All our reviews

The 18th century summer palace and gardens of Schönbrunn are not as remote now from the city of Vienna as they were when first constructed by the Habsburgs. This was one of the first sites my siblings and I saw when we made our pilgrimage to Vienna in the fall of 2003, and we thoroughly enjoyed our visit. The palace was richly decorated by Empress Maria Theresa with chandeliers and paintings and richly paneled rooms gilded in Rococo designs. We took audio tours, which provided a useful history of the rooms and residents of the palace (especially helpful for those not as familiar with the Habsburgs). Once finished, my siblings and I went outside and enjoyed a partially sunny afternoon wandering through the gardens and up the hill to the Gloriette, a beautifully symmetrical building offering an exceptional view of Vienna. Although the gardens were not as extensive as Versailles or the Peterhof Palace, they were still impressive, and provided a peaceful interlude to a day's worth of tours. Without a doubt, Schönbrunn palace and gardens are one of the must-see attractions in Vienna.

Logistics: Schönbrunn Palace and Gardens are accessible by public transportation via the underground, trams, or bus, but may also be reached by private transportation.

Rock Islands Southern Lagoon so far is Palau’s only WHS. It encompasses a marine area south of the nation’s main islands Babeldaob and Koror. The lagoon is a maze of some 445 karstic islands, of which many show a typical mushroom-like shape. The site is a mixed WHS: some difficult-to-access archaeological sites are part of the core area too, mostly on Ulong and Ngeruktabel islands.

The WHS cannot be visited under your own steam: you have to join a tour, hire private boat transport or step on the state ferry to the outlying island of Peleliu that only runs twice a week. I visited the Rock Islands with Impac Tours – this may be Palau’s largest and most professional tour outfitter, aimed especially at a Japanese audience but other nationalities are welcome too. On my tour, an English-speaking guide and a Chinese & Korean-speaking guide supported the Japanese head guide. The cost was 95 USD for the tour, plus 50 USD for a special conservation permit.

I joined 20 other tourists on the ‘Rock Islands plus Kayaking’ full-day tour. Around 9 a.m. each day, you’ll see many boats leaving the tourist resort of Koror – one hardly has the lagoon (which isn’t too big by the way) to itself. But it must be said that the Impac guides tried to avoid anchoring at places where there were already other boats. Probably the best part of the day was the hour that we spent kayaking. A kayak gets you …

Site visited April 2015. Although I could see only a fraction of this spectacular national park it was still a memorable visit. It is without a doubt one of the best natural sites I have visited so far.

Simien Mountains National Park is one of the sites of inaugural 'class of 1978' which makes it even more interesting. Visiting it is not cheap by any means. In addition to often expensive transportation to the national park you must pay an entrance fee and hire a guide and a scout.

As I was short of time I organized only a day trip from Gondar. We started early in the morning with a guide and a driver. At first we drove two and half hours to Debark where we paid all the park fees and did all the required paperwork. The mandatory armed scout joined us in Debark. Next we continued some 15 kilometers to Buyit Ras where we left the car.

We hiked slowly along the edge of northern escarpment half way from Buyit Ras to Sankaber. The route is in the height of 3300 meters and the views were absolutely stunning. The distance we walked was not very long comparing to the size of the whole national park but I saw some breathtaking sceneries over the rugged cliffs to the deep and green canyon like valley. While enjoying and photographing the views we saw some birds but what we were looking for was the wonderful gelada baboons.

Gelada baboon is …

My first trip to London was in 1987. At school, you could choose between Berlin, Paris, and London as destinations for an educational trip. I chose London because it seemed to be the most modern and lively of the three, and also because I was quite into English pop bands at the time. According to the pictures I have we visited Buckingham Palace and Big Ben. Several trips followed this one, but I haven't done much sightseeing in London. I probably was too busy browsing bookshops and record stores.

