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If you are driving on Route 40 to Eilat, you will go through Makhtesh Ramon, the largest and most well-known of makhteshim. In Mitzpe Ramon on its northern edge there is a visitor center and a chain of viewpoints over the geological formation. Viewpoints are all free to access, including that right by the visitor center. It is quite easy to take a look at the makhtesh with a reasonably short stop on you driving journey, which is what I did in November of 2019. I did not go inside the visitor center at all, and have no first-hand knowledge of what it might offer for a park-visiting fee. (Note that Israel Pass includes Mitzpe Ramon Visitor Center in its list.)

Makhtesh Ramon at first looks immense and sufficiently awe-inspiring, but after a few minutes of standing near the edge that impression started to dissipate. It is a large closed valley with steep walls, a landform that is apparently native only to the Negev desert and the Sinai peninsula. Maybe the relative uniqueness boosts its OUV, but I'll be surprised if it ever makes the inscribed list. Admittedly, I do not have a good gauge to evaluate OUV for purely natural monuments, so your mileage may vary. 

This is a fascinating building and it definitely deserves its WHS status despite a controversy in our community. I could see it, obviously, only from the street of Tervurenlaan two- or three-times during my occasional visits to Brussels (last time in September 2019). I like its austere expansive and now slightly greenish appearance with four monster giants standing on its tower. It is the masterpiece of Gesmtkunstwerk designed by architect Josef Hoffmann.

During endless waiting for its opening for public, I would like to recommend visiting of the birthplace of mister architect. He was born in small Moravian town Brtnice with well-preserved historical core, located in today’s Czechia. It is a very pleasant place, reachable from Prague via Jihlava (I grew up there). There is quite frequent bus connection from Jihlava bus station to Brtnice. The former house of Hoffmann parents is located on the main square, and now, there is the Josef Hoffmann Museum (PHOTO). Even though Hoffmann left house of his parent quite early and went to Vienna, he liked this place and returned quite often for short vacations. He also designed parts of interior of this originally baroque building with yellow façade. It has been recently reconstructed to its appearance in times of Hoffmann. In the museum, there is a permanent exhibition about his life with the display of his designs such as furniture, glassware, etc. On could see also equipment designed specially for Stoclet house (for example the cutlery set Stoclet) or sketches of the …

By the time I came to Caesarea, I was already having a mild case of archaeology overload from my time in Israel over two weeks in November of 2019, so I suspect I moved through the site too quickly. A true student of ancient history could likely spend 3-4 hours here easily – and will probably benefit from having a guide on hand. I still got the impression that the place was worth visiting while keeping myself to the major points of interest.

There are layers of structures and street networks in the principal part of the archaeological site. As everywhere, the surviving arches are among the most eye-catching artifacts. In some places, parts of original mosaics can still be seen. And, of course, remains of the places of worship are also quite picturesque. The huge open space that is the remains of a Herodian Amphitheater is among the main impressive features. The Roman Theatre, also built in Herodian times, is the most ancient of all theatres found in Israel.

Medieval fortified city with a few points of interest adjoins the archaeological part of Caesarea. There is an outdoor mall and entertainment complex in the Caesarea Harbor which is basically at the heart of the old city. It actually comes to life in the late afternoon around the time the archaeological site closes its doors; somewhat uniquely among Israeli national parks, parts of the archaeological ruins can be accessed for free outside of the park’s opening hours. Of …

I visited this WHS in January 2020. La Gomera can be reached by inter-island flight or by a 50 minute ferry from the port of Los Cristianos in the south of Tenerife. I opted for the latter and headed with my rental car on board with the first ferry and came back with the last one (even though it was quite expensive for the short trip).

The Garajonay National Park, also a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, is situated in the central uplands of La Gomera and the abruptness of the island's relief makes for an immense variety of climates and landscapes. The Canary cloud forest, also known as monteverde or greenwood, is the defining element of Garajonay and covers over 85% of its area. The evergreen vegetation is known technically as laurel forest and wax myrtle heath. This type of forest has been greatly degraded by human activity and fires and has in fact shrunk to 20% of its original area. 

