All our reviews

Well – what a strange site suddenly to appear on the UK T List in Jan 22, despite its decennial overall T List review process starting in Mar 22! WHS Community members knew of course of the transnational activity on the subject of “Moravian Settlements” and that it was probably coming, but I suspect that you could be lucky to find 1 in 1000 GB citizens who has even heard of the place. It gets a mention (but no stars) in Michelin Ireland and in LP, but its UK tourism and cultural footprint rests only a trifle above zero.

In the Portrush Tourist office the lady asked where we were staying that night… “Near to Gracehill” we replied. In the subsequent exchanges it emerged that she presumed that we were referring to the ONLY “Gracehill” current in conversation! This is some place called “Gracehill House” which, the Web tells me, is “home to door 7, featuring the Three-Eyed Raven permeate and the Stark Direwolf sigil” (whatever they are!) and is situated a few miles from Portrush, close to the “Dark Hedges” (See "Gracehill golf course" to the north)……whereas “our” Gracehill was a small village situated around 20 miles further south near Ballymena. Of this she knew as little as we do of the World of “Game of Thrones” which, it appears, is a major player in NI tourism with multiple filming locations attracting visitors from around the World.

In …

I visited Quirigua during my trip to Guatemala in November and December 2021. I visited the site on my way from the town of Chiquimula (base for visiting Copán) to my waterfront hostel in Rio Dulce (Castillo de San Felipe de Lara is nearby). The bus from Chiquimula left me directly at the intersection of the main road and the path to the ruins, where I was able to catch a tuk-tuk to the site. I left my luggage at the reception and set off to explore the ruins.

Quirigua is rather small and can be visited quickly (I spent just over an hour there, taking my time and stopping frequently to try to identify the birds singing in the forest). Nevertheless, it contains treasures of Mayan art and culture. If their architecture and grandiose urbanism can be admired elsewhere, there is no better place than Quirigua and Copán to appreciate their stelae, sculptures and statues. The works in Quirigua are all protected by thatched roofs. This is wonderful for their preservation, but it creates shadows and backlighting that are difficult to manage for photos when the sun is shining.

Stela E (photo) rises 8 meters above the ground, weighs 60 tons and is the largest stela in the Maya world. The dozen other stelae are not to be missed, however, as are the gigantic zoomorphic sculptures. A monumental ceiba, the sacred tree of the Maya, stands in the middle of the Gran Plaza. At the …

Lunenburg owes its existence to offshore cod fishery, but now seems to mostly focus on tourism because of its perfect British colonial grid plan and fine collection of wooden houses from the 19th century. It was my last WHS to visit on my Eastern Canada trip in 2022.

Nice weather was predicted, but a thick fog lay over the town when I got there at half-past nine. The large fisheries museum had just opened its doors. Attributes from the Atlantic fishing history are displayed on three floors. It is more like a warehouse than a museum that tells a specific story. In 1992, cod fishing from Lunenburg and the surrounding area was stopped by the Canadian government due to overfishing. A part of the exhibits is shown in the former icehouse.

Then I walked uphill to see some streets with original houses. Most are from the late 19th century – previous buildings have been destroyed by fire. Almost all of them have a sign with the date of construction and the history of the building. Each house is slightly different in color and architecture, it is nice to see the variation. Only the low-hanging electricity cables are not so attractive.

I believe I walked all the streets. There’s a considerable number of churches, of different Protestant denominations. The center also has a small park with several monuments and a bandstand. One commemorates the Norwegian training presence in World War II. Sailors who were stranded here …

Prior to 2001, somebody had clearly identified there was a gap on the list of World Heritage Sites for model villages for workers of the Industrial Revolution. I say this because, in 2001, the UK managed to get three sites inscribed on this theme in the same session: the Derwent Valley Mills, New Lanark, and Saltaire. Of these three, I think Saltaire is by far the weakest. The mills of the Derwent Valley and the model village of New Lanark both have the distinction of being first in their class, which seems a fairly inarguable case for OUV even if the visiting experience can be fairly mediocre. Sir Titus Salt had Saltaire built in 1851, over half a century after New Lanark was founded in 1796, and there were many other settlements inspired by New Lanark built in between those dates. Saltaire is probably the best preserved of all of these early attempts and presents a fairly complete model village with houses, hospital, schools, church, park and, of course, the imposing mill. That being said, the later developments in Port Sunlight near Liverpool (1888), Bournville in Birmingham (1893), and Creswell in Derbyshire (1895) are all equally good examples of this phenomenon, built for workers in the soap, chocolate, and coal industries respectively. If the purpose of Saltaire is to demonstrate how the model town evolved as the Industrial Revolution progressed then why not inscribe these three too as they show even more development and represent something other than textiles? Not …

I visited Copán during my trip to Guatemala in November and December 2021. I had opted for the town of Chiquimula as my base for visiting the site. Buses serve it from Guatemala City. Minibuses leave from the city for the border of El Florido. From there, additional minibuses go to the town of Copán Ruinas. From the city, it is easy to reach the ruins on foot.

