All our reviews

I was not there at Aldabra but having done family history research I discovered that my Uncle George Ronald Lush and his wife were there when the research station was built. George had built a station in Halley Bay Antarctica, Therefor I guess he was a suitable candidate for building a research station on Aldabra having had the experience. He had an adopted daughter I believe but it was not known whether she went with them. He was also called as magistrate for the Atoll. There are pictures of him throughout news cuttings and brief references to the family in the Mary Gillham's archives. Anyone having information no matter how small I would appreciate contact via Facebook under Ron Lush 

My visit to the TWHS of Nîmes seemed like such a simple plan: fly to Marseille and then drive there in an hour. In Nîmes I then would have an afternoon to see the Roman monuments. But reaching the city this particular last Saturday was hindered by people in 'yellow vests', protesting against the high fuel prices and other issues. All access roads but one had been blocked, so with a huge U-turn (which cost me over an hour extra) I had to enter the city from the north. Even there it was a slow affair. Fortunately all protests that I came across in the south of France went peacefully; I got a free passage twice on the toll roads and a banana in return for the discomfort.

In Nîmes itself, the Musée de la Romanité was my first destination. This is a grand Roman museum that has opened this summer to reinforce the WH candidacy. For 17 EUR I got a combi-ticket that also gave access to the 3 most important Roman monuments of the city: the amphitheatre, the Magne tower and the Maison Carrée.

The museum interior is modern and light. Nice to walk through, but the collection itself I found not that special. Nîmes seems to feel the need to measure itself with the neighbouring cities of Orange and Arles, which are already WHS because of their Roman history. However, ‘Nemausus’ was only one of the many colonies founded by the Romans in foreign lands, …

This site is scheduled for inclusion in 2020. It consists of six ancient burial grounds situated around the town of Ahlat, on the north-western side of lake Van. It is a 2 and 1/2 hours by car on a spectacular and perfect highway from Van town. Of the six cemetaries, only the biggest is well signposted, right at the entrance of the town. There is a brand new and informative museum next to it.

This main cemetary is called Meydanlik. It is enormous, with tousands of tombstones made of reddish volcano turf in the middle of a large huge field. I visited this site in october 2018. Walking around this vast was very atmospheric, reinforced by a stormy weather and many crows flying around the tombstones. I was the only visitor that morning, but there were several people renovating the tombstones (basicaly removing the lichen covering them). The tombstones breathtaking, as high as 4 meters, and richely decorated with geometric, vegetal and stylized scipts. On the horizon is Nemrut volcano.

I lacked any information about the 5 others cemetary, which are not signposted. There seem to be much smaller and much less imporessive than Meydanlik.

Entrance is free for the cemetary, 6 lira for the small museum (worth a look to better understand the area). Taking photos is not allowed, and reminded upon entrance. Well, on a 2 km long field, this rule is a little difficult to enforce, and I still did take some …

After the extensive review of the Cave of Pont D’Arc by Solivagant 2 months ago, I was afraid that there would be nothing left for me to write about! But I was happy to finally tick it off, as I had a painful 'near miss' last year. This time I first drove to the Cirque d’Estre where the real cave is located. At least I made it into the buffer zone (looking at the map, I suspect that the core zone starts behind the vineyards at the ridge?). Signs were all over the place to warn about wild boar hunters so I did not proceed beyond having a quick look at the Cirque and the Pont d’Arc opposite. I’ll continue this review with my experience of visiting the replica cave in late November.

