virtual tours british museum

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How to explore the British Museum from home

The Great Court.

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Whether it's a virtual visit or a Curator's corner, there are plenty of ways to keep exploring the British Museum online – here are our favourite ones.

When we first opened our doors in 1759, we proudly declared ourselves a place for 'all studious and curious persons'. It's a mission we're still dedicated to – even if you can't visit us in person yet. With that in mind, we'd like to share the many ways in which you can explore our galleries and the collection online.

So, here are 11 ways for you to stay curious, keep learning, and experience over two million years of human history – all without stepping out your front door.

1. Virtual Museum tours with Google Street View

Did you know that the Museum is the world's largest indoor space on Google Street View? You can go on a virtual visit to more than 60 galleries – perfect for creating your own bespoke tour around your favourites. See highlights like the Rosetta Stone in the Egyptian Sculpture Gallery or discover gems like the beautiful textiles in the Sainsbury African Galleries.

As well as allowing you to plan your own route through our labyrinthine galleries, Google Street View has the advantage of letting you see the collection when the Museum is blissfully quiet.

Drop into the Egyptian Sculpture Gallery

2. Keep exploring with virtual galleries

We also offer virtual galleries on our own website. You can explore our extensive Prints and Drawings collection to see Old Masters such as Dürer and Michelangelo or see new and exciting contemporary pieces. Dive into the incredible Oceania collection and uncover a vast array of objects from Australia, New Guinea and the many islands dotted across the South Pacific Ocean.

Step into the galleries here

3. Go behind the scenes with the Museum Podcast

If you'd prefer some company on your journey around the Museum, try downloading the British Museum Podcast . You'll join presenters Sushma Jansari and Hugo Chapman as they take you on a journey behind the scenes at the Museum – meeting scientists, curators, authors and artists along the way.

Hugo and Sushma's recent adventures include learning about mysterious 'mummy goo', learning about the perils of poison arrows in the collection and going on a trip to the Museum's own X-ray lab.

The British Museum Podcast is free, and available wherever you get your podcasts.

Apple podcasts | Soundcloud

4. Liven up home learning with our digital resources

Whether you're searching for a little inspiration or more in-depth resources, we're here to help. The Museum has a broad range of free learning resources available on our website, covering ages 3–16+. Excite inquisitive minds as you teach them how Egyptian mummies were made , or learn about what the Romans ate and drank – then try out a recipe for honeyed bread together.

Our resources cover a wide range of curriculum links, including History, Art and Design and RE and we offer materials on diverse topics such as Sutton Hoo, Egypt, Rome, prehistoric Britain and the Vikings .

Explore the full range of online resources

5. Immerse yourself with audio tours

To get expert insights into the collection, listen to Museum curators introduce the galleries – each snippet offers a tantalising overview to whet your appetite. Available on Apple Music and YouTube Music , our world-leading curators have recorded introductions to 64 galleries so you can go on an adventure taking in anything from Assyrian lion hunts to Chinese jade. The tracks have also been translated into Korean, Chinese, Italian and Spanish.

Our Desire, Love, Identity audio tour explores LGBTQ histories in the collection. Narrated by renowned actor Simon Russell Beale and star of Killing Eve Fiona Shaw, the tour draws out previously hidden stories of same-sex love and desire from the collection. You'll hear about the 2,000-year-old Warren Cup – referred to as the 'holy grail of homosexuality' – as well as lesser-known objects such as a Maori treasure box carved with startling sexual imagery.

Subscribers to Apple Music can access the audio tours for a small fee. You can access them for free on YouTube Music .

6. Get geeky on YouTube 

Our YouTube channel is home to our much-loved Curator's corner series, interviews with scientists and conservators and much, much more. Fancy learning how to write cuneiform then kicking back and watching an ancient rock gong being played? This is the place for you. You'll find recipes, how-to videos and more potential pub quiz knowledge than you can shake a stick at.

If you'd like to take a deeper dive into a specific topic, check out our playlists covering subjects such as manga, Troy, and our science and conservation work.

Start watching here

7. See more on Google Arts & Culture

Discover more than 7,000 objects on our home-away-from-home – Google's online hub of content from museums and archives around the world. As well as collection information and images, our Google Arts & Culture pages also feature online exhibits such as Egypt: faith after the pharaohs and Street Views of sites in Central and South America. Plus, download the Google Arts & Culture app to see more special features, and see art in your own home via AR.

Find us here on Google Arts & Culture

While you're there, check out the interactive experience The Museum of the World . A mind-boggling visualisation of how two million years of human cultures and histories are interconnected, this interactive timeline is illustrated with objects from the British Museum collection.

8. Eight million objects at your fingertips

The collection is available to everyone on Collection online. You can search for objects and images using keywords, or try filtering by place, artist or material if you're feeling more expert. You may find this handy guide useful for navigating the site.

Browse Collection online

Alternatively, you can browse through broader themes and collection histories on our main site. Explore all the weird and wonderful creatures in the collection through our animals page . Or look through the collection by region – we've created easy-to-navigate pages on China, Africa, Egypt and the Americas.

Explore the collection

9. Bury your nose in the blog

If you have ambitions to read more and binge-watch less, head right here to the Museum blog. Find your footing in the ancient world with Who was Achilles? Or get lost in amazing Museum stories, like our recent piece about the beautiful and surreal constituent parts of dust in the Museum . The blog is updated regularly and includes pieces from both guest and Museum voices.

Browse the blog

10. Attend an event

Choose from talks, performances and much more when you browse our bustling programme of online events. Whether it's a virtual Late for one of our exhibitions or a study course to help you pick up that language you've been meaning to learn, there are plenty of ways to keep your cultural calendar filled.

Find an event

11. Stay in touch

Make sure to subscribe to our emails and follow us on social media so you can keep exploring history, humanity and the British Museum itself and be the first to hear about our latest news.

Take care out there. We look forward to welcoming you back through the Museum doors soon.

Use #MuseumFromHome to join in with people across the globe who are sharing art, culture and history from their homes.

Facebook | I nstagram

Twitter | YouTube

Subscribe to our emails (including bespoke offers for schools and families).

The Museum needs your support now more than ever to continue sharing the collection with the world. Donate today .

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The 75 Best Virtual Museum Tours Around the World [Art, History, Science, and Technology]

Jarrod West

Senior Content Contributor

440 Published Articles 1 Edited Article

Countries Visited: 21 U.S. States Visited: 24

Keri Stooksbury

Editor-in-Chief

34 Published Articles 3166 Edited Articles

Countries Visited: 47 U.S. States Visited: 28

Google Arts and Culture

1. the albertina museum (vienna, austria), 2. art institute of chicago (chicago, illinois), 3. benaki museum (athens, greece), 4. the broad (los angeles, california), 5. centre pompidou (paris, france), 6. the dalí theatre-museum (figueres, spain), 7. detroit institute of arts (detroit, michigan), 8. frick collection (new york city, new york), 9. galleria dell’accademia (florence, italy), 10. georgia o’keeffe museum (sante fe, new mexico), 11. grand palais (paris, france), 12. hermitage museum (saint petersburg, russia), 13. high museum of art (atlanta, georgia), 14. the j. paul getty museum (los angeles, california), 15. kunsthaus zürich (zürich, switzerland), 16. la galleria nazionale (rome, italy), 17. los angeles county museum of art (lacma) (los angeles, california), 18. mauritshuis (the hague, netherlands), 19. the metropolitan museum of art (new york city, new york), 20. musée du louvre (paris, france), 21. musée d’orsay (paris, france), 22. museo nacional del prado (madrid, spain), 23. museo frida kahlo (mexico city, mexico), 24. museo nacional centro de arte reina sofía (madrid, spain), 25. museu de arte de são paulo (são paulo, brazil), 26. museum of broken relationships (los angeles, california and zagreb, croatia), 27. museum of fine arts, boston (boston, massachusetts), 28. museum of fine arts, houston (houston, texas), 29. the museum of modern art (moma) (new york city, new york), 30. national gallery (london, england), 31. national gallery of art (washington, d.c.), 32. national gallery of victoria (victoria, melbourne, australia), 33. national museum of china (beijing, china), 34. national museum of korea (seoul, south korea), 35. national museum, new delhi (new delhi, india), 36. national museum of modern and contemporary art (seoul, south korea), 37. national palace museum (taipei, taiwan), 38. national portrait gallery (washington, d.c.), 39. pergamonmuseum (berlin, germany), 40. picasso museum (barcelona, spain), 41. rijksmuseum (amsterdam, netherlands), 42. san francisco museum of modern art (san francisco, california), 43. sistine chapel at the vatican museums (vatican city), 44. solomon r. guggenheim museum (new york city, new york), 45. tate modern (london, england), 46. thyssen-bornemisza museum (madrid, spain), 47. tokyo national museum (tokyo, japan), 48. uffizi gallery (florence, italy), 49. van gogh museum (amsterdam, netherlands), 50. victoria and albert museum (london, england), 1. american museum of natural history (new york city, new york), 2. the british museum (london, england), 3. national museum of anthropology (mexico city, mexico), 4. national museum of natural history (washington, d.c.), 5. natural history museum (london, england), 1. london science museum (london, england), 2. museo galileo (florence, italy), 3. the museum of flight (seattle, washington), 4. the museum of natural sciences of belgium (brussels, belgium), 5. museum of science, boston (boston, massachusetts), 6. national aeronautics and space administration (nasa) (washington, d.c.), 7. national air and space museum (washington, d.c.), 8. national museum of computing (bletchley park, england), 9. national museum of the united states air force (riverside, ohio), 10. oxford university’s history of science museum (oxford, england), 1. acropolis museum (athens, greece), 2. american battlefield trust virtual battlefield tours, 3. anne frank house (amsterdam, netherlands), 4. franklin d. roosevelt presidential library and museum (hyde park, new york), 5. national museum of african american history and culture (washington, d.c.), 6. national museum of american history (washington, d.c.), 7. national museum of scotland (edinburgh, scotland), 8. national women’s history museum (alexandria, virginia), 9. terra cotta warriors of xi’an at emperor qinshihuang’s mausoleum site museum (xi’an, china), 10. u.s. holocaust memorial museum (washington, d.c.), final thoughts.

We may be compensated when you click on product links, such as credit cards, from one or more of our advertising partners. Terms apply to the offers below. See our Advertising Policy for more about our partners, how we make money, and our rating methodology. Opinions and recommendations are ours alone.

You can now access collections from many of the world’s top museums without ever leaving home! We’ve put together an ultimate list of 75 world-class museums that offer virtual tours you can visit from the comfort of your couch.

Many of the virtual tours include exhibit walk-throughs and the ability to examine some of the world’s best paintings, sculptures, and other pieces up close and personal. These virtual tours are jam-packed with enough details to make you feel like you’re really visiting the museum. The experiences are sure to entertain the whole family, an art or history buff, or even those who want to imagine the joys of travel!

We’ve broken our list into 4 easy-to-review sections, including art, natural history, science and technology, and history museums. So whether you prefer to take in a painting at the Van Gogh Museum, check out an SR-71 Blackbird at the Museum of Flight, or gaze upon the Rosetta Stone, this list has it all!

Many of the virtual exhibits in this article are offered through a collaboration with Google Arts and Culture. If you’re not familiar, Google Arts and Culture is an online platform that showcases high-resolution images and videos of artworks and cultural artifacts from more than 2,000 museums throughout the world. You can zoom in and out of images in great detail and view some of the best pieces of artwork ever created without leaving your couch.

The platform is available in 18 languages and has been praised internationally for increasing access to art to those who may have not had the opportunity otherwise. It’s available for web , iOS , and Android .

50 Art Museums With Virtual Tours

Year Opened:  1805

The Albertina Museum features one of the most important European collections of international modern art and houses one of the largest and most important print rooms in the world with approximately 65,000 drawings and 1 million old master prints. Hundreds of the works housed in the museum, like “Study for the Last Supper” by Da Vinci and “The Water Lily Pond” by Monet, can be viewed online thanks to a partnership with Google Arts and Culture.

To view the online exhibits, click here .

Year Opened: 1879

The Art Institute of Chicago is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the U.S., hosting approximately 1.5 million people annually. Its collection features more than 5,000 years of human expression from cultures around the world and contains more than 300,000 works of art in 11 curatorial departments.

The online tour allows you to view major pieces from the museum’s collection, such as “American Gothic,” “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte,” and “Nighthawks.” The site also offers projects to get creative at home, educator resources, and JourneyMaker, a digital tool that allows visitors to create unique, personalized tours of the museum.

To view the online tour, click here .

Year Opened: 1930

Established in 1930 by Antonis Benakis in memory of his father Emmanuel Benakis, the Benaki Museum houses Greek works of art from prehistoric to modern times and an extensive collection of Asian art. It also hosts periodic exhibitions and maintains a state-of-the-art restoration and conservation workshop.

The entire museum can be viewed virtually in great detail.

To view the online virtual tour, click here .

Year Opened: 2015

The Broad is a contemporary art museum named for philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad. The Broad houses a nearly 2,000-piece collection of contemporary art, featuring 200 artists including works by Cindy Sherman, Jeff Koons, Ed Ruscha, Roy Lichtenstein, and Andy Warhol. Notable installations include Yayoi Kusama’s “Infinity Mirrored Room” (pictured above) and Ragnar Kjartansson’s expansive 9-screen video “The Visitors.”

The Broad has put together a series of YouTube videos to give you a first-hand look at the museum.

Year Opened : 1977

The Centre Pompidou, named after the president of France from 1969 to 1974, is the largest museum for modern and contemporary art in Europe and the second-largest in the world. The museum has more than 12,000 pieces of artwork on display, including works by Kandinsky, Dalí, and Valadon.

The Centre has dozens of videos available on its YouTube channel that provide walk-throughs of the museum and explanations of its most important works.

To view the video tours, click here .

