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We visited the Burg Hochosterwitz (also TWHS) and the Dom of Gurk by taking a little detour between Graz and the Hohe Tauern park. Gurk is a small town with a huge church that held the episcopal seat of Carinthia until the late 18th century. In the long list of all sorts of churches that are on the WHS list, this one might not blow away everybody at first sight, like some do. But it does have some nice historic features and art work. However, I doubt that this, combined with being the largest Romanesque building in Austria, is enough to become a WHS. It has been on the tentative list for 30 years now and I wouldn’t know what would have to change to get it listed.

Saint Hemma of Gurk, the patroness of Carinthia, is buried here and there are pilgrim routes from other parts of Austria and from Slovenia leading to Gurk.  

The church itself can be visited for free, the crypt costs 2,50 euro to be paid at the (big) Dom-shop. There are several paid options for guided tours and visiting the ‘treasure room’, but advanced reservation is required. The detailed website gives all information only in German (a bit too much information to translate it all here) and I don’t know if that means that tours are also only offered in German. Opening hours are daily except Mondays in the summer semester, but more limited in the winter season. For example, since the …

I visited in April 2024 the DOMunder experience in Utrecht. Like previous reviewer has explained, you get to go under the Domplein square to explore with flashlights the ruins of the Dom Church's nave that was destroyed by a tornado(!) in 1647. However, besides the church ruins you can see also other ruins from different time periods, one of them being the Roman period. There is a very tiny part of the Roman wall on show as the Roman ruins are not the main focus of the DOMunder. 

The DOMunder tour started with a presentation in the basement of Utrecht Music School where the guide goes through also the Roman history of the Domplein. And here you can get really close to the actual Roman wall ruins! Before the presentation started our guide showed us a hole in the wall where you can see and touch the original Roman wall. This is not automatically part of the tour so you can ask from your guide to see it in case they forget to show it. I really enjoyed the DOMunder experience and can recommend it for anyone interested in history.

I booked the tour online and checked in for it at the Utrecht tourist information center. From the tourist info I got myself a free brochure about the Lower German Limes sites around Utrecht. They all seem to be worth of visit if you're interested in Roman history but the DOMunder is the only way to see the …

I had a painful ‘near miss’ of the Western Ghats WHS in 2011 when I visited Ooty, saw the Nilgiri Hills and crossed the Ghats by bus from East to West; but I did not enter the core zone anywhere. While preparing for my 2024 India trip, it didn’t fit in either. These 39 parks and reserves are all so isolated. But at the end of my journey, while on the bus from Bangalore to Mysore for almost 4 hours, I tried Googling again to find an accessible location. I 'discovered' Mandalpatti Viewpoint inside the Pushpagiri Wildlife Sanctuary, reading stories about locals running ‘jeep safaris’ there (more offroading than safari). 

At this stage in my India trip (day 26) I wasn’t hesitant anymore about requesting a full-day trip out of town at the last minute. So at 8 am the next morning I was on the road again, towards the hill station of Madikeri. It’s a straight shot from Mysore, 120km on a decent road but with lots of speedbumps. We made it to the ‘Madikeri Jeep Stand’ in 2.5 hours. The Jeep Stand turned out to be well-coordinated by a drivers’ cooperative – with a fixed price on display of 2,500 rs per jeep for the 3-hour excursion.

The road to Mandalpatti Viewpoint requires a 4x4; in the beginning because the road goes steeply uphill, later on because there isn’t a road anymore, just rocks. I suspect that the Madikeri cooperative likes it just fine the way …

Villages with Fortified Churches in Transylvania, to give it it's full title. And, to be specific we are talking about 7 villages that make up the UNESCO WHS listing. They are:

Biertan, Prejmer-Tartlau, Viscri, Dârjiu, Saschiz-Keisd, Câlnic and Valea Viilor.

Whilst on a mini road trip of central Romania a few years back, I was lucky enough to visit 3 of the above villages. Anyone planning on visiting them all should be aware, you need at least 3 days and a car with a Sat-Nav (although when I did it I used old school maps). Some of the villages are really tucked away and off the beaten track and although they may look easily accessible on a map, the roads are often narrow, sometimes not tarmacked and while, not mountainous, certainly hilly.

