VIRTUAL travel streamer Heygo offers guests the opportunity of taking ‘postcard’ souvenir snaps in real time via the guides’ gimbal-mounted camera phones. Here are ten of my favourite postcard pictures taken from the many shot since I started using the service early in 2021.

10. Cathedral of the Spilled Blood, St Petersburg, Russia

Taken on one of my first ever Heygo tours early in 2021, en evocative shot while walking with Anna Levina at night on the almost deserted snowy streets of Saint Petersburg.

9. Diamond Beach, Iceland

The Icelandic beach where ice floats from a lagoon along the Jökulsá glacier river to the ocean but then gets washed back onshore by the tides. In the company of the inimitable Albert Armannsson in 2011.

8. Saint Mark’s Square, Venice, Italy

I loved the mysterious masked man standing by the gondolas as Carnival returned to Venice earlier this year. He was one of many costumed characters encountered with Igor Scomparin.

7. TeamLabs Planets Exhibition, Tokyo, Japan

It was like stepping into the real-life equivalent of The Matrix movies this year as Eriko Shiratori took us through the many mind-boggling rooms of the TeamLabs digital installation in Tokyo.

6. Solstice sunrise at Machu Picchu, Peru

Guide Mike Lazo Gamarra treated us to spectacular views on a visit to Machu Picchu to mark the Winter Solstice in June 2021. It’s not the most obvious shot from the trip but the most atmospheric.

5. Winter sun over the Venetian lagoon, Italy

No apologies for a second shot of Venice – it is one of the most atmospheric cities in the world. This one is taken from a gondola on the lagoon, in the company of Igor Scomparin in 2021.

4. Sunrise hot air balloons over Luxor, Egypt

Ex-pat Lesley Hammam is always dreaming up new ways of looking at her Egyptian home, and this sensational hot air balloon ride, enjoyed in 2021, remains one of her highlights.

3. Sand dunes at Maspalomas, Gran Canaria

When popular Amsterdam guide Stephan van Der Meer took a vacation last year, he decided to take his gimbal with him and treated Heygoers to amazing sunsets amid the sand dunes of Gran Canaria.

2. Volcano watchers at Fagradsalsfjall, Iceland

I have taken close on a dozen trips with Albert Armannsson to monitor the progress of the Icelandic volcano that hit the headlines worldwide but particularly like the silhouetted watchers here.

• 1. Autumn Equinox at Angkor Wat, Cambodia

In the end, no contest for my favourite Heygo postcard so far, taken last year during a remarkable trip to Cambodia’s Angkor Wat, where Samneang Ty and the rest of the group watched the sun rise.

You can read more about each of the tours featured in this post at the Heygo Channel of paulcoletravels, including many more pictures.

For news of forthcoming Heygo tours, which are free to join although tips are encouraged, and which also include live chat interaction with guides and fellow travellers, see www.heygo.com.