Alternative Ways to Experience Culture While Stuck at Home

It’s hard for us — travel addicts and culture lovers to stay isolated and not feel too sad about it. Coronavirus outbreak brought a pretty difficult time for everyone, we’re all self-isolated and trying our best to protect ourselves and our loved ones. Whether you’re working from home, or you’re not working at all, you surely need some creative and inspiring ways to keep yourself motivated and entertained. So, this time we won’t suggest any awesome travel destinations, but we’ll share some alternative ways to experience the culture while you’re stuck at home.

Embrace Your Own Local Culture

Culture is all around you — you don’t have to travel to a new city in order to experience it. Sometimes we’re all about getting out of our home towns and getting to know new cultures, and we forget how wonderful our own culture might be. There are probably some unexplored cultural places around your hometown or some interesting cultural customs that you forgot about or you don’t know very much about them. Research about your culture! Or call your grandma and ask her stuff — she probably knows more about old customs than you do (just please, PLEASE don’t visit her right now!). Learn all these things and be proud of your local culture, and you’ll definitely have more things to share with other culture lovers next time you travel.

Use this time of isolation to investigate a little — browse the internet for all the cultural institutions around you and learn a little about them. Search for local galleries, museums, or other amazing institutions and see if there’s any way that you can help them at this moment. Maybe you can donate a small amount of money, or maybe you can purchase some of their artwork online, they’ll be grateful for sure since they probably have no visitors at the moment. Also, share their stories online, spread the word for when we’re all able to travel again.

Read about Culture and Travel

If you’re interested in learning about new cultures and destinations, there is always a way — you don’t necessarily need to leave the safety of your home. If you have any books on your shelves waiting for you for the longest time, the time has finally come to start reading them.

If you lack the books related to culture and travel, check out some of the e-book services, such as eBooks.com or Free-Ebooks.net. On some, you’ll find the books for free, while on others you’ll have to buy your book. But be sure to check out more similar platforms, because many of them are giving discounts or even books for free in this period of isolation. There are even some libraries around the world that are offering e-books for free if you’re a member, so check out the websites of your local libraries, too.

Enjoy a good book

Watch Shows about Culture and Travel

This is another way of learning about cultures and your dream destinations — turn on your tv, there are plenty of channels offering different shows about these topics, such as Travel Channel, History, and many others. Check out the schedules of your local tv channels, we’re sure you’ll find some interesting shows there as well. Also, YouTube is always a good idea! There are plenty of travelers posting their videos about the destinations they’ve visited, so you can get the best insights and even travel tips.

Also, watch movies from different cultures, and listen to their music — you will surely learn a lot about them by consuming their arts.

Create Your Own Art

Are you really good at singing, playing guitar, writing, painting, drawing…? Take this time of isolation as a chance to focus on creating some sort of art. Who knows, you might contribute to your local culture someday. Or start learning a new skill — YouTube and other platforms are full of tutorials on how to play an instrument or how to draw.

You don’t think you’re talented? Who cares! Take that sketchbook and just have fun! You might end up creating some abstract art that you will absolutely love.

Make your own art — have fun

Get to Know Worldwide Locations through Digital Platforms

There are plenty of culture- and/or travel-related platforms online where you can discover new and fun destinations that you could visit someday (hopefully soon 🤞). Visit our Cultural Places platform or download our app, and search for your next travel destinations. You will find tours around those destinations that you can check out, and download or buy now, and use them later when you’re traveling. Some of the tours are free, so you can download them now and you can virtually explore the place that you want to visit, and learn fun facts about it. You can even see the map to those places, so you’ll basically get to know your future destination pretty well before you get to visit it in real life.

Make Plans for Your Future Travels

If you can’t travel, you can at least daydream about it, and you can use the time to gather ideas for your future travels. Take this time and everything that you discovered about the amazing worldwide destinations and make one great plan for when the isolation-period is finally over.

If you download our Cultural Places App you can use it as your personal trip planner! Find the tours around those destinations that you love and add them to your planner. They will be saved in your account as long as you like it, so whenever you’re able to travel again use them as your personal travel guides.

Make plans for your future travels

Explore the Nature Around You

If you’re really, REALLY sick of staying at home, and the weather is just perfect for outdoor activities, there is one thing you can still do. Go to the hills, the woods, the riverside, enjoy the nature that is around you. Enjoy the sunshine and the flowers in the fields. Take your dog for a walk in nature and have fun.

Just please, be very careful! We strongly recommend going out alone or with the people you live with — don’t meet other people, take care of yourself and your loved ones!

Enjoy nature alone

In the end, just use this time to bond with the people you care about the most — you’re all at home, try to have as much fun together as you can, even if this means hanging out with your friends or family on Skype, Viber, WhatsApp, or whatever app you prefer. Try to find joy in these hard times. “This too shall pass”, but the memories that we make together never will. So, let’s make the most out of these times, too.