Some of the greatest museums on Earth are a long flight and a long line away. Their websites are not. Many of them let you walk through the galleries in 360 degrees, zoom into paintings closer than any guard would allow, and wander rooms that are usually roped off.
These virtual museum tours are all free. Most work on a phone, but they are at their best on a big screen with a free evening ahead of you.
Start here
1. Google Arts & Culture
If you only bookmark one site, make it Google Arts & Culture. It brings together thousands of museums and archives from around the world, with Street View walkthroughs of real galleries and paintings photographed in such high detail you can see the brushstrokes. Search for a museum by name, or just open the "Explore" section and get lost.
The big names
2. The Louvre, Paris
The Louvre's online tours let you step into some of its most famous spaces from home. For a deeper dig, the museum has put its collection database online too, so you can browse works that are not even on display.
3. The Vatican Museums, Rome
The Vatican Museums offer 360 degree virtual tours, including the Sistine Chapel. In person you get a few crowded minutes with Michelangelo's ceiling. Online you can take as long as you want and look straight up without a sore neck.
4. The British Museum, London
The British Museum's galleries are on Google Arts & Culture, where you can walk the halls in Street View and see objects from every corner of human history, from the Rosetta Stone to Egyptian mummies.
5. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Met's website is a museum in itself. Its online collection lets you search and zoom into a huge number of works, many of them free to download and reuse, and the museum's 360 videos take you inside spaces like the Great Hall and the Temple of Dendur.
6. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
The Rijksmuseum is home to Rembrandt's The Night Watch, and its website lets you zoom into that painting and thousands of others in remarkable detail. It is one of the best museum collections online, full stop.
Science and history
7. Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington
The Smithsonian's virtual tour lets you walk room by room through the museum, from the giant elephant in the rotunda to the hall of fossils. It is a great one to explore with kids.
8. Natural History Museum, London
London's Natural History Museum has virtual tours and a deep online collection. Its famous main hall and its blue whale skeleton are worth the visit alone.
9. Anne Frank House, Amsterdam
The Anne Frank House lets you explore the Secret Annex online, the hidden rooms where Anne and her family lived in hiding. It is quiet, moving and unlike any other tour on this list.
Art lovers
10. Musée d'Orsay, Paris
Housed in an old railway station, the Musée d'Orsay is home to some of the most loved Impressionist paintings in the world. Its Google Arts & Culture page lets you walk the building and see the art up close.
11. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
The Van Gogh Museum has the largest collection of his work anywhere, and its site lets you browse the paintings and read his letters. Seeing Sunflowers that close is a treat.
12. Frida Kahlo Museum, Mexico City
The Frida Kahlo Museum is La Casa Azul, the blue house where she was born and lived. Its virtual tour takes you through the rooms and gardens that shaped her art.
Tips for a better virtual visit
- Use a big screen. A laptop or a TV makes the 360 tours feel far more like being there.
- Zoom in. The high resolution images are the real magic. Pick one painting and look at it for five minutes.
- Pick a theme. Ancient Egypt one night, Impressionists the next. It is more fun than clicking at random.
- Bring the kids. The natural history tours are a great rainy day activity.
Want more places like this?
NexURLs is full of websites people loved enough to share, including museums, archives and virtual tours. Browse History and Culture, try Travel and Places for more ways to see the world from home, or read our guide to interesting websites to learn something new.
Found a great virtual tour we missed? Share it on NexURLs.
Featured on NexURLs
Sites from NexURLs that go with this post.
Louvre Collectionscollections.louvre.frThe Louvre's searchable online collection with detailed images and records of hundreds of thousands of works.
360Cities360cities.netA large gallery of high-quality 360° panoramas and VR videos you can pan and zoom through.
Virtual Vacationvirtualvacation.usCurated virtual walking, driving and live-cam tours of cities and landmarks for armchair exploration.