All our reviews

The caves were beautiful and the park rangers were nice, funny, informative, and very helpful. I took the historical tour and the tour guide knew very much about the history of the caves and was very willing to answer any and all of my questions (no matter how probing.) The caves themselves were phenomenal and I would very happily go back several times again, because there is always more to see in the park.

I visit this site twice and i as the "Justification for Inscription" said "The Jesuit buildings and ensembles of Córdoba and the estancias are exceptional examples of the fusion of European and indigenous values and cultures during a seminal period in South America. The religious, social, and economic experiment carried out in South America for over 150 years by the Society of Jesus produced a unique form of material expression, which is illustrated by the Jesuit buildings and ensembles of Córdoba and the estancias".

The main church in Córdoba city was built as a ship, and was one of the wonder of than time in the area. The "estancias" are fines examples of Barroco local stile. In Alta Gracia we saw also a Che Guevara´s house museum, and Manuel Falla´s house.

For me is a very interesting site, i a marvellous area.

I have just returned from Vietnam (August/Sept 2010) and of course did the obligatory Halong Bay 3 day 2 night boat trip. The scenery is absolutely beautiful but I was so distressed by the pollution levels (air and water) that I am not recommending to any intending travellers.

The water in the bay we kayaked to for swimming was extremely polluted (althought the small beached area was relatively clean. After swimming, my skin stung for the rest of the day. Maybe the sea is extremely salty...or maybe the little mounds of oily foam floating all over the water are a testament to who knows what chemicals being dumped into the bay.

The sky was so hazy that there were no stars to be seen at night and the islands were invisible until you were almost on top of them.

The depth of the physical pollutants in the ocean was a real shock. For as far down as I could see (bear in the mind the water is pretty clear) there were plastic bags. Add to this the plastic water bottles, fishing flotsam and jetsam (including nets and floats), bits of broken up foam, all manner of food packaging etc etc and you get the picture of where this World Heritage Site is heading.

I asked one of the crew on my day boat about it and he said it mainly comes from the fishing villages (where he lived incidentally). When I asked if anyone came to clean it up he …

I first heard about Dr. Instad's excavations of a possible Norse site in the New World in "newsreels" (remember those!)in 1960 when I was 14. I knew at that moment that I HAD to make a pilgrimage there one day - and so I did so in 2007 to celebrate my 60th birthday. It was fascinating to walk through the ruins and look out on the Bay and see what the Norse saw 1000 years ago, and to realize that Lief Ericson had been here. The Visitor Center was excellent, as was the hospitality of the local people we met. I only wish the Museum/Visitor Center had small replicas of the sculpture commemorating the contact between the Norse and Native Americans-representing the final leg of the circumnavigation of the globe that had taken place starting with Homo sapiens' African Diaspora ~60,000 years ago.

On the way back to the U.S. Gros Morne national park was a geological wonderland.

I'm definitely going back - this time with bicycle, kayak and camping gear on my Element.

--Glenn Chinery, GChinery@aol.com

Idanre hills is a natural wonder.A place for relaxation,recreation and scientific studies.Although I was born in Lagos,as a native of Idanre,I feel proud to belong to a community that stands out in the whole universe.

Dada-Peters Folasade

Ayutthaya has abandonned stupas from subsequent empires and buddhist styles. The city must have been very impressive in its day but now it is a quiet place with few visitors. There are numerous temples that might be of more interest to someone doing research or a student of architecture.

I visited the Taj in 1987 but it doesn't really matter , does it? It's timeless. I was going to actually give the Taj a pass and skip it. After all, how many times has one seen the Taj in movies, images, brochures etc. Many times. But coincidentally, the train route i was taking from Calcutta to Bombay made a needed stop in Agra.

I arrived pre dawn and had read in the guide book that the best time to view the Taj was at sunrise, sunset, or under the stars and moon. So by chance I had arrived at an opportune time. I hired a boy who pedalled a rickshaw but he went the wrong way! yep. I couldn't believe it. Eventually we got there and i was the first one in! It helps to get there early! I managed to get a photo with noone in the foreground. I was pleased with that.

Part of the magic of seeing the Taj in person is the way the light of the sun and moon play off the marble. The mood of the Taj literally changes . It really is a remarkable experience. I also saw it in the early evening and the mood and sillouette of the Taj impressive. Best seen early or late to avoid the crowds.

Elephanta caves was a pleasant excursion near Bombay. There were monkeys and a Shiva Lingam

One should get bonus points having visited this remote and obscure site. Only 6 registered WHS enthusiasts did so before me - this puts the Dacian Fortresses on the same difficulty level as Nisa (Turkmenistan) or Sana'a (Yemen). Information about the site, practical or historic, is hard to get. The more interesting ones that I found on the web I've added to the Links section at the left of this webpage.

