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I actually grew up in that region, but had never been to any of these renowned tourism spots. In the summer of 2023, I brought my family back, and picked Zhouzhuang (one of the four towns in this site) to visit. 

Zhouzhuang is a little town in the prefecture of Suzhou, who also houses the WH site of Classical Gardens of Suzhou, which we also visited. My parents drove us to Zhouzhuang and spent a good half-day. The town is a network of rivers and canals with numerous traditional residential buildings that are at least 200 years old. In fact a lot of people are still living in those buildings, but some chose to rent them out to shops and restaurants and live in the modern parts of the town.

The town is not huge. I suggest walking the streets first to feel its ambience, tour one of the nobility residences, then eat at one of the snack shops, and buy some local crafts, before taking a boat ride to experience the serenity of the town. Some of those restaurants and craft shops are a bit touristy, but others are authentically interesting. My daughter bought a landscape wall art piece entirely made of reed leaves by a local artist. My mom got a beautifully decorated vessel flute. We also ate some traditional snacks that I hadn't eaten for a decade. 

The boat ride was absolutely adorable. The canals are clean, and buildings well-maintained. Besides many tourists, we …

I visited Santo Tomás Chichicastenango for the first time on market day in the summer of 2021 and recently in winter of 2023 on a regular day. It is from there that many of the finest and oldest crafts and embroideries come from, many of which are later sold in the towns of Lake Atitlán and in Antigua Guatemala. This little town also stands out for being the largest indigenous market in America where the 86 cantons (districts) of the area meet to trade every Thursday and Saturday, many of these made up of families of different Mayan ethnic groups.

Chichicastenango or "Chichi" is a Mayan town planned as a colonial reduction, where its churches, convent, plaza, sacred sites, and cemetery uphold a blend of Christian and Maya religious practices. The colonial plaza, reminiscent of pre-Hispanic design, features elevated platforms where Santo Tomás and El Calvario churches face each other, symbolizing a dialogue between Catholicism and indigenous beliefs.

Traditional daily life in the town revolves around sacred sites, traditional arts, rituals, and the vibrant Maya market. Inside the churches, preserved colonial altarpieces and imagery serve as focal points for Maya cofradías and daily ceremonies. Santo Tomás Chuwilá, once under Franciscan administration, holds historical significance as the site where Fray Francisco Ximénez discovered the only known K'iche' copy of the Popol Vuh, later moved to Santiago de Guatemala.

The cemetery's vibrant colors reflect Maya beliefs about death and complement the natural landscape. Nearby, Pascual Abaj, atop …

Visited December 2023

Gabès’s got the Palme d’or for being the most dirty and polluted city in Tunisia! And there’s nothing to add ☹ I am just wondering what the municipality of Gabès would do if one day its oasis is nominated for world heritage list… How they bring ICOMOS members to the oasis without showing them tons of plastic and any other kind of litter covering every sing square meter of the city and every second square meter of its oasis…

When you look at old maps and compare them with the new ones, you’ll see that most of the so unusual and unique (whatever is hidden behind ‘unique’ in this case) maritime oasis is long gone due to the development of chemical oriented industries; there are still some fields, let’s say, 200 m from the Mediterranean coast north of the city, but they do not seem too impressive. To lose yourself in the oasis itself, you should head to the west of the city, and the entrance and road (paved) that I took starts just at the main bus station – just ignore the garbage on both sides of the road and under your feet and walk. Walking is the best way to explore the site, you can follow the main road all the way to the zoo and then a pretty nice canyon of Ras el Oued )probably outside of the possible core zone), passing by small settlements, farms, shops and cafeterias (!), big mosque, …

We visited Sao Tome in 2021, during Covid Time. We did not visit the sister island of Principe.

We spent there one week.

Our journey took place via Lisboa and Ghana/Accra by TAP Airways. For the last leg of our journey from Accra to Sao Tome the flight takes about one hour and twenty minutes.

