360 guided tour

The best virtual tours to explore the world from home

Oct 8, 2020 • 5 min read

The Sistine Chapel is just one wonder offering a virtual museum tour ©Rajesh Gathwala/500px

We live in an age of unprecedented access to digital technology – and with it, brand new ways of exploring the world around us.

While it's not quite the same as seeing, say, the Mona Lisa or Christ the Redeemer in person, some of the world’s most popular and remote destinations have created libraries of online images and video, as well as 360 degree virtual tours that let you virtually explore museums, galleries, world wonders and even national parks.

Here a just a few of the best digital tours that let you wander the world from wherever you may be social distancing.

See the seven wonders of the world

If there’s anything capable of whetting your appetite for world travel, it is the new seven wonders of the world:  the Great Wall of China , the ancient city of Petra , the Taj Mahal , the Colosseum , Machu Picchu , Christ the Redeemer , and Chichen Itza . Thankfully there are impressive virtual tours of each from The New York Times , AirPano , Google , and Panoramas .

With modern technology, you can even see the last standing wonder of the ancient world— The Pyramids of Giza . There are a few other wonders that might not make it into to the top seven but are still worth a digital peek, like the Alhambra , Seville's La Giralda , and even Easter Island.

Best virtual museum tours

In recent years, Google has partnered with over 2,5000 art museums to upload high-resolution versions of millions of pieces of art. Highlights include New York’s MoMA , DC’s National Gallery of Art , Chicago’s Art Institute , the Casa Battl ó, and Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum to name a few.

In addition, The Louvre offers a virtual tour , as do The Vatican Museums , many of the Smithsonian Museums , the Russian Museum , the top-rated British Museum , the Minneapolis  Museum of Russian Art , and the Palace Museum in Beijing.

You may not be able to kiss the Blarney Stone right now, but you can tour the Blarney Castle from afar. You can also visit the Museum of Flight,  the Museum of Science, the Museum of Natural History,  the National Women's History Museum  and Boston's History of Science Museum .

While museums are often an inherently visual experience, there's a lot to be learned from archives of past lectures and tours like the ones preserved online by Nashville's Frist Museum , the Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the Smithsonian American Art Museum,  the Frick , and others.

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Explore national parks

While travel to National Parks is best avoided for the time being, you don't need to miss out on the scenery. Virtual Yosemite is absolutely stunning and one of the best, replete with audio. Both Yellowstone National Park and Mount Rushmore offer virtual tours as well. 

Google has similar 360 degree audio-visual tours of five select national parks, including Kenai Fjords, Hawai'i Volcanos , Carlsbad Caverns, Bryce Canyon , and Dry Tortugas, as well as 31 more on Google Earth . You can also get an up-close look at almost 4,000 pieces of artwork, artifacts, and other treasures related to the history and culture of the national parks, and view online exhibits .

Digital safaris

Wildlife is a big draw for travelers, whether it's sighting some of the Big Five in Africa, glimpsing whales in North America, or introducing your children to new animals in person on a family safari . But if you're forays into the bush are grounded for now, many zoos and aquariums have created digital access to their habitats.

You can easily watch several live webcams of some of the nation’s greatest zoos and aquariums, including the  San Diego Zoo , Houston Zoo , Zoo Atlanta , the Tennessee Aquarium , and the Georgia Aquarium . Additionally you can see Canadian farm animals doing their thing , or you could watch Stella the Dog jump endlessly into huge piles of Maine leaves.

You may also like:  These nine wildlife web cams offer access to your favorite animals

Virtual hiking

Thanks to panoramic video, you can get a really good idea of what a hike looks like well before you arrive at the trailhead. For example, you can experience all of the following top-rated hikes right now from your computer or tablet:  Bryce Canyon , Grand Canyon , GR20 , Inca Trail , and the death-defying Angel's Landing . For even more great hikes, simply YouTube one of Lonely Planet’s top 10 treks or any other hike that suits your fancy. Bonus points if you follow along during a workout to enhance the realism.

Famous landmarks

You can visit many wonders of nature, including the Amazon Rainforest , Iguazu Falls , the Komodo Islands , or Table Mountain , using virtual tours. Or you can explore the Statue of Liberty , the Sahara Desert , Niagara Falls , or even a guided tour of the Eiffel Tower . For even more virtual tours, search your bucket list of adventures with  AirPano , Google Earth , or YouTube .

Travel to outer space

The moon hasn't made it to Lonely Planet's Best In Travel list (yet!), and even without self-isolation and shelter-in-place measures for COVID-19, many of us may never travel to space. But thanks to technology, now is as good of a time as any to do so virtually. Before blasting off, considering touring some of NASA’s offices first. Then relive the last lunar missions and moon walks in stunning HD. Or take a virtual tour of Mars with the help of Google. 

