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Stunning place!

I visited Meteora on a Friday in early October 2019. After a night and morning of heavy rainfall, the air was clear, allowing for some great views. The WHS fulfills five of the ten selection criteria, both cultural and natural. And indeed the monasteries are architectural and technological masterpieces of human creative genius in an area of exceptional natural beauty.

One should beat the (bus) crowds by arriving here early. I highly recommend staying in the area for one or two nights (Kastraki is nicer than Kalampaka, and even the locals go to Kastraki for dining). And I would avoid the peak season in summer. Parking is free but quite limited given the huge crowds. The monasteries of Varlaam and St. Stephen’s have the most parking spots.

Due to the opening (respectively closing) times of the monasteries, I managed to visit four of the six inhabited monasteries on that Friday. In total there are 24 monasteries and hermitages. The admission prices are fair at 3 EUR per adult, per monastery. There are no combination tickets available. All four monasteries were worth visiting for their amazing church interiors and viewpoints. Photographing is prohibited within the churches. I started with Roussanou, continued with Great Meteoron, where it got really crowded around 13:30, and finished with Holy Trinity (most exhausting access with a rather long walk downhill, followed by 150 stairs up but overall manageable) and St. Stephen’s, the only monastery that can be reached without having to …

I visited this WHS in Summer 2019 and spent 2 nights here using it as a convenient base after visiting the inscribed castles and gardens of Czechia and before heading towards Trebic, the Tugendhat Villa and the Pilgrimage Church of St John of Nepomuk.

It turned out to be a great choice for dining options and a lively atmosphere all day long. We stayed at one of the pensions with pretty facades all around the main square and had a parking permit to park just in front of the pension (in fact cars are parked around half of the square pensions. Although quite touristy, I fell in love with Telc. After Prague and Cesky Krumlov (both VERY crowded almost all day), it was great to have the whole town for ourselves early in the morning and late in the afternoon/evening. The town square reminded me of Bardejov, Slovakia, although Telc is much prettier. I was surprised that the whole town of Telc looks like an island when viewed from above with a drone.

Telc is one of the oldest medieval towns in Bohemia. The castle and fortress of Telc are surrounded by lakes in the beautiful area of Bohemian-Moravian highlands, right at the middle of an ancient provincial route which lead from Vienna to Prague. The main square was built during the second half of the 14th century to serve as a large market place. The most important period for the development of Telc was around 1553 under …

I actually visited the Abbey at St-Savin twice, on consecutive days. The first visit was on a Sunday in October when the Abbey is only open in the afternoon. Unfortunately I had managed to pick a day when the Parish Council were holding an event in the Church, meaning the Church was also closed during the afternoon. The lovely staff in the visitor centre suggested that we visit the museum aspect of the Abbey for a reduced rate of EUR 8 per person. When we explained that we were really there to see the paintings in the church, they offered to let us pay the full price of EUR 10 each and access the museum on the Sunday and then the Church on the Monday, once it had re-opened. This seemed reasonable so we paid our EUR 20 and entered the museum.

I can't really review the Museum nor the short film, as both were entirely in French, and my grasp of the French language is 'conversational' at best. Certainly this was insufficient to glean any understanding into the initial creation of the paintings, their subsequent restoration, nor the life of the monks in the Abbey responsible for the works. I strongly believe that UNESCO listed sites should make provision for visitors speaking other languages. We were given an English language leaflet but this described the sites in the Church, not the Museum. Thus after 20 mins or so we left, feeling very disappointed but looking forward to the …

The opportunity of visiting a WHS made up of seven amazing locations makes the journey to Kathmandu a special treat for any WHS enthusiast. Best explored at a slow pace within a week or so, the sites can also be "ticked off" in 3 days as the following tour plan shows. Buying a self-guided tour book from some of the local shops will add more flavor to your journey.

Day 1

Make your way on foot from the tourist district of Thamel to "Kathmandu Durbar Square" in order to get used to the city vibes. Allow around 1hr to get to the square and anywhere between 2 to 4 hours to explore all its buildings and museums. End your day at some rooftop cafe overlooking the square near Freak Street.