Year Opened : 1974

Dedicated to the life and work of the surrealist artist Salvador Dalí, the Dalí Theatre-Museum displays the single largest and most diverse collection of works by the artist. In addition to Dalí paintings from all decades of his career, there are Dalí sculptures, 3-dimensional collages, mechanical devices, and other curiosities from Dalí’s imagination. Through the website, guests can take a virtual tour in 360-degree of the entire museum.

To view the virtual tour, click here .

Year Opened: 1885

With more than 100 galleries covering over 658,000 square feet, the Detroit Institute of Arts has one of the largest and most significant art collections in the U.S. Its collection features works spanning from ancient Egypt and Europe all the way to modern contemporary art.

The museum has put together “ At Home With DIA ” to offer school field trips from home, weekly film screenings, senior resources, and home projects. DIA also has a partnership with Google Arts and Culture to provide online exhibits including:

• Frida Kahlo in Detroit
• Ordinary People by Extraordinary Artists
• Diego Rivera’s Detroit Industry
• Self Portrait on the Borderline between Mexico and the United States

Year Opened: 1935

Located in the Henry Clay Frick House, the Frick Collection houses the art collection of industrialist Henry Clay Frick. The collection features some of the best-known paintings by major European artists, including Bellini, Rembrandt, and Vermeer, as well as numerous works of sculpture and porcelain.

The entire museum can be viewed virtually.

Year Opened : 1784

The Galleria dell’Accademia, while small compared to other museums featured, is still the second most visited museum in Italy. Its command of visitors is in large part due to its display of perhaps the most famous sculpture in history — Michaelangelo’s statue of David.

You can view a short, video-guided tour of the museum, which includes 360-degree viewing, allowing you to get a close look at the museum’s offerings.

To view the video tour, click here .

Year Opened: 1997

The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum is dedicated to the artistic legacy of Georgia O’Keeffe and her contributions to American Modernism. The museum’s collection includes many of O’Keeffe’s key works, ranging from her innovative abstractions to her iconic large-format flower, skull, and landscape paintings, to paintings of architectural forms, rocks, shells, and trees. Initially, the collection was made of 140 O’Keeffe paintings, watercolors, pastels, and sculptures, but now includes nearly 1,200 objects.

The museum website offers creative activities, stories, and education about Georgia O’Keeffe’s life, along with several virtual exhibits available through Google Arts and Culture, including:

• Georgia O’Keeffe
• American Modernism
• United States

Year Opened : 1900

The Grand Palais is a large historic site, exhibition hall, and museum dedicated to the organization of exhibitions, publishing books, art workshops, photographic agency, and hosting major fairs and events. The museum receives 2.5 million visitors each year. The partnership with Google Arts and Culture brings extensive online exhibits to life, from the construction of the building to the masterpieces that lie within it.

Year Opened : 1764

The Hermitage Museum is the second-largest and eighth-most visited art museum in the world. The Hermitage has more than 60,000 pieces of artwork on display, including the “Peacock Clock” by James Cox, “Madonna Litta” by Leonardo Da Vinci, and works by Rembrandt, Michelangelo, and Antonio Canova.

The online tour is extremely comprehensive and allows you to virtually walk through all 6 buildings in the main complex, treasure gallery, and several exhibition projects.

Year Opened : 1905

The High Museum of Art offers over 15,000 works of art in its collection and is the leading art museum in the southeastern U.S. The museum focuses on 19th- and 20th-century American art, historic and contemporary decorative arts and design, European paintings, modern and contemporary art, photography, folk and self-taught art, and African art.

The museum’s partnership with Google Arts and Culture also offers online exhibits for viewing including:

• Bill Traylor’s Drawings of People, Animals, and Events
• How Iris van Herpen Transformed Fashion
• Incredible, Innovative, and Unexpected Contemporary Furniture Designs
• Photos From the Civil Rights Movement

Year Opened: 1953

The J. Paul Getty Museum is made up of 2 campuses — the Getty Center and Getty Villa — that receive more than 2 million visitors per year. The Getty Center features pre-20th-century European paintings, drawings, illuminated manuscripts, sculpture, and decorative arts and photographs from the 1830s through present-day from all over the world. The Getty Villa displays art from Ancient Greece, Rome, and Etruria.

The museum has put together online resources like art books, online exhibitions, podcasts, and videos, all viewable on its website .

It has also partnered with Google Arts and Culture to showcase online exhibits including:

• 18th Century Pastel Portraits
• The Art of Three Faiths: Torah, Bible, Qur’an
• Eat, Drink, and Be Merry
• Getty Museum Acquisitions 2019
• Heaven, Hell, and Dying Well

To view the online galleries, click here .

Year Opened : 1910

The Kunsthaus Zürich features one of Switzerland’s most important art collections from the 13th century to the present day. While the museum places an emphasis on Swiss artists, including Alberto Giacometti, you’ll also find work from the likes of Monet, Picasso, and Warhol.

The museum’s partnership with Google Arts and Culture has digitized several of the museum’s best collections for viewing.

Year Opened: 1883

La Galleria Nazionale displays about 1,100 paintings and sculptures from the 19th and 20th centuries — the largest collection in Italy. It features work from famous Italian artists including Giacomo Balla, Umberto Boccioni, Alberto Burri, and foreign artists including Cézanne, Monet, Pollock, Rodin, and Van Gogh.

It has teamed up with Google to offer 16 virtual exhibits for online viewing.

Year Opened: 1910

LACMA is the largest art museum in the western U.S., attracts nearly a million visitors annually, and holds more than 150,000 works spanning the history of art from ancient times to the present.

The website (click LACMA @ Home ) includes exhibition walkthroughs, soundtracks and live recordings, online teaching resources, and courses.

To view the LACMA’s online virtual tour from Google Arts & Culture, click here .

Year Opened : 1822

The Mauritshuis is home to some of the best Dutch paintings from the Golden Age of Art. The museum consists of 854 works by artists like Johannes Vermeer, Rembrandt Van Rijn, and Jan Steen. Famous works include “Girl with a Pearl Earring” (pictured above) and “View of Delft” by Vermeer, and “The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp” by Rembrandt.

The museum has partnered with Google Arts and Culture to bring several of its best works to life for virtual viewing.

To view the Mauritshuis’ online exhibits, click here .

Year Opened: 1870

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, also known as “The Met,” is the largest art museum in the U.S. and the fourth most visited museum in the world with more than 6 million visitors each year. The permanent collection contains more than 2 million works from classical antiquity and ancient Egypt, paintings and sculptures from nearly all of the European masters (including Monet’s Water Lillies), and an extensive collection of American and modern art. It also has extensive holdings of African, Asian, Oceanian, Byzantine, and Islamic art.

The museum has extensive different online exhibits available for viewing through Google and its own Art at Home website .

Year Opened:  1793

The Louvre Palace, which houses the museum, began as a fortress under Philip II in the 12th century to protect the city from English soldiers that were in Normandy. It wasn’t repurposed as a museum until 1793. Now, the Louvre is easily one of the most historic art museums in the world. Not only is the Louvre the largest art museum in the world at 782,910 square feet (72,735 square meters), but it also had 9.6 million visitors in 2019, making it the most visited museum in the world as well. Featured masterpieces include “Mona Lisa,” “Winged Victory of Samothrace,” “Venus de Milo,” and “Hammurabi’s Code.”

The Louvre has several virtual galleries on display, including:

• The Advent of the Artist, including works from Delacroix, Rembrandt, and Tintoretto
• Egyptian Antiquities, featuring collections from the Pharaonic period
• Remains of the Louvre’s Moat — visitors can walk around the original perimeter moat and view the piers that supported the drawbridge dating back to 1190
• Galerie d’Apollon, destroyed by fire in 1661 and recently rebuilt for viewing

To view the Louvre’s virtual tour page, click here .

Year Opened: 1986

The Musée d’Orsay is housed in the former Gare d’Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1914, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography. It is one of the largest art museums in Europe and had more than 3.6 million visitors in 2019. It houses the largest collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masterpieces in the world, including works by Cézanne, Degas, Gauguin, Manet, Monet, Renoir, Seurat, Sisley, and Van Gogh.

The museum allows you to virtually walk through one of its popular galleries, featuring hundreds of paintings from French artists.

To view the Musée d’Orsay online gallery, click here .

Year Opened : 1819

The Museo Nacional del Prado is considered to have one of the greatest collections of European art in the world and offers guests the single largest collection of Spanish art. The collection currently comprises around 8,200 drawings, 7,600 paintings, 4,800 prints, and 1,000 sculptures. Well-known works include “Las Meninas” by Diego Velázquez, “The Third of May 1808” by Francisco De Goya, and “The Garden of Earthly Delights” by Hieronymus Bosch.

The museum’s online gallery allows you to get a close look at over 10,000 different pieces of art. The Prado also offers a 1-hour live show on Instagram every morning at 4 a.m. EST.

To view the online gallery, click here .

Year Opened: 1958

The Frida Kahlo Museum, also known as the Blue House due to its blue walls, is a historic museum dedicated to the life and work of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. The building was Kahlo’s birthplace, the home where she grew up, lived with her husband Diego Rivera for many years, and where she later died in a room on the upper floor. The museum contains a collection of artwork by Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and other artists, along with the couple’s Mexican folk art, pre-Hispanic artifacts, photographs, memorabilia, personal items, and more. Find out more in our guide to the best museums in Mexico City .

Year Opened: 1990

The Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, also called the Museo Reina Sofía, is one of the most popular art museums in the world. The museum includes large collections of Spain’s 2 most popular artists, Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí. Famous works on display include “Guernica” and “Woman in Blue” by Picasso and “Cubist Self Portrait” by Dalí.

You can view collections of artwork at the Reina Sofía through its partnership with Google Arts and Culture.

Year Opened: 1947

The Museu de Arte de São Paulo is Brazil’s first modern art museum. The museum is internationally recognized for its collection of European art, as it’s considered the finest museum in Latin America and all of the Southern Hemisphere. The museum primarily features Brazilian art, prints, and drawings, as well as smaller collections of African and Asian art, antiquities, decorative arts, and others, amounting to more than 8,000 pieces. MASP also has one of the largest art libraries in the country.

You can now take a virtual tour of online galleries the museum has to offer, including:

• Art from Brazil until 1900
• Art from Italy: Rafael to Titian
• Art from France: from Delacroix to Cézanne
• Art in Fashion
• Histories of Madness: The Drawings of Juquery
• Picture Gallery in Transformation

Year Opened: 2010

The Museum of Broken Relationships is dedicated to failed love relationships. Its exhibits include personal objects left over from former lovers, accompanied by brief descriptions. The museum was founded by 2 Zagreb-based artists, film producer Olinka Vištica and sculptor Dražen Grubišić, after their 4-year relationship came to an end.

The virtual tour includes a close-up collection of dozens of the museum’s most interesting pieces.

The 17th largest art museum in the world, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) hosts one of the most extensive art collections in the U.S. It houses over 8,000 paintings, surpassed only by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and exceeds 1 million visitors each year. Pieces by world-renowned artists like Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Monet are featured alongside sculptures, mummies, ceramics, and other artifacts from ancient civilizations.

There are currently 16 online exhibits available for viewing.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) is one of the largest museums in the U.S., and its collection features over 64,000 works from 6 continents. The collection places emphasis on pre-Columbian and African gold, Renaissance and Baroque painting and sculpture, 19th- and 20th-century art, photography, and Latin American art. Read our guide to the best museums in Houston for more information.

The museum has 14 online exhibits available for viewing in collaboration with Google Arts and Culture.

Year Opened: 1929

Regarded as one of the largest and most influential museums of modern art in the world, MoMA’s art collection features an overview of modern and contemporary art, including works of architecture and design, drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, prints, illustrated books, and artist’s books, film, and electronic media. MoMA’s holdings include more than 150,000 individual pieces including Andy Warhol’s “Campbell’s Soup Cans” and Van Gogh’s “Starry Night,” in addition to approximately 22,000 films and 4 million film stills.

MoMA’s website offers 86,000 works of art that can be viewed online, along with a partnership with Google Arts and Culture to create a virtual display of its Sophie Taeber-Arp exhibit.

To view the website’s collection, click here . To view the Google exhibit, click here .

Year Opened : 1824

The National Gallery features more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900, including works such as “Sunflowers” by Van Gogh, “The Virgin on the Rocks” by Da Vinci, and “The Arnolfini Portrait” by Jan Van Eyck.

Its website offers a few virtual tours, showcasing many rooms in the museum, the Sainsbury Wing, and a Google Virtual tour.

Year Opened: 1937

The National Gallery of Art and its attached Sculpture Garden are located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. and are open to the public free of charge. The museum was privately established in 1937 for the American people by a joint resolution of the U.S. Congress.

The National Gallery is widely considered to be one of the greatest museums in the U.S. It ranks second in total visitors of all American museums, 10th in the world, and features incredible pieces including Jackson Pollock’s “Number 1,” Leonardo da Vinci’s “Ginevra de’ Benci,” and Degas’ “Little Dancer Aged 14.”

The museum has put together a collection of educational resources on its website for teachers, families, and children. It also features online exhibits through Google Arts and Culture including:

• American Fashion — highlights from 1740 to 1895
• Johannes Vermeer — Dutch Baroque painter

To view the National Gallery of Art online collection page, click here .

Year Opened: 1861

The National Gallery of Victoria is Australia’s oldest, largest, and most visited art museum. The museum offers a wide variety of international and Australian art in its collection, including paintings, drawings, photography, and sculptures.

The online tour includes walk-throughs of exhibits, including highlights from the NGV Triennial 2020 and Chinese Collection, as well as exhibits featuring Goya and KAWS.

Year Opened : 2003

The National Museum of China covers Chinese history from 1.7 million years ago to the end of the Qing Dynasty in 1911. Notable works include the “Houmuwu” Rectangle Ding, a rectangular bronze sacrificial vessel made in the late Shang Dynasty, the heaviest piece of ancient bronze ware in the world, and a Han Dynasty jade burial suit laced with gold thread. It is one of the largest museums in the world, and the second most visited art museum in the world, just after the Louvre.

