Article detailing China's exhorbant charges at WHS.

http://english.eastday.com/e/120506/u1a6534906.html

Perhaps we should develop a connection? Free Admision? Or one (dollar/euro) or less? It might have to exlude world heritage cities. What about most expensive? Here are some sites I visited, in which I really appreciated the great price or even free admission.

Great Deals: Korea

Changdeokgung Palace & Jongmyo Shrine

Integrated Admission
- Admission to the Four Palaces (Changdeokgung Palaces (including Huwon, Secret Garden), Changgyeonggung Palace, Deoksugung Palace, Gyeongbokgung Palace) and Jongmyo Shrine
- Ticket price: 10,000 won per person (about $10) (Valid for 1 month after purchase)

Hwaseong Fortress

Adults 1,000 won ($1)

Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty

Individual 1,000 won ($1) average for each location.

Gochang, Hwasun, and Ganghwa Dolmen Sites

Free Admission

Great Deals: United States

Cahokia Mounds

Free Admission ($4 donation suggested)

Korea was exceptionally good for entrance fees. Just thought I would put on a quick comparison of entrance fees in Seoul and London.

Seoul

Changdeokgung Palace £1.6
Huwon Secret Garden £2.7
Jongmyo Shrine £0.6
Joseon Tombs £0.6
Hwaseong £0.6

Seoul Total £6.1

London
Greenwich Observatory: £7
National Maritime Museum: Free
Cutty Sark: £12 not an integral part of the WHS but a major historic attraction that illustrates the site
Kew Gardens: £13.90 -an extra £5.30 for the Palace
Tower of London: £21
Westminster Abbey: £16
Westminster Palace (Houses of Parliament): £15
St Margaret's Church: Free

London £72.9 (£90.2 if you include the non essential Kew Palace and Cutty Sark)

So visiting London's 4 WHS sites will only cost you 12 times as much as visiting the 3 in Seoul and then one on the metro network, and you get a guided tour included at 2 of them.

Wow, great comparison! The difference in price for two developed nations is somewhat shocking.

What other countries have fantastic deals? Which are the most overpriced?

I remember Edinburgh Castle is way overpriced (around 15-20 pounds).

I've just opened a connection "Free Entrance" (or should it be "Free Entry"?)

http://www.worldheritagesite.org/tag.php?id=937

Please add any that you know of.

I'm afraid you have to include a bulk of European cathedrals. Here a list of those that I visited: Speyer, Cologne, Hildesheim, Pilgrimage Church of Wies, Reichenau, Modena, Sibenik, Pisa (the duomo is free, but not the tower).

Recently there is a charge again for the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, but admission is free to the Old Royal Naval College (Painted Hall, Chapel), the National Maritime Museum, and the Queen's House.

Other free sites:
Suomenlinna/Helsinki (apart from the ferry and the museum)
Fagus Factory in Alfeld
Flemish Béguinages

What about WHS which are "part of a city", do they meet the criteria?
Berlin Modern Housing Estates or Nancy (Place Stanislaus etc.).

Redwood National And State Parks

The national park is free, the state parks do have day use fees.

Actually there are many WHS that free, maybe we need more specific to limit like hubert's post, bulk of cathedral and religious site will be included (as "donation" is not entry fee), also we need to look carefully as some site is free to enter but if you want to access certain area we still need to pay. I suggest that this connection should only for site that is really free in all area to make a clear cut.

A problem with such a strict definition is that almost every cathedral will charge for optional visiits to crypt, cloister, tower, relics/treasure etc.
Could limit it to "free entry to main aspect of OUV" - but this introduces a subjective element!

Could overcome "city centre" type sites where everyone can walk around for free by limiting Connection to exclude areas of public streets etc. But almost every city centre type site will have some pay to enter sites eg Paris Banks of Seine has numerous - and eg Louvre, Eiffel Tower etc are a significant part of OUV and to properly see the site would require entrance to many of them.

I already excluded cities (I'll rename that into city centres) and cultural landscapes.

Since about 1.5 year I keep track of what I pay to enter a WHS on my Dutch website, and there are not that many that are free. Only a handful among the 70+ that I saw in that period.

So the "Canal du Midi" (which could be a Cultural Landscape but isn't inscribed as such) is "Free" to "see" (but, like Pontcysyllte, not to travel by boat?) . Similarly the Four Lifts.

