Pakistan Tourism

Pakistan has some of the most beautiful places of the world. The Kashmir region of Pakistan with its high mountains, green valleys, amazing wildlife and huge rivers is worth a visit. The Neelum valley in the Kashmir region has hills on both sides’ dark green forests on one side and heavenly streams running through it. A visit to this valley is like taking a walk in the gardens of heaven. The Hunza valley is not only beautiful because nature has blessed it in abundance. It also has some heavenly places worth visiting which are the Hoper Glacier, The Atta Abadlaki Lake, The Khunjrab Pass and The Diran Camp.

Pakistan is a culture rich country. The culture of Pakistan dates back to the Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro era. These ancient sites prove that Pakistan was well advanced even thousands of years ago before civilization came into being. The beautiful gardens, the grand mosques and the Hindushahi temples prove as much.

Some famous Pakistani dishes are biryani cooked with rice with various forms of meat, sheekkababs, shirkhurma, falooda, lamb and lentil stew and saffron rice with goat curry. The preferred dessert for Pakistani people is carrot halwa. Some outstanding restaurants of Lahore are the Andaaz restaurant which not only has a good view but also mouth-watering food for its customers. For Japanese cuisine, the Fujiyama is the best. Continental cuisine is served in Salt and Pepper restaurant while Chinese food is found in Tabaq restaurant and if one wants to taste local Pakistani cuisine one can visit the Dum Pukht.

Pakistan is officially a dry country but some private clubs and leading hotels do serve alcohol to the foreigners. Big cities like Karachi and Lahore have many clubs which are open throughout the night but bars and pubs on roadside are nonexistent here. The Clifton Beach of Karachi has one of the largest fountains of the world which shoots up sea water to over 600 feet. This is spectacular to watch at night and is worth watching. Though there are not open live music concerts in Pakistan but in the compounds of the hotels, Live Music Concerts can be heard. One of the most popular bands of Pakistan is Junoon.

There are some grand shopping centres in Islamabad, some of which are the Centaurus Mall which has designer shops, restaurants and much other variety of shops which caters to the need to locals as well as the tourists. The Beverly Centre and the ChenabPlaza are huge malls which mostly have designer shops and many cafes to its credit. The main attraction of Islamabad is the farmers market where local farmers sell their healthy and organic food at throw away prices. Thousands of people visit this market to get fresh and healthy fruits and vegetables. Karachi too has its fair share of malls and markets some of which are Zainab Market for clothes; The Forum for designer wear, The Dolmen Mall Clifton is the best mall of Karachi which houses many big brands.

For adventure activities in Pakistan, the Alpine Club of Pakistan offers adventure activities like rock climbing, mountaineering, trekking and ice sports. Pakistan offers adventure water sports also along with boating, hiking, skiing, trekking and riding.

For relaxation Pakistan offers some seaside resorts, ski resorts and a hill station called Murree which is a tourist hotspot.

Pakistan Monument in Islamabad is considered as a National Monument which represents the four provinces and three territories of Pakistan. The four main petals of this monument represent Baluchistan, Khyber –Pakhtumkhwa, Punjab and Sind and three small petals represents Gilgit–Baltistan, Azad Kashmir and Tribal areas.  The HiranMinar is a beautiful monument which was built by Emperor Jahangir in remembrance of his pet deer. Inside this minar, lies the grave of the antelope and the structure of this minar is like square water tank which has stairs built down to the water.

The Wazir Khan Mosque of Lahore was built during the rule of Emperor Shahjahan and built by Shaikh Ansari. This mosque has some of the finest tile work from the Mughal Period. It is a beautiful mosque and the Arabic calligraphy on its style is worth seeing. The Uch Sharif is a small town which has beautiful mosques and tombs. Uch Sharif is also the place from where the shrine worship began, some popular shrines in Uch are JalaluddinBukhari, BibiJawindi and Baha’al-Halim. The Shahjahan mosque in the Sind province was built during the reign of Shahjahan and it depicts beautiful architecture.

The National Museum of Pakistan in Karachi holds many historical displays and includes the pre and proto history, the independent struggle and the Islamic era of Pakistan. The archaeologicalmuseum of Mohenjo-Daro showcases artefacts from the Indus Valley Civilization which include toys, jewellery, tools and famous seals. The archaeological museum of Taxila, this is one of the finest museum for Buddhism lovers as it has a grand collection of Buddhist stupas, sculptures, ornaments and coins which were excavated from this site. The archaeologicalmuseum of Harappa exhibits Harappan excavations such as human figurines, toys, tools,, shell objects and seals. The IslamabadMuseum presents historical exhibits like fossils which date back to 20 million years and also showcases a lot of Gandhara art and culture.