Armchair Travel: How to Travel the World From Home

Even though travel is slowly increasing many of us are unable or unwilling to travel at this time. For those of us still stuck at home here are the best ways to scratch your travel itch and travel from home.

Armchair Travel: How to Travel the World From Home

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Read a Travel Book

Reading a good travel book is a great way to pass the time and transport yourself to another time and place. Some of my favorite travel books include:

On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

For more travel book suggestions, here is a list of 45 of the best travel books of all time chosen by my fellow travel bloggers.

Watch a Travel Movie

In addition to telling a captivating story, a travel movie can transport you to another time and place. Here is my list of the best travel movies.

Watch Travel Shows or Series

Another way to travel the world from home is to watch travel shows and documentaries on TV or streaming services like Amazon Prime Video or Hulu. Some of my favorite travel shows include Idiot Abroad and anything by Anthony Bourdain. Netflix is streaming several travel and food shows exclusively like Travels With My Father, Ugly Delicious and Somebody Feed Phil. Here are the best travel shows on Netflix right now.

Travel in a Box

Another great way to travel the world from home to treat yourself to an international food or travel subscription box. Gift yourself a travel themed subscription box to receive a monthly curated selection of food, snacks, artisan products or books from around the the world. My favorites include Universal Yums which sends snacks from a different country each month. There are also country specific subscription boxes. For example, Japan lovers will enjoy Bokksu.com which delivers authentic Japanese snacks, candies, and teas to your home.

Learn a New Language

If you have a lot of free time at home, now is a good time to learn a new language that you can use on your future travels. There are many language learning programs and apps you can use, including Duolingo (which has a free app) and Rosetta Stone.

Drink Travel Inspired Cocktails and Mocktails

If you enjoy drinking why not make a cocktail inspired from some of your favorite travel destinations? Even if you don’t drink alcohol you can make mocktails. Some of my favorite travel inspired cocktails and drinks from around the world include:

Singapore Sling
Sangria
Margarita

This book has recipes and a history of 80 cocktails from around the world.

Cook (or Order) Food from Around the World

If you are missing food from different countries why not cook some dishes at home? Buy a global cookbook with hundreds of recipes from around the world, and prepare a different dish every day.

You can also search for recipes online or even take a virtual cooking class from an Italian grandma.

Even if you don’t enjoy cooking (I am not a big cook myself) you can order takeout from some of your favorite ethnic restaurants in your hometown. It is a great way to support local restaurants that are not open for indoor dining or if you don’t feel safe going right now.

If you are in the US, you can even order food from your favorite city to your house. For example, you can order deep dish pizzas or Chicago style hot dogs to remember your trip to Chicago.

Virtual Travel From Home

You can see explore many travel destinations virtually from the comfort of your own home.

Many famous museums such as the Guggenheim in New York City, The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago and the Louvre in Paris are available through Google Arts & Culture, a platform that allows you to take digital tours for free of some of the world’s most well known museums. You can browse through all the available museums here, and see some of the most famous pieces of art up close.

You can also virtually explore national parks and famous attractions around the United States with Google Arts & Culture, including the Statue of Liberty, the Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore and Yellowstone National Park.

You can see explore cities and natural attractions around the world using Google Earth.

Organize Your Past Travel Photos

While you are stuck at home, take the opportunity to organize your past travel photos. Maybe you can print some of your best photos or create photo albums to remember your past travels. If you enjoy scrapbooking, you can preserve your travel memories in this travel themed scrapbook.

Photography Gear

Research Travel on Pinterest

For those not on Pinterest, it is a place to create virtual picture boards (including pictures that link to online posts). Pinterest is a virtual search engine so you can search for travel pins by topic similar to google or follow some travel blogs and magazines and see what comes up on your feed. Here is my Pinterest if you would like to follow me. I pin the best articles from hundreds of my fellow travel bloggers.

Create a Travel Bucket List

Even if you can’t travel right now you can still research future travel destinations and put together a bucket list. I love creating and updating my travel bucket lists.

Here are some of my travel bucket lists to get you started:

Learn How to Travel Hack

Even if you can’t travel right now you can learn how to earn miles and points from home (without traveling) so that you can travel for nearly free in the future. Here is my Beginner’s Guide to Travel Hacking to get you started.

Start Planning a Trip

Planning a trip takes a lot of time so if you are at home, this is a good opportunity to plan your next trip even if it is a short day trip or a road trip close to home. You can also plan travels for later this year or even next year.

So as you can see there are many ways to enjoy traveling from home.

Armchair Travel: How to Travel the World From Home