Zoom fatigue: it’s a real thing. If you’ve been having group calls with your friends since March last year and are a bit sick of the whole concept, it might be time to shake up your virtual entertainment. Even though we can’t do quite as much as we are used to while we’re stuck inside, there are still plenty of virtual activities out there!
From concerts to museums to cooking classes, we’ve put together some of the best cultural activities that you can do from your home.
Fun things that you can do from home with just a laptop and WiFi connection!
Virtual museum tours
Lots of museums worldwide have opened their doors to the internet world, and are now open for online visitors. Most of these are working with Google’s Arts and Culture Section – they have up to 2500 museums that you can take a free virtual tour around.
Have you always dreamed of visiting Paris? Google’s Arts and Culture section has a virtual tour around the Palace of Versailles. Or is London your city of choice? You can also do a trip around the British Museum.
These virtual tours are great for travelling again when it is safe to do so. You can take a free virtual look at any museums that interest you, and make a list of exhibitions that you want to explore properly when the world returns to normal!
Virtual concerts
Plenty of people have had to cancel concerts over the last year – and the situation is not really set to improve any time soon in most parts of the world. But that doesn’t mean that you have to miss out on your favourite music – there are plenty of live streams and virtual concerts all over the internet.
YouTube is an excellent place to start; most live streams will be smaller or up and coming bands, but it’s a valuable opportunity to find some new music! Bigger artists are also performing virtual concerts on their own platforms.
Billboard has a listing of each of these every week – in just one week they have found concerts from Foo Fighters, Billie Eilish and Jimmy Eat World, so you’re bound to find something that you will like!
Virtual plays
Once you’ve completed Netflix, why not check out some virtual plays? Any theatre fan will tell you that stage plays are entirely different from films, so it’s a really unique thing to do while stuck in lockdown.
In May, the British public was invited to go back to1940s New Orleans, as they explore the complex dynamics of a group of characters overcoming lust and gambling problems, in the play ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ on the National Theatres website.
There are also plenty of Broadway musicals, including The King and I and Pippin which are still available to watch virtually.
Wine tasting
You might not be able to make it to a French vineyard this year, but you can certainly sample some wine in your front room! Lots of vineyards, wine companies, and breweries (if beer or spirits are more your thing) offer virtual tours.
When you sign up to one of these tours, they will typically send you a hamper with a few sample wines and some other goodies. You will then join a group call where you are talked through the wines and try them one by one – just like you would at a vineyard!
Virtual lectures
Many students will recoil in horror at the idea of lectures – they have dealt with them all year, after all – but attending virtual lectures is one of the best ways to experience the world without even leaving your house. There are a few platforms where you can enjoy virtual lectures – London’s Imperial University has a few, or you could try The Great Courses Plus for lots of different lecture-based courses.
Cooking classes
Eating new foods is another consistently popular travel activity. What if you could learn to make your favourite cuisine from home? From Mexico to Thailand, cooking schools all over the world are offering virtual sessions for value rates.
All you’ll need to do is go shopping for the ingredients (most schools will choose recipes with easy to find ingredients no matter where you are), and log on to Zoom in your kitchen. You’ll generally get the recipes to keep, so you can make the same foods over and over again!
Problem solver. Incurable bacon specialist. Falls down a lot. Coffee maven. Communicator.