When I arrived at the site, I was quite surprised to find that the gate was locked and that the site was closed. I had changed my itinerary during the trip (I didn't go to El Salvador as planned) and found myself in Copán earlier than scheduled. I had not made sure that the site would be open that day and it was not (the site closes on Mondays for maintenance). I walked a little further hoping to find another entrance, but nothing. When I came back, a site official was talking to two backpackers through the gate, explaining what I had just learned. He did, however, offer them a guided tour of the site. He explained that this was the only way to visit the site during the maintenance days. Although the other two backpackers refused to share the cost of the guide, I opted for the tour anyway. It saved me from having to come all the way back the next day. I wasn't going to give up this site so easily.

In the end, this tour is …

The easiest way to reach New Lanark is through the old Lanark, which apparently dates back to at least 1140 as a market town during the reign of King David I. Today, Lanark has a railway station that lies at the end of a spur off one of the many lines that link Glasgow and Edinburgh. There is a half-hourly service from Glasgow Central but, due to the layout of the track, no trains can travel down to Lanark from the east so travelling from Edinburgh requires a change at Motherwell as I did. Lanark is a pleasant enough town but there isn’t a great deal to do or see there so I walked through it quickly and made my way along the roads to New Lanark, which only took about 30 minutes to reach the outskirts of. The road down into New Lanark takes a long hairpin route to reach the valley of the River Clyde below but there are more direct footpaths through the woods for pedestrians such as myself. This was fine coming down but the shorter distance comes at the cost of a steeper incline on the way back up the hill. There is a small quiet graveyard in the woods here that might form part of the core zone but the maps on the UNESCO website, including in the original nomination file, were an incomprehensibly pixelated mess when I tried to access them.

Descending into the valley, there are the old mill buildings and …

I did not ‘engineer’ my 800th visited World Heritage Site: my Canadian itinerary was already set before I decided to go to Tunisia first. With no ‘misses’ in between, the Red Bay Basque Whaling Station became my #800. The place does not sound as exciting as Okavango and Uluru for example, which were my #700 and #400 respectively. But in the end, I was happy with it as I found it an enjoyable site in a rather remote location.

If you look up on a map where this is located, you will see how remote and isolated it is. Labrador's first "big" town - with the beautiful name Happy Valley Goose Bay - has only 8,000 inhabitants and is 550 km away. Fortunately, Labrador is part of the province of Newfoundland & Labrador, so the province subsidizes a ferry that runs daily between the tip of Newfoundland (near L'Anse aux Meadows) and Blanc Sablon (an hour south of Red Bay). Ideal for the WH traveller.

I was a bit concerned about this ferry beforehand: it gets very bad reviews, the company has a terrible website and you can only reserve by phone. On the spot, it turned out not to be too bad and both trips were right on time on a spacious ship. There was also a lot of freight traffic and a single tour bus on this 1.5-hour crossing.

The drive along the Labrador coast the next morning was beautiful. You see mountains, endless coniferous …

Site visited in June 2022. Rio Abiseo is undoubtedly the most difficult WHS to visit in Peru and one of the most difficult in South America. Traveling to such places is especially exciting, so I couldn't let it go while planning a trip to Peru with my family.

You can get to Rio Abiseo in two ways: from the east, from Tarapoto (which has connections to Lima), where you can visit the lower part of the park with tropical forest, or from the west, where the gate to the park is Pataz and you visit the high-mountain part of the park, with archaeological sites, including the most famous Gran Pajaten. For logistics reasons, I only considered the western route. Besides, I am not sure if the eastern route covers the core zone or only parts of the Abiseo River outside the national park.

