Virtual Tour of California: Best California Webcams, Free Videos and Exhibits

Are you ready to embark on a tour of a lifetime that is the best in armchair travel category? This is a virtual tour of California in all its glory: from majestic redwoods to Disneyland rides to encounters with the cutest animals the Golden State is famous for! And all of this touring is COVID-19 quarantine compliant and absolutely FREE of charge!

VIRTUAL TOUR OF CALIFORNIA  – NATIONAL PARKS

Let’s start our armchair travel and this virtual tour of California with the State’s biggest treasures – National Parks. National Park Service did not fail its fans. Some of the National Parks in California already had video tours published and webcams installed, other parks quickly created some great video footage when COVID-19 quarantine hit. So now you can do a virtual tour of all six National Parks in California.

1.Yosemite National Park

National Park Service shows you the footage from its webcams HERE. Unfortunately Yosemite is one of the parks that has not published any official video tours yet BUT there is this great guy, Scott Highton, who is a virtual reality photographer and who has created a fabulous website of his own with virtual tours of Yosemite that are simply stunning. Check them out!

If you would like to visit Yosemite after the quarantine, here is my detailed article San Francisco to Yosemite Road Trip Done Right.

2. Redwood National and State Parks

Park Rangers at Red wood National and State Parks created several ranger-led video tours of the park that are very interesting and educational. At the moment of the publication of this article there were 8 video tours available on their website. I hope they will create more  – I am a big fan!

For information on visiting the stunning Redwoods in person, check out my detailed itinerary San Francisco to Redwood National Park Road Trip.

3. Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks published 3 video tours so far. Check their website regularly, they may be posting more.

If you plan to visit these parks in person, here is all the information you need for a great trip: Things to do in Sequoia National Park with Kids.

4. Channel Islands National Park

Channel Islands National Park surprised me the most with the abundance of virtual experiences. It sets the bar real high in armchair travel. The Park has 1 beautiful video tour (a little less than 30 minutes long) and 5 live webcams that follow the Park’s wildlife. One of the webcams is under water showing the kelp forest.

I guess even in normal time this Park is the hardest to get to and not many people will be able to see the amazing local habitats (especially under water). So the National Park Service has been providing these virtual experiences for a while now – kudos to them!

5. Pinnacles National Park

Pinnacles National Park has a very nice educational video published by NPS and 1 webcam that follows California condors. Unfortunately you cannot see the live webcam footage but the Park publish the best photos taken by the camera.

VIRTUAL TOUR OF CALIFORNIA – SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA

6. San Francisco Attractions

Last week I published a detailed post about all the best virtual experiences of San Francisco attractions – Virtual Tour of San Francisco. My armchair travel tour has a dozen stops that include museums, concerts and wildlife encounters.

VIRTUAL TOUR OF CALIFORNIA – LOS ANGELES AREA

Let’s continue our armchair travel with Los Angeles metropolitan area. It has lots of places of interest and we are lucky that many of them have virtual experiences available. Here are my favorites:

7. Los Angeles Museums

Google Arts and Culture project made virtual tours of several local museums. The most notable one of which is The J. Paul Getty Museum. It has a splendid collection of 18-20th century art. The other things of note at the museum: beautiful architecture and gardens as well as stunning views of the city.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art is another noteworthy art museum in the area. It houses international arts collections and especially famous for its Asian (Japanese) and Latin America (Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera) exhibits.

Other Los Angeles museums of interest available for virtual touring through Google Arts and Culture project:

The Museum of African American Art

FIDM Museum and Galleries (museum of fashion)

Craft in America (arts and crafts museum)

8. Tropical Reef Aquarium

Tropical Reef Aquarium in Los Angeles offers its fans over a dozen(!) live webcam experiences. Some of them a season specific but the majority are operational throughout the year.  You can see tropical reef, jelly fish, sharks and many more aquarium inhabitants.

9. Universal Studios Lot

Universal Studios are currently developing a virtual tour of the Universal Studios Lot – visit THIS website regularly – they may post it any day.