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The novel coronavirus (Covid-19) is now a global pandemic. Find out what this  means for travelers . 

This article was originally published March 2020 and was last updated October 2020.

This article was first published March 2020 and updated October 2020

360° Panoramic Creations:

We create high-quality stabilized video having 8k and 4k resolution, 48 or 24 frames per second together with high-quality post-processing. Videos are supported by the most advanced technologies, such as virtual reality headsets (including Samsung Gear VR), different electronic devices and YouTube channels.

We use different types of moving and fixed objects (tripods, monopods, cars, helicopters, building cranes, etc.) to record videos. For aerial shooting we usually use drones with fully gyro-stabilized unique suspension. Panoramic video covers up all the space around the camera 360x180 degrees without black spots at both nadir and zenith viewing angle.

360° videos are available in any format you choose: .mp4, .avi, .mov, etc. All the videos are made and kept in frames, making it possible to encode them into any available format and bitrate with the resolution up to 8k.

360° PHOTOGRAPHY

Our team creates high-quality 360° photo-panoramas with 35000x17500 pixels resolution (in the equidistant projection) and carries out professional post-processing and corrections of any complexity. We develop virtual tours which are suitable for all browsers, support both Flash and HTML5 technologies and are compatible with different mobile devices and virtual reality headsets (including Samsung Gear VR).

We use different types of moving and fixed objects (tripods, monopods, cars, helicopters, building cranes, etc.) to record videos. For aerial shooting we usually use drones with the fully gyro-stabilized unique suspension. Panoramic video covers up all the space around the camera 360x180 degrees without black spots at both nadir and zenith viewing angle.

Ready 360° photo-panoramas cover up all the space around the camera 360x180 degrees without black spots at both nadir and zenith viewing angle.

Info-points (description buttons that can be placed in the panorama), embedded pictures, video and audio can be added to the virtual tour.

360° GIGAPANORAMA

Our team creates high-quality 360° photo-panoramas with resolution from 1 to 3 gigapixel and carries out professional post-processing and corrections of any complexity. We develop virtual tours which are suitable for all browsers, support both Flash and HTML5 technologies and are compatible with different mobile devices and virtual reality glasses (including Samsung Gear VR).

Info-points (description buttons that can be placed in the panorama), embedded pictures, video and audio can be added to the ready virtual tour.

360° TIMELAPSE

We can make panoramic timelapses with the given viewing angle and resolution up to 12k with professional post-processing and without black spots at both nadir and zenith viewing angle. 360° timelapses are supported by the most advanced technologies, such as virtual reality glasses (including Samsung Gear VR), different electronic devices and YouTube channels.

360° timelapses are available in any format you choose: .mp4, .avi, .mov, etc. All the timelapses are made and kept in frames, making it possible to encode them into any available format and bitrate with the resolution up to 12K.

Content sales:

VIRTUAL TOURS

On the basis of 360° panoramas we create virtual tours of any complexity, branded with logos and design elements of the company’s website together with embedding interactive elements, such as photos, slideshows, videos, descriptions, switch-points to other panoramas, audio descriptions, 3D sounds.

Our clients receive a fully functional virtual tour developed in HTML5 and supported by any computer or mobile device (iOS, Android, Windows Phone).

360° Photo    Price List

STOCK PHOTOS

For almost 10 years of travelling around the world our team has gathered an extensive stock of pictures, taken from both flying devices and the ground.

Any picture presented at our stock can be licensed for any kind of possible use. We can also offer the photos of ultra-high quality (the longer side up to 103,000 pixels).

You can also take a look at the spherical panoramas published on the website www.airpano.ru . Any of the 360° panoramas represented on the website can be converted into a printed image of very high quality.

Photogallery    Price List

STOCK 360° VIDEOS

By filming 360° video since 2011, our team has gathered an extensive stock of clips, taken from both flying devices and the ground.

Any video presented on our website can be licensed for any kind of possible use.

360° videos are available in any format you choose: .mp4, .avi, .mov, etc. All the videos are made and kept in frames, making it possible to encode them into any available format and bitrate.

360° Video    Price List

APPLICATIONS

We are one of the software developers of applications based on 360° photos and videos. Currently, there are 7 applications in our portfolio. One of them was top-rated in 84 countries and listed among the best applications of the year 2014 according to App Store.

These applications can also be used for demonstration of panoramic content with the help of virtual reality devices, such as Samsung Gear VR, Google Cardboard and analogues.

