TravelerWacky, creepy, gross: The world’s weirdest tourist attractions
Normal travel is boring. If you want something out of the ordinary, opt for the weird and the creepy. There's plenty of choice.
When ordinary travel just won’t do, walk — or take a dip — on the weird side.
The Japanese are not known to take spa treatments lightly but this one really blows the average spa out of the water. On a regular day, the Hakone Kowakien Yunessun in Kanagawa, Japan passes off as a hot springs spa and water amusement park. But that's just a cover. Here you can bathe in the beverage of your choice -- choose from green tea, coffee, red wine, sake, and miso soup. There's rose and chocolate, too, for those inclined. And charcoal, which visitors have rated highly on TripAdvisor and praised as good clean fun. In fact, so coveted is the wine pool that it only opens for 12 days a year. All of these elixirs are believed to contain revitalizing properties and they're doubtless fun to slosh around in, if you don’t mind wallowing in a pool full of something aromatic and sticky with a crowd of deliriously happy men, women and children of all ages and sizes.
That’s not all.
If getting creeped out is your idea of a perfect holiday, head to Mexico’s Island of Dolls. La Isla de las Muñecas, south of Mexico City, is home to hundreds of dolls in various stages of decrepitude. Sort of like walking into your favorite nightmare. Local lore holds that a farmer who owned this place started collecting dolls to protect himself from the spirit of a little girl who had drowned in a nearby canal. He strung the dolls from clotheslines, where they still hang with peeling skins and hollowed-out eyes - a veritable toy zombieland. Adding to the creepiness is a rumour that the dolls come alive at night. The idea seems to have worked as tourists flock here to creep themselves out.
Tourism can get stickier than that, believe it or not. Bubblegum Alley in San Luis Obispo, California, features walls pasted with wads of chewed bubblegum. Want a hair-raising experience? Head (no pun intended) to the subterranean Avanos Hair Museum in Turkey containing samples from more than 16,000 women the world over. You can even contribute a lock from your head. If that doesn’t do it for you, the rats at Karni Mata temple in Rajasthan will either turn your stomach or have you gushing at their cuteness. Now that you’re down in the gutter, why not explore a bit? The Sewer Museum in Paris should be your destination - it is rather educative, we hear.
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What’s your favorite weird tourist destination?
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