I planned to visit Costesti (2 locations) and mainly Sarmizegetusa Regia. Finding it is easy nowadays: the Dacian sites of Costesti are signposted from the main road in Orastie. All went very smoothly until I had to start the unpaved road to Sarmizegetusa Regia. It's 18km long and full of potholes. Unfortunately, it rained too, so that made driving there in a non-4WD even more adventurous. My effort ended about 2km from the site, where the road is full of loose stones and starts to go uphill. I didn't want to get stuck here, I doubt there will be more than a handful of visitors daily. So I parked the car at the side of the road and hiked the remaining part. It was still raining but I felt very determined in getting there!

After many turns, I finally arrived at a signboard "Sarmizegetusa Regia". From there it's still a short walk through the forest. There I already saw part of the Dacian road (impressively flat) and defense towers. The main complex is on an open field. …

I explored part of the Delta by boat. It was a standard tour of about 6 hours provided by Hotel Delta in Tulcea. I was in a group of 18, however, the ship can hold many more. We navigated mainly to the north, in the area of Lake Lung and Lake Nebunu. On our way, we encountered several other tour boats, as well as speed boats and even canoes. Dozens of fishermen dotted the shores.

Navigating these canals and streams by boat is a relaxing way to spend a couple of hours. I sat at the front and did my best to spot as many birds as possible. What we saw: White Pelican, Cormorant, Egret, Glossy Ibis, Heron, Kingfisher and many waterfowl. I saw a lot more than I have photos - it's very difficult to come up close because of the noise of the boat.

What also catches the eye are the many plastic bottles that have been left in the water and on the shores. This part of the Delta is relatively well accessible from the bigger cities like Tulcea, and probably a lot of locals go fishing and camping here. I expect the part closer to the Black Sea to be more pristine.

There are 200-250 villages with fortified churches in Transylvania. You'll pass several of them on your way to one of the 7 WHS designated villages. They are scattered along the main roads between Sibiu and Sighisoara, and Sighisoara and Brasov. Every village has the typical small, brightly coloured houses and a bulky and sometimes oddly shaped church. The names of the towns are posted in German too. It's a pleasure just driving around and looking out for them.

First I visited Valea Viilor (Wurmloch). There's a big sign to it on the main road. Four km along a winding country road took me to this town, original in its Saxon layout with one long street ending at the church. Construction workers were busy with the tower. Their head man doubled as museum/church keeper (or is he the keeper who needed to oversee the reconstruction?) and welcomed me in German. There's an oval compound here within the walls (6-7 m high). There's lots of room for storage behind these walls. The interior of this church is relatively simple. All Biblical quotes displayed are in German.

Biertan is the best known of these villages, and the one originally inscribed in 1993. It's also the most popular with tourists; it has souvenir stalls and a book shop. The entrance is 6 Lei (1.5 EUR). The structure here is large, like a citadel. You enter via a long wooden staircase. At the top of the hill, there are a number of towers, …

This is Romania's best WHS - without any doubt. I spent 1.5 days visiting six of these churches: Arbore, Humor, Moldovita, Suceava, Voronet, Sucevita. They lie scattered around the beautiful region of Bucovina in Northeast Romania. The churches all have a lot in common but are distinctive enough to merit visiting several of them.

If I had to choose between them, I would say that Voronet and Sucevita are the most rewarding ones to visit. Voronet has the most impressive exterior frescoes of them all, while Sucevita is a large and well-maintained fortified monastery complex. I find it strange that Sucevita was only this year added to the then 7 locations that comprise this WHS, but maybe there was a technical reason for this.

This is a popular tourist region in Romania, so you surely will not be alone here. Most of the churches charge entry fees (plus additional camera fees), and sometimes you have to pay for the parking too. The nuns sell postcards, booklets, and trinkets. Tour buses from Germany, France and Belgium also know how to find the major churches. But no matter, I found myself staring and enjoying the frescoes over and over again. There are so many details to discover, from historical (the fall of Constantinople) to biblical.

The author of the Bradt Guide for Transylvania goes on and on in her praise for Sighisoara: “… like taking a trip back in time, to an era crowded with vampires, evil counts, wolves, peasants riding through the untamed countryside on horse-drawn carts and tipsy old men tottering along the narrow, winding streets”.

After having visited the site myself, my conclusion is that she must have been living under a stone all her life, or just spent too many years in Romania. It’s a nice town to visit for half a day, but is it any better than a similar medieval city WHS? San Marino (much bigger and more spectacular location), Assisi, or Toledo (both more impressive individual structures) come to my mind. Only these cities were not on the route between Central Europe and the Ottoman Empire… (a regional aspect is what distinguishes it the most).

What I liked best about Sighisoara was the long-covered wooden staircase that leads up to the very top of the hill. It was built to cover schoolchildren and churchgoers from the rain. It reminded me of a similar one at Biertan Church that I visited earlier that day.

I visited 4 out of these 8 churches by car on a day trip from Baia Mare. The first one I headed for was in Rogoz. Memories of a trip searching for small wooden churches in Slovakia came to my mind – finding them in towns full of churches is not all that easy. Rogoz also has several churches. The “old wooden one” is at the back of the village, while the newer ones have prime locations. In fact, there are two old wooden churches next to each other here. The church was locked so I only had a look at its distinct exterior decorations sculptured out of the wood.