The museum has virtual exhibits available for 360-degree viewing including:

• Resplendence of the Tang Dynasty
• Sunken Silver

Year Opened : 1909

The National Museum of Korea is the top museum of Korean history and art and has been committed to various studies and research activities in the fields of archaeology, history, and art, continuously developing a variety of exhibitions and education programs.

The museum’s virtual tour provides a 3D walk-through of exhibits, including 1,000 years of Korean design and 500 years of the Joseon Dynasty.

Year Opened: 1949

The National Museum, New Delhi is one of the largest museums in India. The museum has around 200,000 works of art, both of Indian and foreign origin, including paintings, sculptures, jewelry, ancient texts, armor, and decorative arts ranging from the pre-historic era to modern works — covering over 5,000 years.

The museum has partnered with Google to bring its online exhibits to life, including:

• Art of Caligraphy
• Cadence and Counterpoint
• Indian Bronzes
• Nauras: The Many Arts of the Deccan
• Pottery from Ancient Peru
• Treasures of National Museum, India
• Radha and Krishna in the Boat of Love

Year Opened: 1969

The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art was first established in 1969 as the only national art museum in South Korea, accommodating modern and contemporary art of Korea and international art of different time periods. The museum features over 7,000 pieces of artwork, including works of contemporary Korean artists such as Go Hui-dong, Ku Bon-ung, Park Su-geun, and Kim Whan-ki.

Google’s virtual tour takes you through 6 floors of contemporary art from Korea and all over the globe.

Year Opened : 1965

The National Palace Museum has a collection of nearly 700,000 pieces of ancient Chinese imperial artifacts and artworks. The collection encompasses 8,000 years of history of Chinese art, including jade, paintings, bronzes, and porcelain that were formerly held in the Forbidden City of Peking.

The museum offers 360-degree virtual tours of many different exhibits.

To view the virtual tours, click here .

Year Opened : 1962

The National Portrait Gallery has a collection of over 21,000 works of art. The collection focuses on images of famous Americans and how they’ve shaped U.S. culture. A major attraction of the National Portrait Gallery’s collection is the Hall of Presidents, which contains portraits of nearly all American presidents. It is the largest and most complete collection in the world, except for the White House collection itself.

The museum has several collections featured on Google Arts and Culture, but also offers digital workshops, and distance learning resources for children and teachers.

To view the online resources, click here .

The Pergamonmuseum houses monumental buildings, such as the Pergamon Altar, the Ishtar Gate of Babylon, and the Market Gate of Miletus reconstructed from the ruins found in Anatolia, as well as the Mshatta Facade. The museum is subdivided into the antiquity collection, the Middle East museum, and the museum of Islamic art. It is visited by over 1 million people every year.

The museum has dozens of structures and other artifacts that can be viewed online.

Year Opened: 1963

The Picasso Museum, located in the heart of Barcelona’s Latin Quarter, is visited by millions every year. They come to marvel at the best works of Picasso, perhaps the most famous painter of all, but stay to marvel at the best-preserved medieval architecture in Barcelona. With 4,251 works by the painter exhibited, the museum has one of the most complete permanent collections of his works.

The online tour offers a large selection of Picasso’s finest works, as well as virtual tours of the museum’s beautiful courtyards.

Year Opened: 1798

The Rijksmuseum was founded in The Hague in 1798 and moved to Amsterdam in 1808, where it was first located in the Royal Palace. The current main building was designed by Pierre Cuypers and first opened in 1885. The museum has on display 8,000 objects of art and history from the years 1200 to 2000, and a total collection of 1 million objects. The museum features masterpieces including Rembrandt’s “The Night Watch” and “The Jewish Bride,” plus works by Frans Hals and Johannes Vermeer, who are known to have been major contributors to the Golden Age of Dutch art.

Google offers a street view tour of some excellent art pieces located in the museum, and the museum has put together an entire virtual tour of all of the museum’s masterpieces viewable on its website.

To view the Google street view tour, click here . You can also view the museum’s From Home microsite and masterpieces tour .

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is composed of over 33,000 works of art spread throughout 7 gallery floors and 45,000 square feet of space. Following a 3-year closure for expansion, the museum reopened in 2016 and is now one of San Francisco’s must-see destinations.

SFMOMA’s website is updated regularly with videos and articles regarding current exhibits, projects, and artist showcases and provides behind-the-scenes looks of the museum. 

To view the museum’s multimedia features, click here .

Read our guide to the best museums in San Francisco to find out more.

Year Opened: 1483

The Sistine Chapel, located inside of the Apostolic Palace (the official residence of the pope in Vatican City), is easily the most popular chapel in the world. The chapel is famous for its magnificent ceiling, painted by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512, and is considered to be one of the best artworks to come out of the Italian Renaissance. The primary panels of the ceiling showcase 9 scenes from the Book of Genesis, of which “The Creation of Adam” (pictured above) is the best known and most recognized.

Its website offers a virtual tour of the chapel’s most stunning sites, including the ability to marvel at Michelangelo’s ceiling from the comfort of your couch.

Year Opened: 1939

The Guggenheim Museum was established by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in 1939. It is the permanent home of a continuously expanding collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early modern, and contemporary art and also features special exhibitions throughout the year.

Google’s  Street View feature lets you tour the Guggenheim’s famous spiral staircase and some of its art pieces. It also offers a handful of online collections on its website .

Year Opened: 2000

Tate Modern is one of the largest museums of modern and contemporary art in the world, consisting of art dating from 1900 until today. The gallery receives over 5 million visitors a year, making it the sixth most visited art museum in the world and the most visited in the U.K.

The Tate Modern has published dozens of videos on its YouTube channel that give you an in-depth look at many of its exhibits, including the Andy Warhol exhibit and the Aubrey Beardsley exhibit.

To view the Tate Modern’s YouTube channel, click here .

Year Opened: 1992

Located in Madrid, the Thyssen has over 1,600 paintings inside its walls and was once the second-largest private collection in the world after the British Royal Collection. It includes works from the Italian primitives, the English, Dutch, and German schools, Impressionists, Expressionists, and European and American paintings from the 20th century. It also features pieces from the continent’s most celebrated artists including Rembrandt and Dalí.

The virtual tour includes a detailed look at the permanent collection, along with exhibits including the Rembrandt and Impressionist galleries.

Year Opened : 1872

The Tokyo National Museum is the oldest and largest art museum in Japan, and one of the largest art museums in the world. At the museum, you’ll find a collection of artwork and cultural objects from Asia, ancient and medieval Japanese art, and Asian art along the Silk Road.

The museum has teamed up with Google’s Arts and Culture to provide an inside look at what the museum has to offer.

Year Opened: 1581

The Uffizi was designed by Giorgio Vasari for Cosimo I de’ Medici, whose family members were by far the largest patrons of art in Renaissance Italy. The museum now spans over 139,000 square feet with 101 different rooms that house its art pieces, including famous pieces such as “The Birth of Venus.” Over 2 million people visit the Uffizi each year, making it the most viewed art museum in Italy.

The museum has teamed up with Google to showcase online galleries including:

• Piero di Cosimo, Perseus Freeing Andromeda
• The Santa Trinita Maestà, Cimabue
• The Creative Process Behind Federico Barocci’s Drawings
• Drawings by Amico Aspertini and other Bolognese artists

Year Opened: 1973

The Van Gogh Museum is dedicated to perhaps one of the most famous artists of all time — Vincent Van Gogh. The museum contains the largest collection of Van Gogh’s paintings and drawings in the world, including over 200 paintings, 500 drawings, and over 750 personal letters. The museum has over 2 million visitors each year and is the 23rd most visited art museum in the world. Find out more in our review to the best museums in Amsterdam .

The museum has teamed up with Google to create online exhibits on Vincent Van Gogh’s love life and the books he loved to read. You can also visit the museum’s website for a selection of things to do for young children, including school lessons and coloring pages.

Year Opened : 1852

The Victoria and Albert Museum collection spans 5,000 years of art from Europe, North America, Asia, and North Africa. The collection of ceramics, glass, textiles, costumes, silver, ironwork, jewelry, furniture, medieval objects, sculpture, prints and printmaking, drawings, and photographs is among the largest and most comprehensive in the world.

The virtual tour, in partnership with Google Arts and Culture, offers several online exhibits ranging from fashion to surrealism.

5 Natural History Museums With Virtual Tours

Year Opened : 1869

One of the largest natural history museums in the world, the American Museum of Natural History contains 34 million specimens of plants, animals, fossils, minerals, rocks, meteorites, human remains, and human cultural artifacts.

The museum’s 360-degree virtual tours offer an up-close look at permanent exhibits, current exhibits, past exhibits, and research stations.

Year Opened: 1759

The British Museum is one of the largest in the world and houses over 8 million works within its walls. Established in 1759, it was the first public national museum in the world. Visitors can tour the great court and view some of the most famous objects in history, like the Elgin Marbles of Greece and the Rosetta Stone of Egypt.

The Museum is the world’s largest indoor space on Google Street View and you can go on a virtual visit to more than 60 galleries.

The British Museum also has virtual galleries on display, including:

• Prints and Drawings

To visit the British Museum’s virtual tour page, click here .

Year Opened: 1964

The National Museum of Anthropology is the largest and most visited museum in all of Mexico. The museum contains significant archaeological and anthropological artifacts from Mexico’s pre-Columbian heritage, such as the Stone of the Sun (or the Aztec calendar stone) and the Aztec Xochipilli statue.

The museum has made more than 100 items available for Google visitors to explore from home.

To view the museum’s online collection, click here .

Located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History is the 11th most visited museum in the world and the most visited natural history museum in the world. With over 325,000 square feet of exhibition space, the museum’s collections contain over 145 million specimens of plants, animals, fossils, minerals, rocks, meteorites, human remains, and human cultural artifacts — the largest natural history collection in the world. Highlights of the collection include the Hope Diamond and the Star of Asia Sapphire.

You can view all of these specimens from the comfort of your home as the museum has dozens of different online exhibits that can all be accessed on its website.

To view the museum’s virtual tour, click here .

Year Opened: 1881

Undoubtably one of the best Museums in London , the Natural History Museum in London showcases 80 million life and earth science specimens of great historical and scientific value, even housing pieces collected by Charles Darwin. There are 5 categories within the museum: botany , entomology , mineralogy , paleontology , and zoology . Over 5 million people visit this museum each year, making it the most visited natural history museum in Europe.

One of the museum’s most prominent displays is the skeleton of an 82-foot long blue whale named Hope, which you can learn more about through a self-guided virtual tour, along with several other galleries. 

10 Science and Technology Museums With Virtual Tours

Year Opened : 1857

The London Science Museum holds a collection of over 300,000 items, including famous items such as Stephenson’s Rocket, Puffing Billy (the oldest surviving steam locomotive), the first jet engine, some of the earliest remaining steam engines, and documentation of the first typewriter.

Thanks to Google Street View, guests can take a virtual tour of the entire museum, or watch curator gallery guides on the museum’s YouTube channel.

To view the virtual tour or videos, click here .

Dedicated to the scientist and astronomer Galileo Galilei, the Museo Galilei is housed in an 11th-century palace known as the Palazzo Castellini. The museum has a collection of over 5,000 ancient scientific instruments dating back to the 13th century, and among its most notable items is the telescope Galileo used to discover the satellites of Jupiter.

Visitors from around the world have the opportunity to explore the inside of the museum and can access more than 1,000 permanent exhibition objects through the online catalog.

Year Opened: 1965

The Museum of Flight is the largest private air and space museum in the world and attracts over 500,000 visitors every year. The museum has more than 150 aircraft in its collection, including the Lockheed Model 10-E Electra (the aircraft Amelia Earhart was piloting when she disappeared over the Pacific Ocean), Boeing 747s, and the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird (pictured above).

The museum offers 360-degree tours that let you step inside dozens of these iconic aircraft.

Year Opened: 1846

The Museum of Natural Sciences of Belgium is dedicated to natural history and is part of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. The dinosaur hall of the museum is the world’s largest museum hall completely dedicated to dinosaurs, and its most important pieces are 30 fossilized Iguanodon skeletons, which were discovered in 1878 in Bernissart.

It has partnered with Google to set up virtual exhibits for viewing, including:

• 360-degree guided tour
• The Bernissart Iguanodons
• From Salehanthropus to Homo Sapiens
• Over 250 Years of Natural Sciences
• Past, Present, Future: The Marvels of Evolution

To view the museum’s online exhibits, click here .

Year Opened: 1830

The Museum of Science, Boston, receiving over 1.5 million visitors annually, is a museum and indoor zoo with more than 700 interactive exhibits and over 100 animals, many of which have been rescued and rehabilitated.

The museum offers a phenomenal virtual tour full of digital exhibits, videos, and audio presentations.

NASA, founded in 1958, was created by the federal government to develop the civilian space program, as well as to conduct aeronautics, space, and astrophysics research. Since its inception, NASA has been responsible for historic space missions including the Apollo moon-landing missions, the Skylab space station, and the space shuttle.

NASA has partnered with Google Arts and Culture to bring many online exhibits to life to showcase the beauty of space exploration.

Year Opened : 1946

The National Air and Space Museum is a center for the history and science of aviation, spaceflight, planetary science, terrestrial geology, and geophysics. It is the fifth most visited museum in the world (the second most visited in the U.S.), and contains the Apollo 11 Command Module Columbia, the Friendship 7 capsule, the Wright brothers’ Wright Flyer airplane, and Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis.

The virtual tour offers a 360-degree walk-through of the entire museum.

Year Opened: 2007

The National Museum of Computing is dedicated to collecting and restoring historic computer systems. The museum is home to the world’s largest collection of working historic computers dating back to the 1940s, including a rebuilt Mark 2 Colossus computer, alongside an exhibition of the most complex code-cracking activities performed at the Park.

