Across the globe, some museums swap ancient relics and fine art for the wonderfully weird and wildly unexpected. Think shrunken heads, taxidermy gone rogue and entire exhibits devoted to toilet seat art or even canned meat. These curious collections reveal the stranger side of human imagination – and offer a museum experience you won't soon forget.
Click through this gallery to discover the world's quirkiest museums...
There was a time when the word ‘spam’ referred to dinner rather than unwanted emails. The Spam Museum harks back to that era and chronicles the history of the processed, pre-cooked canned meat from its introduction in 1937 by the Hormel Foods company.
From its role in World War II, when it was an important part of soldiers’ diets, to Monty Python’s musical Spamalot, this unique museum offers interactive exhibits, tours with its ‘SPAMbassadors’ and, of course, samples of its famous luncheon meat.
This former barbershop-turned-museum is where thousands of US soldiers received their signature GI buzz cut before heading off to service – including none other than Elvis Presley.
Located in Fort Smith’s Chaffee Historic District, the museum was recently renovated and reopened, now featuring interactive exhibits and plans for an Oral History Room, all exploring Fort Chaffee’s fascinating past – from its use as a POW camp and refugee resettlement centre to a filming location.
Cat-lover Bob Meijer founded the Kattenkabinet in 1990, in memory of his beloved ginger cat, John Pierpont Morgan. Located in a historic 17th-century canal house on Herengracht, the museum explores the role of cats in art and culture throughout history.
The collection includes works by renowned artists like Henriette Ronner-Knip, Sal Meijer, and even Rembrandt. Visitors can also enjoy the presence of resident cats that roam freely around the museum, adding a special touch to the experience.
Self-described as one of the most 'improbable museums', the National Mustard Museum is dedicated to the beloved yellow condiment. It all began in 1992 when Barry Levenson, former assistant attorney general of Wisconsin, left his job to open the museum.
Today, it boasts an impressive collection of over 6,090 mustards from all 50 states and more than 70 countries. The museum also features an extensive range of antique tins, vintage advertisements and a popular tasting bar where visitors can sample various mustards.
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The Museum of the Weird calls itself one of the strangest attractions in America. With exhibits featuring shrunken heads, giant lizards, mummies and the infamous Feejee mermaid – a taxidermy monkey sewn together with a fish – it’s a fitting description.
The museum, owned by Steve Busti, is packed with oddities, including a Chamber of Horrors full of life-size wax figures. Inspired by 19th-century dime museums and cabinets of curiosities, it offers a quirky, offbeat look at the bizarre.
Founded by former couple Olinka Vištica and Dražen Grubišić, the Museum of Broken Relationships began as a travelling exhibition before finding a permanent home in Croatia’s capital, Zagreb, inside the elegant Baroque Kulmer Palace.
Its ever-expanding collection features symbolic objects donated by people from around the world – mementoes of love lost, ranging from wedding dresses and handcuffs to handwritten letters. For the newly single seeking a little catharsis, this one-of-a-kind museum is a must-visit.
Mermaid skeletons, mummified fairies and two-headed kittens are just a few of the bizarre artefacts on display at this eccentric cocktail bar-cum-curiosity museum in east London. Located on Mare Street, it is the creation of artist, author and self-described 'pataphysicist' Viktor Wynd.
The museum is part of The Last Tuesday Society – a surrealist organisation that celebrates the strange, magical and macabre. Housed in a former call centre, it offers a journey into Wynd’s weird and wonderful imagination.
Ever since his performance of Looking for Freedom at the Berlin Wall in 1989, David Hasselhoff has held an unlikely but enduring place in German pop culture. It’s perhaps fitting, then, that there’s a museum dedicated to 'The Hoff' in Berlin.
Located in the basement of The Circus Hostel in the city’s Mitte district, the museum began as a tongue-in-cheek tribute but has since evolved into a quirky homage to his career – featuring memorabilia from Baywatch, Knight Rider and more.
Fray Bentos is one of the UK’s most recognisable food brands, best known for tinned pies. But its origins lie in the Uruguayan town of the same name, where a vast meatpacking plant was established in 1863. It became a global hub for canned meat production – famously supplying troops during both World Wars.
