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1205 of 1223 WHS have been reviewed by our community.


Kew Gardens

Andrew_Kerr UK - 26-Jan-25

Kew Gardens

I know it's stating the obvious but.........don't go to Kew Gardens unless you're really interested in plants and gardening. I'm not and I have to be honest and say that I was a bit underwhelmed by the place and thought that the cost was too high.
Let me elaborate, there's a lot of open green spaces, I mean A LOT, which may be green and natural but are not gardens. 
I think I expected something more akin to the Chelsea Flower Show than Hyde Park hence my overall disappointment. I did enjoy the hot houses, Kew Palace and the pagoda (picture).
Ultimately though, I found it to be disappointing and not worth the entrance fee (currently £22) especially when there are some excellent parks to visit in London, for free.

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Derzhprom (the State Industry Building) (T)

ChrisDorn Germany - 31-Jan-25

I visited Kharkiv in 2021, six months before the start of the... disaster.

At that time, I was not yet part of the UNESCO enthusiast community, so I had no idea that I was next to a nominee for inclusion in the World Heritage Site. But even then, I was impressed by the massiveness and grandeur of the building - a very unusual architecture for Kharkiv.

Outside, there is also a large fountain built into the sidewalk. In the hot summer of 2021, you could meet children and their parents there every day, who were cooling off in powerful jets of the fountain in their bathing suits. I was no exception.

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Asante Traditional Buildings

Little Lauren Travels USA - 20-Jan-25

I booked a tour with a local company, Ashanti African Tours, to spend four days in Ghana, visiting the forts and the Asante traditional buildings as well as the Akwasidae Festival, a traditional Asante festival that happens once every six weeks.  I was too focused on visas and anti-malarials and a snow storm to closely check the itinerary, which just had an afternoon visiting the site.  I was disappointed to learn that only the shrine at Ejisu-Besease had been included.  I asked that more be added and also visited Adako-Jackie, which is nearby.  I would be specific on any tour and say you want to visit multiple of the shrines.  Although I usually have a 30% rule — e.g

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Thang Long

GabLabCebu Philippines - 25-Jan-25

Thang Long

Thang Long is surely far from being the most popular WHS here. As I planned my January 2025 trip to northern Vietnam, I fully expected it to be close to the bottom of my rankings. Barely anything remains from its 11th century state that is often stated as the basis of its OUV, right? Yes, all that can be seen from that period are artifacts from the archaeological digs, and even then, the majority come from the 13th-14th centuries. Most of what remains are indeed recent Nguyen and French additions. While Nguyen structures may pale in comparison to Hue, the little gates and pavilions are distinct and beautiful royal constructions still exemplary for the period as a whole

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Route of the Franciscan Evangelisation (T)

Digits Ireland - 26-Jan-25

Route of the Franciscan Evangelisation (T)

Can you review a tentative site where the components are unknown? We visited the Iglesia de San Francisco in Antigua in the summer of 2016 which would presumably have been one of the supposed 26 components. More churches you say? I would have been the first to say surely saturation point has been reached on the religious sites. But then … the more I thought about it … the more I thought it might be … merited?! The vast majority of sites related to colonialism focus on urban ensembles which don’t necessarily hone in on the role of missionaries in altering the fabric of a region permanently.

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Blog WH Travellers

Tours to WHS

My recent trip to all 10 WHS of Mauritania, Senegal and Gambia was a mix of 3 styles: a Group Tour for Mauritania, independent travel in North Senegal and a Private Tour for Gambia and East Senegal. I do not regret these choices. The downsides of organized travel were mitigated by not having to endure them for a long time. Let’s look at what Tours to WHS can bring you.

Pros and cons of tours

1.      Convenience versus lack of first-hand experience

Although I always first try to cover places individually, sometimes the infrastructure just isn’t there (or very complicated/expensive) to do it on your own. Desert trips like Mauritania and Chad require 4WD driving skills and travelling in a convoy. Manu NP requires a boat and camping in the jungle. Without a tour, you would not even get there. 

