World Top 5 City Destinations

This post is just my personal opinion based on the place that I have visited so far. Some of the places maybe better than the places that I mentioned below but just because I haven't visit the place, doesn't mean the place is not nice. Each places below are rated based on 5 major criteria namely place of attraction, food, shopping options, cultural uniqueness and ease of travelling by public transport.

No 5: Munich (Score:38)

Awesome attractions which includes castle and concentration camp. Much history to learn from the city especially during the Nazi era. Being the largest city in Bavaria, the city is also the richest in Germany. Munich is well known for its annual Oktoberfest. The city has among the tastiest beer in the world. Munich always ranked high on the most liveable city list. The food with famous pork knuckles with beautiful historical architecture and people are polite as well.

Place of attraction:8/10
Food:8/10
Shopping:6/10
Cultural:8/10
Transportation:8/10


Marienplatz during sunset.

Crispy pork knuckles with beer and Sauerkraut. Eating at English garten in hot sun.

BMW city.

Neuschwanstein Castle is just 2 hours trip away via train.

Water rafting in the middle of Munich. Heavy flow of water inside English Garten.

No 4: San Francisco (Score:41)

San Francisco is a city which have fantastic view as the surrounding area hilly. Its walkable from one attraction to the others as the city small size. Famous for the Golden Gate Bridge, the weather in San Francisco is always foggy and it have a nickname of city by the bay. As the location near the sea and hilly, there is always constant breeze around the city makes travelling very comfortable in San Francisco. Food wise is delicious and good quality. Its also a city which is very liberal with many gay and lesbian restaurants.

Place of attraction:8/10
Food:9/10
Shopping:7/10
Cultural:9/10
Transportation:8/10


Pier 39 of San Francisco.

Delicious lamb shank at Olea San Francisco.

Balmy Street Murals. Virtual outdoor art gallery featuring colourful murals featuring expression of outrage over human rights and political abuse in central America.

Should not miss the icon of San Francisco. The Golden Gate Bridge.

No 3: Kyoto (Score:42)

Kyoto was Japan capital for more than 10 decades. The city have many historical attractions which is currently listed in UNESCO World Heritage sites. You will be amazed that more than 10 sites listed as World Heritage sites. Besides many old and historical buildings, it have a full functional Gion district which you still can watch working geisha walking around. During spring and autumn, this city boast the best cherry blossom and autumn foliage respectively in the World. You will be amazed at how beautiful it is during spring and autumn in Kyoto. The city is not as busy as Tokyo and very suitable for those who like to travel on slower pace to enjoy the scenery and learn about Japan traditional culture.

Place of attraction:10/10
Food:8/10
Shopping:6/10
Cultural:10/10
Transportation:8/10


Famous Fushimi Inari temple.

Beautiful autumn foliage at Maruyama park Kyoto.

Autumn foliage red colours at Nanzenji temple.

Golden Pavilion (Kinkakuji). Its one of the UNESCO World Heritage site in Kyoto.

No 2: Paris (Score:45)

Paris itself is full of attraction. From the famous Eiffel tower to world class art museums. The city also have unique cafes which you can have a seat to enjoy the view while having tea or snacks. People here seems to relax and enjoying their life with spurge of luxury shops and high end dining places. Famous landmarks such as Louvre Museum and Notre Dame are in Paris. Do enjoy this city of romance.

Place of attraction:10/10
Food:9/10
Shopping:9/10
Cultural:10/10
Transportation:8/10


Inside Notre-Dame.

Paris at night.

Love lock bridge.

Luxury shopping and ladies heaven of Louis Vuitton.

Impressive architecture inside Palace of Versailles.

No 1: Tokyo (Score:45)

Tokyo is the largest megalopolis in the world with modern living but in old fashioned manners. Super huge city but still clean and people are polite. Amazing food selection and best quality with suits every budget levels. I have been visiting Tokyo on multiple occasion but still haven't tasted anything bad yet. Book shops are everywhere and filled with manga and special interest magazines. The transportation system is unmatchable by other cities in term of punctuality and comprehensive coverage. Traditional looking shrines and stone lanterns also scattered around the cities with amazing selection of shopping malls, ramen shops, huge high tech electrical stores and brightly lited pharmacies. Weird fashion and the hippest can be found in Tokyo especially in Harajuku and Shibuya area where youngsters gather. In 2015, Monocle magazine has ranked Tokyo as the most liveable city in the world.

