There are 1052 UNESCO World Heritage Sites dotted across the world and it’s our mission to visit as many as possible! We’ve been lucky enough to come across a few of the designated UNESCO sites on our previous travels but the list maker in us wants to tick off a lot more. We like a challenge so we aimed to make it to 50 to get us started. We made it to 50 in 2015 (yay!), check out the sites we’ve visited below! For more of our UNESCO adventures, check out our adventures at sites 51 to 100 here, 101 to 150 here and 151 to 200 here!
UNESCO: sites we’ve seen!
Check out our UNESCO World Heritage site sightings below! If you want to read more about our trips to the sites we’ve included links to our posts.
Austria
1. Historic Salzburg
Australia
2. Sydney Opera House (Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb: Sky High Fun in Sydney, Australia!)
Brazil
3. Rio de Janeiro: Corcovado Mountain, Christ the Redeemer and Copacabana (Photoblog: Rio De Janeiro)
Cambodia
4. Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom (Sunrise at Angkor Wat: a 5am jungle visit searching for the temples!)
China
5. The Great Wall of China (The Great Wall of China: it’s a beautiful world!)
6. Temple of Heaven, Beijing
7. Imperial Palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties
Egypt
8. Pyramids of Giza (The Pyramids of Giza, Cairo, Egypt: a real life Wonder of the World!)
9. Historic Cairo
10. Karnak and the Valley of the Kings
France
11. Paris, Banks of the Seine
12. Palace and Park of Versailles
Ireland
13. Sceilg Mhichíl (Skellig Islands, Kerry, Ireland: All aboard for Skellig Michael)
14. Brú na Bóinne – Archaeological Ensemble of the Bend of the Boyne
Hungary
15. Budapest, including the Banks of the Danube, the Buda Castle Quarter and Andrássy Avenue
Israel
16. Masada (Blog: Israel, Jordan and Palestine trip!)
17. Old City of Jerusalem (Blog: Israel, Jordan and Palestine trip!)
The Vatican
18. The Vatican
Italy
19. Venice and its Lagoon
20. Historic Rome
Jordan
21. Petra (Petra by Night: a candlelit visit to the ruins of Petra)
22. Quesir Amra (Blog: Israel, Jordan and Israel trip – Part 2!)
23. Um er-Rasas (Blog: Israel, Jordan and Israel trip – Part 2!)
24. Wadi Rum (Blog: Israel, Jordan and Israel trip – Part 2!)
Luxembourg
25. City of Luxembourg: its Old Quarters and Fortifications
Mexico
26. Historic Mexico City and Xochimilco (Xochimilco, a Mexican twist on Venice!)
27. Teotihuacan
New Zealand
28. Milford Sound, Te Wahipounamu (New Zealand South Island: Jucy cruise through Milford Sound)
29. Mount Doom (Mount Ngauruhoe), Tongariro National Park
Palestine
30. Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem (A day trip to Bethlehem from Jerusalem: O Little Town of Bethlehem!)
Spain
31. Poblet Monastery (Visiting Poblet Monastery: a day trip from Barcelona)
32. Works of Antoni Gaudí (9 of the best gaudi sights in Barcelona: our favourite must see Gaudi works!)
33. Palau de la Música Catalana and Hospital de Sant Pau, Barcelona (Barcelona must see sights)
Thailand
34. Ayutthaya (Ayutthaya: a day trip to the ruins of Thailand’s old city!)
Turkey
35. Historic Istanbul (The best sights in Istanbul: Places we Love!)
United Kingdom
36. Giant’s Causeway
37. Antonine Wall (Frontiers of the Roman Empire), Scotland
38. Maritime Greenwich
39. Stonehenge (Stonehenge: a prehistoric day trip from London!)
40. Tower of London
41. Palace of Westminster and Westminster Abbey
United States
42. Grand Canyon (Soaring over the desert skies: Las Vegas and Grand Canyon Helicopter tour!)
43. Everglades National Park
44. Independence Hall, Philadelphia
45. Statue of Liberty
46. Yosemite National Park
Vietnam
47. Halong Bay (Halong Bay Cruise, Vietnam: cruising through the mythical waters of Halong Bay!)
48. Hoi An Ancient Town (Hoi An Full Moon Lantern Festival: a candlelit evening in Vietnam!)
49. My Son Sanctuary (My Son: a trip from Hoi An)
50. Complex of Hue Monuments (One day in Hue: 9 must see sights!)
Wow, that’s a lot of UNESCO sites! I also love visiting UNESCO sites, so it was nice to see the compilation to remind me of some I have not yet been to. 🙂
Thanks Meli! I loved looking back through where we’d been. There were some surprises like the Statue of Liberty that I hadn’t realized were sites.
