It is difficult, in one life, to be able to visit all the most beautiful places in the world and it is even more difficult to understand how fascinating a place can be if it is described in words. There are scenic spots hidden in little-known places and far from the big cities that would deserve a visit, at least once.
The solution for those who want to travel with the mind are the so-called " Virtual Tour " which, on the internet, are photos processed in 3D with special software, capable of showing entire panoramas as if they were in front of us. Although it is obvious to say that live, a natural panorama is another matter entirely, one cannot underestimate the beauty of a panoramic photograph that surrounds the viewer with a 360 degree view, perhaps on a large screen. The bird's-eye photographed image can immerse a person into that landscape and, from the PC, you can rotate the eye 360 degrees.
In this list we see 12 of the best sites that offer panoramic views and virtual travel around the world .
1) First of all, we must mention, once again, Google Street View and its panoramic visits of cities, monuments and landscapes and the new Google World Wonders site to travel online
2) Still from Google, you can open the Google Earth site, the main menu, then go to Projects and create a new project to create a virtual tour where you can jump from one point to another in the world by seeing it in Google Earth and, at the same time, even photos of that place. The project can then be saved and reproduced in the form of an animated presentation, seeing how the world travels. The same type of virtual travel can also be created and viewed from the Google Earth apps for Android and iPhone
3) 360Cities.net has a large collection of panoramic views of cities and landscapes from around the world. Most of the panoramic shots are geo-referenced and interactive . To start a virtual journey you can start either from the world map where the points photographed are reported, or from the map of the photographers who contributed to the site. From the world map, you can enlarge an area, for example, Italy, to see how much part of the territory has been photographed, not only large cities such as Rome and Florence but also countries and rural areas.
You can view panoramas in full screen and navigate the images using interactive controls and arrows. If you have installed Google Earth on your computer, you can literally travel around the world looking at the panoramas and visiting cities, by downloading the 360cities KML file.
On this incredible website there is also the largest image in the world, from 18 Gigapixel which portrays the city landscape of Prague.
4) MapStreetView is a site that teleports around the world, putting those who surf the internet on a sightseeing tour of all the most beautiful places. You can choose the place you want to see, but the fun is above all in playing to discover new places at random. It is also fun to try to recognize the places, hiding the geographical position shown, in full screen. In addition to the streetview mode there is also the Photos mode where you can scroll through the photographs of a panoramic place or a historical place .
5) Streetviewr is a web application very similar to MapCrunch and allows you to travel at random to some of the most beautiful distant places in the world . By pressing on countries or on tags you can set some filters so you can see only Italian or only French places and concerning architecture or beaches. Since each place can be rated, you can also filter to see the most voted and therefore recommended places.
6) Gigapan provides panoramic images from all over the world.
GigaPan was developed by Carnegie Mellon University in collaboration with NASA Ames Intelligent Robotics Group and Google support. On this site you can also participate in an online community of panoramic photography enthusiasts and share their shots with them. To search for the photos that interest you, you can do a search or scroll through the lists of the most popular and the most recent or through the tags. It is not very easy to navigate because it does not have well-packed menus but the images are very many and of very high quality . You can not put the full screen but, for each photo, there is a link that makes you download the relevant kml file so you can view it in Google Earth which has fullscreen mode.
7) HistoryPin is a wonderful site where you can watch historical images of a place . Historypic is one of the best sites with historical images and photos that Street View uses to compare how it was before and how it is today. You can also drag the timeline to view photos of a particular place at a particular moment in history.
8) StreetView Fun is another blog that shows the funniest pictures of Google Street View . There has been controversy with Google Street View that had been accused rumored to be too intrusive and heedless of people's privacy.
This site shows in a funny and witty way how right those who think that Google has invaded the privacy of the world with their photographic stain are right. I recommend looking at the Top 100 immediately and seeing the most incredible photos.
READ ALSO: Virtual tours of online museums, monuments, cathedrals and the best places, in Italy and in the world .
9) StreetView Zombie Apocalypse is a very experimental Street View game that is more sympathetic for the idea than for the actual playability. Just provide any address, even at home (if the area is covered by StreetView) and then move as if you were walking in the city, trying to avoid meeting a zombie, whose position can be seen on a small map. We must stay alive as long as possible.
10) ViewAt is a site that immediately presents the map and allows you to immediately see which places have been photographed. This time there is a lot of Spain and a lot of Europe even if, in quantity, it is certainly lower than in 360cities or Arounder.
11) Panedia is a site of panoramic images from Australia that deserve a look for how well they are made.
12) Virtual Globetrotting, as the name suggests, takes you on a trip around the world with the bird's eye view of Bing Maps or with Google Maps . This is not a web application and it is also a blog in English, however, since it is a blog made of images and it is easy to consult, it has become a reference point on the web. You can filter the blog by looking for posts related to Italy or another country and find the most curious and most beautiful photographs that have been taken by Google in the creation of the maps.
