Guide to UNESCO World Heritage Sites
If you have been following this blog for a while, you would know that one of the things I dislike more than anything (when it comes to travel) is over-inflated hype. I like an honest assessment more than anything, which is the reason why I started the idea of ranking world heritage sites in the first place. The Terracotta Army definitely lives up to the hype.
Officially: Everglades National Park
Taken: June 23, 2013
Place: Florida, USA
As I sat in a large dorm room in Mexico next to my temporary roommates, I caught the ear of a French guy who seemed irate as soon as he heard my American accent. Thus far, he had assumed I was a local of Yucatan since I spoke Spanish.
“American?” he asked, with a scoff.
As he cooled it a bit, we began to talk about travel when he brought up that he had never been to the US, nor had any desire to. This was fine, I thought, as I have always known we aren’t exactly held on a pedestal in France, and anti-American sentiment is sometimes valid. I too have gone on rants calling LA overrated, and to be fair, I don’t exactly dream about France either. The following however, took me completely by surprise! Read more
As I was browsing around some of my favorite travel sites, I remembered how I used to have a picture of the week segment on Travel World Heritage and how much I miss it. I discontinued it because it was nature based and didn’t really fit this blog. However, it occurred to me while I was trying to get re-inspired that it would be awesome if readers submitted their own UNESCO World Heritage Site pictures in a new weekly segment. There are almost 1000 sites around the world and having visited 53 myself (at time of writing), I have not even scratched the surface, so I am sure that there are hundreds I haven’t even heard of. If you have visited a UNESCO site and have an incredible picture you would like featured on this site, please do submit it by emailing me (maximuz04@gmail.com). All due credit will be given to the photographer, and link backs to your site will also be allowed if you’re a blogger.
Here are some quick rules. I am thinking as I write so these are subject to change:
1) Write a paragraph explaining the photo. Don’t explain the site in general, just a couple of sentences to explain what I am looking at, how you took the photo, where you took the photo, and any other relevant information or tips. No more than a paragraph or two should be submitted, and I will have the right to trim down the explanation if necessary.
2) Send as large a picture size as possible so that I can re-size it accordingly.
3) Make sure the picture represents the site. For example, if the site is the “Statue of Liberty,” I would expect a picture of the actual statue, not the New York skyline as viewed from the statue.
4) No major alterations, doctoring of the picture, or special effects. I’d like to promote what a site really looks like, not what it looks like after Photoshop.
5) Absolutely no commercial / government sites. The main reason is obvious: conflict of interest. I have come across so many pictures from the Korean Tourism Department that look nothing like the actual places they promote.
6) I am serious about #5
7) While I don’t really expect many people to contribute, in the off chance that they do, preferential treatment will go to:
If you are a blogger, submit a short 2-3 sentence bio with your site, Facebook page, etc and I will be glad to put it at the end of the post.
I will begin this section with my own pictures of places I haven’t blogged about yet, just to get the ball rolling and so that you get an idea of what I am looking for.