Day 2

Hire a car with driver to make your way to the WHS more remote from the city center. First you can visit "Pashupatinah" and "Boudhanath" temples. After this, you need to pass by the town of Bhaktapur and up through some scenic rural areas to reach the country's oldest temple, "Changu Narayan", nestled atop a hill from which you can better admire the Kathmandu Valley. From here it's only a 20min drive to "Bhaktapur Durbar", but best plan at least 2 or 3 hours to wander around the town and see the other urban plazas and temples as well - even if not WHS proper, they are scenic, vibrant and filled with history.

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In September 2019, I took a bus from Kigali to Gisenyi on Lake Kivu, where I spent the night at the Lake Kivu Serena Hotel, and in the morning crossed into the DRC at the Grande Barriere border crossing. I met up with the team from Virunga NP, who have an office in the same building as DRC passport control, and made the hourlong drive to Kibumba Tented Camp in Virunga NP. The next morning, we climbed up the slippery slopes of Mount Mikeno, a dormant volcano in Virunga National Park, and after two hours met up with a group of 44 habituated mountain gorillas. We left them after an hour, all that visitors are permitted to spend with the great apes.

WHS#71

In the Philippines, you grow up hearing about them; seeing pictures of them; memorizing them for your Social Studies or Araling Panlipunan quiz; even having them in your wallet (on the opposite side from President Quezon's face). The Ifugao Rice Terraces! And if there's one thing that unites Pinoys, it's rice. The crop is grown all around the country in the iconic Asian rice paddies. And what happens when you live in the mountains where there's no flat land to make paddies? Well, most would just move to better grounds, but for the people of the Philippine Cordilleras, they created terraces. Now, as an avid traveler, agricultural terraces weren't exactly new to me, and, I'm guessing, for many of you reading this as well. I had previously seen the maize and potato terraces of the Andes, vineyards of Europe, and olive terraces of the Levant. What makes these terraces so special? The sheer beauty of it! In other parts of the world, terraces are basically auxiliary attractions. The Incas just happened to build terraces to support their impressive cities, the Europeans their vineyards nearby their various manors, the Balinese their rice terraces as part of irrigation systems that also provide their temples, and so on. Many of those are either deserted and unkept, rather recent, or not scenic. It's different here in Ifugao, where the terraces, their beauty, their culture, their people, and the experiences they offer are what make a trip to them. I could've spent a …

In September 2019, I visited the tentative site with the least likely chance of being elevated to the list of World Heritage Sites. While driving around central Burundi, we made a brief stop at what purports to be the southernmost source of the Nile, once permitted to flow freely and naturally, but recently tiled and made to look like a bathtub.

I visited this WHS in Summer 2019. I knew that I needed to book in advance to secure a spot to visit the interior. That said, since the villa is privately owned and poorly managed by young unwelcoming staff who have no clue what customer care is, don't be surprised if your visit get's cancelled as late as one day before simply to accomodate a private company or a private function. This is what happened on the day I was supposed to visit.

Basically, while I was busy travelling from one WHS to another, as late as 15:45 on the day before I received an automatic email that my booking was cancelled. On their rather non-user-friendly website ( perhaps a premonition of the staff in general EXCEPT the elderly gardeners who look after the villa surroundings), a short notice was displayed saying that the Villa was closed and off-limits for tourists as a last-minute event had been organised for blind locals. That meant not even the gardens! Since I was staying in Brno only for 1 night and all the other days were fully booked I was forced to forget visiting the villa's interior and had to make up for that by peaking through the huge glass wall and windows from the gardens as though I hadn't booked ahead.

Obviously I wasn't happy, but what frustrated me the most was the I-couldn't-care-less-attitude of the very young staff manning the Tugendhat villa ticket desk and souvenir shop. Most of …

