Travel From Home: Our Experience With Guided Virtual Tours From Context Travel
I think we are all chomping at the bit for a little travel or wanderlust in our lives. After being stuck at home for what feels like years, but only months, we are looking for anything to inspire us. Enter in travel virtual tour / presentations. Miles to Memories family member PDX Deals Guy recently did just this with his family and wanted to share his experience with it. He took a tour with Context Travel. It looks like the tours cost about $37 per person and I am not sure how much more it is to have a private tour for a family or group etc.
Context Travel Virtual Tour Experience
Here is what PDX Deals Guy had to say about his experience:
We just did a cool “virtual tour/presentation” of/about Rome with my extended family, as a birthday present for (and generously from!) my sister. It was through Context Travel, and it was entitled “The Colosseum and Roman Forum in the Time of the Emperors”.
My sister is a big world traveler, and she and her husband are particularly fond of traveling to Spain and Italy – where we’ve had the pleasure of traveling with them a few times. She has often used Context Travel for tours in-person, as they have a great reputation for having very knowledgeable expert tour guides. So in these crazy times, she had the great idea to get the extended family and some close friends together for a Zoom presentation/tour. It is about the only way to be “together” during these times of social distancing.
Tour Details
The particular tour we did was pretty heavy on history, but it was cool to learn a lot about the period of the Roman Empire and then drill down on the Colosseum and Forum in Rome. We had previously been there, which almost made it more cool. (I was actually pulling up old photos on my phone using the map features in the photo app and drilling down on Rome.) We definitely learned a lot (or maybe stuff I had forgotten!), and I took a page of notes – including a lot of things I intend to follow up on.
The tour guide was still kind of learning how to do this virtually, and went closer to two hours than the allotted hour and a half. But she was very knowledgeable (an architect by trade) and great about being willing to answer questions from the entire Zoom family contingent. Note that the tour guide was sharing a screen of information/slides, and unfortunately not actually on-location (as she would usually be for an in-person tour). I wish I had screenshots to share of the presentation/Zoom experience, but the material obviously belongs to Context and not sure my family wants their pajama Zoom identities shared!
Final Thoughts
Overall PDX Deals guy said he enjoyed the experience and would do it again for sure. I wonder if in the future, when restrictions lift, if a live virtual walking tour would be on the table. That would probably be too difficult to pull off but it could be amazing if that was possible.
I think this could be a great idea for anyone homeschooling kids at home. It could take the place of one of their history or social studies lessons. It could be an interesting way to break up the monotony of learning from your parents 🤣.
If you have tried one of these virtual tours from Context Travel or from anyone else please share your experience in the comments.
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