All our reviews

August 2018 - after our trip to France we finally arrived Germany again. The last few days we still wanted to visit the WHS sites that are on the road. And there were some more than we expected.

Trier is one of the oldest cities in Germany. The WHS is a combination of the roman and medieval sites, a nomination that would propbabaly not work anymore. But both are definitely worth a trip to Trier. Besides it is the birth town of Karl Marx, which explains the high number of chinese tourists. We visted the Porta Nigra, the roman Bath, and the medieval cathedrals. Great day, great visit, and good food and wine. There are also two breweries were old colleagues are working. So we had to make stops at both of them as well. on the other Mosel shore there is a great campground from which we could overlook the city.

The next day we continued along the Mosel and straight to Upper Rhine Valley. 

Continuing north, it took us half a day to get to San Gil from Villa de Leyva. San Gil, is the most touristic town in the area and makes the most logical base for exploring this TWHS. This cultural landscape seems a bit more unified and organized than the one we'd been to previously with it being based on the transition/fusion from pre-hispanic Guane culture to colonial occupation in this area. Small colonial towns were built over Guane villages around the canyon and later isolation when bypassed by modern roads has led to the preservation of the towns as well as the colonial trail network (built over pre-existing trails) connecting them. 

There is a Guane museum in San Gil but otherwise found it to be rather busy for a small city. There are good connections from here heading north and south and lots of affordable food and accommodation options. From the local bus terminal there are regular buses to the smaller towns in the area that are mentioned in the TWHS description. We visited Barichara on a day trip and hiked the portion of the trail network to Guane village. Barichara is very pretty and well preserved. I saw a recent list rating it the most beautiful of Colombia's colonial towns so it is far from being an undiscovered gem, but it hasn't been overdeveloped yet either. There are beautiful views over the canyon and it's worth the visit just to sit with a few drinks at a cafe …

Bilbao has much to be proud of with its renovated downtown, full of modern architecture designed by the likes of Frank Gehry, Arata Isozaki, Santiago Calatrava, and Norman Foster; however, it is a work of architecture from the late 19th century that has given Bilbao its only World Heritage Site. I didn't meet many tourists in Bilbao who knew of the Vizcaya Bridge, although it is understandable since the bridge is located north of downtown, at the mouth of the Nervion River. In 1893, Spanish architect Alberto Palacio, with his brother Silvestre, completed this remarkable bridge, using an iron superstructure to move a hanging platform between the settlements of Getxo and Portugalete, replacing the ferries that previously carried workers and residents across the river. The bridge quickly became popular and was copied in other parts of the world, including Duluth, Minnesota, in the United States (although this bridge has since been converted into an aerial lift bridge). When I visited the Vizcaya Bridge last May, I could see Spain (and Basque Country) was very proud of this World Heritage Site, with plaques, a flag, and engravings on wood planks all celebrating its status. At the time of my visit, the upper deck on the superstructure of the bridge was only accessible from the west bank of the Nervion, so I purchased a ticket from the vending machine to stand on the passenger section of the platform to cross the river, watching the ships pass below and the wheels of the …

A pretty broad name but perhaps the only one that makes sense for a TWHS whose only real unifying feature is the location. Reading up on the description it sounds like they just threw in everything they could think of for this one from paleontological sites, pre-hispanic sites including an astronomical observatory, a natural sanctuary and several colonial towns. To me that usually means nothing will stand out as being particularly exceptional by itself so we didn't put a lot of effort into this one and just visited the colonial heritage town of Villa de Leyva.

Only 4-5 hours from Bogota and considered one of the most beautiful towns in Colombia, this is a popular, busy tourist site in its own right complete with lots of guesthouses, cafes, souvenir shops and chocolate museums. In addition to the standard but cute 2-story, white-washed and red-tile roof buildings, Villa de Leyva also boasts the largest plaza in the country. The plaza is a large open space once used as the regional distribution centre by the Spaniards so it lacks the usual vegetation and shady benches to laze around on. 