In the 3D virtual tour, viewers can move around the galleries looking at the machines and their descriptions with the added bonus of hyperlinks to video and text explanations providing further detail and history of the exhibits.

Year Opened: 1923

Located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Riverside, Ohio, the National Museum of the United States Air Force is the oldest and largest military aviation museum in the world, with more than 360 aircraft and missiles on display.

The virtual tour allows visitors to take a virtual, 360-degree, self-guided tour of the entire museum by navigating from gallery to gallery.

Year Opened: 1683

Oxford’s History of Science Museum holds a leading collection of scientific instruments from the Middle Ages to the 19th century.

The museum, ever ahead of the times, has offered virtual tours since 1995. You’ll get to explore the fantastic exhibits and artifacts of some of the most important scientific discoveries in science history.

10 History Museums With Virtual Tours

Year Opened : 2009

The Acropolis Museum is centered around the archaeological findings at the site of Athens’ most important structure — the Acropolis. The museum was built to house every artifact found on the rock and surrounding slopes, from the Greek Bronze Age to Roman and Byzantine Greece.

The museum has partnered with Google Arts and Culture to bring the museum to life virtually. Now you can view rock, marble, and sculptures certificates, all of which are thousands of years old, all from the comfort of your couch!

The American Battlefield Trust Virtual Battlefield Tours offers the incredible opportunity to experience 360-degree virtual tours of more than 20 American Revolution and Civil War battlefields. You can explore Gettysburg, with 15 different stops, each of which features icons that discuss in great detail the history and significance of the battle.

Year Opened: 1957

What was once the house where Anne Frank went into hiding during WWII is now a museum dedicated to increasing awareness of Anne’s story and life in the attic. The Anne Frank House was established in cooperation with Anne Frank’s father, Otto Frank, and now welcomes over 1 million visitors from around the world each year.

The museum’s website offers a virtual reality tour of the annex, along with other educational resources about Anne’s life.

Year Opened: 1941

The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum holds the records of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd U.S. president (1933 to 1945). The museum showcases the history behind FDR’s story, his presidency, New Deal policies, assassination attempt, and wartime decisions.

The 360-degree online tour gives you a close look at original documents, artifacts, and videos from FDR’s life.

Year Opened: 2003

The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture is the only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African-American life, history, and culture. It was established by an Act of Congress in 2003, following decades of efforts to promote and highlight the contributions of African-Americans. To date, the Museum has collected more than 36,000 artifacts.

The museum website offers more than 15 different online exhibits covering African American history and culture.

Check out its online virtual tour  and digital resources guide .

The Smithsonian National Museum of American History has more than 1.8 million objects that highlight the history of the U.S — including the original Star-Spangled Banner, Julia Child’s kitchen, Abraham Lincoln’s top hat, Indiana Jones’ fedora and whip, and more!

The museum offers about 100 online exhibits from its encyclopedic collections, each with a mix of photos, video, graphics, and text on topics ranging through the nation’s entire history.

Year Opened : 1866

The National Museum of Scotland is dedicated to Scottish antiquities, culture, and history. The museum contains artifacts from around the world, encompassing geology, archaeology, natural history, science, technology, art, and world cultures. Popular items from the collections include Dolly the Sheep, the Arthur’s Seat coffins, and the Cramond Lioness sculpture.

The Museum’s galleries have been captured digitally in partnership with Google Arts & Culture, along with a virtual walk-through thanks to Google Street View.

Year Opened: 1996

Founded in 1996 by Karen Staser, the National Women’s History Museum researches, collects, and exhibits the contributions of women to the social, cultural, economic, and political life of our nation in the context of world history.

Its website currently features 29 different online exhibits!

Year Opened: 1974 (created third century B.C.)

The Terracotta Army at Emperor Qinshihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum is a collection of terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China. It is a form of funerary art buried with the emperor in 210 to 209 B.C. to protect the emperor in his afterlife. The sculptures include warriors, chariots, and horses. Estimates from 2007 were that the 3 pits containing the Terracotta Army held more than 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses, and 150 cavalry horses, the majority of which remained buried in the pits near Qin Shi Huang’s mausoleum.

The online experience allows you to get up close and personal with the sculptures in a full 360-degree experience!

To view the online virtual experience, click here .

Year Opened: 1980

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is the country’s official memorial to the Holocaust. It is located on the National Mall alongside other monuments dedicated to freedom. Each year, the museum encourages its 1.6 million visitors to promote human dignity, confront hatred, prevent genocide, and strengthen democratic values. The museum’s collection includes millions of archival documents, artifacts, photographs, footage, and a list of over 200,000 registered survivors and their families, among other historical items.

Its website offers a wide selection of educational resources, including a virtual tour, and is available in 16 languages.

There you have it — 75 amazing #MuseumsAtHome options filled with one-of-a-kind artifacts covering art, science, history, and natural history, all of which can be “visited” virtually while you lounge in your pajamas! So whether you’re a massive fan of art, looking for an educational experience for your children, or simply need a way to keep yourself entertained, you can’t go wrong with a virtual tour of any of these world-class museums.

Frequently Asked Questions

What museums have virtual tours.

There are dozens of museums worldwide offering virtual tours — we have 75 on this list alone! But some of our favorites are the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the British Museum!

How much do virtual tours cost?

Every single virtual tour included on our list is completely free of charge!

What is a virtual museum tour?

A virtual museum tour is, in essence, a simulation of what you might experience when visiting the museum in person. Virtual tours are usually comprised of a collection of videos, still images, 3D walkthroughs, and narration that help you feel as though you’re visiting the museum — without actually doing so!

How do you do a virtual tour?

Doing a virtual tour is easy! Often, the museum will have a dedicated website page allowing you to view all of their virtual resources on 1 page.

In the case of museums that have a 3D walkthrough, you can “walk” yourself through the museum by clicking from artwork to artwork, and exhibit to exhibit, as if you were actually visiting the museum in person!

Are virtual tours worth it?

Absolutely! If you’re currently not able to visit a museum in person, but want to experience all it has to offer, a virtual tour allows you to do just that — all from the comforts of your home!

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British Museum London, United Kingdom

The British Museum’s remarkable collection spans over two million years of human history and culture. Over 6 million visitors every year experience the collection, including world-famous objects such as the Rosetta Stone, the Parthenon sculptures, and Egyptian mummies.

Discover our interactive experience The Museum of the World

A Journey: Conserving the Atlas of Joseph Russegger’s seminal publication Reisen in Europa, Asien und Africa etc. (1842-1849)

British museum, the ballcourts of chichén itzá, buddhist art in myanmar, containing the divine: a sculpture of the pacific god a'a, john harrison's horological legacy, egypt: faith after the pharaohs, the mold cape, the russegger atlas, the ancient maya at the british museum, celtic life in iron age britain, poetry and exile, social fabric: african textiles today, celebrating ganesha, bonaparte and the battle of waterloo, 1066: the year that changed england, exploring the maya ruins of quiriguá, guatemala, yucatán today, untangling maya glyphs, traditional jewellery and dress from the balkans, in this collection, alfred maudslay, 1,680 items, archaeology, 1,008 items, 7,350 items, 2 museum views, what's on.

I Heart Britain

23 of the Best 3D Virtual Tours of British Museums, Castles, Churches, & Stately Homes

It's a great time to be alive! In the past, those who couldn't travel were forced to content themselves with nothing more than books and the occasional (but relatively rare) glimpse of places on television. Today, we have an almost incomprehensible amount of information at our fingertips, including a surprising number of immersive 3D tours.

For those who can't travel – which is pretty much all of us right now – we've pulled together some of Britain's best virtual tours. You can visit them on smartphones, tablets, or regular computers, but we recommend using a laptop or desktop computer for a better viewing experience. If you have a VR headset and it doesn't make you completely sick to use it, that will give you an even more immersive experience.

So, without further ado, let's look at those tours…

Castles & Stately Homes

Hever castle.

Location : Hever, Kent (about 30 miles southeast of London)

Hever Castle was the childhood home of Anne Boleyn, and today it's a tourist attraction, hotel, and wedding venue. It's also been used as a filming location for productions like The Princess Bride , The Great (upcoming), Inkheart , The Darling Buds of May , Lady Jane , King Ralph , and Secrets of the Six Wives (with Dr. Lucy Worsley).

Visit the 3D tour HERE | Website

Dundas Castle

Location : Dalmeny, West Lothian, Scotland

This Scottish Castle is a castle wedding and events venue, and it occasionally plays host to TV and film crews. If you remember the 2000 film, The Little Vampire , that one was set at Dundas Castle. 

Visit the 3D tour HERE | Dundas Castle

Achnagairn Castle

Location : Kirkhill, Inverness-shire, Scotland

Achnagairn Castle is not far from Inverness, and it's one of the top wedding venues in the entirety of the UK. 

It's also worth noting that this particular tour is a Google Maps tour rather than a Matterport tour. It's still fun, but not of the same quality you'd get with a Matterport tour.

Warwick Castle

Location : Warwick, Warwickshire, England

This medieval castle was originally built by William the Conqueror around 1068, and it sits on the banks of the River Avon. Originally a wooden motte-and-bailey structure, it was rebuilt in stone during the 12th century.

It's also been used as a filming location for The Virgin Queen and a number of smaller productions.

Elmore Court Mansion

Location : Elmore, Gloucestershire, England

This Grade II listed mansion dates back to sometime between 1564 and 1588, and it enjoys views out over the Cotswolds and the River Severn. Today, it offers a slightly less stuffy space for weddings and events. 

Anne of Cleves House

Location : Lewes, East Sussex, England

This East Sussex building was owned by Henry VIII's fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, and it now serves as a historic site and Tudor museum. Interestingly, she never actually visited the property. It was part of her annulment settlement in 1541.

Visit the 3D tour HERE

Nymans House

Location : Handcross, West Sussex, England

Nymans is a National Trust property in West Sussex, and it's best known for its gardens. It was once home to Anne Messel, mother of Princess Margaret's husband, Lord Snowden (formerly Anthony Armstrong Jones). 

This virtual tour takes you on a tour of the house.

Lewes Castle

Originally called Bray Castle, this 1000-year-old Norman castle offers views across Sussex. It's managed by the Sussex Archaeological Society, and they are a charity ( you can support them HERE ). These days, the site offers tours and activities, and it's also a wedding venue. 

3D Museum Tours

Oxford museum of natural history.

Location : Oxford, Oxfordshire, England

I love this Matterport tour, but the only major downside is that it's a bit old, and it doesn't have all the bells and whistles of some of the more recent ones (like the bullseye symbols that let you zoom in on signs or small items). It's still very much worth a view, though, particularly if you can't make it to the museum or you ARE headed to the museum but your time is limited and you want to get the lay of the land.

Pitt Rivers Museum

Location : Oxford, Oxfordshire (only accessible via the Oxford Museum of Natural History)

Part of the University of Oxford, this museum houses the archaeological and anthropological artifacts from their collection. 

View the 3D tour HERE

Bristol Museum & Art Gallery

Location : Bristol, England

This museum features a treasure trove of archaeological artifacts, art, (including some by famed local Banksy), and even a Romany caravan.

Sigmund Freud Museum

Location : London, England

Sigmund Freud's London home has been transformed into a museum of his life and work. Sadly, the images aren't of a high enough quality that you can always read all signs, but it's better than nothing when you're not able to physically visit.

Bletchley Park National Museum of Computing

Location : Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England

Whether you're a WWII buff, an amateur codebreaker, or just someone who enjoyed The Bletchley Circle , you'll enjoy this virtual tour of the computer museum now housed at Bletchley Park.

Charles Dickens Museum

From 25 March 1837 to December 1839, Charles Dickens lived in a Georgian terrace house at 48 Doughty Street in Holborn, London Borough of Camden. Today, it's a museum celebrating the beloved Brit's life and work. 

Andrew Carnegie Birthplace Museum

Location : Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland

This museum gives you a chance to take a look at Andrew Carnegie's life and rise from rags to riches. Though Carnegie's actual birthplace is a tiny cottage adjacent to the museum, the museum is a lovely hall built by his wife in 1928. 

Fun fact: Andrew Carnegie is believed to have been a strong influence on the character of Scrooge McDuck (currently voice by David Tennant ).

3D Tours of Religious Sites

Salisbury cathedral.

This massive Anglican cathedral in Wiltshire is regarded as one of the leading examples of Early English architecture. It's also home to Britain's tallest spire and the best preserved Magna Carta. 

If you're a bird lover, you can also check out their nesting peregrines HERE . 

Location : Salisbury, Wiltshire, England | Website

Saint Leonard's Church, Streatham

One of the creepier tours on the list, I highly recommend going down to the crypt. Due to some fires, the majority of the church looks quite new. The crypt, however, is old and creepy and everything you'd hope for in a crypt.

Location : Lambeth, London, England | Website

Michelham Priory & Gatehouse

Home to the country's largest medieval, water-filled moat, this former priory has 800 years of history – including use as an evacuee shelter during WWII. Today, it serves as a museum and historic site for all to enjoy. They survive on admission fees and charitable donations, so if you feel so inclined, you can make a donation to the site's preservation HERE . 

Location : Upper Dicker, East Sussex, England

Visit the 3D tour HERE | Visit the Gatehouse tour HERE | Visit the Barn tour HERE | Website

Newstead Abbey

Location : Newstead Village, Nottinghamshire, England

Best known as the ancestral home of Lord Byron, this site was formerly and Augustinian priory. Today, they offer weddings, group visits, corporate hire, and educational trips. 

Westminster Abbey

Perhaps the most famous religious site in England, Westminster Abbey is available to tour on Google Street View. Unlike the usual spotty tours with just a few images and tourists scattered everywhere, they prepared for this and brought in professionals, resulting in a high-quality virtual tour. 

