Some people have travelled around madly this year. And more and more people seem to travel (semi-)permanently nowadays. Countries like Syria and Yemen have come on the travel radar again, and people are stumbling over each other to book trips to Saudi Arabia. So 2022 was a fruitful year for new reviews – although I’d like to see some more added from Saudi (hint! hint!).

Community Travel

The magical number of 1,000 visited WHS has not been reached yet by anyone, probably because Zoë put on the brakes mid-year. Looking at the rankings on other websites such as Nomadmania or MostTravelledPeople , with a number in the 800’s you’ll easily be in the Top 10 overall.

In our own Top 10, we see that Luis Filipe Gaspar is a new entry at spot #8 and that Roman Bruehwiler is approaching as well. With more full-time/professional travellers entering the WH arena (as more people have managed to complete their first goal already, visiting all 193 countries), we may see the numbers rise quickly. But I wonder how they approach their visits – ‘ticking’ WHS in my opinion is not a geographical game like counting countries, but requires knowledge …

Fernando de Noronha is one of the few islands in the South Atlantic – other notable ones are Gough Island , Tristan da Cunha, and St. Helena . That apparently makes it special enough to be considered a TCC ‘country’ and have its own Nomadmania region (though it is part of the state of Pernambuco), and about 70% of it is a WHS as well. Whether it is as good as Northern Atlantic ones such as the Azores, Cabo Verde, or even the Canary Islands, is questionable. It needed to team up with the more outstanding, more scenic, but inaccessible Rocas Atoll, 150 km away, to reach WH status. They are jointly known as the ‘ Brazilian Atlantic Islands ’.

I stayed on Fernando de Noronha for 3 nights and allotted a day to its marine features and two to its land surface. On the first afternoon, I walked from the town of Remedios to the northern tip of the island . A first beach, the remains of two Portuguese fortresses and offshore volcanic islands can be seen. At one of those islands, I spotted my first noteworthy bird: the masked booby.

The next morning …

No community member so far has succeeded in ‘completing’ Brazil. This is surprising, as its list does not feature any particularly hard-to-reach sites. The main ‘issue’ is that there are many of them and all spread out across this vast country: it takes a lot of stamina and certainly cannot be done in one trip. The state capital of Maranhão, São Luis , is one often lacking. It lies isolated in the far north, but with the upcoming nomination of Lençóis Maranhenses National Park some 250km away it surely will start to attract more people.

The town shows its WH status proudly. There are already signs with the familiar logo and the subtitle ‘City of Tiles’ upon entering the city border. In the historical city center they have maps indicating the sights and the delimitations of the core zone. The maps show no less than 73 monuments and 29 squares, and that turned out not to be an exaggeration.

I had put together my own City Walk and that brought me to the following places:

The Upper town (on the site of the original French fort) holds all the important public buildings, including the …

The Central Amazon Conservation Complex is a mostly contiguous area of parks and reserves in the northwest of Brazil, approximately in the center of the Amazon biome and the Amazon basin. You can dip your toe in with a one-day tour to Anavilhanas from the state capital of Manaus, but I opted for a more substantial visit to the sublocation ‘Marimaua Reserve’. Situated over 500km west of Manaus, I first had to fly to Tefé. This is a bustling river port of 60,000 inhabitants with no road access. I was picked up for another 1.5 hours of travel by boat to the Uakari Lodge , where I stayed for 3 nights inside the Reserve.

The OUV of Marimaua lies mainly in conserving a varzea forest, seasonally flooded by fertile “whitewater” rivers flowing from the Andes region. On our first day, we got to see which effect the floodings have on the local flora and fauna. We visited an island where the difference in water level can be up to 12 meters. The habitat is only suited to animals that can fly, swim or live in trees. You won’t find any tapirs or capybaras here…. Even the …

Philipp visited me in the Netherlands last month, and we went to the Rietveld Schröderhuis – a revisit for both of us. It was a much-improved visit: he needed to enter and wanted photos, I had entered before but had lousy photos of the exterior on a rainy day. The second visits became a success, especially as the policy had also changed to allow indoor photography. Furthermore, Philipp told me that with his checklist of visited WHS, he also marks those that need a revisit for some reason (e.g. "needs photos"). I thought that was such a great idea, so I went through my own visits again and marked those that I need to visit again.

The Statistics

Out of my 810 visited WHS, I feel that I need to revisit 32. That’s 4%, less than I feared. By the way, I saw 69 of the 810 WHS (8.5%) more than once so those in fact are already upgraded visits.