Only in 2016 I 'touched' this site again, putting Westminster Abbey on the to-do list of a day trip to London. My visit started with queuing for some 20 minutes in one of the two lines that lead up from the sides to the North Entrance. Upon entering I was spoken to by one of the vergers. After enquiring where I came from (she did not ask whether I came to worship by the way), this friendly elderly lady said she was sorry that no audio tours in Dutch were available. So I settled for one in English. It’s good that one is provided within the entrance fee, though I wasn’t really impressed by its explanations. It does not go much beyond “This is a church where many famous persons are buried and hey, there’s a throne used for coronations too”. My suggestion for improvement would be to be able to select stories from different angles, so as to learn …

Seoul is preparing for inclusion of its 4th WHS in the city proper in 2017. ‘Hanyangdoseong’ covers its City Wall, originally constructed in the late 14th century. ‘Hanyang’ is a reference to the old name for Seoul, while ‘Doseong’ is a “walled city where a ruler lives”. The over 18 km-long wall was built along the ridge of Seoul’s four inner mountains. The site seems well on track for receiving foreign visitors, it already has an elaborate website in English and its own Seoul City Wall Museum.

12 km of the wall has been preserved, as well have the South Gate and the East Gate. The official website has extensive information about hiking trails on and alongside stretches of the wall. I choose the shortest and most accessible route, the Naksan Mountain Trail. I started from the southern end at Dongdaemun (East Gate) – the site of one of the best remaining gates, plus the location of the City Wall Museum. Dongdaemun has its own subway stop, and from there I took exit number 1. The way to the museum and the start of the hike is signposted by arrows on the street tarmac.

The museum is located in what looks like an enormous office building. It is solely used however for exhibitions on the City Wall. Entrance to its 3 floors is free. Lots of money has gone into restoring the wall over the past years, and the museum seems costly too. All has been done with future WH …

I visited the site in February 2012. In particular, I visited Cockatoo Island, The Hyde Park Barracks, and the Old Government House. The Sydney area locations are pretty easy to visit, especially the barracks.

View my complete review of the Australian Convict Sites on my website.

Dominica was the island I was most looking forward to on the Caribbean cruise I took last month, not least because of the reviews I'd read of the beauty of Morne Trois Pitons National Park. I had hoped to take a tour which included a hike to Middleham Falls, as well as a journey through Titou Gorge. Unfortunately not enough visitors signed up for that tour, so I went on a tour with a larger group that only included a visit to Titou Gorge in the park. The gorge was as amazing as I heard. The journey started with a short hike through the rainforest, passing poinsettia trees in bloom. The hike turned aquatic upon arriving at the gorge, which was filled waist-deep with brisk, turquoise water flowing from a waterfall we could hear through the rocks and trees. Our party swam through the narrow gorge, stopping to admire the lush vegetation overhead, before we reached the waterfall. And that's where I made the mistake of taking my camera out of my wet bag to attempt more pictures, because I inadvertently allowed water into my wet bag and damaged my camera for the rest of the trip. It was a small price to pay, though, for getting to spend time in the well-preserved natural beauty of a Caribbean isle.

Logistics: Tours of Morne Trois Pitons can be arranged through local companies, and are particularly useful for visitors on cruises. Visitors with longer timelines can arrange their own transportation to the …

I visited the island in August 2016. It is a delightful oasis of calm, with no cars permitted. The early C20th colonial architecture is abundant and spread across the island, which is fun to explore. There were few western visitors like myself, but it is a very popular domestic tourism site and ferry numbers are limited. I wish the authorities well in the 2017 World Heritage inscription and hope the impact of tourism will be controlled.

Site visited April 2015. The small and puzzling site of Tiya left me with mixed feelings. For me it was the first taste of Ethiopia and as such it was an exciting journey. But if you are not a WHS or cultural history enthusiast the experience could be underwhelming.

Tiya is an early inscription from 1980. Although it is quite near Addis Ababa it is not very easy place to reach. In theory there should be some bus connection but I wouldn’t count on it. In practice the only reasonable way to visit Tiya is to hire a car and a driver which I did via local travel agency.

I had arrived in Ethiopia just a few hours earlier. In the morning, after two hours of sleep, the driver picked me up from my hotel. The journey in the countryside south of Addis Ababa was fascinating as we stopped along the route to admire nice views and meet some shepherds of Oromo people.

After three hours we arrived in the site of Tiya. There was someone who collected a small entrance fee and also a souvenir seller in a small hut. Besides them I was the only visitor.