Place of attraction:8/10
Food:10/10
Shopping:9/10
Cultural:8/10
Transportation:10/10


Abundance of fresh and unique seafood. Here you can have fresh sea urchin and huge fresh oysters.

Fresh wasabi.

Ginza famous shopping district.

Cool leather jacket easily available.

Traditional wedding in Meiji shrine.

Lunch in English Garden Chinesischer Turm @ Munich, Germany

The beer garden Chinesischer Turm is located in the English Garden (Englischer Garten) which is Munich's largest park area. The park is close to a university. If you notice, the beer garden often attract young crowds and many tourists.

Taste:9/10(Delicious. The beer here needs no introduction as Hofbrau beer is great. The pork knuckles is crispy and rich taste. However, the texture is a bit hard. This is the crispiest pork knuckles that I tried during my trip in Munich. The fat inside is melt in your mouth. Purple sauerkraut have a sweeter taste compared to normal sauerkraut).
Price:6/10(Moderate. I spent around EUR12 for the lunch which includes pork knuckles, purple Sauerkraut and HB beer).


I have chosen pork knuckles, sauerkraut and Hofbrau beer for my lunch.

Wow, the crispiness of the pork skins and the fat is melt in your mouth.

Queue up from here to purchase my lunch.

Select the item that you would like to have from the display. They have pork knuckles, pork belly, Sauerkraut and tiroler gröstl.

Chinesischer Turm beer garden is the second largest in Munich which can occupy around 7,000 patrons.

The pagoda resembles chinese beer garden.

Sitting in the hot sun. Western picnic style.

Coordinate/GPS: 48.151994, 11.592335
Address: Englischer Garten 3, 80538 München, Germany.
Public transport: Bus stop at Hirschauer Straße no 54 or 154. Tram no 18 from Tivolistraße station. U-Bahn Universität station.

Dinner at Zum Augustiner @ Munich, Germany

Zum Augustiner with the tagline of Munich Hospitality in the centre of the pedestrian precinct offers a variety of Bavarian food options to their patrons.

Taste:7/10(Moderate. My expectation about Leberkas was wrong. I don't know that it taste like sausage and before this I thought that it is a kind of bread! Taste wise I would say its at moderate level. The soup was salty and liver dumpling was something different and should try in Munich).
Price:6/10(Moderate. Munich style dumpling soup at EUR4.20, Leberkas at EUR4.80 and beer at EUR3.00).


My dinner meal of the day. Leberkas and liver dumpling soup. Leberkas comes with seasoned mustard and pretzel.

My portion of Leberkas which the shape is like bread. The taste is similar with sausage. Before this, I don't even know that Leberkas is not a type of bread. It consists of beef, pork, bacon and onions and is made by grinding the ingredients finely and then baking it as a loaf in a bread pan until it has a crunchy brown crust.

Munich style liver dumpling soup.

Ordered Augustiner Pils beer.

Zum Augustiner interior. Many hanging animal horns around

GPS/Coordinate: 48.138358, 11.568654
Address: Neuhauser Straße 27, 80331 München, Germany.
Public transport: München Karlsplatz station on S-Bahn.

Budget Munich Trip Itinerary - 6 Days 5 Nights - Summer season

Munich being famous for well-heeled and lederhosen clad thigh slapper is Germany's second city which offers much attractions to the visitors. The abundance of beer garten and halls add much attraction to this Bavarian city. The city centre of Munich is walkable and have some of the best world class museums and art galleries. There are also a chance to view the legacy of the olympic venue and modern car maker of BMWs. On the dark side, Munich is also the site of the first concentration camp in Germany which saw many innocent lives being taken away during the second world war.


The centre of Munich - Marienplatz.

Neuschwanstein Castle is just 2 hours away from Munich. This a perfect day out trip.

Hofbrauhaus is a famous beer hall in Munich. Do make sure you try their beer. Its really good.

