Just back from Yosemite National Park in California I’m even more convinced that the UNESCO World Heritage Site list is a great way to guarantee you find fantastic places as you visit countries around the world.      Obviously no small list can be completely fair or inclusive, especially for the huge territory of the USA, but this is a GREAT group of extraordinary natural and cultural places:

• Mesa Verde National Park
• Yellowstone National Park
• Everglades National Park
• Grand Canyon National Park
• Independence Hall
• Kluane / Wrangell-St Elias / Glacier Bay / Tatshenshini-Alsek ^# * ³⁴
• Redwood National and State Parks
• Mammoth Cave National Park
• Olympic National Park
• Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site
• La Fortaleza and San Juan National Historic Site in Puerto Rico
• Great Smoky Mountains National Park
• Statue of Liberty
• Yosemite National Park ^#
• Chaco Culture
• Hawaii Volcanoes National Park ^#
• Monticello and the University of Virginia in Charlottesville
• Pueblo de Taos
• Carlsbad Caverns National Park
• Waterton Glacier International Peace Park *
• Papahānaumokuākea

Clearly this approach to travel in the USA would probably be supplemented by at least a few days of big city sightseeing.     Many coming to America may want to see places like Las Vegas and  Hollywood which are unlikely to ever have “UNESCO World Heritage” status.    But the UNESCO list is a  superb starting points for your travel, especially to unfamiliar areas.     For the trip to Vietnam I was happy that the list seems to match up well with the “word of mouth” information I’ve been collecting from my Vietnamese pals and others.    There I’ll be able to take in most of the UNESCO sites such as historic Hoi An, Saigon, Hanoi, and Ha Long Bay near Hanoi.      In Italy in June my favorite place was the Cinque Terre – a UNESCO site.      Interestingly, the Cinque Terre and some places really seem to play up this status where I didn’t even know Yosemite was on the list until I checked this morning.