3d Tours of Other British Attractions & Historic Sites

Fishbourne palace.

Location : Fishbourne, West Sussex, England

Fishbourne Palace was the largest residential Roman building discovered in Britain, and also one of the oldest. It was built somewhere around 75 AD, roughly 30 years after the Roman conquest of Britain.

Nature Discovery Centre

Location : Thatcham, Berkshire, England

Though most 3D walkthroughs focus on indoor locations, this one takes you to a nature centre positioned on Thatcham Lake, a flooded gravel quarry. 

The Old Ship Hotel Cellar

Location : Brighton, East Sussex, England

The Old Ship Hotel is a historic hotel in Brighton, England. It's the oldest hotel in Brighton, believed to have been built in 1559, and it contains the Old Ship Assembly Rooms. In the 1700s, they hosted card evenings on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and the hotel has played host to people like Niccolo Paganini and Charles Dickens.

Unfortunately, the tour below only covers the cellars – which now serve as a cocktail bar (Brighton's ONLY underground cocktail bar, in fact). You can also rent the venue.

What's Your Favourite Virtual Tour in England, Scotland or Wales?

Feel free to share your favourites in the comments. We'll definitely be adding more virtual tours to this list as we find them.

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10 of the world’s best virtual museum and art gallery tours

The originals are out of reach for now, but you can still see world-class art – without the queues or ticket prices – with an online tour of these famous museums

A rt lovers can view thousands of paintings, sculptures, installations and new work online – many in minute detail – as well as explore the museums themselves. There are various platforms: from interactive, 360-degree videos and full “walk-around” tours with voiceover descriptions to slideshows with zoomable photos of the world’s greatest artworks. And many allow viewers to get closer to the art than they could do in real life.

So, take a break from the news, enter full-screen mode and start your art adventure in sunny California …

J Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

With more than 6,000 years worth of creative treasures, the Getty is one of the best places for art on the west coast of the US. Go from neolithic clay figures to Van Gogh’s Irises and Renoir’s La Promenade – just two of many artworks that feature in the virtual tour . As with several of our selection, Google Arts and Culture offers a “ museum view ” tool to look inside gallery spaces, with clickable artworks presenting further information. The Getty’s sunny sculpture plaza and garden terrace are worth adding to your digital trip, via another viewing platform, Xplorit . getty.edu

Vatican Museums, Rome

Soaring vaulted ceilings, intricate murals and tapestries, the Vatican’s museums are creatively rich sites. Don’t forget to look up when exploring the seven spaces in the museum’s virtual tour, to gawp at a series of 360-degree images, including the Sistine Chapel. Wander around the rest of Vatican City with a You Visit tour that takes in Saint Peter’s Basilica and Square, complete with a tour guide narrating each interactive space. museivaticani.va

Guggenheim, Bilbao

Frank Gehry’s sculptured titanium and steel building, on the banks of the Nervión River, is one of the world’s most distinctive art spaces. The interactive tour takes viewers around its collection of postwar American and European painting and sculpture – Rothko, Holzer, Koons, Kapoor – and even down between the weathered curves of Serra’s Matter of Time (turn left at the entrance). guggenheim-bilbao.eus

Natural History Museum, London

From the diplodocus to the dodo, botany to butterflies, giant crystals to specimens in jars … the Natural History Museum’s vast collection has long been a favourite of both Londoners and tourists. Get lost in the corridors and gallery spaces – one treat is Dippy the dino, who despite recently going on tour still makes an appearance in the entrance hall in this interactive online guide . nhm.ac.uk

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

This grand museum has a vast collection of art and historical objects across 80 galleries. A 10-year renovation project was completed in 2013, transforming the space and combining elements of 19th-century grandeur with modern lighting and a new glass-roofed atrium. The interactive tour helps viewers get up close to every brush stroke by Vermeer, Rembrandt and other Dutch masters while exploring the Great Hall and beyond. rijksmuseum.nl

National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, South Korea

There are several sites making up this museum: the main gallery in Gwacheon and branches in Deoksugung, Seoul and Cheongju. The virtual tours explore an inspiring mix of print, design, sculpture, photography, new media and other large-scale installations. From Joseph Beuys to Warhol and Nam June Paik, the collection includes an international lineup of established artists, contemporary Korean artworks and emerging names. mmca.go.kr

Musée d’Orsay, Paris

In the former Gare d’Orsay, a Paris railway station and hotel, the musée is home to Cézanne, Monet and other French masters. Under a 138m-long curved glass roof, sits the largest collection of impressionist and post-Impressionist works in the world. The virtual tour also includes an online exhibition charting the history of the building. And over on Tourist Tube there’s a 360-degree view of the magnificent exterior. m.musee-orsay.fr

British Museum, London

There are 3,212 panes of glass in the domed ceiling of the British Museum’s Great Court, and no two are the same – and the 360-degree view in this virtual tour lets viewers examine each and every one. Beyond this magnificent space, viewers can find the Rosetta Stone, Egyptian mummies and other ancient wonders. The museum’s interactive infographic platform, History Connected , goes into further depth of various objects with curators, along a timeline. britishmuseum.org

MASP, São Paulo, Brazil

The Museu de Arte de São Paulo has one of the broadest historical collections available to view via its virtual gallery platform , spanning from the 14th to 20th centuries. Paintings appear suspended in the air around the open-plan space, on glass panels or “crystal easels” as the museum calls them. There’s also a temporary retrospective exhibition by Brazilian pop artist Teresinha Soares beside the building’s statement red staircase. The glass and red-beam structure, built in 1968, is worth a look from the outside too, via Google Street View . masp.org.br

National Gallery, London

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Museum Review: Virtual Exhibit at the British Museum

May 11, 2020

With the worldwide outbreak of COVID-19, we are adjusting to a very different way of living. Of course, one of the sectors most affected by us all staying at home is museums and galleries, as most face temporary closure and the cancellation or postponement of exhibitions.

Many museums are adjusting by providing online, virtual tours of their exhibitions in Google maps style format. This is of course not the same as a real physical experience, but is better than nothing. The British Museum, however, has created a virtual exhibition quite unlike others, and one that does not attempt to replicate the embodied experience, but create a unique online one.

The British Museum offers an alternative, exclusively virtual museum, ‘The Museum of the World’, using the British Museum’s collections. At first arrival, you are faced with a movable Guitar Hero-like coloured timeline, organised by continent. The various dots can be clicked on, and take you to a range of objects, which can also be filtered by the various themes on the right side bar.

Perhaps just like a real museum experience, there are way too many dots to possibly click on or read. The viewer is forced to simply explore and see what you can find! Once clicking on a dot, you can see what the object is, and be linked to other, similar objects.

On clicking ‘find out more’, you are taken to an information screen about that object, which is more informative than a regular museum caption, and has additional features of an audio of interviews with experts discussing the object, viewing related objects, and seeing the original location. This is a very fun way to explore a museum, with very detailed and well curated information on each object, set out in an exciting way.

Only problem with the virtual system is that if you want to go back and look at an object, it is almost impossible to find it again, especially since there is no search feature! It also often only presents one view of an object and you cannot get the same 360 degree view you could in real life. It is, however, a great way of presenting and demonstrating the sheer scale of the British Museum’s collection, which in the physical museum; there is no way all could be on display.

It is interesting to think about the accessibility of these virtual museums. In theory, they make museum collections available to a wide range of audiences across the world, much more so than physical museums do. It is interesting, however, that the British Museum has renamed its virtual counterpart ‘The Museum of the World’. This is perhaps an attempt to demonstrate that the collections span across the world, or, maybe a haphazard attempt to suggest that actually, these objects should not belong to a ‘British’ Museum. The British Museum has had decades of controversy surrounding many objects in its collection, from the legality of their acquisition, to the ethics of their continued location and refusal of repatriation. 

Despite these issues, however, their virtual museum is a wonderful demonstration of the geographical diversity of their museum collections, and perhaps an indication of a way museums could reach a more worldwide audience, even after coronavirus. You can check out the ‘Museum of the World’ here .

Girl Museum is also a virtual-only museum! Combat quarantine boredom by looking at our online exhibitions !

-Emma Pearce Junior Girl Girl Museum Inc.

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50 World Class Museums To Enjoy Virtually Online For Free

Scoping out some museums for art-inspired travel? Here’s my guide to the best virtual museums you can visit online at home from the comfort of your couch or computer.

Many world class museums have released some or all of their collections online. Or they’ve partnered with Google Arts & Culture to make collections accessible in high resolution.

Some museums have used the technology that powers Google Street View to let you zoom in to see floor plans or specific art works.

If you can’t travel for any reason, this is a splendid time to travel virtually to a museum of your choice. There’s an almost dizzying array of virtual options.

It’s not quite like walking through a museum. But it has its own strange pleasures.

World Class Museums With Online Collections and Virtual Tours For At Home Viewing

Here’s my list of virtual tours for 50 amazing museums:

1. Uffizi Gallery, Florence Italy

Art lovers are rushing to the Virtual Uffizi Gallery Facebook page. Launched in 2020, the page already has over 50,000 followers.

The Uffizi is one of Europe’s best museums, housing priceless treasures of Italian Renaissance art collected by the powerful Medici family. The Uffizi has the world’s best collection of Gothic and Renaissance art.

This is where you can admire Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus and Primavera , Laocoön and his Sons , and Raphael’s Portrait of Pope Leo X with Two Cardinals .

Install the Google Arts & Culture App to explore the entire collection .

Here’s my comprehensive guide to the Uffizi Gallery and my must know Uffizi tips to prepare for your museum visit.

2. British Museum, London England

In London’s artsy Bloomsbury area is one the world’s foremost museums, the British Museum . Opened in 1753, it’s a universal museum, holding a massive collection of the world’s most important historic artifacts. It seeks to provide a cross cultural understanding of art owned by “humanity.”

But it’s owned by humanity in name only. Many of the goodies on display date from England’s reign as a major world super power.

It’s utterly amazing how much stuff the Brits gobbled up, with their obsessive fervor for quirky collecting. Like the hotly disputed Elgin Marbles taken from the Pantheon.

The British Museum allows virtual visitors 360 views of the Great Court, the ancient Rosetta Stone, and the Egyptian mummies. You can also find hundreds of artifacts on the museum’s virtual tour that can be enlarged, with links to curator descriptions of the pieces.

Here’s my complete guide to the British Museum .

3. Soloman R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City

Google’s Street View feature lets visitors virtually tour the Guggenheim’s famous spiral staircase designed by Frank Lloyd Wright . From there, you can see incredible masterpieces from the Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, Modern, and Contemporary art periods.

Visit the museum’s popular online collection . There, you’ll find some of the Guggenheim’s most famous works, including Vasily Kandinsky’s Composition 8 (the most popular piece in 2019), Jackson Pollack’s Alchemy , and Edouard Manet’s Before the Mirror .

You can also check out the Guggenheim’s blog , with in-depth analyses of artists and art works.

4. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

The National Gallery of Art is home to some of the most amazing paintings in the world. Plus, as a Smithsonian branch, it’s free to visitors.

But since you can’t visit right now, the museum features two online exhibits through Google. The first is an exhibit of American fashion from 1740 to 1895. The second is a collection of works from Johannes Vermeer, the famous Dutch Baroque painter.

The museum also has a rotating collection of museum highlights online. The most famous pieces will wow you — Pablo Picasso’s Family of Saltimbanques , da Vinci’s Portriat of Ginerva de’ Benci , Vincent Van Gogh’s Roses , Claude Monet’s Woman with a Parasol, and Mary Cassat’s The Boating Party.

For more information, here’s my complete guide to the National Gallery .

5. Musée d’Orsay, Paris France

Ah, this is one of my favorite museums in Paris , housed in a beautiful converted railway station.

If you can’t visit the museum, you can virtually see dozens of famous works from French and European artists who toiled in Paris between 1848 and 1914. You’ll see artworks from Monet, Cézanne, Gauguin, and so many other artists.

In particular, the d’Orsay is a Van Gogh treasure trove. You can inspect his Self Portrait, Starry Night, Dr. Gachet , The Church at Auvers , and The Siesta .

Other masterpieces at the d’Orsay include Manet’s Luncheon on the Grass and Olympia, Paul Cezanne’s Card Players , Claude Monet’s Houses of Parliament , and Auguste Renoir’s Moulin de la Galette .

Here’s my comprehensive guide to masterpieces of the Orsay and must know tips for visiting the Orsay .

6. Louvre, Paris France

The Louvre is Paris’ iconic landmark and the world’s most visited museum. This treasure trove of history is closed right now. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have an arrangement with Google Arts & Culture.

But the Louvre does offer free virtual tours of some of its important exhibits, like the Egyptian Antiquities, Napoleon’s Rooms, the Medieval Louvre, and works by Michelangelo.

Via my blog, you can also explore the Louvre’s underrated masterpieces or take my virtual tour of the Louvre . I think the best painting in the Louvre , Theodore Gericault’s Raft of the Medusa .

If you’re a Beyonce fan, her recent music video featured pieces from the Louvre. Now, you can follow the Beyonce Louvre Trail .

READ : Louvre Survival Tips

7. Paris Museums Collections

In a collective effort, Paris museums have made 100,000 images of artworks from Paris museum collections freely available to the public.

This includes digital downloads of masterpieces by artists including Rembrandt, Gustave Courbet, and Eugène Delacroix.

Here’s the digital collections portal .

8. The Spy Museum, Washington D.C.

The Spy Museum is always a crowd pleaser. But if you’d like to avoid crowds, you can just visit online.

The Spy Museum gives you 360 degrees views of every room. It’s also got an amazing Pinterest account , featuring photos of its precious artifacts.

The Spy Museum even has a list online of the 10 most important pieces in its collection, including the Enigma Machine that Germany used in WWII to secretly communicate.

9. The Vatican Museums, Vatican City

I recently visited the Vatican Museums twice during a trip to Rome . The Vatican Museums are the public art and sculpture museums in the Vatican City complex.