Exhibition installations:

EXHIBITION INSTALLATIONS

AirPano team has the experience of creating panoramic cinemas and video-walls, making it possible to demonstrate our panoramic content at different kinds of events, exhibitions and in museums. The size is only defined by the premises, the quality of projector and the dimensions of plasma screens. Such solutions usually make a deep impression on visitors.

The control is carried out by a tablet or Kinect devices.

TOUCH SCREENS

We are ready to create applications with panoramic content working on touch screens of any size. Both AirPano panoramas and the client’s material can be the basis for this kind of software.

We create virtual tours of any complexity, branded with logos and design elements of the company’s website together with embedding interactive elements, such as photos, slideshows, videos, descriptions, switch-points to other panoramas, audio descriptions, 3D sounds.

VR HEADSETS

Our virtual tours and 360° videos are supported by all the types of virtual reality headsets (VR): Google Cardboard, Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR, Sony Morpheus and others.

We can also develop special software for operating on Samsung Gear VR, if required.

AirPano in cooperation with Polden Studio carries out the installation of the binocular usage of the client’s or our own content. With the help of binoculars, the client can present the panoramic content at different kinds of events, exhibitions and in museums. This kind of devices usually attract a lot of visitors and leave a deep impression on them.

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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

31 Published Articles 3100 Edited Articles

Countries Visited: 45 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.

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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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With one click jump into a video call and start closing in 360º.

3D Dollhouse Floor Plans

Add immersive 3D dollhouse floor plans to your virtual tours. With a few clicksyou can create and customize 3D floor plans that connect and engage inside yourvirtual tour experience. If you are looking for 3D floor plan software, CloudPano is the perfectvirtual tour solution.

Add 3D floor plans to your virtual tours

Connect hotspots to 360º photos

Add 2D black and white or color floor plans

Order floor plans done for you!

CloudPano is the only 3D floor plan and dollhouse software you need.

The Perfect Software Toolkit For Virtual Tour Entrepreneurs

Start a local 360º virtual tour business, add virtual reality marketing to current business.

A Robust Software Solution To Power Your Virtual Tour Revenue

Private Label / White Label - Keep Your Website Domain Name and Protect Your Brand

Add or Embed Your Published 360º Virtual Tours Directly To Your Website or Blog (Wordpress Compatible)

Present Your 360º Tours In A Virtual Reality Headset

International Hosting On Local Server Networks (Speed Guaranteed)

CloudPano.com is a Virtual Tour Software built for entrepreneurs, photographers and real estate agents, brokers, car dealers, RV dealers, manufacturers and sales teams. You will be empowered to create world class 360º/VR virtual tours quickly, market at a high level AND keep your brand on the front of tour. If you are looking for a 360º virtual tour software built for the business owner - you are in the right place.

Simple Pricing

• Three Published Projects Unlimited projects - swap published projects as needed
• Unlimited scenes and photos per project
• Scene Types Like 360 Photos, Spins, 360 Video, 2D Images, 2D Video
• Add Hot Spots and Embed Media Share, embed, and display projects anywhere
• Unlimited Published Projects
• Whitelabel / Bring your own URL
• Team Collaboration
• Tour Privacy Settings
• CloudPano Live in-tour Video Chat
• Create Floor Plans and Dollhouse Tours
• Google Street View Virtual Tours
• Custom Design Request and Functionality
• 3rd Party Integrations and Workflows
• Automotive Spin App Access
• 10 User Team Accounts
• On Location Photography Services
• Great for special projects and teams

Try the app and start building for free

User testimonials.

"The technology is pretty amazing and the finished 3D tour is high definition. The tours played well on everything from a desktop to a cellphone. Highly recommended."

Donald Pierce

“ It's marketing like that this that makes you stick out amongst your competition ... and ultimately this moves property at a high level."

Carmello Pronesti

“ This technology changes the game. My customers are very excited about it. And I know when my customers are excited about it, I am going to make some more money . ”

Mark Mckinney

"360 tours are an easy way to upsell my clients on location. Plus, it only takes a few minutes to create a virtual tour on CloudPano.com."

Brian Berkowitz

“ CloudPano has a crisp and clean design . Plus the platform hosts the 360 virtual tours for me, so I can create tours quickly and get back to shooting."

Tony Thagard

I appreciate your team helping me out along the way and answering all questions that I have had so far. I am excited to continue to grow my business with the help of you and your team."

Common Questions

We are passionate about changing the world through software. Call us or email us anytime.

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Create your own Guided Tours

Guided Tours are immersive journeys featuring 360° panoramas from our unique collection. It's easy to create Guided Tours and share them with your students.

Log into your account, select "My Guided Tours" from the dropdown menu, and click the green "Create new Guided Tour" box in the upper right corner of your screen.

