Nicolette Waechter is tired of her family's lake in the resort district of Salzkammergut in Austria. So she's selling Mondsee, and €16 million ($24 million) seems to be the going price.
Mondsee, or Moon Lake, is about a mile wide and 10 miles long, and it's one of only five lakes of substantial size in Austria that is still privately owned. It's also part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it has lent its name to a Neolithic people who built pile dwellings on its shores between 3600 BC and 3300 BC.
But it's not without problems: Waechter has lost numerous court cases trying to ban motorboats on the lake. At least one potential buyer would probably be happy with those rulings, though. Local tabloids say billionaire Dietrich Mateschitz, the co-creator of Red Bull, is interested.
For more than a week, the Southeast Asian neighbors have been locked in a standoff that the Cambodian Foreign Minister has called an "imminent state of war." But what about? Some kind of temple? Exactly.
Those UN apparatchiks in charge of telling you what's worth seeing have just added 27 more wonders to their list of World Heritage Sites. (And you had just finished seeing the first 851 of them!)
Not on the list? Crème brûlée, much to the dismay, no doubt, of Nicholas Sarkozy, who was lobbying for it. France did get some love, though, with the addition of the fortifications at Vauban and the lagoons of New Caledonia.
Perhaps most notable is San Marino, which had its historic center and Mount Titano added to the list. So how many of the country's 61 square kilometers aren't UN protected?
¡Oye, Cinco de Mayo! We're already three micheladas deep, but we thought you'd wanna know why everyone's pounding Mexican beer today. The fifth of May is the anniversary of the Battle of Puebla, an epic fight between the Mexican army and the French expeditionary forces of Napoleon. The Mexicans, led by Ignacio Zaragoza, won, which is why it's a day worth remembering.
Interestingly, the Poblanos were French sympathizers, which led to an nominative bitch slap when the city's name was officially changed to Heróica Puebla de Zaragoza after the battle.
These days, Puebla is an important cultural capital, in south-central Mexico. Its historic center is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the city's home to some of the country's most famous dishes like mole poblano and chalupas. Also worth a try is the cemita, a huge sandwich served on a sesame roll that's sort of like a Mexican muffaletta. Trust us: It'll go down easy with a ton of frosty beer.
Between playboy and presidential duties, Nicolas Sarkozy is lobbying to get French cuisine UNESCO World Heritage status. Don't laugh, it is possible. In addition to sites of stunning human achievement and culture, the list, started in 1972, also includes United Nations-protected oral traditions, performance art, traditional crafts and social practices.
True to form, some French feel that escargot isn't on par with Machu Picchu: It's better.
Now up to 851, the list includes not only Mont-Saint-Michel and, for that matter, Venice but also lesser-known sites from Butrint in Albania to the Matobo Hills in Zimbabwe. Not all the French were thrilled at the thought of having their cuisine co-listed with parts of the Congo basin or an ancient church in Finland.
Travelers love to brag about their off-the-beaten-path adventures, but finding a corner of the earth that hasn't succumb to tourism is getting harder all the time. Now you can tack Luang Prabang, Laos right up there with Oman and Bangladesh.
The International Herald Tribune's Seth Mydans tells us that serene mornings along the Mekong are no longer; along with the peaceful pitter-pat of monks asking for alms is the din of camera-toting gawkers. Luang Prabang--a 700 year-old village and UNESCO heritage site since 1995--is slowly being turned into a "replica of itself," Mydans writes. The bars are open until midnight, and the quiet atmosphere that once defined the town is being bled out by a thirst for business.
It's another grim example of how tourism can change a place for the worse, drastically altering the quality of life for locals. And it presents a baffling paradox for travelers who are genuinely looking for a unique experience: How do you go without being part of the problem?
We may think of it as one of the world's best, but the Galapagos National Park is in trouble. A boom in tourism to the islands--145,000 visitors dropped by in 2006 compared to 40,000 in 1990--is putting the delicate ecosystem at risk. That recently earned it a special spot on UNESCO's World Heritage list: as a site "in danger."
What does that mean? Non-native species are being introduced to the islands, big ships are detracting from the natural splendor and sport fishing is having an impact on wildlife below the water. And as more and more people come to the islands, there's a better chance that visitors will overwhelm the delicate balance that makes the islands special.
The president of the Galapagos Conservancy, which supports preservation projects in the islands, says her group isn't trying to discourage tourism but rather promote the area in a responsible way:
We have found that when tourists actually visit the Galapagos, they leave caring about it and wanting to support all conservation efforts.
In Cartagena, the average high throughout the year is around 88 degrees, and the temperature doesn't often drop below 77. Sure, there's 90% humidity for most of the year, but that's just part of the joy of the eternal summer.
With the expected influx of tourists after the release of the movie Love in the Time of Cholera, which was largely filmed there, Cartagena is ready for visitors. Parts of Cartegena are already World Heritage listed, including 500-year-old forts and the old town center. It's also interesting to visit museums such as the Palace of Inquisition, and to stop in to some of the beautiful churches like the Iglesia de San Pedro Claver and the Iglesia de Santo Domingo.
Cartagena is turning up on travel trends lists everywhere for 2008, so try to get there this summer before it starts to get overrun. And if you believe in the magical romance of the Garcia Marquez film, perhaps Cartagena is the perfect place for a summer fling, too.
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