With the ribbon just cut on London's second flagship Apple Store in Covent Garden and with it the Jobs shop total worldwide reaching the 300 mark, something dawned on us here at Pocket-lint. There's a lot of them, aren't there?

There's probably a pilgrimage for Applites, perhaps travelling the globe as we speak, buying company branded batteries and iTunes vouchers as souvenirs, and burning the ear off every Genius in every Bar - but who, with their screws more tightly fitted, has got the time or the inclination to do that?

Instead, for Apple fans with a fair bit of wedge in the wallet, a little love for high end gadgets and looking for a long term goal to achieve, here are the five Apple Stores to see before you die.

Apple Store, Covent Garden, London

It's not the English accents, it's not the glass front and it's not the serious pedestrian overcrowding issues of nearby Covent Garden tube station that Apple fanboys will come from miles around to see, down at the flagship store in Covent Garden. What puts London on the Apple map is that it's not just got a big Apple Store, it's the biggest Apple Store on the planet. So head over to old Blighty and stroll the halls packed with more square feet of white plastic and unibodied brushed aluminium than anywhere else in the world.

Apple Store, George Street, Sydney

Those who know New York as the Big Apple should think again. The Apple Store in George Street, Sydney, Australia is home to the largest Apple logo on the planet. If you're going to bow down to an icon it may as well be the mother of them all. While you're there, it's also worth a trip inside. The George Street store also has the longest Genius Bar in the world. Imagine the fun they don't have as they never dare to see if they can slide an iMac from one end to the other with it ending up half over the edge - a la shove ha'penny.

Apple Store, Shanghai, China

The recently opened Apple Store, Shanghai, has taken one look at all the glass fronted Jobs shops the world over and stuck two very large chopsticks up at it. Any old fool can build a transparent cube to adorn the porch of their store, but it's only this one that looks like some kind of nuclear core running all the way into the centre of the Earth. Best of all is that you actually get to walk down the spiral steps as you descend into this high density Apple zone. Should you make it over to Shanghai, you can also proudly say that you've been to one of the most remote Apple Stores on the globe as well.

The Company Store, Cupertino

If you're only going to get round to going to one of these on the list, this is the shop to choose. The Company Store in Cupertino, CA is not only based at Apple HQ, Infinite Loop, but it also happens to house a rather different stock to all the others. You can't buy any computers here, but what you can pick up are caps, t-shirts, mugs, hoodies and all sorts of other kinds of clothing and household items all branded with the company logo. Yes, happiness is a large fruit with a chunk bitten out of it.

via Geekculture

Apple Store, Tysons Corner, McLean, Virginia

It may not be have the splendour of the outlet on Fifth Avenue, the grandeur of the Paris branch or the art deco good looks of the Miami Beach premises, but there's one claim to fame that the Apple Store, Tysons Corner, McLean, Virginia, has that can never be taken away. Back in 2001, Steve Jobs himself lead a group of journalists from a hotel around the corner to this shopping centre branch and opened, nay, christened it as the very first Apple Store ever to feel the foot fall of customers.

Yes, Tysons Corner is Apple Store number one. We could have shown you a photo of the shop front but it's pretty ugly really when compared to all the others. So instead, here are the very first Geniuses that came with it. Look at the early noughties on that. Imagine all the great stories about broken iPods and things.

So, chances are we left out your favourite Apple Store given that we spared little time for the one in Ginza, those in New York, or Hawaii which even comes with palm trees right outside. So, let us know in the comments below which one stop Jobs shop gets your vote and why.