An agoraphobic globetrotter who uses Street View to 'travel'

Heh that's a pretty cool use of technology!

The best use of Google Cardboard I found was doing exactly this: Using Street View to "visit" new places.

Related: I wonder if exposure therapy is an avenue anyone's looking at with VR/AR - it seems like a (relatively) cheap way to do it.

If I 'globe trot' in person then I do so by bicycle. This may be the best way to actually travel rather than see the same airports and identical AirBnB's as everyone else. This has kind of informed my belief that Street View is pretty good - it is the same perspective and speed.

I also 'send my parents' to places I would like to visit in depth, I also talk to people from the place of interest who have moved to my area. This satisfies my intellectual curiosity and saves a lot of time moving around in tin boxes.

This has advantages with places such as Syria - I may only know two people from there but I can learn lots about the story those newsreaders 'assume' just by being interested and having time to chat to the friends I have.

One thing is that maps were a large part of my early career, for science and weather forecasting. Therefore I do know a lot of places on the map, usually from space and usually with awareness of the weather forecasting challenges for that location. Knowing where someone's town is helps with the 'oh it's lovely there...' conversation that follows. Same with holidays, name the location and I am half way there on what the weather is like right now.

I call this "virtual travel", and I also use Street View as part of my prep for travel. I survey the area where I want to travel, and make sure that the potential destination is worthy of site-seeing. It does lose the element of surprise, but I'm risk-averse, so I'd rather do this than have a negative surprise. Often, I'd see a lot of beautiful photos on the travel website, but the reality is often different. For example, if I see a hotel I want to visit, I check the surrounding, to see if it's suitable for jogging or biking, and also to make sure the area is not too seedy.

I recently discovered that quite a bit of Ghana is covered in Street View. I feel it provides the most authentic armchair-compatible peek available, at this part of the world that differs so much from my own.

Someone I know to immigrated from a different country 20+ years ago, and has never been back, was able to see his sister's new house via Street view. :)

This is what my 89 year old grandfather replaced his caravan holidays with.

Out of curiosity - can anyone weigh in on whether what she's doing is illegal with regard to copyright?

I understand and appreciate the concern for privacy, but something important was diminished when Google Maps started blurring the faces of people who appeared in Street View. I was surprised by the degree to which the previous sense of immediacy and vitality, the feeling that "you are there" was so severely crippled when the face of every human became a blur. :(

Street View imagery is not that high quality though. I'd rather go with 360cities...

Nice photos but it good that the word travel is in quotes because looking at curated pictures online is not travelling. Not even close.