I have to say though, it's well worth the effort. These are some of the most impressive fortified churches I've been to and they are situated in some stunning scenic areas with towns and cities nearby, also worthy of your time, particularly Medias, Sighișoara and Brassov which are ideal centers to use as a base or a stopover.

The ones I managed to get to were Biertan (pictured), Saschiz-Keisd and Valea Viilor. All were thoroughly enjoyable but Biertan stands out above the other two just in terms of size and location.Were it not for the UNESCO listings they are places I'm sure I would never have heard of and I think this is one …

The Ramappa Temple didn’t show up wrongly in the recent Most Remote Cultural WHS inventory. Over 4.5 hours were needed by car from my hotel in Hyderabad. Staying northeast of the city center may shave off half an hour, but will leave you far from the airport for onward connections. 

The drive is not only long, it’s boring as well and the road is only a good 4-lane highway for about half of the 260km distance. Only in the last hour, there are a few roadside ‘attractions’: the large boulders of the Deccan Plateau, some churches (both Catholic and Baptist groups have been successful in converting the local tribal population), cotton and tobacco farms, and finally a forest reserve.

The ASI manages the Temple, which also is again in active religious use by local Shaivas. A priest was present on the morning of my visit to give blessings in the inner sanctum.

I visited with a guide from Hyderabad on a private tour, which was especially worth it to discover the finer details of this temple. Photos don’t really do it justice, as the harsh sunshine obscures the details and many of the sculptures are overhead. The overall architectural plan is common and similar to that used by the Chalukyas who created Pattadakal 1000km away; only this temple stands out for its use of about an equal mix of red sandstone, black dolerite (basaltic) and porous bricks. 

The bricks are in the tower: this is …

August 2024 - Another Limes WHS! Good that it got inscribed before our trip, so we knew what to look for. At the end, we ended up just activly visiting 2 components. Alba Iulia and Jidova.

Alba Iulia is amazing though. We spent two hours here, and admired the old roman remains. Jidova (picture) was rather a spontaneous stop. The remains there are also by far more interesting than all these Limes components in Germany.

I am curious how many more WHS will evolve from the Roman Empire era.

I visited the Summer Palace in June 2024. The palace is located at the outskirts of Beijing so going there by public transport takes some time. I took the subway to Beigongmen station that makes you to access the palace grounds from the north entrance. This entrance was quite peaceful as bus tour groups seem to enter from the east entrance. I bought the ticket that allows access to all the different sites in the palace grounds but you can also opt for cheaper ticket that allows you to stroll just the gardens, which are still a lot to see.

Right after the entrance you're already on the first sight of interest, the Suzhou Street. This is a fake village made to look like the canals in Suzhou and it was made for the royals to play peasants doing their shopping. You can go walk on along the canal and even take a boat tour but I just admired this fun sight from the bridge that goes over it. After the Suzhou Street I started to climb over the Longevity Hill. I walked through the "Four Great Regions" which is a building complex resembling a Tibetan temple. After that I reached the top of the hill and started to hike down towards the Kunming lake and more central parts of the palace complex.

Climbing the hill in humid summer day was quite a sweaty activity but after reaching the lake I understood why the royals came here to …

August 2024 - on our detour to Rosia Montana, we made another smaller detour to Rimetea. It is actually an Hungarian village. The inhabitants speak hungarian. And already in the morning there were tour busses visiting from Hungary.

As we did not plan to visit Hollökö, which we did due to changes in the itinerary, Rimetea was supposed to be an alternative. Landscape wise it is more spectacular, but Höllökö has wooden houses, this one typical Hungarian Stone houses, as you also find them in north Slovakia.

We had breakfast with another straying dog and continued our journey to Goldbach.

The TWHS Monuments and Forts of the Deccan Sultanate (2014) and The Qutb Shahi Monuments of Hyderabad (2010) both include the Qutb Shahi Tombs in Hyderabad. They have already been on the verge of nomination: examination by ICOMOS of the dossier was postponed in 2014 when India nominated 2 sites that year (they preferred pursuing Rani-ki Vav). 

