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This was not a site that we looked forward to because of previous reports. However, we had some good luck here. When we arrived in Hillerod, we spotted a large local map on the main road called Kobenhaven. It showed the park’s road grid with its wheel-shaped spokes. Two roads, Kobenhaven and Trebi, a small trail, went directly to the centre according to the map. We parked nearby and walked easily to the King’s stone on the Trebi trail, in no more than fifteen minutes. We were surprised and elated by the ease of discovery. Please note that the paths don’t all go straight; we had difficulty retracing our steps and finding our car again.

This just deals with the technical side of visiting Hetsu-myia (Munakata Taisha) by public transport from Fukuoka, and combining this visit with the other Unesco site in the region, the Yawata Imperial Steel works in Kitakyushu which is one of the sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution.

Go to Fukuoka Tenjin station that is very centrally located. Look for bus stop 19, close to the big post office building. If you have difficulties to locate the bus stop ask the people at the Tourist Information office, inside Tenjin station, very helpful staff indeed. Their opening time however is 9.30h. The first bus for the Munakata Taisha temple leaves at 9.00h, followed by two buses at 10.00h and 11.00h, the ride takes 57 minutes, and the bus stop is right in front of the temple. I was lucky to witness the ritual of a traditional wedding where I attach the photo.

At 11.01 there is a return bus to Togo station to connect you with a train of the Kagoshima Line that brings you in 36 minutes to the Space World Station where the Yawata Imperial Steel Factory is located. The train leaves from Togo at 11.18, so not much time left to buy the ticket, but if that connection is missed, there is another one at 11.34h. In fact once you are on the main Kagoshima Line, there is plenty of trains going in both directions. Buses from Munakata to Togo Station however are very limited, for instance between 10.00 …

Although the Pont du Gard is not near to any main towns, it is definitely worth the effort to go and visit. It's quite an awe-inspiring site to see the scale of the bridge in person and I did a lot of walking around to get views of the structure from different perspectives.

The admission cost is quite reasonable and I would highly recommend getting the ticket that gives you access to the museum and takes you on a guided tour of the aqueduct channel on the top level of the bridge. The museum has excellent exhibitions that explain the history of the site, and I don't think you can really appreciate how it works until you walk along the top level.

The management of the site has done an excellent job of preserving the site, offering an authentic historical experience, but also creating an enjoyable visitor environment. I love that you can have a picnic on the sand or go for a swim in the river on the a summer's day, if you want.

I visited this mixed WHS in January 2018 and spent 3 nights here. By renting a car and buying a 3 days pass, I was free to roam about quite freely within the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. The natural OUV is immediately visible from your airplane as you descend towards the tiny Yulara Airport. The massive red rocks of Uluru and Kata Tjuta are quite impressive surrounded by a never-ending red desert.

The exceptional natural beauty of the rock formations and the surrounding sand plains provide rare habitats for a variety of plants and animals. I was lucky (or unlucky) to experience a thunderstorm on one of the days I was visiting. Not only was it an unusual to see small waterfalls coming down of Ayers Rock but during rainfall the red desert is literally in full bloom. A few minutes after the thunderstorm, the flowers practically vanish, while the few puddles that form are filled with tadpoles and burrowing frogs. Among the several insects and reptiles, we spotted stick insects, praying mantis, leaf katydids, sand goannas and the peculiar thorny devil (photo).

A strong emphasis is made on the fact that the national park is on Anangu land and that Anangu customs and tradional laws are to be respected. Anangu are the traditional owners of this land and living cultural landscape. The land is believed to have been actively managed by generations of Anangu using traditional practices and knowledge. The land is still believed to hold powerful religious and …

The site of Mission ruins of Venn's Town was set up in the late 19th century and its main importance lies with taking care of children abandoned on Seychelles after abolition of slavery. Children were taught Bible studies and some useful skills, such as tending to coffee and vanilla plantations. They were free to leave the institution upon turning 16. Seychelles consider this to be one of their most important cultural sites.

