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The 10 best live-streaming experiences to help make-believe you’re on holiday
Armchair travelling can take you anywhere
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Your support makes all the difference.Is quarantine giving you cabin fever? There may be a temporary solution: become an armchair traveller.
Destinations and attractions around the world are wising up to the fact that people would still like to “visit”, even if they can’t physically be there, and are making use of technology accordingly.
Plenty of parks and outdoor spaces have set up webcams that allow you to live-stream video at any given moment for a bit of accessible escapism.
Here are 10 of the best live-streaming experiences that let you travel without setting foot outside of your lockdown pad.
Go on a virtual city tour
Travel Curious has started running live-streamed tours from all over the world. The first one took place on 24 March and saw guide Dennis, a retired New York police officer who worked for several years as a detective, take viewers on a virtual Mafia tour of NYC.
This weekend also featured a tour of the ancient cathedral city of St Albans and a historic tour of Dublin.
More tours will be announced on the company’s Instagram page, @TravelCuriousTours.
Make like a star in Hollywood
There are a range of live cams around Los Angeles, showcasing iconic views of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Hollywood Boulevard and Venice Beach (sadly minus the body builders), all in real time. There’s also a full virtual tour of LA available at discoverlosangeles.com.
Gasp at the northern lights
Why not tick off a bucket-list activity while under lockdown? Explore.org and Polar Bears International are live-streaming footage from Churchill, Manitoba, in Canada for those keen to catch a glimpse of the northern lights. The camera is set up under the aurora oval, considered one of the best places to spot the aurora borealis. The feed is streaming 24 hours a day at explore.org.
Escape to the Caribbean
The Saint Lucia Tourism Authority is inviting people to escape to Saint Lucia with a social media series that’s airing twice a week on Instagram. There’s everything from a live DJ dance party – featuring reggae, dancehall and soca hits – to a cooking class with Saint Lucian chef Shorne Benjamin, and from guided meditation on the beach to a garden class on herbal plants and remedies. Follow @TravelSaintLucia on Instagram and click the “story” in the top left corner to take part.
Hit the beach
San Diego’s historic beachfront Hotel del Coronado, aka “The Del”, is one of America’s few surviving examples of a Victorian wooden beach resort. Armchair travellers can watch the waves crashing down on the shore and the sun beating down via The Del’s live beach cams.
Swim with sharks
Palma Aquarium in Mallorca is offering virtual visitors the chance to discover the Mediterranean’s marine life. Tropical reefs, exotic fish and even sharks will be on display in the aquarium’s live-streaming sessions, which take place Monday to Friday at 10am UK time. The aquarium is home to more than 8,000 specimens from almost 700 species.
Get down to some country music
Nashville, the official home of country music, isn’t going to let a global pandemic silence it. The Grand Ole Opry, its famed weekly country music concert, founded nearly 95 years ago, paused all shows with a live audience on 16 March, but it is still streaming acoustic performances. Check listings on Facebook and YouTube to catch the next show.
Elsewhere in Music City, plenty of artists are sharing their talents on social media and live-streaming apps. See visitmusiccity.com.
Talk to the animals
Various zoos are live-streaming to allow viewers to meet and greet the animals during lockdown. Chester Zoo has been doing live sessions on its Facebook page, including feeding time with the giraffes and pandas; Marwell Zoo has seen a huge surge in people tuning in to watch its live webcams featuring flamingos, penguins, giraffes and black-and-white ruffed lemurs, with viewer numbers hitting 64,000 last week; and the Australian Reptile Park in New South Wales is inviting people on virtual tours to experience feeding time with crocodiles, dingos and koalas.
Go birdwatching
Explore.org currently offers live webcams of all sorts of critters, including bald eagles in Iowa, courtesy of the Raptor Resource Project. Head from there to the osprey nest at Chesapeake Conservancy, then on to a feeding of great horned owls, and finish by watching exquisite hummingbirds at play.
Explore Yosemite
Experience this natural wonder in real time by clicking through to its webcams. The views include Yosemite Falls, the view of the Half Dome rock formation from the floor of Yosemite Valley, and vistas from high up on the Sierra Nevada mountain range, captured at 8,000 feet.
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