I did a quick afternoon visit to Golconda Fort and the Tombs while staying in Hyderabad the night before going to the Ramappa Temple WHS. I can be short about the Fort: it’s like a fortress of which I saw so many on last year’s Pakistan trip, dilapidated and so large you won’t know where to start restoring it. As in Pakistan by the way, its origins are (Shia) Muslim – the local Golconda Sultanate (16th-17th centuries) had strong cultural ties with Persia. The current population of Hyderabad also comprises a large Islamic minority (30%).

The outlook on the Tombs is totally different from that of the fort. I wasn’t really prepared for what I would find here, being so far into my India trip (day 23) that I had gotten a bit sloppy about writing down notes beforehand. I knew there were tombs, my rickshaw driver yelled enthusiastically “Seven Tombs” (its popular name, because 7 sultans are buried here). But it turns out there are 40 of them in one 106-acre compound. Unlike most cultural sites in India, this one isn’t managed by the ASI but by the Telangana State. …

After a long day on the Sangha River from Oesso, we arrived at Dzanga-Sangha National Park we arrived at eight o’clock, the last leg in darkness. The speedboat journey through untouched nature, passing isolated villages and local fishermen, was serene and surreal - we encountered only one motorized boat the entire day.

Our stay was at Doli Lodge, managed by WWF and beautifully situated on the Sangha River. The lodge exceeded expectations and offered more comfort than its counterpart in Odzala-Congo. Though the original plan was for four nights, it was shortened to three due to the temporary suspension of gorilla trekking. The unfortunate loss of the last silverback means the groups need time to stabilize. However, the park has much more to offer.

Day 1:The day began with a visit to Dzanga Bai, the most famous mineral-rich clearing in the area. A 45 minutes drive, then a 40-minute easy walk, including a river crossing, brought us to this magical spot. As we arrived, around 120 forest elephants of different sizes and colors were gathered on the plain. What a sight!. It was mesmerizing to sit in the observation tower and watch their coming and going. They even have their own spa treatment covering themselves in golden mud. Researchers counted up to 144 elephants at its peak, an unparalleled wildlife experience. Late in the afternoon, a family of forest hogs made an appearance. At four o’clock, we returned to the lodge for a cold beer and a …

I enjoyed Nalanda, probably because my expectations were low. We arrived just after 9 a.m. from Patna (2h by car on a good road, once you’ve managed your way out of the congested city center). I would suggest arriving this early as the site attracts larger numbers of daily visitors than you can imagine for an archaeological site in rural Bihar. It seems to be included in many of the group tours of the pilgrims visiting the Mahabodhi Temple, so there will be plenty of Asian groups around. Also, it’s a nicely landscaped park that attracts the locals from the nearby large city of Bihar Sharif. 

The extent of the site surprised me the most. I had mostly seen pictures of Temple 3 beforehand, and as it is the most complete it will attract your attention immediately after entering the complex. But there are many more parts worth seeing, especially among the temples. The monasteries follow a specific mould and once you’ve seen one of those, it’s enough.

Interpretation and signage at the site are very minimal, and that doesn’t help finding the more interesting spots. You’ll easily miss a side path. At first, I was pleased to see that they added QR codes for more information next to each building, but after scanning it turned out that it contained the same text as painted on the stone panels. 

A simple map plus useful explanations can be found here. Worth a closer look are:

…

After visiting Mostar on my way back to Croatia I stopped to see Počitelj. I enjoyed the site but following Mostar it was a bit like having a digestive biscuit after a slice of chocolate cake.It's quite small but enjoyable nonetheless, it's not a site I would head to if I wasn't already in the vicinity though, there's just not enough to make that worthwhile.There's just a couple of shops catering for the tourist trade and you can wander around the narrow cobbled streets and take in the Turkish style architecture.Just based on the site's size alone, I would be surprised if it made it to the full WHS list.