Begin by creating the Cover Slide for your Guided Tour. The Cover Slide is the introduction to the Guided Tour that you are about to create. It can include a title, a subtitle, and a panorama that serves as the background. Click "Save" to begin creating content for your Guided Tour.

Now you are ready to add new slides to your Guided Tour. You can choose from three types of slides.

• Panorama Slides: Use 360° panoramas from our collection of over 350,000 panoramas from all over the world or upload a 360° panorama of your own.
• Text Slides: Featuring an easy to use text editor.
• Quiz Slides: Allow students to quickly review concepts.

Below are examples of two Guided Tours: Coral Reefs and Ancient Egypt. Click on them to get started and to share with your colleagues and students.

Related Content

• Types of interactive slides
• Add tags to your Panorama Slides
• Create and upload your own panoramas

• Logout --> Log out
• Knowledge Tutorials

A comprehensive guide to making 360° virtual tour 

Table of Contents

The rise of developing 360-degree photos and virtual reality across businesses has provided incredible prospects. Whether you own a business or are a hobbyist looking to try new approaches, this blog will teach you how to create amazing 360 virtual tours!

This comprehensive guide is created with our team’s passion to walk you through every step of the process, from planning and gathering material to editing, publishing, and hosting. Let’s learn how to engage your audience and enhance your online presence.

What is 360° Image?

A 360 image or can be called a panoramic image, captures a full view of the surrounding area from all angles. Simply put, it allows you to virtually “turn around” and examine the entire scene, creating an immersive and engaging experience. 

Here is a visual example of a stunning virtual tour:

Which fields should use 360° photos?

Due to technological advancements, employing 360-degree photos to promote a business is a wise decision. It not only elicits a “wow” sensation but also enhances the immersion of their customers’ experiences, which benefits the company.

Imagine you’re having trouble deciding on a restaurant for your date tonight; it’d be fantastic to see the restaurant’s outdoor eating space. Or, while planning a trip and selecting a hotel, customers would like to examine the room before agreeing to pay for it.

If your business belongs to these fields, you should probably consider using 360 photos immediately!

Tourism & Hospitality

As customer preferences heavily influence a given market, offering 360 virtual tour will provide your company with a competitive advantage. Here’s a way to empower customers: evaluate the tour, accommodations, or services before they have to pay for them. This enables travelers to make better decisions about their travel arrangements and boosts the likelihood of closing deals. 

Real Estate 

For a long time, real estate transactions needed a lot of work, including numerous in-person meetings between home sellers, agents, and purchasers. However, this is no longer the case with the use of 360-degree photos for virtual tour. 

All parties can capture the appearance of housing projects while interacting immediately, saving money and time, minimizing consumer irritation, and increasing sales for real estate firms. 

Photographers

To maintain a competitive advantage over others, photographers must always refresh their advanced abilities and incorporate new technology. Providing 360 photo services will help you connect with a new group of customers.

How to capture 360° Content?

The first step in creating 360-degree material for a virtual tour is to obtain a 360 camera. However, as technology advances, you may find it difficult to look for and select the best equipment. So here’s the complete comparative summary, which may be useful to you.

Comparing 360 camera vs. DSLR vs. Smartphone

Normally, there are 3 options for you to pick from depending on your purposes: 360 cameras, DSLR, and smartphone. In general, there are several factors you should consider:

However, each type of equipment has its pros and cons. So let’s dive in!

• 360° Camera

360 ° cameras are designed to record panoramic science in a single shot. Typically, this type of equipment is equipped with specialist software for seamless stitching and processing, making it easier to create 360-degree views.

• DSLR Camera

In contrast to 360°cameras, a DSLR camera works by taking a sequence of overlapping photographs and then using specialist software to stitch them together into a seamless panoramic view.

Smartphones might be regarded as the most cost-effective way to capture 360 photos. Even if it has increasingly advanced cameras and user-friendly applications, image quality may be an important consideration. 

Equipment recommendations

The key element in creating astonishing 360° images with the finest results for virtual tour is having the proper equipment. And if you’re still puzzled and panicked, don’t worry, since here is some advice from our experts:

• Recommendations for 360 ° camera

If you decide to go for a 360 ° camera, here are some suggestions based on common preferences:

• Best in overall: Insta360 ONE RS
• Best in cost-efficient: Trisio Lite2
• Best in resolution and image quality: Ricoh Theta X
• Recommendations for DSLR camera 

For professional needs, we recommend using a DSLR camera with wide-angle lenses and a panoramic head. To be more specific, a panorama head will greatly assist you in making 360-degree images by spinning the camera around its nodal point, reducing errors, ensuring accurate image alignment, and streamlining the post-production process.