On the actual site there's very little that remains, mostly brick walls of the buildings and only foundation of buildings in others. There's a lovely viewing platform where HRM Queen Elizabeth II. drank tea in 1972. Getting there is easy, it's about 6 km drive from the city centre of Victoria, capital of Seychelles. There's a taxi stand cum public parkplace right off the roundabout with the clock tower (a very small one that looks like a large toy rather than a real thing) from which you could get taxi. No taxis were seen on Sunday we visited but there was one taxi at the parking place of the site. We had our own car, so getting there was no problem. About six other cars were parked at the tiny parkplace. Google Maps shows this place as Mission lodge and just marks it by the road. In reality, there's a small turn to the right and a large sign, so follow that, it will lead you to the parking place. The are is clearly marked and signposted in …

I visited this WHS in January 2018. Of the 11 inscribed sites, 5 are scattered around Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania). Port Arthur and the Cascades Female Factory are the ones which attract most crowds as they cater for cruise ship tours and are among the closest to Hobart too. The highlight sites in Tasmania were the Brickendon and Woolmers Estates. While in Sydney we bought the Sydney Museums Pass, took a ferry to Cockatoo Island and then allowed around 2 hours to visit the Hyde Park Barracks Museum (just a short walk from the Sydney Opera House).

Reading up prior to visiting this WHS will certainly help to better understand and appreciate its national importance and perhaps its OUV. During the 80 years between 1787 and 1868, some 166,000 men, women and children were transported to Australia as convicts. This mass shift of population or forced migration to Australia was part of a global phenomenon associated with the punishment of crime, in this instance controlled by the British government. This phenomenon, known as convictism, dates back to the early 17th century and occured in many parts of the world with Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Russia and Argentina all transporting criminals to locations across the globe.

In Australia today there are more than 3000 convict sites remaining, all representing different aspects of convictism. However, the 11 inscribed sites are considered to be outstanding examples of convictism in Australia. They spread from Freemantle in the west to Norfolk Island in …

I visited this WHS in January 2018 and spent 4 days in Tasmania exploring by rental car. Of the 8 national parks/state reserves inscribed, I visited Cradle Mountain/Lake St Clair National Park.

It is quite a drive on very good condition winding roads to get there. The only stretch on the heritage highway is littered with speed cams so make sure to respect the speed limit or you'll have an unwanted souvenir. To avoid some of the queues I paid the national park pass for my car online and printed it beforehand. Upon arrival at the Cradle Mountain NP Visitor Centre (which closes at 4pm) and huge parking lot, I registered and I was given my day tickets. A very efficient hop on hop off shuttle service is offered (which runs till 7pm).

The least popular stop is the one at Snake hill which as the name suggests is the best place to encounter some snakes from the boardwalk. It is worth stopping at the Ranger Station for some information on the park and trails. The UNESCO WHS inscription plaque can be found there but is oddly placed as part of the stone benches - so unknowingly people might be sitting on it! A little walk up the street from here is another metal sign displaying WH status and a quiet trail through small waterfalls which leads to the enchanted walk were we saw rabbits, wombats and lots of parakeets.

The last stop is at Dove Lake were there are …

What Colonia del Sacramento lacks in single sights it makes up for atmosphere. You can climb the lighthouse, visit a small Basílica and walk along the Muelle de Puerto de Yates but what will remain are general memories of a picturesque, laid back and ageing townscape.

Overall well worth the detour from Buenos Aires (with the Buquebus ferry) or Montevideo.