Manas is a fine excuse to make the detour to northwestern Assam. According to these stats, only a couple of hundred foreign tourists make it to the park in a good year. I went there by car+driver from Kaziranga (6.5 hours) and stayed for 2 nights in a homestay amidst the tea fields close to the Bansbari park entrance. All was calm, friendly and very low-key. It reminded me of rural Thailand, the area where I stayed to visit Huai Kha Khaeng. 

The scenery is dominated by the massive “wall” of the Himalayas which lie north of the flat lands of Manas. Another characteristic is the presence of a lot of dense forest. There are other park entrances as well, Bhuyanpara and Panbari, which lie more to the east and west respectively: the east is where you can find the most special mammal species of Manas, the pygmy hog (although they are “almost never seen”).

I did two jeep safaris in the park from the Bansbari gate: one from 6-9 a.m. and the other from 2-5 p.m. The early morning one seemed to be the most fruitful as it delivered about one specimen of each of the common species (Indian rhino, Asian elephant, Asian water buffalo, Malayan giant squirrel, Sambar deer, Capped langur), plus numerous Indian peacocks. That was until we ended our afternoon tour at 4.30 with a visit to the Bura Burithai Watchtower: at its clearing we saw 2 gaur and 5 rhinos simultaneously and …

On my 3rd road trip to Sonora, Mexico from Los Angeles I decided to reserve a boat tour to Isla San Jorge, part of the 'Islands and Protected Areas of the Gulf of California' world heritage site. During previous visits I had primarily focused on El Pinacate and Gran Desierto de Altar Biosphere Reserve. Typically each trip was 4 days and we always entered and departed Mexico from the Lukeville Port of Entry in Arizona. On the way to the border, you will drive through Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, the location being quiet far from population centers, you can expect a relatively quick border crossing. November through March are all excellent times to visit, I would avoid the Summer.

1st Trip: February - March 2014

2nd Trip: December 2016 - January 2017

3rd Trip: November - December 2024

During this recent trip, I wanted to visit the small island of San Jorge (Bird Island). The cost is $114 per person and its mostly a full day experience. From Puerto Penasco's harbor, you will depart at 8am and return by 4pm (approximate). The boat keeps a leisurely pace and it will takes about 2 hrs and 15 minutes to arrive at Isla San Jorge (if you get motion sickness, plan accordingly). Once you arrive, you can snorkel, kayak, swim, or simply focus on the wildlife (birding, photography). For visitors interested in scuba diving, this can also potentially be arranged (inquire in advance). I focused …

The Moidams in Chairadeo, in the way they are presented at the moment, are a meagre testimony to the culture of Assam’s Ahom Dynasty. These rulers, originally coming from what is now Yunnan in China, left this region with monumental brick buildings of which many still stand. But “we” got a series of unexcavated tumuli that wouldn’t be out of place in Korea or Bahrain. Most of them are fairly small. On-site information is almost nonexistent: maybe 4 information panels with about 2 sentences written on each, and the tumuli are signposted as Maidam 32, Maidam 33, etc only. According to the AB evaluation, there should be elements of ancestor worship, sacred use of the surrounding landscape and small shrines on the top of the mounds. But most tumuli that I came across lacked those.

It is also weird that the management of the site (which is “just” one contiguous field of tumuli) is split between the ASI (national level) and the Assam Directorate of Archaeology. This means two entrances right next to each other, two entrance fees (250rs and 10rs) and a low stone wall to demarcate the two zones. At inscription, they promised that the wall “will soon be removed” and that they would work toward “joint management”. As of late November 2024, this clearly hasn’t happened yet.

At the ASI side, work is still ongoing to make the interior of one large tumulus accessible to the public. At the Assam State side, they have already …

August 2024 - After visiting family near Cracow, we drove through Slovakia next day without omitting Kezmarok, Levoca, Spissky Hrad and Slovensky Raj. We arrived at the campground at Baradla in the evening and had a clear sky to see probably all stars of the northern hemisphere. Next morning, my birthday, we signed up for a tour to Baradla Cave. Really fascinting stalagnites and a nice 1,5h tour which our kids enjoyed as well. It is probably one of the easy accessable, yet fulfilling experiences. From there we continued to Tokay.

August 2016 I had visited Dobcinska Ice Cave after a day hike in Slovensky Raj.

