TORONTO -- Lockdowns, stay-at-home orders and travel restrictions have meant that, for most Canadians, leaving the country or even visiting another province is off the table because of restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19.
People pining for an exotic road trip can visit “Drive & Listen”, a website that aims to give users a taste of international travel without ever leaving their homes.
The site takes users on car rides through such cities as Moscow, Munich, Seoul, New York, Toronto and Nice, while giving them the ability to choose to listen to local radio stations and ambient street noise.
When users choose a city to explore, they are able to watch a first-person perspective video “driving” through its streets.
The videos are compiled from high quality dashcam footage uploaded to YouTube and submitted to the website.
Launched last spring, the website is the creation of Erkam Seker, a Turkish graduate student studying in Munich, Germany.
Seker told Lonely Planet last spring that he made the site due to homesickness, but that he is glad others are getting a chance to virtually explore the world.
Now the site has become a trendy topic for TikTok users with the hashtag #driveandlisten racking up 49.8 million views on the app.
TikTokers have been showing off their favourite cities to “visit” and say the site is calming to have on in the background while studying or working from home.
