5 Tips for a Virtual Vacation

Spring is here, which means its time to start planning your vacation. The economy is in the tanker and many people are opting to stay close to home or vacation locally. When I feel the need to escape, I have a few tricks that let me see the world without leaving my living room. Best of all, they’re all free! Here’s my list for five ways to go on a virtual vacation:

5. CIA’s World Factbook
The government spends millions learning about other countries. The tax dollars are already spent, so benefit from it. The CIA’s World Factbook is a bit encyclopedia-like, but offers enough data to help you see the world by numbers. For example, I just discovered that Thailand has a slightly larger population than France. Why bother with Wikipedia when you have the cool factor of reading stuff from the CIA?

4. Photo Tours
There is no substitute for seeing the locales you desire to visit. This might seem like a weak comparison to actually being there, but the photography from Life, National Geographic, and Flickr can be amazing.

3. YouTube
This is a step up from the photos. Visit YouTube or any other video sharing site and type in the location of your choice. Many visitors have posted their person vacation videos or produced segments that give viewers a virtual tour of a site.

2. Travel Podcasts
There is nothing like listening to the experts discuss trip planning or reporters describing life in different regions of the world.  Some of my favorites are Travel with Rick Steves, Beautiful Places in HD, Indie Travel Podcast, and Lonely Planet’s Travel Stories.

1. Earth Webcam
So you can’t make it to your destination. Why not visit it live? Earth Webcam is the search engine that allows you to find stream web cams from around the world. Since the images are live, you’ll varying experiences at different points throughout the day. The cameras generate images that update every few seconds. Many locations also have multiple angles to view. Some of my favorites to watch are New York Times Square, the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, and the Eiffel Tower cam.

The next time you need a reprieve from your desk, try out these tips. If you have any additional suggestions or sites to add to the list, be sure to post them in the comments.

Photo: malias

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