travel

Papua New Guinea’s only UNESCO World Heritage Site is the Kuk Early Agricultural Site — 10,000 years of continuous cultivation in the Western Highlands, reached by a one-hour flight from Port Moresby.

Honduras has one UNESCO World Heritage Site: the Maya ruins of Copán, 350 km west of Tegucigalpa — home to the longest hieroglyphic inscription ever found and some of the finest stone carving in the ancient Americas.

Nicaragua’s two UNESCO World Heritage Sites — the archaeological ruins of León Viejo and the largest cathedral in Central America — both lie within 95 km of Managua.

Fiji’s only UNESCO World Heritage Site, Levuka Historical Port Town on Ovalau, preserves the Pacific’s most intact colonial port streetscape — a 4-hour ferry from Suva.

Mozambique’s sole UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Island of Mozambique, sits 1,900 km north of Maputo — a coral island where 500 years of Swahili, Arab, and Portuguese history survive in a single square kilometre.

Two UNESCO World Heritage Sites lie within reach of San José: a remote Pacific island famous for hammerhead shark schools, and an archaeological enigma of near-perfect stone spheres.

Panama’s two UNESCO World Heritage Sites — the Spanish colonial fortifications of Portobelo and the marine wilderness of Coiba National Park — are both reachable from Panama City, in opposite directions and on very different timescales.

Guatemala’s three UNESCO World Heritage Sites — colonial Antigua, Maya Tikal, and the stela fields of Quiriguá — are all accessible from Guatemala City, from one hour to eight hours away.

Three of Mali’s four UNESCO World Heritage Sites — ancient Timbuktu, the mud-brick city of Djenné, and the Dogon cliff settlements of Bandiagara — lie within reach of Bamako.