Later today, we’re off on our annual summer holiday. This year, it’s a week in North Wales, where we’ll be staying in a rented holiday cottage.
As usual, we’re going with my parents, who have kindly paid for the accommodation for all five of us. It also gives our nine-year-old chance to spend time with their paternal grandparents – as my parents live in York, they’re just a little too far to see on a regular basis.
Like last year’s holiday to Northumberland, this holiday is a domestic holiday; although Wales is a separate country from England, it’s not a separate nation state and so we don’t need to worry about having different currency, passports, plug adaptors and the like. And there’s no biosecurity restrictions, so we can bring and take back as much cheese as we’d like.
We are driving there, and it’ll be in our new electric car. Naturally, I’ve spent some time before we leave scoping out where we can charge the car whilst we’re there, but it’ll be its first distance test. A full charge should be enough to get us all the way there.
We’ve already started a list of where we’d like to go. This may well include Portmeiron, as pictured in the header image. That photo was taken the last time we were in North Wales, back in 2018. What we actually end up doing will, of course, depend on the weather.
I’ve written more than a week’s worth of blog posts in advance, so there’ll be no gap in blogging whilst I’m away.
I think, in my mind, UNESCO World Heritage Sites are relatively unusual, and that most people would have only visited one or two in their lifetimes. As it happens, there are well over a thousand UNESCO World Heritage Sites across the world, in over 160 countries. 35 of these are in the UK alone. So, with this in mind, here are all of those that I have visited, split by country.
Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd. These are specifically the castles at Beaumaris, Caernarfon, Conwy, and Harlech in North Wales, of which I’ve been to Caernarfon and Conwy (and will be re-visiting Conwy this summer).
Frontiers of the Roman Empire. This encompasses multiple sites, some of which are in Germany, but the bit I’ve been to is Hadrian’s Wall. This was when I was still at school and before my blogging days, so I don’t have any photos or blog posts to share.
Canterbury Cathedral. This was way back in 2000, when you could enter the Cathedral Close without having to pay anything. My last visit to Canterbury was in 2019 for work, and by then the entire Cathedral Close was pay-to-enter – as I only had a short amount of time before my train home, I didn’t.
The English Lake District. Apparently the entire national park was also designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2017. My most recent visit was in 2012, albeit just for a day which was spent in Keswick and up Latrigg, so that one of my friends could bag her final Wainwright. So although it wasn’t a world heritage site when I visited, I’m counting it.
Ironbridge Gorge. Another one that I have memories of, but my last visit was when I was very young and so I don’t have any photos. Now that I live towards the western edge of West Yorkshire, rather than York, we’re quite a bit closer to Ironbridge and so we may need to plan a trip there.
Maritime Greenwich. Been through Greenwich a few times, most recently in November 2022 when we went to the National Maritime Museum. I had only recently re-started blogging at the time, so no blog post about it.
Old and New Towns of Edinburgh. Our last visit to Edinburgh was in 2011, although we passed through in 2015 on the way to St Andrews as mentioned above. Our nine-year-old hasn’t been to Scotland yet so we may need to consider a trip sometime.
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. We visited around the same time as our trip to the Lake District in 2012. Again, somewhere we need to take our nine-year-old in due course.
Saltaire. Our nearest UNESCO World Heritage Site, it being in the same county and neighbouring borough. Blogged about in 2013, but we’ve visited more recently than that.
The Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales. North Wales again! We passed through in 2019, on the way back from Sci-Fi Weekender in its final year in Pwllheli, however, it was only designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2021. Again, we’ll be back there again this summer.
Studley Royal Park and Fountains Abbey (National Trust). Last visited in 2020, as it was a mostly outdoor place where we could see my parents in person for the first time since the beginning of lockdown earlier that year.
Tower of London. Last visited in 2016, when our nine-year-old was still a baby.
Liverpool – Maritime Mercantile City. I’m including this for the sake of completeness as a previous visit in 2010 was during its time as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. However, it was removed in 2021 due to new buildings being constructed that were ‘out of character’. Most recent visit was last year.
Barbados
Barbados has just the one UNESCO World Heritage Site, which is its capital, Bridgetown. I went on holiday with my parents in 2000, as I’d turned 16 and it was their 25th wedding anniversary. To date, it’s the only time I’ve been to the western side of the Atlantic Ocean.
Belgium
La Grand-Place, Brussels. I had a weekend in Brussels with my parents in the early 2000s. At the time, my mum worked for a charity that was applying for a six-figure sum of funding from the European Commission, and so it was decided that she would submit the funding bids in person so that there was no risk of it getting lost in the post. We therefore went as a family and made a weekend of it, travelling down on the Eurostar.
Historic Centre of Bruges. The whole of central Bruges is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it’s easy to see why as it’s lovely. Previously I’d been briefly with my parents in 1992, on our way back from a holiday in eastern France.
France
France is the country that I’ve visited the most after the UK, so it’s not surprising that I’ve visited several UNESCO World Heritage Sites over the years.
Arles, Roman and Romanesque Monuments. I’ve been to Arles more than once, with the most recent visit in 2003. It’s an amazing place – Arles retains its Roman amphitheatre.
Canal du Midi. I’ve been past bits of it. It’s a 150 mile long canal from Toulouse to the Mediterranean Sea at Agde, which I last visited in 2003.
Historical centre of Avignon. I’ve been to Avignon a few times, as we used to use Auto-Train (aka Motorail) quite a lot. My parents would take several days driving down, stopping off at places of interest on the way, but we’d put the car on the train and travel back overnight to save time on the return journey. Sadly, these services were discontinued in 2019.
Saint-Émilion. I’m pretty sure I have been here, but don’t ask me when.
Mont Saint-Michel. Last visited in 2018, in a holiday that I haven’t written about yet but probably will do later this year.
Nice. Last visited in 2001 when I went on a fly-drive holiday with my parents.
Greece
I have been to Crete, which is home to several UNESCO World Heritage Sites, but as I was only three years old at the time, I don’t really remember it.
Ireland
I have been to Ireland – well, Dublin. There are two UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the Republic of Ireland, but neither of them are in Dublin, so I haven’t been to them.
Italy
I have been to Italy twice – once to Venice, in 1999, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and once on a day trip in 2001 to Ventimiglia, a town known for its markets on the French border, which isn’t.
Jordan and Oman
I have been to Amman in Jordan, and Muscat and Salalah in Oman, but this was a work trip so I didn’t get to see any of the heritage sites whilst there.
I’ve been to the northern coast of Spain once, staying near Santander, but it was thirty years ago and so I can’t remember whether we visited any of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites there.
Switzerland
I’ve been to Geneva once, all the way back in 1992, but not to any of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites elsewhere in the country.
Where next
I’ve hinted at a few places that we may go back to in the UK. Next month, there’s a possibility I may check off another international UNESCO World Heritage Site, but I can’t be sure that it’ll happen yet.