There are a few fossil museums in the immediate vicinity and it is easy to find taxis offering to take you around to visit the other towns and sites in the surrounding area for those wanting a more thorough exploration of all this site entails. 

August 2018 - after visiting the Saarland we made another small loop, to visit the smallest EU country and another WHS. Luxembourg was never on my favourite list, but why not take the chance.

The fortress and placement of the city is quite interesting, however the old city is quite boring and only some houses in between are remarkable and add to the justification of the whs status. Of course every member state somehow deserves to have a whs. And there are way less significant cities in europe that would not deserve the status.

We had our folded bikes with us, parked outside the core city and drove around the city visiting the cathedral, the palace and some old building. When it started raining we continued our journey back to Germany, not without filling the car with cheap gas.

This site is only about a 20 minute walk away from Bogota's other TWHS, the Virgilio Barco library so in less than half an hour we stood at the gates to the university staring at the stadium and not permitted to go any further. Who knew an entire university could be fenced off and closed by security on a holiday? I'd figured that even if there were no classes we could at least walk around the grounds a little to get a feel for the overall layout but no, we were not going to be able to talk our way in. Walking the perimeter of the university outside the fence leaves you quite far from anything of significance and we weren't able to get any real idea of what the nomination is about. Fortunately we hadn't had high expectations to begin with but for anyone else that might want to check this place out, definitely go on a day when classes are in session.

Montecatini - The most beautiful label assigned is "The Temple of European Thermal Energy". Loved area for mineral waters, thermal treatments of any kind, exceptional nature, traces of celebrities at every step, all leave the traveler memories Imperious beaches have beaten the area later, to the nineteenth centuries - the beginning of the twentieth century, here are the megalomanic-constructions, the newest in a pleasant Art-Nouveau style. If the Medici of Tuscany loved the spa town, the real financiers were the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. The interiors of many of the spas can now be admired, as well as the palace where the city hall now works - in fact, a true art museum. 

Aki is a very odd collection of First Nation reserves, national parks, forests and plenty of other areas in-between. I had a look at the massive map provided by UNESCO and there are plenty of sections I don't see as nature protected yet I guess they are part of this cultural aspect. More on that later.

There are a few feasible ways into this grand area, a massive collection of several parks. I have been to two of these. Unlike Nahanni it doesn't require a splurge but instead some determination, time, and gravel roads, lots of gravel roads. First stop was Red Bay in Ontario. From there we canoed along flat lakes and marshes towards Douglas Lake. It takes a long day of paddling, camping at the shore, and another full day paddling back. As the drive from Winnipeg is 5h each way it took 4 days total. At the park we mainly saw ducks and other birds but no mammals. The Woodland Caribou park is unfortunately only home to a few thousand of these. The issue is that they eat lichen and logging around the areas has killed those. Second is that their migration paths are now destroyed due to human influence and being stuck in such a "small" area is unnatural for them. Hard to believe with the vast provinces but it is unfortunately true.

Friends of mine went canoeing all the way from here to Bloodvein in the west. Crazy if you ask me even …

As a last stop of our 2018 meetup we went to Silistra. We come from Srebarna and just followed the Danube.

Els had prearranged a tour (you can't get in otherwise). From the outside you can see a small chapel through the fences, but that's not really what you come for. It's the tomb hidden below the chapel that is interesting. It's interior is richly and colorful decorated and in a good state of preservation.

Still, I did not take any pictures which normally points to a fairly underwhelming experience.

OUV

The site is tiny. It's a single Roman tomb, nothing to really get you excited. I can only see this happening if it were combined in a serial nomination.

While You Are There

Silistra marks the end point of the Eastern Danube portion of the Roman Limes (T). You can find old fortifications in the town center. Nearby is also the all time great Srebarna Nature Reserve.