The national park of Garajonay got its name from the myth of Tenerife prince Jonay and La Gomera princess Gara. Attracted by its beauty, and sensing that the love of his life was waiting for him on the island of La Gomera, Jonay crossed the sea with two goat skins and introduced himself to the princess. At first she rejected him, as she wasn't supposed to speak to strangers or associate with men who were not of her lineage. Consequently, Jonay was imprisoned for his daring act. Nevertheless, …

This site was recognized as one of the worst WHS at all by our community. Well, I am afraid that every single year more and more candidates for this title are continuously inscribed. Maybe it sounds strange to foreigners, believe or not, but the Lednice-Valtice cultural landscape is recognized and admired as a true national treasure by most of Czechs. In times before 1989, this place was one of the few, where one could feel an aristocratic flair of former Hapsburg Empire. The borders were tightly shut and there was no chance to go to nearby Schonbrunn in Vienna.

As almost every cultural landscape, it is difficult to understand its OUV. The castles in Valtice and Lednice only partly express it. Personally, I can see it in a combination of rather small structures and buildings (such as Rybniční Zámeček, the Pond Maison, close to Lednice ponds – PHOTO) within the large slightly undulating landscape penetrated by lakes, ponds and set of canals of Dyje River.

Lednice castle with its Minaret in the park is the most famous part of this ensemble for most of Czech locals, and the same is true also for some smaller structures such as Temple of Apollo located close to the popular lake for swimming and relaxing during summer heats. In contrast, Valtice castle is better know for its viticulture and wine exhibition in the basement of the castle.

Relatively recently, I visited Pohansko and Lány component, which is close to the town …

I visited this WHS in January 2020. Even though there are direct flights to Gran Canaria, I wasn't eager to spend a week on this island (even before WHS inscription). Although it is quite a big island of the Canaries, I knew I'd find the smaller ones much more interesting and to my liking.

So I opted for a fully packed return ferry trip from Tenerife (departing from Santa Cruz de Tenerife NOT Los Cristianos). With careful planning beforehand (a big thank you to Solivagant as his review was by far the best information and travel advice online about the Risco Caido WHS), I managed to follow an almost perfect loop from Agaete, up along the GC-220 road till about Juncalillo, then towards Artenara and Tejeda along the GC-21 and GC-210, going inwards to the Roque Bentayga interpretation center and Cuevas del Rey, and then following the GC-150 back to the Juncalillo point after enjoying the Roque Nublo and Pico de las Nieves viewpoints. That was the plan, so I printed out all my Google maps which turned out very handy and way better than the GPS dirt track alternatives I was given on the spot.

Just before reaching the GC-21 road to Artenara, I passed through a pine forest which had suffered extensive damage from fires in the previous years, and on the left hand side of the road (coming from Agaete's direction) I noticed a steep hill with a faded turquoise signpost marking the Zona Arqueologica …

I like modern architecture, thus, it is impossible not to like the buildings of Le Corbusier, who was on the forefront of 20th Century modern architecture from 20s to 60s.

From the inscribed sites, I saw only Maison Guiette at Antwerp (PHOTO) and Unite d`habitation at Marseilles. In the former case, I spent maybe ten minutes walking around and taking photos of the house, while the latter building I saw through the bus window when I passed by on the avenue to the city center, which took however comparable portion of time or even more in the morning traffic jam in Marseilles. Even such short visits were however enough to understand the qualities of the buildings.

Maison Guiette is small white house that is characterized by a set of vertical and horizontal windows completed by a narrow balcony on the main façade. From the side, the house looks even more “modern” and minimalist than from the front – PHOTO – a large white plane of the house is cut only by two small horizontal windows in the central part completed by an odd hole in the right-upper corner, which is the only indication of a roof terrace, substitution of a garden, from the outside. I liked the house as I like the international style of 20-30s, and I trust the experts who selected this as a representative building of Le Corbusier. What I could see on photos, in contrast to austere and cubic exterior, the house is surprisingly …

My most recent World Heritage Site visit was truly serendipitous, since the last day of my Mediterranean cruise was to take me to Monaco last December. Instead, due to rough waters, we were rerouted to Corsica, birthplace of Napoleon and an island of incredible beauty, of which the Gulf of Porto World Heritage Site is no small part. There was no way I would miss an opportunity to see a European natural World Heritage Site, so I joined a tour to visit the gulf upon arrival in Ajaccio.

The Gulf of Porto is one of France's earliest World Heritage Sites, and its first natural site. Although the site includes three main parts, I only had time to visit one of the parts: the Calanche of Piana. Up to now, I realize that I never did ask what calanche actually are: apparently they are narrow, rocky inlets (singular: calanca in Corsican). Even without knowing what the word meant, the appeal of the calanche was readily apparent with the juxtaposition of the red granite cliffs, dotted with scrub brush and evergreens, against the rich blue waters of the Gulf of Porto. Because we were visiting in December, the main road through the calanche was remarkably free of traffic, and our tour took an unofficial hike along the road for a few kilometers. The weather was sunny and warm, and we were surrounded by amazing rock formations in all directions -- pinnacles, walls, and even a heart-shaped hole in a rock. There …

I recognize that Acre did not get a fair shake from me on my trip to Israel in November of 2019. I initially planned to visit it with a guide, in the early part of my itinerary, and give it 3-4 hours. In the end, I visited on my own, towards the end of my stay, and left for my next scheduled stop after barely two hours.