10. Disneyland

Ok, Disnelyland did not post any virtual tours themselves, however there is this company called Virtual Disney World that posts high quality 360 degrees virtual experiences of Disney rides. Their video collection has dozens of rides from both Disney World and Disneyland. Try them all and have fun in the process! Kids in particular will absolutely love this type of armchair travel.

11. Kitten Rescue Sanctuary

Kitten Rescue Sanctuary is not a bona fide Los Angeles attraction, but just look at those cuties – I couldn’t help but adding the kittens to my virtual tour of California! I can sit for hours watching their webcams – this is a perfect stress reducing video stream! Could our armchair travel get any better? 🙂

VIRTUAL TOUR OF CALIFORNIA – SAN DIEGO

12. San Diego Zoo

San Diego Zoo is considered one of the best zoos in the U.S. and so I consider all of us lucky that it has 11 live webcams that you can enjoy all day long! It is really hard to choose a favorite: penguins, tigers, apes, elephants, butterflies and much more. There is also a pre-recorded webcam of 2 pandas which have been repatriated to China last year.

VIRTUAL TOUR OF CALIFORNIA – AMAZING ANIMAL ENCOUNTERS

13. Monterey Bay Aquarium

Monterey Bay Aquarium is one of the best known aquariums in California. It is located in the town of Monterey about 1.5 hours drive South from San Francisco. This amazing aquarium has 10 live webcams. Would you like to see kelp forest or coral reef or jellies or sharks? – possibilities are endless!

If you would like to visit the aquarium and the fun coastal town of Monterey after the quarantine, here is a detailed itinerary for you: Ocean Wonders – Monterey Family Vacation

14. Elkhorn Slough

Elkhorn Slough is a 7-mile-long tidal slough and estuary on Monterey Bay. It is designated National Estuarine Research Reserve and home to many seabirds and, most importantly, sea otters. In normal time the slough is a Mecca for kayakers who come to visit the sea otters. But you can check them out from the comfort of your home thanks to OtterCam webcams.

15. Big Sur

Big Sur is a part of Central California coast famous for its rugged cliffs, secluded beaches and untouched wilderness. Somewhere deep in the forests of Big Sur (the location is not disclosed on purpose) rare California condors created a home for themselves. There are 2 webcams available to view the condors: condor nest and condor sanctuary. You can see the footage from these webcams HERE.

Here is a perfect 3 days Big Sur itinerary for visiting this amazing part of California in person.

16. Año Nuevo State Park

Año Nuevo State Park is located just off scenic Pacific Highway 1 between San Francisco and Santa Cruz and it is famous for its colony of elephant seals. The park has a live webcam that captures these interesting animals as well as flocks of seabirds.

VIRTUAL TOUR OF CALIFORNIA – OTHER

Here are a couple of additional cool things that you can view on this virtual tour of California that don’t fit in any of the above categories:

17. California Beaches

There is no denying it: California is famous for its gorgeous beaches all along its coast. Live Beaches website claims that it has 211 California Beaches covered by webcams. I have not checked every single one of them but I looked at a dozen or so and they are good! So if you want to check them out, have them project on your computer screen as a background to your daily life, you can find them all HERE.

If you ask me which is my favorite California beach, it would be hard for me to choose just one. I like beaches in Santa Barbara, La Jolla, Carmel and between Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz. You will need to choose the one you like yourself. 🙂

18. California Ski Resorts

If you are more of a mountains than beach person then you may enjoy webcams from California ski resorts. All ski resorts are currently closed due to COVID-19 quarantine but for the next ski season this is an excellent way to check snow conditions and crowds on the slopes. Ski resorts webcams are available for viewing HERE.

For next ski season you may find my article, Lake Tahoe Skiing for Beginners, useful.

Here are my most favorite books about California that can help you plan a trip to the Golden State:

And here are my favorite movies about California that will make you feel like you have traveled to the Golden State yourself and enhance your armchair travel experience:

I hope you enjoyed my virtual tour of California. But in the end I do hope that one day you can come visit and experience the amazing Golden State in real life.

If you found this information about virtual tour of California helpful and enjoyed this armchair travel experience, please do me a little favor and share this information with others, for there’s a good chance that it will help them with their travel plans. 🙂 Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram where I post many more cool photos and videos about our trips than I could include in a blog post and organize some nice giveaways!