Five Ways to Experience The World When You Can’t Travel

Are you feeling bummed out right now that you can’t travel? Us too. The best part of travelling is getting to try new things and have new experiences.

We found five things that can help take away some of your feelings of longing at not being able to travel and maybe inspire your next trip for when we can all travel again.

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1) Try an online cooking class

Have you ever wanted to learn how to cook a special dish you had on your travels? Now is the time to learn! Thank goodness for the internet and the digital world where we have instant access to some of the best teachers in the world.

Learn to cook great dishes from some of the world’s best chefs like Gordon Ramsay and Wolfgang Puck at Masterclass.

Check out The Chef and Dish for an awesome variety of classes that can help you learn to cook new styles of cooking from all over the world. Check out their website to see all the classes you can join in on.

2) Try virtual tours and performances

Where is your favourite place in the world? Where would you love to show your kids? Maybe you want to show them where you walked across the tower bridge in London? Or see the Mona Lisa at the Louvre without the crowds?

As fantastic as these virtual tools are, they cannot beat the real thing. But when we can’t travel, they give us an excellent opportunity to inspire and educate our kids about the world, history and different cultures.

Google Earth and the Street View function on Google Maps are two fun digital tools that you and your kids can have hours of fun and exploration.

Museums With Virtual Tours

Google’s Arts & Culture is a great way to view art from all over the world using google street view. Check out the list of museums and cultural institutions they’ve partnered with here.

Zoos & Aquariums

Sites and Monuments

• United States National Parks (Our Favourite is Hawaii Volcanoes National Park)

Performances

Being stuck at home is an excellent opportunity to try something new, like watching an Opera. The Metropolitan Opera is streaming some of their most memorable performances such as La Boheme. Find them here at www.metopera.org

Do you love Broadway shows? Broadway HD offers a free seven-day trial period. Binge-watch famous shows you’ve always wanted to see like Cats, Kinky Boots, and Les Miserables.

Follow your favourite musicians on their Instagram pages.

 Many are trying to add some light and positivity into our lives by performing online!

As well as Keith Urban, you can also find performances by John Legend, Chris Martin and Pink, to name a few, and I’m sure there will be more to come!

3) Research your family history

When you can’t travel is the perfect time to research your family heritage and ancestry.

Ancestry.com is my favourite site where you can research your family history. They make it so easy to find your ancestors with the little leaves that pop up after you start to enter your family tree.

You can also take a DNA test to see which area of the world your ancestors lived throughout the ages. Maybe finding out your family’s history will have you planning a family heritage trip to retrace your family’s roots.

4) Travel-inspired books and movies

Watching a good movie or reading a good book that can transport you right into a story is a great way to feel as if you’ve been transported directly into the story. When you can’t travel watching a good movie can really help you relieve some of your restlessness.

Inspiring Movies

We like these travel-inspired movies!

• Midnight In Paris
• Eat, Pray, Love
• Under The Tuscan Sun
• Mitty
• Murder On The Orient Express
• National Lampoons Vacation
• Crazy Rich Asians
• Lost In Translation
• Brave
• The Sound Of Music
• Ratatouille
• Rio
• Coco
• Moana
• Lilo & Stitch
• Kung Fu Panda
• The Hunchback Of Notre Dame

Here is a list of 50 Best Travel Movies put together by Conde Nast Traveler

Great Books

For Mom & Dad

For The Kids

5) Learn a new language

Have you always dreamed of being able to speak French in Paris, or Italian on your next trip to Rome? 

There is no better time than when we are all stuck in our homes and can’t travel to learn something new like a language.

Language learning apps like Babbel and Duo Lingo are a great way to get started learning a new language quickly and easily. 

Conclusion

Travelling gives us so many wonderful things. We create unforgettable memories, have new experiences and try new things, and spend quality time with our loved ones. 

Now more than ever we need some fun and positive things to keep us busy, beat the boredom and inspired about the future.

Even though you can’t travel right now, there are so many resources available online to help keep us learning about the world, new cultures, experience new things and continue creating memories with our families. Even if we are at home doing it!

Save It For Later

Another great way to spend time when you can’t travel is to create a travel journal for trips you’ve already taken.

You might be interested in these posts!

• Getting Started With Travel Journaling
• 70 Writing Prompts to Inspire Your Travel Journal
• 10 Instagrammers That Will Inspire Your Travel Journal

Amanda Sax

Mom to 3 awesome kids, several pets and married to a big kid who makes me laugh.  My goal is to inspire moms like me to find ways to travel and reconnect with their families.