The World Heritage inscription of Acre is based on both its Crusader history and its features as an Ottoman fortified town. To get a good appreciation of the former, one needs to visit some of the paid points of interest in town. For the Ottoman features and the fortifications all you need to do is walk around the town core. When I did that, I encountered many signs of neglect, which colored my impression significantly. There are certainly picturesque corners and perspectives, but also frequent instances of dilapidation. Mosques are definitely the best-maintained building, as they would be in any other Muslim-majority town. Khans are impressive from a distance, but upon close inspection appear very much run-down. I am probably stretching it to make an excuse, but this general feeling of the town not being well cared after must have contributed to the fact that I neither took many pictures nor felt that I needed to extend my time in Acre.

I suspect a guided tour would go a long way to change that impression - when I come back, I …

I should honestly declare here that I have never climbed any of Dolomite peaks. Despite this, I think I could enjoy the qualities of Dolomites, indeed. According to the nomination text, the OUV of this natural site can be found mostly in its esthetical qualities, which can be recognized even from a distance in my opinion.

The components I could admire are as follows: the component No.6 Puez-Odle / Puez-Geisler / Poz-Odles observed from Val di Funes, close to Brixen / Bressanone, where we spent a night in tents outside with wonderful views to the peaks of Dolomites (PHOTO), and the component (9) Dolomiti di Brenta observed from Lago di Molveno during an hour stop during the trip to Lago di Garda. The peaks are really fascinating and easily recognizable, and it belongs to the world-class landscapes.

Far away from most visited places in Indonesia (read: Bali) is a small island of Nias. In fact the most likely person to have heard of this place is a surfer because the surfing here is excellent! There are no proper hotels when I visited in 2018 and one generally rents a lodge for a week to surf. On the way the south tip where the actual surfing conditions are good one can visit Bawomataluo. I'm unclear if this is supposed to be just the village I visited or there's more to the area.

I don't quite understand the unique "ingenious" location and I would guess that's thrown away from an incription, the unique architecture and the megalithic monuments are enough to say "inscribe me now, please". It doesn't take long to see everything. The car park is just below the village entrance and there are just 2 main roads with the houses. Not expecting a visitor they scrambled to find the key to the chief's house for a look around inside. 

If you come here you will most likely want to see the high jump performance. It's impressive and I think pays of the entrance fee to see the houses - plus I think that tourism is the only real income for people here so I was happy to get charged to see the show.

I visited this magical corner of Greece in early summer of 2006. After arrival to Thessaloniki by plane from Prague, we went to Ioannina by bus with one change in Kozani. The bus trip was quite lengthy but it was immediately clear and at the same time enchanting that we enter very different part of Greece as compared to touristy coast and islands. Ioannina is the best basement for trips to Pindus Mountains close to the border with Albania, and we stayed in the camp by the Ioanina Lake for a couple of days. On the opposite side of the lake, we could see the mountains, where Zagorochoria starts. The name is of Slavonic origin and thus understandable even for us, Czechs: Zagori = the place behind the mountains, and being by the lake we actually were just on the opposite side.

To reach the area and enter the place behind the mountain, we took an early morning bus to the mountain-village of Monodendri, which is the usual starting point for tourists who want to explore the Vicos-Aoos gorge the main attraction of the area. The gorge and mountains are wonderful there but I would say that the potential OUV of this site is rather the interaction of the Slavonic immigrants from the North with remote mountains that isolated and protected them from the majority population.

From Monodendri, we first went to Paraskieva monastery located on the edge of the canyon. The place was deserted early in the …

From the South Asian port cities, I've only been to Malacca before travelling to Hoi An. The former seemed much larger, with more expansive streets and overall it had a sense of more space overall. It was charming with classic Asian chaos. With Hoi An, I felt it was a bit more manicured, a bit conditioned by the amount of tourists that visit such a small town anually. However, it was very charming and we enjoyed our stay.