Rio Abiseo National Park is officially closed to visitors, but you can find offers for trips there on the Internet, so I suspected it was not that tragic. Long before we left, I got in touch with Nestor (whatsapp +51961844611), a guide who offered the opportunity to visit Gran Pajaten from Pataz. Due to the huge differences in height (over 1000 meters), he recommended using mules and trekking from Pataz for at least two days when traveling with small children. Later, however, our contact broke off, but I know that Nestor can be a good fixer for those who want to visit Rio Abiseo from …

Nowadays this is mostly a Place of Remembrance for the Acadian people, who were forcefully evicted from their lands in 1755. No expense has been spared for a rather grandiose visitor center, a rebuilt church and surrounding gardens. Upon entering the visitor center, I was immediately stimulated to go and see the 20min video, which is being played in the theatre. It tells the story of how the Acadians were chased from their land. It left me with a weird feeling – it's like a propaganda film.

The World Heritage area is larger than this alone (and free to visit): it includes farmland in the polder, a wooden church from 1861 founded by the British Planters who subsequently cultivated the land, and a memorial to both the Acadians and the Planters at Horton Landing. By car I drove past all these locations, they are only a few kilometers apart.

All original buildings were burned by the British colonists. The picture shows the Acadian Cross at Horton Landing, the location from which the Acadians had to leave by boat. This visual perspective, with Cape Blomidon in the distance, is actually part of the World Heritage values. I have never seen “viewsheds” as this displayed so explicitly on a WH map.

Like most others, I rate this site very low. It should never have been inscribed. I have no problem with the descendants of the Acadians wanting to commemorate this place, but its universal value is lost on me.

Located in a rural and remote corner of Serbia, Studenica Monastery is the nicest Serbian Orthodox monastery and church I visited while in Serbia. It is a fortified monastery, with walls and a tower, that reminded me of the churches in Romania. And it has great murals and a good state of preservation, probably owed to the remoteness. I think the consistency was the part that impressed me the most.

Getting There

You can get to Studenica from both Kraljevo and Novi Pazar. Take a bus between the two and get off at Usce. From Usce, there are a few daily connections to Miliće which stop in Studenica. The connection is timed to match the bus from Kraljevo. Details are found here. You should check with the bus driver regarding return times. There was ample time for the visit and having a sandwich before jumping the bus back.

I came in the morning by bus from Kraljevo and left in the afternoon for Novi Pazar. My original plan had been to catch a cab to the monastery, but Usce doesn't have cabs. I had already started a 2h hike when I saw a bus behind me heading the proper direction.

On my return to Usce via the same bus, I caught the bus to Novi Pazar. Note: Usce has an "official" bus terminal, but some buses stop along the road, 20m off the bus terminal.

While You Are There

Novi Pazar and Stari …

Grumsin Beech Forest, June 2022

The forest can be visited as a half-day trip from Berlin via public transport. As other reviewers have pointed out the actual UNESCO-listed property is “verboten” to be visited on your own – there are paid official guided tours available, which require pre-booking well in advance. There are four official signposted hike trails which pass through the buffer zone and touch the borders of the core forest areas, but do not enter or cross it.

Even though Grumsin is close to Metropolis Berlin the area of the forest is very rural and the main access road to the little hamlet of Grumsin proper (half a dozen of farmhouses) is shockingly rough for a country like Germany. The wider area used to be the hunting grounds of the Brandenburg princes of lore, then followed by the clique around Goering (the remains of the Carinhall estate are nearby), and finally the red barons of the GDR stalked their deer and wild boars there, which may explain why the area remains relatively underdeveloped and relatively untouched. Even today, hunters’ high seats abound in the area.

With the UNESCO listing of Grumsin came change to the community around the forest – what used to be a quiet backwater now is being heavily marketed by local and regional tourist boards. Apparently, nobody asked the locals if they had an opinion, and the UNESCO listing came as a surprise (and shock) to many. Around Grumsin there are a …

It isn’t too difficult to imagine a world in which the reconstruction of Warsaw after World War II was done in such a way to make the city centre indistinguishable from every other concrete jungle in eastern Europe. Indeed, large swathes of the city seems to be done in the stereotypical brutalist style with wide streets and a fair amount of greenery between the tower blocks, which was no doubt supposed to be highly efficient but doesn’t make for the most interesting visiting experience. For my visit, I was staying near the university on the southwest side of the city but it was straightforward to head into the city centre on the excellent tram network that I made use of most nights. There was also an underground metro although I had very little experience with that. The tram led past the towering Palace of Science and Culture with its distinct Stalinist style that has come, for better or worse, to be symbolic of Warsaw and its relatively recent Communist past. However, it was surrounded by the glass and steel skyscrapers of the capitalist present and the city centre seemed to be a hive of construction activity.