When making travel plans, Orchha might seem to be one of the lesser sightseeing spots of northern India - more temples and another palace of a dubious princely state. However, the lesser interest is actually the strongest point of Orchha - this is a place that is not yet overrun by tourist hordes, and still exhibits some of the old charm of India. The settlement at Orchha is more of a village than a city, despite the size of the ancient buildings. You can still rent a shaky bike and drive around the village streets, climb around in crumbling ruins of giant palaces, and watch the villagers wash their clothes in the river (and yes, probably your clothes, too, if you gave them away for washing at the hotel). It is still India, so there is dirt and poverty and cows and a lot of people. Don't expect any pastoral dreamland. The historic buildings are of impressive size: There's the palace area with three or four interconnected palaces, a huge ancient temple in the middle of the village, a triangle-shaped temple with nice wall paintings, and the oversized chhatri area close to the river. The Chhatris (large tomb buildings, complete with vultures) seem to be restored and have a nice garden area around them, but the other buildings are slowly falling apart and are in dire need of repair - which has its own charm. In another nation, the sheer amount of historical buildings in Orchha would make it an …

WHS#70

Here in the Philippines, colonial churches are the pinnacle of heritage architecture. The vast majority of cities and towns are completely composed of buildings that did not exist 100 years ago, except for these ancient treasures. However, not all of these churches were made equal, and not all were kept equally preserved, either. That's why the Philippines has its own list of National Cultural Treasures, and it is from this list that 4 churches were chosen to be the very 1st WHS in the country. 2 churches are in the northern Ilocos region, 1 in the center of Manila (the capital city), and 1 in Iloilo in the Visayas. The Ilocano churches, Paoay and Santa Maria, are best-known as outstanding examples of Earthquake Baroque, characterized by thick stone walls, greater width in comparison to height, belfries separate from the body of the church, and of course, the iconic buttresses, which all help the churches to withstand the constant earthquakes in the region. Miag-ao Church in Iloilo is considered the best example of Fortress Baroque, a style developed as a defense against Moro (Philippine Muslim) pirates that used to raid the Visayan islands during the colonial period. Lastly, the San Agustin Church in Manila is the oldest stone church in the Philippines and the only building left standing in Intramuros (the central walled city of Manila, which was home to a staggering 7 churches) after the bombings of Manila in World War 2. Each of the churches is known …

In September 2019, I apparently commissioned Burundi's most famous drum site, the Gishora Drum Sanctuary, for an hourlong performance for an audience consisting of me and dozens of local children who saw me arriving, so decided to watch the show.

I visited both locations of this WHS in Summer 2019. Having read previous reviews and some chunks of the nomination dossier, I decided to combine both these locations and the flower garden in Kromeriz as a full day trip of pleasure gardens and flower gardens if the weather was sunny or a full day trip of castle interiors if the weather was wet. I was lucky weather-wise and so I was very happy not to endure yet another bunch of castle interiors.

The location of both Valtice and Lednice close to Vienna, Austria and Bratislava, Slovakia doesn't help this WHS. Quantitively it definitely helps, as most visitors are groups from both capital cities, but most will regard them as secondary sites when compared to Schonbrunn or Belvedere for example. I started with Valtice on purpose as I knew I would be passing through Lednice afterwards. Having visited them both now, I'd definitely recommend this approach as the Valtice cultural landscape outdoors has less to offer than Lednice in my opinion.

In Valtice, several late Baroque statues were moved from North Moravia in the early 20th century, in line with the general sense of neo-baroque garden reconstructions. Neptune's fountain neatly tucked away next to a minor car park is a clear example. Valtice also has its own 'viticultural educational route' so I gladly educated myself at the chateau cellar built in 1430, which contains some 8000 wooden barrels for the production of red wine. This was the 'highlight' of …

I visited this recently inscribed WHS in Summer 2019. Once a settlement for “timber logging” (in Czech klady rubaji), Kladruby provided ideal conditions for horse breeding, thanks to the cut-down floodplain forest. 

At the time of Charles IV, the village of loggers, horse breeders and traders, administered by monasteries, flourished and a rectory and church were founded. The loggers gradually became squires, and their coat of arms from the early 15th century in fact shows a horseshoe. Yet this growth didn't last for long, as both the rectory and the church were destroyed during the Hussite Wars. By 1500, after a period of frequent changes of owners, Kladruby was bough by William of Pernstein and consequently attached to the large Pernstein dominion of Pardubice. The Pernstein family maintained the local tradition of horse breeding and founded a horse sanctuary, as documented in 1522, where horses were bred half-wild. The history of old Spanish and old Italian horse breeds in Kladruby which survived till present times began in 1552, when Jaroslav of Pernstein, following the fashionable trends of his times, brought the first horses of Spanish blood to the sanctuary. The year 1579 is an important milestone as by the degree of Emperor Rudolf II, a royal stud was established in the sanctuary.

