Places alisonhballard Wants to Go

Tucked in a nondescript downtown Brooklyn mall is a bar containing a remarkable turn of the century anatomical wax collection last seen in 1920s Berlin.

Nondescript elevator doors open to reveal a stunning, surreal world.

Just your average Marie Antoinette–themed speakeasy in an abandoned 19th-century subway tunnel.

New York City's smallest piece of private property.

One of New York's best collections of pinball is hidden in a secret bar in the back of this laundromat.

The one-stop shop for all of your superhero (or evil arch-nemesis) needs.

Try not to get slimed in Tribeca.

The world’s oldest and biggest bookstore stocking only mystery, crime fiction, espionage, and thrillers.

Manhattan’s Battery Park has a whimsical carousel full of spinning, glowing fish.

Dodge prohibitionists and slide through the telephone booth in Crif Dogs.

A tiny museum housed in a New York freight elevator specializes in the "overlooked, dismissed, or ignored."

La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela's "Dream House" will immerse you in an ever changing world of sound and light.

The small family-run business has kept alive the fading art of creating beautiful handmade book covers.

This store is dedicated to unique found footage and the strangeness of pre-internet pop-culture.

Every weekend, the parking lot of this Buddhist temple turns into a Thai street-food paradise.

Las Vegas's very own 40-foot-tall fire-spewing praying mantis.

A collection of haunted objects and macabre oddities under one roof.

An artist's vision for connectivity spans seven continents and 16 countries.

The decaying adobe remains of an old homestead are just off the beaten path in Joshua Tree National Park.

In this roadside "community for the small," abandoned toys gain new lives.

In California, colorful roadside signs remind us all that love transcends borders.

In the days before HD projectors and IMAX, some of the most powerful projectors belonged to planetariums.

Crumbling pink walls and murder memorials preserve the pioneer history of Joshua Tree.

This diner's a kitschy dreamland for anyone whose heart is stuck in the 1980s.