With a free afternoon, I made my way on the tram to the stop outside the National Museum (Muzeum Narodowe) but sadly did not have time to venture inside. Instead, I disembarked the tram, which necessitates crossing a very busy road as there was no pedestrian underpass at that tram stop, then headed …

With my brother’s wife being from Honduras, it was a certainty we would have to visit the country during our Central America trip in the summer of 2016.

Like others, we crossed into Honduras from Guatemala at the El Florido crossing (our driver’s taking of various other border crossings between Guatemala and El Salvador raised some eyebrows elsewhere) and overnighted in Copan Ruinas at the Hotel Magdalena. A five minute drive early in the morning brought us to the wooded trail to the ruins, the colours of the macaws flashing between the trees. 

Our driver arranged a tour guide. When looking back on our travels, my wife will often go straight to remembering a random detail. “What do you remember about Copan?” “The tour guide had a stick with a macaw feather on it. And it was so hot!” Indeed, the various shady areas around the ruins are very welcome in that respect, compared to us almost getting incinerated at Chichen Itza! 

Visiting in the morning, there were very few other people there - my photos are clear of other tourists unlike similar sites in Mexico for example. The guide showed us a 3d model of the complex at the museum / visitor centre first, which gave a good overview of the components we would later see - the Eastern Plaza, the Plaza los Jaguares with it’s dancing jaguars (pictured), the Plaza Principal, the Acropolis, the highly prized Hieroglyphic Stairway and my personal favourite, …

I was there in early June 2022. I visited the Zimbabwean side both walking and helicopter.

First thing to know is that the falls vary dramatically depending on the rain. June was right after the end of the rainy season and there was a LOT of water in the falls. There are about 15 view points, numbered from the east (farthest from Zambia) and only the first 4 or 5 were usable to see the magnificent falls. The others were a mix of fog & rain where you can't see much. From the pictures at the entrance of the park, there are much less water in September / October. 

I also took a 15 minutes helicopter tour ($150+10% tax) which focused on the falls, longer tours seem to also fly above the game park to see wildlife. Views from above were surprisingly nice an clear. All the fog is actually on the side opposite of the falls where people walk but not much fog on the side of the falls. The pilot goes around twice: right & left side of the helicopter so all the passengers would enjoy the view.

Sometimes you think it is all a hoax. That the Canadian Tourist Board has made up this “Meeting of Two Worlds” site on the northwestern tip of Newfoundland to pull tourists to an economically disadvantaged part of the country. For WH travellers it is even worse, as L’Anse Aux Meadows has to be combined in one itinerary with Mistaken Point which lies completely on the opposite side of the island on its southeastern tip. The distance between them is 1150 kilometers.

The conclusion that this wasn’t an indigenous camp but one inhabited by early European navigators is attributed to the discovery of iron objects and a particular pin used in Scandinavia to hold together clothes (pictured). But what if the overeager Norwegian couple that rediscovered the site in 1960 had planted those just to prove what they were looking for all along?

I visited on June 20th – and it was cold (4 degrees Celsius), rainy, foggy and miserable overall. The contours of the Norse constructions looked like duck ponds. Luckily they had a fire going on in the main reconstructed turf house, where three local men half-heartedly tried to reenact Norse life around the year 1021. Even the fire turned out to be fake – it runs on propane gas.

Despite the misery, I was far from the only visitor, the site is right on the itinerary of the many elderly Canadians who explore their country by (huge) campervans. To pamper yourself afterwards, have lunch or …

The Byzantine monastery of Haghpat was an important centre of learning in medieval times and is an excellent example of Armenian religious architecture. Haghpat and Sanahin together form one of Armenia’s three UNESCO World Heritage sites. Like Haghpat, Sanahin was a place of study, particularly famous for illumination and calligraphy.

Though what intrigues me even more are grave stones. In Armenia, there’s frequently a photo of the deceased on the grave stone. Not that unusual in itself – but it’s also not uncommon to illustrate how they died. I stand for a long time in front of a stone, engraved with the image of a man and three women, one of them a young teenager at most. Next to the happy group is a car driving off a cliff. Evocative. And sad. Also, I’m reminded of the narrow roads back down the mountain, and shiver.

