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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Archaeological site of Ancient Messene by Nan

Archaeological site of Ancien… (On tentative list)

Archaeological site of Ancient Messene by Nan

Travelling without car can be a bit challenging in Greece. Each district has their own local KTEL (bus company). The only priority for each KTEL seems to be to offer …

Ancient Lavrion by Nan

Ancient Lavrion (On tentative list)

Ancient Lavrion by Nan

If you like me have ever wondered what made Athens stand out among its contemporary rival Greek city states, Ancient Lavrion may provide the answer. In the hills of the …

Rjukan / Notodden by Nan

Rjukan / Notodden (Inscribed)

Rjukan / Notodden by Nan

While humans have put manure of fields for millenia, it was never fully understood why that actually worked. It was in the 19th century that a German chemist, Justus von …

L'viv by Nan

L'viv (Inscribed)

L'viv by Nan

After the first partition of Poland in 1772, L'viv (Polish Lvov, German Lemberg) became part of Austrian Empire and was the capital of the region of Galicia. It would …

The Lofoten islands by Nan

The Lofoten islands (On tentative list)

The Lofoten islands by Nan

Thanks to plentiful cod in the sea around the Lofoten, the Lofoten saw a huge influx of fishers each winter. From January to March each year is cod season and …

Rock Art of Alta by Nan

Rock Art of Alta (Inscribed)

Rock Art of Alta by Nan

Alta has the second highest rating of all Norwegian sites. For me, it's a nice site, but not a truly great one. The great thing is to see how far …

Vegaøyan by Nan

Vegaøyan (Inscribed)

Vegaøyan by Nan

Referring to the site as Vega Island is misleading. The site is called Vega Archipelago and the greatest part of the inscribed area is not on Vega Island but on …

Røros by Nan

Røros (Inscribed)

Røros by Nan

For some surprising reason, the sleepy former mining town of Røros gets 1 Mio visitors each year. When I came, the main road was busy and the parking lot full …

Australian Convict Sites by Nan

Australian Convict Sites (Inscribed)

Australian Convict Sites by Nan

On a brief stopover of three days before NYE 2020, I visited the Convict Sites around Sydney. The day I arrived, I was off to a splendid start, as the …

Cistercian Abbey of Fontenay by Nan

Cistercian Abbey of Fontenay (Inscribed)

Cistercian Abbey of Fontenay by Nan

Fontenay is probably the best preserved Cistercian abbey I have visited. As is customary for Cistercian abbeys, it's located along a river valley and you will recognize the usual structures …

Sydney Opera House by Nan

Sydney Opera House (Inscribed)

Sydney Opera House by Nan

The Sydney Opera is one of the youngest inscribed WHS. It was officially opened in 1973 and inscribed as WHS in 2007 (less than 50 years later). As a basic …

Greater Blue Mountains by Nan

Greater Blue Mountains (Inscribed)

Greater Blue Mountains by Nan

To get this out of the way first: I think Jay is the only one who visited the same Blue Mountains I visited back in late December 2019. Everyone else …

Singapore Botanic Gardens  by Nan

Singapore Botanic Gardens (Inscribed)

Singapore Botanic Gardens by Nan

The Singapore Botanic Gardens are one of a number a botanic gardens the British constructed across their empire. The main claim to fame of the Singapore one is that it …

Tongariro National Park by Nan

Tongariro National Park (Inscribed)

Tongariro National Park by Nan

We were sitting in Wellington having (probably) another pricey NZ beer. It was Friday afternoon and we were planning to drive to Tongariro the next day (Saturday) with the Transalpine …

Te Wahipounamu by Nan

Te Wahipounamu (Inscribed)

Te Wahipounamu by Nan

In January 2020, we spent a week on the Southern island of New Zealand in and around Te Wahipounamu. When people say the Southern island is the more beautiful of …

Ping Yao by Nan

Ping Yao (Inscribed)

Ping Yao by Nan

The first time I heard about Pingyao was not on this website, but in the Lonely Planet guidebook for China. They were extolling the virtues of this most historic Chinese …

West Lake by Nan

West Lake (Inscribed)

West Lake by Nan

In January 2020, I spent an afternoon walking around the West Lake. It's a pleasant walk, albeit a long one at 15km. Surprisingly, I recall no extended stretch where I …

Classical Gardens of Suzhou by Nan

Classical Gardens of Suzhou (Inscribed)

Classical Gardens of Suzhou by Nan

As my last stop in China in January 2020, I visited the Humble Administrator's Garden in Suzhou. The people of Suzhou must have a sarcastic streak: Whoever created the garden …

Huangshan by Nan

Huangshan (Inscribed)

Huangshan by Nan

When visiting Huangshan I managed the incredible feat of being completely penniless twice in a time span of roughly 2.5h.

It was a rainy day in January and I …

Xidi and Hongcun by Nan

Xidi and Hongcun (Inscribed)

Xidi and Hongcun by Nan

In China, most sites are huge. Huge palaces, huge gardens, huge temples, huge fortifications, huge mausoleums, huge Buddhas, huge old towns ... As impressive …

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