If you're looking for some offbeat travel ideas for your upcoming trip to The Big Apple, look no further. Here's a collection of the weirdest, wildest, and downright offbeat destinations in New York City.
New York’s Museum Of Sex has been educating people about the cultural significance of doing the dirty for the past 13 years. You might say they’re kind of experts on the subject. The Museum of Sex is also home to over 15,000 artifacts and objects, that range from clothing, to inventions, to art, to vintage condoms and vibrators. Their research and media libraries are filled with treasures of sex history, from Sexology texts, to mid-1800s sexual imagery. They even have a giant bouncy room made entirely from blow up boobs!
If all that isn't enough to convince you to visit, the museum also has a cafe, den, and bar where you can grab some food, a drink, and literally make a day out of it.
Believe it or not, Jimi Hendrix’s studio (originally planned to be a club) was formed to avoid having to pay fees to the mafia. It was designed specifically for Hendrix, with round windows and ambient lighting in any color to fit any mood. Today the Electric Lady Studios remains one of the most loved recording studios in NYC, since it first opened its doors in 1970.
Ninjas have long been renown for their ability to strike silently and disappear into the shadows, but what happens when they trade in their throwing stars for four star entrees? Well, you get Ninja New York, a restaurant where katana-wielding warriors fall from the ceiling... just to serve you dinner.
Located in the heart of Manhattan's Tribeca neighborhood, Ninja New York is easily one of the most unique restaurants in the Big Apple. The entire restaurant was designed from the ground up to resemble an ancient dojo, complete with Ninjas popping out of hidden doors and disappearing into puffs of smoke.
Brooklyn's Morbid Anatomy Museum doesn't just specialize in dead stuff, it specializes in really weird dead stuff. On top of being home to an amazing collection of taxidermy, post-mortem photography, and various pickled body parts, the Morbid Anatomy Museum is also home to over 2,500 rare and out-of-print medical manuals. They have a Lecture Hall, where guests can sit in on talks from artists, morticians, taxidermists, and rogue scholars. The museum even offers classes on creating skin books, mourning jewelry, wax models, and a variety of weird/morbid/fascinating topics... you know, if you're into that kind of stuff.
The Superhero Supply Company in Brooklyn, NY has become your one stop shop for capes, tights, x-ray glasses, grappling hooks, ray guns, and heck, they even offer a $42 Million dollar invisible jet!
The secret identity of the Super Hero Shop owner is that of best-selling writer Dave Eggers. Eggers co-founded the store to serve as after-school writing center 826NYC where local students ages 6 to 18 to can come and show-off their creativity. If you know the secret button, you can swing open one of the store bookcases to expose a hidden classroom. Patrons are also encouraged to purchase some of the works written by class attendees, which helps continue funding the project.
If you're a fan of independent art, this is about as obscure as it comes. The Brooklyn Art Library is filled with donated sketch books from hundreds of local artist. Visit and donate some art of your own, or just spend an afternoon exploring.
This iconic New York favorite was the first restaurant in the world to feature drag-queen servers, bartenders, and performers. Thanks to Prince Albert of Monaco's visit in 1994, Lucky Chengs has become a staple of any trip to NYC.
Lucky Luciano is the godfather of modern organized crime in the United States, who was known for his work splitting the New York crime syndicate into the “Five Families”. Luciano was arrested in 1936 after being implicated in a massive police raid against 200 brothels in Brooklyn and Manhattan. But prison couldn’t stop Luciano from continuing his control over the families until 1938 when he finally stepped down…from prison.
His famous hideout is also his childhood home and it still stands in New York. Today the hideout has been converted into an apartment building, but you can still grab a few photos from the street!
Picture delicious white chocolate, casted into a crow skull mold. I know you’ve been eyeing that frog skin purse… Obscura Antiques in NYC features all sorts of rare and exotic items. They even have their very own TV show, made in a similar vein of Pawn Stars, that highlights not only the oddities they sell but the strange customers they get.
The Library Hotel, a 60-room boutique hotel in New York City, was designed by architect Stephen B. Jacobs, and boasts a unique organizing principle: each of its ten floors are themed after a major category of the Dewey Decimal System, with each room on the floor acting as a genre from that category. For instance, The fifth floor is designed around sciences, which rooms dedicated to Mathematics (Room 500.001) or Botany (Room 500.004). Interestingly enough, thanks to the hotel's unique room classification system, in 2003 they were sued by the owners of the Dewey Decimal System. Eventually, the two reached an agreement that would allow the hotel to continue the use of the system. Who knew that you could actually own a classification system?
Not only is Fantasma Magic one of the country's most iconic magic shops, it's also home to the Houdini Museum! Located inside Fantasma Magic, the Houdini Museum has hundreds upon hundreds of priceless Houdini artifacts that change all the time to give guests the chance to see something new with each visit.
Arguably one of the coolest museums in New York City, Ripley's Believe It or Not! Time Square Odditorium is the one place you should probably visit if you can only hit one of these amazing spots.
The museum is filled with over twenty galleries literally jam-packed with unbelievable artifacts, exhibits, and wonder around every corner. The 18,000 square foot museum holds over 500 artifacts organized in themed galleries. Also, did I mention the live performances, like New York's Laser Race? They even have extreme sleepovers, strange scavenger hunts, and more "odd" than you can shake a stick at.
You can't go to The Big Apple and not visit Madam Tussauds. The museum is the only interactive wax attraction in the city, plus it's the only place where you can take a selfie with over 100 of your favorite wax celebs. Since opening in 1999, the New York museum still remains one of the most weirdest and wonderful stops on an offbeat vacation. Thanks to the old-school museum-style ropes and poles, not much has changed at Madam Tussauds over the last 200 years except the celebrity wax molds.
Before the Shinran Statue aka. The Atomic Buddhist Statue made its home on Riverside Drive, it stood outside a temple in Hiroshima Japan, until 1945 when it made the trip to NYC. Originally the statue stood 1.5 miles from the sight of the atomic blast that killed 150,000 people and destroyed 70 percent of the buildings in the city. Only the statue remained intact. Today it stands in NYC as an important reminder of peace.
If you like to put bacon in everything, Baconery is probably going to be your version of heaven. Bacon cookies, cupcakes, and even bacon pancakes, this weird New York staple will leave you in hog heaven... get it?
The Graffiti Hall of Fame was founded by Harlem community leader Ray "Sting Ray" Rodriguez. His dream was to create a place where up and coming artists could come together to learn from each other, and hone their graffiti craft. The walls outside of the Jackie Robinson Educational Complex's school yard have been beautified by some of the world's most famous graffiti artists for well over 30 years now.
Literally everything inside Minus5 Ice Bar is made out of... you guessed it, pure 100% Canadian ice. Named after its toe-curling minus five degree temperature, Minus5 has been drawing flocks of curious people since it opened its doors. Everything from the walls to the glasses, chairs, and even the bar are made entirely out of ice. The bar even has an in house ice carver, who changes up the look of the bar and sculptures every 2 months.
From Library Hotels to museums dedicated entirely to sex, there's no doubting New York City is home some seriously offbeat travel destinations. And with all of these choices, you're guaranteed to have a fantastic (and weird) time.