Though the factory shut in 1979, it now lives on as the Museum of the Industrial Revolution, a preserved site of machinery and history that was granted UNESCO World Heritage status in 2015.
Hell’s Museum is located within Haw Par Villa, a heritage park in Singapore built in the 1930s and famed for its elaborate gardens inspired by Chinese mythology. The museum delves into how different cultures and religions interpret death and the afterlife, highlighting common threads that connect these beliefs.
Exhibits include thought-provoking displays on funeral rites, burial practices and the language of mourning around the world – from Victorian hair art to Tibetan sky burials.
One of the most interactive and unique attractions in Washington DC’s world-class museum scene, the International Spy Museum offers an immersive journey through the history of espionage. Visitors can explore the world of famous spies and real-life covert operations while testing their own spy skills through a series of challenges.
These include code-cracking, memory tests and even crawling through an air duct. On arrival, you’re issued an RFID-enabled ID badge, which tracks your progress through the museum. At the end of your mission, you’ll receive a personalised debrief revealing your top spy strengths.
The last thing you’d expect to find in the Australian outback is a movie museum. But this unique desert shrine dedicated to Mad Max 2 (The Road Warrior) doesn’t seem so bizarre when you learn that the legendary action film was shot here.
Located in the desert ghost town of Silverton, this quirky exhibit can’t be missed with its colourful shack in ode to the apocalyptic movie. It houses photos, props, costumes, collectables and replica vehicles which owner Adrian Bennett has collected over the years. Worth the dusty desert journey for die-hard fans.
On a mission to raise awareness about sanitation and public health in India, Dr Bindeshwar Pathak established this unusual, charity-run museum, which traces the 4,500-year history of toilets across the globe.
Exhibits range from ancient chamber pots and medieval commodes to a replica of King Louis XIV’s throne-like toilet and a modern eco-friendly loo that incinerates waste. Open since 1992, the museum offers a fascinating insight into one of humanity’s most essential inventions.
Another quirky attraction dedicated to the humble lavatory, this museum was founded by the late Barney Smith, a retired plumber dubbed the 'King of the Commode'. Over 50 years, he created a collection of more than 1,400 decorated toilet seats in his San Antonio garage.
In 2019, just before his death at 98, the collection was moved to the Truck Yard beer garden in The Colony, Texas. Themes range from The Wizard of Oz and old licence plates to personal mementos from Smith’s own life.
With over a thousand brightly painted tombstones featuring cartoon-style illustrations and witty epitaphs, the Merry Cemetery in northwest Romania is part graveyard, part open air museum, drawing visitors from around the world.
Created by sculptor Dumitru Pop Tincu, the hand-carved memorials have become a beloved tradition in the village of Săpânța, reflecting a candid, humorous view of death rooted in ancient Dacian beliefs.
From lake monsters and sea serpents to mermaids and yetis, Cryptozoology is the study of hidden or unknown animals. And this oddball museum dedicated to the subject of ‘cryptids’ in Portland, Maine, is the only one of its kind in the world.
Founded by cryptozoologist Loren Coleman in 2003, the museum showcases a vast array of artefacts, including footprint casts, native art and life-sized models.
Invented in August 1858 by Momofuku Ando, the instant noodle has been immortalised in an interactive museum. Exhibits include: The Birth of Chicken Ramen, a replica of Ando’s lab/shed; the Instant Noodles Tunnel, lined with hundreds of examples of noodle packaging; and the My CUPNOODLES Factory where visitors can create one of 5,460 flavour combinations.
The history and variety of canine neckwear is more fascinating than you might expect – and the Dog Collar Museum at Leeds Castle in Kent is a testament to that. Home to the world’s largest public display of its kind, the collection features over 130 rare and historic dog collars spanning five centuries.
Highlights include 16th-century German iron collars with fearsome spikes, ornate Baroque gilt designs and quirky 20th-century examples made from tyres, beads and plastic.
You won’t find a more dazzling museum than Amsterdam’s Electric Ladyland. Tucked away in the Jordaan neighbourhood, this one-of-a-kind museum is the world’s first devoted entirely to fluorescent art.
