World Heritage Cities to Add to Your Bucket List

World Heritage Cities to Add to Your Bucket List – UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites continues to grow. Places like the Great Barrier Reef in Australia to the Great Pyramids of Egypt and the Acropolis in Greece draw people from around the world to discover those that came before us. There are certain instances, however, in which an entire city earns the significant title of World Heritage Site. The following cities are ones that have rightfully earned this status – and ones that deserve a reservation atop your bucket list.

One of the first cities to earn this distinction in the world is Quito, Ecuador. The city was built atop left-behind ruins of the Incans high in the Andes Mountains. In Quito, you’ll discover the largest, best preserved Latin American city, where several nationalities and indigenous cultures expertly blended in harmony. Several hundreds of churches, monasteries, and cathedrals are interspersed with today’s museums and yesterday’s restaurants. To see the city in its entirety, take a cable car up to the peak of Pichincha Volcano, and coming down, take a closer inspection of La Compania de Jesus’ gold-leafed interior. No vehicles are allowed on La Ronda Street – partly for preservation purposes, but it also creates the perfect ambiance for enjoying the lively street parties before you retire to a more intimate boutique hotel experience, like the Hotel Carlotta. They have their own wine cellar and a lounge on the roof.

The fairy tales you read as a child were most certainly written with Belgium in mind – specifically, Bruges. There’s no more beautiful, more well-preserved, snapshot-of-time city like Bruges. The waterways are tranquil, its town square medieval. The town hall, which was built in the 1300s, managed to escape the bruising of World War I nearly unscathed. UNESCO designated the city of Bruges a World Heritage Site in 2000, and the city has been preserved just the way it was. Both visitors and locals alike enjoy biking the city’s narrow, cobbled streets, each of which are lined with museums, pubs, and chocolate shoppes. At the end of the day, consider hanging your hat at the ultra-luxurious yet charming Hotel of Tuilerieen. A patrician house form the 1400s, this boutique offers beautiful views of the canal, Den Dijver.

What cities do you think are worthy of a UNESCO designation?

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