I bought the ticket online about a month before, but there were still tickets left on the day. I was on the first tour on Sunday morning, at 11 am. They warn you to be there at least half an hour before – that’s because the tours do not start at the visitor entrance but at the ‘Caverne’ across the park. Not until 10.15 other cars started to appear at the parking lot and the entrance remained closed until 10.30. There were 15 other people on my tour, all French. The tour was conducted in French only and the guide skipped handing out the audio guides because of the small group size (a nice gentleman who …

The Pitons of St. Lucia hold such a place of pride for the country that they are prominently featured on its flag. There was no way I was going to pass up a visit to the twin peaks when I traveled to St. Lucia in the fall of 2016, so I hired a driver from a tour company in the port of Castries to take me to the Pitons Management Area in the southern part of the island, near the town of Soufrière. Along the way I passed banana plantations, fishing villages, and scenic Marigot Bay, but I was most impressed when the Pitons first came into view along the coastline. Before visiting the peaks, my driver took me to the Sulphur Springs geothermal area, which was rather decent to visit, even though I have seen similar areas in other countries. Following Sulphur Springs, we drove to a farm on the Piton Mitan ridge, which connects Gros Piton with Petit Piton. There was a hike on the farm which gave me a spectacular view of the Pitons--particularly Petit Piton--set against the deep blue of the Caribbean. I thoroughly enjoyed the natural beauty of the peaks, and I have fond memories of that evening as I left the island, getting one last view of the Pitons silhouetted against the horizon as the sun set.

Logistics: The Pitons Management Area is probably easiest to reach via private transportation.

I had been fascinated by Ani for a long time, even before it was included on the WHS List. While travelling in Armenia the previous year, I had a far-away view of the site, from across the border, with no possibility to visit, the Armenian-Turrish border still being seald-off. I therefore decided to make a trip only to visit Ani in october 2018.

Luckily, domestic flight from Istanbul are convenient and rather cheap. There are several daily flights to Kars (50 minutes from Ani), but I chose to get through Van (some 4 hours away) to also enjoy the area’s TL sites (3 around Van lake and one on the way, next to Dogubayazit). Renting a car is quite easy, but don’t expect anyone to speak english in any rental agency, or at police check-points (the area is close to Iran and Armenia borders). However, they all have Google translation on their mobile phone.

Ani is a triangular plateau formed of three valleys. It has been settled since Early Iron Age (BC 1200-1100), and slowly reached its heydays in the Mediaval time. It became the capital of Armenia in 917, and then of the Katholicos (religious seat) in 992. The location of the city on the Silk Road helped a rapid growth, which seemd to have reached 100 000 habitants around 1000. It was then called « the city of thousand and one churches ». It lost it capital status after invasions in 1045 but remained a cosmopolitan …

I visited this WHS in September 2018 spending 4 nights in and about the Gunung Leuser National Park in Sumatra Island. After a long and bumpy ride from Medan Airport to Bukit Lawang (and a cheap overnight stay), we left for three days to explore the tropical rainforest of Gunung Leuser NP, camping at different places within the inscribed NP.

Our main goal was to admire the Sumatran Orangutans in the wild and we got to see more than a dozen including alpha males, females, young as well as newly born orangutans. The orangutan sanctuary was closed down and the few orangutans kept there were released as the number of orangutans grew enough over the years. We were lucky to spot a female orangutan with her baby around sunset just before she prepared their night nest high up in the trees just above our camping site. Early in the morning, they played together at the small waterfall nearby while we had breakfast which was an unforgettable moment.

Apart from the orangutans we also spotted several white handed gibbons, black gibbons, long-tailed macaques, pig-tailed macaques, Thomas' leaf monkeys, silvery lutungs, Sunda slow loris, monitor lizards, jungle peafowls, Salvadori's pheasants, Roll's partridges, Sumatran Laughingthrushes, Sunda Laughingthrushes, Rueck’s Blue-Flycatcher and countless butterflies.

Even though the Gunung Leuser NP's size is mindboggling (almost 8000km2), our nature guide was very knowledgeable in tracking and spotting different fauna species (mostly monkeys and primates) but also sun bear claw marks on different trees. Even …

Akdamar (Holy Cross) Church is located on an small island in Lake Van, in eastern Turkey.

The Armenian Church was built between 915 and 921 AD. It is made of volcanic tufa, which give the church a peculiar dark redish color. The most unique and striking feature of this church are the stone bas-relief decoration. They represent a wide range of themes, mostly religious subjects derived from the Old and the New Testament. Adam and Eve, David and Goliath, Daniel with lions, and a funny scene a Jonah thrown overboard into the whale.

