If your friend tells you that she's just strolled down New York's Fifth Avenue or around Sydney's The Rocks while on her lunch break, chances are she probably has.


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With Google Street View now another feature on Google Maps (accessed through the "more" tag), taking in the street scene in your destination of choice does not require saving up, flying or getting days off work anymore. Instead, it is possible to log onto any computer in the world and go there in a few mouse clicks. You will be missing out on the smells and sounds of the neighbourhoods, but it will still feel like you are walking along there. You can even look up to the sky or stare at the ground. Just don't go singing "I'm an Englishman in New York"... if you're on a public computer.

The coup, however, is that you can now travel on one of the most iconic trains in the world - the Trans-Siberian Railway, from the outskirts of Moscow all the way to the Pacific terminal at Vladivostok in the space of 40 minutes, courtesy of Google and Russian Railways. You cross the river Volga, go through the lower Ural mountains, stop in Yekaterinburg, travel over the Barabinskaya steppe, take in Novosibirsk, see the Baikal Lake and dawn over the Zeya river before crossing the Khekhtsirsky Range and pulling into Vladivostok where the train terminates.



The epic rail journey is even made more authentic than just watching another youtube video - you get to choose the noise backdrop, from the rumble of the wheels and Russian banter on the radio, to having someone read Tolstoy's War and Peace and play balalaika music, you're made to believe that you are actually on that train. The youtube videos themselves have no sound on them so you need to go to the google page for your sound effects, but there are a total of 150 hours of Trans-Sib videos online, so you can spend as long as you like on the train.



But does this still count as travel? Websites of famous museums like the Louvre and El Prado have offered virtual tours through their prized galleries for yonks... If you've seen it online a thousand times, do you still go and pay to see the Mona Lisa in person? Granted, online access does have advantages. You can stay dry if it's pouring down outside and you save yourself travel time and admission fees. It's good for research from home or visiting a place to re-familiarise yourself with it. But when did visitors to the website become visitors to the actual attraction?

Most attractions in the world now offer panoramic, 360° views on the website, have photo galleries and aerial views. Links and captions give you all you need to know - but can it replace the guide who shows you around in person? Who points little things out to you and brightens the experience up with little anecdotes or jokes here and there? Who might know some hidden gems and spectacular views you would have missed exploring on your own.

Audio guides were designed a long time ago, so people can explore an attraction in their own time... but they still had to get there. They made the effort to go and see it for themselves.

I know of quite a few people, and I am definitely one of them, who can resist temptation to watch the Trans-Siberian video. And that's simply because I don't want the experience spoilt. If I ever get to travel all the way from Moscow to Vladivostok on this famous railway, I want the element of surprise. I don't want to know what can be seen from the window of the carriage until I actually see it with my own eyes. To many, the whole purpose of travelling is to explore the world with their own eyes in their own time, and they don't want someone else to take this sense of adventure and achievement away from them.

Google Street View is fun for trying to spot your car outside your house or your cat sitting in the window. Even re-visiting a place you have already been to is fine by me, or checking where in the world those dearly-beloved travellers say they are. But not experiencing Fifth Avenue in New York, Ku'damm in Berlin, Circular Quay in Sydney or Oxford Street in London for yourself just because you've clicked through it on your computer means you'll be missing out on everything except the sights. You won't be able to buy a hot dog off one of the street vendors and get in line with the businessmen at lunchtime. Dressing up and taking a look around Tiffany's just to say you've been there won't be possible from your sofa - granted, you could visit their website, but that wouldn't really be Audrey Hepburn style now, would it?

The same goes for clicking around Sydney. You could click around the Harbour Bridge all you like, but you couldn't take in the street atmosphere of The Rocks, catch the ferry or get your photo taken outside the Sydney Opera House. Travel is all about experiencing a place - and I doubt that the virtual tourism experience can ever match the real deal.