Local TV stations give you the inside scoop

For people who want the inside scoop on a destination, the websites of local TV stations are an often untapped source of information.

For instance, my friend and fellow travel writer Katharine Fletcher was interviewed last month on "Living in Ottawa," a local CBC-TV show, about an ecological preserve called the Mer Bleue Bog. It's a great peek at a corner of the city known mainly to locals. The interview ran in two parts: on November 11 (skip forward to 6:30) and November 12 (skip forward to 11:08). You can find both episodes by going to the show's search page and entering "Fletcher" in the search box in the top right corner.

The tricky thing, of course, is finding the exact local TV content that suits your interest. (Even when you know what you're looking for, it's often not simple--see above!)

Searching for your destination on Google's video tab probably won't yield much more than a selection of offbeat YouTube clips of people and their cats. To find actual TV stations, try the logically named TV Station Web Page Directory.