The airport of the capital Sao Tome (same name as the state) is a small airport with a couple of flights per day. 

Sao Tome and Principe is the second smallest African state. with only about 220.000 inhabitants, but the number is fast growing like in other African countries. 

Settlement took place in the 15th century by Portuguese people and it was for a long time a center of the slave trade. 

But there have always been large plantations, called Rocas, for coffee and cacao.

We have visited some of them (Porto Figo, Generosa, Monte Forte) and they are in a pitiful condition, left to decay (with one or two exceptions as we were told).

Nobody cares about

A Roca is like a small village, with a church and hospital. A Roca is a cultural and historical peculiarity, nowadays with a morbid charm.

Sao Tome is an incredible green island with beautiful hikes and long deserted beaches, wonderful swimming.

Impressive is the highest mountain (2.024 meters), the Mount Pico, with an interesting shape.

Interesting is a trip to the small island Rola, only …

Querétaro does not exhibit the type of intact historic core as experienced in San Miguel de Allende and therefore is rightly or wrongly judged as inferior. As a visitor, I also preferred San Miguel de Allende overall, but I noticed something odd while reviewing pictures. I took a lot more pictures in Querétaro, because there are way MORE historic sites or monuments in Querétaro (258 ha) than compared with the relatively small historic centre of San Miguel de Allende (43 ha). More of something rarely means quality, but then I think of the Museo de Arte de Querétaro, the Aqueduct, and Santa Rosa de Viterbo Church, and more. Are these sites inferior to what I experienced in San Miguel de Allende? These are monumental, impressive historic properties. Yet, this is not all Querétaro has to offer. So, what exactly was not satisfying about Querétaro? I would name the primary issue is that plenty of the walking routes (maybe the majority) are unrewarding with too much electric wires and low unremarkable buildings. Therefore, I think the "royal street" axis should be emphasized as a key walking route across the city. 

Calle 5 De Mayo & Calle Francisco Madero make up the primary "Royal Street" that crosses the city and is identified in the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro map of Querétaro. While walking this road from East to West depending where you begin you will see mostly restaurants, bars, and galleries (some quite nice) and then you will arrive to …

The church is named after Paul Newman and his blue eyes who once fell into the well. There are frescoes all over including the one with a basket of eggs which is a homage to Cool Hand Luke. Wait, what?! Awww I must have gone to the church of my dreams! The actual St. Paul Church is not something you have to urge and visit. Perhaps I made the mistake of blindly going directly to the St. Paul Church and just having a look at that instead of the "surrounding historic quarter" and the museum. It all seems too religious to me, the frescoes are not important (rather mediocre in my opinion), the church is rather modern for churches and definitely nothing special apart from perhaps some exterior sections (and the door) and that the entire town looks like a random Turkish place. Perhaps the Cleopatra Gate is nicer? It was a lovely and sunny day so I enjoyed strolling around the church, entrance and parking is free, and I sat on a bench outside for my packed lunch too. So I believe the main significant thing about the church is that Apostle Paul was born here which makes no significance as the current church is from the 19th century thus it's more of a "place in history" overall that is important to Christians. As this is a super easy stopover when you drive around Turkey I would say you should also have a look while driving through but …

First TWHS review of 2024? If so, yay! :D 

I did not give much attention to this TWHS simply because it was overshadowed by all other outstanding WHS and TWHS in my itinerary. Yes, a UNESCO WHS is not about superlatives, grandness, or exceptional experiences, but it is natural for us to set aside those that are not as flashy. However, this serial nomination represents an important part of modern Indian history and a movement/ideology/philosophy founded by Mohandas Gandhi--the satyagraha. During my visit to Ahmedabad and India post-Christmas December 2023, I spent some time exploring the following four properties listed in this serial nomination. 