We arrived in the afternoon, coming from Hue - the transfer took about three hours. We went through the mountain pass as our driver claimed the tunnel was closed for the lunch hours. Many people have Da Nang as their base, usually staying in one of ther seaside resort. If you're there, you can hail a taxi via the Grab app, however it's limited in Vietnam for certain urban areas and won't work on the way back. We chose Hoian Central Residence as our base, it's close to the Ancient Town, but not directly in it. We started by having the legendary banh mi at Banh Mi Phuong - it's a long queue there since Anthony Bourdain was there and there's another joint right next to it. It was quite sad to see the poor owner of that place, looking at the massive crowds waiting to get served by their neighbours. However, it is delicious and cheap - about euro fifty. While I was waiting, Ivan went to buy the tickets …

I visited this WHS in January 2020. For those visiting by rental car like I did, the easiest way to park your car in a safe place is by heading to the underground Parking La Laguna.

The WHS is relatively small and basically spans from Plaza de la Concepcion to Plaza del Adelantado with a number of churches, chapels, monasteries, convents, an old tower and a lot of 17th and 18th traditional Canarian houses with open courtyards and wooden balconies. This WHS's layout is believed to have been the prototype for most of Latin America's cities and towns. In fact, it really reminded me of Lima which I had visited a couple of months before.

The Cathedral, adorned with tall palm trees and dragon trees, can now be visited for an expensive 5 euros (free audioguide) but not worth the entrance ticket in my opinion. Most traditional houses have been altered a bit too much and taken over by globalisation and consumerism (Starbucks, sushi shops, etc. just to mention a few). Those worth visiting, especially for their tiled courtyards, are Casa Alvarado Bracamonte (which now houses the La Laguna local council), the red stone facade of Casa Riquel and Casa de la Alhondriga for its rebuilt wooden balconies. The church and convent of St. Augustin and the Church and Monastery of Santa Catalina de Siena, with its grill keeping away the nuns from the rest of the world outside, are worth visiting but don't compare with world-class examples …

Most tourists use Hué as their base to visit the DMZ and other war memorials. Our hotel had a "menu" of tours provided to us at the check-in by the reception. But we skipped those and went for half-day sightseeing before taking a transfer to Hoi An.

First stop was the Imperial City, which was very impressive. Ivan noted the overall structure was similiar to the Forbidden City in Beijing he visited recently, though obviously a tad bit smaller. There's a ticket booth on the left of the main walls, after you pass the bridge through the Perfume River. I remember it was quite pricey, 200- or 300 000 dongs per person if I remember correctly. However it is worth it as the whole area is huge with many different colourful buildings: palaces, theatre, library, temples and pavilions - one even in the shape of swastika. Everything has obviously been restored: the colours are vibrant, the place is well signposted, the lawns are taken care of. As recommended by previous reviewers, it's almost completely empty after the Royal Palace itself, the more to the side or to the back you get, the less people there are. As we went the early morning, there was almost nobody in the back. Oh, and I really enjoyed the colourful exit gate.

After that we took a taxi to the Thien Mu Pagoda. That was quite crowded, despite the rain. There are some nice views over the river and the park around …

I visited this WHS in January 2020. I travelled around this WHS by rental car over 2 days using Guía de Isora as my base for 4 nights. This was quite convenient to explore different areas of the Teide NP while at the same time being close to Los Cristianos ferry terminal and South Tenerife Airport.

I had very high expectations for this WHS and I must say I definitely wasn't disappointed. It is a very well kept national park with free access, free parking, free visitor centres and a free botanical garden! The only time I had to pay was for the return Teleferico to the very top (27 eur) which is not at all necessary to still enjoy the OUV of this WHS.

During my visit I was blessed with beautiful sunny weather with temperatures varying from 1-23 degrees Celsius (depending on the altitude). Make sure to check the Teide weather report as it is quite possible to have completely different weather around Teide compared to the rest of Tenerife (most of the time you're likely to be above any cloud cover on Tenerife when visiting Teide NP). Moreover, at night and very early in the morning, it can snow quite a lot, so much so that the main roads can be closed at any given time should the authorities deem this necessary.

Over the course of 2 days, I stopped at practically all the several viewpoints or miradores along the TF-21 and the TF-38 …

This is another strange tentative site of Slovakia with no chance to be inscribed. The nomination text is very confusing and three parts of traditional economy based on agriculture and natural resources are mentioned there: (i) grassland culture with meadows, (ii) vinicultural landscape with vineyards, and (iii) mining landscapes for production of silver, gold and the opal precious stone. Seemingly, only one part is the target of this nomination - the original meadows of Slovakia. The part of vineyards is nominated separately as Slovak Tokai region, and one mining landscape of Slovakia has been already inscribed as Banská Štiavnica WHS.

