How to travel without leaving home? See the world from your couch!

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With the current situation of COVID-19 affecting millions of people and altering travel plans, how do we then satisfy our wanderlust and desire for travelling?

While we can certainly cry and mope about the terrible times now, there are lots of things that you can do while on lockdown to continue getting inspired about visiting the world.

Since most of us cannot travel right not, we have round up a few ways that have provided us relief while mostly staying at home (we are very lucky, as our country is not in lockdown mode right now).

This also gives us ideas on how and where we should plan our next trip, or learn how you can travel with a theme next.

Read on and think about what yours will be too!

What's covered in this post

Read travel books
Explore your own city
Watch movies
Cook the food from your favourite countries
Travel virtually
Watch travel documentaries
Follow vloggers on Youtube
Learn a new language
Conclusion

Read travel books

Although it seems that reading books these days does not seem like a popular activity, there are still millions of avid readers out there who could certainly do with a new book recommendation.

Reading travel books offers us as travelers a different perspective of the world through someone else’s eyes.

This person could have the same background, come from the same country and speak the same language, but our thoughts are all unique.

That’s what makes reading travel books such a wonderful past time, and what better way than to indulge in funny travel books where we get to tickle our funny bones?

Explore your own city

So obviously this is not something that everyone gets to do now, but if you have the opportunity, you can consider getting out there and explore your own city.

Many times, we neglect the treasures that are hidden right in our own backyard, instead opting for the next bright and shiny new destination to fly to.

The truth is, there could be so much to see and do just minutes from where we live, and now is one of the best times to explore, since there are very little crowd around.

We recently went to a relatively new nature park, Thomson Nature Park, and discovered that there are still ruins being preserved that belongs to a Hainanese village. How cool is that!

Watch movies

Needless to say, the number of people watching movies right now is probably at an all time high, and that has even prompted Netflix to reduce download speeds all across Europe in order to free up bandwidth.

The measures area drastic, but that shows us that movies are still a great

source of entertainment, and

if you are an traveller, you will want to know movies that can transport you into that other world you have always wanted to travel to.

Some of our favourite movies with great filming locations include:

Lord of the Rings – all around New Zealand
Indiana Jones – Petra, Jordan
The Beach – Koh Phi Phi, Thailand (Maya Bay is closed now, but you can still check out Koh Phi Phi, or nearby Krabi)
Midnight in Paris – Paris, France
Sound of Music – Salzburg, Austria
Memoirs of a Geisha – Kyoto, Japan

Cook the food from your favourite countries

Obviously it will be tough to replicate the chicken inside a lamb inside a camel dish that is probably the largest dish in the world, there are lots of other popular cuisines that you can do well in your own kitchen.

We really enjoy cooking, and on many of our travels we take to the stove to make our own meals. Now that we are grounded, we have to find a way to taste the delicious foods that we have savoured.

If you need inspiration, check out this post from Allrecipes, where you can easily choose from a ton of dishes to cook your heart away.

Since you are going to be home most of the time, consider having a theme night for your family. This is a good opportunity for the family to gather and try out the yummy food from places they might not have visited before.

Travel virtually

One of the best things that technology has done for travel is the advent of virtual travelling.

For some of us who have never been able to afford or find time to tick off our bucket list, technology can help us to ‘visit’ our dream locations from the comfort of our own home.

So in this difficult times, you can either search for new places to visit, or go back to your favourite destinations to reminisce.

There are many ways to do that, and the easiest is to start with Google Maps. The street view feature is awesome, but you can also try out Google Earth for something different.

Here are some resources where you can now take your virtual adventure:

Youvisit.com – Machu Picchu
Airpano.com – Lots of world renown places
English Heritage Site – Stonehenge

Another cool thing you can do is to visit museums, as many of them have now included virtual tours on their offerings.

Watch travel documentaries

The only problem we have with this one is, where do we start?

There are so many excellent programs out there that showcases wonderful exotic locations to far flung landscapes we can only dream of.

But short of leaving your home, watching travel documentaries could be one of the best ways to see the world without leaving it.

We highly recommend “Human Planet” from BBC, as well as binge watching reruns of Anthony Bourdain chasing down the best food around the world.

If you prefer something with a comedic flair, consider watching “Jake Whitehall:Travels with my Father’ as the comedian brings his father on a whirlwind tour filled with mishaps and adventure.

Follow vloggers on Youtube

Youtube is undoubtably one of the best source of entertainment no matter the topic you are interested in, and there are tons of travel related videos on it.

With so many styles to pick from, like ‘serious’ presenters like Rick Steves to adrenalin junkies like Devinsupertramp, you are going to have your hands full with the amount of variety available.

One of our favourite blogger/vlogger is the Australian family behind yTravelblog, an excellent source of inspiration especially for family travellers.

While we travel primarily as a couple, there are so many interesting stories they share and so many tips and tricks you can pick up from their years of experience on the road.

Learn a new language

Last but not least, this might be the perfect time for you to really pick up that language that you have always wanted to learn.

No matter where you live, it is so easy to just pick up your mobile or get on the computer to start learning and conversing with others in their native tongue.

Apps such as Duolingo and Busuu has changed the game, and you no longer need to register yourself to a fixed schedule and make your way to a classroom.

There are so many cool features in these apps and some of them even allows you to communicate with fellow students to improve your language capabilities.

While it is fun to learn with the app, our experience tells us that they are not as effective if they are not structured well. At the end of the day, if you are serious about mastering a new language, you will need a proper set of instructions, which is why we recommend using Rocket Languages.

Sure, the pricing might be on the high side, but if you are really keen on learning, Rocket could be your best bet. Here are some of the languages you can pick up from Rocket:

They have well organised syllabus plus all the fancy features found in their mobile apps, and the large community assures you will have someone to practice what you have learned. At least try out the free trial!