experiences from all around the world! Make empanadas and chimichurri in Argentina,,sushi in Tokyo, Moroccan tagine, Vietnamese food, or an authentic Turkish breakfast. Remember the pastel de nata that I was OBSESSED with when I visited Portugal? You can learn to make them, too! (And again, I’m happy to taste test for you!)

man pulling a rickshaw with a woman in it, rickshaw in tokyo

Online Tours

These online tours aren’t live, but many give you the feel of being live and on location. Some are videos on YouTube. Others are loaded on their site. And some are pictures of the incredible artwork shown in their museums. There’s a little something for most here.

Explore Museums and View Works of Art

One of the most famous and iconic museums in Paris is the Louve. It’s massive, and you can’t see everything in a day. This museum houses many famous works of art, and probably the most famous is the Mona Lisa.

When I went to Paris on my first solo trip, I wanted to explore the Louve but felt a bit overwhelmed. So, I got a Cart de Musee (museum pass) where individual visits were free, and I stopped by most days on my way back to my hotel.

I’d spend an hour or so exploring a different part each day. I still didn’t see it all, but boy did I fall in love with that museum!

The Louve even has video “shorts” where you can see some exhibits and get a short lesson as well. Want to see the Mona Lisa up-close without the massive throngs of people? Check out other Louve works of art? Or even learn about the history of the Louve itself? You can do all of that online now.

Art Museums

If you’d rather see art museums through images and not videos, you can do that too! Check out museums from all over the world, including some favorites of mine:

Van Gogh Museum — Amsterdam, Netherlands
Vatican Museum — Vatican City, Italy
National Gallery of Art — Washington D.C., United States
Uffizi Gallery — Florence, Italy
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) — New York City, United States
Botero Museum — Bogota, Colombia
Norman Rockwell Museum — Stockbridge, Massachusetts, United States
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum — Boston, United States
Reina Sofia Museum — Madrid, Spain

There are art museums from all over the world, including Japan, Hong Kong, Argentina, Mexico, and many others, so check this out!

the louve, louve, louve paris — The Louve, Paris

Other Museums and Places of Interest

It’s not just art museums getting in on the armchair tourist virtual action. Some of these are favorites of mine, including the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, Tenement Museum, and Winchester Mystery House.

Some of these are virtual tours and video clips, while others are exhibits. I cannot gush enough about the Tenement Museum if you’re a history lover. I have been there in person many times and done their virtual tours, and they are all amazing. I even wrote this post about it.

National Women’s History Museum — Alexandria, Virginia, United States
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History — Washington D.C., United States
Winchester Mystery House — San Jose, California, United States
Legoland — Carlsbad, California, United States
Walt Disney World and Disney Land — Virtual tours of the theme parks in California and Florida, United States
Universal Studios — Orlando, Florida, United States
Tenement Museum — New York City, NY, United States
National Anthropological Museum — Mexico City, Mexico

Another fascinating thing I found was the Google Arts Project: Street Art. It shares the world’s greatest street artworks and shares the stories behind them about the artists and their pieces. If you’re obsessed with street art like I am, check it out!

Zoos and Aquariums

I personally don’t often visit zoos and museums as I don’t love seeing animals in captivity. However, I understand the educational aspect of them, so I do occasionally visit them.

And when you can’t travel, sometimes you want to see some adorable tigers, bears, seals, and hippos! Here are some zoos and aquariums with virtual visits for armchair tourists.

Monterey Bay Aquarium — Monterey, California, United States
National Aquarium — Baltimore, Maryland, United States
San Diego Zoo — San Diego, California, United States
Atlanta Zoo Panda Cam — Atlanta, Georgia, United States

If you’d rather visit Baltimore, Maryland, in person, check out this fun post I found!

Explore Famous Locations

It’s not just museums getting in on virtual sharing! Here are some other well-known places that you can also tour from the comfort of your sofa.

The White House — Washington D.C., United States
Eiffel Tower — Paris, France
Versailles — Paris, France
Anne Frank House — Amsterdam, Netherlands
Sanssouci Palace Picture Gallery — Potsdam, Germany
Giza Pyramids—Cairo, Egypt

Many of them even include write-ups about the pieces so you can learn more about them as you view them.

Visit Castles and Palaces

If you’re obsessed with castles and historic architecture, here are some places to add to your virtual travel list:

Windsor Castle — London, England
Wavel Castle — Krakow, Poland
Prague Castle — Prague, Czech Republic
Neuschwanstein Castle — Hohenschwangau, Germany – a personal favorite
Snežnik Castle — Kozarišče, Slovenia
Montserrat Abbey — Montserrat, Spain
Pena Palace — Sintra, Portugal
Drachenburg Castle — Königswinter, Germany
Edinburgh Castle — Edinburgh, Scotland
Real Alcazar— Seville, Spain

I love castles, churches, and other historical architecture, and I visit them often. I wrote posts about a few of these noted above, including Neuschwanstein, Montserrat, Pena Palace, and Real Alcazar. Check them out!

pena palace, sintra castle, sintra palace, sintra, portugal, virtual visits, virtual tours, armchair tourist

View Cities and Places from Above

I may be a little bit obsessed with my new favorite site, AirPano. It has many cities and beautiful natural areas that you can see from above, and it’s spectacular.

