Have you ever wanted to swim with sharks while avoiding the, uh, sharks? Or climb Mount Everest without suffering a freezing, suffocating death? Then have we got the risk-averse getaway for you — from the comfort of your own snack-riddled sofa. Between the technological advances of virtual reality and the pandemic-induced shutdown that has halted all travel, exploring the world and all its fascinating, frightening dangers has never been so utterly safe.
Mount Everest
Skip the lifelong commitment to training and preparation (really, where do they expect us to find the time?) and venture out over some of the planet’s most astonishing peaks. The first tour, courtesy of Discovery, speeds you along with helicopter rescue pilots as they soar over treacherous, breathtaking terrain. After that, keep exploring the highest pinnacles between Nepal and China with this interactive 360-degree map from Google Maps.
The Great Barrier Reef
Sir David Attenborough narrates this interactive trek through the Great Barrier Reef and the planet’s largest — and highly-endangered — coral reef system. Naturally, it is an ideal educational tool for children — although adults will appreciate it as well as a break from lockdown normality. Among the things you’ll learn as you navigate five locations with videos, audio and virtual reality: the bottom of the reefs generate a discord of distinctive sounds.
Swimming with sharks
Just when you thought it was safe to go into the water, you don’t have to bother. Instead, stay dry and still get up close with these majestic predators. This 360-degree video Mexico’s Lower California Peninsula puts you in the thick of things. Or thanks to Exploreorg’s live stream in the Atlantic off Cape Fear, North Carolina, you can wait for a glimpse of one. Once you’ve encountered a few sharks, check out BBC Earth’s Our Blue Plant VR video series to swim with bottlenose dolphins and manta rays.
Ancient caverns
If scaling new heights doesn’t appeal to you, how about descending into the depths of the planet? The world below, it turns out, is no less illuminating than the one above. And this way, you don’t have to fret about what might be down there in the dark with you. Carlsbad Caverns is a national park in the Guadalupe Mountains of southeastern New Mexico and includes a limestone chamber, known as the Big Room, which is almost 4,000 feet long and 255 feet high, making it the fifth-largest such chamber in North America. Meanwhile, the Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc Cave in southern France boasts some of the best-preserved cave paintings in the world. As a bonus, your guide on this tour is Daisy Ridley.
Titanic
Was there enough room for two on the raft? While this virtual excursion doesn’t answer that pressing question, for fans of Titanic who don’t want to board a bathyscaphe to the deep, it nevertheless delivers 360-degree tours of the famed ship — from its staircases, chambers, and decks to its final resting place on the ocean floor.