From Silistra, you can also cross into Romania to head to the Danube Delta. If you are going by car, you can stop at the l'ensemble rupestre de Basarabi (T). Philipp's review should give you a proper feeling for what to expect there.

Unfortunately our only chance to visit this library was on a rainy holiday and it was not open. Maybe a better appreciation of the architectural achievements can be gained from the inside but from outside it seemed to be a nice modern structure but didn't wow us significantly. The library is surrounded by an integrated park space with small water channels leading away from the building and the TWHS is supposed to be considered as a whole with its surrounding landscape. Some families were still using the park for picnics despite the rain and on a nice day it would be a peaceful getaway from the chaos of the city core but we didn't linger long. 

The ancient town of Nicopolis ad Istrum - part of the tentative list of Bulgaria

For true history enthusiasts it is necessary to see directly the grandiose achievement of the one known as one of the parents of the Romanian nation.For Trajan himself, the conqueror of Dacia, founded the city after the epoch-victory, for the Dacians had given him more dictatorship than other peoples with tendencies to indwell.Thus, Nicopolis ad Istrum ("Victoria from the Danube"), the white city of hard stone, at that time - almost two millennia ago, was one of the most advanced.There are elements of novelty in the Empire: agora warmed underneath - because the winters were somewhat cooler than in Rome, the canal built in the semicircle below the main boulevards, the theater with a capacity of about 400 seats had shops left and right.It is near a drilled water source, but also near the Rositsa River, on the road between Serdica (Sofia) and Odessos (Varna) and further on to Bizantium. The relatively straight plate gives the possibility to easily watch distances, but at that time there was no longer fearful opponents - the Carpathian-Danubian-Pontic space now offering sufficient protection, no defense walls.They intervened much later, only when the avars attacks began. Maybe his conquest and final abandonment, in the 600s, kept him so well that now, although only about a third of the whole , looks sensational.The square is quite extensive, the temples are monumental, with the support columns about 15 meters.The stables are …

Landscapes are always a bit tricky to see or understand. Hunting grounds of the Inuits even more. There is little infrastructure to get into these places. The base to explore is Kangerlussuaq, 1h away from Ilulissat or Nuuk either way. The town is small but hotels are plentiful. (I stayed at the Old Camp mainly because the Polar Lodge was already full but it is also that much cheaper, although then you are 2km away from town and need to take an hourly bus to move around. The tours still pick you up here though.)

You can only organize tours via the same agency and the programs are set by date and time slots. I was told one could potentially customize a tour but that ended up not being done. I took two tours: the ice wall and the sightseeing tour. The sightseeing tour will explore the hunting area and other parts like the harbor, the shut US research station (apparently ordered to be moved by the Trump administration), the town and Husky puppies (sho qwute!!).

The main reason this was worth is because of the Inuit guide Kimmi. She is Greenland's unknown superstar and I shall not go into details of what her personal life holds. All I can tell is that she's a really good guide and a hunter. I don't mean this in a advertisement but having her as guide means she will try to understand what you want to know about the area and …

We finally made it to a WHS my wife was more excited about than I was. I knew we would pass through this WHS somewhere along the road between Armenia and Salento at the very least but like others before us, were unsure of the exact boundaries. So we adopted our own interpretation of what we were supposed to be seeing/doing there. For the cultural part we visited Salento and nearby Filandia, both nearly identical in appearance with pretty, colourful buildings spreading outwards for a few block radius from their central squares. This is tourist central, especially on the weekend with all the local tourists day-tripping in.

We also observed the landscape within the core zone, both as we passed through but also from several viewpoints around Salento and especially Filandia where there is a tall wooden observation tower from which you can see all the surrounding villages as well as Armenia. There wasn't as much coffee growing here as we expected considering the importance of the crop to the local economy. We visited a family run coffee finca too and took the tour. It might've been within the buffer zone but we aren't sure. This seemed a fair example with their traditional methods still preserved unlike some of the larger, commercial operations. We learned quite a bit in the process and found it worthwhile. My wife insisted on drinking copious amounts of local coffee so we nailed that part too ;) 

Before modern times and the English conquest, Ireland was never a unified country. It consisted of several individual kingdoms spread across the island. So the title "Royal Sites of Ireland" is a bit misleading. These are not the royal sites of the kingdom of Ireland, but of several of these Irish regional kingdoms.