1. Sabarmati Ashram (Ahmedabad) - if you happen to be in Ahmedabad, a visit to Sabarmati Ashram is a good and easy way to tick off this serial nomination. It pretty much represents the serial sites well, as this is where Gandhi lived from 1917 to 1930 and became one of the main centres for the teaching and cultivation of saytagraha. It also served as a school where self-sufficiency was taught through manual labour, agriculture, and literacy. The ashram is also a significant site as it was where Gandhi led the Dandi March in protest of the British Salt Law. 

Entry to the ashram is free. Visitors should start exploring the site through the Gandhi Memorial Museum before moving to other buildings such as the Magan Niwas, Somnath Chhatralaya, and Udyog Mandir. The museum has excellent exhibitions and panels chronicling the major …

Immediately after visiting the dusty cities that make up the Golden Triangle (Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur), arriving in Ahmedabad seemed to be a breath of fresh air, literally and figuratively. Yes, the classic mayhem and modern urban problems typical of Indian cities are all present in Ahmedabad. However, its RELATIVELY cleaner air, a well-maintained airport, gentrified riverfront, and less touristy feel made the city a rather nice place to travel to. Such observation is quite contrary to previous reviews, but a lot has happened since—according to a hotel staff I talked to, there has been a rapid development in Ahmedabad in the past several years, and he felt this beginning in 2022. The gentrification was of course limited to certain parts of the city, but somehow it worked. As mentioned by Solivagant, it’s notable that the current prime minister of India hails from the state of Gujarat.

Date of visit: after Christmas, Dec 2023.

We stayed for 3 nights in the excellent House of MG. The hotel is itself a beautiful, storied heritage building that was first built in 1904 and was once the home of the textile magnate Sheth Mangaldas Girdhardas. It was later converted into a hotel in 2014 and now enjoys a high reputation among locals, tourists, and travel websites. Objectively, the hotel deserves a visit for its history and architecture. Its location is also a plus—the hotel is built in Lal Darwaja, an area where the first settlements in the city were established. …

The city of Thessaloniki is not nice. The Byzantine churches are.Most of the churches in the lower town are squeezed between ugly modern buildings. I liked the upper town better. Some of the old Ottoman architecture has been preserved in the narrow streets and steep staircases. The frescoes there are among the most beautiful in Thessaloniki, but the monasteries are rather inconspicuous from the outside. I walked past the entrance to the Latomou monastery twice before I finally found it.Assif wrote in his review that it is impossible to find out the opening hours of the churches. This has not changed until today. You can‘t rely on the information provided on the Thessaloniki tourism website or on Google Maps. Even the info boards at the entrance to the churches are not fully reliable. I stood in front of the closed door to the Church of the Saviour three times, although the information board said: open daily from 7am to 3pm. But I only missed this one and the Byzantine Bath (closed on weekends), I could visit all the other monuments from the inside.

I visited Thessaloniki on a weekend in September 2023. On Saturday afternoon I found four churches open, either after a wedding (Hagios Demetrios, Vlatades Monastery) or after evening mass (Agia Ekaterini, Prophet Elias). But all churches were open on Sunday (with the exception mentioned above), from the end of morning mass around 10am until late afternoon. Photography was allowed in all monuments.

My highlights:Most beautiful …

In the trifecta of great Uzbek Islamic silk road cities (Xiva, Bukhara, Samarkand), I think there are arguments for either city being the greatest. Samarkand is the biggest city and has the largest sites, but the historic sites are dispersed across a modern city. Xiva has a real old town, enclosed by historic walls, but doesn't have the one stellar site to shine. Bukhara's appeal is that it still has a charming old town feeling (but way less than Xiva) and undoubtedly plenty of stellar sites, most notably the square around Kalon minaret.

In the fall of 2022, I spent two nights in Bukhara and visited the old town on foot. The furthest west I got was the Talipach Gate. There were so many madrassahs, mosques, and mausoleums that it's hard to name one. Just take your time and wander the city open minded.

Getting There

When travelling in Uzbekistan, you can either visit Bukhara from the East (Xiva) or the West (Samarkand, Tashkent). Last option is to come from Turkmenistan (South), but as I understand it, border crossings are scarce and tourist entry and travel are highly restricted in Turkmenistan.

