Even in lockdown you can still travel the world! We look at some of the best travel experiences you can enjoy without leaving your four walls…
If you’re like me and you live on earth during 2020, you’ve likely found yourself in some sort of lockdown. Most of the global populartion is unable to leave the house for any non-essential reasons. And for good reason.
We’re all very keen to see the tail-end of COVID-19. But if, also like me you’re an avid traveller, being confined to the four walls of your living room is a different kind of challenge. Sure, there’s Netflix, but there’s only so many times you can watch Wild and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty before you’re itching to go on your own adventure.
Fortunately, there are still ways we can indulge our wunderlust impulses and travel from home (kinda). Sure, we’re not jet-setting off on a grand adventure, but with an open mind and a bit of resourcefulness, we can find a slice of adventure on our own doorstep.
Hike from Home
Several hiking trails are putting out the challenge for you to hike the distance of their tracks, by walking your local routes, or drumming up those steps around the home.
The Conqueror uses the mobile app ‘My Virtual Mission’, where you not only log your distance activity (like walking, running, swimming, dancing around the house to those sweet, sweet eighties tunes), you can also compete in one of their virtual challenges. They run challenges for many trails worldwide, from the Appalachian Trail in America to the length of Britain (they do shorter hikes too, if, you know, walking the length of a whole country seems like overkill). As you log your activity you can see whereabouts on the trail you would be. Once you’re finished, they will send you a medal for ‘completing’ it.
While the app itself is free to join the challenges do cost around $30 USD each. But think of how much money you’ve saved by not going to the pub all these weeks!
The Bibbulman Track, Australia’s longest hiking trail at 1000 kilometres, is hosting the Get on Track Challenge. This one allows you to ‘complete the track’ in a team of up to four people. You sign up, either with a group of friends or join an existing group, and between your team members, you cover the 1000 kilometres in six weeks. First group to the mark wins (and there are prizes).
This one is free to join. The concept was introduced as a health boost, to get people moving. Now it doubles to help keep travellers occupied while at home.
If none of the established challenges out there suit you make your own. I was booked to hike the Great Ocean Walk in Australia in April. It’s a 100km trail extending over eight days from Apollo Bay to the Twelve Apostles. As I couldn’t hike it, I decided to walk the same scheduled kilometres over the same eight-day duration. I did it through walking around my neighbourhood, home exercise, cleaning and (a lot of) laps around my lounge room. I tried to walk different routes every day, so it felt like I was going somewhere new, and when I ran out of routes, I tried different times of day (sunrise, sunset, etc.) to change things up. It was great; one because it got me out of a stale headspace but two, I ended up finding some beautiful local areas I hadn’t realised were there.
Virtual tourism
Several tourism boards, brands and operators are coming up with ways for you to ‘visit’ places without leaving home.
Art galleries, museums and parks around the world are inviting you through their virtual doors to experience exhibitions from your very own couch.
- Browse 19th century ceiling art in the Louvre
- Explore relics from antiquity at the British Museum
- Peruse the very works of Picasso at the Picasso Museum of Barcelona
You can even ‘go on safari’ with YouTube channels like Wild Earth. The app Ascape serves up several travel from home trips you can enjoy through a series of 360-degree videos. You just turn and tilt your phone to wander around.
There are hundreds of virtual tours out there, now that those in the travel industry are trying resourceful ways to stay relevant in a volatile global environment.
Google also has a few apps you can take advantage of for a bit of that ‘armchair travel’. With Google’s ‘Arts & Culture’ app Google uses it’s street view function to let you ‘move around’ inside various museums and exhibitions. I was sceptical at first, because let’s face it, it’s not the real thing. But after virtually spinning around the National Museum of modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, I was a little bit hooked by the novelty of it all.
VR Travel
In addition, both Google’s Arts & Culture app, and their Expedition app, offer augmented and virtual reality experiences. I know, it sounds futuristic and irrelevant to your daily life, but ‘the future’ is closer and more in reach than you think. The Expedition app gives you access to a whole library of places you can go ‘on excursion’ to, including places and times like Ancient Egypt (that’s right, time travel).
They do require a set of goggles to enhance the interactive and 3D effect of the videos. The app does offer kits for you to buy, but also outlines what you need to do if you’d rather get everything you need yourself. Otherwise, you can purchase VR goggles online, ranging in price from $30 – $1000 AUD (GB£25-1,300). Generally speaking, the higher the price, the better the quality and the more included (quality sound, consoles, controllers, etc.). But even if you spend $1000 it still costs less than a return flight from Sydney to Paris.
If you have a computer, the internet and the headset you can visit almost anywhere. It might not be the real deal, but it is endlessly fascinating. Being 3D, it is very surreal, and thanks to Google maps, the world is your limit.
A Taste of travel
Wine or Whiskey Tasting: Ah yes. A common activity for the traveller. The classic wine tasting (or beer, or whiskey, or… you get the drift). Just as a lot of tour operators are creating virtual experiences, so too are our friends in the classic beverage business. Unable to host you for a tasting session, plenty of wine companies and wineries are now inviting you instead to a virtual wine-tasting experience. You can order samples of their wine online, then join them on their website for the guidance.
Cook a New Meal: I’m a terrible cook, I’m the first to admit, but recently I’ve found myself with time on my hands, approximately three local restaurants I can order from, and a boredom of toast. So, cooking suddenly has its appeal.
We all know that one of the best things about travelling is the food; so what better way to travel from home than by working out how to make your favourite travel dish? You’ll find plenty of recipes online for everything from authentic Mexican to niche Burmese dishes. Get creative!
Connect
My favourite part of travelling has always been the people I meet and the stories they tell me. Of course, being in lockdown makes that hard, but not impossible.
First, you likely already have a bunch of connections you’ve picked up along your travels that you’ve not spoken to in ages, sitting right there in your social media and contacts. Apps like Zoom and Houseparty gives you the ability to ‘hang out’ online through video chat. Houseparty also has built-in games, like trivia or celebrity heads. With a drink in hand and a bunch of you playing it’s almost like you’re hanging out at that bar you all met at on your travel tour.
If you’re game for learning a language, or at least helping others to learn yours, you can also get the Tandem app. It’s designed to help language learners chat and improve their comprehension, speaking and confidence, but it’s also great for chatting to random foreign people. And considering a lot of the world is locked down, it’s easy to find someone fun to chat to for a few hours.
But if you do find yourself alone and twiddling your thumbs, missing interaction with the outside world, don’t forget we’re all still here. There’s a community of us online, writing blogs, posting pictures, and tweeting out hashtags like #travelfromhome and #virtualtravel.
We’re missing travel and we’re missing you too, so come and say hi.
