Cooped up at home and want a change in scenery? Now you can enjoy stunning sights from the comfort of your own couch. From the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C., to the Highgrove Gardens in the United Kingdom, you can visit botanical gardens, flower conservatories, and museums around the world with these amazing virtual tours.
U.S. tours
New York Botanical Garden
Take a virtual tour of the New York Botanical Garden! Here, you can enjoy an in-depth viewing of The Orchid Show and learn about a variety of orchids. You’ll see them bursting in vibrant purples, reds, oranges, and pinks.
United States Botanic Garden
Virtually visit Washington, D.C., to tour the United States Botanic Garden. As a museum with living collections, its exhibits, displays, and plants are always changing. Learn all about the garden and how it’s developed over the past two centuries.
Conservatory of Flowers
The Conservatory of Flowers in San Francisco offers intimate up-close experiences with rare and endangered plants. Go see what treasures await you!
Chicago Botanic Garden
Book a virtual trip to Chicago and experience the Chicago Botanic Garden. Here, you can tour 27 colorful gardens, including the English Walled Garden and Japanese Garden. The grounds consist of 385 acres, so there’s quite a bit to see.
Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden
Aloha, Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden! Enter this unforgettable experience by virtually walking across a 500-foot-long boardwalk to see the breathtaking beauty that awaits you. The gardens here span across four acres of tropical forests, so you’ll see a variety of plant life, including orchids, giant bamboo, heliconias, and over 200 species of palms, such as coconut and mango trees.
International tours
Highgrove Gardens
Now you can visit the gardens at the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall’s private residence. Tour the Highgrove Gardens to experience the cottage garden, thyme walk, lily pool garden, and sundial garden.
Claude Monet’s Garden
Pack your virtual bags, you’re going to Giverny, France! Claude Monet’s Garden is said to have been the inspiration behind hundreds of Monet’s paintings during the last three decades of his life. Dive into this artistic wonderland and you’ll be inspired, too.
Waddesdon Manor
Visit the Waddesdon Manor in Waddesdon, England, to see stunning landscaped grounds surrounding the manor, which was built between 1874 and 1885. You’ll also experience flowerbeds and shrubs manicured to look like familiar objects.
Kew Gardens
Hop over to Richmond, England, to virtually frolic through Kew Gardens. This UNESCO World Heritage site is complete with 37 acres of woodland and 14,000 trees that change with each season. You’ll also come across Victorian glasshouses, an Alpine rock garden, and over 50,000 living plants.
Keukenhof
Virtually visit the Keukenhof in Holland to experience one of the most beautiful spring gardens in the world! Stay in the loop on the Keukenhof Facebook page to see what kind of tours it has in store.
Virtual museum tours
If museums are more your thing, you’re in luck! Plenty of museums offer virtual tours through collections and exhibitions available in partnership with Google Arts & Culture. Featured are images of various collections, and you can also walk through parts of some museums through Street View.
- Musée d’Orsay, Paris
- Van Gogh Museum – Amsterdam, Netherlands
- National Gallery of Art – Washington, D.C.
- Uffizi Gallery – Firenze, Italy
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Virtual tours of the museum’s most popular attractions and spaces
- Museum of Modern Art
- The J. Paul Getty Museum – Los Angeles, CA
- Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
- The Art Institute of Chicago
- The Palace of Versailles – Versailles, France
- Museum of Fine Arts – Boston
- Detroit Institute of Arts
- Whitney Museum of American Art
- The Frick Collection
- The Cloisters Museum and Gardens
- American Museum of Natural History
- The National Museum of Western Art – Tokyo, Japan
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art
- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
- Louvre Museum
- NYC Museums
Other tours
The Great Wall of China
Learn about the Great Wall of China and the different sections of this wonder as you virtually hike up the steps. Considered a wonder of the world, it boasts a history of over 2,000 years and stretches more than 3,000 miles across several provinces of northern China.
Kid-friendly virtual tours and exhibits
Take the kids on a virtual field trip! From zoos and aquariums to volcanoes and space, your little ones are sure to get a thrill out of these exciting tours and exhibits.
Zoos
- San Diego Zoo: Here, you can see behind-the-scenes videos and stories, watch live animal cams, download printable activities, and play online games.
- Houston Zoo: Tune in every weekday at 11 a.m. CT for live behind-the-scenes streams into daily zoo life.
- Cincinnati Zoo: Check out this zoo’s Home Safari Facebook Live events every day at 3 p.m. EST. It focuses on one animal a day and includes related activities you can do at home. You can also ask questions in the comments during the event.
- Atlanta Zoo: This zoo offers panda cam, where you can watch pandas in real-time, learn more about the animals, and see what it’s like to be a panda keeper for a day.
Aquariums
- Georgia Aquarium: Dive into live cams, including the Ocean Voyager webcam to see whale sharks, manta rays, and thousands of other amazing sea creatures.
- Monterey Bay Aquarium: This aquarium offers live webcams, where you can see sea otters, coral reefs, penguins, sharks, and jellies.
- National Aquarium: Take your time on a self-guided virtual tour! View select areas on a map and explore different scenes, from sea turtles and the Channel Islands to alligators and the Amazon River.
- Seattle Aquarium: Enjoy a half-hour video tour where you can learn about the various sea animals and food web found in the Puget Sound waters.
Farms
- Canadian Farm and Food Tours: Immerse yourself in 360–degree views of 11 different farms that include animals such as cows, sheep, mink, and pigs. Watch how foods like milk, cheese, and eggs are produced and processed, and visit Canadian apple orchards.
- Egg Farm through the American Egg Board: Here, you can learn about sustainable and environmentally friendly practices from various egg farms. You can also explore the ecosystems and food webs of an egg farm and how they’re dependent on each other.
Volcanoes
Have a blast learning about any volcano in the country by using this interactive map! Thanks to the U.S. Geological Survey, you’ll be able to see the current activity of any volcano that piques your interest.
Space
- Surface of Mars: Use the 360 mode to take a peek at what the Curiosity rover sees every day on Mars. Talk about social distancing!
- ISS Tour: See what life is like on the International Space Station by exploring its laboratories and observation decks. It’s totally out of this world!
National parks
Yellowstone National Park
Watch live-streams of the Old Faithful Geyser, and see the Mammoth Hot Springs and Mud Volcano using Yellowstone’s interactive map.
Nature
- The Nature Conservancy: This conservancy offers 11 virtual field trips through 45-minute long videos that allow students to travel the world and explore the environment. View a coastal rain forest as you paddle through in a canoe, tour the deserts of Arizona down the Verde River, and unlock secrets of fragile reefs.
- The Nature Conservancy of Oklahoma: Take a trip through the various preserves in Oklahoma’s vast wilderness to learn how unique the prairie ecosystem actually is.
- Virtual Dives: Dive deep and explore the underwater sanctuaries of places like the Florida Keys, American Samoa, Monterey Bay, and the Olympic Coast with high-res, 360-degree views.
Boston Children’s Museum
Walk through all three stories of the Boston Children’s Museum on this virtual tour to see all the fun and educational exhibits that are offered.
Smithsonian
Take room-by-room tours of permanent, past, and current exhibits, all of which are self-guided. On the second floor, you can roam the bone hall and look at all kinds of skeletons.
360 cities in 360 degrees
View panoramas of 360 cities around the world. How often can you visit New York and then venture through Dublin right after?
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