Best Rough Guides videos to watch in lock-down

It’s a difficult time for everyone at the moment and not being able to discover the world may well be the least of your worries. But while your passport lies forlornly in the drawer, enforced time at home means you can at least start dreaming about an adventure beyond your four walls. Here at Rough Guides, we’d like to lift your spirits, hopefully make you smile, and help your imagination cross the continents, with this selection of videos from our youtube channel.

Do you spend hours looking at maps of places you’ve never even heard of? Do you sigh longingly every time a plane passes overhead? We know you’ll recognise this list from your own life, but which do you most relate to?

No matter how seasoned a traveller you are, we were all newbies once. In fact, we’d be tempted to say that REAL travellers have made at least ten of these mistakes! Even Bridget Jones is guilty of number 5 in her famous German pharmacy scene…

If you need motivation for your in-the-front-room spin class, have a listen to Tom Perkins. He pedalled over 20,000km through 26 countries, documenting his journey along the way and then wrote a cookbook to celebrate the different food cultures he encountered.

Being confined to your home for an extended period may have you bouncing off the walls – the most obvious sign that you need to get away. Here are 7 other signs you’re probably more familiar with.

Adrenaline-inducing activities may be in short supply right now, unless you count putting the bins out. So for vicarious thrills check out these extreme experiences – from swimming with sharks, to ziplining and throwing yourself out of an aeroplane. And in the meantime you can always practice base jumping off the sofa.

Would you brave it? All we can say is, you wouldn’t want to get stuck half-way down.

The open road will still be there when we emerge, blinking, from isolation – whether it’s the classic Big Sur route on America’s west coast, or narrow hair-raising mountain passes in eastern Europe. From curating a memorable playlist to accompany you on your journey, to knowing when to ditch the itinerary and go off piste – here are 5 things we’ve learned from our road trips.

Particularly poignant viewing right now, this interview is a reminder of just how incredible our world is and how vital we all are to its continued well-being.

Header image: Top view of 'Padar Island' in a morning from Komodo Island (Komodo National Park), Labuan Bajo, Flores, Indonesia © Thrithot/Shutterstock