Various lenses and panoramic heads are based on your DSLR model, therefore it is much easier to ask an expert to choose the exact one that meets your requirements. 

• Recommendations for other equipment 

To create the best result for your 360° images as well as virtual tours without any interruption, you might need to consider using other equipment such as a tripod, remote trigger, and additional charging equipment.

Tips for shooting 360° images

Even if you are an amateur or professional photographer, there are various tips, tactics, and best practices that can help you get high-quality results:

1. Find the best angle

To create a comprehensive 360° view, proper positioning of your camera is the most important. Depending on the scenario, we recommend you at least place your camera around 5 feet from the floor.

2. Use a tripod

The use of a tripod remains stable, resulting in sharper and clearer photographs in the finished 360-degree composition.

3. Maximize image quality

Remember to maintain your lenses dust-free, use RAW format for final products, and employ High Dynamic Range (HDR) techniques during the capture process. 

4. Plan your shoot

Consider putting a visually appealing feature in the foreground to give the image a feeling of scale and depth.

5. Avoid parallax issues

Parallax issues occur when the foreground and background are not properly aligned during the stitching process. To get rid of it, pivot around the nodal point and capture photos that overlap.

Publishing and Hosting a virtual tour 

Once you’ve mastered the tips and tactics for creating outstanding 360° photographs, it’s time to build virtual tours. By combining hotspots, navigation, and interactivity, you can direct viewers through a virtual space and provide them with a distinctive way to explore different places.

Here are some simple steps you may take to get started quickly:

Create a virtual tour with Panoee

First, choose a software program to make virtual tours from 360° pictures, such as TeliportMe, KRPano, or Pano2VR. However, in this blog, we will primarily present you with a tutorial on Panoee , which is one of the most user-friendly software with a variety of capabilities.

• Step 1: Click “Create a project”, name your project then start importing 360° photos
• Step 2: Create a logical flow in your virtual tour by arranging 360° photos
• Step 3: Add hotspots to connect your 360 images and create a seamless navigation experience.
• Step 4:  Customize the navigation options such as arrows or menus
• Step 5: Add additional multimedia elements like videos, audio, or text descriptions.
• Step 6: Preview and test

To visualize more clearly, you can watch the video tutorial .

How to share and display a virtual tour

With Panoee, you can either choose to export a virtual tour as a ZIP file or publish it on Google Street View .

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All Panoee updates in February 2024: New Projection mode, Multi-language interface, custom-domain improvement.

This comprehensive guide is created with our team’s passion to walk you through every step of the process, from planning and gathering material to editing, publishing, and hosting. This blog will teach you how to create amazing 360 virtual tours!

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virtual tours

training / onboarding

virtual events & trade shows

real estate tours

e-learning content

360° retail solutions

online panoramic photos

The Ultimate 360 Virtual Tour Creator for Unlimited Possibilities

Build a stronger online presence and showcase your business to more potential customers with our 360 virtual tour maker.

Intuitive Interface

The intuitive interface allows you to create, edit, and share virtual tours quickly.

100% Browser-Based

Say goodbye to hosting management, software and script installations, patches, updates, plugins—the list goes on! With no hassle or fuss involved at all.

Full Editing Suite on Your PC, Phone, or Tablet

From adding fresh content to updating a client’s information, rearranging Hotspots, and altering contact email addresses – you can do it all on your mobile device!

Expand Your Reach and Boost Your Business!

Easily reach more customers and stand out in a crowded market with our hassle-free 360 virtual tour maker.

Create Interactive Virtual Tours with SeekBeak

Our easy-to-use application is perfect for tour operators, real estate agents, hotel owners, and any business looking to create engaging and immersive virtual tours. With SeekBeak, you can showcase your property, business, and offerings in an entirely new way. Start welcoming guests and expanding your reach with our flexible virtual tour creator.

New Level of Engagement

Immerse your audience and give them an interactive experience like never before. Bring your business to life with a 360º virtual tour that engages customers in an interactive and immersive way.

Improve Listings Performance

Our virtual tours have been proven to give our clients an edge over their competition, resulting in more listings and increased business.

Increase Sales

Easily showcase and sell products directly within the tour using your existing data. Boost your sales and reach new customers with our 360º virtual tour.

Education and Training

Train and educate your staff in an interactive and engaging format. Create immersive training modules with assigned content and feedback forms.