The site is very small with 36 steles in three clusters. The steles are up to two meters in height and some of them lie on the ground. Almost all the stones have engravings which include swords, circles, false banana trees and some unidentified symbols. There have been different hypotheses about the …

When I was planning a trip to Wales in 2005, I realized I would be traveling very close to Ironbridge Gorge, widely recognized as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. With my interest in world history, there was no way I could bypass this site, so I arranged for a day trip detour. The Severn River flows through the gorge, which is named for the famed Iron Bridge detailed in other reviews. I enjoyed walking over this remarkable piece of engineering, as well as viewing it from the trails on both banks of the river. Just as fascinating was the Blists Hill open-air museum, which included examples of the coal and iron mines involved in making this valley so important to the Industrial Revolution. In the early 18th century, Abraham Darby used coke, derived from coal, to fuel blast furnaces along the gorge. This created a less expensive source of cast iron and revolutionized the iron-making industry. Blast furnaces from the Madeley Wood Company are still on display at Blists Hill, and I was impressed by their conservation. Blists Hill also offers examples of a Victorian-era town, which I enjoyed exploring. I highly recommend this site for anyone with any interest in technological innovations in world history.

Logistics: An automobile is probably the easiest way to arrive at Ironbridge Gorge, as well as to navigate to the

multiple museums. There is also a train station at Telford, to the north of the gorge.

We visited Teide National Park for two days in the autumn.

The first day we went to the 'Roques de Garcia', already mentioned in Els' and Hubert's reviews. We can confirm that during the 3.5km walk, at some points it's easy to lose track of the path. Just keep looking for the small 'stone towers' which indicate the correct way.

The second day we got up early to climb Mount Teide. The best way to do this is to start from the small parking located around kilometer 40 on road TF-21. The trail is about 9km (one way) and first leads you along Montaña Blanca and the impressive 'Huevos del Teide' (lava 'cannonballs' from the eruption of the vulcano).

After some time you will reach the base of Mount Teide. When we visited, the whole track (from the start) was covered with snow which made the way up Mount Teide somewhat difficult. The trail ends at 'La Rambleta' at about 3.500m, which is also the place where you will arrive if you make use of the cable car.

For the last 200-300m to the top, you need a permit. We disposed of such permit (it can be requested online and is free of charge) but because of the snow the summit was closed. However, even from La Rambleta the view is stunning - on the picture you can see Pico Viejo and the island of La Gomera.

As mentioned below, note that at 3.500m it's much colder than at sea …

Visited in November 2016.

I reached only one site from Yapese Stone Money Quarr - Chelechol ra Orrak, they call it Metuker er a Bisech. The site is located in a small island belonging to Airai State. At the time I was there, only one tourist agent was organizing 2-hour trip to the site (it could be shorter or longer depending of your climbing skills). I do not remember their name, but it is easy to find them because the office is located just under the big bridge connecting Koror to Babeldaob (the big island); it'll be on your left hand side when you drive from Koror - just cross the bridge and then make a U-turn, choosing the road that goes under the bridge; this is the last building on your right now.

You will hear that at least two people are needed to organize a boat for that trip, but if you insist and show how much you'd love to see "this unique Palauan treasure" they do it only for you. That's what happen to me; we agreed the day, the time. The price is fix: 35 USD for the trip plus 25 USD for kind of a permit to visit historical places in Airai state. If you have paid it already in Airai State Office, you'll just have to pay only for the tour.

After 25 minutes boat trip you land at a provisional harbour, and then you have to climb up for another 20 minutes. The …

As a regular tourist, you can only walk through the first kilometre and a half of Paradise Cave, although there are special tours that can take you further. This first section is designed for visitors, with a wooden pathway the whole way and tasteful lighting illuminating the special features along the way.

When it comes to these features, there are so many to see. The start of the cave is an enormous cavern, bigger than a stadium, but when you get a bit further in it’s the stalactites, the stalagmites, and the limestone columns that dominate the view. They come in all different shapes and sizes – thin ones and thick ones, smooth ones and jagged ones. Some look like rows of guardians, watching over their theatre. Another looks like a house. Another like a waterfall, in suspended animation for millions of years.

Ha Long has big problems - overcrowding, pollution, and an inconsistent tourism product. That doesn't take away from the beauty of the place but it does present some concerns.

It's hard for people (myself included) to choose a boat to go on. None of the travel agencies actually own the boats they are selling you a place on. They work on commission and they get more commission from certain companies – so they’re the ones they’ll push. They also don’t really know whether there will be a place on the boat they are selling you. It’s entirely possible (and happens very often) that you actually just get on-sold to another boat without realising until it’s too late.