Visitors become part of the experience through 'participatory art', stepping into a glowing, cave-like environment where every surface radiates under ultraviolet light. The museum is open Wednesday through Saturday, by appointment only.
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You’ll need your snorkelling gear or a glass-bottom boat for this one, as the 500-plus sculptures that comprise the MUSA in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula are found on the ocean floor.
Created by English artist Jason deCaires Taylor, the life-size sculptures that make up this extraordinary museum in the waters off Cancun, Isla Mujeres and Punta Nizuc, were made using a special material to promote coral life. Since their instalment they’ve inspired similar projects around the world.
With a collection of over 12,000 original items, this museum in London’s Notting Hill is bound to spark nostalgia. The Museum of Brands traces 200 years of consumer culture, showcasing everything from 1890s Rimmel make-up and World War I Oxo cubes to retro toys like Captain Scarlet action figures.
Visitors can also walk through the museum’s centrepiece, the ‘Time Tunnel’ – a chronological journey through the evolution of branding, packaging and advertising from Victorian times to the present day.
A museum dedicated to tiny books, this charming library displays miniature tomes of all genres and ages, from a Russian book which is so small it requires a magnifying book to read it, to a 17th century copy of the Quran.
Author and bibliophile Zarifa Salahova is the curator behind the curious collection and a large part came from a Ukrainian collector who donated his own miniature books in 2001.
A unique destination focused on improving financial literacy in a fun and interactive way, this museum was established by the Intesa Sanpaolo banking group in 2012.
Teens and adults can dive deeper into the world of finance, with games like Smart Trader, which simulates stock trading, and Risky City, where visitors learn about risk management. With its tours, video games and hands-on activities, the museum offers an entertaining approach to saving and financial planning.
With more than 3,000 industrial and objects displayed and connected in never-before-seen ways, this museum may seem a little unnerving at first. But museum director Vlad Korneev claims that the various mannequins fixed to machinery and medical instruments is a way of sparking interest in everyday things we may not notice or understand.
After opening in 2010, this wacky exhibition has lured in plenty of visitors who leave with myriad opinions on what it all means. This is one that’s open to interpretation.
Politician Imelda Marcos is remembered for her extravagant lifestyle and controversial political legacy. As First Lady of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986, she amassed a vast collection of over 2,700 pairs of shoes, many of which were discovered in the Malacañang Palace after the Marcos family fled the country.
A portion of this collection is now displayed at the Marikina Shoe Museum, which showcases 800 pairs of her shoes, including items from renowned designers such as Christian Dior, Gucci and Charles Jourdan, as well as locally crafted footwear.
Founded by former racing champion Brian Radam, this quirky treasure trove showcases over 250 restored lawnmowers. Highlights include the first solar-powered robot mower and the fastest lawnmower in the world, making it a must-see for fans of machinery and oddities.
The museum also boasts a fascinating collection of celebrity-owned mowers, including those of Princess Diana, Brian May and Alan Titchmarsh. As part of Lawnmowerworld, it also offers machinery restoration and vintage mower hire for film and TV.
If you’re a fan of sausage dogs, look no further. The Dackelmuseum, formerly in Passau, relocated to Regensburg in 2023 and houses more than 30,000 dachshund-themed exhibits.
Carefully curated over 25 years by two former florists, the museum celebrates the iconic sausage dog with an extensive collection that offers a fascinating look at the cultural significance of the dachshund – from its role in hunting to its place in Bavarian aristocracy and pop culture.
Since the 1970s, Comic-Con has drawn thousands of superhero, video game and comic book fans to San Diego each year. Now, the city has its very own Comic-Con Museum, celebrating sci-fi, cosplay, TV and film.
The museum includes a custom Pac-Man arcade and a display featuring rare Batman props, offering fans a deeper dive into the world of pop culture.
For fairytale lovers, this museum in Danish author Hans Christian Andersen's hometown is a must-visit. Explore the yellow cottage where he was born, marvel at award-winning art and immerse yourself in interactive exhibits that bring his iconic fairytales to life.
Designed by world-renowned architect Kengo Kuma, the museum also boasts stunning gardens and underground spaces, making it a truly magical experience for visitors of all ages.