Keep in mind that these do not include the Angkor's and Machu Picchu’s of the List, which I would happily visit again. But only those where there is a NEED to revisit, because …

Chad is a vast, landlocked country in northern Central Africa. I just toured it for 2 weeks, being driven around for 3,300 km as part of a convoy of 4 tourist jeeps. The focus of the tour was on the 2 WHS ( Ennedi and Ounianga ), but we also witnessed more sedentary life in the Sahel, the sand dunes of the Mourdi Depression and the fossil-rich Djourab desert. Its strength lies in the natural landscape and the nomadic life; it will appeal especially to those who like Mongolia and Namibia. Please find below my Top Tips for Travelling to Chad as a WH Traveller.

1. Give it a chance

The few people that I found online testifying about visits to Chad didn’t give it much time. It is one of those countries the country tickers move through fast – 5 or 8 Central African capitals in 10 days, flying between them. Africa Overlanders are a different category, but these generally are only interested in driving and their cars – and driving through Chad as fast as possible. Both groups produced a lot of “haters” while they never really made an effort. In fact, it’s …

The Lakes of Ounianga are Chad's 'other' World Heritage Site. They lie another day's drive north of the Ennedi Massif , across the pure desert of the Mourdi Depression and not far from the border with Libya. This freshwater lake system is the largest among the hyper-arid desert areas in the world such as the Sahara. Water is supplied from fossil groundwater. It used to be one big lake, but now there are a group of 14 and a group of 4 smaller permanent lakes that are all interconnected. The core zone comprises both groups and the 40km of desert between them.

The first group (Ounianga Serir) has a very peculiar jagged shape, clearly seen on the official map . These lakes include characteristic strips of floating (green) reeds that reduce evaporation. Unfortunately, we were limited to views from a distance after having been chased out of the town by local women waving sticks at us. They may have been angry due to an earlier tourist bathing 'naked' in their lake, or because they don't get a cut from the tourist tax that has to be paid to the often absent local chief. This group has …

The undisputed highlight of any trip to Chad is the Ennedi Massif . This huge sandstone formation has ancient rock art, pre-Islamic burial mounds, contemporary nomadic life, weirdly eroded landforms such as pinnacles, arches and mushrooms, and the iconic canyon Guelta d'Archei. In October 2022 we experienced the area greener than our guide had ever seen it before, thanks to the generous rainy season of this year. Situated deep in the Sahara, it takes 3.5 days of solid driving on mostly unpaved roads to get there from the capital N'Djamena. We stayed for 4 days, wild camping in a different lovely location every night and driving & hiking all day between the sights.

Rock art is everywhere. Some are engravings, but mostly there are clear paintings in red and white. You can crawl into rock shelters and caves to come within touching distance of the rock paintings. I even inadvertently put up my tent next to a rock wall and later noticed there were two camel paintings next door. The most characteristic images of this region are the "flying" camels and horses, some mounted by riders. The best ones are at Terkei (flying horses in red) …

My trip mates were surprised to hear that Rome only has one WHS (two if you count the Vatican as well). So many great monuments that could be WHS on their own! However, if all goes to Italy’s plan, the city will have another one in 2024: the Via Appia . This “revolution in road construction” will be a serial nomination of 22 stretches between Rome and Brindisi. It will be interesting to see whether there is a core zone overlap with the Rome WHS, as the Via Appia traditionally started at the Forum Romanum. The road with the name ‘Via Appia Antica’ now starts from the edge of the city at Porta San Sebastiano, a gate passing through the Aurelian Walls.

During my 2022 trip to Rome, I visited just a short section of the Via Appia. It’s not easy to do so on foot, as the road is narrow without room for a pavement and there is constant vehicle traffic. The sights also are spread out miles apart. You’ll encounter many cyclists (often in guided groups and not well-trained in cycling), who seem to have chosen the best way to explore this linear site.

The inclusion of the Transatlantic Cable Ensemble: Valentia-Heart’s Content in Ireland’s updated Tentative List brings a bit more spice for WH travellers to this corner of Ireland, County Kerry. It gives you something to do while waiting for a boat to Skellig Michael . I have been there twice, both for that reason. Valentia Island lies a 2.5h drive from Cork Airport on roads where you always have to be on guard – they are busy and narrow, and there always is some goat fair going on at Killarney or Killorglin; I hated the drive both times.

During my first visit in 2019, there still was very little information about which spots on Valentia the TWHS would cover. The cable station was the best bet, but it wasn’t accessible then as it was in private use and I had to make do with a couple of small memorials across the street. One is a slab of stone displaying the text of a telegram sent via the cable during WWI, another is a black-and-white pole (symbolizing a cable?), and the third is a commemorative stone bollard (its partner stands 3,071 km away at the other end of …