Armchair Travel: Virtually Travel the World At Home

For all my Blissful Wanderers out there, here are some fun and free ways to virtually travel the world while we safely stay home. I hope they bring you bliss and during this unusual time, and fulfil your wanderlust until we can travel again.

And to all of you, who have had to cancel vacations and dream trips, I feel for you. Ben and I were supposed to be spending the rest of the year travelling around the South Pacific (Sri Lanka, Bali, New Zealand, and the Cook Islands), but of course, all those plans have now been cancelled. First world problems? Absolutely! Above all, I am so grateful we are safe, have a comfortable place to live in Byron Bay, and we are healthy. And wherever you are in the world, I hope you are too.

Listen to Music from Across the World

Music is so interconnected to places in the world, and listening to it can mentally bring us to the destination. Plus, it’s a fun and easy way to virtually travel the world while staying home. For example, I personally find French music relaxing, Spanish music really romantic and Mexican music upbeat and happy. Here is a few fun Spotify playlists to take you somewhere else!

• Spanish Guitar Music
• French Jazz music
• African Music
• Italian Music
• Mexican Music
• Hawaiian & Reggae Music

Dance Your Way Around the Globe

Since you are already listening to international music, grab your quarantine buddy and get dancing! Bonus, this is a great way to bond with your partner and get in some exercise. Here are some international dancing styles for you to Youtube to learn:

• Salsa lessons from Cuba
• Hula moves from Hawaii
• Celtic dancing from Ireland
• Bollywood from India
• Tango from Argentina

Virtually Travel the World Through Yoga Classes

My next way to virtually travel the world at home is through online yoga classes! One of my favourite Youtube Yoga channels is Boho Beautiful. I love that she films all her yoga, pilates and meditation videos in beautiful places around the world. For instance, this morning I did a 25 minutes morning yoga class in Greece, and yesterday I did a 10-minute Pilates workout challenge in Indonesia. Not only will you be transported to a new place each day, but you’ll get in a great workout or stretch sesh in too!

Cook International Cuisines or Order Takeaway

Transport your taste buds and your meals with internal recipes or themed meal nights! For example, for taco Tuesday and Cinco de Mayo, we had a fun Mexican meal where we put on Mexican music, drank margaritas and ate tacos with fresh guacamole! It was so much fun and actually lifted our spirits theming the whole evening.

The above photos are from Copenhagen’s trendy Meatpacking District. Read my Copenhagen 4-Day Itinerary to see & learn more.

Another delicious option would be an Italian night where you make your own pizza or homemade pasta! Also, I saw one of my friends made homemade sushi rolls and ramen, which would be super fun and tasty.

But, if you aren’t into cooking, support a local restaurant by ordering takeaway! You may be at home, but all these international flavours will bring you somewhere else.

Make an International Cocktail

Quarantini anyone? Anyone else living for at-home happy hour these days?

And since we can’t travel, why not create a cocktail from another country?! Even better, do this over Facetime with your friends. This means you share the recipe in advance and at the beginning of the call you can mix up the new recipe together. Below are some super simple cocktails you can whip up for your next at-home happy hour. Cheers!

• White Port Tonic
• Sangria
• Margaritas
• Mojito
• Pimms Cup
• Pisco Sours
• Aperol Spritz

Revamp your Outdoor Space

Another way to feel like you are travelling at home is to revamp your backyard or patio to feel like you are on vacation! For instance, add some plants, lighting, sheepskin rugs or a splash of paint to transform your space and make it feel European, Tropical or Scandinavian. Here are some inspirational pins to help you get creative.

But if you don’t have the budget, just have a Parisian picnic on a rug in your living room or backyard! Use your imagination, put on the French playlist, eat a baguette with cheese and rosé, and Voila, you’re under the Eiffel Tower! For more inspiration, check out my Outdoor Spaces Pinterest Board.

