UNESCO travel tips and stories. Vacations ideas, cruises spa and resorts

Situated in the South Pacific Ocean, 700km north-east of Sydney, Australia. Lord Howe Island is a small, breathtakingly beautiful island, just 11 km long and 2.8 km at its widest point. Included on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1982, the island is bordered by a reef-fringed lagoon, rolling surf, and the world’s southern most coral reef. Capella Lodge is the only Lord Howe Island accommodation with lagoon, mountain and ocean views.

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In 1309, the Grand Master Sigfried von Feuchtwangen moved the capital of the Teutonoic Order from Venice to a monastery at Malbork. The fortified monastery, constructed in the preceding three decades, was due for redevelopment. The subsequent periods of construction only truly finished with the purchase of the castle by the Polish king in 1457, by which time the fortress had become the most powerful in Europe. Photo by: roj czech

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If you want to see a valley so magnificent that it gets you thinking about what the Garden of Eden might have looked like, travel to Cuba. Richly, fertile, with endless tobacco, sugarcane, and coffee plantations, the western province of Pinar del Rio is a blessed with a lush greenness, beautiful rivers, and natural springs. The pretty village of Vinales is nestled into the breathtaking Sierra de los Organos mountains, and the Vinales Valley is UNESCO-protected. Photo by: rikun1401

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A stunning seventeenth-century colonial harbor town on Brazil‘s Costa Verde, Paraty is a perfectly preserved UNESCO World Heritage site. Paraty meaning ”river of fish” in the Tupi language, was founded in 1667. The town’s growth was based on its location at the end of the Gold Trail connecting Rio and Europe to the gold mines in Minas Gerais by the sea. Photo by: Rodrigo_Soldon

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On the edge of a small fishing village in the heart of a natural park, Picinguaba Pousada is a relaxing hotel in a former colonial mansion run by unpretentious Brazilian couple. It sits on the stunning Costa Verde (green coast), a UNESCO World Heritage Site full of spectacular landscapes. Photo by: Jacada Travel

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Fernando de Noronha is one of Earth’s peerless places. It was a stop on Charles Darwin’s famous 1839 Beagle expedition, become a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2001 (with nearby Rocas Atoll), and is one of Brazil‘s top scuba-diving spots, with spectacular flora and fauna. Its environmental fragility means it is monitored by Brazil’s Environmental Protection Agency. Visitors are limited to 700 a day, and Fernando de Noronha‘s sixteen beaches are kept immaculate with clear waters giving visibility of up to 50 m. Photo by: alexrobinsonlightbox

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Winter is the best time to visit Yellowstone National Park. Wildlife-watching is at its peak and some 10,000 hydrothermal features, including erupting geysers and steaming rivers, provide stark contrast to the biting cold. The crowds of summer are gone, and the glories of the park are wide-open. During this time of the year the wolves are the masters! 

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At 4,095 m, it is the tallest peak in Malaysia and proudly overlooks Kinabalu National Park. What makes the park unique is the range of climates, from subalpine flora at the summit of the mountain to tropical hardwood forest on the lowlands. This diversity has allowed more than 6,000 plant species to thrive, many of which can only be found in the Kinabalu. Therefore the park was designated as a World Heritage Site in 2000. Photo by: spooneater

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Head north through the vast Quebrada de Hamuahuaca gorge, which was a UNESCO World Heritage Site for the beauty of its stratified orange-ocher rock, and then strike off across wildly beautiful landscape on a rocky road that crosses several rivers before climbing to a mountain pass, the Abra del Condor, at a breathless 4,000 m. From there, the track slaloms down vast slabs of mountainside. It seems incredible that anyone lives here and finally at the end of the road, Iruya reveal for you. Photo by: Sk-Charlie

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The Great Kyz Kala is an awe-inspiring and dramatic mud-brick structure, sited in Merv, Turkmenistan. It comprises a rectangular earth platform with slopping slides containing lower-story rooms. The massive external walls rear dramatically from the mound and enclose the rooms of the upper story and parapet. Each corrugation is half-octagonal with a diameter of 1.3 m rising from a pointed base to form a pointed top. The walls are 1.98 m thick, gently tapering toward the top. Photo by: Amen-Ra

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