Like a lot of people, my 2020 travel plans were ruined by the pandemic. Virtual tourism has become something of a cottage industry since COVID-19 went and made a mockery of our carefully curated trip itineraries—even AirBNB has adapted their Experiences feature to include a safe, online alternative. Since a lot of us have been stuck at home, museums, galleries, and other educational facilities have been seeing a major increase in web traffic and virtual tours have been popping up all over the place, allowing for safe and interactive ways to stay entertained and educated.
Here are just a few of the amazing virtual tours available for some of the most famous historical sights in the world. Some of them include audio narration and some even work with 3D headsets. Bon voyage!
European Virtual Tours
1. Venice
2. Louvre Museum
Click the image to visit their 7 virtual galleries.
3. Le Hameau de la Reine at Versailles Palace
Interior and exterior 360 tours of Marie Antoinette’s village. Click the image below to visit.
4. The Catacombs of Paris
Click the image below to visit the underground resting place.
5. Rome
Click the image below to see 360-degree views of the Colosseum, Vatican City, the Spanish Steps and even more of Rome’s best-known sites.
6. The Tower of London
Visit the medieval fortress by clicking the image below.
7. Pompeii
Visit the Roman city frozen in time by clicking the image below.
8. The Acropolis
Click the image below to check out the famous landmark in Athens.
South American Virtual Tours
9. Machu Picchu
Skip the hike and click below to visit Peru’s UNESCO Heritage Site.
10. Galapagos Islands
Asian Virtual Tours
11. Bagan
Visit one of Myanmar’s ancient Bagan temples by clicking below.
12. Great Wall of China
Click below to see 19 amazing 360-degree views of the 13,000-mile wall.
13. Petra
Learn more about the ancient city in Jordan with the 360-degree video tour below.
African Virtual Tours
14. Tomb of Queen Meresankh III
Click below to visit the tomb of Queen Meresankh III, an Egyptian queen from the 26th century BCE.
15. Amphitheatre of El Jem
Located in modern-day Tunisia, this amphitheatre was originally built around 238 AD.
North American Virtual Tours
16. Chichen Itza
Learn more about this Mayan architectural wonder by clicking the graphic below.
17. Mesa Verde
These Native American cliff dwellings located in modern-day Colorado feature one of the most amazing views. Click below to learn more.
18. Alcatraz Island
Click the graphic below to visit the tour for this famous island prison.
19. Stonewall National Monument
Click below to learn more about the 1969 uprising that started a revolution for LGBTQ Americans.
20. Royal Ontario Museum
Stroll through the ROM virtually by clicking the image below or you can see more of their items in their online archive.
Jillianne Hamilton is a history enthusiast and the author of 
Something people in academia need to understand, is VR. People don’t want a stand-in-place, 360 image of a location. They want a full, 3D scanned experience that they can wander around in, much like playing a video game in VR. The technology to do this has existed for many years now, yet nobody is using it. In person tours of historical sites are run by tour guides. Tourists are not allowed to go beyond ropes or leave the group to examine something close up. Many interesting places are off limits entirely. Full 3D scanned VR experiences gets rid of the restrictions imposed on tourists and allows them to experience the site in a way they would never be able to in person. VR also allows sites to be rendered as they may have been in ancient times, which is something nobody can see in person. I hope they get their act together soon, so people can marvel at mankind’s achievements over the centuries instead of just seeing cheap, 360 still images.
This is literally the only reason I’m interested in VR—visiting the past. I think tourism operators might be hesitant to “give away” too much of the experience though while many publically funded sites don’t have the budget for something like that.
I second the idea that the IDEAL is an “I’m there” experience, however, the tech and motivation is not there yet and 360 still images are an important step to that ideal, mostly by unpaid enthusiasts like myself. Like stairs, you have to start at the bottom. I would like to see a system that incentivizes creatives (either through monetary compensation or recognition) to MAKE the virtual content in collaboration with the conservators, who also get compensated in some way acceptable to them so that the RL sites will get funded. Issues of copyright and IP can get in the way of just doing it, but must be addressed, preferably before the actual sites disappear.