- On March 14, the US Department of State urged Americans to reconsider travel abroad, and on March 15 the Centers for Disease Control released new health guidelines recommending that gatherings of more than 50 people be postponed until May.
- As airlines cancel flights, cities limit public gatherings, and companies require their employees to work remotely to limit the spread of the coronavirus, more and more Americans are staying home.
- From livestreamed opera performances to 360-degree tours of iconic tourist destinations, Business Insider has rounded up some of the best ways to virtually travel during the global health crisis.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates and additional recommendations.
Tune into the Metropolitan Opera's website each night at 7:30 p.m. ET through the end of March for a free, livestreamed show.
In response to New York City's ban on public gatherings of 500 or more people, New York's Metropolitan Opera has suspended shows through the end of March. Until operations resume, the Opera is streaming past performances for free on its website at 7:30 p.m. ET each night. The performances will be available to watch for 20 hours post stream.
Source:Metropolitan Opera
Listen to Broadway stars perform Broadway hits while their shows are on pause in a series of "Living Room Concerts" posted to BroadwayWorld.com.
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Like the Metropolitan Opera, Broadway has shuttered productions through April 12 due to New York City's ban on mass public gatherings. In the meantime, Broadway stars have partnered with Broadway World to produce a series of virtual mini-performances.
The performances, filmed by stars in their living rooms and posted on BroadwayWorld.com, are free to watch; however, Broadway World asks viewers to consider making a donation to The Actors Fund or Broadway Cares, which support entertainment professionals in times of need.
Source:Broadway World
Float through an amber kelp forest in the Channel Islands, hang out with manatees in Florida, and watch bald eagles nest in real-time on Explore.org, the world's largest live nature cam network.
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Explore.org has hundreds of webcams set up in national parks and wildlife sanctuaries around the world and aggregates their livestreams on its website. These include the underwater Channel Islands Kelp Forest cam; the above-water Manatee Cam at Florida's Blue Spring Park; and the Decorah Eagles cam, positioned at eye-level with bald eagle nests in Decorah, Iowa.
Source:Explore.org
Tour Stonehenge, Machu Picchu, and the Taj Mahal in 360 degrees through Google Arts & Culture.
Google Arts & Culture, thanks to its 360-degree mapping technology, offers an inside look at some of the world's most iconic attractions.
Source:Google Arts & Culture
Tour and browse the digitized collections of more than 1,200 cultural institutions around the world including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, and the Musée d'Orsay in Paris through Google Arts & Culture.
In addition to iconic monuments and tourist attractions, Google Arts & Culture allows users to tour the world's foremost museums in 360 degrees and browse hi-res images of their collections. The collections are searchable by artist, art movement, and country, among other categories, and Google Arts & Culture's map feature populates nearby museums using your location data.
Source:Google Arts & Culture
Hike over six miles of the 2,000-year-old Great Wall of China virtually on TheChinaGuide.com, a website dedicated to China travel.
The China Guide, a Beijing-based travel agency, has developed a virtual tour of one the Great Wall of China's most iconic sections, Jinshanling to Simatai. This section crosses the border between Beijing and Hebei provinces and has been the go-to destination for many magazine shoots thanks to its sweeping views, according to the agency. It is currently closed to visitors due to safety reasons.
Source:The China Guide
Peer inside the enclosures of pandas, polar bears, and beluga whales across the United States thanks to zoo livestreams.
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A number of zoos and aquariums around the country have set up webcams in their most popular enclosures. The Houston Zoo, Monterey Aquarium, and San Diego Zoo each run multiple webcams. The Atlanta Zoo runs a dedicated livestream of their pandas, and the Georgia Aquarium runs a livestream of its beluga whales.
Do you have a virtual escape recommendation? Email this reporter at mwiley@businessinsider.com.
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Coronavirus live updates: Here's everything we know.
A running list of countries that are on lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic