All our reviews

For 1.500 years, the silk roads played a major role in exchanging goods and knowledge between Europe and Eastern Asia. A key area was Central Asia which linked the various Chinese empires with multiple Persian empires over the centuries.

The region itself consists mostly of deserts, intercut by rivers from the mountains, most notably the Zeravshan, the Amu Darya (Greek Oxus) and the Sir Darya. Indeed, the proposed sites follow the green corridor along the Zeravsahn in Uzbekistan from Samarkand to Bukhara from where it continues into Turkmenistan.

As a half day trip from Bukhara, I visited the Vobkent Minaret, the Chasma-iAyub mausoleum in Khazira and the Bahouddin Architectural Complex. Bahouddin Architectural Complex is a true gem, showing strong Chinese influences. Vobkent Minaret and Chasma-iAyub Khazira are short 5min visits each. One is a minaret, the other a facade of a mausoleum with a swastika symbol.

Small word on advice re Chasma-iAyub: There are at least 3 sites named accordingly, one in Bukhara. Spelling varied, but I think the location on our map is correct.

The next day, I continued from Bukhara via Sharisabz to Samarkand. When approaching Samarkand, we stopped Kafirkala on the cities' outskirts. The site is not signposted at all and hard to make sense of. I think you would need a guide, but I managed to see parts of the fortification.

My last stop on the Silk Roads happened on return from Tajikistan (Sarazm), I took a minibus from the border …

I visited this tWHS twice in spring 2022, just upon arrival and just before departure at Tirana International Airport which is about 30-45 minutes away by car. The amphitheatre is literally in the middle of Durres' urban sprawl, Albania's second most populated seaside city, so I don't think it has much chance of ever getting inscribed. That said, it is the largest amphitheatre in the Balkan Peninsula and has a capacity for 20,000 people.

Durres was founded by Ancient Greek colonists from Corinth and Corcyra under the name of Epidamnos around the 7th century BC in cooperation with the local Illyrian Taulantii. Also known as Dyrrachium, Durres essentially developed as it became an integral part of the Roman Empire and its successor the Byzantine Empire. The Via Egnatia, the continuation of the Via Appia which will soon be up for inscription as a WHS, started in the city and led across the interior of the Balkan Peninsula to Constantinople in the east.

Practically only around half has been excavated and a lot of archaeological work has been conducted in close cooperation with Italian institutes and universities. The only reason to enter the site proper is to be able to walk inside the excavated part and see a pretty small mosaic behind a metal gate and if you pay enough attention also a number of ancient graffiti and items inside the walls such as a shell. Most of the artefacts found in the Durres amphitheatre can be seen at …

I visited Mammoth Cave in June of 2021, it was a fantastic visit. I did the historic tour which took about two hours. The inside of the cave was the perfect amount of humidity and the perfect temperature. It wasn't too hot nor too cold on a nice summer day. I highly recommend getting reservations for your tour ahead of time. It surpassed my expectations and I will definitely be back for perhaps a longer tour. 

With great amazement, despite many trips to Cote d’Or with my family, I sadly found out that our favorite vineyards are outside UNESCO designated zone, and apart from having lunch or dinner in Dijon and Beaune, I have no memory that I have seen those UNESCO listed components. As a result, I had little choice to not revisit Burgundy, and to make it more miserable I went with my friends who are non-wine drinkers! We used Beaune as our base, after checked in our hotel and had great time on mustard sampling and shopping at La Moutarderie Fallot, we shockingly found long queue at entrance of the famous Hotel de Dieu with American tour groups. The former hospital with its beautiful roof, unique display of old system of medical care and lovely decorating arts really made Hotel de Dieu to be one of the most interesting components of this World Heritage Site. Like other reviewers this place deserved to be listed on its own merit or specific mentioned on the official name when listing.

It was unreasonable and unthinkable for my non-wine drinker friends to join wine sampling tour in various chateaus, so instead of finding best wine of Cote d’Or, the trip turned out to be fine a best spot to see beautiful vineyard landscape. We drove across those “Climats” around Beaune passing many well-known chateaus that wanted me to stop by for few bottles. We noticed that the local authorities seem to use stone arched …

I've wanted to visit this area for a long time, so I was thrilled to finally fit it into a trip. We visited three main sites: Font-de-Gaume, Combarelles, and Lascaux (IV) in October 2022.

First, to update some logistics: No more lining up at dawn to get tickets for Font-de-Gaume or Combarelles. They sell time-reserved tickets online now, and it is essential you get them ahead of time. Even in the off/shoulder season of late October, they do sell out and I didn't always get my ideal time slot booking about a week ahead. You can also reserve tickets for Lascaux IV, but in late October, we just showed up and were able to join the next (non-guided) group. It would have been about a 45 minute wait for the next English guided tour, but we were fine with the audioguides. We also stopped by Abri de Cap Blanc, and would have been allowed to join the next tour, but we didn't have time to wait, and unfortunately, you can't see anything at all without paying the admission.

We visited Font-de-Gaume first, and it's wonderful to see the painted figures there. There were some scientists studying certain sections while we were there. It was a bit frustrating being told, "Oh there are some good ones at the end there, but we don't allow the public there any more." But overall, our guide was very good at explaining what we were looking at.

At Grotte des Combarelles, there's …

Visiting Kakadu is extremely dependent on the weather. This part of Australia has two distinct seasons - wet and dry - and much of the national park is inaccessible during the wet season. As the dry begins, different parts of the park open up at different times, as the unsealed roads become passable and areas are cleared of crocodiles. I mention all of this at the start just as advice for anyone thinking of visiting - make sure you think about when you're going and what you'll be able to see. (For the record, wet season can be quite incredible because the waterfalls are in full flow, but you may want to see them by helicopter, rather than road, for instance.)

I visited in dry season, when most things were accessible, and spent three nights in Kakadu. I felt like that was just the right amount of time - anything shorter and I would've left feeling like I had missed things. I certainly could've stayed longer and visited even more parts of the park, but I think I covered all of the main elements.

The landscapes change a lot throughout the park because it's so big (about the size of Slovenia). There are areas of dramatic sandstone escarpments, expansive wetlands full of birds, as well as lots of woodland. You'll get more out of the visit if you're able to experience this variety, and some highlights are stone country at Burrungkuy (Nourlangie), wetlands at Yellow Water, and the …

Tentative site with probably the worst naming (I mean, think about it: it's a synopsis) but probably one of the most significant finds that Europe can offer. Next to sites in Turkey it shows some of the oldest dwellings to show how humans started living in houses. It's almost crazy to think this isn't inscribed as a UNESCO site yet.

First of you have to find this place because it's sort of hidden behind a hospital. The map will actually be correct but when you get there you are wondering why you will enter a strange alley. If you are coming by car then this is actually the parking lot although it could be full. I guess that they found the dwellings when they were actually building the site but I can't confirm it. It also looks shut despite the opening hours on a sign outside. I thought COVID took care of the reality of those times and was about to leave but then I thought...hmm maybe I'll knock? I did so and still no sign, but hey there is a doorbell sort of hidden nearby and someone came along as if it were normal. I wonder if they don't want visitors and hide this on purpose or it's just plainly crappy design.

Once inside you pay your entrance fee and the guide will take you inside. As I was alone it was a private tour and there was no reason to wait for anyone else, I think …

I visited the Lower German Limes WHS location of Remagen in Germany in October 2021 which was one of the only open sites during the pandemic. Basically this WHS is all about scattered Roman remains or ruins so I wasn't expecting much, even though it has to be said that Remagen has a good network of several types of Roman remains or ruins which make for a pleasant loop near the Rhine with 15 stops named Stadtrundgang with information boards in English and German at each stop. The Roman Museum only has information boards in German, but English translations are provided at the entrance.

The "highlight" of this location is the Roman Museum of Remagen with exhibits from the old Roman fort of Rigomagus displayed in the former chapel of St. Magdalena from the 15th century. The collection includes coins and grave contents from the 1st to the 4th centuries AD. Some tombstones with figures of Roman soldiers in full gear are noteworthy. The finds provide an insight into the life of the Roman soldiers based on the Rhine. In the basement of the former chapel you can visit the foundations of an arcade/portico from the 2nd century with 3 large column bases. This portico was the entrance to the "principia", the headquarters of a Roman fort.

The ancient author Ammianus Marcellinus mentions Remagen in his report on the invasion of the Franks in 356. The Roman army under Emperor Julian found the forts and towns between Koblenz …

After reading many reviews in this community, we felt less interest to visit and really had no expectation from Jelling Site but to be able to complete all World Heritage Site of Denmark, the visit is mandatory to do. After happily spend time shopping in Royal Copenhagen’s porcelain outlet in nearby Vejle, we drove to Jelling with really confusing weather, sunshine but heavy showering rain. Maybe because of this strange downpour even in Saturday’s afternoon, there were just only two cars in the car park. We waited inside the car until the rain stopped when we came out the newly wed bride and groom hurriedly walked pass us to those parked cars, we felt sad to see wet and dirty wedding gown of the bride but happy to see their great smile.

When we saw the famous runic stone, its size was quite surprising, much bigger than we anticipated, but what we really surprised was how clear of the glass box. Despite showering rain, there was almost no raindrop on the glass, really impressive water repelling coating, and there was no reflection even with strange sunshine and all those wet floor that normally should cause bad shiny reflection, again thumb up for high quality of glass coating. We could look details of runic stones more than initial expected. Apart from these, our experience was quite similar to other reviews. We spent only short time at Jelling less than half an hour just tried to see details of runic stones …

As someone who has lived for a year in Dublin, I would be thoroughly surprised if It became a WHS. It lacks any really notable buildings (apart from Trinity college perhaps) and Its urbanism didn't strike me as unique in any way. This is clearly a vague and halfhearted proposal to get Dublin some WHS. No doubt given more time Ireland will find some more acute proposal to fit Dublin into the list.

Although the site is officially called Willandra Lakes, it's Mungo National Park (mostly within the boundaries) that is the main attraction and the focus for most visitors. Other parts of the WHS are no more impressive and quite inaccessible, other than views from the roads on the way in. Mungo makes up most of the site, and this is all you'll need to worry about visiting.

For many Australians, Mungo is considered to be 'in the middle of nowhere', but it's actually not too hard to access by car from Melbourne or even Adelaide. From Sydney, it's become a popular stop on a road trip to nearby (by Aussie standards) Broken Hill. Although a 4WD/AWD is recommended, you will be able to get to the site with a normal 2WD if the weather has been good, which means the unsealed roads will be in a good condition. But one of the popular activities - driving the Mungo Track - is best done with a 4WD/AWD.

The geological story of Mungo National Park is fascinating - in short, large lakes dried out about 14,000 years ago and the sand left around the edges has gradually been sculpted into incredible shapes by wind and rain. The most impressive example of this is known as the Walls of China. On your own, you can see them from viewpoints on the boardwalk, but you can walk out onto the sand if you're with an organised tour. I would highly recommend doing this …

Arriving from the Causses and the Cévennes (by a bus that ran under Millau Viaduct) in the evening, I spent the following morning exploring the city of Albi. I understand that the three main structures in this WHS to admire are the Sainte-Cécile Cathedral, the Palais de la Berbie and the Pont-Vieux. The interior of the Sainte-Cécile Cathedral was pretty impressive. When I was there on the Saturday morning, however, the door of the rood screen was locked for some reason, and I could not enter the choir and altar area. But I was able to take a decent photo of the altar through the keyhole of the locked door using the zoom lens of my phone. Even though the exterior views of the Sainte-Cécile Cathedral and the Palais de la Berbie (top photo) from the Pont-Vieux (bottom left photo) did not impress me very much, I do agree with the UNESCO description of Albi being "coherent and homogeneous" due to the "southern French Gothic style from local brick in characteristic red and orange colours." I would say that after a few hours walking around this city, you could get a little tired of the homogeneity. So what can I recommend doing? Checking out museums? I prefer Post-Impressionism to Impressionism. But, even though Toulouse-Lautrec is generally considered to be a Post-Impressionist, I am not as big a fan of him as I am of Van Gough. Hiking out into nature? That does not seem to be an option from the …

I had superficially visited the Speyer components of this WHS way back in September 2010. However, after inscription, I revisited Speyer in October 2021 specifically focusing on the ShUM sites in Speyer, namely the Medieval synagogue and ritual bath (mikvah) and the ShPIRA museum with some of the most important gravestones from the cemetery and the Lingenfeld Treasure, a mere 200 metres or so from the Speyer Cathedral. These three sites together are nicknamed Judenhof or Jewish courtyard and are open to the public everyday from 1st April till 31st October (10:00 to 17:00) and Monday to Saturday from 1st November to 31st March (10:00-16:00).