I find it fitting to write about Olympia in the days following the extinguishing of the Olympic flame for the 2018 Winter Games since I visited Olympia the day after the flame was lit last October. Sadly, there was no trace left of the ceremony, in which Greek women representing Vestal Virgins light the torch at the ruins of Olympia's Temple of Hera; by the time I arrived, the crowds had left and the Olympic torch was already en route to Athens, from where it would be flown to South Korea. As other reviewers have noted, the archaeological site of Olympia is vast and replete with ruins of temples, a gymnasium, lodging, and baths, as well as an excellent museum. Most impressive is the Olympic stadium, where the ancient world's fastest men would compete for fame and glory. Perhaps the most well-known feature of the ancient games was the Olympic truce, which allowed athletes and spectators to travel to and from the games in safety. I'm a bit of a modern Olympics junkie, so I appreciated the opportunity to visit the original site of the games in advance of the 2018 Winter Olympics, in which the Olympic truce took on even greater meaning.

Logistics: Olympia is a bit remote on the Pelopennese, but can be reached by private transportation or via trains and buses. Cruise ships offering tours of Olympia will dock at the port of Katakolo.

As my first world heritage site of 2018 I settled on Mir Castle. Belarus had been on my to visit list for a while, ever since they dropped the visa requirement for visitors of less than five days flying in via Minsk airport. And thanks to a good offer by Lufthansa I boarded the plane Friday evening and ventured to Minsk... In February.

Now this may not come as a surprise and my picture of Mir castle already strongly hints at it: February in Belarus is still winter. The weekend I came was particularly cold with degrees falling to as little as -15 degree Celsius. Hiking around Mir Castle trying to take pictures was quite the challenge as my hands strongly objected to taking off the gloves. But the snow covered landscape gave the excursion a nice feel.

Of itself, Mir Castle is nothing spectacular. It's a castle reminiscent of Malbork or nearby Trakai, but in worse state of preservation. Over the centuries it has undergone multiple refurbishments and reconstructions.

Getting ThereThere are regular direct busses from Minsk running to Mir Castle. Alternatively, you can try to travel by train to Stoubcy and take a cab from there. However, if you plan to visit nearby Nesvizh (you should), are short on time or not fluent in Russian, I would recommend getting a private driver or join a tour. I paid 100€ for the round trip by private car. I did not haggle, so you …

On what used to be close to the Southern shore of Lake Titicaca, you will find the ruins of Tiwanaku. Billed by some Bolivians as Bolivian Tikal, you will find a small pre colombian and pre inka archeological site whose history reaches back to 1500 BCE.

For a long time the area was very fertile. But climate change and deforestation severely hit. Nowadays, the shores of Lake Titicaca are a distant 10km away and the area is covered by strubs and bushes.

The site shows some nice stone works. The original pyramid is gone and hard to imagine based on the ruins that remain. As is often the case with pre columbian ruins the Spanish removed stones and used them for buildings in the nearby village, specifically the Spanish colonial church.

On site several museums display excavation finds. The big stela is quite impressive. In the end, this is a fairly simple site and not much to dial home about.

Getting There

From La Paz you can do this on your own via colectivo. I can't confirm all the details of the how to, but I can confirm that there were colectivos waiting in Tiwanaku to take you back to La Paz.

Due to being a bit time stressed and the organized tours being fairly cheap (below 20 USD) I opted for an organized tour. As is often the case most agencies seem to be selling the same tour. I booked via Diana Tours due to their …

I can only speak for the sites in and around Nagasaki, but what I saw was fascinating.

On a sunny December day, I started with a tour of Glover Garden, which offers great views over Nagasaki and has some historic buildings from the early Meiji period, including the listed Glover House and Office.

The highlight of my visit was definitely the boat tour to Hashima Island (Gunkanjima), a truly weird place, different from anything else I have seen so far. I chose Gunkanjima Cruise for the tour and was satisfied with them. Their ferry “Black Diamond” departs from Motohuna pier, located between Nagasaki station and the Youme Town Yumesaito shopping mall. The boat ride offers some nice views of the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries shipyard, crane and dry dock on the Western side of Nagasaki port and the Kosuge Slip Dock on the Eastern side (all part of the WHS). Thanks to calm waters that day, mooring of the boat at Hashima Island was allowed, and although it was prohibited to walk around freely, it was still possible to gain an impression of the site and take some great photos from the southern part of the island. On the way back, the ferry stopped at Takashima Island for half an hour, just enough time for a short stroll.