The works in the Vatican are invaluable crowning glories of Western art. They tell stories of the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, the history of the Catholic Church, and the birth of the Renaissance.

You can take an online virtual tour of the Vatican Museums, including the Sistine Chapel , the Pio Clementino Museum, and the Raphael Rooms .

I’ve also quite a few pieces on in which you can check out the art work.

• Vatican’s must see masterpieces
• Raphael Rooms  
• Hidden gems of the Vatican
• Best sculptures in the Vatican
• Sistine Chapel in the Vatican

10. The Dali Theater Museum, Figueres Spain

This is a delightfully eccentric single artist museum in Salvador Dali’s hometown of Figueres Spain. Designed by Dali himself, the pink bread encrusted museum is a surrealistic object itself.

I’ve written a complete guide to the Dali Museum . But you can also see some of its most famous pieces online .

Check out the Mae West Room, the Labyrinth, the Rain Taxi, the courtyard of golden Oscar statues, and the painting of Gala Contemplating the Mediterranean Sea (a clever double image).

11. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam Netherlands

The Van Gogh Museum boasts the largest collection of paintings by the Post-Impressions master Vincent Van Gogh .

He’s an artist known for his colorful sunflowers, vivid landscapes, and searing portraits. Online, you can see panoramic views of the museum rooms.

The museum offers almost 1500 images of paintings to inspect. There’s also a 360 virtual tour of its Sunflower Gallery , with paintings from five international museums.

12. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam Netherlands

If you love Dutch art, this is your chance to check out the preeminent source. The Rijksmuseum is well represented on Google Arts & Culture, with 150,000 items on display.

You’ll find masterpieces by Rembrandt ( The Night Watch , The Jewish Bride ), Vermeer ( The Milk Maid) , and Franz Hals ( The Wedding Portrait ) on their virtual tours . There’s also a Google Streets View of its grounds.

13. J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center, Los Angeles

Designed by Pritzker Prize winning architect Richard Meier, the world famous Getty Center in southern California opened to the public in 1997.

The Getty Museum has an outstanding online virtual tour with Google Arts & Culture. It even has an outdoor virtual tour , which uses photography and time-lapse videos to enliven the experience.

There are 15,000 paintings and artifacts to see with accompanying audio explanations. Check out the Getty’s most famous pieces — Van Gogh’s Irises and Rembrandt Laughing , Renoir’s La Promenade , and the Lansdowne Herakles sculpture from Roman antiquity.

For more information, you can check out my guide to the Getty Center .

14. Museum of Modern Art, New York City US

The venerable MOMA boasts one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of modern and contemporary art in the world. A $450 million expansion in 2019 added 45,000 square feet of space.

It was the first museum solely dedicated to modern art. It has 84,000 pieces art on display online .

It’s seminal masterpieces include works by Jackson Pollack, Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Willem de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, and the ever popular Impressionists. MOMA’s most famous piece is Van Gogh’s Starry Night .

15. Tate Modern, London England

The Tate Modern is my favorite museum in London, a city overflowing with marvelous free museums . Opened in 2000, it’s housed in the former Bankside Power Station. The industrial look seems fitting for its cutting edge art.

Among other modern art masterpieces , you can clap your eyes on Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Diptych , Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain , Amadeo Modigliani’s Peasant Boy , Pablo Picasso’s Nude Woman in a Red Armchair, Georgio de Chirico’s the Uncertainty of the Poet , and Henri Matisse’s The Snail, and Salvador Dali’s Lobster Telephone .

You can navigate the Tate Modern via Google Street View or explore its digitized masterpieces online . The Tate is to launch free online film tours of Andy Warhol (April 6) and Aubrey Beardsley (April 13) exhibitions on their YouTube channel .

16. National Gallery, London England

London’s National Gallery is an incredibly diverse museum, featuring 2,000 European paintings from the 13th to the 19th centuries.

You’ll find familiar names like Rembrandt, da Vinci, Michelangelo, Botticelli, J.M.W. Turner, Monet, and Van Gogh.

READ : The Monet Guide To Paris

The most famous painting on display is Leonardo da Vinci’s The Virgin of the Rocks. But Van Gogh’s Sunflowers also draws hordes of admirers. Wherever you are, you can take a virtual tour .

Here’s my complete guide to the National Gallery .

17. The Prado Museum, Madrid Spain

The Prado Museum in Madrid is Spain’s cultural jewel. It boasts one of Europe’s finest and most sensuous painting collections.

The artistic anchors of the Prado are Francisco Goya, Diego Velázquez, and Peter Paul Rubens. But there are also masterpieces by Titian, Bosch, and El Greco.

Now you can Prado in your PJs. If you want to take a virtual tour of the Prado, you can. The Prado recently broadcast a live video in which its director, Miguel Falomir, gave a 20 minute talk on Tintoretto’s famed Christ Washing the Disciples’ Feet .

The Prado also has a 360 virtual tour of its Rubens exhibition and an impressive online collection of over 10,000 works of art. Smarthistory has a large cache of YouTube videos exploring many of the Prado’s best works. The Prado also does a live one hour show on Instagram, also posted on Facebook, every morning at 10:00 am.

Here’s my complete guide to visting the Prado .

18. The Reina Sofia, Madrid Spain

Opened in 1992, the Reina Sofia is Madrid’s modern art museum. Its collection is comprised entirely of art work from 1900 to the present.

There’s a special focus on Spain’s favorite sons, Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali , and their respective schools of Cubism and Surrealism.

The star of the Reina Sofia is Guernica , Picasso’s grim depiction of the seemingly casual Nazi bombing of Guernica Spain in 1937.

The Reina Sofia recently tweeted a video showing the array of content it has online .

19. Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid Spain

Housed in the Villahermosa Palace, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum is named after art collector Baron Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza.

The museum covers every major period in Western art, from 13th century Italian Renaissance to 20th century Pop Art. It also has an important collection of 19th century American paintings not found elsewhere in Europe.

The museum offers virtual visits to both its permanent collection and temporary exhibits. You can also browse through thematic tours that center on fashion, food, love, and wine.

READ : Best Art Museums in Spain

20. Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C. US

Washington D.C.’s Museum of Natural History is one of the most visited museums in the world. You can inspect some of its wonderful treasures with an online virtual tour of the entire grounds.

Viewers head into its rotunda and receive a comprehensive 360 room by room walking tour of its most exceptional exhibits, including the Hall of Mammals, Insect Zoo, and Dinosaurs and Hall of Paleobiology.

In general, the Smithsonian museums have also released 2.8 million images into the public domain. They’re searchable, shareable, and downloadable via the museum’s Open Access platform . The Smithsonian will continue to digitize and publish their collections.

21. The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg Russia

The State Hermitage is one of the world’s best museums. It’s the second largest museum in the world. It’s so large that it’s impossible to tackle in one real life visit anyway. Instead, you can explore its artsy endless halls with the Google Art Project guide.

Alternatively, check out the Hermitage website , which boasts a large digital archive with very convenient navigation. In the Highlights section, you’ll find the Hermitage’s most significant pieces: Faberge eggs, sculptures, and jewelry.

Some of its world class paintings include Rembrant’s Danae and The Return of the Prodigal Son , Henri Matisse’s Dance , Titian’s Danae , and Kandinsky’s Composition VI . Other Russian museums with significant online collections can be found here .

22. Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon Portugal

If you’re pining for Portugal , Lisbon’s Calouste Gulbenkian Museum has excellent online viewing options.

Thanks to a wealthy oil magnate, this gem of a museum is stuffed with a stunning range of treasures spanning 4,000 years. It’s one of the world’s largest and best private art collections, compiled over 40 years.

The museum has a 360 tour of the Founder’s Collection and the Modern Collection galleries. It also has an extensive online collection .

READ : 4 Day Itinerary for Lisbon

23. Tate Britain, London England

The Tate Britain may be London’s most beautiful museum. It boasts a domed rotunda, beautiful spiral staircase, terrazzo floors, and Victorian details. Built in the late 19th century, the Tate Britain underwent an extensive renovation completed in 2013. The result is an ultra pretty museum experience.

The Tate Britain is home to J. M. W. Turner’s watercolors and Francis Bacon’s abstract religious triptychs and screaming popes. Some of Tate Britain’s most famous paintings are here, including Sir John Everett Millais’ Ophelia , John William Waterhouse’s The Lady of Shalott , and John Constable’s Flatford Mill.

Of special note, there are 8 rooms dedicated to Turner, one of Britian’s greatest and most famous artists.

And you can enjoy it all online with Google Arts & Culture. And you can check out my guide to the Tate Britain , with must see masterpieces.

24. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City US

The Met is the largest museum in the United States. It has an extremely good online collection . There are over 200,000 works on Google Arts & Culture.

The Met also offers a 360 tour , consisting of 6 videos. The tour showcases different spaces inside the Met from unique angles.

Check out the Met’s best pieces — Georgia O’Keefe’s Cow’s Skull , Van Gogh’s Self Portrait with a Straw Hat , Monet’s Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies , Jacques Louis David’s The Death of Socrates , and Antonio Canova’s famous sculpture Venus Italica .

25. The Capitoline Museums, Rome Italy

If you love ancient Greco-Roman sculpture, the Capitoline Museums have a virtual tour of its floorplans and collections. You can also examine its exhibits on Google Arts & Culture .

The Capitoline Museums is Rome’s oldest museum complex, sitting atop a beautiful Michelangelo-designed square, the Piazza dei Campidoglio on Capitoline Hill. It gives you a unique look at Rome’s ancient imperial history. If you’re a history or archaeology buff, this is a must see site in Rome .

READ : 5 Day Itinerary For Rome

The Capitoline Museum boasts an enormous array of ancient Roman, medieval, and Renaissance art — statuary, paintings, and relics. The most famous pieces are the Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius , Dying Gaul , Medusa , Capitoline Venus , Spinario , and Bust of Commodus .

Here’s my complete guide to the Capitoline Museums .

26. Raffaello Exhibit, Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome Italy

2020 marked the 500 year anniversary of the death of the Renaissance master Raphael . In honor of the great artist, Rome planned a landmark exhibition.

200 paintings had been gathered from all over Italy, from the Vatican Museums, and on loan from major museums worldwide.

Titled RAFFAELLO, the exhibition was planned to run from March 5th – June 2nd. But it was closed after several days. Fortunately a free virtual tour is now available. It’s narrated in Italian. But you can still admire the beauty of the art works.

27. Ara Pacis | Museum of the Altar of Peace, Rome Italy

The Ara Pacis Museum is dedicated to a single item — an ancient arch dedicated to the gods.

The arch was built by soon-to-be emperor Augustus, who had just pacified the barbarians. This victory marked the beginning of the Pax Roman, a 200 year golden age where arts and architecture flourished.

Opened in 2006, the altar-museum is housed in a modern pavilion designed by American architect Richard Meier. Examine all the intricacies of the altar with the museum’s virtual tour here .

28. The Acropolis Museum, Athens Greece

In 2009, Athens opened a gorgeous new museum, the Acropolis Museum.

Designed by French-Swiss architect Bernard Tschumi, it’s a $200 million state of the art rebuttal to the British Museum’s claim that Athens had nowhere to properly store and display the Elgin Marbles , disputed statuary from the Parthenon’s frieze.

The Acropolis Museum recreated the Parthenon friezes for display. It’s also home to 5,0000 year old artifacts excavated from the Acropolis, home to the Parthenon. Both the ruins and the neighboring museum are free to explore virtually on Google Maps .

READ : One Day In Athens Itinerary

29. Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte, Naples Italy

Located in the Capodimonte Palace, the Capodimonte Museum houses a collection of fine and decorative arts mostly from Naples. The core of its collection was compiled by the powerful Farnese and Bourbon families.

The Capodimonte Museum has works by Caravaggio, Masaccio, Titian, Raphael, El Greco, Bruegel, and Sebastiano del Piombo (who also decorated the Villa Farnesina in Rome). The museum’s most famous painting is probably The Gypsy Madonna by Correggio. You can visit the museum’s online collection here .

Thanks to the museum’s collaboration with Google Arts & Culture, the cultural and artistic gems of the Capodimonte Museum can be admired online from home.

The online Google Art & Culture platform contains over 536 works of art. The Google Street View tool allows visitors to enjoy 14 themed stories and virtual tours of museum masterpieces.

30. Picasso Museum, Barcelona Spain

Founded in 1963, the Picasso Museum in Barcelona was launched with a donation of 574 works by Picasso’s secretary, Jaime Sabartés. In 1970, Picasso himself donated 800 more pieces to the museum.

In this museum, you’ll find one of the most extensive collections of his work, 4000 pieces, certainly the best collection in Spain. The best part of the museum is where it’s housed — in five glorious adjoining medieval palaces.

You can browse the highlights of the museum’s online collection here , though the images are rather small. You can take a virtual tour of the palaces here . The palace tour takes you on a private guided tour of the museum’s architectural elements.

If you’d like more Picasso, here’s my guide to the Picasso museums in Europe and my guide to the Picasso Museum in Paris .

31. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston MA

Ah, this is one of my favorite museums in the United States. If you’re a museum or art lover, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is a must see site in Boston Massachusetts . I just adored it.

The museum houses gorgeous paintings from the Italian Renaissance and Dutch Golden Age in an exquisite Venetian-style palazzo. The collection was assembled by Gardner herself, who was a wealthy maverick and avid art collector.

Gardner carefully curated and installed her collection amid the three floors of intimate gallery spaces and the interior courtyard with a skylit roof. Each room is named and sumptuously decorated.

In effect, the museum is a total work of art with Gardner as the installation artist. You’ll find pieces by John Singer Sargent, Rembrandt, Francisco Zurburan, Titian, and Sandro Botticelli.

Here’s my guide to the Gardner Museum . You can also take a virtual tour through Google Arts & Culture . If you’ve never watched the fascinating introductory video on the museum’s homepage , now’s the perfect time.

