Virtual Travel as a Holiday (or Anytime) Gift

How Does a Virtual Heritage Tour Work?

Each Discover Live + Ancestry virtual tour is an hour-long, privately guided experience that explores the unique history, heritage, and culture of an area that’s special to your family history. It’s also interactive, allowing you to ask the guide questions during your tour. 

Depending on whether you’re giving the gift to one person or several people, you can choose from several virtual tour options.

• Join a Group Discovery Tour to “walk” around with others who share heritage from the same ancestral region as you.

• Sign up for a Private Discovery Tour to experience a virtual trip with just your own family to your ancestral region. This type of tour can be watched from up to five different locations (i.e., screens), making it possible for your aunt in Michigan, your uncle in California, and your cousin in Washington, DC, to all participate together. (More people can be invited to join for an additional cost.) After the tour, you can purchase a recording of it as a family keepsake.

• If you’re interested in a more customized live, virtual travel experience, then inquire about a Personalized Discovery Tour. This takes you to your specific ancestral village or town, where you can visit family-related sites like a house, land, place of worship, and family cemetery.

When you sign up for a tour, you’ll be invited to share details of your family history and to specify particular areas of interest. This information helps the tour guide tailor the experience to your unique heritage. If you’re giving the gift of virtual travel to family members who share your deep interest in history, then request that the guide provide details likely to be of greater interest to your family, such as reasons for emigration, for example. Other family members, however, might like more of a focus on the folklore and cultural traditions of your family’s ancestral area.

Where Can You Travel on a Virtual Heritage Tour?

You can explore a whole range of countries and regions through Discover Live + Ancestry virtual tours. Here’s a sampling of current countries and locations. More are added regularly, so check again if your desired location isn’t available now.

• France
• Ireland
• Italy
• Nigeria
• Ghana
• Poland
• Wales
• Scotland
• England
• Northern Ireland

Curious to learn more? See what the experience was like for Crista Cowan, Corporate Genealogist at Ancestry.

Surprise your family this holiday season with the gift of travel and explore your homeland together on a virtual tour. Who knows… If Mother Nature puts on a show during your tour—a mix of sunshine and rain, when you’re visiting Ireland’s County Tipperary, for example, you might even see a rainbow at the end of it!

If your virtual tour inspires additional travel ideas, explore other heritage travel options with AncestryProGenealogists.