Day	Morning	Afternoon	Evening	Night
Day 1 (Sun)		1. Travel from London to Munich via British Airways on Airbus A320 flight. The journey took approximately 2 hours.	1. Check in at Seibel's Park Hotel near Munich Pasing Station.	1. First meal in Munich with traditional German dinner at Zum Spoeckmeier. The shop located not far from Marienplatz S-Bahn station. On the day of my arrival was sunday. It hardly find any restaurant open on that night. 2. Sightseeing at Marienplatz and window shopping of the surrounding shops. 3. Munich special souvenir shop which sells cuckoo clocks - Max Krug.
Day 2 (Mon)	1. Breakfast at Seibel's Park Hotel. Their eating area was lovely. 2. Joining SANDEMANs NEW Europe Munich Free walking tour. This a 3 hours walking tour to get a glimpse of Munich.	1. Sightseeing at Odeonsplatz. The attractions here are large public square and Royal Avenue.	1. Late lunch at Opatija for German food. 2. Continue sightseeing at Odeonsplatz.	1. Visiting Hofbrauhaus Royal brew house. Unfortunately during this day, the beer hall was full with diners. I was not able to get a seat for dinner in Hofbrauhaus beer hall. 2. Having dinner at Zum spoeckmeier to try out German short sausage with sauerkraut (sour cabbage).
Day 3 (Tue)	1. Breakfast at Seibel's Park Hotel. 2. Morning walk at English Garden Beautiful and large garden where you can watch water surfing on human made river in the garden. If you are lucky, you can watch naked people as well in the garden.	1. Lunch at Chinesischer Turm in English Garden. 2. Visit BMW welt. Look at the latest models of BMW automobile.	1.Visit Munich olympic park. Munich was the host of summer Olympic in 1972. The Olympic was famous due to unfortunate incident of Munich massacre. 2. Sightseeing in Karlsplatz which full of commercial shops and people watching.	1. Dinner at Zum Augustiner. 2. Night photography at Karlsplatz.
Day 4 (wed)	1. Breakfast at Seibel's Park Hotel. 2. Taking a trip from SANDEMANs NEW Europe Munich tour to Neuschwanstein Castle which is located in Fussen.	1. Lunch having prepacked food from Yorma's at Munich main train station.	1. Continue with Neuschwanstein Castle tour. This is a full day out tour	2. Dinner at Hofbrauhaus in Munich.
Day 5 (Thur)	1. Breakfast at Seibel's Park Hotel. 2. Full day visit to Salzburg in Austria.	1. Visit Mirabell Palace in Salzburg.	1. Window shopping at Getreidegasse street. 2. Getting to know Mozart Kugeln chocolate and taste it.	1. Roasted chicken Bavarian style at Hofbrauhaus. This is my second dinner in Hofbrauhaus. Their beer is something you should look forward. Taste really good.
Day 6 (Fri)	1. Breakfast at Seibel's Park Hotel. 2. Visit Dachau Concentration camp museum. This is a must visit place when you are in Munich if you haven't visit any world war two Nazi concentration camp before	1. Visit Munich Residentz to view marvellous architecture of the palace	1. Taking a stroll at Viktualienmarkt farmer's market. 2. Early dinner at Zum Alten markt. Great food. 3. Having ice-cream from Rischart.	1. Take a walk around Marienplatz. 2. Last German food dinner at Weisses Brauhaus in Tal.
Day 7 (Sat)	1. Breakfast at Seibel's Park Hotel. 2. Took train to Frankfurt.

English Garden @ Munich, Germany

I would recommend for those coming to Munich to visit this English Garden. I visited this garden during summer time in 2013. The name is rather confusing for a garden which is located in Germany rather than in England. The landscape gardening of the garden is said to follow England style. The English Garten is really huge and you will appreciate walking between a little lake full of lovely ducks and a river where swans are elegantly swimming. Do make sure that you see the river surfers which is located at the south of the garden. The lovely garden is so much more than a garden. There is a lake, beer garden and small river in addition to the miles of walking/running paths. It is a wonderful place to spend some time enjoying the sites or just doing nothing but watching the people walk by. Make sure that you wear comfortable shoe as this garden is even larger than the New York Central Park!


Come, lets explore the garden.

You will enjoy watching all the action by city river surfers.

The wave created is strong.

Its river. Not sea.

Nice view and enjoyable.

There is also love locks in English Garden.

Duck and swan in the lake.

Besides English garden, it have Chinese Tower which shape like pagoda.

I am trying to eat in the hot sun. The beer garden is quite huge.

Queuing for food. Aiming for another pork knuckles.

What a delightful meal. I give my rating on this meal in another entry.

Me with Chinese tower having lunch in the hot sun. Got sunburn after that :-P

GPS/Coordinate: 48.149223,11.58847
Public transport: U bahn stop at Universität station.
Address: Englischer Garten 3, 80538 Munich, Bavaria, Germany.