Travel is wonderful. Life affirming, mind expanding, blah blah blah. But not everyone can travel due to mobility issues, finances, or other issues. So, what can you do? Well, besides reading (which is the next best thing), how about checking out a webcam?

Webcams, when done right, give you a great perspective on beautiful places and local life. Granted, it’s like sightseeing from a distance but it can still be  fun. You just have to find the right webcams. Be careful when searching; you may get an eyeful of some strangers  nether regions, which can really ruin your day…unless you like that sort of thing. Be sure to use the search terms “travel” or “city”. 🙂

The one thing I find frustrating with most destination webcams is the choppy, poor quality. Add to that the offline replay of a lot of them and I quickly tune out. Luckily, there are a few good sites out there that offer HD streaming and lots of live locations. My favorite has to be Skyline Webcams.

http://www.skylinewebcams.com – Milan, Italy

The site is laid out well and let’s you select live cams by location or by category. There are only about 40 countries, but that is more than enough to help you waste an afternoon (or whole day, if you chase the sun). One feature I especially enjoy are the captions on each camera tile. These give you a quick description of the scene and notes on whether it is an historical location. There are also tags of World Wonder and World Heritage on the upper left of certain cams.

Another webcam site to mention is Webcams.Travel. This site is not as intuitive as the first, but you can find some interesting locations. Not all are live; those that are have a yellow LIVE button to click. Be advised, live doesn’t always mean live. It may mean 45 minutes ago.

Webcams will never replace being able to visit far away places; to meet the people, eat the food, smell the smells but in a pinch, they can be a great window to the world!

What do you think? Are there destination webcams that you visit regularly? Let me know in the comments!