Awards at WHS.org

Since 2017, at the end of each year, we have been highlighting the most memorable reviews publicized on this website. This has evolved into a light-hearted "Award Ceremony", picking the best reviews in the categories Misadventure, Explorer and Best Overall.

Find below an overview of Past Winners.

Best Review of the Year

Good reads that make you wish you had been there, or provide a fundamentally new insight.

2025: A decade to see it all by nan. It has in-depth coverage of the Berlin Modernism Housing Estates, intertwined with personal history going back to 2012.

2024: The Civil Rights Movement Sites by Solivagant. It wonderfully describes a visit when the OUV was created!

WH Explorer Award

This prize recognizes reviews of (parts) of WHS, where a new access route has been explored successfully, resulting in reviews that show determination and reflect on both the choices made during preparation and the journey itself.

2025: Wojciech, and his journey to Anticosti Island . He found a flight on a small, local plane with an unknown company and dared to book it. It got him to the island (albeit after a delay of 7 hours), where he drove all around, saw the OUV and had to sleep in his rental car as the only hotel on the island was fully booked.

2024: Randi and Svein Elias were the first to review Odzala-Kokoua and even the first two community members to visit the site overall! They had to be driven 14h from Brazzaville to reach the site.

2023: Timonator with his review of Rio Abiseo . He was the first to explore this rarely visited WHS from the north, calling the 21-hour bus ride to reach the general area "really comfy" and braving a lazy and drunken guide to reach his goal.

Tsunami Award for Travel Misadventure

Our oldest award, honouring the style of member Tsunami, who always seems to encounter mishaps while visiting WHS.

2025: Philipp, who captured the frustration of a non-visit to the Migratory Bird Sanctuaries of China.

2024: not awarded

2023: Tsunami himself with his cave story of Evaporite Karst ("After almost 3 hours in the cave I was so glad that this tour was finally over."),

2022: Philipp, who thought it would be no problem to visit Nemrut Dag in March.

2021: Shared by our yearly contenders Nan and Tsunami, while separately visiting Rosia Montana (Nan, Tsunami) by public transport (preferably taking a late bus): a remote, recently added WHS without mature tourist infrastructure.

2020: Zos M - who "started a rift between two neighboring guesthouse owners" and was responsible for the death of a poor chicken while covering Sanqingshan.

2019: Nan went hiking in Laponia.