There's a VR app called Wander that is specifically designed for this. I've been to the pyramids, Machu Picchu, random slums in Mexico, China... It's pretty neat. Can also view historical photos in certain places.

so i'm not the only one... whew.

Might I recommend the train simulator OpenBVE to you? The fascinating part (for me) is that train fans have contributed content to it from all over the world. I love it. Take a commuter train from the outskirts to the center of Tokyo, complete with all sounds. Drive an ancient cogwheel railway in the Italian alps. Or a tram in Copenhagen, or the historical Orient Express, etc. etc.

I've done this too! My ancestry is from Italy, but I've never been and am not really a fan of travel nor do I have the excess funds to toss on trips so I used google maps street view to "walk around" some places in Italy lol I "visited" a few other places like Japan too, it's a very cool feature to be honest.

That's one of the reasons, why I like to play Geoguesssr

I did this a ton during covid

It is more fun to follow legitimate mining prospectors, learn the actual gritty geology of an area, and both mines and urban explorers in abandoned places that tell the stories behind each location while presenting what they see free from hype, emotions, or nonsense.

Those were major binges for me during the lows of my first few years of disability. I can't travel any more, or do a great many things. It made me really shift how I view travel anyways. I'm usually an off-the-beaten-path type person, but even with that mindset, I don't know all the local tourist stuff in my region either. Travel is often so superficial and consumer oriented no matter how obscure one tries to plan. A lot of the motivation amounts to nothing more than abstract flag planting.

However, one can scratch the itch to digitally explore some cave of wonders and imagine stumbling upon a collapsed wall of riches around the next bend, or simply marvel at the engineering and what life was like across the last centuries or even millennia in long abandoned mines.

If you ever stared at rock cuts on the side of a highway and wondered of deep time, explore with someone like Nick Zentner and discover the geology of the north western United States to decide if you are into edgy science of Baja-BC or of the Rocky Mountains old guard.

Anyways, I moved on to other stuff mostly since then. I will still watch Nick when he posts his polished auditorium talks.

This is just one way to be a cheap miser, or cope with circumstances - whatever they may be, or maybe break the money burner cycle.

Google Earth is great for that.