Medieval Speyer was home to one of the most important Jewish communities north of the Alps. In the 11th century, Jewish merchants and bankers came to Speyer from Italy and France. 1084, the year when Bishop Rudiger Hutzmann offered refuge to Jews who fled Mainz, marks the beginning of a Jewish community in Speyer. He placed the refugees under his protection and granted them special rights.

The Jewish community of Speyer (ShPIRA in Hebrew) existed for more than 400 years. Well into the 13th century, scholars came to the Rhine from far and wide to study with the wise men or sages of Speyer. By the 14th century, however, the coexistence of Jews and Christians, which until then had been largely peaceful, was marred by anti-Jewish sentiment. Around 1500, the history of the Medieval Jewish community of Speyer came to an end; the …

The Lakes of Ounianga are Chad's 'other' World Heritage Site. They lie another day's drive north of the Ennedi Massif, across the pure desert of the Mourdi Depression and not far from the border with Libya. This freshwater lake system is the largest among the hyper-arid desert areas in the world such as the Sahara. Water is supplied from fossil groundwater. It used to be one big lake, but now there are a group of 14 and a group of 4 smaller permanent lakes that are all interconnected. The core zone comprises both groups and the 40km of desert between them.

The first group (Ounianga Serir) has a very peculiar jagged shape, clearly seen on the official map. These lakes include characteristic strips of floating (green) reeds that reduce evaporation. Unfortunately, we were limited to views from a distance after having been chased out of the town by local women waving sticks at us. They may have been angry due to an earlier tourist bathing 'naked' in their lake, or because they don't get a cut from the tourist tax that has to be paid to the often absent local chief. This group has the only lake where swimming is technically possible, the others are too salty.

At the second group, near Ounianga Kebir, we could move around freely (albeit with a minder provided by the police station, keeping his eye out for tourists wanting to photograph local people - a big no-no in Chad). We met local …

I visited zadar a couple years ago and tbh at the time I was a bit underwhelmed. I expected quite a bit of the city and It didn't fullfill. The Fortifications pale in comparison to those of Dubrovnik, the city has way less charm than sibenik and the Roman remains are almost inexistent. Nevertheless It is a nice city, with a pleasant old town, a very interesting church, a surprising Cathedral and an impressive set of fortifications.

In fact, Zadar IS already part of the whl as a component of venetian works of defence owing to those impressive fortifications. However, the new proposal, far from an extension, would requiere a completely new site, whose main Focus would probably be croatian preromanesque.

The church of st donatus, as pointed out by the state, is the main component of the site and clearly its most valuable asset. There's only a couple dozen preromanesque churches in Europe and st donatus is not only quite unique and big, but also acclaimed as the best example of the croatian regional a style, which is not represented in the list. The rest of the proposal includes several interesting buildings in the old town, chief among them the grande romanesque Cathedral.

Now, the list already has plenty of preromanesque churches, mostly carolingian, but also asturian and lombard. Croatia also has plenty more churches which could be included in a "croatian preromanesque" proposal (which IS imo the best way to represent these sites which are …

Many people visit Kutna Hora as a day trip from Prague, and that is an easy option - there's a direct train to the main Kutna Hora station near the Cathedral of our Lady at Sedlec, from where you can get a local train to the Kutna Hora mesto station in the historic centre (or just walk the 30 minutes). However, I would recommend at least staying overnight. There's more than enough to fill your time, and the city is much more pleasant in the evenings when the tourist crowds have gone (particularly in the summer months).

The two main churches in the World Heritage Site listing are quite different but impressive in their own ways. I preferred the Church of St Barbara with its paintings on the walls and the ceiling. The Cathedral of Our Lady at Sedlec is brighter and with less decoration, but it radiates a warmth inside and feels larger than it looks from the outside.

In the historic centre, I would recommend visiting Hrádek (Little Castle) that now houses the Silver Museum; the Italian Court, which has several exhibitions about the role the building has played in the city's history; and the Stone House, with a small museum about life in Kutna Hora. There are also lots of medieval houses with interesting facades and, although the centre is not large, it's easy to spend the whole day seeing the sights and visiting the museums and churches.

One of the most popular attractions …

There are a lot of castles in the Czech Republic, many of them included on the World Heritage List, and it leads to inevitable comparisons once you've visited them all. While I'll discuss the others in their own reviews, my view of Kromeriz Castle is that it's not the most impressive overall - but it does have the most interesting interior of them all.

