Places ajohnares Wants to Go

At the supposed instruction of Ben Franklin and Socrates, a Spiritualist believer intended to birth a mechanical messiah here.

This unusual building straddles two countries.

An abandoned town is hidden in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

A former zoo turned public park, where visitors can hang out in the old animal cages.

An 18th-century Catholic church converted into an eccentric temple of music and bacchanalia.

A modern ghost town whose inhabitants were driven away by the growth of nuclear power.

A mesmerizing amount of crazy art is attached to the side of this house on Seattle's Phinney Ridge, bringing smiles to those who venture down the driveway to take a look.

A collection of odd-shaped and quirky sounding instruments handmade by a midcentury inventor-composer.

An enclosed rotunda at the Henry Art Gallery in which viewers can look up and see the uninterrupted sky.

The secluded beach getaway from Wes Anderson's dreamy summer romance.

Franciscan monks created a facsimile of the Holy Land for North Americans who couldn’t afford the trip overseas.

Historical figures from New York City's Catholic community reside in Midtown.

A luxurious 1880s hotel with its fair share of Tiffany stained glass, Edison electricity, and of course, ghosts.

Inside this McDonald's you can dine on your Big Mac and fries next to a 2,500-year-old Roman wall.

The exact whereabouts of this surreal cabinet of curiosities are rarely the same place twice.

The land is full of geologic eye candy, such as otherworldly spires, mushroom-shaped hoodoos, and prehistoric fossils.

This colonial mansion has been home to a staggering number of American historic figures.

This jail which was in service for over a century is now open for curious visitors.

A beautiful Victorian-era cemetery, complete with a miniature village.

A stunning, two-tiered waterfall made famous by poets, artists and the legend of a ghost dog.

Collapsing castle on the Hudson river was once the storage site of military surplus business.

This old cement mine has been used as everything from a mushroom farm to a recording studio.