Still talking about virtual travel, I want to remember the sites that allow you to see videos of tourists' travels and holiday films.
The solution for those who want to travel with the mind are the so-called " Virtual Tour " which, on the internet, are photos processed in 3D with special software, capable of showing entire panoramas as if they were in front of us. Although it is obvious to say that live, a natural panorama is another matter entirely, one cannot underestimate the beauty of a panoramic photograph that surrounds the viewer with a 360 degree view, perhaps on a large screen. The bird's-eye photographed image can immerse a person into that landscape and, from the PC, you can rotate the eye 360 degrees.
In this list we see 12 of the best sites that offer panoramic views and virtual travel around the world .
1) First of all, we must mention, once again, Google Street View and its panoramic visits of cities, monuments and landscapes and the new Google World Wonders site to travel online
2) Still from Google, you can open the Google Earth site, the main menu, then go to Projects and create a new project to create a virtual tour where you can jump from one point to another in the world by seeing it in Google Earth and, at the same time, even photos of that place. The project can then be saved and reproduced in the form of an animated presentation, seeing how the world travels. The same type of virtual travel can also be created and viewed from the Google Earth apps for Android and iPhone
3) 360Cities.net has a large collection of panoramic views of cities and landscapes from around the world. Most of the panoramic shots are geo-referenced and interactive . To start a virtual journey you can start either from the world map where the points photographed are reported, or from the map of the photographers who contributed to the site. From the world map, you can enlarge an area, for example, Italy, to see how much part of the territory has been photographed, not only large cities such as Rome and Florence but also countries and rural areas.
You can view panoramas in full screen and navigate the images using interactive controls and arrows. If you have installed Google Earth on your computer, you can literally travel around the world looking at the panoramas and visiting cities, by downloading the 360cities KML file.
On this incredible website there is also the largest image in the world, from 18 Gigapixel which portrays the city landscape of Prague.
4) MapStreetView is a site that teleports around the world, putting those who surf the internet on a sightseeing tour of all the most beautiful places. You can choose the place you want to see, but the fun is above all in playing to discover new places at random. It is also fun to try to recognize the places, hiding the geographical position shown, in full screen. In addition to the streetview mode there is also the Photos mode where you can scroll through the photographs of a panoramic place or a historical place .
5) Streetviewr is a web application very similar to MapCrunch and allows you to travel at random to some of the most beautiful distant places in the world . By pressing on countries or on tags you can set some filters so you can see only Italian or only French places and concerning architecture or beaches. Since each place can be rated, you can also filter to see the most voted and therefore recommended places.
6) Gigapan provides panoramic images from all over the world.
GigaPan was developed by Carnegie Mellon University in collaboration with NASA Ames Intelligent Robotics Group and Google support. On this site you can also participate in an online community of panoramic photography enthusiasts and share their shots with them. To search for the photos that interest you, you can do a search or scroll through the lists of the most popular and the most recent or through the tags. It is not very easy to navigate because it does not have well-packed menus but the images are very many and of very high quality . You can not put the full screen but, for each photo, there is a link that makes you download the relevant kml file so you can view it in Google Earth which has fullscreen mode.
7) HistoryPin is a wonderful site where you can watch historical images of a place . Historypic is one of the best sites with historical images and photos that Street View uses to compare how it was before and how it is today. You can also drag the timeline to view photos of a particular place at a particular moment in history.
8) StreetView Fun is another blog that shows the funniest pictures of Google Street View . There has been controversy with Google Street View that had been accused rumored to be too intrusive and heedless of people's privacy.
This site shows in a funny and witty way how right those who think that Google has invaded the privacy of the world with their photographic stain are right. I recommend looking at the Top 100 immediately and seeing the most incredible photos.
READ ALSO: Virtual tours of online museums, monuments, cathedrals and the best places, in Italy and in the world .
9) StreetView Zombie Apocalypse is a very experimental Street View game that is more sympathetic for the idea than for the actual playability. Just provide any address, even at home (if the area is covered by StreetView) and then move as if you were walking in the city, trying to avoid meeting a zombie, whose position can be seen on a small map. We must stay alive as long as possible.
10) ViewAt is a site that immediately presents the map and allows you to immediately see which places have been photographed. This time there is a lot of Spain and a lot of Europe even if, in quantity, it is certainly lower than in 360cities or Arounder.
11) Panedia is a site of panoramic images from Australia that deserve a look for how well they are made.
12) Virtual Globetrotting, as the name suggests, takes you on a trip around the world with the bird's eye view of Bing Maps or with Google Maps . This is not a web application and it is also a blog in English, however, since it is a blog made of images and it is easy to consult, it has become a reference point on the web. You can filter the blog by looking for posts related to Italy or another country and find the most curious and most beautiful photographs that have been taken by Google in the creation of the maps.
Still talking about virtual travel, I want to remember the sites that allow you to see videos of tourists' travels and holiday films.