The downside is that when I don’t organize it all myself, I feel less prepared and the memories don’t stay with me as long.

2.      Local perspective versus cost of adding a guide

A good guide can be your key to unlocking the country, adding local perspective without the guide having to be a scholar on the Almohad Caliphate or Saloum Delta ecology.

But it is always a gamble whether they deliver on this. A minimum tour leader standard (good English, decent communication and organization skills – qualities you will only start to appreciate when they are absent) is usually aimed for, but most cannot go beyond that level. This is especially true in countries with few tourists, the only kind of countries you take a tour for anyway. Photo 1 shows our Mauritanian guide dancing - an activity both we and he could have done without.

Often you are better off hiring a driver with good language skills. 

3.      Seeing all points of interest versus missing the point

Tours often are all-day affairs, to keep you busy for 12 hours or so. They follow a set itinerary and often use minor, ‘filler’ attractions in the area to offer their guests a varied menu as they cater to an audience of different interests. 

When I travel individually, I make the WHS the center of the day. I spend there as much time as needed. Often I don’t go anywhere else on that day. But I’ve been on tours where I have sat all day waiting for a WHS visit to happen after a kitschy modern palace, a village visit and a belated lunch, reaching the WHS just in time before sunset (I am describing my Moenjodaro visit, during the Pakistan-tour-from-hell). 

So go for a private tour if you can afford it – this way you can make sure, both beforehand and on the day itself, that your interests are prioritized.

Best guided site tours

A special kind of tour is the ‘guided site visit’: sometimes obligatory (you have to join a group to shuffle with 30 others through a palace), but at other times a more in-depth visit of multiple hours up til a day with a knowledgeable guide in a private or small group setting. 

If I can find a good one of the latter, I am always prepared to pay for a tour to enhance my WH site visit. I scanned my reviews of visits to WHS for the ones I remember most fondly, and these came out best:

  • Xochimilco (private tour): a very relaxed day tour centered around the produce of the floating gardens (photo above), an essential part of the Mexico City WHS. We visited farmers, ate with them, looked at their produce in the field and at the market. A peek into a lifestyle I could never have organized myself.
  • Lake Baikal (private tour): a full day in Baikalsky Nature Reserve, taking in the views, hiking through a Siberian pine forest and observing the ringing of birds (not an activity I would have chosen myself considering my slight ornithophobia, but it was enlightening).
  • Matobo Hills (small group tour): seeing varied aspects of this hard-to-grasp site, including a wild chase of a baby rhino with the unforgettable Andy.
  • Both Brazilian Atlantic Forest sites, South East and Discovery Coast (private tour): exploring them in the company of passionate Brazilian guides (the best company overall you can have; the photo below was taken in Guarau) who were well-educated ecologists.

Other good bets are sites where there isn’t much to see above ground such as Fort Ancient (Hopewell), where I got a deep dive into the subject on a tour conducted by the Site Manager talking about the complex history of this specific site, or Vredefort Dome.

Do you have any memorable guided day tours to (T)WHS that improved the experience?

Els - 9 February 2025

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Comments

Elena Y 9 February 2025

I've never done a full tour, but I think the "Wawel: The Most Precious" guided tour in Wawel Castle was my key to enjoying the site. They have a very odd ticketing system where you can either choose single areas of the castle to go to or spend a premium for an all-access pass. The Most Precious tour was a nice in-between and though it's a highlights thing (still two-and-a-half hours!), I felt pretty satisfied that I had seen everything worth seeing.


Els Slots 9 February 2025

My guides in Brazil only spoke Brazilian Portuguese. But I studied really hard on Duolingo beforehand! Definitely worth it. I would be wary of an English-speaking guide in Brazil.


Kyle Magnuson 9 February 2025

My tour of the Ermitage (Hermitage), or Royal Hunting Lodge (Par Force Hunting Landscape) was memorable since it was only conducted in Danish. English tours were limited and not on my travel dates, so . . . My spouse was accommodating, but indeed her patience was tested as it was a long-ish tour.


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