In Uzbekistan, there are trains and busses running between Xiva, Urgench, Bukhara, Samarkand and Tashkent. However, the distances are great and the normal trains slow. Between Bukhara, Samarkand and Tashkent there also bullet trains, but... these fill up quickly. And at least in Bukhara, the bullet train station is far away from the town centre, …

I visited the Cueva de las Manos in February 2022. My base for this visit was the uninteresting little town of Perito Moreno (which, it should be remembered, has nothing to do with the famous glacier of the same name). I arrived there in the evening after several hours on the bus from Esquel (an ideal base for visiting Los Alerces). I had booked an excursion via WhatsApp with Chelenco Tours. Our guide was really friendly and the tour was well organized. I can therefore recommend this agency without any problem.

After he picked us up at our hotel, we drove to the Refugio La Posta de Los Toldos in the Parque Nacional Patagonia. We stopped for breakfast and to pick up other travellers. We finally reached the coveted site on the north side of the canyon. Indeed, rather than simply parking at the reception desk of the interpretation center, our excursion involved a hike across the canyon. The scenery is simply magnificent, and I think this addition greatly contributed to my appreciation of the site. Our guide talked us through the flora and fauna we observed on the way down (and back up!). Black widows, to the delight of my arachnophobic friend, were abundant. We also saw our first Andean condors soaring over the canyon.

Once we reached the interpretation center, we waited a while for the scheduled time of our guided tour. Access to the site is only possible with a guide-interpreter. The paintings …

Mpungubwe is located far away along the border of South Africa with Botswana and Zimbabwe, and at one of the viewpoints you can see the convergence of the three countries. Prior to the visit, we made it a point to visit the Dzata ruins in the Southspanberg (a World Biosphere Reserve) to serve as a reference and comparison site. Its connections with Mpungubwe and Great Zimbab are quite strong and evident, and it enriches the understanding of the culture from that corner of the globe. In terms of chronology, Mpungubwe preceded Great Zimbab and Dzata came in later using stones from Zimbabwe. 

We camped in Mpungubwe for two days and one night where we did a self-drive game viewing, an organized sunset safari (of which we were the only ones who availed), and a morning hike up Mpungubwe Hill. Wildlife in the park is satisfactory for me and since it is not popular for it, chances of encountering other sightseers are slimmer than other game reserves and national parks I have been to before; naturally most would opt to go to nearby Kruger. As we were driving back to Loekwe Camp on our rental car after the sunset drive, we encountered a leopard walking towards us along the dirt road not far from where we stayed. Sightings like that close to the camp had to be reported. The cabin is equipped with a stove, microwave, toaster, and a fridge, and it makes sense to take food …

Jericho supposedly is the world's oldest and/or longest and/or fortified inhabited city. Or one of them. In the pre-Neolithic things get a bit fuzzy.

While Els general comment holds (oldest till they find something older), I think there can be little doubt that Jericho belongs on the list, offering ample historical and archaeological remains ranging from pre-Neolithic times to 500 BCE. Humans settled here permanently after the Ice Age had ended, somewhere between 10.000-9.000 BCE. The location had two things going for it. There is a spring, Ein as-Sultan. And the low altitude (at -250m Jericho is the lowest city in the world) meant it was a bit warmer.

The settlement lasted from Epipalaeolithic, the Neolithic to the mid Bronze Age. It was refounded in the Iron Age, but then destroyed by the Babylonians and abandoned under the Persians. The famous Walls of Jericho have both Neolithic remains as well as Bronze Age ones.

When you visit, you will find a field of ruins in the sand, with the massive walls the most notable structure. It definitely could use better efforts at management and preservation, agreeing with Paul, but the time being this won't happen.

As a Bronze Age site, this would be pretty mediocre. As a Neolithic site, this is probably as good as it gets. If it weren't for those Neolithic ruins and the political situation, Jericho would have been better served as an extension to the Biblical Tells.

