How you can still enjoy your favourite Liverpool attractions whilst at home

We may be on lockdown, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get in to your favourite Liverpool museum or catch up with all sorts of creatures at the zoo or safari park.

Thanks to new technology you can visit some of your favourite attractions across Merseyside and the region from the comfort of your own home, with virtual tours and videos.

And at least you won’t have to put up with repeated questions like ‘are we there yet?’ because, with the click of a button, the answer is yes!

Here are just a few of the virtual trips you can take:

National Museums Liverpool

If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to have a museum or exhibition all to yourself – now is the chance to find out.

You can explore four 3D virtual tours at your own pace, including these:

World Museum Liverpool – Dinosaurs and Natural World Exhibition

Explore the story of life on earth through a series of displays that will take you on a journey around the world and through time to the beginnings of life itself.

The Bones and Stones display explores the rise of animals with backbones as they emerged from the seas and dominated the land, while full-size dinosaur skeletons show how these immense animals lived and died.

You can even discover the mysterious large reptile that lived in Merseyside over 220 million years ago which disappeared leaving only its footprints behind…ooh, love a good mystery!

International Slavery Museum

You can take a look around the museum’s main galleries and exhibition space and find out about some of the highlights. 

On this tour you can see the Life in West Africa gallery; the Enslavement and the Middle Passage gallery, the Legacy gallery and the former exhibition, Journey to Justice.

Visit the website here for more. 

Knowsley Safari Park

Knowsley Safari Park has launched a free Home School Safari hub which gives a real behind-the-scenes look at the famous park – including vets’ videos showing a lion’s paw being examined and a tiger’s tooth being checked.

As well as watching the educational videos, families can get downloadable worksheets, fun animal facts and talks covering topics like classification, Africa, food and feeding, animal care and exploring different species.

Videos already there show the park’s vet conducting an x-ray on a male African lion to diagnose an injured paw; Kuzma the Amur tiger having root canal treatment and how giraffes are fed through the seasons.

A Q&A video series will answer all sorts of queries and a photo gallery will be updated by the animals’ keepers regularly.

Visit the Home School Safari at www.knowsleysafariexperience.co.uk. 

Tate 

The doors to Tate Liverpool may be closed but you can still take a free online tour of Andy Warhol at Tate Modern (launched today, April 6).

The Tate Modern team of Gregor Muir, Director of Tate’s Collection of International Art, and Fiontán Moran, Assistant Curator, share behind-the-scenes insights into the gallery’s recently opened  exhibition.

It features more than 100 works from across the artist’s extraordinary career, and sheds light on how Warhol’s experiences shaped his unique take on 20th century culture, emphasising recurring themes around desire, identity and belief that emerge from his biography.

A ‘How To’ video teaches fans how to recreate Warhol’s printing methods used to make iconic works of art such as Marilyn Diptych 1962 and 100 Campbell’s Soup Cans 1962.

Go to www.take.org.uk

Chester Zoo

Chester Zoo has held two live virtual tour days so far but if you missed the animals antics, behind the scenes exclusives and amazing facts from the zoo-keeper team, you can catch them on their Chester Zoo TV/YouTube page.

There are red pandas, giraffes, Asian elephants, butterflies, tigers, fish and more in the not-so-sneaky peak.

And just keep your eye on the zoo website for any future dates when they may once again open their virtual gates live.

www.chesterzoo.org

Royal Liver Building 360

The world-famous Royal Liver Building takes pride of place at the heart of the city’s iconic waterfront and, one of the stunning ‘Three Graces’ on Liverpool’s waterfront, Royal Liver Building 360 is a must-see attraction.

The exhibition gives visitors a history of the building as well as its place in Liverpool’s heritage – and, while you can’t actually visit at the moment or enjoy spectacular 360° views of the Liverpool skyline in person, you can get a fascinating insight with a host of amazing videos on RLB’s Facebook page including scenes behind the clock tower, and awesome aerial views…

As well as The Guide Liverpool’s own glimpse of this fab tour too!

The Beatles Story

The experience of how the Fab Four came to rock the world might be locked behind closed doors for now but, with a little help from friends, you can still enjoy a Beatles Story with a difference courtesy of its Facebook page, and become part of another massive story.

If you send them a video of yourself singing or performing a version of With A Little Help from My Friends, you might be included in a medley of Beatles fans from around the world which they are hoping to create.

You can also take part in a Beatles Quiz and kids can draw their own Octopus’ Garden! The Beatles Story has lots of free resources for teachers and home-schoolers (which is virtually all families) covering a range of subjects and curriculums.

For its teacher resources go to the website here.

Backstage at the Beatles’ Childhood Homes

The doors of Mendips and 20 Forthlin Road might be all locked up now too – but you can still join the National Trust to visit the childhood homes of John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

These two houses are where John and Paul grew up, bought their first guitars and wrote some of the Beatles’ world-famous songs…

And in a National Trust podcast, curator James Grasby takes you on a guided tour. Listen in here.

SAVE THE DATE

And, don’t forget you can support all these attractions and help them during this difficult time by buying gift vouchers – then go in person as soon as the lockdown is lifted.