Just because travel and public events are off the table, and we’re all staying home for a while, doesn’t mean you can’t have enjoyable leisure time.
Here's a selection of free virtual experiences you can have from the comfort and safety of your home:
Museums
Google Arts & Culture offers virtual tours of museum spaces, including the Guggenheim in New York, the British Museum in London and the Acropolis Museum in Athens, as well as views into their vast collections.
Many other museums have their own tours and digitized galleries, including the Louvre, Vatican Museum, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and the Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Zoos
While Zoo Miami is closed to the public, the meerkats can still be viewed through their Meerkat Cam. The San Diego Zoo has live cameras (as well as archived footage) that allow virtual visitors to see what the penguins, tigers, koalas and other animals are up to.
Other popular zoos with streams and other digital entertainment include the Cincinnati Zoo, Zoo Atlanta, Houston Zoo and Oregon Zoo.
Aquariums
Like zoos, many aquariums have live-streams to show off what their residents are up to. Monterey Bay Aquarium has cams for sea otters, jellyfish, sharks, penguins and more.
Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium, the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta and Boston’s New England Aquarium also provide remote entertainment, such as live feeds and virtual tours
Broadway Shows
The streaming platform BroadwayHD offers a seven-day free trial, so theater fans can watch musicals like “Kinky Boots” and “Cats” and plays including “King Lear” and “A Doll’s House” from their couches. Performances range from Broadway productions to shows from London’s West End to regional offerings from American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco.
Concerts
Several musicians, including John Legend, Chris Martinand Dropkick Murphys, have put on live-streamed concerts from their homes.
Classical music fans can also tune in to performances from professionals such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Exercise Classes
Even if you can’t go to your gym, there are ways to stay fit through a quarantine. Workout apps Obé Fitness, Peloton and P.volve (among others) have free trials that let you stream live and archived workouts from home.
Other apps, instructors and studios offer fully free workouts ― some even using Zoom for live, interactive experiences.
Theme Parks
There are many unofficial YouTube videos that give viewers virtual experiences of Walt Disney World rides, such as Frozen Ever After, Pirates of the Caribbean and It’s a Small World. Google Street View has virtual tours of the parks, including Magic Kingdom and EPCOT.
Legoland theme parks have official virtual tours of the spaces and attractions as well.