Getting There

With …

I would have loved to start this review with the words: I climbed the Seat of the Gods! But that wouldn’t be entirely true. The truth ist that I did not make it to Mytikas, the highest peak of Mount Olympus.

But first things first.I arrived in Litochoro in the early afternoon and started my visit with the Olympus National Park Information Centre, located just outside the town. The exhibition there is relatively new and provides a good introduction to the park. The flora and fauna of the vegetation zones are presented on several levels, from the foothills to the highest peak.I spent the night in Litochoro and started my two-day tour to Mount Olympus the next morning. It's about 20 kilometres from Litochoro to the Prionia car park, the highest point you can reach by car. The hiking trail up to the Spilios Agapitos Refuge leads through a beautiful forest of pine and beech trees. The hike takes about 3.5 hours, the refuge is located at 2060 metres above sea level (altitude difference from Prionia: 1000 metres).After a lunch break, I left all the stuff I would only need for the night in the refuge and started my ascent to the Plateau of the Muses, my destination for the first day. The trail to the plateau is only another 2.5 kilometres, but with an altitude difference of another 600 metres. However, you will be rewarded for your efforts. As soon as you reach the plateau, you …

I couldn't very well leave 2023 on an odd number of World Heritage Sites, so I took my car out for a two and a half hour drive today to the nearest World Heritage Site I had yet to visit: Jodrell Bank Observatory. The United Kingdom is replete with astronomical-associated World Heritage Sites, with perhaps the most complete range across history of any country, from Stonehenge and Avebury in the Neolithic, to Maritime Greenwich's Royal Observatory in the 18th and 19th centuries, to Jodrell Bank Observatory covering the mid to late 20th century. But the history of the site has been well-documented in other reviews, so I won't repeat it here. What's new is the visitor center, which opened in 2022, so I'll speak to that.

The First Light Pavilion is a low grassy dome, meant to represent the parabolic dish of the Lovell telescope, though it also seemed to evoke the passage tombs of Maeshowe in Neolithic Orkney and Newgrange in Brú na Bóinne. A thin glass window on the front wall of the pavilion serves as a sort of sun dial, given the day is sunny. It was not. The window is also aligned with Polaris, which was evident in a long-exposure night shot of the sky above the pavilion on display in the Space Pavilion closer to the telescope.

Within the First Light Pavilion there is a movie theater and an exhibition hall, as well as a cafe and an interactive kid's area. I started …

Can understand the low rating. I feel the place has changed since the early days and people reviewing it lowly is because nowadays you get to see and learn A LOT of stuff. There is a requirement to have your phone in flight mode when visiting - interested, but it's not really enforced or reminded again upon parking. You can also see the huge Lovell Telescope from the parking lot so if that's all you want to see you can just take a photo and save the entry fee ;) However, there's more!

Honestly you can book ahead because ever since COVID there have been timed entries but I totally missed my slot and the nice lady at the booth just let us in anyway - I don't think the observatory gets enough visitor's to have you miss out and worst case maybe you need to wait a bit until the mass tourist bus (which don't come here) are gone. The person in front didn't have a slot booked and just bought it on the fly.

Exciting three locations you must visit can be found here.

Short walk from the booth you will find a large, dark museum as seen in my pictures. Reading all this, playing around with gadgets, dressing up as a spy (no kidding) will take you 30 minutes minimum. If you aren't interested in any then I am not sure why you came here because like I said you …

I visited this WHS as a day trip from Sibiu. When planning my road trip in Romania I was undecided whether to use Sighisoara or Sibiu as my base for the surrounding WHS and tWHS. I opted for the latter mostly because the hotel included private parking, but overall I must say it was a very fortunate choice. I really enjoyed Sibiu not only for its many attractions but also because it really is a lively and liveable city. In contrast, I found Sighisoara to be too much of a museum city geared solely at tourism.

