5 Weird Museums Your Kids Will Totally Love

Just the sound of kids groaning over the words, “let’s go to a museum,” is enough to make parents want to ditch the kids to fend for themselves and head to the Louvre alone. Or we can meet somewhere in the middle and turn the concept of museums on its head with a weird and wacky alternative. Take your kids to one of these five weird museums they’ll totally love.

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International Banana Museum

You gotta love a place that says things like, “escape to the most aPPEELing destination on the planet.” The entire International Banana Museum is devoted to just bananas with 20,000 related items. It might take you awhile to spot every single one, but that’s why there’s actual bananas and banana-inspired treats to eat. Situated in North Shore, Calif., guests can pull up a stool at the banana bar for a soda ice cream float or other delicacies like chocolate-covered bananas.

Coral Castle Museum

Miami isn’t just home to South Beach and nightclubs, it’s also home to the Coral Castle Museum, boasting a castle made out of coral. The creator, Edward Leedskalnin, worked tirelessly 1932–1951 to secretly and single-handedly carved 1,100 tons of coral rock. Edward was also all of 100 pounds and about 5 feet tall, but his small stature didn’t stop him from creating a magnificent creation still shrouded in a sense of mystery.

Center for Puppetry Arts

As an Atlanta local, I forgot a museum filled with nothing but puppets is strange to anyone. It’s our normal, and we embrace this spot as a city treasure. The Center for Puppetry Arts is a world-renowned theater featuring rotating puppet shows and performances, along with a museum housing Jim Henson’s iconic creations. Along with Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy, you can also see a Global Collection representing puppetry from Asia, the Americas and beyond.

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PEZ Museum

PEZ. Even the word conjures images of those adorable little dispensers featuring kid-favorite characters from Star Wars to the Muppets. And now you can see an example of every PEZ candy dispenser ever sold totaling more than 1,000 pieces at the PEZ museum in Burlingame, Calif. For an added bonus, there’s also a Classic Toy Museum and Banned Toy Museum tucked inside the PEZ Museum with vintage toys. Good luck trying to explain the off-market toys like Atomic Energy Laboratory and Lawn Darts.

Cup Noodle Museum

If you’re going to be in Japan, the Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum (or Cup Noodle Museum) is dedicated to the instant noodles and cup noodles founded by Momofuku Ando. And if you didn’t realize it was an art form, that’s okay. Most people don’t. The museum will fill you in on its history as guests journey through a Chicken Ramen Factory; an interactive theater shaped like, what else, a cup of noodles; and exhibitions. But the best part might just be the tasting room with products not usually sold in Osaka and in limited areas throughout Japan.

Here’s the test on how weird these places really are. After you get home from your weird and wacky museum tour, ask your kids to come up with their own version. Then brace yourself for their own weirdness and creativity to run wild.