Use online travel videos to plan your vacation

NEW YORK -- There are travel blogs and travel podcasts, and now, increasingly, there are travel "vlogs" and other types of online travel videos.

Some are slick and standard travelogues. Others, while professionally produced, are unconventional and artsy. But many are by true amateurs who just want to share their images of a place.

Travelocity's Video Gallery offers professional, narrated videos in a traditional travelogue format with titles like "An Introduction to Cape Cod" or "Exploring Atlanta." Most are under two minutes, and they are reminiscent of the types of feature segments you might find on a television travel show.

At Turnhere.com, you'll find charming videos that feel like mini-independent films with moody soundtracks, quirky narrators and offbeat subjects. Themes range from Miami's South Beach and a nighttime walk on Hollywood Boulevard to a longshoreman's bar in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Red Hook that has lately become a hangout for trendy artist-types.

Short amateur videos of a minute or less on a variety of travel themes are also increasingly available online. Recently featured on Youtube.com were clips of the annual monarch butterfly migration, and a demonstration from Brazil of capoeira, a martial arts-like dance.

At Video.Google.com, type "travel" into the search box and you'll get everything from ads for a travel agency to a lurching, colorful video shot while riding in a pedicab in China.