Nan

Germany \ Member since April 2014

#34 646 162 38

It's up to you how you want to spend your holiday, whether that's lazing on the beach at a Caribbean club hotel sipping Mai Tais. Or tending to the garden.

Standing on the shorelines of the Pacific Ocean at Rialto Beach.

While I do enjoy the occasional Mai Tai on the beach, I prefer to see new things and travel to faraway places. I've read my fair share of travel guides to find out where to go and what to see. And I was often disappointed.

While many guidebooks spend an entire chapter extolling the virtues of a particular destination (e.g. a capital city), World Heritage Sites are different. They're as objective as it gets, and often take you off the beaten track. For example, I have fond memories of my taxi ride through a Czech winter landscape to visit Holasovice, a site that only World Heritage connoisseurs would appreciate. More often than not, WHS are great places.

Initially, I concentrated on visiting as many WHS as possible, which gave me a good overview. However, since I've reached the magic 300 (almost 600 now), I've shifted my focus to visiting the really great sites: quality over quantity.

Ultimately, I recommend that you travel as you please. However, if you find yourself in a country (even if it's just for a beach holiday), take a look at the map of World Heritage Sites on this site to see if any are nearby. You may have to travel a little off the beaten track, but I assure you it will be worth it.

My most impressive sites (the usual):

  • Petra
  • Machu Picchu
  • Angkor

From the tentative sites I have seen I feel strongly for:

  • Okefenokee NP, USA - Riding canoe in the swamp with snakes and crocodiles.
  • Unjusa temple, South Korea (my title picture) - Korea's best temple.
  • Desert Castles in Uzbekistan.

Several aspiring sites in Sri Lanka also come to mind Bawa's modernism and the painted buddhist temples are something to behold.

Recent Visits
  • 24
    6
    Oct. 1, 2025
    China and Thailand: Archaeological Sites of the Ancient Shu State, Ayutthaya, Beijing Central Axis ...
  • 1
    0
    June 7, 2025
    Weekend in Warsaw: Warsaw
  • 6
    0
    June 1, 2025
    Brückentag in Baden-Württemberg: Abbey and Altenmünster of Lorsch, Great Spa Towns of Europe, Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt …
Completed Countries

About nan

Member since
April 2014
Country of Origin
Germany
Visits
Rank
#34
WHS
646
Tentative Sites
162
Website Participation
Reviews
326
Ratings

Ratings

World Heritage Sites
Tentative Sites
646 184
Locations
360
Zones
2
Reserved for members.

Reviews by nan

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Residences of the Royal House of Savoy by Nan

Residences of the Royal House… (Inscribed)

Residences of the Royal House of Savoy by Nan

Even in a country filled with world class sites like no other, with a large backlog of well deserving sites on the tentative list, you will find the …

Istanbul by Nan

Istanbul (Inscribed)

Istanbul by Nan

Erdogan must have had a master plan to spoil my trip to Istanbul as much as possible. Now I am not referring to the recent escalation of the conflict with …

Selimiye Mosque by Nan

Selimiye Mosque (Inscribed)

Selimiye Mosque by Nan

After a few days in Turkey the ennui that I generally reserve to Baroque churches had settled in for Ottoman mosques. "You seen one, you have seen them all.

Bursa and Cumalikizik by Nan

Bursa and Cumalikizik (Inscribed)

Bursa and Cumalikizik by Nan

As a daytrip from Istanbul I made my way to Bursa. Bursa embedded in a lush green valley is a nice distraction from the tourist filled streets of Istanbul. It …

Vineyard Landscape of Piedmont by Nan

Vineyard Landscape of Piedmont (Inscribed)

Vineyard Landscape of Piedmont by Nan

Having arrived in Nizza Monferrato by bus from Alessandria I made my way into the old town to the central square. I had expected yet another of the pretty old …

Ivrea by Nan

Ivrea (Inscribed)

Ivrea by Nan

On my last day in Italy I visited Ivrea from Turin. After loads of medieval /Renaissance/Baroque cities and churches taking in some modern architecture was a welcome change.

Ivrea …

San Gimignano by Nan

San Gimignano (Inscribed)

San Gimignano by Nan

San Gimignano is one of the sites I knew I had been to as a kid, but never counted as visited. The simple reason was that all I remembered from …

Spoleto

Longobards in Italy (Inscribed)

Longobards in Italy by Nan

The transition from Antiquity to Medieval times can be well traced with world heritage sites. You start in Split where you get a last peek of Roman culture in Diocletian's …

Val d'Orcia by Nan

Val d'Orcia (Inscribed)

Val d'Orcia by Nan

Coming in a few weeks later than Fredrik I faced neither snow nor cold. And at least in the morning when I departed from San Quirico the weather was great …

Siena by Nan

Siena (Inscribed)

Siena by Nan

As a stopover on my way from San Gimignano to the Val d'Orcia I had an hour or so to kill in Siena. I had been before twice, but still …

Etruscan Necropolises by Nan

Etruscan Necropolises (Inscribed)

Etruscan Necropolises by Nan

I need to propose an addendum to Els rule about all Italian sites being closed on Monday. If Monday is a public holiday the sites are open, but the …

Jesuit Missions of the Chiquitos by Nan

Jesuit Missions of the Chiqui… (Inscribed)

Jesuit Missions of the Chiquitos by Nan

The Jesuit Missions in Paraguay and Argentina had really smitten me on my previous visit to South America. When I had the chance to see their Bolivian counterparts, it was …

El Fuerte de Samaipata by Nan

Fuerte de Samaipata (Inscribed)

El Fuerte de Samaipata by Nan

On my last day in Bolivia I ventured to El Fuerte de Samaipata. El Fuerte is a pre Incan / Incan ruin on a hilltop near the town of Samaipata. …

Tiwanaku by Nan

Tiwanaku (Inscribed)

Tiwanaku by Nan

On what used to be close to the Southern shore of Lake Titicaca, you will find the ruins of Tiwanaku. Billed by some Bolivians as Bolivian Tikal, you will find …

Mir Castle by Nan

Mir Castle (Inscribed)

Mir Castle by Nan

As my first world heritage site of 2018 I settled on Mir Castle. Belarus had been on my to visit list for a while, ever since they dropped the visa …

Lake Titicaca by Nan

Lake Titicaca (On tentative list)

Lake Titicaca by Nan

Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable body of water at 3800m. For the natives in pre-Columbian times this was where the gods created the world. Several islands and pre-Columbian sites …

Sacred Titicaca Lake by Nan

Sacred Titicaca Lake (On tentative list)

Sacred Titicaca Lake by Nan

Whatever was missing for me on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca was readily there on the Bolivian side. I had boarded a bus from Puno to La Paz with …

Sucre by Nan

Sucre (Inscribed)

Sucre by Nan

Sucre is one of the prettiest cities in Latin America I have encountered in my travels so far. Immediately when I exited the shared cab from Potosi and stepped out …

Qhapaq Ñan by Nan

Qhapaq Ñan (Inscribed)

Qhapaq Ñan by Nan

A site like Qhapaq Nan is fairly difficult to grasp. Is it the roads the Inkas built to connect all parts of their empire? Or does it refer to the …

Pulacayo, Industrial Heritage Site by Nan

Pulacayo, Industrial Heritage… (On tentative list)

Pulacayo, Industrial Heritage Site by Nan

For my 2017 trip to South America I ventured a bit off the beaten path, at least in terms of WHS travel. A colleague more or less implored me to …

Page 13 of 17