Unleash the Power of Virtual Tour Creation with SeekBeak’s Advanced Features and Customization Options

Unlock the full potential of virtual tour marketing with SeekBeak. Whether you’re starting a new virtual tour venture or enhancing existing models, our platform offers a wide range of features and customization options to elevate your business. With SeekBeak, you can:

• Manage multiple team accounts and users
• Customize icons, colors, branding, and domain names
• Access industry-leading analytics
• Capture data and generate leads with our custom form designer
• Ensure security and receive best in class support
• Bring your 360º & flat images to life!
• Utilize 2D maps, Google maps and floorplans
• Utilize a white-label branding platform
• Create live guided video/audio tours
• Customize Overlays & UI
• Integrate 3rd party software like Hubspot, Shopify, Livechat, and more via custom JavaScript
• Monetization / Paywall / Private Embedding support
• Create and add custom image transitions

Experience the ease and efficiency of creating interactive and immersive virtual tours with SeekBeak’s 360 virtual creator. Unlock a new dimension in your work and share awe-inspiring tours.

Create Stunning 360° Virtual Tours with Ease

Our user-friendly platform makes it easy and cost-effective to add information and interactivity to your beautiful 360 photos to captivate your audience. With our innovative 360 image maker, creating stunning virtual tours has never been easier.

Create Stunning Virtual Tours in Just a Few Easy Steps with SeekBeak

Our process is tailored for maximum simplicity and speed. It takes just a few clicks to start making your virtual tour.

Why Choose SeekBeak for Virtual Tour Creation?

SeekBeak is the premier choice for creating engaging and immersive virtual tours quickly and effectively. Our clients often refer to our virtual tour creator as their “secret weapon” because of its ease of use and powerful capabilities, allowing them to create “wow” moments for their clients in a fraction of the time.

Effortless and Adaptable

From beginners to experts, SeekBeak offers an easy-to-use and flexible platform that delivers exceptional results.

Intuitive and Streamlined

Our intuitive interface allows you to create, edit, and share virtual tours easily.

Customizable and Secure

Customize your virtual tours with private access and personalize them with your logo, colors, and branding to make them truly unique and secure.

Mobile Friendly

Our 360 virtual image maker is mobile-friendly and can be easily viewed on any device, ensuring that your audience can access them wherever they are.

See Our Photo and Video Virtual Tour Samples

Our customers have created an impressive array of 360 virtual tours with SeekBeak. Explore the list and see what they’ve achieved!

Transform Your Flat Images Into Interactive Experiences

Bring your flat photos to life and create captivating virtual experiences with our state-of-the-art virtual tour creator. Sign up with SeekBeak now and take the first step towards publishing your first virtual tour today.

National Museum of Natural History Virtual Tours

Access the tours.

The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History virtual tours allow visitors to take self-guided, room-by-room tours of select exhibits and areas within the museum from their desktop or mobile device. Visitors can also access select collections and research areas at our satellite support and research stations as well as past exhibits no longer on display.

Virtual Tour Tips

• To navigate between adjoining rooms in the tours, click on the blue arrow links on the floor or use the navigation map in the upper right of the presentation screen.
• Look for the camera icon which gives you a close-up view of a particular object or exhibit panel.
• Try zooming in as some of the images are stitched together from individual pictures in order to create very high resolution gigapixel images.

Please note: This tour and these presentations have been tested and should work on all common devices, browsers, and operating systems (using a desktop computer with Windows, Mac, Linux or a mobile device such as an iPhone, iPad, or Android). Functionality and appearance may vary as it will adjust automatically to accommodate the most visitors. While the virtual tour has no advertising, ad blocking software or browser settings that block JavaScript and/or XML may interfere with the functionality of the virtual tour. Please let us know what you think of the tour and how the experience can be improved. Send your feedback to the NMNH Web Team .

Site Credit: Imagery and coding by Loren Ybarrondo

Equipment Used: Professional Nikon digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera bodies and lenses. The photography is typically done using rectilinear lenses with minimized distortion and shooting equirectangular panoramas at 22K pixels on the long side.

Software Used: No authoring software is used. The tours are hand-coded in HTML5 and JavaScript using the krpano graphics library.

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Last updated Sep 27, 2023

Whether you’re promoting retail locations, training new team members, or virtually walking coworkers through a newly designed factory, creating a Guided Tour within your model is a fantastic way to focus attention and highlight key areas.

Before You Begin 

What is a guided tour.

Spaces that have a Guided Tour gives visitors the option to click or tap Play to experience only the designated series of tour stops that you’ve created. Guests can stop the tour at any time and explore the 3D model if they want to. 

You can choose between two modes to determine what kind of tour you create:

What is a Highlight Reel?

Guided Tours consist of a series of highlights, each representing a particular location and view within the space. When you’ve configured at least one highlight in a space, they reside sequentially on the Highlight Reel. From there, you can easily view, edit, and manage the various components that make up the Guided Tour.

How These Features Help You

Guided tours provide not only great promotional material, but can be used to support a variety of storytelling use cases, ranging from construction walk-throughs to training operational teams. 