Further recommended sights in Nagasaki: Atomic Bomb Museum, Peace Park, Fukusai-ji, Ōura Church (part of the WHS “Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Region”).

Overall a great experience!

We travelled to Sigiryia from Dambulla by our rental car, it's an easy ride of about an hour. You can get inside the site by car, the parking spot is by the museum. The ticket price was equivalent of 30 US dollars per person, to be paid in local currency. You get a ticket with three tear off parts representing three checkpoints. It's a lovely walk towards the rock amongst the ruins, the site is well signposted with English explanations. The gallery of the frescoes is amazing and was my favourite part of the whole site. I had to admire the waspish waists and the perky breasts of the depicted women. On a more serious note, I highly recommend leaning closer and appreciating the amount of detail that went into the paintings. 

And then there's the whole large citadel on the rock itself, which you enter via staircase flanked by Lion's paws on each side. The views are wonderful and the whole area surrounding the WHS is green and tranquil. It's quite a steep and narrow staircase, so watch your step and don't wear flip flops as many locals do and then have them fall off. It's pretty hot there all year around, so prepare for sweat, wear sunscreen and have enough water.

Qalhat is a former port town founded somwhere before 1500 BC, destroyed 3000 years later. Once a prosperous centre now lies buried in the sands of time, quite literally, as the only structure that remains visible is the Bibi Maryam mausoleum. It's accessible via a dirt road off the Qalhat town that can be reached when you pass the canal and bridges. Unfortunately, as we arrived to the foot of the hill it stands on, we were barred from going further by three men guarding the site, who pointed us to the notice board saying it's being closed for re-development of the area. What kind I'm not sure as there was no work to be seen. So we opted for the second best thing, drove the motorway past Qalhat towards Sur and then made a turn back in the Muscat direction. There's a parking place on the highway with the viewpoint of the Mausoleum and we took a picture.

The sky finally took a turn for the better as we approached Hekeng Tulou Cluster. A short hike to a hilltop lookout gave us a far-reaching view of the below valley occupied by tulou in different shapes and sizes. Our mood finally experienced a slight uptick – the view was fantastic, and the village appeared lively enough to hopefully allow us to spend some quality time there without immediately thinking ahead on what’s next.

Hekeng doesn’t have a single tulou that can match the fame of Yuchang Lou. Actually the entire village didn't appear much like a tourist destination, with children chasing each other along the narrow corridors and children freely searching for food in the communal area. Invitation to sit down for tea, which we initially were unsure of and turned down, is the local's customary display of hospitality towards visitor. Feeling more at ease, we followed a young mother back to her home. Originally from Hangzhou, Xiao Zhang had brought with her a two year-old daughter to temporary stay in Hekeng to care for her husband's ailing uncle.

There is no perfect way do determine the exact boundaries of a city WHS. And while there are cities like Quito that seem to have no boundaries at all or like Samarkand that include huge and also some less interesting parts of a city. On the other hand there is at least one city on the list with absurdly narrow boundaries: Paris.

I think even most WH travellers are unaware how little of the centre of Paris is included into the core zone while a buffer zone doesn’t even seem to exist. It includes naturally the most iconic sites like the Ile de la Cité, the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre and seems beyond that mainly interested in the buildings from the world exhibitions: the Trocadero and the Palais de Tokyo. Both of them are not very attractive if you view them closely and in a surprisingly bad state. On the other hand it excludes several iconic sights that border directly the current core zone. Among them the Champs-Elysées, the Palais Royal, the Chatelet and the magnificent St. Julien le Pauvre. It also excludes many of the unique sites just a block or two further away from the Seine: The Palais Garnier, possible the most fairy tale theatre in the world, the Arc de Triomphe, St. Eustache, the Place des Vosges, the Jardin de Luxembourg, the Pantheon, Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the oldest church of Paris. It doesn’t either include the old quarters that escaped the Hausmannian changes of the city like the …

My last 3 remaining WHSs in Italy were spread all over the country (Aquileia in the north-east, Barumini in Sardinia and Castel del Monte in the south) and were giving me headaches. After visiting Aquileia and upon finding out that it's only around 30 Euros each to fly from Venice Treviso to Cagliari in Sardinia and from Cagliari to Bari in the south on Ryanair, I just decided to finish them up once and for all (even though the 25 hour stay in Sardinia in winter didn't sound right). 