32. Musee de L’Orangerie, Paris France

Paris’ Musée de l’Orangerie, or the Orangerie Museum, is one of the best small museums in Paris . It’s a quick 10 minute walk from its more popular sister museum the Musée D’Orsay. And it’s completely worth the detour, a hidden gem in Paris just waiting for avid fans of the Impressionist painter Claude Monet.

The Orangerie’s main claim to fame is its famed collection of Monet’s water lilies, some of which can also be found at the equally stunning Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris’ 16th arrondissement.

In 1927, the water lilies were set in massive curved panels and installed in two adjoining oval shaped rooms in the new museum. Some art historians call the Orangerie the world’s first “art installation” because the space was designed specifically for Monet’s water lilies.

Here’s my complete guide to the Orangerie . You can also visit the museum masterpieces virtually on Google Arts & Culture.

33. Guggenheim Bilbao, Bilbao Spain

Who can argue with the emblematic Guggenheim Museum ? Inaugurated in 1997, Frank Gehry’s twisting shimmering museum is the star of the underrated city of Bilbao Spain .

The space age building is an awe-inspiring blend of titanium, glass, and limestone. The scaly exterior evokes a silvery fish and the wings of the building the wind-filled sails of a ship.

Outside, there’s a veritable sculpture museum. Inside, the Guggenheim’s modern art collection is on par with Europe’s best modern art museums. You’ll find works by Robert Motherwell, Yves Klein, Andy Warhol, Eduardo Chillada, and Anselm Kiefer.

Via Google Arts & Culture, you can explore the Guggenheim Bilbao. The online offering includes cinematographic photos, videos, and guided tours of masterpieces from the collection.

READ : 2 Day Itinerary for Bilbao

34. Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh PA

This wonderful single artist museum celebrates Pittsburgh’s hippest native son, who made himself a world famous Pop artist. As the Prince of Pop, Andy Warhol was a hugely significant artist of the second half of the 20th century. Warhol cannily merged superficial commerce and fine art, popularizing robotic everyday images.

Opened in 1994, the Andy Warhol Museum is a chic urban venue. It’s an immersive and well curated museum. The museum has 7 floors in chronological order. You’ll see seminal works from the 1940s to Warhol’s death in 1987, with explanations of Warhol’s creative process.

The Warhol Museum has some of its art and archives online here . You can read about Warhol’s life here .

If you want to see more Warhol work, you can read my guide to the Warhol Museum and find other Warhol’s pieces on Google Arts & Culture .

35. Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago IL

The Art Institute of Chicago is one of the best, and incredibly diverse, museums in the United States. It has the best collection of Impressionist paintings outside Paris and a spectacular modern art section.

The museum’s standout masterpieces include Grant Wood’s American Gothic , Georges Seurat’s Sunday on La Grand Jatte , Andy Warhol’s Liz #3 , Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks , Joan Mitchell’s City Landscape 1955, and Monet’s Stacks of Wheat.

You can now tour the renowned museum on Google Arts & Culture . If you’re interested in interiors, take a virtual tour of the Thorne Miniature Rooms.

If you want to explore ancient Roman ruins, there are over a 1,000 pieces online , including a noseless bust of Emperor Hadrian.

36. Museo Napoleonico, Rome Italy

Housed in the Palazzo Primoli, this Roman museum is dedicated to the period of Napoleon and his connection to Italy. Located just north of the Piazza Navona, the museum contains the collections of Count Giuseppe Primoli. He was the great grandson of Joseph and Lucien Bonaparte.

Primoli’s aim was to present the imperial family from his own private point of view. The museum is still arranged as he envisioned it.

You’ll find painting, artifacts, sculptures, Napoleon’s outfits, books, memorabilia, etc. If you’re a history buff, this museum is for you.

The Museo Napoleonico has an excellent multimedia virtual tour . You can take a 360 tour of the collection. Or you can go to the photo gallery, click on a specific photo, and get a wealth of information.

37. The Doge’s Palace, Venice Italy

Set in St. Mark’s Square, the Doge’s Palace or Palazzo Ducale is the very symbol of Venice and a must see site in the city .

This pink and white marble Gothic-Renaissance building was the official residence of the doges who ruled Venice for more than 1,000 years. It was held Casanova in a cell, but he dramatically escaped

Aside from the gorgeous rooms and staircases, there’s some fantastic works of art on display: Veronese’s Rape of Europe and The Triumph of Venice, many paintings and ceilings by Tintoretto, and Tiepolo’s Neptune Bestowing Gifts upon Venice .

You can tour the Doge’s Palace virtually on Google Arts & Culture , take a 360 tour of the exterior, or take a 360 tour of the city of Venice itself.

READ : 2 Day Itinerary for Venice

38. The Belvedere Palace, Vienna Austria

The Belvedere Palace is one of Vienna’s most visited tourist spots and an important UNESCO site for its showy architectural ensemble. The Belvedere is also one of Europe’s most important museums.

The Belvedere’s a haven of Baroque and Austrian art from the 19th and 20th centuries. Its main claim to fame is the world’s largest collection of Gustav Klimt paintings, including the world famous The Kiss . It also boasts masterworks by Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka, two important Expressionist painters.

Here’s my complete guide to visiting the Belvedere Palace . You can also tour it virtually on Google Arts & Culture . There’s also an online exhibit dedicated to The Kiss . If you like Klimt’s gold toned art nouveau pieces, I also have a guide on where to find Klimt art work in Vienna .

39. Alte Pinakothek, Munich Germany

Munich’s most touted museum is the Alte Pinakothek . The museum shows off a collection of European masterpieces from the 14th to 19th centuries.

You’ll see a goodly number of paintings from the Italian Renaissance, including works by da Vinci, Raphael, Botticelli, and Titian. You’ll also find Albrecht Durer’s mysterious Self Portrait, and other old master treasures.

You can virtually tour the Alte Pinakothek online at Google Arts & Culture , where they have a massive collection. I also like this Rick Steve’s video about the museum.

READ : 4 Day Itinerary for Munich

40 . Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla, Seville Spain

The Museo de Bellas Artes , or Museum of Fine Arts, is a smashing museum, quite lovely. It’s known, after the Prado, as the “second art gallery in Spain.” It’s housed in a salmon colored former convent in Seville Spain .

The museum has art from the middle ages to the 20th century. But it’s most known for its collection of 17th century art from Spain’s Golden Age, featuring Spain’s top painters Zurbarán, Murillo, El Greco, and Velazquez. You’ll see a lot of monks, balding saints, cherubs, and depictions of Christ.

You can take a virtual tour of the Seville Museum of Fine Arts’ masterpieces on Google Arts & Culture . There are excellent online exhibits on Baroque masters and on the museum’s superstar Murillo .

41. Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao Virtual Tour, Bilbao Spain

Often overshadowed by the famous Guggenheim Bilbao, the Museo de Bellas Artes in Bilbao is nonetheless one of Spain’s best museums. If you’re an art lover, you should definitely visit in person one day.

Located in Bilbao’s Abando neighborhood, the museum boasts over 10,000 art works, arranged chronologically from the 12th century to the present. It has works by Spanish artists Picasso , Goya , El Greco, Zurbaran, and Chillada, as well as many international artists.

You can explore the collection of the Bilbao Museum of Fine Arts on Google Arts & Culture .

42. Musee Rodin, Rodin Museum, Paris France

Opened in 1919, the Rodin Museum is a shrine to the complex life and oeuvre of one of France’s most revered artists, Auguste Rodin . Rodin is considered the father of modern sculpture. Rodin’s titular museum is housed in the 18th century Hotel Biron, a romantic mansion where Rodin created some of his greatest works.

The museum’s permanent collection includes many iconic Rodin sculptures and works from Rodin’s brilliant student Camille Claudel . The Rodin Museum also has a vast and verdant sculpture garden. In it, Rodin hand placed some of his favorite and most iconic sculptures.

The Rodin Museum has added some online audio tours. You can take a virtual tour of his famous sculpture The Thinker , read stories about Rodin’s life, and view and learn about 40 of the figures in his masterpiece The Gates of Hell .

You can also explore over 300 Rodin sculptures on Google Arts & Culture . Here’s my complete guide to the Rodin Museum , if you want to know more.

43. Musée National Picasso, Picasso Museum, Paris France

Paris’ Picasso Museum is a fantastic single artist museum. It holds one of Paris’ most treasured art collections, shown off in an elegant private mansion in the Marais.

What I love most about the Picasso Museum is that it houses all the art that Picasso himself couldn’t part with. It’s a personal collection that he created, curated, lived with, and kept nearby his entire life. The museum showcases all the artistic periods of his long life, all the women he romanced, and reveals his extraordinary range and talent.

Here’s an excellent series of audio tours of Picasso Museum masterpieces. The museum itself doesn’t yet have a very good online collection.

But you can check out virtual tours of the museum on YouTube here and here . Smarthistory offers 13 virtual tours of seminal Picasso works. And you get explore Picasso paintings on Google Arts & Culture .

Here’s my complete guide to visiting the Picasso Museum in Paris .

44. The Palace of Versailles, Versailles France

The Palace of Versailles has opened its digital doors. Built by the Sun King Louis XIV, the Palace of Versailles is the most ornate and famous royal chateau in France, located just outside Paris. Once behind closed doors, the 17th century palace is now yours for digital viewing at home.

The palace has partnered with Google Arts & Culture to present virtual exhibits online. Google takes users on a journey of the palace’s rich decor and art collection of over 22,000 pieces.

You can also take a plethora of amazing virtual tours on the Palace of Versailles’ website . Nothing is left out! You can see the Hall of Mirrors, the royal apartments, tour the famous Le Notre gardens, etc.

For the full scoop on everything you can see and read online, here’s my guide to taking a digital tour of the Palace of Versailles .

45. Bernardo Museum | Museu Colecção Berardo, Lisbon Portugal

The Bernardo Museum is Lisbon’s modern art museum. Located in the Belem district, it’s a fabulous museum with over 1,000 works from the 20th and 21st centuries.

The ultra-white, minimalist gallery displays billionaire José Berardo’s eye-popping collection of abstract, surrealist and pop art.

It includes art work by such luminaries as David Hockney, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock, Francis Bacon, and Willem de Kooning. Picasso’s early Tete de Femme from 1909 and Warhol’s iconic Brillo Box are highlights.

You can take virtually visit the museum on Google Arts & Culture. And here’s a 360 virtual tour where you can admire the art up close.

46. Cluny Museum, the National Museum of the Middle Ages, Paris France

Are you a history buff who wants to be transported back to the late Middle Ages? Or are you, like everyone else it seems, just crazy for mythical unicorns? If so, the Musée Cluny is a must see site in the Latin Quarter of Paris.

It’s truly one of my favorite museums in Paris. The museum’s housed in the Hotel de Cluny, built in the 14th century and adjacent to an extant Roman bath.

The Cluny Museum is dedicated to all things from the Middle Ages. Its centerpiece is the famous Lady and the Unicorn tapestries. They’re considered the Mona Lisa of tapestries and one of the greatest surviving medieval relics.

You can take a virtual YouTube tour of the museum here . And here’s a 360 tour of the beautiful museum. You can also check out my guide to the Cluny .

47. The Petit Palais, Paris France

Like its sister palace the Grand Palais, the Petit Palais was built for Paris’ 1900 World Fair. It became a museum in 1902. Designed in the Beaux-Arts style by famous architect Charles Girault, the Petit Palais is a charming small museum.

It houses French paintings, sculpture, and artifacts from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Petit Palais collection includes artists as diverse as Rembrandt, Fragonard, Delacroix, Cézanne, Courbot, Corot, Monet, Rodin, Sisley, Pissarro, and many others. There’s also a section dedicated to Roman and Greek art.

Though the museum isn’t on Google Arts & Culture, it has a very good online collection for you to explore. You can also virtually visit its current temporary exhibition, In the Drawing Room , featuring Masterpieces of the Prat Collection. And here’s a YouTube video of the museum’s collection.

For more information, here’s my guide to the Petit Palais .

48. Palazzo Barberini | Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica, Rome Italy

Palazzo Barberini is an underrated museum in Rome. But it’s definitely an art lover’s art gallery. Recent restorations give it an unapologetically grand wow factor. The museum holds some of Europe’s classic paintings by the great masters.

The Barberini Palace is 12,000 square meters and has 187 rooms. It has beautiful staircases by Borromini and Bernini.

It’s home to one of Raphael’s most famous paintings, La Fornarina . It’s a painting of the “baker’s daughter,” whom Raphael had fallen in love with while fresco painting in the Villa Farnesina.

Other master works include Caravaggio’s Narcissus and Judith and Holofernes , Holbein’s Henry VIII , and the ceiling fresco by Pietro da Cortona.

You can take a live tour with a museum guide here , a virtual tour with a museum curator on YouTube here , and get a 360 view of the current exhibit on Claude Monet here .

You can also check out my guide to the Palazzo Barberini .

READ : Secret Palace Museums in Rome

49. Louis Vuitton Foundation

Inaugurated in 2014, the Louis Vuitton Foundation houses the collection of Bernard Arnault. It’s a chic little museum tucked into a stunning Frank Gehry designed glass building located in the Bois de Bologne. The Foundation houses modern and contemporary art from the 1960s to the present.

The museum’s permanent collection showcases Pop, Expressionistic, and Contemplative pieces. You’ll find masterpieces by the likes of Egon Schiele, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jeff Koons, Henri Matisse, and Ellsworth Kelly. The foundation hosts temporary exhibits as well.

You can take a virtual tour here . Or read my guide to the Louis Vuitton Fondation .

50. NASA Headquarters

If you geek out on science, you’ll be pleased to know that NASA offers virtual tours of its research centers. Their extensive virtual tours combine videos, text, and 360 degree views. You may feel like you’re on a school field trip.

