Six virtual holidays

Explore the Great Barrier Reef with David Attenborough as your guide © Alamy

(Image credit: Hawksbill Sea Turtle © Steffen Binke / Alamy)

published 24 April 2020

Even when you live and work in an exciting place such as Chicago, the chances are you haven’t seen all there is to see. That is as true for penguins as it is for people, it turns out. With Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium closed to the public last month due to coronavirus, some of the penguins were allowed out of their pens to take a tour of the rest of the attraction. Quite what they thought is unknown to any of us as none had yet mastered the art of leaving a review on Tripadvisor. However, holiday snaps of the diminutive tourists enjoying a gawk at their fishy neighbours can be viewed here.

A dive down under

Still, nothing can compare to exploring Australia’s Great Barrier Reef – even if it is from the sofa. David Attenborough’s Great Barrier Reef is an interactive journey around this “beautiful, but threatened world”, says Antonia Wilson in The Guardian. Diving into a world that is home to 1,500 species of fish and 600 types of coral that live on the 133,000-square-mile reef, the interactive map tells “the story of one of Earth’s most biodiverse ecosystems and the damage done to it by climate change – through interactive timelapses, videos, weather maps and even a ‘mantis shrimp vision’ tool”. It was created with non-profit organisation The Ocean Agency as part of the Netflix documentary Chasing Coral, which investigated coral bleaching around the world, caused by warming oceans.

There are also a number of 360-degree subaquatic videos on YouTube, where you are able to control which way the camera is facing. National Geographic made an immersive video of an encounter with a hammerhead shark in the Bahamas and the Discovery Channel filmed one of a slightly less terrifying (but still pretty terrifying) whale shark. The Dolphin Swim Club has created a 360-degree video of a swim with wild dolphins (youtu.be/BbT_e8lWWdo). The research organisation has even developed its own virtual-reality viewing googles “that allow users to swim in real water, with virtual wild dolphins, and experience real therapeutic effects”, according to its website. It is a “cruelty-free alternative for so-called dolphin-assisted therapies with captive dolphins”.

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If cruising is more your thing, fear not. Royal Caribbean’s cruise director, Abe Hughes, has come up with one of the most inventive virtual experiences yet during the lockdown. From his Facebook page, Hughes has hosted a “voyage” around the Caribbean aboard the “Virtual of the Seas”. It proved so popular that a few days later he put together another, cruising around Alaska, says Jane Archer in The Daily Telegraph. Each day he posts a new edition of the Cruise Compass, the cruise line’s newsletter, outlining recipes and activities that people can join in with, including quizzes, scavenger hunts and arts and crafts. Embracing the big, wide blue is certainly one way to circumvent the lockdown blues, even if it is from home.

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Chris Carter spent three glorious years reading English literature on the beautiful Welsh coast at Aberystwyth University. Graduating in 2005, he left for the University of York to specialise in Renaissance literature for his MA, before returning to his native Twickenham, in southwest London. He joined a Richmond-based recruitment company, where he worked with several clients, including the Queen’s bank, Coutts, as well as the super luxury, Dorchester-owned Coworth Park country house hotel, near Ascot in Berkshire.

Then, in 2011, Chris joined MoneyWeek. Initially working as part of the website production team, Chris soon rose to the lofty heights of wealth editor, overseeing MoneyWeek’s Spending It lifestyle section. Chris travels the globe in pursuit of his work, soaking up the local culture and sampling the very finest in cuisine, hotels and resorts for the magazine’s discerning readership. He also enjoys writing his fortnightly page on collectables, delving into the fascinating world of auctions and art, classic cars, coins, watches, wine and whisky investing.

You can follow Chris on Instagram.