The decorations in the rooms give a real sense of the grandeur of the castle and its residences. Dozens of mounted animal heads in the games room, a large collection of artworks from the 15th to 18th century (said to be the second best gallery in the whole country after the National Gallery in Prague), and the beautiful library with tens of thousands of books.

As discussed by previous commenters, it's the baroque Pleasure Garden that is the most significant part of this site from the perspective of OUV, but I think the castle is still a very rewarding part of the visit. There's certainly a lot more to see in the castle than the garden (and is a much more pleasant experience on a cold and rainy day). For tourists who don't visit any other Czech castles from this period, I think it will be memorable.

The castle can only be accessed by tour, and it's hard to get details of the tour timings on the website. My advice would be to head to the castle first to find the time and …

Sibenik was the last stop before the eventual end of my balkans coastal route in zadar.

The city IS as most have said, surprisingly charming. It lies at the slope of the coastal mountain range and surveys a spectacular strait. As such, good panoramic photos are a given.

The OU however IS based on only one building, the Cathedral, which is nothing short of fascinating. It was built 100% out of stone in an early renaissance style. Imo this IS enough to Grant the building WHS status. Furthermore It's actually a very pleasnat and harmonious building. The outside IS decorated with dozens of sculpted faces and the interior, though sober, IS very fitting. Overall, among an ocean of cathedrals and churches in the list, sibenik manages to be outstanding, charming and unique. A particular point i've seen no one mention IS that because of how It was constructed, the Cathedral's interior perfectly reflects Its exterior, which in part makes for the very unusual appearance of the church.

Apart from the Cathedral sibenik can offer quite a bit more. The old town is pretty and fortunately not overrun by tourists (a very welcomed change indeed after Split, Trogir and Dubrovnik). The mountainside has a few fortifications, built in order to protect the city from ottoman forces. They make for an interesting added value (when i went they were trying to accomodate the defenses of the city for tourism, which i've no doubly Will make them far more enjoyable). …

The undisputed highlight of any trip to Chad is the Ennedi Massif. This huge sandstone formation has ancient rock art, pre-Islamic burial mounds, contemporary nomadic life, weirdly eroded landforms such as pinnacles, arches and mushrooms, and the iconic canyon Guelta d'Archei. In October 2022 we experienced the area greener than our guide had ever seen it before, thanks to the generous rainy season of this year. Situated deep in the Sahara, it takes 3.5 days of solid driving on mostly unpaved roads to get there from the capital N'Djamena. We stayed for 4 days, wild camping in a different lovely location every night and driving & hiking all day between the sights.

Rock art is everywhere. Some are engravings, but mostly there are clear paintings in red and white. You can crawl into rock shelters and caves to come within touching distance of the rock paintings. I even inadvertently put up my tent next to a rock wall and later noticed there were two camel paintings next door. The most characteristic images of this region are the "flying" camels and horses, some mounted by riders. The best ones are at Terkei (flying horses in red) and Bichagara in West-Ennedi (flying camels in white). One morning we even saw a living flying camel plus a rider speed by our camp!

The eroded landforms resemble parks in Utah such as Arches NP and Monument Valley. They are known by names like the Cathedral and the Labyrinth. We visited arches such …

After Cocos Island and a week liveaboard on the "nearby" Galapagos islands (actually Darwin and Wolf are as close to Cocos as the mainland but unfortunately commercial lines don't combine these two areas) I thought it would be nice to complete the diving in the area with Malpelo, even though I was somehow never interested in diving here. At first that didn't work out because the only operator going to the island, Ferox, didn't have trips around May and June because it's the end of Dry Season and start of Wet Season so I think rough weather prevent a pleasant journey. The trip from Buenaventura (itself a 3h trip from the nearby town of Cali) is 30+ hours depending on how the weather is. They don't even give you a concrete arrival time because the vessel is a little older and just seems to rough it out best it can. The trip isn't nauseating as much as I thought and a good chunk is overnight but I could still do without seeing that I wasn't really so excited to go in the first place. When I finally took the trip I had already done a lot of diving in special places, and even though I don't dive all the time when I have free time (it's expensive and I'm not into just seeing random marine life and rocks) the crew and other guests made it seem that Malpelo would be special.

So for one, the hammerhead season was done, …