I kept track of this on my list as well, here is what I found in regards to free sites.
42/190 sites I have visited have been free excluding cities
sorry that some of these have doubled up other posts and sorry it is a little long

Dorset and East Devon Coast ¹
Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites (Avebury is free Stonehenge isn't)
Greater Blue Mountains Area¹
Holy Trinity Column in Olomouc (in a city centre but when the chapel inside is open it is free)
Flemish Béguinages
Maritime Greenwich (Park, museum and Royal buildings are free, observatory isn't)
Blaenavon Industrial Landscape
Cahokia Mounds
Notre-Dame Cathedral in Tournai
The Four Lifts on the Canal du Centre and their Environs, La Louvière and Le Roeulx (Hainault) ¹
Aachen Cathedral
Cologne Cathedral
Cathedral, Torre Civica and Piazza Grande, Modena
Vatican City (St Peter's is free, Museum including Sistine Chapel isn't)
Chatres Cathedral
Skellig Michael³
Derwent Valley Mills (Vast majority of the mills were free)
Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout¹ (pay to see interior of a windmill)
Pont Du Gard
Ksar of Ait-Ben-Haddou ²
Giant's Causeway and Causeway Coast¹
Saltaire
Þingvellir National Park¹
Garden Kingdon of Dessau- Worltiz
Luther Memorials in Eisleben and Wittenberg (In Wittenberg you pay for Luther House, but churches were fee)
Skogskyrkogarden
Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal¹
La Lonja de la Seda
Speyer Cathedral
Durham Castle and Cathedral (castle is only by paid tour but cathedral is the important part IMHO)
Jelling Mounds, Runic Stones and Church
James/ Kunta Kinte Island³
Amiens Cathedral
The Roman Walls of Lugo (city?)
Preah Vihear Temple²
Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (formerly Victoria Terminus)
St. Mary's Cathedral and St. Michael's Church at Hildesheim
Wadden Sea¹
Frontiers of the Roman Empire¹
Rock carvings at Tanum
Gochang, Hwasun, and Ganghwa Dolmen Sites
Semmering Railway¹ (you can hike along next to the tracks, but obviously would have to buy a ticket to ride a train along it)

¹ In open land
² Sometimes do have entrance fees from what I read but neither had anything like a fee or place to pay when I visited.
³ Technically there is no entrance fee, but you will need your own boat to reach them without paying.

Thanks for the extensive list, meltwaterfalls

I do not agree with some of those however:
- La Lonja de la Seda (visited in nov 2011, 2 EUR fee)
- Ksar of Ait-Ben-Haddou (I paid an entrance fee there)

So quite a lot of UK sites seem to be free!

Some that I doubt, maybe one of you knows more:
- Bahrain Fort (I entered for free, but later encountered a ticket lady in the museum - was this only for the museum?)
- Land of Frankincense (?)
- Fagus Factory (the museum isn't free, how about the tours?)

Land of Frankincense - al-Balid and Khor Rori are pay to enter. Re others in Oman - Bat etc was free last time I was there. As are the Aflaj systems

Saint-Savin sur Gartempe is free and Mont Perdu was and as far as I can find still is..

Monasteries of Popocatapetl and Missions of Sierra Gorda were free last time. And UNAM

Also Ciudad Universitaria de Caracas

Tickets for Independence Hall are free on the day (though there is a reservation charge for pre-booking.

Struve Arc is free isnt it Meltwaterfalls? (I don't know about Tartu Observatory)

I was surprised la Lonja was free when I visited, so it isn't really a shock to find they now have an entrance fee.

We had read that Ait-Ben-Haddou had an entrance fee but that you could avoid it. So our tour guide took us to a different way in, whether this was to miss some unscrupulous locals charging unsuspecting tourists or our tour guide making us trespass I don't know but I would imagine for many people it isn't a free site to visit.


I think that is more just a reflection of me visiting a lot of sites in the UK. I tend to find the ones at home are some of the most expensive, especially in London. That is why I spend much more time at our museums than World Heritage Sites. The further from London the cheaper they seem to get.

Sorry again for leaving such a long list.


Yep not sure how that one was missed out of my list. Unsurprisingly no-one charged me to trudge to the middle of a field in central Lithuania to see a concrete post! I would imagine most (if not all, except Tartu) don't charge to visit them.