While our favorite museums and institutions are closed due to coronavirus, you can still get out – virtually – and “walk through” museums and zoom in on art without fighting the crowds, visit your favorite zoo animals and sea creatures, or get tons of at-home projects and ideas from local science museums. You can even travel to a rainforest or Mars. We’ve rounded up favorites from near and far. Did we miss yours? Email janine.defao@bayareaparent.com and we’ll add it to the list.
In the Bay Area
New Offerings
The Presidio in San Franciso is now offering virtual experiences. Presido at Home features free videos, photos, educational materials and more.
San Jose’s Winchester Mystery House is for the first time offering an Immersive 360 Tour that will allow allows guests to independently roam each level of the bizarre mansion, from the basement to the rarely seen fourth floor, while exploring many rooms previously inaccessible on standard estate tours. The $8.99 fee comes with a ticket for an actual your that cab be used when the mansion reopens.
Visit Yosemite | Madera County has virtual activities for families. It has a Welcoming Committee Activity Kit with puzzles, crafts and a storybook. You can download background scenes for your next video conference of Yosemite National Park and Bass Lake in Madera County. Families can also watch movies filmed at Bass Lake like Carnival Boat and The Great Outdoors.
Slide Ranch, a nonprofit teaching farm on the Marin County coast, is offering free, customizable tours to teachers, as well as virtual visits by donation for birthday parties, Mother’s Day and corporate meetings.
Art
Oakland Museum of California
Asian Art Museum
DeYoung Museum
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Legion of Honor
STEM
California Academy of Sciences
Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose
Exploratorium
The Lawrence Hall of Science
The Tech Interactive
Zoos & Aquariums
Oakland Zoo animal webcams
Monterey Bay Aquarium
San Francisco Zoo on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter
Other
Children’s Fairyland on Facebook
Elsewhere
Museums
British Museum (London)
Guggenheim Museum (New York)
Louvre Museum (Paris)
Musée d’Orsay (Paris)
The Museum of Flight (Seattle)
Museum of Natural History (Washington, D.C.)
National Air and Space Museum (Washington, D.C.)
Van Gogh Museum (Amsterdam)
And More
360 Cities’ panormas and video from around the world
Farm Food 360 Farm Tours (Canada)
The Great Wall of China (China)
Mars
NASA Image and Video Library
National Aquarium (Washington, D.C.)
Nature Conservancy virtual field trips of coral reefs, rainforests, deserts and more
New England Aquarium (Boston)
San Diego Zoo live cams
Seattle Aquarium 30-minute virtual tour
Yellowstone National Park Old Faithful Geyser live webcam
