The Virtual Grand Tour (VGT) is a paradigm for integrating a presentation of an overview of a larger subject with the possibility of launching at any time an exploratory study of a given sub-topic. The name derives from the paradigm's emulation of those 18th-century travels intended to educate (especially) young, affluent British men; today, with the assistance of information and communication technology (ICT) tools, a similar kind of educational tour can be made available to a much wider audience and with far fewer pitfalls, social as well as practical. The paper addresses the issue of "designing" a VGT, especially from the point of view of keeping clear the relationships between its constituent parts and of finding out exactly which elements can and should be realized with ICT. (Contains 8 figures.)