New research reveals that Budapest is Europe’s favourite UNESCO site!

In 2023, there are over 1,100 UNESCO heritage sites in the world and Europe is home to 503 of them. In fact, searches for “UNESCO sites Europe” went up by +129 % in the past 12 months. With so many options to visit in every corner of the continent, online travel agent loveholidays has released a new ranking of Europe’s most popular UNESCO heritage sites to visit this spring.

By analysing data from Twitter and TripAdvisor, each UNESCO site was ranked based on the number of total five-star reviews and the number of online posts mentioning the sites.

The Budapest-based Banks of the Danube, the Buda Castle Quarter and Andrássy Avenue was named Europe’s most popular UNESCO heritage site in a new ranking by online travel agent loveholidays.
Overall, sites in Germany and Spain are especially popular, with both countries appearing twice in the top 10.

Check out the top 30 UNESCO sites in Europe below:

Rank	Site	Location	Twitter posts	*TripAdvisor 5 reviews**	Total score
1	Budapest, inc. Banks of the Danube, the Buda Castle Quarter & Andrássy Avenue	Hungary	124763	4393	53.7543
2	Hanseatic City of Lübeck	Germany	127602	1355	51.5011
3	Tower of London	UK	2090	45133	50.8190
4	Works of Antoni Gaudí	Spain	29	41382	45.8559
5	Alhambra, Generalife & Albayzín, Granada	Spain	40	34912	38.6925
6	Palace and Gardens of Schönbrunn	Austria	2	28539	31.6173
7	Acropolis, Athens	Greece	598	27080	30.2345
8	La Grand-Place, Brussels	Belgium	12	25651	28.4218
9	Archaeological Areas of Pompei, Herculaneum & Torre Annunziata	Italy	N/A	21916	24.2794
10	Cologne Cathedral	Germany	14216	16293	23.6204
11	Monastery of the Hieronymites and Tower of Belém in Lisbon	Portugal	N/A	19413	21.5064
12	Cathedral, Alcázar and Archivo de Indias in Seville	Spain	N/A	18486	20.4795
13	Paris, Banks of the Seine	France	66	16714	18.5422
14	Palace and Park of Versailles	France	283	14768	16.4714
15	Historic Centre of Vienna	Austria	2	14839	16.4400
16	Historic Centre of Brugge	Belgium	0	14067	15.5839
17	Old City of Dubrovnik	Croatia	19	13793	15.2878
18	Auschwitz Birkenau	Poland	5710	11666	15.1615
19	Archaeological Area of Agrigento	Italy	0	13427	14.8749
20	Plitvice Lakes National Park	Croatia	74	12412	13.7795
21	Old and New Towns of Edinburgh	United Kingdom	2	11859	13.1386
22	City of Verona	Italy	31536	0	12.3572
23	Historic Centre (Old Town) of Tallinn	Estonia	0	11093	12.2892
24	Mont-Saint-Michel and its Bay	France	1473	9854	11.4938
25	Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites	United Kingdom	7727	7486	11.3210
26	Bauhaus and its Sites in Weimar, Dessau and Bernau	Germany	26826	208	10.5116
27	Mount Etna	Italy	231	8712	9.7420
28	Wieliczka and Bochnia Royal Salt Mines	Poland	0	8733	9.6747
29	Historic Centre of Warsaw	Poland	0	8706	9.6448
30	Old Town of Segovia and its Aqueduct	Spain	0	8331	9.2294

The city of Budapest, including the Banks of the Danube, the Buda Castle Quarter & Andrássy Avenue, is officially Europe’s most-loved UNESCO heritage site, with 124,763 posts mentioning the city and 4,393 five-star TripAdvisor reviews. Germany’s city of Lübeck, known for its delicious marzipan, follows in second place, while the UK’s famous Tower of London comes in third.

The majority of the top-ranking sites are located in Germany or Spain with both countries bringing two heritage sites to the top 10: The city of Lübeck and Cologne Cathedral in Germany, and the work of Antoni Gaudí and the famous Alhambra in Spain. Likewise, both Spain and Italy even appear four times in the top 30

Other sites that just missed the top 10 but appear in the top 30 include historic cities like Vienna, Bruges and Dubrovnik, as well as nature sites like Mount Etna, Stonehenge, and Plitvice Lakes National Park.

Al Murray, Chief Marketing Officer at loveholidays comments on the research: “Europe is home to some of the most magnificent architectural sites in the world, as recognised by UNESCO. Every location on the list tells a tale which is rooted in history and celebrated by visitors from all over the world. With hundreds of heritage sites to choose from, our ranking is designed to make it that bit easier to decide which to visit and when.”

To learn more about loveholidays, please visit THIS website

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