By Anastacia Mott Austin
In 1988 The Accidental Tourist, by Anne Tyler, depicted the hapless Macon Leary's travel books which could make a traveler feel so comfortable it'd be as if he'd never left home.
Here's one step better: virtual travel!
No plane delays, security checks, stuffy airplane air, or close quarters with strangers. No icky reality of traveling.
Several new websites enable you to "travel" the world, if you will, through virtual 360-degree tours that allow you to see the desired destination as if you were there.
In addition, several sites offer an online travel community, with members posting travel tips, stories, and accommodation trades.
Folks can use the sites to plan for a vacation, by being able to see in close detail the places they might wish to visit, or for those of limited budget or travel opportunities, it's a way to "see" the world from the comfort of their own homes.
The best of these type of sites, The Armchair Travel Company, offers 360-degree virtual tours of such exotic and diverse places as Oman, Stonehenge, an underwater submarine, and even Mars. The Stonehenge panorama is especially fun. It places the viewer smack dab in the middle of the stone formation and then pans around the entire circle.
In addition, the site offers "trips" to the Taj Mahal, St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, and Kew Gardens, among others.
Visitors to this site can even time travel, and visit a panoramic view of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, or the beaches of the Normandy D-Day landing.
A similar site, The Travel Ape, offers detailed 360-degree views of many locations in the United States and Canada, such as New York's Grand Central Terminal, Philadelphia's Liberty Bell, and the UBC Botanical Gardens in Vancouver.
A slightly different take on the virtual tourism idea, Virtual Tourist offers a comprehensive online community of travelers or wannabe travelers. Visitors to the site post photos and reviews of different travel locations, as well as travel tips and favorite spots.
The forums at Virtual Tourist provide answers from a network of participants about such issues as travel insurance and national border entry requirements. Discount coupons for travel packages can also be found.
It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but for the inexperienced, limited, or open-minded traveler (or wishful traveler), virtual travel is the perfect no-risk way to check out vacation options, or just travel the world from home.
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