Tip: use your favorite screen recording software to record your guided tour , then edit that footage into your marketing or training material. In this article you'll find the following topics:

Set the Tour Type

• Set Your Tour/Highlight Reel Stops 

Configure Your Tour Settings

Create highlight reel captions, add titles and descriptions.

You can configure which tour is used by default at your organization if you’re an administrator. To do so:

• Log in to my.matterport.com and go to Settings > Spaces.
• Set the toggle to the right to set Story Mode as the default tour type. 
• Set the toggle to the left to set Highlight Reel Mode as the default tour type. 

You can also override the tour type for a particular space. To do so: 

• Go to my.matterport.com and open the space you want to edit. 
• Click Edit to switch to edit mode.
• Click the Guided Tour icon on the tool menu.
• Click Tour Settings in the bottom panel.
• Select Story Mode or Highlight Reel to use that tour type, or select None to turn off tours altogether for the space. 

Set Your Tour/Highlight Reel Stops

• Navigate to a point in your 3D model that’s visually compelling, then line up a steady, eye-level shot. Click Add Highlight to take a snapshot and save it in the reel at the bottom of your window.
• If you want to add 2D snapshots that you’ve already taken, click the Add from Photos icon to the right of the Add Highlight button. Then select the photo you want to use.
• If you want to change the order of your snapshots, drag and drop them in the Highlight Reel to put them in the order you want. 
• Note that there is no way to retrieve a tour stop after you’ve removed it.

There are several settings you can configure to control how your guided tour appears to visitors to your space. 

• Log in to my.matterport.com and open the space you want to configure in edit mode.
• Click the Guided Tour icon. 

• Slideshow transitions fade to black when moving between the snapshots that you’ve added to your tour.
• Walkthrough transitions walk your visitor through the 3D model to each stop on the tour you’ve identified. Visitors can stop the tour at any time to explore the space on their own. 
• Transitions between an inside view and a 360° view always fade to black in between.
• If you picked Slideshow transitions, use the bar to set the Slideshow transition speed faster or slower.
• If you picked Walkthrough transitions, use the bar to set the Walkthrough Speed faster or slower.
• Go to the Panning tab. 
• Choose a pan direction of left, right, or automatic. You can also override this setting for specific Highlights on your tour.
• Choose a rotation angle that you want to pan. You can also override this setting for specific Highlights on your tour.
• Set a rotation speed. Make sure to preview your rotation speed to ensure it’s not too fast or slow for your visitors. 
• Set a Dollhouse rotation speed.
• Set a floor plan zoom speed. 
• Use the Preview button to see how all of these settings will look in your tour. After you’ve previewed your settings, click the Tour Settings button again to return to the settings window. When you’re happy with the configuration, click Done.
• If you want to undo all of your tour settings, click the Restore defaults link.

Override Tour Settings for Specific Highlights on the Tour

Optionally, you can override the following tour behaviors for specific Highlights on the tour:

• Transition type, Slideshow or Walkthrough.
• Panning direction, left, right, or automatic.
• Panning angle. 
• Click the pencil icon on a Highlight in your tour.
• Go to the Behaviors tab.
• If you decide you want to update this choice to apply to all the transitions on your tour, click the Apply to All link next to this setting.
• Use the Preview button to see how all of these settings will look for this stop on your tour. After you’ve previewed your settings, click the pencil icon again to return to the settings window. When you’re happy with the configuration, click Done. 

• In the Scene field, enter the name you want to use, up to 24 characters. Click Done to save your changes.

This section applies only if you are using Story Mode.

• Click the pencil icon on the first Highlight in your tour.

• Use the Preview button to see how all of these settings will look for this stop on your tour. After you’ve previewed your settings, click the pencil icon again to return to the settings window. When you’re happy with the configuration, click Done.

Guided Tour Best Practices

Create and Share Views

What is Matterport Cloud, Workshop, and 3D Showcase?

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Getting Started With Matterport

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This 13-minute student-hosted virtual tour is best viewed at 1080s. For optimal experience, we suggest viewing on a mobile device or with cardboard or 360° glasses. Otherwise, you can navigate on a stationary monitor by clicking-and-dragging or by using the compass in the upper left. Welcome virtually to The Farm!

• Virtual Tours

360° Video Tour

Take a 360° guided video tour of the stanford university campus..

Virtual Campus Walk

Follow the path for a virtual self-guided walking tour featuring photos and information about many sites of central campus.

Campus Photos

See how freedom translates into our people, our place and our mission in this slide show.

Campus Living

Learn about Stanford residential life on this virtual tour of residences, dining halls and lounges.