Virtually Travel the World with Online Tours

Feeling a little stir crazy looking at the same 4 walls of your home? Take a virtual tour of somewhere you’ve never been before. There are lots of incredible museums and cities are offering virtual tours of their attractions, and some artists are putting on free shows. Here are a few to check out:

Museums

• Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam
• Musee du Louvre in Paris
• The Vatican Museum in Rome
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City
• The British Museum in London
• Vancouver Aquarium watch cute animals on a live stream

Virtually Travel the World

• Visit 113 national parks around the world with Google Art & Culture
• Tourism Australia has created 360-degree videos so you can visit the Great Barrier Reef, Sydney Harbour, and Whitehaven Beach while you stay home.
• Watch a free Opera Concert or Ballet in Europe

*Alternatively, you can visit some of the countries I’ve been to by watching my saved Instagram Highlights at @amberstorie. On there you can see stories of Portugal, Greece, Croatia, and France. Plus many more!

Travel the World with a Good Book

Who doesn’t love curling up with a good book and a hot cuppa tea? Especially when they take you on a journey somewhere new! Light a candle or put on the fireplace and you have yourself a cozy afternoon. All these books listed remind me of travel, are about journeys or helped me understand a destination better by learning about their history.

Travel Books to Virtually Travel the World

• Crazy Rich Asians Trilogy; By Kevin Kwan
• The Alchemist; By Paulo Coelho
• Eat Pray Love; By Elizabeth Gilbert
• A House In The Sky; By Amanda Lindhout
• How Not To Travel The World Adventures of a Disaster-Prone Backpacker; By Lauren Juliff
• The Tattooist of Auschwitz; By Heather Morris [Note: not necessarily a travel book, but one that I read while I was in Krakow, Poland and helped me understand their history better. Highly recommend for anyone who enjoys history, romance, and learning about WWII].
• Paris, My Sweet; By: Amy Thomas [If you love food and Paris, you need to read this girlie novel].

To see the full list of the best travel books for females, check out this blog post. Have I missed any must-reads? Make sure to share your favourite travel books in the comments below. (I would love some new ones to read).

Virtually Travel the World Through Movies & TV Shows

There are so many amazing shows and movies to binge these days. But the following are a few are my absolute favourites to virtually travel the world from the comfort of your couch. Be sure to make up some stove-top popcorn with coconut oil & butter (my ultimate favourite snack) and snuggle up to enjoy!

If you want to see my full list of 47 travel movies and shows to inspire your wanderlust, click on this blog post.

• The Holiday [I know it isn’t Christmas, but watching Jude Law in that adorable English cottage is worth it!]
• Eat Pray Love [New York, Italy, India, Bali]
• Midnight in Paris [Paris, France]
• Sex in the City Movie I &II [Mexico & Abu Dhabi]
• Harry Potter Series [Maybe not technically travel, but you do see snippets of London & you travel into a magical realm – what’s not to love!]
• Planet Earth [Plus, David Attenborough’s voice is SO calming].
• Netflix Show: Most Beautiful Thing [Based in Brazil. Great vibe, music and drop-dead gorgeous scenery!]
• Restaurants on the Edge [Each episode takes you to a new country and explores it’s food, architecture and culture all to help restaurants from going under].

Make a Photo Album or Develop Photos to Frame

You know all those amazing [travel] photos you’ve taken in the past? How often do you actually go back and look at them? If you are like me, not often enough.

This is a great time to go back down memory lane and find your favourite photos to develop and frame or put into a photo album that you can look back on often. Similarly, you could make a scrapbook style album, an old school photo album, or I’ve been interested in trying a service like Chatbooks, Papier, or Artifact Uprising. These are websites where you upload your photos, and you can style a coffee table book which is then printed off and mailed to you. 

Fun Idea: Print off multiple photo books or copies of photos to send to a friend or family member to cheer them up during this time!

Pinterest & Travel Blogs

Two things that always get me inspired are Pinterest and reading new blogs. Pinterest is a great way to find new blogs that have travel guides, recipes or style inspiration you are looking for. Also, Pinterest is where I have found a lot of other incredible travel bloggers that share their adventures and tips for travelling to places I want to go to.

