We make one of these apps, so read this with that in mind. We have kept it honest, including what our rivals do better than us. Updated August 2026.
Full disclosure: this is us. Explore POV is filmed VR180 in true stereoscopic 3D, shot on location in resolutions up to 16K, and it is the reason Apple named it Vision Pro App of the Year 2025. If what you want is a real place with moving water, birdsong, and depth you can feel, this is our lane. Honest limitations: most experiences run three to five minutes rather than hour-long tours, and the full library needs a subscription. Watch the trailer first and judge the quality yourself.
Narrated travel films with a guide walking you through cities and sights, with a large catalog and frequent additions. If you like being told the story of a place rather than soaking in it quietly, this is a strong pick.
Photogrammetry recreations of natural wonders that you can freely walk around in, teleporting between viewpoints. The scans are gorgeous and the freedom is real. The compromise is that scanned worlds are still and silent compared to filmed footage.
Built on street-level mapping imagery, so you can drop into nearly any street on Earth, from your childhood home to Kathmandu. Unmatched breadth; the imagery is flat and stitched, so it is more about where you can go than how it feels.
A polished, activity-based experience where you kayak Antarctica or climb Machu Picchu. More game than travel film, and there is not a lot of it, but what exists is memorable.
The biggest pile of VR video anywhere, including some excellent creators. Quality swings wildly and compression can be rough on detailed scenes, but as a way to sample everything the format can do, it belongs on this list.
Want it to feel real? Filmed stereoscopic video is the only approach where the place is alive: that is Explore POV or the best of YouTube VR. Want to wander at your own pace? BRINK Traveler for beauty, Wander for breadth. Want a guide? TriptoVR. Want an adventure activity? National Geographic.
If you try Explore POV, start with the trailer, then create an account or subscribe to unlock all 188 experiences across 23 countries. It runs natively on Apple Vision Pro, or in the browser on Meta Quest, Pico, and Samsung Galaxy XR.
Filmed stereoscopic video is the only approach where the place is alive, with moving water, weather and sound. That means Explore POV (ours) or the best filmed footage on YouTube VR. Photogrammetry apps such as BRINK Traveler look beautiful, but scanned worlds are still and silent.
We make Explore POV and we say so at the top of the page and in the entry itself. We have listed what our rivals do better than us, including breadth on Wander, narration on TriptoVR and the freedom to roam in BRINK Traveler, and we have listed our own limitations.
Yes. Open explorepov.com/vr in your headset browser and watch the trailer with no account needed. The full library is unlocked with a subscription.
Not for Explore POV. It runs in the headset browser on Meta Quest, Pico and Samsung Galaxy XR, so there is nothing to install. Apple Vision Pro has a native app on the App Store. Other apps on this list are store downloads.
It depends on the format. Our filmed experiences mostly run three to five minutes each, so you watch several in a sitting. Guided apps such as TriptoVR run longer per trip, and self-paced apps such as BRINK Traveler and Wander last as long as you keep exploring.
In your headset browser, go to explorepov.com/vr and watch the trailer. Reviews, awards, and words only go so far with immersive video. Two minutes in a headset settles it.