New York City's personality is big, bold, and, at times, a little weird. Tucked away among the various boroughs and endless streets and avenues of this massive metropolis are some of the country's most intriguing attractions. And, since this is the city that never sleeps, you'll have plenty of time to check all of the strangeness out. Here's a collection of the weirdest, wildest, and downright offbeat destinations in New York City.
The Museum of Sex is also home to over 15,000 artifacts and objects that range from clothing and inventions to art and historical objects. Their research and media libraries are filled with treasures of sex history, from Sexology texts to mid-1800s sexual imagery. Don't miss out on their adults-only bouncy room!
The museum also has a cafe, den, and bar where you can grab a drink and a bite to eat, and literally make a day out of it.
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.
Not only is Ninja New York kid-friendly, but they'll love having their food served alongside special effects like dry ice and giant ninja swords.
Brooklyn's Morbid Anatomy Museum is home to an amazing collection of taxidermy, post-mortem photography, and various pickled body parts. The museum also has over 2,500 rare and out-of-print medical manuals and a lecture hall, where guests can sit in on talks from artists, morticians, taxidermists, and rogue scholars.
They also offer rotating classes on everything from creating skin books to crafting mourning jewelry to making wax models.
The Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co. is a great place to stock up on capes and superpower-enhancing gadgets, but the store itself is a secret identity! 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, and purchases from the store benefit the organization. Nothing feels better than shopping for a good cause!
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 artists from all over. Visit and donate some art of your own, or just spend an afternoon exploring.
Most people don't realize it before visiting, but the library also has an excellent selection of art merchandise, like vintage rubber-stamp printing sets and French stationery to help you fill up a notebook of your very own.
Lucky Chengs is an iconic New York favorite that 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, it has has become a staple of any trip to NYC.
They also serve food, so you can make a night out of it while you're there.
Lucky Luciano is the godfather of modern organized crime in the United States; he was known for his work splitting the New York crime syndicate into the infamous “Five Families”.
His notorious 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!
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.
Though they do have a great selection, the store is quite snug, and the prices can be fairly expensive compared other curio shops.
The Library Hotel is a 60-room boutique hotel in New York City, and 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).
Not only is Fantasma Magic one of the country's most iconic magic shops, the staff are all trained magicians, so expect lots of live magic when you visit. If there's something in particular that they don't have, they're happy to order it for you as well.
And don't leave without seeing the Houdini Museum, which has hundreds of priceless Houdini artifacts that change all the time to give guests the chance to see something new with each visit.
Ripley's Believe It or Not! Time Square Odditorium is filled with over twenty galleries literally jam-packed with unbelievable artifacts and exhibits around every corner. The 18,000 square foot museum holds over 500 objects organized in themed galleries. Also, did I mention the live performances, like New York's Laser Race? They even have extreme sleepovers and strange scavenger hunts.
Madam Tussauds 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. 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 after the detonation, making it an interesting symbol of hope.
Baconery is a bacon-lover's paradise. Everything in the restaurant is bacon themed, from the interior design, to the board games, to the extensive menu. They have bacon-infused candies, chocolates, baked goods, drinks, and sandwiches.
Don't leave without picking up some bacon dog biscuits for your pooch!
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.
Make sure to take a peek at the walls outside of the Jackie Robinson Educational Complex's school yard, which have been beautified by some of the world's most famous graffiti artists for well over 30 years.
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 and the glasses to the chairs and 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 two 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.