There are just times when a scene requires more than a thousand words but too heavy to manage and move around as a video. Its in my opinion a fusion of panoramic shots glued together in a 360 degree sphere will be the solution.
To do real VR (Virtual Reality) photography, you need special ball head, software and the lot and I am not exactly ready to move into it yet. But when I was introduced PTGui Pro on my Mac, shooting a 360 degree scene became a reality where it can still be fun to do at places of interest you may want to bring home with you. You don't need a tripod, you don't need any special equipment but our trusted 18-105mm kit lens with VR.
At an approximate 60 degree lens exposure angle, we typically need 6 shots to do a 360 sweep of the area. Fire up PTGui Pro and it will stitch all 6 images automatically for you.
Cool!