To reach the island, you first need get to a small port about an hour west from Van town. There is no schedule : ferries leave when enough passengers have shown up. My travel guidebook said they usually leave when 15 people have arrived. In summer week-ends, local peaople flocks the boats, as the island is considered a great barbecue spot. I arrived in the port early in a rainy Tuesday afternoon in October, and was skeptical about any chance for a ferry departure. However I only had to wait half an hour, and a boat left when 8 passengers on board. The ride is about twenty minutes and costs 15 lira. On the island, another 15 lira entrance free is recquired. The boat waits for an hour (which is enough for a thorough visit, but if not, it is possible to board any later boat).

The interior of the church is decorated with …

Visited November 2018. Semarang would be a very valuable addition to the WH list. The city is located on the north of central Java and is easily accessible from different places on the island. Although the old town (Kota Lama) looks a bit ruined and some buildings are in a very bad condition, you can find there a kind of atmosphere that makes you want to stay longer. Just walk around, you’ll discover what makes this city special – some old Dutch architecture, small streets with galleries and shops, a bit forgotten Chinatown… Not to miss old churches, Chinese temples and, a bit further from the center, very big Lawan Sewu that used to be the headquarters of Indonesian railways and colorful Kampung Pelangi. According to what I’ve learned at the tourist information center (or tourist agent), the biggest values of the city is a chance to follow the trade and industrial history of it; when you know where to go, you’ll surely appreciate that. And some best cafeterias in Indonesia!

The Raoudha nilometer in Cairo has been part of Egypt’s Tentative list since 2003. I have no idea whether the country has plans for ever nominating it, but it is an easy and worthwhile addition to any city trip of Cairo. Nilometers were used since Pharaonic times to measure the Nile River's water level during the annual flood season. On my previous trip to Egypt, I already had visited 3 of them: in Edfu, Kom Ombo and Aswan respectively. This one in Cairo however is much more elaborate and decorated. It dates back to the 8th century and was renovated a few times after.

After I spent 2 hours in Coptic Cairo, I left the touristy area behind me. At the other side of the Mar Girgis metro station, at the other side of the Nile even on Rhoda island, lies this Nilometer. I had to do some typical Cairene city walking to get there: from the street with the Coptic churches, I passed the military roadblock guarding the entrance, crossed the railway tracks via a walkway (with a typical dumping ground at the bottom of the walkway), walked through a shabby but still cosy neighbourhood with dilapidated high-rise buildings and then had to cross a very busy road. Fortunately there is also a bridge over the road, although I was the only one using it – the locals just crossed the road between the cars.

I ended up on the banks of the Nile, at a footbridge. …

Fossil sites generally mean museum. I see how there is a difference between the fossils and the Earth has a long history, but they are still boring to me. I also don't find them worthy of their inclusion for specific reasons or superlatives. They should be studied, protected, but they are definitely not a tourist attraction. You would have to specialize in this topic to really get into it like a real science geek. What I saw in Canada was kind of interesting. Joggins did the tour, made you search for fossils, told you about it. In Switzerland you get an interactive museum and it kind of tries to suck you into liking what is pretty much just a book in 3D with pictures. Chengjiang does nothing of the sorts. You have to hire a taxi for great costs to get there and even local drivers don't know where it is. I asked for Maotianshan and the driver kind of knew it. Eventually we found a parking lot with an attendant. Entrance is free. Walking up the hill still feels kind of exciting but once you get to the run-down museum you quickly feel like this was not worth it. I did not even take any pictures from the fossil site but instead a video of the nice view from the mountain, and this being a few years ago the phone camera was rather shitty.

So the museum is a few panels and a pile of fossil rocks. I …

Just returned (November 2018) from short Bahrain trip. While in Bahrain you have to see Manama center as the majority of hotels / hostels, car rentals or bus terminals are there.

