The most popular place in Bangalore is the 300 acres of Cubbon Park with its rich green foliage and some of the city’s most important public buildings like the Mysore Neo-Dravidian styled Vidhana Soudha, the seat of Karnataka’s State Legislature and the High Court opposite to it. There are also other significant buildings like the Press Club, State Archaeological Museum and State Public Library, Sheshadri Iyer Memorial Hall, Vishweshwariah Industrial and Technological Museum, Venkatappa Art Gallery, National Gallery of Modern Art, Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore Aquarium, India’s second largest Aquarium and the Dancing Fountains. The area is beautiful with greenery, colourful flowers and some colonial statues. The Jawaharlal Bal Bhawan and its Toy Train ride through the Park is a special attraction for children. Jawaharlal Nehru planetarium is also nearby. A little towards the east of this area there are two oldest Churches of Bangalore – St. Francis Xavier Cathedral and St. Mary’s Basilica. Bangalore Fort and Tipu’s Summer Palace are nearby. Kempe Godwa built the Bangalore Fort in 1537 as a vassal for the Vijayanagar Empire. In 1761, Hyder Ali, replaced this mud fort with the present day stone fort and commenced the construction of a palace with beautiful Indo-Islamic architecture, which was finally completed in 1791, during the reign of his son, Tipu Sultan. It was Tipu’s summer residence. Lalbagh Botanical Garden is a very old botanical garden laid down by Hyder Ali and then Tipu Sultan in the 18th Century. It is nature lovers’ delight. The famous 16th Century Bull (Nandi) Temple also called, the Dodda Basavana Gudi, inside the Bugle Rock Park, is a very popular Hindu temple with a huge idol of Nandi, the Holy Bull of Lord Shiva, curved from single granite. There is also a Ganesh Temple, Dodda Ganesha Gudi, in the same complex. Here there is also the famous architectural wonder, Sri Gavi Gangadhareshwara Swamy Temple, 16th Century Rock Cut Cave temples for Lord Shiva. Further South West there is an amusement Park, Wonderla. There are resorts available even inside the Park. Bannerghata National Park, down south, spread across more than 65000 acres of forest area is an attractive tourist spot with a zoo (Entry fee Rs.80 for adults) and butterfly park (Entry fee Rs. 30 for adult) and provision for safari (Entry fee of Grand Safari along with zoo is Rs.260 and Rs.130 for adults and children respectively) and hiking. The Halimavu Cave Temple is an age old temple within natural cave inside the rocks. The Northern part of the city has the gorgeous Golf Course; Sankey Tank, a beautiful artificial lake with boating facilities; the beautiful ISKCON Temple on the Vaikuntha Hill or ISKCON Hill and IISC. The mighty Bangalore Palace(1874), with fortified towers and turrets, bearing striking resemblance to England’s Windsor Castle, is situated in this area on 450 acres of lush green land. The sprawling Palace Grounds is famous for holding world class music concerts like Iron Maiden’s Eddfest. People have seen Guns N’ Roses, Scorpions, Metallica, MLTR, The Rolling Stones, Lamb of God, Mark Knopfler, Elton John, Aerosmith, Deep Purple, Backstreet Boys, Enrique and many other International Superstars perform here. Towards the east of Cubbon Park is the Halasuru area (Near M.G. Road) famous for the Ulsoor Lake, one of Bangalore’s largest lakes (124 acres) with several islands and the city’s oldest temple dating back to the Chola period (3rd Century), Someshwara Temple. Further East HAL Air force Museum is situated. The city, in spite of being the tech hub, is also a place with mushrooming Wellness Centres, with Yoga and Ayurvedic Science becoming more and more popular. The Art of Living Head Quarter is also situated near Electronic city. MG Road is the commercial hub and is a shopper’s paradise, from street shopping of junk accessories to expensive handicrafts, sandal wood items, silks and weaves of Karnataka, everything is available. Do visit Cauveri Emporium. Chikpet Market and Commercial Street are also popular destinations for shopping. There are numerous high end shopping malls too, like UB City, Mantri Square, Orion, Garuda and many more.
