Virtual Field Trips with Google Maps

While you may have dreams of merging travel with your homeschooling curriculum, we know that travel, especially international travel, can sometimes be impossible. Thankfully, technology now offers a way for your child to experience international wonders without packing a suitcase.

Thanks to virtual tours available through Google Arts and Culture, you can experience the world right from your living room. From the main “Street View” page, you can choose museums, historical sites, or significant landmarks to explore and learn about.

Once you’re “inside” a location, you will usually see items listed at the bottom of your screen. This is a list of significant items located in that historical site or museum. You can move around inside by clicking points on the floor to create the experience of walking through the location, or you can click the images at the bottom of the screen to jump from room to room where those artifacts or paintings are located.

When clicking on the artifacts or paintings at the bottom of the screen, you can also learn a little about them. In the image below, you can see how details of this painting popped up in the bottom-left corner. You can click on these pop-ups to get more details about the artifact or painting on your main screen.

There is so much to explore, so we thought we help you get started by listing just a few of our favorite locations you can tour using Google Maps:

Musée d'Orsay (Paris)
Enjoy one of the largest art museums in Europe, housing paintings from artists like Monet and Cézanne.

Guggenheim Museum (New York)
Virtually walk the upward spiral of the Guggenheim and take note as you pass the exhibits on your way up. From a second view, you can also click through the 6 levels of the museum like using the elevators.

Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum (Mumbai, India)
Get a taste of Mumbai’s cultural heritage and history by exploring its oldest museum.

Palace of Versailles (France)
Explore the inside that drips with extravagance or go outside to see the expansive gardens.

Sagrada Família (Barcelona, Spain)
Google maps doesn’t lay out the artifacts at this location like some of the others, but the stunning interior of the largest unfinished Roman Catholic church in the world will not leave you disappointed.