I have a lot of doubts for any future inscription of this site. Historical places and buildings like Bab al Bahrain, located nearby old post office or old court (that you can see on the photo) seem to be well maintained but in my opinion they do not constitude any integrity. Unfortunately they are surrounded by completely new sky scrapers. Old souqs may be old but all the shops look also very modern. Older buildings - at least those to the east of Bab al Bahrain - does not look very special, just typical as in any other cities in the Gulf Region.

Seeing first old quarters of Muharraq city wandering through Manama streets was somehow dissapointing. In fact even comparing different cities in the area I found central district of Muscat (with its many historical buildings, forts, sultan's palace and different ministries) much more interesting than Manama.

But anyway it can be nice experience to walk through Manama souqs mainly due to its multinational character

Sao Francisco square in Sao Cristovao was not much more than a typical square for the area. We weren't even sure we were in the right place but finally found a UNESCO sign on a nearby building. Surprisingly there is a lack of preservation in the surrounding streets though there are a couple of older churches. In all we spent maybe 1.5 hrs there.

it feels like they don't know what they have there. There wasn't any tourist infrastructure at all. We visited late morning mid week. We were the only obvious tourists, foreign or domestic, there were school kids running around the neighbouring streets and everything was closed, including the little tourist info office. It felt safer and cleaner than I expected given the state of northeast Brazil these days but there arent any of the quaint guesthouses or little restaurants catering to visitors you expect to see around a WHS these days.

The easiest way to visit is a side trip from Aracaju, a pretty standard coastal city with plenty of accomodation options. There is a local bus leaving from the old central bus station quite regularly and takes less than an hour. We actually caught an Uber there and took the bus back. For us it was a logical stop as we worked our way down the coast from Olinda to Salvador but unless you are in the area and have time to kill it has nothing to add to the experience of visiting those …

I visited all the components of this WHS over a week in August 2018. Even though Bali has some very touristy spots and notorious tourist traps, it has its very own architecture, culture, traditions and is practically the only place in Indonesia were the majority practice Hinduism.

Even though the inscription is centered on the subak system and landscape, this WHS has much more to offer than just another water management system. Personally, I was expecting something along the lines of UAE's aflaj or Madeira's levadas. What I visited in Bali can be roughly divided in 3 aspects. 1) Nature - Lake Batur, Mt Batur, 2) Beautiful man-made landscapes - Subak Landscape of Catur Angga Batukaru, and 3) Temples - Supreme Water Temple, Royal Water Temple and Pura Gunung Kawi Engravings. So to sum up all 3 aspects, the experience I had reminded me mostly of Kathmandu valley with multi-storied temples everywhere and a culture which is very much alive.

I based myself in Ubud and organised a full day driver services to the different places I had researched before my arrival. Early starts are highly recommended to beat the crowds and to avoid getting stuck in traffic jams. As I usually skip lunch, visiting popular places such as Taman Ayun at around lunch time meant I had the place almost to myself. If you want to avoid being hassled just buy a cheap sarong and wear it before entering the temples or else be adamant that you're …

Another wine valley...but wine valleys are beautiful! I will not get into the "unique" or whatnot aspect because it has already been touched by other reviews. I personally enjoyed driving through the section of Peso de Régua to Pinhão and back, stopping for pictures along the way and buying a bottle of wine from one of the many vineyards. I am no wine expert to know which is a good year or which of the vineyards are supposed to be one of the better ones and having to drive I obviously did not do a wine tasting. All I will say is that the wine was well received as a gift.

Some places just take a lot of effort if one wants to visit individually and I feared this would be the same. I hate tours in China and they tend to spend more time on shopping stops than sights, but there is a tour from Enshi that takes you to this and other places worth seeing, if only I had done all this before. The tours hardly touch the area at Shengnongjia so actually don't do this! You can either come in by bus from Yichang East (the airport shuttle's first stop), 3 and a half hours max with mostly G standard roads, or you can fly in from Shanghai/Wuhan to Hongping airport which is another hour from the scenery areas. The bus stops at a town called Muyu and has several rides a day. In the busy time you can also find minivans going back to Yichang. The official bus terminal even hands out these cards of the drivers if you want an alternative transport. You don't actually need to stay in Muyu but it's a good hub. If you spend more time at the other areas you can stay at a hotel over there which saves some time coming back to Muyu at the day but obviously you would have to arrange transportation or have your own car.