During my Ireland trip I managed to visit both Cashel and Tara. Both are situated on hills overlooking the surrounding plains. As such, they offer a natural defensive positions and were natural choices to set up a castle and seat of government.

Tara is the older site, at least with regards to the remains. It consists of earthen mounds and forms, partially dating back to neolithic period. The Mound of the Hostages is the most significant structure. It's a passage grave and similar to nearby Newgrange. The site also houses an 11/12th century church.

While there is no evidence for an Irish high king ruling over the whole island, Tara was named as the ancient seat of the High King in the 11th century book Lebor Gabála Érenn. It has kept the reputation ever since. Personally, I am wondering if the local rulers didn't just make up the myth to bestow extra importance on their kingship.

Cashel is the younger site with most remains from after 11th century. The upside is that you have a tangible site to visit. Cashel covers the whole range of what you would associate …

I visited this WHS in May/June 2019. I arrived in Baltra Seymour GPS airport from Quito and I was based on Santa Cruz island for 9 nights/10 days going out on 8 different boat trips to different uninhabited islands and the inhabited island of Floreana.

All the praise the Galapagos Islands receive is fully justified and my already high expectations were met. It is a very fragile natural environment which can easily be lost or degraded in no time (as has already happened in the not so distant past) but I must say that on the whole the Ecuador government and national park management system are doing a very good job to control and manage the effects of tourism on the Galapagos islands.

The most outstanding feature of the Galapagos is the fact that most wildlife is very tame and not afraid of humans. Actually more often than not, the wildlife was very curious to see us and considered us just as another species NOT as a predator. This is true on land as well as in the marine environment. Birdwatching enthusiasts with very big telescope lenses will immediately find out that such expensive equipment is almost useless here - a good zoom might come in handy out at sea but most species will be literally at arm's length.

Everyday was a different highlight for me as I was lucky with the weather and no boat trip got cancelled. Moreover, I had tried to vary boat trips …

It's kind of weird that a small island nation like Malta hosts two great prehistoric sites. But it does, with the Hypogeum being the most stunning. The temples are also great and they offer the added benefit of taking you all across the islands of Malta.

Of the temples I have seen Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra were the most scenic; the previous reviewers seem to indicate the same. Built on a cliff, you get great views of the Mediterranean Sea and Filfla island. Nowadays, both temples are covered by huge tent constructions for protective reasons. Our resident Maltese, Clyde, disparaged the constructions. While I understand the necessity, I have to agree with Clyde: The tents really take away from the atmosphere. The light just isn't the same

Also tent covered is Tarxien. It's a fairly large site and it's also not as old as the others. To me, it offered the best visitor experience as there are pathways and signs. There is even some rock-art. If you visit only one temple, Tarxien is a good choice. It's also a good choice if you are time limited as it's the closest to Valletta and a few blocks down the road from the Hypogeum. Indeed, with proper planning (and a reservation for the Hypogeum) you could cover all Maltese sites in a single day.

Skorba and Ta'Hagrat are without a tent cover. Both a rather small. For Skorba, you can skip buying a ticket as you can see …

2 days after visiting San Agustin we found ourselves hiking along the much quieter and muddier trails between the sites in Tierradentro. We didn't mind though as Tierradentro is much more rural and scenic and worth the effort. There are 5 scattered sites to visit and while it is possible to visit all in a long and hurried day, the entry ticket is valid for 2 days and if you have the time it makes more sense to break it up. In our case we only had the one day and failed to make it to the fifth and final site, Aguacate, as we ran out of time and the afternoon rains started up and scared us off. We were told it is more for the views than for the archaeological sites there anyway. 