Thats lovely article, I love visiting UNESCO site too I loads on my list to go….
Thanks Anne!
These are all on my bucket list!
I’ve got another 966 on mine Christine!
You’re well on your way with so many already checked off your list.
I’ve seen quite a few on my travels and always make the extra effort to visit them when I’m travelling. I have to admit I have never been disappointed even once.
That’s exactly what we do Natasha, always make an effort to visit them. It’s an incredible list, it’s hard to go wrong with any of the sites!
It’s my dream of visiting all those Unesco sites, great post btw!
I would love to visit so many more Axelle. Hopefully we’ll have a few more opportunities this year to check some out!
Nice post. I once counted how many I visited and was quite surprised by some of the monuments on the list!
I was surprised by the Statue of Liberty and Sydney Opera House, I didn’t realise they were UNESCO sites!
Nice list and photos! I’ve been to most of them and one that I haven’t been to but really wanna explore is Jordan and of course Petra!
WOw you guys got through a lot! Is it bad I didn’t know the Sydney Opera House was a UNESCO site? Shame on me!
I was surprised too Samantha! The Opera House and Statue of Liberty got me!
You guys have made a pretty good dent in the list and seen some incredible spots in the process. I love figuring out the UNESCO sites before I visit someplace new, as they are reliably memorable experiences. Such a nice collection of historically significant places.
They’re a fantastic starting point Dave and consistently awesome! I’m hoping to get a few more in before the end of the year!
What a great aspiration to have, to visit them all, and you’ve not got too many left either! I’ve seen a fair few but didn’t realise even half of those places were UNESCO sites. Keep up the good work 🙂
Thanks Heather! Some of them were surprises to me too!
Goodness gracious, this lists makes me want to add all of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites to my bucket list. Ugh.. So many places to see. 🙂 I guess that’s a good thing though!
Definitely a good thing Adrian! I think some of them are impossible to reach now but if we hit up the rest we’ll be doing OK!!
Looks like you’ve definitely made some progress! This makes me want to figure out how many I’ve been to!
What a fun post!. Visiting all 1007 Unesco sites would make for a great trip.
I love visiting UNESCO sites too. I’ve been to quite a few but I’m a long way off the whole 1007!
WOW that is a lot of sites you have visited! We are working our way through as well – just amazing what the world has to offer! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Ok, that’s quite a mission..! I’m looking forward to seeing the post with all the 99 ones in a few years 😉
Great list of UNESCO sites I congratulate you. Also like you guys I have some kind of obsession on visiting such special places, I now have 226 WHS visited. Long way to go haha . Greetings from Morocco – happy travels!
226 is AMAZING!! I think we are at around 70 but still totally obsessed! We absolutely loved Morocco, thanks for the greetings!
Nice 🙂
But you knew that Vatican ist NOT Italy, but a state itself? 🙂
Good spot 🙂 Have updated now!
Love it … I have been to almost 200 now and still each one is unique and amazing to me! Something to inspire future trips and talk you out of your normal comfort zone … UNESCO has taken me on some rather weird adventures! Do you have a favourite few?
Wow Jordan, 200 is amazing! How long have you been travelling to them? Are you aiming for them all?!!
Lots of the popular ones are in my faves: Angkor Wat, Petra, Mont St Michael, the Great Wall and the Pyramids are definitely up there. Some, I think are unmissable, like Hiroshima, Auschwitz, but I wouldn’t describe them as favourites. Then I have some others like Tiya in Ethopia, the rock hewn churches of Ivanovo in Bulgaria and the Drakensberg Park in South Africa where we almost the only people there and they were fascinating! What about yours?
Elaine