Muyu has lots of hotels and tour drivers, so I tagged on with a group of people from Canton and each paid 100 RMB for the day, excluding entrance …

While hiking the Inca Trail last month, I was wondering how different North American cultural heritage might look if the Inca Empire had extended further north. We may never know what North American Incan architecture would look like, but North America does have incredible Puebloan architecture from the 12th century on display at Mesa Verde National Park in southwestern Colorado. Mesa Verde was one of the first two US World Heritage Sites, and part of the first group of World Heritage Sites inscribed in 1978. The exquisite Cliff Palace is rightly famed, and looks incredible from the viewing platforms; unfortunately when I visited in May 2016, palace tours had not yet started for the season. Instead, I signed up for a tour of Balcony House, built high up on the side of a cliff. I thoroughly enjoyed the tour, and was impressed at the craftmanship of the rooms and kivas, which look out over a valley. After the tour, I drove around the park's loop trails and stopped by the museum at the visitor center before continuing to nearby Wetherill Mesa, where I visited Step House and hiked some of the Long House trail. Mesa Verde deserves at least one full day for a visit, if not more, and is one of the best cultural sites the US has to offer.

Logistics: Mesa Verde is expansive and requires private transportation for access; there are several hiking trails available once in the park.

Visited Grimeton radio station with an English guided tour in August 2018 (I booked in advance through the official website for 120 SEK). It is rather small, but contains all the original equipment (produced by General Electric in the USA) in excellent condition plus some other related exhibits. Today radio station is occasionally used by amateur radio enthusiasts. The station is striking example of the pace of technology development. The wall mural shows 9 radio stations from Hawaii, USA (central radio was on Long Island), Poland, Wales and Sweden but only Grimeton station survived in its entirety. (Another murals probably with some irony compares the site with Giza pyramids, Great Wall and other big elephant site!). Totally agree with previous reviews that the site is unique, pleasant and interesting.   

I had finally made it. After always ignoring this WHS due to the distances involved in getting to any or the lack of interest to actually go out of the way to see a monument I would drive along the road in Belarus to see a Cyrillic UNESCO World Heritage sign on the side: Leskovichi Ivanovo. I had obviously added this to my list of places to visit knowing it was so easy to attach to the itinerary. There is even a bus stop here in the middle of nowhere!! You don't have to go far to see the marker, 5 meters off the road. Behind the Struve monument is an old device used for measuring plus a sign post to explain the arc, it's importance and history in English as well. Overall I was satisfied and spent a good 15 minutes reading, taking pictures and doing a quick Wikipedia read plus the sun was out in early April.

I suppose I don't recommend visiting unless you are into science or history, or both, but this was so convenient I couldn't dismiss it.

I visited the Plains of Jars at the end of October just after the rainy season when the valley is still nice and green. It gets cold and chilly up here so if you are thinking of combining this with other areas in South East Asia be aware you need something warmer for the evenings here. I stayed at the Kongker Guest House which I don't really recommend but Mr Kong leads a colorful daily tour of the Plains, which I do recommend because it is cheap and gives you more than just information about the site, but maybe bit too much about the Secret War. If you are just interested to see the jars in maybe half a day you can hire a private tour for $50+ and decide how many of the 3 sites you want to see. In a way, seeing Site 1 shows you pretty much everything about the jars already and takes the longest to visit of the three. I will concentrate my the on the sites and not the tour, although I may want to mention that visiting the bombed old capital and the stupa are not worth the time and money.

Once you get to the first site you have a small museum about the history of the jars, theories more or less, but more than they had years ago when first trying to inscribe the place. Basically ICOMOS told them to do research into the jars and they have no chance …