Around 250 White Kladrubers, as they are called, are bred at Czechia's only national stud farm in Kladruby nad Labem. Black Kladrubers are bred in a secondary farm nearby in Slatinany. Written records of Kladruby date …

In September 2019, I hired a small boat to cruise along the Rusizi River, which flows through Rusizi National Park in Burundi. I went looking for Gustave, a large Nile crocodile, who is suspected of having killed as many as 300 people along the banks of the river. My search for Gustave was unsuccessful, but that could be because he hasn’t been seen in a few years and is rumored to be dead, but no one is certain. But, I encountered several pods of hippopotamuses, which kill more people than any other African animal, other than mosquitos, and are estimated to kill more people each year than the combined total of lions, elephants, leopards, buffaloes and black rhinos, the Big Five.

To see crocodiles, we drove to Albert Ngendera’s home, not far from Rusizi NP. Albert's home is surrounded by pens containing enormous crocodiles. In 2005, he acquired a dozen small reptiles to save them from the cooking pot — his neighbors poisoned a few, but the survivors are now more than eleven feet long, almost too big for the ponds that abut Albert’s kitchen.

I made my Burundi travel arrangements with Kelly at Augustine Tours. 

The Netherlands was hit by a non-hazardous Tsunami in mid-September 2019. 

I based myself in Lelystad to visit 2 WHSs in northern Netherlands, as Amsterdam (or even Emmeloord) was too expensive to stay over weekends. 

From Lelystad on a Saturday I took a bus with a regional bus company ("OV Regio IJsselmond") to Emmeloord and took another bus to Ens to get closer to Schokland in the afternoon. You can buy an all-day bus ticket for 11.5 Euros. 

(From Emmeloord I had taken yet another bus with a different bus company ("Arriva, a DB company") to visit Ir. D. F. Woudagemaal WHS in Lemmer in the morning. So this bus ride was not included in the all-day bus ticket.)

But from Ens I had to walk about 4 km to get to the Schokland museum. In the Netherlands it is often illegal to walk on roads for car, and you are supposed to walk on paths for bicycle laid parallel to but a bit away from roads. As such, it is difficult to hitch cars in the Netherlands. 

I'm not sure if the "small" museum previous reviewers refer to is the same museum I visited, but this museum, part of a whole outdoor museum, seemed rather new. 

After getting a grasp of Schokland at the museum, I rented a bicycle at the museum shop for one hour for a few Euros to cycle around Schokland, which to me was the quintessential Dutch experience. 

There was some confusion about where the places are until I checked the official map, and even now there is confusion. China news outlets reported the Dafeng Milu Nature Reserve to be included but actually it is not. There is an interesting history about that deer park (deer got eaten to extinction!!) and you do get to see many, many birds there but I am very sure it is not part of the inscription. My friend's family owns an eco lodge in a similar forest reserve in Jiangsu and you see many birds there of this caliber but they are obviously also not inscribed. To add to this, the entire "Yancheng Coast" is a bird paradise including several islands that are famous birdwatching destinations. China planned to inscribe many reserves/parks but ended up with just 2 to begin with - I'm guess to push the inscription through easier and add more later - but then again they do often just care about numbers so just having an inscription now doesn't mean they will prioritize extending it instead of grabbing a new +1.

Anyhow, there are 2 places near the town of Yancheng north of Shanghai and the only I chose to visit the site called "National Nature Reserve for Rare Birds". You can take a bus here from Shanghai (it's longer than you think) but I chose to fly to Yancheng instead. The flight is 1h from Hongqiao aiport. Upon arrival I took a taxi to the bus station …

Lumbini can be reached by flight from Kathmandu to Bhairahawa, which is a larger town close to India border. The accommodation options around are pretty basic, but there is at least one resort with all the ammenities of modern leisure tourism. Front desk arranged a driver for us - pretty overpriced for Nepal at 70USD / 8 hrs, but with the good attitude required to brave the rural traffic and dusty roads...and find all the places he was not really familiar with.

