7 ways to travel when you can’t… and some!

With the Covid-19 causing lockdowns across countries, most of us have had to shelve any travel plans we’ve had. Everyone is scampering to cancel their bookings and brace oneself to the possibility of social distancing and staying in the confines of their homes for the next few weeks. Many countries have issues travel bans and advisories to its citizens.

These are times when avid travellers feel the pinch. Travel is an addiction and for many not being able to travel or not having a travel plan in place for the next few months is very disturbing. Health and safety take precedence over anything else but other than stocking essential supplies, we also have to deal with boredom and stopping ourselves from overthinking while governments and healthcare professionals are working tirelessly to contain the pandemic.

Here are 7 ways to pique your interest and help you find your travel fix: 7 ways you can travel even when you can’t.

1. Visit museums from around the world

Google Arts & Culture has partnered with over 1200 museums and galleries around the world that uses high-resolution image technology and similar controls as google street view to allow you to go on a virtual tour of the galleries and view the art collections. Many museums offer guided tours, audio guides and welcome videos and provide detailed information about each art work. The search function also helps you find art work that fits your interests by filtering by country, artist, museum, date and so on. Explore the top museums of the world such as The British museum in London, The Metropolitan museum of art in New York, Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and so on.

Visit: Museum and galleries around the globe

If you’re looking to tour Le Louvre Paris, it offers its own online virtual tours.

2. Visit important landmarks and monuments virtually

Google street view allows you to explore many monuments around the world such as the Great pyramids of Egypt, the Colosseum in Rome or the Sydney Opera House.

Additionally, you can enjoy incredible panoramic views from the top as well. For instance, get a peek of how the bird’s eye view feels like from the top of Qutub Minar in Delhi, the Eiffel tower, the Tokyo tower, Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro etc.

Visit: Important monuments of the world: a virtual visit 

3. Witness wildlife in their natural habitats

If you are an animal lover and like watching them move about in their natural habitats, then you don’t have to wait until your safari trip in Africa or Jim Corbett to witness it. Sitting anywhere in the world, you can now via live cameras view animals across the world. Be it underwater life in the Atlantic Ocean, pandas in China, Alaskan brown bears, gorillas in a Congo jungle, or leopard, rhinos and elephants in an African safari. It can be an exciting learning experience especially for kids.

Visit: Wildlife webcams from around the world

Accessibility: Most links include the audio streaming of the jungle and natural habitat

4. Watch travel stories and movies about travel

Follow your favourite travel vloggers and watch their stories. Make the best of your Netflix, amazon prime, you tube subscriptions. If you’re a history buff, there are some wonderful documentaries about the historic structures and civilisations around the world. Or watch travel guides to off-beat destinations. Binge-watch travel movies- those that inspire you to travel the world.

Accessibility: For the benefit of visually challenged, Netflix has an audio description feature with narration that describes what is happening on-screen including physical actions, facial expressions, costumes, settings and scene changes. All titles that currently have this feature can be found here. Some of the suggested titles with audio description are ‘Wine country’, ‘Tales by light’, ‘Jack Whitehall: Travels with my father, ‘Murder Mystery’, ‘Ibiza’,

Visit: Best travel movies of all time

5. Reading books- an alternate way of travelling

Reading books, like travelling, can change the way you see the world. Books give you somewhere to go when you have to stay where you are. Choose from a travelogue, a memoir or a novel that can give you a complete feel of a new city. As you follow the character through his journey, you will have witnessed a new culture, it’s people, it’s food and their inner most feelings.

Some books we recommend for you to go on a virtual wanderlust around the world are A movable feast by Ernest Hemmingway, Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, Vagabonding by Rolf Potts, On the road by Jack Kerouac

Some easy reads are: Eat, pray, love by Elizabeth Gilbert, In a sun-burned country by Bill Bryson, Around the world in 50 years by Albert Podell, My life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud’Homme

Accessibility: Most of the above mentioned books are available as audio books/ kindle versions for visually challenged

Visit: Best travel books list

6. Bring the holiday home

If you can’t go on a holiday, bring the holiday home. Some other ways to feel travel experience is to learn a new language or to embrace a new cuisine. Go a step further. Play ‘destination day’. Choose a destination and dress accordingly, cook a meal from the said cuisine and discuss trivia about the destination- its language, culture, history, people etc. This will be most appreciated by restless kids/grandkids who are probably most bored by being confined to small spaces.

7. Plan a trip for the future

The next best thing to travelling is planning your next trip. Since you may have had to cancel your trip in the wake of the pandemic strike, you can minimize your disappointment by planning the next. Think about how you’d like to unwind once the virus threat has subsided. Choose from all the places in your bucket list. And make a plan. Let us look at why now is the best time for you to make travel plans.

1.  You have the time – Usually whether you do your entire travel planning by yourself or whether you go through a travel partner, the biggest constraint is time. When you are bound by time constraints that stops you from going all-in with your plans. Being at home all the time, making these plans will give you a good time-out from your routine.
2. You can get a very cheap airfares and discounts – Most airlines around the world are slashing airfares for future travel. Cruise liners are offering up to 50% off on their fares for cruises slated for the latter part of the year. Hotel chains are offering competitive rates as well.
3. Most of the bookings can be done risk-free – Airlines and cruises are offering free cancellations/date change or credits in lieu that can be used for up to a year. And this at a cost that would be a fraction of what it would have been in a normal course. This is a way to steer clear of losses like what we faced due to currently cancelled trips.
4. More accessible rooms are available – Be it for stateroom booking for cruises or top resort stays, accessible rooms are limited in number and tend to get booked out much in advance. Given the current cancellations and hesitation for future travel, these are likely to be available for your benefit.

Visit: Why to book your (accessible) travel now 

So go ahead and make plans for your future travel now and do reach out to us to discuss your travel plans. We are also offering a risk-free zero-cancellation-fee for all trips booked with us before 30^th April, 2020 for travel dates until the end of 2020.

We hope that the situation normalizes soon and that businesses, economies and public health will bounce back to normalcy at the earliest.