Here are some virtual tours from NASA worth exploring:

NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, USA

NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia

The Space Telescope Operations Control Center at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland

* * * * * * *

This is just a sampling of world class museums to enjoy virtually from home. There are over 2500 virtual tours on Google Arts & Culture. If you’d like to explore more online travel and culture sites, here are my other virtual tour guides:

• Virtual Rome
• Virtual Lisbon
• Virtual London
• Virtual Barcelona
• Virtual Paris
• Virtual Versailles
• Virtual Venice
• Virtual France
• Virtual Andalusia
• Virtual French Chateaux
• Virtual Paris Museums
• Virtual Italian Museums

Virtual Spanish Museums

If you’d like to tour world class museums online, pin it for later.

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Last Updated on March 30, 2023 by Leslie Livingston

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These 12 Famous Museums Offer Virtual Tours You Can Take on Your Couch

Experience the best museums — from London to Seoul — from the comfort of your own home.

While there's nothing like setting foot inside an iconic museum and laying eyes on a world-famous sculpture created by a renowned artist centuries ago, it's not always possible to hop on a plane to New York City , Paris , or Florence to tour the gallery halls in person.

But there is a way to get a little culture and education while you're at home, gaining inspiration and intel for future trips as well. Google Arts & Culture has teamed up with more than 1,200 museums and galleries around the world to bring anyone and everyone virtual tours and online exhibits of some of the most famous museums around the world.

You get to "go to the museum" and never have to leave your couch.

Google Arts & Culture's collection includes The British Museum in London, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the Guggenheim in New York City, and literally hundreds more places where you can gain knowledge about art, history, and science.

Take a look at just some of Google's top museums that are offering online tours and exhibits. And if you're seeking more thoughtful inspiration from the comfort of your own home, museums around the world are sharing their most zen art on social media . Or, for a dose of nature, you can go "outside" with incredible virtual tours of some of America's best national parks .

The British Museum, London

This iconic museum located in the heart of London allows virtual visitors to tour the Great Court and discover the ancient Rosetta Stone and Egyptian mummies. You can also find hundreds of artifacts on The Museum of the World interactive website, a collaboration between The British Museum and Google Cultural Institute.

Guggenheim, New York

Google's Street View feature lets visitors tour the Guggenheim's famous spiral staircase without ever leaving home. From there, you can discover incredible works of art from the impressionist, post-impressionist, modern, and contemporary eras.

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

This famous American art museum features two online exhibits through Google. The first is an exhibit of American fashion from 1740 to 1895, including many renderings of clothes from the colonial and Revolutionary eras. The second is a collection of works from Dutch baroque painter Johannes Vermeer.

Musée d’Orsay, Paris

You can virtually walk through this popular gallery that houses dozens of famous works from French artists who worked and lived between 1848 and 1914. Get a peek at artworks from Monet, Cézanne, and Gauguin, among others.

Don Eim/Travel + Leisure

National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul

One of Korea's popular museums can be accessed from anywhere around the world. Google's virtual tour takes you through six floors of contemporary art from Korea and all over the globe.

Pergamon Museum, Berlin

As one of Germany's largest museums, Pergamon has a lot to offer — even if you can't physically be there . This historical museum is home to plenty of ancient artifacts including the Ishtar Gate of Babylon and, of course, the Pergamon Altar.

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Explore masterpieces from the Dutch Golden Age, including works from Vermeer and Rembrandt. Google offers a Street View tour of this iconic museum, so you can feel as if you're actually wandering its halls.

Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Anyone who's a fan of this tragic, ingenious painter can see his works up close (or, almost up close ) by virtually visiting this museum, home to the largest collection of artworks by Vincent van Gogh, including more than 200 paintings, 500 drawings, and 750 personal letters.

The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

European artworks from as far back as the eighth century can be found in this California art museum. Take a Street View tour to discover a huge collection of paintings, drawings, sculptures, manuscripts, and photographs.

Uffizi Gallery, Florence

This less well-known gallery houses the art collection of one of Florence's most famous families, the de' Medicis. The building was designed by Giorgio Vasari in 1560 specifically for Cosimo I de' Medici, but anyone can wander its halls from anywhere in the world .

MASP, São Paulo

The Museu de Arte de São Paulo is a nonprofit and Brazil's first modern museum. Artworks placed on clear, raised frames make it seem like they're hovering in midair. Take a virtual tour to experience the wondrous display for yourself.

National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City

Built in 1964, this museum is dedicated to the archaeology and history of Mexico's pre-Hispanic heritage. There are 22 exhibit rooms filled with ancient artifacts, including some from the Maya civilization.

Not all popular art museums and galleries are included in Google Arts & Culture's collection, but some have taken it upon themselves to offer online visits. For example, the Louvre offers virtual tours on its website .

To see more of Google Arts & Culture's collection of museums, visit its website . There are thousands of museum Street Views on Google as well. Google Arts & Culture also has an online experience for exploring famous historic and cultural heritage sites .

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Protect Your Trip »

Virtual tours: 35 destinations, museums and attractions you can experience online.

Stuck at home amid the coronavirus outbreak? Enjoy museums, performances and nature from the comfort of your couch.

35 Virtual Tours to Experience Online

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The British Museum has an online museum complete with numerous artifacts from all over the world.

Coronavirus has rapidly spread throughout the world, forcing many to practice social distancing, work remotely and forego highly anticipated vacations. But even if you're confined to your home, you can still explore the world's greatest attractions.

Galleries, museums, concert halls, national parks and zoos have virtual experiences that are free for users to experience. Read on for a list of where to find some of the best online escapes.

For Museum and Art Lover s

Run by the Google Cultural Institute, Google Arts & Culture provides free, virtual access to a number of museums and cultural heritage sites worldwide. In a matter of seconds you can explore selected works in the Tate Modern's London museum collection then take a virtual tour of the Colosseum in Rome. Here are a few highlights:

• Musée d'Orsay in Paris: See works by Degas and Renoir, and take a virtual tour of the museum here .
• The White House in Washington, D.C.: Take virtual tours of different sections of the White House and see some of its art collection here .
• Doge's Palace in Venice: Explore a selection of the Venetian treasure's artworks here .
• Museum of Modern Art in New York City: See an online exhibit, paintings by Cézanne and images of the museum's installations here .
• Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam: View two online exhibits and learn about more than 100 pieces by Van Gogh here .
• Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy: Learn about Botticelli's famous "The Birth of Venus" painting and take a virtual tour of the gallery here .
• The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles: View nearly 16,000 pieces from the Getty's collection here .
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City: Peruse 26 online exhibits and over 200,000-plus items from the Met's collection here .
• Château de Versailles in Paris: View an eight-part exhibit and learn about nearly 400 works of art here .
• Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam: See works by Dutch greats like Rembrandt and Vermeer here .
• See a full list of museums, exhibits and sites here .

[Read: Coronavirus Travel: What You Must Know .]

Versailles Palace is one of many global attractions you can experience online.

The British Museum in London offers a comprehensive exploration of its collection. Its interactive software allows users to view the collection based on topic (such as art) or region (like the Americas). What's more, exhibits include audio commentary users can listen to for additional insight. View the items here .

The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea has curator-led tours and discussions of its exhibits. Check them out here .

The National Gallery in London offers virtual tours of nearly 20 different rooms in the museum. Take the tours here .

The Louvre in Paris runs virtual tours of three of its exhibits: "Egyptian Antiquities," "Remains of the Louvre's Moat" and "Galerie d'Apollon." Explore them here .

New York's Guggenheim has much of its collection online, complete with high-resolution images of the art and information on the works and artists. See it all here .

[Read: Can You Cancel Your Flight Because of the Coronavirus? ]

The Vatican has 360-degree virtual tours of its museums and the Sistine Chapel . Explore its art and majesty here .

And if you want to get the kids involved, the Boston Children's Museum has a virtual tour of its facility. Check it out here .

For Performing Arts Patron s

The Berliner Philharmoniker is providing free, digital concerts for one month. Sign up by March 31 for access to more than 600 concerts from the last 10 years.

The Kennedy Center , located in Washington, D.C., has a digital library filled with clips of theater, dance and music performances as well as full-length performances. Access the full library here .

New York's Metropolitan Opera is running "Nightly Met Opera Streams;" filmed performances from its "Live in HD" series. The operas begin at 7:30 p.m. EST and will remain online for 20 hours. The series started March 16. Find more information and a list of upcoming operas here .

Beluga whales are one of several species you can see through the Georgia Aquarium's cameras.

For Science and Nature Enthusiast s

NASA runs virtual tours of its Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virgina, and Mission Operations at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington provides virtual tours of its exhibits (including some exhibits no longer on display) here .

[Read from U.S. News Health: Travel in the Time of Coronavirus .]

Zoos and aquariums nationwide have animal cams that livestream what the critters are doing. Some of the institutions include:

• San Diego Zoo
• Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington
• Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey, California
• National Aquarium in Baltimore
• Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta

Meanwhile, Google Arts & Culture has 360-degree virtual reality tours of several national parks, including Bryce Canyon in Utah, Kenai Fjords in Alaska, Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, and Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. It also has several online exhibits from parks nationwide. Check it all out here .

Should you need a museum break, hop on to your favorite streaming service to check out a nature documentary. "Our Planet" (on Netflix ) explores different environments all over the world and the "Disneynature" series (on Disney+ ), offers a few family-friendly options.

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London tours for everyone

London Walks | Virtual Tours of London | Daytrips from London

The British Museum Virtual Tour

See the highlights of one of the greatest museums in the world and hear its amazing stories from a former official British Museum tour guide. We choose our favourite objects from across the globe and bring them alive, looking up original locations where they were found and tell their stories.

Contents of this virtual tour :

We choose the highlights of important objects from 5 continents, tell the stories behind them and how they got to the museum.

• the Rosetta stone
• the Egyptian gallery and the bust of Rameses II
• the Parthenon sculptures
• Unwrapping Egyptian mummies
• the Benin bronzes
• the great Roman silver find the Mildenhall Treasure
• Cuneiform and its translation
• The Mayan carvings of blood-letting
• Jewellery fit for an Aztec king

Tour details:

• 1 hour 40 minutes via Zoom
• Multiple dates
• £10 per screen or £12 per group/ family (group/ family can be in two locations on 2 devices)
• Book your tickets via Eventrbrite
• We’ll email you the meeting ID and password on the morning of the tour.

Google reviews of our British Museum virtual tour

“A rivetting tour guide … literally transports us in to the pages of history” I had the privilege of going on the British Museum Highlights Tour and it was like going into a timemachine! Loona is a riveting tour guide and literally transports us into the pages of history with anecdotes, extra information and humour thrown in for good measure! His knowledge is phenomenal and so well researched that the hour and fifteen minutes fly by. He made me feel like I was actually in the museum looking at the exhibits I never thought it would be so much fun! This is a highly recommended virtual tour, complete with your own tour guide! Loya Agarwala

“Head and shoulders above other tours” From my experience Loona’s tours are head and shoulders above other tours. I will definitely be going on more tours with him and am going to enquire about a tailor made tour with him too. Julie Bennett, tour guide

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British Museum Tour

Visit The British Museum on a private two hour tour, or include it on a flexible day in London.

TOUR PRICES

Prices include:.

Prices are per private group not per person. Prices do not include entrance fees or meals unless stated.

This tour is available in most languages. Select your language on checkout.

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About The Tour

Discover the highlights of the British Museum on a private two hour tour, or include the Museum on a flexible full day  London day tour

The British Museum was founded in 1753 and today has approx six million objects from antiquity to today's i-pod from all around the world giving an insight into ancient cultures and civilisations.

Our tour begins in Lord Foster's Great Hall: You will see the three ancient scripts on the Rosetta Stone from Egypt, as well as architectural relics from temples and mausoleums in Mesopotamia, Assyria, Greece etc. Hear about the Lion Hunt and see the huge statues of Pharaoh Rameses the Great who had over 70 children.

Lord Elgin transported many pieces of the friezes showing the pan-Athenic festival of the ruins of the Parthenon at the Acropolis in Greece to London, and a special hall was constructed so they could be on permanent display to all.

The Enlightenment Gallery shows collections of souvenirs wealthy 18th century British travellers brought home from their journeys, appreciating art and cultures of other civilisations, and wishing to share these treasures with others.

You will learn about preservation of the dead from Egyptian Mummies, or "Ginger"- to the English bog-man.

In England, art objects and valuables were at times of trouble hidden underground for fear of invaders. Recently many such Hoards have been discovered. In the British Galleries you will see ancient Jewellery, weapons, armouries, plates, cutlery - even Roman postcards! Items were imported, brought by immigrants or produced in Britain, giving us an insight into earlier cultures and civilisations of our predecessors of Celtic, Roman, Ango-Saxon, Viking or Norman origin, as well as more recent world-wide migrants from which today's multi-cultural nation derived.

Harry Potter fans will love the Lewis chess set found on the Scottish island.

Further interest could include the Islamic gallery, European and Chinese porcellain, clocks, medicine or money from around the world.

On entering the museum, walk ahead into the Great Court. This is the brightly lit area with the geometric glass roof. Your guide will meet you by the benches immediately to your right as you enter the Great Court.

YOU MAY ALSO BE INTERESTED IN.

London sightseeing tour, british museum, early morning private tour, bloomsbury: literature, love & learning, thank you for the flexibility you and rod offered us on our airbase tour. we spent a wonderful day in north pickenham learning about the lives of those pilots - my dad included - during the war. rod was the perfect guide for us - he has a vast and voracious knowledge about the military experience.

Anne Petersen

Why choose us?

Because you insist on the longest-established and most experienced service available in Britain. Founded in 1958, British Tours is still under the same management. About Us

Who is your Guide?

Our guides are personable educated men and women, chosen for their knowledge, special interests, backgrounds and personality. They will collect you by car from any central London location and guide you inside places of historic importance

Follow us on our journey