So… I’m a sucker for checking things off “lists”. This is actually how I get things done even in the non-travel-related part of my life. But from a travel perspective, one of my motivations for creating a “Travel Bucket List” was to have a list that I could check off :-). My bucket list has several kind of “check off the list” type entries, from visiting all 50 states (45 / 50 as of this writing!, or driving on every Interstate, and of course, visiting all 3,143 counties)
(A montage of pictures from one of my most recent county trip – NV/ID/OR county trip – 17 hours, 3 kids, no electronics)
I actually got yelled at (virtually speaking) the other day by someone on Twitter who didn’t like my “checking things off list” mentality – asking what was the point of just checking things off – you have to actually SEE things. And while I don’t disagree entirely, to me, there can be times for both of those. Plus, the more and faster you go, the more opportunities you have to see things. Sometimes it’s good to see a little bit of a lot of things, and sometimes it’s good to spend some time in-depth somewhere.
UNESCO World Heritage Sites
Which brings me back to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. It’s a list of 1007 sites (as of 2014) that is “of special cultural or physical significance”. I recently stumbled across the Wandering Aramean’s tool to track visits.
Well I guess I had seen it before, but the other day I decided to sit down and register and track down my visits. I have visited a grand total of…. 4 🙂
Having not done a ton of international travel, my visits to World Heritage Sites have been kind of limited. Italy has the most World Heritage Sites (50), followed by China, Spain, France and Germany. My 4 visits are:
- Mammoth Cave National Park (as a kid)
- Colonial City of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic
- Great Smoky Mountains National Park
- Everglades National Park (part of my first ever trip paid for with points / miles)
What about you? How many UNESCO World Heritage Sites have you visited?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Most Traveled People has a UNESCO World Heritage Site tracker too. I have a feeling you would enjoy the rest of the site as well 🙂 Lots of check boxes!
I visit UNESCO when I can and often go out of my way in many countries, except Europe where is seems every old town and cathedral is a site and I don’t bother unless already there. It is fun and in many countries has gotten me to some interesting paces I otherwise would have missed.
That’s cool! I am hoping to visit some new ones on my next few trips
Just stumbled upon your blog. I’ve never been to the US, so this site provides quite an interesting insight. As of World Heritage Sites, I’ve been to 63 of them, mostly in my home country Germany, in France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Turkey, and the UK. One of the great things about living in central Europe is the vicinity of many of the astonishing sites and places on the UNESCO list. From my apartment it’s a 10 hour drive to London, 10 hours to Rome, 7 hours to Paris, and 3 hours to Prague. Just yesterday, my girlfriend and I came back from Istanbul. We crossed the Bosporus Bridge in a packed “Metrobüs” – what a view! I hope you’ll be able to check off this item soon. The next thing we’ll do is check out Belgium, especially Brussels, Bruges, Antwerp, Gent, and Tournai. My goal is to visit each of Germany’s nine bordering countries – I’m still missing Belgium, Denmark, and Luxembourg.
You might also like my review of Most Traveled People, which gives another thing to try and track!