There is a little collection of guesthouses across from the official entrance to Tierradentro but we stayed in the village of San Andres de Pisimbala 2km away uphill. Some of the sites are quite close to the village but there are guards at each site to check tickets and unlock gates so you have to start at the main entrance to get your ticket. This is better anyway to first visit the small museum (no english signage) before hitting the trails in one big loop. The trail is straightforward but a little deceiving because to the first and best site, Segovia, it is an easy paved trail but after that it gets narrow and muddy …

With a similar colonial history to the rest of Latin America (Spanish/Portuguese conquest and almost immediate establishment of Catholic missions to "convert the heathens") it seems natural that Colombia would want to recognize this aspect of its history the way Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia and Mexico have. In a remote southern region of Colombia there are still 7 churches remaining to group together into this TWHS.

We only visited 1, San Andres de Pisimbala, because we were already staying in San Andres to visit Tierradentro WHS and it was a 2 minute walk away from our guesthouse. I hope that it is not representative of the others because it was disappointing. Its most defining features are its thatched roof and simplistic whitewashed style. This church burnt down in 2013 and was presumably reconstructed faithfully to the original and if so there is little value to add to the already listed missions. There are no impressive artworks adorning the interior, no remains of a religious community or compound surrounding the church. Instead, beside it is a school, guesthouse and some shops. The interior was just whitewashed walls, photos of the fire and rebuilding process and the usual alter. It is possible that the other 6 churches have more to offer but I felt the significant effort required wasn't going to yield enough reward. The roads are rough and public transport is scarce and irregular so you would need private transport to reach any of the others in a reasonable time …

The Statue of Liberty is one of the most recognizable World Heritage Sites in the world, and the only World Heritage Site I have ever seen someone emulate in costume (whether in Times Square or on US street corners in spring hawking tax preparation services). I've often seen the statue in New York harbor passing by or through New York City, but the only time I visited the statue was on Leap Day 2008. It's hard to appreciate the size of the statue until actually visiting Liberty Island and walking around the base. I didn't have tickets to climb the statue, but I did get a ticket for the pedestal and the museum inside, which I enjoyed (the old museum has since been replaced by a new one that opened in May this year). The statue itself was worth visiting for what it has meant to people throughout its history, and how people still view it, to include:1) A symbol of liberty, of freedom for all men -- an unalienable right America's founders recognized in the Declaration of Independence, even as the country still strives to reach the ideal that "all men are created equal".2) A symbol of immigration and the American dream, as the statue was part of the first view of the United States for thousands of immigrants arriving by boat, seeking a better life for them and their children. This hope has been immortalized in Emma Lazarus' poem The New Colossus, which Kyle has included in …

After being closed for a year (2016-2017) for preservation and renovation reasons, the Hypogeum is open for visitors again. Or more precisely, it's open for some visitors (80) each day. I managed to be one of those visitors in April 2019 on my trip to Malta and Sicily.

Walking up to the site through a modern neighborhood, I was wondering where the actual site was. Then I arrived at the museum, which is housed in one of those non-decrepit concrete cubicles. The cubicle does not offer any inside views, so there is little benefit to venture here without a ticket. Surprisingly, there seem to be frequent tourists, who did not get the memo and come to the museum without a ticket only to be rebuffed.

The Hypogeum tour starts with a short video, which can be booked separately. From there you get first views of the site through tinted windows. When the video was over, we descended into the underground temple. The lighting is well done and they have nice trails. The only thing to keep in mind is to mind your head as the ceiling is low.

It's a pretty large temple and taking into account how extremely old it is (3rd Millenia BCE), it's plain stunning.

Getting There

I walked from Valletta, as the site is seemingly in walking distance. But Malta is not a walking country and I would recommend simply taking the bus. Alternatively, check out taking the 3-City ferry. …