In fact, Pinterest and Travel Blogs are the first places I look when I start researching for future trips. This is because, I normally find more up to date information and genuine reviews on where to stay, what to do, and even helpful itineraries that help me map out how long we should travel to various destinations. And the best part is, blogs are mostly free information that you can easily access anywhere, including on your trip. I’ve also used and read Lonely Planet travel books and, although helpful, there is a lot of information to sift through that isn’t always relevant to how I want to travel.

Make sure to follow my Pinterest Boards for Travel Inspiration and Guides, Personal Style, Motivational Quotes, and International Recipes.

Make a Bucket List

Dream now, visit later! Start dreaming by listing all the bucket list places you want to go around the globe. Take it a step further and also include the experiences you want to have or things you want to do. For example, two things on my bucket list are: to see the Northern Lights in Iceland and swim with whale sharks in the Philippines. What’s on your list?

Once you create your list, print it out and put it somewhere where you will see it often. Like on your fridge or above a desk. When the world re-opens their arms for travellers, you’ll be ready to pick from your list of bucket-list destinations and just book a flight!

Plan your Next Trip

I don’t know about you, but one of my favourite things to do is plan our next trip. Planning a holiday is sometimes just as exciting as the trip itself, and we could all do with a bit of excitement right now. Additionally, planning a holiday can take a lot of time and effort

We may not know when we can travel again, but that doesn’t mean you still can’t plan the following:

• Where you want to go next
• Regardless of dates, you can still start researching accommodations (dream hotels or Airbnbs you want to stay within your budget).
• Experiences and places you want to see when you are there
• Start researching restaurants or cafes you want to eat at
• Also, plan out your itinerary
• And figure out how much you need to save

Learn a New Language

How many times have you been on a trip and said, “this would be so much easier if I just spoke the local language” – I know I’m guilty of that! We’ve all had our fair share of miscommunications when it comes to visiting a country that speaks another language. But with all this extra time on our hands, why not learn a new language or two.

Free App for Language Learning

Since I am Canadian, I’ve been working to improve my French using a FREE app called Duolingo. It has little games you can play that help improve your vocabulary. On the other hand, there are tons of great YouTube lessons you could learn with. Another great way to learn a language at home is to watch one of your favourite movies in the language you want to learn. You can put the subtitles on and if you already know the plot or script you’ll be to understand what they are saying while hearing the pronunciation of the words. 

Practice your Photography Skills

I’ll be the first to admit that I have so much to learn about my camera and how to use it to its full potential. For example, there are skills like lighting, angles, and composition that can transform a photo, and all of these things can be learned with practice. Spend this time indoors mastering your craft and trying new camera settings and natural lighting at different times of the day.

Also, play around with a tripod or use a remote to take photos of yourself, by yourself. After all this practice at home, you’ll be nailing all the photos on your next trip. From experience, I recommend learning with:

Photography Learning Tools

• Skillshare
• YouTube
• The Beginner’s Photography Guide book
• Or start saving photos on Pinterest and Instagram that catch your eye. Studying these and understand why they are appealing to you.

Additionally, I also recommend editing photos with a computer program called Adobe Lightroom. You can also use Lightroom with an app on your phone, but I feel you can make better edits with the computer version. If you’ve never used it before, now could be a great time to learn, and they are even doing a two-month free trial if you want to give it a try!

READ NEXT

The Best Travel Books for Females to Read Right Now

Best Travel Movies and Shows to Inspire Your Wanderlust

30 Lessons I’ve Learned from Travelling

Why I Quit My Dream Job to Travel

Setting Goals you Will Actually Keep

PIN FOR LATER: VIRTUALLY TRAVEL THE WORLD

If you loved this blog post on how to virtually travel the world, then make sure to pin it for later and share it with a friend who would love it too! And if you try any of these fun ways to virtually travel the world at home, make sure to tell me about it in the comments below.