Along with Red Bay in Labrador, Mistaken Point is the hardest-to-reach World Heritage Site of the 10 in Eastern Canada. Located in the far southeastern corner of the island of Newfoundland, it can only be visited with a prearranged tour. I reserved 4 weeks in advance by e-mail and was given a choice between two time slots on my preferred day. Fortunately, the tours rarely get cancelled ("about 5 times a year") as bad weather does not deter the Newfoundlanders, they are only called off when the waves are so high that they cover the fossils or it gets dangerous. The day before the visit, I drove from Deer Lake in the West to St. John's, the largest city in the East (which takes 6.5 hours). Then it's a further 2 hours to the South via the “Irish Loop”, a coastal road across the Avalon Peninsula past many villages of Irish origin.

12 people showed up for the 10.30 a.m. tour, all Canadians except me. We were then invited to follow our guides by car in convoy towards the starting point of the trail towards the fossils. Do they do it this way to discourage illegal entry? The entrance (just a rope across a path) and parking lot aren’t exactly hidden, but they don’t advertise it either. You could find the exact location on Google Maps of course but it is not signposted from the road. Also, when we parked our cars, we had to put a sign with …

I visited Joggins on a Sunday afternoon. I had made reservations for the 2 pm tour weeks in advance. After about 6 hours of driving from the province of Québec (plus an hour time difference), I arrived on time. The visitor center is a lot smaller than Miguasha's, and it seems to be less well funded too: Joggins is owned by a foundation, it is not a provincial or national park.

It turned out that only 2 other people (Americans) were joining me on the tour. I first had a look at the indoor exhibit by myself. You mainly see prints of ferns and the trunks of something that looked like bamboo. All plants and animals from this period have in common that they were very large.

The Bay of Fundy, where the cliffs lie, has the highest tidal range in the world. At high tide, the difference can be up to 16 meters, and the beach and cliffs are not accessible. Fortunately, I was there at a time when the water was receding: the high tide was at 11 o'clock, and the low tide will be at 5 o'clock. And even then you still have a few hours left before it gets too dangerous. Visitors are warned about the high tide, but they are not physically banned. The beach is always open, but the water sometimes reaches the higher parts of the stairs leading from the visitor center to the beach. The tidal times as they are …

Reichenau is an island on the Bodensee/Lake Constance where the monastic tradition dates to the 800s. The island has three remaining churches that date to the 11th/12th centuries, and some original paintings remain. The island has built small museums by each church with some information— however, it was a lot less history/information/signage than nearby St. Gall  

I visited St. Gall and Reichenau in a single day by rental car from Zurich. Both sites are about an hour from Zurich and an hour from rich other. It’s possible to do the same route by train, but the Reichenau train station is a bit far from the island — it’d be about a 3-hour round trip walk from the station to the furthest church on the island, so I felt I’d be rushed to do both in a single day without renting a car. It’s a popular cycling destination, but I didn’t see places to rent bikes on the island. 

As others helpfully pointed out, St. George is only open May-September twice a day by guided tour to protect the paintings. The tour times are still 12:30 and 16:00 daily. I confirmed the times with the visitors center before my trip. Unfortunately, no one shows up for the 16:00 tour the day I visited. No sign on the door/note it was cancelled. A group of 12 of us waited, myself for 30 minutes, before giving up. That was disappointing to say the least. Hopefully others will have better luck. (Note …

The further north I drove from the provincial capital Québec towards Miguasha, the more dramatic the scenery became: fast-flowing rivers for salmon fishing, dense forests, and the first ‘real’ mountains: the Appalachians. Kilometers before the exit from the highway, the Miguasha World Heritage Site is already signposted. Encountering a prominent sign like this always makes me happy, especially on this trip as ones with the UNESCO logo are quite rare among Canadian WHS.

I visited the park at the opening hour of 9 a.m. and at the visitor center they had to unlock the door for me. That center is of an impressive size by the way, compared to the relatively small site it covers. The girl at the reception started her enthusiastic explanations about what you can do here in Quebec-French. Fortunately, I kind of knew what I wanted to see and do already because most of this dialect completely passes me by.

I am first led to a separate room, where the Elpistostege watsoni ("the King of Miguasha") can be seen. This complete specimen of the only fish of its kind was found as recently in 2010 (long after WH inscription) and apparently deserves special treatment.

In the 'regular' museum, the story is told of how the fossils were discovered. A geologist in search of coal found the first specimens in 1832. Later on, much more extensive digging and searching were done. Especially Swedish scientists were very active and paid local treasure hunters to ship …