As concerns the original pastures, it includes quite large area of traditional countryside landscape of Slovakia – in total 9 components located in various mountainous regions of Slovak Carpathians. I visited at least 5 regions of the nomination many times – (i) Horehronie region around Helpa and Telgart villages, (ii) Turiec region around Blatnica village, (iii) Orava region around Zuberec, Zazriva and Terchova villages, (iv) Podpolianie region around extinct Poliana stratovolcano protected landscape, and (v) Zamagurie region located to the East from Tatra Mountains close to the border with Poland.

But I visited the countryside not far to the rest of nominated sites during my trips to Slovakia. The reason of my visits was never the villages surrounded by the pastures in the valleys but always the mountains above them. Thus, I have almost no representative photo of this TWHS in my archives…

PHOTO – it is …

Stralsund is a town of the brick gothic, the style that I like. Well, it is quite common in Northern Europe, and I could see it already in Riga, Roskilde, Brandenburg, Stendal, Tangermunde, Brugges, even in Bavarian Landshut, etc… but the examples I found in Stralsund belong to the finest ones of the style, and Stralsund reminds me the old town of Riga.

Stralsund is perfectly preserved, so, there are 3 large brick churches (Our Lady – open for free, St Nicolas – deconsecrated museum that I refused to visit, and St Jacob – closed for renovations in time of my visit), one very representative brick Municipal Hall (a beautiful text-book structure), the brick hospital church, and numerous brick town houses, which I enjoyed maybe the most. However, my highlight was Our Lady church built in the radical gothic style that can be seen on windows on the eastern side that are virtually cut in the middle by corners, which is modern or almost timeless rather than gothic feature.

I spent a couple of days in Stralsund during my trip to Rugen Island some 5 years ago. I went by direct train from Prague, and I was not disappointed. Besides Rugen, I also went to the small island of Hiddensee by ferry, highly recommended if you are there. PHOTO – the view from the ferry towards Stralsund (St Nicola in the middle, Municipal Hall on the right, and on the left there are towers of St. Jacob and …

This is rather peculiar part of the tentative list of Slovakia without any “traces” of OUV. This nomination from 2002 focuses only on the fungal flora, i.e. macroscopic fungi = mushrooms, of Bukovské Vrchy National Park, beech forest of which has been already inscribed to the list as the transnational project, first in 2007. However, this TWHS nomination includes also other biotopes than beech forests, such as meadows and marches, and it encompasses much bigger area than the inscribed natural reserves.

The pristine forests with rotten woods are naturally perfect place for diverse species of fungal flora, and I could see quite a lot of rather unusual and attractive mushrooms during my numerous visits to the area (for example Hericium mushroom – PHOTO). But I could not see any uniqueness justifying the OUV. The strategy to inscribe the entire forest ecosystems is much more reasonable, and it worked already – see reviews on the beech forests WHS and its planned extensions.

Picking of mushroom is very popular in Slovakia and in Czechia as well, but I found popular edible mushrooms only in the shrubs and forests affected by human activity outside the strict natural reserves. Thus, picking does not endanger the rare species mentioned in the nomination text. Furthermore, they are mostly inedible and strange-looking. However, the mushroom of Hericium (PHOTO) is edible and excellent, indeed!

WHS#58

This may be a bit of an overly harsh rating for a site that I have no reason to hate, but we're talking about WHS here, and I personally don't see much OUV in this site. First off, I'm a Christian, and Bethany Beyond the Jordan was definitely one of my priorities to visit when I was in Jordan in May 2018. It's a special site for us Christians, as it's the true proven site of the baptism of Jesus himself. According to UNESCO's website, its OUV lies in its legacy of baptism, which can clearly be seen in the many pilgrims having their own baptisms in this part of the Jordan River. I had a short visit of the river itself, a Greek Orthodox church nearby, and the remains of the baptism site of Jesus' time, and I can't say it wasn't pleasant or enjoyable. Actually, I had 2 really great experiences here: seeing the pilgrims bathing on opposite sides of the river/border, and of course, seeing the actual spot where Jesus was baptized, which is quite far from today's river. The only reason for my low rating is that I just couldn't see the OUV here. I mean, how is baptism as a sacrament any different from the other 6 sacraments of the Catholic Church? How does this site hold OUV unlike the rest of the Holy Land? Yes, the ruins here are well-preserved and well-presented, but so are many others across the Holy Land. It's …