1. Maya Devi 

After taking the parking permit from the tourist info center, the driver can go inside the park and leave you close to the Maya Devi temple - the birthplace of Lord Buddha listed as WHS. Even if little more to see physically other than few stones, reconstructed stupa foundations, a pond and few boddhi trees, the cultural load of this site remains strong, and watching pilgrims chanting their mantras while contemplating the place where one of world's most important religions emerged makes for a strong, and beautiful spiritual experience. Visiting just before the start of the season in the first days of october must have helped as well - great weather, few tourists.

2. Kenzo Tange's masterplan and Lumbini Museum

What really made this WHS visit an amazing one was the discovery of Kenzo Tange's legacy. This is one of Japan's most famous architects and he was tasked with designing the Lumbini tourist park masterplan in the mid 70's. His Lumbini …

I visited this WHS in Summer 2019. This WHS is made up of three locations: the Basilica of St Procopius, the Jewish Quarter and Sinagogue and the Jewish Cemetery which witness the coexistence of Christian and Jewish cultures through time.

We started exploring Trebic by first visiting the Basilica of St Procopius (guided tours take place practically on the hour; in Czech but a leaflet with info in English is given and photography was allowed during our visit). The Romanesque portal, the Romanesque crypt, the frescoes in the abbot's chapel (photo) and the 600 different stonemasons' marks on the church walls were the main highlights of the guided tour. The white-washed facade and castle remains contrast with the Romanesque rear part of the church, from where there is a nice view over Trebic. Next to the ticket booth for the basilica guided tour, there's the UNESCO WHS inscription plaque.

After the guided tour, we headed downhill through the recently restored gate to the Jewish quarter. Information boards entitled 'In the footprints of Abbots and Rabbis' next to the main points of interest describe the history and importance of this location and here there's a metal UNESCO plaque proudly displaying inscription. Apart from the Trebic sinagogue, don't miss the view over Trebic and the Jewish quarter from Masaryk's Viewpoint before heading uphill to the Jewish cemetery.

Trebic's location can be easily considered a WHS hotspot, nestled as it is between Telc, Brno and Zdar nad Sazavou but I'm …

I visited this WHS in Summer 2019. I visited Kromeriz early in the morning and honestly I wasn't expecting much more than a pleasant stroll in the flower garden having visited several other inscribed gardens and castles.

The viewing terrace panoramic view (photo) over the flowers and the Rotunda was the highlight during my trip. The flower garden of Kromeriz is a rectangular axial concept established in 1665, featuring impressive geometrical clipped hedges and floral ornaments. The sophisticated visual layout based on symmetry and perspective leads the visitor through the garden as through a mythical labyrinth, revealing original architecture, sculptures, mazes, water elements and garden art. A marble UNESCO WHS inscription plaque can be found next to the flower garden entrance just before the Dutch garden. Even though the flower garden of Kromeriz is very well kept, it is no match for similar gardens in France and Italy and in my opinion lacks any particular OUV. Being relatively close to the Lednice-Valtice cultural landscape with rather similar flower gardens doesn't help even though visiting both WHS on the same day, was a very enjoyable day out for my parents, who enjoyed having the tranquil gardens mostly for themselves for most of the time. 

First off, I really like the Breiðafjörður Nature Reserve but you will see why I don't rate it highly soon.

I took the Viking Sushi Cruise from Stykkishólmur a couple of hours north of Reykjavík. It started ~10am and was quite full even on a windy and slightly rainy day. The main draw of this cruise is that it takes you to some of the nearby islands (I forget their names) for bird-watching and catches a net of clams. They even provide soy sauce and wasabi! There was also enough for everyone so it was probably worth the money.

The tour does not go as far north as Flatey island. If you want to go there you need to take a ferry by Sæferðir, the same company that does the cruise. I doubt this place is worth visiting for the settlement alone. It's a traditional fishing village which is not uncommon in Scandinavia. So for me the 2 first criteria are not justified. If you visit the website of the ferry company you can see an appropriate picture of the islands - one picture to see all, yes, it's that small. Might be a good place for bird watching and there is a hotel on the island.

The third criteria for the rich biodiversity is in my books always worth protecting and can be unique, but it doesn't sound unique, doesn't seem unique, and we didn't see anything special on this tour. We saw puffins (my first …