If your summers are typically filled with the same water slides, fun in the sun, and dinners straight off the barbeque, why not spice up your vacation plans this year by throwing a theme park with Santa, a savior, or sweets into the mix? A summer theme park doesn’t have to mean Mickey musicals, singing sea lions, or high-rise roller coasters. You can still theme out and avoid the frolicking furry, flippered, and fairy tale characters at one of these six quirky and off-the-wall destinations.
Location: Horse Cave, Ky.
Admission: Adults $22; children (ages 5–14) $13; seniors (ages 62+), AAA members, and military veterans $19.30; free for active military and for children under four
Parking: Free
Funky Feature: The Kentucky Caverns on the park premises, discovered in 1799 and opened to the public in 1992, have nothing to do with the Outback (they were the original on-site attraction before the introduction of Australian animals), but a 45-minute guided tour will help you expand your knowledge of cave cauliflower, cave popcorn, stalactites, and stalagmites on your trip down under.
Sure, you could travel to Kentucky for the Derby instead, but why watch galloping horses this summer when you can explore the wildlife of Australia — kangaroos, kookaburras, lorikeets, wallabies, and bettongs — right there in the bluegrass state. You’ll have the chance to milk a cow and feed the lambs in the park’s Woolshed, buy a mining kit and find gemstones hidden in the sand in the mining area, practice throwing a boomerang, or play a didgeridoo at Camp Corroboree, where you’ll be introduced to Aboriginal culture, customs, tools, and instruments.
Location: San Jose, Calif.
Admission (mansion tour only): Adults $23.95, seniors (ages 65+) $20.95, children (ages 6–12) $17.95, free for children under five
Parking: Free
Funky Features: Windows placed in the floor, and staircases and doors that lead nowhere are just the start. With no formal blueprints (Sarah Winchester supposedly sketched her designs on tablecloths and miscellaneous scraps of paper), Mystery House operators are still unsure of the count of all the house’s features.
Following the loss of her husband to tuberculosis and the death of her son only a few weeks after his birth, the grieving Sarah L. Winchester, heir to the Winchester Rifle fortune, sought the counsel of a spiritual medium. The medium told Winchester that she and her home would be haunted and cursed by the ghosts of the countless people who had been killed by Winchester rifles, and the only thing for Winchester to do was move West and build a mansion in which construction should never end.
And so the sprawling Winchester Victorian mansion took shape in Northern California, with construction continuing 24 hours a day for 38 years, from 1884 up until Winchester’s death in 1922.
The Winchester Mystery home is notable not only for its size and sumptuous details — three working elevators, 47 fireplaces, 160 rooms, inlaid parquet floors, Tiffany art glass windows — but for its oddities: staircases that lead into the ceiling, doors that open into walls, and windows in the floors.
Location: Spring Green, Wisc.
Admission (single-tour rates): Adults $12.50, juniors (ages 4–17) $7.50, free for children ages three and under
Funky Features: The largest carousel in the world, with over 20,000 lights and 182 chandeliers, located indoors; a collection of giant organs; a three-story bookcase filled with rare books; a gun collection that includes a set shaped like kitchen utensils; the Heritage of the Sea exhibit, which displays hundreds of model ships and has as its centerpiece a sculpture of a 200-foot sea creature engaged in battle with a giant octopus that sings The Beatles’ “Octopus Garden”
The House on the Rock was built in the 1940s into the side of 60-foot chimney of rock as a personal residence for the eccentric and collection-happy architect, Alex Jordan. The original 14-room house is now part of a complex of buildings, exhibits, collections, and gardens, which you can explore for yourself on any one of three self-guided tours.
With everything from a doll house exhibit, a paperweight collection, an armor collection, and a crown jewel collection to a collection of Burma Shave signs, a life-size model of a sperm whale, and a complete mechanical symphony orchestra that plays itself, the House on the Rock is multiple unique experiences in one. You won’t see stuff like this anywhere else.
Don’t miss the Infinity Room, a 300-foot cantilevered room that juts over the valley with no vertical support. Starting at 30-feet wide and tapering to a one-inch-wide tip, and with over 3,000 windows that allow you to look in every direction, the Infinity Room gives you the sense of gazing into an unending corridor.
Location: Orlando, Fla.
Admission: Adults $35, seniors (ages 55+) $30, children (ages 6–12), free for children under five
Parking: Free
Funky Features: An 18,000-square-foot Scriptorium, a nonsectarian library and research center for biblical antiquities, housing several thousand manuscripts, scrolls, and other religious artifacts; a 45 x 25-foot indoor model of Jerusalem, circa A.D. 66 — the largest indoor model of its kind; a gift shop that features Star of David necklaces embedded with Christian crosses and olive wood imported from Jerusalem
Billed as “Orlando’s most inspiring destination,” The Holy Land Experience takes you to the heart of Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. Follow the path to Calvary’s Garden Tomb, visit the Wilderness Tabernacle, a recreation of the mobile temple for the Israelites, or take a stroll down the bustling Jerusalem Street Market to be entertained and educated about life in the ancient Holy Land.
Location: Cascade, Colo.
Admission: Adults $16.95, military $11 (with military ID), free for seniors ages 60+ and for children under two
Parking: Free
Funky Features: A permanently frozen North Pole at the center of the village; a working vintage carousel and band organ that both date back to 1919; the “World’s Highest Ferris Wheel” (in altitude), perched on a hillside with an amazing view of the park at the top
Cool off this summer, and see Santa in the middle of July at Santa’s Workshop, located at 7,500 feet on the wintery slopes of Pike’s Peak, Colo. Visit Santa’s toy shop, feed his llamas, or send your friends a postcard straight from his North Pole Post Office, postmarked from the North Pole.
Location: Hershey, Penn.
Admission: Adults $47.95, children (ages 3–8) and seniors (ages 55–69) $28.95, seniors plus (ages 70+) $19.95, free for children ages two and under
Parking: $10 per passenger vehicle, $15 per camper
Funky Features: A Kosher Mart; strolling bands that cruise the park performing live a cappella music; a “Barking Lot” kennel at Hersheypark Stadium where your car-tripping dogs can stay while you visit the park
Built in 1907 by the founder of the Hershey chocolate company as a picnic area for his employees, Hersheypark now spans 110 acres with over 60 rides and attractions, including 11 roller coasters, six water rides, an array of award-winning music and dance shows, and chocolatey desserts at every dining location.
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