7 Bizarre Tourist Attractions Around The World That Nobody Else You Know Will Have Been To
You'll want to add these to your bucket list.
Cup Noodles Museum in Japan. Right: The Haunted Museum in Las Vegas.
When you think of tourist attractions, iconic spots like the Eiffel Tower or Coliseum likely come to mind. However, you can find a ton of lesser-know attractions around the globe that are straight out of your wildest dreams.
Featuring everything from haunted objects and deadly plants to Cup Noodles, these unusual tourist spots will definitely add a bit of intrigue to your next getaway.
Here are seven strange, unique and downright bizarre attractions around the world you'll want to add to your travel bucket list.
Electric Ladyland: The Museum of Fluorescent Art
Price: 5 euros per person (about CA$7.35)
Address: Tweede Leliedwarsstraat 5, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Why You Need To Go: Located near the famous Anne Frank house, you can visit this trippy, off-the-beaten path attraction that's billed as world's first museum of fluorescent art.
Owned and operated by artist Nick Padalino, the museum is a basement exhibit featuring otherworldly objects and shapes that come to life under the glow of black lights.
Besides viewing the art, visitors can also take in a demonstration of "the phenomenon of fluorescence in the natural world," including witnessing crystals and minerals burst into dazzling colours when seen under different UV light.
With the surreal colours and displays, the unusual experience has been compared to that of an acid trip.
The Poison Garden
Price: 17.60 pounds for access to gardens (about CA$30.36)
Address: Denwick Lane, Alnwick, Northumberland, England
Why You Need To Go: At the Alnwick Gardens in Northumberland, you'll find an intriguing garden kept behind black iron gates.
The Poison Garden is a small but deadly garden filled with about 100 toxic, intoxicating, and narcotic plants. It's known as the U.K.'s deadliest garden thanks to its many harmful plants, each of which has the potential to severely those who get too close.
Some of the plants you'll find here include belladonna, highly poisonous plant that you may know as deadly nightshade, the extremely poisonous monkshood, and giant hogweed, a plant with a toxic touch that has caused the most harm in the gardens.
The garden is only accessible through a guided tour. Visitors are not allowed to smell, touch, or taste any plants, although some people do occasionally faint from inhaling toxic fumes while walking in the garden, according to Alnwick.
Accessibility: Wheelchair-accessible routes. See more about acessibility services.
Thackray Museum of Medicine
Price: 11.95 pounds per person (about CA$20.61)
Address: 141 Beckett St., Harehills, Leeds, England
Why You Need To Go: In Leeds, the Thackray Museum of Medicine will immerse visitors in the world of medicine, from the history of healthcare to the advances that have shaped the practices and methods used today.
Here, visitors can wander through a grimy "disease street" of Victorian Leeds, when there was no clean running water, no antiseptic, no antibiotics and no anaesthetic.
They can also watch gruesome operations taking place in a recreated 19th-century operating theatre, visit a '70s-style sexual health clinic, learn about historic remedies and discover some of the medical innovations that changed the world.
Accessibility: Wheelchair/stroller accessible. See more about accessible services.
Zak Bagans' The Haunted Museum
Price: US$54 per person (about CA$73)
Address: 600 E. Charleston Blvd., Las Vegas, NV, U.S.
Why You Need To Go: You've likely seen Zak Bagans' take on ghosts and the paranormal on the show Ghost Adventures, but you may not know that Bagans is also a collector of haunted objects off-screen.
In Nevada, you can visit his personal collection of haunted, strange and creepy objects at The Haunted Museum.
The museum contains over 30 rooms filled with paranormal artifacts and haunted objects. Among them is the Dybbuk Box, an old wine cabinet that served as the inspiration for the movie The Possession and is said to be the most haunted object in the world.
The museum doesn't just contain haunted objects -- the building itself is also rumoured to be haunted. According to Travel Nevada, museum guests and employees have reported seeing a figure cloaked in black pass through a closed door, and spirits are said to wander the halls of the museum.
Dark rituals are also said to have taken place in the building's basement during the '70s, as verified by the home's past owners, according to the museum.
Visitors will be treated to a deliciously spooky time-- although be warned: according to the museum, waivers are mandatory due to the "countless amounts of dark activity occurring with guests on a daily basis."
Accessibility: Wheelchair/stroller accessible.
Bosc de Can Ginebreda
Price: 4 euros (about CA$5.89)
Address: Carr. de Mieres, km 25.5, Porqueres, Girona, Spain
Why You Need To Go: The Bosc de Can Ginebreda, or Can Ginebreda Forest, is a work of several sculptures hidden in Xicu's Forest just north of Barcelona.
Called "Catalonia's X-rated sculpture park," the area is an open-air statuary filled with strange, huge and erotic statues and sculptures.
In the tranquil forest, you'll come across sculptures depicting nudes with backwards body parts, and others portraying more explicit sexual acts, though not all the art is graphic.
According to the park's website, each statue has a meaning behind it.
While the experience may not be best for the easily offended, it certainly makes for a unique activity to add to your Europe vacation.
Paris Catacombs
Price: 29 euros per person (about CA$42.69); reduced rate available for 18 to 26-year-olds
Address: 1 av. du Colonel Henri Rol-Tanguy, Paris
Why You Need To Go: Some may be more familiar with this attraction than others on this list, but that doesn't make it any less unique.
The Paris Catacombs are a vast underground network of streets below the city that serves as the final resting place of 6 million Parisians.
The history of the catacombs dates back to the late 18th century, when underground tunnels of an abandoned quarry were designated as a place to store the bones of corpses that could no longer fit in the city's cemeteries.
The labyrinth of tunnels spans 1.7 kilometres, though only a section is open to for tours.
Visitors can go on an hour-long tour of the catacombs, descending 131 steps to the tunnels.
With piles on piles of bones, skulls and skeletons, the catacombs make for a ghoulish, if not downright spooky, experience.
Cup Noodles Museum
Price: Free to visit
Address: 8-25 Masumi-cho, Ikeda-shi, Osaka, Japan
Why You Need To Go: In Japan, you can visit the birthplace of instant noodles.
The Cup Noodles Museum in Osaka is an interactive museum dedicated to the history and world of instant ramen noodles with unique noodles-centered attractions and exhibitions.
One of the most eye-catching is the Instant Noodles Tunnel, which has around 800 instant noodle product packages covering the walls of a brightly lit tunnel and makes for a unique photo op.
There's also a Cup Noodles drama theatre, a tasting room where guests can try unique flavours and limited-edition products, as well as a My Cup Noodles Factory where you can create your own completely original Cup Noodles package.
Accessibility: Wheelchair accessible.
Before you get going, check out our Responsible Travel Guide so you can be informed, be safe, be smart, and most of all, be respectful on your adventure.
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