I wish there was an easy way to guarantee a good time. That's hard, though. I think the tourism industry would benefit in the long term from working on improving their product and not ripping off the stream of tourists who will never come back again.

The town itself feels like a ski resort in summer… which it kind of is. But what I mean is that the visitors come for the day to walk in the hills or visit the religious sites but they don’t set up base for longer than eight hours or so. The few hotels near the train station all have vacancies and in the evenings most restaurants are either closed or empty. It’s during the day that there are queues out the doors for the popular lunch joints.

The first shrine was built in 776 and more were built right up until the 16th century when the area was abandoned. It means there’s a mix of architectural styles that show the evolution of Shinto against the backdrop of Buddhism in Japan. The Japanese have a saying that roughly translates to “you haven’t seen beauty until you’ve seen Nikko” and it’s true. These magnificent buildings nestled in the lush green forests are truly stunning

The citadel is in a small town called Vinh Loc. I couldn’t find mention of any tours that go there and there is no direct public transport options for other cities where you might be travelling through. In the end, I found a local bus that took 90 minutes from a city called Thanh Hoa, which I was not intending to visit. It seemed like the easiest way, though, short of hiring a car and driver for a day. I guess I was hoping there might be a good payoff for all this effort.

There wasn’t. Not with the citadel itself, that is. I appreciate that this is a historically-significant site but the only thing that really remains is the large stone wall, about 900 metres long on each side. It’s an impressive wall and so I decide to walk along it. In the centre is where the citadel’s buildings would once have been. However, now there is nothing left.

Just the name ‘Salzburg’ is enough to conjure up images of European modern fairytale – majestic churches, colourful facades, quaint shops on quiet streets, narrow bridges over a wide river. Even if you have never been (and I hadn’t until now), you probably have a feeling of Salzburg, regardless of whether you have a mental picture.

The Austrian city is one of those places that’s talked about as an iconic destination for a trip in this region – and, I can tell you, it’s justified. Salzburg is beautiful from the approach, beautiful from above and beautiful from within. As a whole, it creates a consistent panorama of style. Zoom in further and each building, plaza, restaurant is captivating on its own.

In August 2006 I visited the Roman fort of Saalburg, a part of Upper German-Raetian, and at that time I wrote a review that the German section of this World Heritage Site was not well known compared to its counterpart in England because the German Roman frontiers were hard to see as it was almost entirely built by wood and right now most of them are just many small traces on the grassland or the few stones in the forest. It was really hard for normal people to appreciate this site. The only place you can get some imagination of Roman fortress is Saalburg, just north of Frankfurt, which has a fully reconstructed fort and good museum. Saalburg Fort has been mentioned in ICOMOS document as the only new reconstruction part of German-Raetian that ICOMOS accepted as a WHS, so it tells you something about the quality of this place. At that time, the best way to see Saalburg was to take a train to to Saalburg via Bad Homburg and followed the hiking route to "Romerkasteel Saalburg" for about 2 km. I remembered that I walked through lovely forest and saw some traces of the Raetian which was quite fascinating to see some ruins left in the German forest, after a good long walk in nature it was quite shocking to discover that Saalburg fort is just next to a very busy German Highway.

A decade later in December 2016, I have visited the most famous …

On the way from Oaxaca to Mitla, both impressive WTS in their on right, we visited this incredible tree. Once a Zapotec sacred site, it is now adopted by the catholic church standing next to it. This tree is like a forest in itself, like a complete building block to walk around. You don't know if it is really one trunk or several grown around each other. It is hard to say if it is of universal importance but it is definitively worth a trip if you are in this fascinating area!

On a trip to Japan a few years ago I made the effort to go and see the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo – mainly because I knew it would one day be considered for inclusion. It was a grey day, which didn’t contrast very nicely with the concrete building, but I still took some photos and saved them for this moment.

When it comes to sites that have multiple locations, I normally say that I have visited the site if I go to one of the locations. But in the past, most of these situations have been where the locations are all in the same (or neighbouring) countries and are all quite similar. This Le Corbusier one is a little different.

So, what I’ve decided to do is mark this off the list. But, at the same time, I’m going to be taking note of where some of the other buildings in this listing are, and visiting them when I get a chance.