I then drove on to Surdesti. The church here is on a hill at the end of a tiny road. The rain had started pouring again, but I had come at the right time: there was a service going on (it was Sunday morning). The singing could be heard from afar. Dozens of people had to stay and pray outside. I sheltered beneath the gate, together with a begging boy and some latecomers. After the service ended, surely about 200 people came past us. I then could enter the church. The interior amazed me: it was like a warm home! Woolen blankets covered the benches and the floors. The interior walls are completely covered in vague, naïve paintings.

Afterward, I went back to Baia Mare waiting for the rain to end. I took along the young beggar from …

I drove from Vienna to the house for a guided tour that was in Czech and translated into very bad German. We were given a card-like menu to read from. Visually the house is in bad shape (this was September 2008)there is exterior water damage and structural damage.

The most impressive things about the house are the fixed pieces; dining room table, curtain rods on the ceiling to create 'partions' in the open floor plan, the air conditioning system, and the electronic windows that roll down like a car window!

Go there when the restoration is complete, it is worth it!

Malaysian Sarawak seemed to be the last frontier of the world with the images of unexplored jungles, unique animals and fascinating tribal cultures, on July 2010, I had a chance to visit Sarawak to find out that my imagination toward this land was not exactly I dreamed but with full of surprise and sometime beyond my expectation. The first view of Sarawak on the plane was endless palm oil plantation, quite amazing sight but truly a tragedy of environment that all lowland jungle had been destroyed. The leftover jungles were on the high mountain and one of the survivors was my destination of this trip, Gunung Mulu.

Visiting Gunung Mulu was expensive and bureaucratic over killed from pricy airline and limited park entry permit. Visitors were almost impossible to visit the park without park ranger and had to go in group. However Gunung Mulu was really a fascinating place with many incredible things to see. The star of Gunung Mulu was the four show caves, Wind Cave, Clearwater Cave, Lang Cave and Deer Cave. These four caves were different and had their own characteristic. Wind Cave was full of beautiful stalactites and stalagmite especially in the King Chamber. Clearwater was jaw dropping with huge underground river caverns, one of the longest cave in the world beautiful pond in front of the cave and uniquely one leaf plant that only found in Gunung Mulu. Lang Cave was the smallest but with many fantasy stalactites. The last and my favorite was Deer …

During my trip to Shanghai I stayed deux days and a half in Suzhou.the city itself is very charming, with its numerous canals and pagodas and museums (especially the new Suzhou museum). however its fabulous gardens are what made the city famous and I managed to visit six of them : the humble administrator's garden, the lion forest garden, the lovers' retreat garden, the master of the nets garden, the canglang pavillion and the lingering garden.

the Humble Administrator's Garden is certainly the most impressive of the lot (and the largest). the sight of the lotus ponds surrounded by traditionnal buildings is very attractive. however the garden was quite crowded (with lots of tourists groups and megaphones) and that kinda ruined the experience for me. in the garden there's also a garden museum which is very informative and links the different gardens together.

Near the Humble Administrator's garden is the Lion Forest garden. now i was really disappointed by this one. it was far more crowded than the previous one and its smallest size made things worse. people were everywhere, climbing the rockeries (which btw were remarkable and the garden's main feature) or queuing in the ancient buildings. for me this was not the way to experience the garden, far from it. (it was a summer sunday afternoon, mind you, so remember never to visit this garden on this kind of day!)

A little further is the lovers' retreat garden. you can easily reach it by foot from the lion …

I was in Venice earlier this year (May 2010) it was my first time and I have to say I knew hardly anything about it. My friend had been twice and had raved about it, so I went with an open mind. I loved it!

We went for a week, booked an Hotel on the Lido so we had the best of both, with a beach on one side and Venice on the other. We did just about everything we wanted to do, including a trip by bus down the Lido and across to Choggia on the mainland. We also spent a day trip across to Murano, Burrano and Torchello. We both agreed that Burano was the best, it was so pretty.

A lot of people only go to Venice for a day, they only see and do just a couple of things and it would probably be packed with people anyway, which can spoil it.

St Marks Square on a warm late evening when all the tourist have left and you can stop for a coffee in peace or have an ice cream or a drink is absolute magical.

I went to the Grand Canyon back in 2000, during a 3 week

trip to California, I have to say that it was a highlight.

We stopped overnight in the village with the intention of

seeing the sun rise, but unfortunatley we overslept which

resulted in us going late morning, it was just breathtaking

and we ended up staying to watch the sunset. I don't believe

it could have been any more spetacular. It will stay with me forever. I would recommend seeing the Grand Canyon to

anyone who is in the area, a must see.

I visited Sergilla and othe villages in the reagon for 3 days from 18th till 21st August 2010. I was not aware of it's existance and I was surprised. The society, that built thiese villages roughly 1500 years back, were using skills long forgotten. Till date building fully made of rock exist.

Sergilla is also an earthquake area, still many building are standing after such a long time.

Maybe it was not the best time to travell, August is the hotest month and it was Ramadan aswell. Late fall or spring must be better.