Madrid, Spain
Seville, Spain
Valencia, Spain
Belfast, U.K.
Mykonos Island, Greece
Zermatt, Matterhorn, Switzerland
Moskow Kremlin, Russia
Porto, Portugal
Bern, Switzerland
Budapest, Hungary
Bangkok, Thailand
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Hong Kong City, Hong Kong

There are SO many more places on this website, and I think I’m kind of in love with it. I *might* have gone back to it at least half a dozen times while researching and writing this article. Maybe.

Check out my posts on Madrid, Seville, Porto, and Bangkok for some travel inspiration!

Other Experiences

This list is a selection of many different experiences, from swimming with sharks, touring Japanese shrines, exploring cities, and seeing the incredible seven Wonders of the World. Now’s your time to check some of these incredible experiences off on your bucket list virtually!

Diving with great white sharks — Have you ever wanted to swim with sharks? Now’s your chance.
Visit the Great Barrier Reef — No need to be scuba certified on this tour.
Explore Antarctica ice caves — Get a taste of Antarctica without freezing your @$$ off!
Explore Switzerland by train — Take in this exhilarating journey through some beautiful scenery.
African safari in Kruger National Park, South Africa — Your very own personal safari from home.
Niagara Falls boat cruise — You can almost feel the power of these falls as you cruise around them.
Visit Carlsbad Caverns in Arizona — Learn about the incredible beauty of this living cave.
Tour many U.S. national parks, including the Badlands, Acadian, Arches, Bryce, Joshua Tree, Olympic National Park, Yellowstone, Yosemite, and many more!
See the Seven Wonders of the World — Machu Picchu, the Great Wall of China, Christ the Redeemer, Petra, Chichen Itza, the Colosseum, and the Taj Mahal. If you haven’t seen them, now’s your chance!
Hike the Inca Trail in Peru —Hiking the Inca Trail is an incredible excursion.
Visit Austria — Both city and nature lovers will be thrilled with this selection.
Eiffel Tower — Head to the top with no lines and no pickpockets!

great wall of china, great wall, virtual travel, virtual trip, virtual trips — Great Wall of China

Other Virtual Viewing

Or, maybe you’d like to view something outside of the earth or above it. If that’s your thing, check out the NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) pages. There are some really interesting images and online exhibits that I’ll be checking out!

And here’s another interesting one called CyArk. This non-profit organization works to digitally record and share our world’s cultural heritage.

They have captured more than 200 monuments on all seven continents. You can see the Moai of Easter Island, the historic city of Ayutthaya in Thailand, and the ancient temples in Bagan, Myanmar. I have a feeling I’ll be adding some new places to my list once I dig in!

Take in the view from the top of the Eiffel Tower of one of the most beautiful cities in the world, Paris.

Live Cams

These live cams show some amazing things that you might not get to see, even if you’re on location. I know I got caught up in watching some of the wildlife viewing cams when researching for this post.

If your sound is turned on on your computer, you’ll be alerted when there’s action and can quickly switch over to watch in real time. It’s pretty amazing!

Wildlife Viewing

If wildlife is your thing, you can get a bird’s-eye view (pun intended!) Here’s a number of different animals you can watch on live cams from all around the world. I don’t know about you, but watching the baby pandas seriously makes me want to snuggle one!

Watering holes in Laikipia County, Kenya
Bald eagles in Iowa, United States
Tembe Elephant Park, South Africa
Northern Lights in Churchill, Canada
Happiness Village Baby Panda Garden — Gengdu, Sichuan, China

There’s a lot more available, so check them out to find what you’re most interested in. Many zoos are also getting in on the live-action, including the San Diego Zoo.

Kids (and big kids alike!) will enjoy watching the animals, including elephants, lions, penguins, apes, and more.

watering hole, africa watering hold, lion drinking from a lake, lion drinking from a watering hole, lion drinking, live cam, africa cam — Lion drinking at a watering hole in Africa

Try Out Virtual Travel from Home

There are virtual tours around the world that can help take the pain out of those times when you can’t travel. Some are live with a virtual tour guide, others are pre-recorded journeys, and there are even live cams where you can catch the action as it’s happening.

Online travels may not be quite as exciting as going in person, but there are upsides to an armchair tourist. How else could you see the wonders of the Great Wall in China in the morning and tour the Colosseum in Rome in the afternoon?

I’d love to know what your favorites are in the comments below. Happy online travels!