World Heritage Site

This website is a fully independent source of information about World Heritage Sites (WHS) and does not intend to make a profit. We value open discussion at the Forum, the exchange of personal travel experiences via reviews of WHS visits and enhancing our knowledge, regardless of a contributor's origins or how many WHS he or she has visited.

... for World Heritage Travellers

It is a website for travellers dedicated to visiting the locations listed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. For travellers with an unsaturable curiosity about the world in all its cultural and natural manifestations. Those who want to share and to learn about it. For travellers that enjoy ticking off lists as well. And armchair travellers are just as much welcome.

At the WH Travellers meeting 2016 in Lithuania

How this website came about

The idea for this website was developed by me, Els Slots. It has been a long journey since 1997 to get where the site stands now. The full story can be read here.

Not many people have a clear goal in life. I do: mine is to visit all WHS. To achieve this goal I get away about once every month, with trips varying in difficulty and length between a (long) weekend in Europe and a 5.5 month trip around the world covering 47 WHS.

I plan my travels around WHS and TWHS (sites on the Tentative List), but also try to fit in capital cities, national museums, rewarding day-hikes and local festivities. Some of my most memorable experiences from the last years include tracking gorillas and chimpanzees in Virunga National Park, enjoying the art and architecture of Florence with 20 art history students for a week and celebrating Now Ruz with 1 million Kurds in Sulaymaniyah.

I have lived in the Netherlands all my life, and do still have a day job to sustain all my travels.

Me, grateful having arrived at the entrance to Rwenzori WHS

The technical stuff

Maintaining this website has become a community effort as well over the years. We do improvement ‘projects’, such as gathering all geographical coordinates for all TWHS.

Nan has been responsible for a full technical make-over of the website during 2016-2017. Yes, thank him for those wonderful maps, the responsiveness on mobile devices and even the long-awaited password reset function.

If you find any technical errors on the website or have ideas for improvements, please add them to our Backlog.

Where to start?

  • If you want to keep track of how many WHS you have already visited yourself and post full reviews with photos included, sign up.
  • If you want to discuss at the Forum, go here. Access is on request only (to avoid spammers), so send me an e-mail if you want to register.
  • If you want to browse through my trip reports and get an overview of my WH-related posts, go to my Blog Archive page.

Glossary

WHS is short for 'World Heritage Site', i.e. a place inscribed at the UNESCO World Heritage List.

A TWHS is a place that features on the Tentative List of a Country (State Party in WH terms) for possible future nomination to the proper World Heritage List.

The decision to include a site is made by the WHC, the World Heritage Committee. This is appropriate only when OUV, Outstanding Universal Value, has been proven. In making this decision, the WHC is assisted by Advisory Bodies (AB) IUCN (natural sites) and ICOMOS (cultural sites).

Disclaimer

This website is a private initiative, and has no connection whatsoever with UNESCO or the World Heritage Committee.

Copyright

All review texts including accompanying photos are subject to the copyright of the reviewer (all rights reserved). All other texts and photos on this website belong to Els Slots (all rights reserved). For use of texts or photos, please use the contact option.

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