When I went to Krakow for the first time I deliberately chose not to go to Auschwitz, I know what happened there and it's truly horrific, I didn't feel that I needed to witness the place where those horrific events took place at first hand. That was 12 years ago and I returned to Krakow in 2024 with my wife who was keen to visit and pay her respects, so this time I went.

If I had to sum up my experience in one word I found the site to be depressing. The fact that it was so well organised, so regimented and clearly designed like a modern factory for processing purposes, the purpose in this case was mass murder on an industrial scale. The matter of fact way that the Nazi's experimented to find the most productive way to kill people is probably the most disturbing aspect of the site for me. All my life the thing that troubled me most is how a cultured and civilized race of European people could perpetrate such crimes against humanity, if they can sink to those depths anybody can.

Am I glad I went? I have to be honest and say no, as I stated earlier I knew what happened there. Film footage of camps being liberated are still far more shocking and emotive than visiting a site where these events took place. Also, I'm not entirely comfortable with the way it seems to have become a "must see" site …

Just a short update on Santiniketan from me, as the previous two reviewers already have covered it well. The site fails so many of the WHS Commandments at the moment that a visit is a poor investment of time and money. On paper, I can see there is “something” worth acknowledging but in reality, I don’t know what message they are trying to convey to the world. Or whether they care about outside visitors at all. The place is run by a kind of ‘Education Trust’, which already worried ICOMOS, as it plays by its own rules. 

The most interesting things to see are the quirky buildings, which could be labelled as ‘modernist vernacular’. Here again, I have to concur with ICOMOS in its evaluation: they aren’t notable from an architectural perspective, you have to consider them as part of the overall idea of an early 20th-century utopian university community in a rural setting.

Some practical things to keep in mind:

• As described in detail by Stanislaw, the Visva-Bharati Campus is now firmly closed to outsiders, even with signs “Tourists not allowed”. Thus you will miss out on some of the highlights such as the Kala Bhavan (Art School) with the tarred Kalo Bari, unless you are prepared to go through all the hoops of acquiring permission and are lucky enough to get it. 
• The foreigners’ entrance fee to the Rabindra Bhavana (Tagore museum) has risen to a ridiculous 1,000 rs (ca. 11.5 EUR). …

After spending most of the day exploring Split and Šibenik, I ended my coastal day trip in Trogir, and I'm so glad I did. While the other sites were impressive, Trogir turned out to be the highlight of my day. A couple of hours is really all you need here to soak in the atmosphere and explore the compact historic centre.

Like many coastal towns I visited in this region of Croatia, Trogir feels distinctly Italian in character, which isn't surprising given the Venetian influence. The well-preserved medieval core is so pictureesque, especially in the evening hours when I visited, which user Bojana rightly recommends. The main square, centred around the iconic clock tower, has a really laid-back energy that reminded me of places like Guimarães in Portugal, with locals and tourists alike gathering at cafes and restaurants. These smaller, gentler historic towns and their main squares have such a calm, social vibe.

One thing that struck me was all the little boats dotted around the harbour, which make for great photo opportunities. There are a few tourists and it's clearly a popular stop for cruise ships as other reviews have mentioned, but it didn't feel overwhelmingly crowded during my evening visit. Maybe that's because I went in October though.

The absolute highlight of my visit was catching the sunset. There's something amazing about taking an evening stroll along the waterfront as the sun sets behind the walls. While you could probably spend longer here, its compact …

August 2024 - after spending the night on a wonderful campground in Săcălășeni (Camping Noroc), which also has a nice wooden church, we drove to Sudesti and Plopis next morning. It is very convenient to visit as these two churches are close together and represent two different religions. The first is greek catholic the second is romanian orthodox, thus the paintings and interior is also varying quiet a bit. In both churches a lady with Keys had to arrive prior to our visit. She asked for a small tip and explained a bit about the architecture and history. As it was our first romanian WHS, we were very enthusiatic about the visit and scrutinized every detail of the interior and exterior. The unique thing about these churches are the high wooden bell towers. As we have seen further non-whs wooden churches in Maramures, we got the essence of this WHS despite visiting only 2/8 churches.