There is a convenient paid outdoor parking just below the uphill pedestrian street or stairs leading up to the Sighisoara clock tower area. I really enjoyed the area further up which is reached through the covered wooden Scholars' stairway and leads to some of the eight towers (such as the Tailors' Tower, the Bootmakers' Tower, and the Tinsmiths' Tower) which form part of the Medieval fortifications of Sighisoara and to the pretty Church on the Hill from where there are panoramic views of the surrounding hills and the fortified city below. I skipped the Dracula house interior, which was by far the most busy place in town with tourist train tours transporting groups around Sighisoara before or after an "obligatory" stop there, just a few steps away from the much more impressive Stag House. Instead of the crumbling Clock Tower, my personal highlight in Sighisoara were the different houses scattered around town, such …

We spent four days and four nights in Yogyakarta in February 2023. We arrived in the evening, having spent the day on trains from Bogor (Kebun Raya Bogor TWHS).

Our first day was spent visiting the Kraton complex and the surrounding area. We got in just on time for an impressive traditional percussion show. Their music is captivating and quite unique. This was followed by a boring puppet show that we didn't watch until the end. The Kraton is very large and rather pretty. However, it's a little difficult to understand what you're visiting, as there's very little interpretation. There is a museum on site, but it's only in Indonesian and seems to focus more on the life of the sultan (they even display his kitchen utensils), than on Javanese architecture.

As we exited the Kraton from the rear, we were approached by a woman. She led us to a traditional puppet workshop. These are hand-cut in intricate patterns from thick leather, then painted. The result is a magnificent work of art. She then led us to a batik workshop. These traditional paintings on fabric are also magnificent and delighted my friend. After another stop at a coffee shop and a tip, the lady left us and we continued on our way to the Taman Sari Water Castle. This was the highlight of our visit to Yogya. Javanese art and architecture are at their most visible and remarkable. The west gate of the castle is exceptional …

When showing my Sri Lanka pictures to friends & family, Sinharaja tends to impress the most, especially for kids. While we didn't venture too deep into the jungle, we still saw plenty of amazing wildlife. A chameleon, flesh eating fish, a poisonous snake, a centipede, ... Sinharaja, even on its outskirts, is full of life.

We entered from the South (Lankagama) and hiked up a set of cascades. After a few meters, the trail turned pretty rough. We were happy to have a ranger accompany us to show us the wildlife and help with the hike.

There is a price to pay though: leeches. It was my first encounter, and I did not know what to expect. I assumed thick socks would shield me. They don't. These suckers are surprisingly competent at getting under multiple layers of clothing for a snack. They also felt like going for a road trip as I removed two of them after we were already back in the car.

Seeing it's been more than 10 years since the last review was written, some comments on past reviews:

• Betty: The ticket booth at Lankagama was staffed. We had no issues paying and getting a ranger. Personally, I don't think it makes sense to enter the jungle without a ranger to guide you. Skipping the ticket booth is rarely popular with locals, so maybe wait next time.

• Allison: You must have entered at the other Southern entry. In …

Some of our community members pride themselves with reviewing EVERY site they visit and I think for the UK there is no reason to do so, and in fact I'm not sure I want to review any of them unless I ever make it those uninhabited islands in the middle of nowhere...though I now pride myself with having reviewed ONE of the country's site (Bermuda is still an easy candidate that hasn't been added recently and IF you count it as being park of the UKas it is actually British overseas territory) and with Studley Royal Park it's also been years since the last review. Well, not that this place changes in ANY way.

The park itself is huge. It should be a day trip for the paid entrance alone. Not many people went to the free areas surrounding it. When visiting (or regularly?) they also had a sort of discovery game for kids which pleased the two young visitors that tagged along with me and made visiting every corner of the map worth it for them. The main interest of the visit should be Fountains Abbey which is grande and takes about half an hour by itself. The Gothic St. Mary's Church is much smaller and is more of a museum, and the rest is mainly just open garden areas. The strolls along the river and the lake are beautiful in summer and was totally worth the entrance ticket alone. We also arrived early in the morning and …