The beauty of the Internet is that you can go anywhere in the world without leaving your home. If you’re a fan of travel, then of course this is hardly a substitute for the real thing. However, if you’re looking to get some ideas on places to go, get a sense for a place before you go, or check out a place you have no intention of actually visiting, then travel videos on the internet can be a wonderful tool. If you like making your own videos, then displaying your videos online can be a great outlet for you to share your travels with friends and strangers alike.
YouTube is the old standby for web video. They have more videos online than any other site, and are the first place many surfers hit for web videos. If you are lucky enough to get a video featured on the homepage, you are guaranteed hundreds of thousands of views.
Whether you’re looking for videos or uploading them, you can search tens of thousands of videos on YouTube. There are many groups specializing in travel videos, and some of them are quite good. YouTube offers users the ability to create a “channel,” which is a home page that displays all the videos uploaded by a particular user. If you are like a user’s videos, you can subscribe to their channel and be notified any time they post a new video.
Travelistic is another web video site, but as their name suggests, they specialize in travel content. They have a map of the world that shows how many videos are available by region or country, allowing you to browse content geographically. Of you can search the old fashioned way. Much of the content is uploaded by site users, but they also feature professionally produced content such as the Thirsty Traveler. Compared to YouTube, the travel videos on Travelistic tend to be more like mini-documentaries than short clips, making them on average more informative.
Popular guide book publisher Lonely Planet has gotten into the web video scene as well with their website, Lonely Planet TV. Their site is similar to Travelistic, offering a variety of videos specifically on travel. They also have a mix of user created content and more professionally produced videos. And also like Travelistic, their videos tend to be more informative and documentary in style than what you find on YouTube.
Between these major sites you should be able to find a video on pretty much any destination imaginable. And of course there are many more video sites out there, such as Google Video, Revver, and countless other smaller sites.
For travel junkies, these video sites offer plenty of stimulation for those long periods without travel. Between the great user created content and professionally produced videos, there’s some really incredible travel content out there. If you want to do some research before hitting a destination these sites can provide you with some valuable insight, or just allow you to travel vicariously for a few minutes from the comfort of your own home.