20 locations to tour virtually with Google Maps Street View

Ed Tech

Ed Tech | Monday, March 21, 2016

20 locations to tour virtually with Google Maps Street View

Take virtual field trips all over the world from the comfort of your classroom. Use Google Maps Street View to tour these places virtually.

Ever wish you could take your class to impressive landmarks around the country or world?

Google Maps Street View makes many of those visits possible virtually — and for free.

Street View is an immersive panoramic image experience through Google Maps. It lets you feel like you’re right on the street of many locations around the globe. Plus, you can virtually walk around, look up, down and around, and zoom in on items of interest.

Accessing Street View is easy:

You don’t have to see the world just from the street. Many locations around the world have first-person virtual tours available. Check if they’re available by finding a location in Google Maps, zooming in and grabbing the peg man to see if available locations light up in blue.

Here are 20 of them worth checking out — 10 from the United States and 10 from beyond. Click the link for each one to go to the Street View experience in Google Maps to check the location out yourself.

1. Churchill Downs — Let students take a lap around the legendary horse-racing track, see the view from the most exclusive seats and tour the rest of the campus.

washington monument

2. Washington Monument — Take a walk around one of Washington D.C.’s most famous and visited monuments. And when I say take a walk, I mean take a walk — in a large circumference around the monument and down the National Mall (still inside Street View!) to see it from many angles.

alcatraz

3. Alcatraz Island — Take students inside the infamous prison in San Francisco Bay for an informal tour. Look inside cells and read informational posters for more details.

white house

4. The White House — Wander around the seat of the United States government. See the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden, the Center Hall (pictured), the Vermeil Room, part of the East Colonnade and more.

911 Memorial

5. 9/11 Memorial — See the names of those lost in the Sept. 11, 2001, tragedy in New York at the official memorial site.

american airlines center

6. American Airlines Center — Ever wonder what it’s like to see an NBA game from a luxury suite? Walk that level of the stadium and walk into several suites for a first-hand look.

moma

7. Metropolitan Museum of Art — Stroll around almost every part of this famous museum in New York City, checking out sculpture, paintings and more.

central park

8. Central Park — Since you were in the area visiting the Metropolitan Museum of art, go next door and tour this popular outdoor area in New York City, walking by the Arthur Ross Pinetum and the Shakespeare Garden.

old faithful

9. Yellowstone National Park — Walk the trails to see waterfalls and scenic wooded areas. Check out Old Faithful (pictured) from the view of a tourist, and then walk around the area.

grand canyon

10. Grand Canyon — Take a trip down the Colorado River or take in the picturesque scenes from the top.

emirates plane

11. Emirates Airbus A380-800 — See what life’s like aboard a plane with a free lounge with food, showers for first class and personal entertainment.

cern

12. CERN — Ever consider walking around the largest particle physics lab in the world? There are parts of CERN that have Street View that you can virtually tour. (I did, and I didn’t know what anything was, but maybe you will!)

granada

13. Alhambra — As a Spanish teacher, this is on my “bucket list” of places to visit. The Alhambra is a gorgeous palace and fortress in Granada, Spain. There’s a reason for the local saying: “There’s nothing worse in life than being blind in Granada.”

tsukiji market

14. Tsukiji Market — The world’s largest, busiest fish market is home to a popular tuna auction. Walk the aisles to see vendors peddling their wares.

blue mosque

15. Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmet Camii) — The most famous mosque in Turkey (known as the Blue Mosque for blue tiles adorning the inside) is visible from many parts of Istanbul and is a top world tourist destination.

royal opera house

16. Royal Opera House — Visit and walk around the home of the Royal Opera, Royal Ballet and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House in London. See common areas as well as the performance areas.

versailles

17. Palace at Versailles — See the Hall of Mirrors, the site of many a luxurious event by King Louis XIV in Versailles, France.

eiffel

18. Eiffel Tower — Go directly to the observation deck of this famous spire to see the city and the Seine River from above, or see what a typical tourist’s day is in Paris.

acropolis

19. The Acropolis Museum — See the spectacular views of this world landmark through the enormous windows of the museum. Plus, check out rare artifacts first hand.

madrid zoo

20. Madrid Zoo — See the animals and the sights at the zoo in this world capital.

Want to deliver Street View experiences to your students? There are a few ways:

  • Find the Street View you want to show them (and point yourself in the direction you want them to see) and copy the URL (link) from your browser. Share that with students and they’ll be taken to the same spot where you were.
  • Use Instant Street View (InstantStreetView.com) to help you find Street Views a little easier AND to display them to students.
  • Embed an interactive street view on a webpage. Once you’ve found your location, click the three dots button next to the name of the location in the top left of the screen. Choose “Embed” to copy HTML code to paste in your site.

What locations are you most interested in? How could you use this in your class?

 


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  • Julia Aubert says:

    Google Street View using Google Maps by Attracts people towards. With the help of Google Street View, you can go to any corner of the world and travel everywhere.
    Thanks for this article.

  • […] from Ditch That Textbook wrote about it here on his website that gives you a better rundown of exactly how to use it to its full potential. Or […]

  • Pam says:

    How Cool!

  • […] 20 locations to tour virtually with Google Maps Street View #edtech @jmattmiller ditchthattextbook.com/2016/03/21/20-… […]

  • Thanks Matt,
    Very timely with my recent Webinar- “Virtual Field Trips for Your Class” (http://ti.apps.sparcc.org/videopd/20160128-fieldtrips)

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