Satisfy your inner wanderlust with these online activities

The month of June has always been a prime period for families and friends to travel and have a blast. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 outbreak has axed all these plans with no signs in sight of the world breaking its statis.

While nothing would ever beat physically being in a foreign country experiencing all its sights and sounds, check out these online activities to stifle your inner wanderlust. Bring your families along for the ride too!

Go on a virtual tour of world-famous museums

Even if flights weren’t grounded, visits to world-famous museums in Europe and America might not be possible for everyone due to cruelly expensive flight tickets. Thankfully, these museums have made available online virtual tours of some of their current collections.

Take a trip through time with the collections of the British Museum and its amazingly detailed digital timeline of the world.

Visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art through VR-compatible tours and dig through its collection of art from all corners of the world.

Perhaps the best virtual tour available might be by our own National Museum of Singapore with its digital experience of An Old New World. Through guided tours with succinct voice-over explanations, go on a learning journey of Singapore’s history and see our country like never before.

Bring the excitement of Thailand to your living room

A favourite destination amongst youths and families for being easy on the wallet, the vibrancy of Thailand’s history and culture is often overlooked. Wonderful Imaginary Travels (WIT) Guides is a local design initiative that looks to help parents make the best out of their childrens’ holiday – and they have picked Thailand as their first destination to focus on.

WIT Guides is a deck of cards consisting of family activities with a travel theme, all divided into three activities: Cook Out Challenges, Kick Back Movie Nights, and Crack-Me-Up Game Fest. Whether it is for an hour or a few, its set of 48 activities is bound to keep you occupied for a while.

So grab the whole family along and have a blast going on a cultural adventure together.

Take a Thrill Ride On Some of Japan’s Best Roller Coasters

While it is probably the tamest possible way to experience them, several theme parks in Japan have made available videos simulating rides on their roller coasters. Afraid of the ocean and of heights? Well, Hakkeijima Sea Paradise’s Surf Coaster Leviathan might just be the perfect roller coaster for you with its harrowing twists and turns over the Yokohama bay. For those less adventurous, hop on Tokyo’s oldest roller coaster with its relatively slower speed and quaint backdrops.

Without the excited screams and deafening winds, these videos might be a far cry from the actual experiences but they are the perfect appetisers for before you tackle these thrill rides for yourself.

Spend an evening in a haunted house

If living day-to-day with a pandemic outside our doors isn’t terrifying enough, take a trip through some of the world’s most infamous haunting spots. This might be a rare example of a virtual tour being preferable to being on location.

Hop on board the RMS Queen Mary, voted as one of America’s most haunted places, and take a tour through its quaint hallways as the guide regales tales of hauntings and supernatural activity.

Or surround yourself with the remains of more than six million people in the Paris Catacombs with a virtual tour or the slightly more immersive (and educational) video tour.

Want something closer to home? The old Changi Hospital is open for admissions through a 360 degrees virtual tour kindly slathered in black and white to let the imaginations run wild.

It will be a while before the world opens up again so take this opportunity to carefully plan out your next big tour!