But this is about Castel del Monte outside Bari. 

Transportation: 

There is no bus whatsoever in winter from Andria (or Corato), the nearest train stations to the Castel. But I did find after a painstaking online research that there was one bus (not on Sundays) leaving Bari at 14:10 for Spinazzola, stopping at the Castel at 15:05 on the way. (The webpage says the timetable is effective from September 2017 to June 2018 and last updated in November 2017.) 

I was supposed to have 40 min. in Bari (between my train arrival from Altamura and the bus departure to Castel) to buy the bus ticket and to find the bus . But the train from Altamura arrived 30 min. late, so I had only 10 min. in Bari. The center of Bari has 3 train stations operated by different train companies and several bus stops around them, so it was not an easy task, especially when pulling …

My favourite place in Italy besides Rome is not Venice, Florence or Tuscany but the relatively obscure wine producing region of Barolo in Piedmont. This seems to run counter to most of the comments here, but Piedmont is the only region that has successfully grown and produced wine from Nebbiolo. 

The scenery is also beautiful and the wine some of the most complex in the world, but most importantly here you can meet some of the most hospitable people who work in the wine trade.

I had great expectations for the Natural and Culturo-Historical Region of Kotor when I visited in October 2017, since it would be my first visit to Montenegro. Unfortunately, the city seemed rather sleepy and empty when I arrived. After hiking up the walls to the Castle of Saint John, I was treated to an amazing view of the city and the bay surrounded by steep rocky slopes. Small fields and farms were visible from the trail, as were the church towers and the red-tiled roofs in villages lining the bay. Kotor was slightly filled with more tourists when I returned to the city, but the squares still seemed quiet, making me wonder whether anyone other than shopkeepers and their cats (which are revered in Kotor) lived in the old part of the city. The fortifications around the old city were impressive, and I spent some time strolling the city walls. I also visited the Kotor Cathedral and climbed the towers for a look over the town. Although I was slightly let down by the city of Kotor, I appreciated its beautiful setting against the bay, and I highly recommend climbing the walls to the Castle of Saint John to experience the panoramic views.

Logistics: There are regular buses from Dubrovnik to Kotor, and it is also a popular cruise ship stop. Upon arrival to Kotor, the city is extremely walkable.

I arrived in Altamura (which seems to mean High Wall) at about 14:30 on a Monday by bus from Gioia del Colle, as I was coming from Taranto, but Altamura can easily be visited from Bari TWHS or Matera WHS by train, as it is located on the rail line between these 2 cities. 

First, even though I only became aware of Altamura because of its TWHS status, the walled old town was quite pleasant with a marvelous cathedral, museums, and many cafes / restaurants populated by who appeared to be Italian tourists.  

There are 3 museums related to this TWHS in the Altamura area. I believe most museums in Italy are closed on Monday, but the main one of the 3, the Altamura National Archaeological Museum (ANAM), was open on this Monday, so that's where I headed after checking into my hotel.

To state what I found out at the ANAM first, there are basically 3 main sites related to this TWHS. The primal site, so called "Pulo of Altamura," is what is supposed to represent the landscape of the region "Murge" with many sinkholes and is located at 40°53'22.0"N 16°34'05.2"E The Pulo can be visited on your own, but it is just one of the large sinkholes in the region. Then, as the nomination document says, "In addition to these landscape features, the Altamura area includes items of outstanding cultural and archaeological interest as shown by two locations: the De Lucia quarry and the Lamalunga cave. "

The …