The following list is a collection of free activities that you can do in your own home using the internet, which can help to keep your mind and body active, and keep yourself and your family entertained.
The majority of the activities are free all-year-round, but some items are only free for a time-limited period, due to the pandemic. All activities on the list are currently free of charge as at 3rd April 2020.
Please note, some activities may resume charging at some point in the future.
Arts and Culture
Stay at Home Festival- a daily comedy festival of live online performances from famous comedians: http://cosmicshambles.com/stayathome
Over 800 lectures held at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) between 1982 and 1993 are now available to listen to online as part of the British Library Sounds collection: Listen here
National Theatre- watch a different play online each week, such as One Man Two Guvnors starring James Corden: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUDq1XzCY0NIOYVJvEMQjqw
Learn to draw with Lunch Doodles- each day, the Kennedy Center Education Artist-in-Residence posts new, short lessons to teach you how to draw and doodle: https://www.kennedy-center.org/education/mo-willems/
List of free YouTube art classes and tutorials: http://www.openculture.com/2017/05/a-big-list-of-free-art-lessons-on-youtube.html
Musicals- each week a different Andrew Lloyd Webber musical will be available for free at this YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdmPjhKMaXNNeCr1FjuMvag
Museums and Landmarks
The Louvre, virtual tour https://www.louvre.fr/en/visites-en-ligne
British Museum, virtual tour https://britishmuseum.withgoogle.com/
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, virtual tour https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/masterpieces-up-close
The Vatican, virtual tour http://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en/collezioni/musei/tour-virtuali-elenco.html
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington, virtual tour: https://naturalhistory.si.edu/visit/virtual-tour
Travel and Nature
Cliffs of Moher virtual tour https://www.cliffsofmoher.ie/virtual-visit-tour/
Rocky Mountain National Park has allowed virtual visitors to use their ears rather than their eyes, with an online “sound library” that features an array of birds and wildlife found in the park: https://www.nps.gov/romo/learn/photosmultimedia/soundlibrary.htm#soundscapes
Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming virtual tours: https://www.nps.gov/grte/learn/photosmultimedia/virtualtour.htm
Chester Zoo are streaming regular live tours: https://www.chesterzoo.org/virtual-zoo/
Edinburgh Zoo Live Tiger Cam- https://www.edinburghzoo.org.uk/webcams/tiger-cam/
Food
Jamie Oliver’s Keep Cooking and Carry On- flexible recipes that use up store cupboard ingredients: https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/category/books/keep-cooking-and-carry-on/?utm_source=kcco&utm_medium=homepagetile&utm_campaign=.com
Jack Monroe- tasty budget recipes: https://cookingonabootstrap.com/
Liverpool’s Mowgli Street Food are providing cookery tutorials on their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/mowglistreetfood/
Liverpool’s raw dessert shop The Nakery now have a YouTube channel where they teach you how to make their raw vegan treats at home: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfDCkz6GTU5bV0HQDVNlXYA
London bakery Bread Ahead are providing baking tutorials on their Instagram every day at 2pm https://www.instagram.com/breadaheadbakery/?hl=en
Music
Stream of some of 2019’s best DJ sets from Hï Ibiza and Ushuaïa Ibiza https://www.facebook.com/ushuaiaibiza/
United We Stream- all of Berlin’s nightclubs offering streams from different clubs several nights a week https://en.unitedwestream.berlin/
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic – are streaming past concerts online: https://www.facebook.com/LiverpoolPhilharmonic/
London Philharmonic Orchestra – are streaming their concert archive: https://www.lpo.org.uk/lponline.html
Sofa King Fest is an online music festival and directory of streaming performances by a huge range of artists: http://www.sofa-king-fest.com/
The Metropolitan Opera is streaming past performances on their website: https://www.metopera.org/user-information/nightly-met-opera-streams/
Fender Play are offering three free months of online lessons. Learn acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass or ukulele: https://www.fender.com/play
Musicals- each week a different Andrew Lloyd Webber musical will be available for free at this YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdmPjhKMaXNNeCr1FjuMvag
Literature and Podcasts
Over 50,000 books free and available to read online or download to e-reader devices https://manybooks.net/
Goodreads are running a wide range of online book clubs across many genres: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show_tag/book-club
Tolstoy Together- an online book club reading War and Peace together: https://apublicspace.org/news/detail/tolstoy-together
Podcasts are all free and easily available in the podcasts app on Android and Apple phones, and online. A list of popular podcasts: https://www.samuelthomasdavies.com/best-podcasts/most-downloaded/
Story Time- each morning at 11am there is a free online children’s story time with David Walliams: https://www.worldofdavidwalliams.com/elevenses/
Health and Wellbeing
Meditation- Headspace has some free meditations available online: https://www.headspace.com/covid-19
Mindfulness- Bangor University’s website has a wide range of free mindfulness practices and resources: https://www.bangor.ac.uk/mindfulness/audio/index.php.en
Yoga- Liverpool’s Yogacita are sharing some free local yoga classes on their Facebook, as well as some paid for classes: https://www.facebook.com/yogacitaliverpool/
Yoga with Adriene- a wide range of free YouTube videos for people of all levels and abilities: https://www.youtube.com/user/yogawithadriene
Dance- Seen on Screen are offering free dance tutorials live on their Instagram every day, where you can learn Beyoncé, Rihanna and Britney Spears routines, and many more: https://www.instagram.com/seenonscreen.dance/?hl=en
P.E with Joe Wicks- daily exercise videos for the whole family https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAxW1XT0iEJo0TYlRfn6rYQ
Chair Workout with Joe Wicks YouTube video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybVMu31DLQU
Barry’s Bootcamp- live daily bodyweight workouts on Instagram: https://www.barrys.com/barrysigtv/
NHS Fitness Studio- a collection of simple exercises you can do at home: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/nhs-fitness-studio/
Online Learning
Thousands of free lectures at Harvard University: https://www.edx.org/school/harvardx
Duolingo is a free mobile app where you can learn 30+ languages www.duolingo.com
Fender Play offering three free months of online lessons. Learn acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass or ukulele: https://www.fender.com/play
List of free YouTube art classes and tutorials: http://www.openculture.com/2017/05/a-big-list-of-free-art-lessons-on-youtube.html
Learn to draw with Lunch Doodles- each day the Kennedy Center Education Artist-in-Residence posts new, short lessons to teach you how to draw and doodle: https://www.kennedy-center.org/education/mo-willems/
Social
Cocktails After Dark- online nightly hangout where professional bartenders teach you how to make different cocktails: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUlc-mvqzsvQvTKc9TPQEa-MEbCgixAdw?fbclid=IwAR3DQ6mXAfsAkl6SLS_eNAOwG7hj1FClMcm0P8Rktr-zxzMsYP5891H91Yk
Netflix Party- watch Netflix with your friends online, all at the same time with an added group chat feature: https://www.netflixparty.com/
Houseparty- an app to video chat with friends and play simple games like Pictionary and Heads Up: https://houseparty.com/