Around the Quad

Sample the diverse opportunities at Stanford from a snapshot of fellow students passing through the quad.

Garden Tour

Discover the location of each garden on campus, including descriptions of the history, features, and notable plants.

Learn the lingo of "The Farm" (a popular name for the campus).

Enjoy a Science Art Nature Walk podcast of the campus.

Take a long, easy stroll of new sights on campus—handsome buildings, flowering gardens, light-filled courtyards, shaded arcades—that begins and ends with art.

Online Resources

Explore the campus at your own pace and learn more about Stanford's rich history, distinctive architecture, and notable landmarks.

• Visit Stanford App
• Self-Guided Tour Map
• Stanford Mobile App

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© Stanford University . Stanford , California 94305 .

Storyline 360: Controlling Navigation in 360° Images

Make exploring 360° images dynamic and exciting. Manage how learners start and navigate your interaction.

Setting the Initial View

Choosing navigation options, excluding markers and hotspots from progress tracking.

Set the opening view of your interaction.

In the 360° image editor , go to the Interaction tab, click Edit , then move the camera to your preferred angle.

As you move the camera, the latitude and longitude units at the bottom of the 360° image dynamically update with the exact coordinates. Click Set to save your changes. Click Reset to return to the original view. Click Cancel to discard your changes.

Tip : To center the opening view around an interactive element, click the hotspot or marker on the Markers & Hotspots panel.

Choose how learners navigate your interaction—freely or in a guided tour.

In the 360° image editor , go to the Markers & Hotspots panel, then choose either Free navigation or Guided tour as the navigation mode.

Free navigation is great for letting learners explore interactive elements as they wish. Mark the Show progress indicator box to help learners keep track of their progress.

A guided tour is perfect for directing learners through a specific set of interactive elements. It presents markers and hotspots one by one in the sequence you specify in the Markers & Hotspots panel. Just drag the interactive elements to your preferred order. A progress indicator always displays at the bottom of the guide-tour interaction.

• Use  hotspot hints to help learners easily find hotspots in your guided-tour interactions.
• Give learners bite-sized info when they hover over markers and hotspots in your free-navigation interactions.

By default, markers and hotspots get automatically counted in the progress indicator for free-navigation interactions. For example, a learner’s progress might show "1 of 5 visited" after clicking the first interactive element in an interaction that has a total of five markers and hotspots. However, you can exclude specific markers or hotspots from the overall progress count, giving you more flexibility in defining what’s tracked. Just install the January 2022 update or later, then follow these steps.

• In the 360° image editor , make sure that you’re using free navigation  mode.
• In the Markers & Hotspots panel, hover over the marker or hotspot you’d like to exclude.
• Click the ellipsis (…) that appears and mark the Exclude from progress count box.
• The marker or hotspot now displays a dashed border in the Markers & Hotspots panel indicating that it’s excluded.

Related Content

Storyline 360: adding interactivity to 360° images, storyline 360: adding accessibility to 360° images, 7 tips for creating immersive learning experiences with interactive 360° images.

The 360°Guided Tour

Virtual tours are already established offerings of museums, through which exhibitions can be accessed as videos or livestreams.

In this Show Case, we are trying to explore the concepts of individualization, freedom of movement, and group dynamics that are present in analog tours. But which technological solutions can enable digital-hybrid tours to provide these observations, so that important elements of the leadership experience are preserved for participants?

Insights: State of the prototype

With the help of digital markers, the center of vision of each participant can be made visible. On the one hand, participants can see what others are currently looking at. On the other hand, the guide in particular can understand what participants are actually focusing. This information could help the guides to respond individually and in terms of content to the objects being viewed or to (re)direct the attention of the participants. A voice function enables participants to interact with each other and with the guide person, to ask questions or to comment.

Participate in a prototype test

Get to know our prototype and take part in a digital test series (the test will be held in German). Dates will follow shortly here.

Guided tour of the Tiergarten: Tue, 02.08., 04:00 p.m. or Wed, 17.08., 10:30 a.m.

Guided tour of the exhibition: Fri, 19.08, 02:00 p.m.

• The participation is free of charge.
• The link for remote access will be posted online here on the morning of the test day.
• Access is only possible via computer.
• Duration of the tour 45 min. / Afterwards, a 60-minute group survey will take place online.
• For registration and further information please contact Nadine Kühne ( [email protected] ) - if you have any further questions please contact our leading scientist Dr. Claire Förster .

About the project

In January 2021, the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin and  ART+COM Studios  launched the NuForm research project. For two years, the project will develop and test new forms and formats of encounter communication that are intended to sustainably expand the museum exhibition experience.

Invalidenstr. 43 · 10115 Berlin

museumfuernaturkunde.berlin

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