17 Ridiculous Tourist Attractions That Somehow Became Famous
Magnificent sites like the Grand Canyon, the Eiffel Tower, and the ancient pyramids draw tourists from all over the world. However, there is also a parallel universe of tourist attractions that are so ludicrous and essentially strange that it is impossible to explain why they are so popular.
These locations have turned ordinary, eccentric, or downright strange ideas into must-see locations that welcome thousands of tourists each year. Here is a list of 17 ridiculous tourist destinations that, in spite of their inherent silliness, have managed to become well-known.
The Big Banana
With the construction of this 50-foot yellow monument in Coffs Harbour, Australia’s infatuation with enormous roadside attractions reached fruity dimensions. Originally constructed in 1964 as a straightforward marketing ploy for a nearby banana plantation, it now serves as the focal point of a whole amusement complex.
Tourists go hundreds of kilometers to photograph this absurdly big fruit sculpture, which offers nothing but its oversized proportions.
The Bubblegum Wall
Pike Place Market in Seattle features a wall where thousands of visitors have stuck their used gum for over 20 years. This disgusting health hazard grows daily as tourists add their own pre-chewed contributions to the colorful, sticky mess.
Despite periodic cleanings, including a major removal of over 2,350 pounds of gum in 2015, visitors immediately began rebuilding this monument to shared saliva.
Middelfart Toilet Museum
Denmark hosts a museum dedicated entirely to toilet history, featuring more than 15,000 artifacts related to the bathroom business. Visitors pay actual money to view ancient chamber pots, historic lavatory designs, and interactive exhibits explaining sewage systems throughout the ages.
The museum attracts thousands annually to this small Danish town despite being literally centered around something most people prefer not discussing.
The Dog Collar Museum
Located in Kent, England, this museum displays over 100 antique and historic dog collars spanning five centuries. The collection includes medieval iron collars with spikes, baroque leather pieces, and Victorian silver designs, all mounted in glass cases with scholarly descriptions.
People actually travel to see this hyper-specific collection that showcases items most dog owners wouldn’t give a second glance.
Carhenge
In Alliance, Nebraska, 39 vintage automobiles have been arranged to mimic England’s Stonehenge. Spray-painted gray and half-buried in the earth, these junked cars form a remarkably accurate replica of the ancient monument.
This peculiar prairie art installation draws over 60,000 visitors annually to an otherwise unremarkable field in the middle of nowhere Nebraska.
The Museum of Bad Art
Located near Boston, this institution proudly displays artworks that are ‘too bad to be ignored.’ The collection features paintings and sculptures of such profound awkwardness, technical incompetence, and bizarre subject matter that they circle back to being fascinating.
Visitors specifically seek out this celebration of artistic failure, proving that sometimes terrible execution creates its own form of attraction.
The Upside-Down House
Poland’s tourist landscape includes a house built completely upside-down, with its roof touching the ground and its foundation pointing skyward. Inside, visitors walk on the ceilings while furniture hangs above them, creating disorienting photo opportunities.
This architectural gimmick with zero practical purpose has spawned copycat attractions in several countries, each drawing crowds willing to pay admission.
The International Banana Museum
With more than 25,000 objects with banana themes, the museum in California’s Colorado Desert holds the Guinness World Record for banana-related memorabilia. While enjoying banana milkshakes, guests explore rooms adorned with banana-themed artwork, toys, clothes, and furnishings.
Despite providing little more than banana overload, this roadside oddity has become a popular visit because of its unwavering dedication to a single fruit theme.
World’s Largest Ball of Paint
In Alexandria, Indiana, a baseball covered in over 25,000 layers of paint has grown to more than 14 feet in circumference and weighs over 5,000 pounds. Starting in 1977, the ball gains new layers whenever visitors arrive, each allowed to add their own coat.
People actually detour their road trips to see this monument to pointless persistence and mundane materials.
Paris Sewers Museum
While Paris offers the Louvre and Eiffel Tower, thousands choose instead to tour its historic sewer system. Visitors pay to walk through actual functioning sewers, viewing the infrastructure that has channeled Parisian waste for centuries.
The museum proudly displays maintenance equipment and historic pumping machines while guests experience authentic underground odors from this working system.
The Avocado Museum
Located in San Diego, this shrine to the green fruit features avocado history, cultivation techniques, and numerous avocado-shaped souvenirs. Visitors learn about different varieties while viewing artistic interpretations of avocados and historical farming implements.
People actually plan special trips to this single-subject museum celebrating a common grocery item they could simply purchase at any supermarket.
The Museum of Broken Relationships
Zagreb, Croatia hosts a collection of ordinary objects donated by people worldwide, each representing a failed relationship. Items range from garden gnomes to wedding dresses, displayed alongside short descriptions of the relationship’s demise.
Visitors travel internationally to view these mundane artifacts of romantic disappointment, transformed into profound symbols through their exhibited context.
Foamhenge
Natural Bridge, Virginia featured a full-scale replica of Stonehenge made entirely from foam blocks until its relocation to Centreville in 2017. This deliberately fake monument, complete with astronomical alignments matching the original, draws visitors despite offering nothing beyond the novelty of seeing ancient architecture reproduced in packing material.
Tourists regularly express disappointment that it isn’t even the real Stonehenge.
The Paper Cup Museum
In a remote part of Tennessee sits a collection of over 1,000 vintage paper cups, displayed chronologically to demonstrate the evolution of disposable drinking vessels. Founded by an actual paper cup manufacturing executive, this monument to temporary containers features backlit displays of items most people immediately discard.
People genuinely travel to see these ordinary objects elevated to museum status.
Barney Smith’s Toilet Seat Art Museum
Until 2019, a garage in San Antonio housed over 1,400 decorated toilet seats, each transformed into themed art pieces by a retired plumber. Visitors would make pilgrimages to this residential neighborhood to view toilet seats commemorating historical events, celebrities, and personal milestones.
The collection has since relocated to a proper venue in North Texas after gaining international fame despite its bathroom-fixture limitations.
The Spam Museum
Austin, Minnesota celebrates its famous canned meat product with a 14,000-square-foot museum dedicated entirely to Spam. Interactive exhibits detail the history of this processed meat, including its role in World War II and its popularity in Pacific Island cuisine.
Visitors can view Spam-themed merchandise, watch promotional videos, and even try free samples of various Spam flavors in this shrine to shelf-stable pork.
The Neon Boneyard
Las Vegas’s famous signs find their final resting place in the Neon Boneyard, where massive vintage displays slowly decay in the desert sun. These abandoned advertisements have transformed from commercial tools into revered artifacts through the sheer passage of time.
Visitors pay admission to wander among broken tubes and faded colors that once lit up the famous Strip, now photographing the rusted remains as art rather than advertising.
The Fascination of the Absurd
The human impulse to celebrate oddity has transformed these improbable attractions from local curiosities into international destinations. These sites reveal our collective appreciation for the unexpected and the commitment required to elevate ordinary objects to extraordinary status.
Visitors seek these places precisely because they break from conventional tourism, offering stories more interesting than standard vacation photos. Just as Las Vegas signs gained unexpected significance through age, all the ridiculous attractions on this list demonstrate how human curiosity and the pursuit of the unusual can elevate even the most mundane objects into places worth visiting.
Perhaps the true attraction lies not in the sites themselves, but in the shared experience of embracing the gloriously pointless.
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