7 Free Virtual Tours for Students: Parks, Museums and More

These seven virtual tours let you explore a national park, a museum, a historic site, or the International Space Station from a browser. Each one is free, and each link below was checked to make sure it still works.

Virtual tours are not a replacement for a real visit, but they are a good way to preview a place before a trip or study it when a trip is not possible. They pair well with our social studies section for classroom or homeschool use.

Which national parks offer virtual tours?

Two U.S. national parks offer official, map-based virtual tours through the National Park Service. This section does not cover state parks or private nature preserves, which mostly do not offer this kind of tour.

• Grand Canyon National Park. A student can explore the canyon’s rock layers and ecosystems and watch short videos on how the canyon formed and what lives in it.
• Yellowstone National Park. A student can walk through map-based tours of six sites, including Mammoth Hot Springs and Norris Geyser Basin, and see how geothermal features form.

Which museums offer virtual tours?

Two major museums, one in the United States and one in the United Kingdom, offer strong online galleries a student can browse without an admission fee. This section does not cover small or local museums, most of which do not yet offer a comparable online tour.

• Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. A student can take narrated video tours of the fossil hall, the human origins hall, and the hall of gems and minerals, including the Hope Diamond.
• The British Museum. A student can take a Street View gallery tour and search more than four million cataloged objects, including the Rosetta Stone.

What historic sites can you tour online?

Two historic sites, one in the United States and one at the Vatican, offer detailed online tours built for remote visitors. This section does not cover sites that only post photo galleries with no interactive tour.

• Ellis Island. A student can explore the South Side of the island, including the historic immigrant hospital complex, an area closed to regular visitors, through high-resolution panoramic images.
• Sistine Chapel. A student can view the chapel where Michelangelo painted the ceiling, part of the world history story of the Renaissance.

Can you take a virtual tour of the International Space Station?

Yes. NASA and Google Arts and Culture built a 360-degree tour of the space station that anyone can use for free. This tour does not require a VR headset, though it also works with one.

• 20 Years on the ISS. A student can move through the station’s modules, look down at Earth from the Cupola window, and try a downloadable lesson plan built around the station.

This project connects well to a science unit on space, or to a geography lesson on seeing Earth from above.

Sources

• National Park Service. Grand Canyon Virtual Tour
• National Park Service. Yellowstone Virtual Tours
• National Park Service. Ellis Island Virtual Tour
• Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Narrated Virtual Tours
• The British Museum. British Museum From Home
• Vatican. Sistine Chapel Virtual Tour
• Google Arts and Culture / NASA. 20 Years on the ISS