176 Best Sights in USA

The legendary Man in Black has a dedicated space in Nashville. Performance costumes, handwritten lyrics, a wall of gold and platinum records—even a limestone wall from the home Cash shared with his beloved June—are among the items in this museum located between Broadway and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Interactive exhibits include presentations of Cash's music in formats ranging from 78rpm records to digital downloads. Clips of Cash's many appearances in films and on television are played in a small theater.

Developed by Kingman's active legion of railroad aficionados, the Whistler Stop Railroad Club, this museum is set inside the town's vintage 1907 Santa Fe Railroad depot and contains vintage model-train layouts from the 1940s through the 1960s, plus additional memorabilia chronicling the region's rail history.

The cool white domes and elegant lines of this postmodern landmark stand in stark contrast to the traditional feel of the rest of the Foxhall Road neighborhood. Designed in 1963 by iconic architects Philip Johnson and Richard Foster, the building was once the home of GEICO executive David Lloyd Kreeger and his wife, Carmen. Music is a central theme of the art and the space: the Kreegers wanted a light-filled residence that would also function as a gallery and recital hall. The art collection includes works by Degas, Cézanne, Monet, Picasso, and Munch; and outstanding examples of African and Asian art. Especially stunning are the outdoor sculptures by Henry Moore, Isamu Noguchi, and others, including John L. Dreyfuss—six of his large-scale pieces surround the museum's reflecting pool. The domed rooms also have wonderful acoustics, and serve as an excellent venue for the classical concerts that are regularly performed here. The museum is not reachable by Metro; you need to take a car or taxi to get here.

Nearly 100 models of Toyota Land Cruisers, some dating back to the early 1950s, fill this quirky museum that has something of a cult following among fans of old autos and four-wheel vehicle enthusiasts. In a rugged state like Utah, these rugged SUVs have quite a fan base, but folks come from all over the world, admiring the extensive collection of memorabilia, scale models, and artwork, plus a very cool 10-by-13-foot 3D map of the state of Utah. The museum is tucked away in a curious old industrial complex in the shadows of the 600 North overpass.

One man's passion for automobiles (and motorcycles) led to this collection of mostly European vehicles of all shapes and sizes, from mini cars (including a Smartcar) to an amphibious car—one vehicle for almost every letter of the alphabet. The museum also includes a children's area, art gallery, and gift shop.

A 2-mile hike (uphill) or shuttle-bus ride from town, this small museum is housed in the former compressor building of Juneau's historic AJ Gold Mine. The collection includes old mining tools, railcars, minerals, and a 3D map of the ore body. If you didn't arrive on foot, it's well worth scheduling some extra time for meandering along Basin Road. Though the road itself is fairly flat, the surrounding country is steep and wooded, with abundant waterfalls and trails leading in all directions, including one to the summit of Mt. Juneau.

If you're in Pioneer Square on a Thursday between 11 am and 3 pm, this museum occupying the bottom floor of the Seattle Fire Department's headquarters includes eight historic rigs from Seattle dating from the 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as artifacts (vintage helmets and uniforms, hose nozzles, and other equipment) and photos, logs, and newspaper clippings recording historic fires.

The 18,000 acres that make up the notorious Angola prison are a half-hour drive from St. Francisville, at the dead end of Highway 66. With a prison population of about 6,000 inmates, this is one of the largest prisons in the United States. Nicknamed "The Farm," Angola was once a working plantation, with prisoners for field hands. Now it produces 4 million pounds of vegetables each year, which feed 11,000 inmates across the state. The prison has been immortalized in countless songs and several films and documentaries, including Dead Man Walking and The Wildest Show in the South: The Angola Prison Rodeo. The latter film is based on the prison's biannual rodeo in April and October, which offers visitors a rare look inside the grounds of the prison. Inmates set up stands where they sell their arts and crafts during the rodeo. A small, year-round museum outside the prison's front gate houses a fascinating, eerie, and often moving collection of photographs documenting the people and events that have been a part of Angola. Items such as makeshift prisoner weapons and the electric chair used for executions until 1991 are also on display.

Revel in the fabulousness of Demi Lovato, Post Malone, Travis Barker, and Bad Bunny as you explore the open showroom filled with an ever-changing array of uncanny celebrity wax portrayals of people from the worlds of show business, sports, politics, and everywhere in between. Crowd-pleasers include Lizzo, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Jack Harlow, Megan Thee Stallion, Steve Aoki, Snoop Dog, Captain America, and Miley Cyrus. In the Marvel Universe 4-D film, you can actually feel (as well as watch and hear) your heroes save the world. Hit the bar at The Hangover Experience to immerse yourself in a storied Las Vegas romp and enjoy a cocktail while you're at it. Or get a wax model of your very own hand for a truly unique souvenir.

Much of the fun here comes from photo opportunities—you're encouraged to pose with and touch the more than 200 realistic replicas of the famous, infamous, and downright super. Croon with Tina Turner and Taylor Swift, swoon to your favorite heartthrob (be it Justin Bieber or Justin Timberlake), strike a fierce pose with RuPaul and Heidi Klum, or enjoy a royal chat with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, aka William and Kate. 

The Marvel 4-D Experience includes wax likenesses of heroes like the Hulk, Captain Marvel, Iron Man, and Thor, as well as a short animated movie shown on a 360-degree screen. Other interactive options include a karaoke café, a celebrity walk down the red carpet, and a Sports Zone where you can see how you measure up to legends like Serena Williams and Lionel Messi. Note that closing hours vary during peak seasons, but the last tickets sold are always one hour prior.

Featuring wax copies of real and fictional characters, Madame Tussauds lets you grab a selfie with the faux superheroes, including Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman, and Aquaman, as well as celebrities both living and dead—from Taylor Swift and Pink to Pitbull and Michael Jackson—and the rich and famous from politics and sports. Combo tickets are available for this museum, The Wheel at ICON Park, and SEA LIFE Orlando Aquarium.

This museum contains one of the largest collections of Alaska Native artifacts. Over the course of several decades, Maxine Whitney, a gift-shop owner, amassed the ivory and baleen pieces, masks, dolls, fur garments, and other objects. Whitney donated her collection to Prince William Sound Community College in 1998; the museum is adjacent to the college.

Tapping a significant collection of Southwestern artifacts and archival photos, the Maxwell's engaging shows encompass three fascinating fields: archaeology, cultural anthropology, and evolutionary anthropology. As the first public museum in Albuquerque (established in 1932), its influence has grown over the years, but its compact space ensures that exhibits are scaled to the essentials. A viewer—whether of a permanent exhibit on peoples of the Southwest or a temporary one—will be intrigued and informed, but not overwhelmed. Of special note is their rare and substantial collection of Mimbres pottery from AD 800–1000. The museum's gift shop has a fine selection of reliably vetted Native American crafts.

Located in the southwest tower of the DuSable (Michigan Avenue Bridge), this engaging museum provides a glimpse into the complicated history of the Chicago River System and its movable bridges---and has some great city views, too. The Chicago River has undergone an incredible transformation over the past 40 years, from a polluted waterway to a thriving, living river full of wildlife. On lift days visitors can see the gears that still raise the bridge put to work. This is the only bridge house in Chicago that is open to the public. See the website for a lift schedule; reservations are recommended on lift days.

Once lost to time, this unique restoration and revitalization project brings back to life Capricorn Sound Studios, the Macon studio and record label responsible for launching Southern Rock artists like the Allman Brothers Band, Wet Willie, and the Marshall Tucker Band. Visitors can tour the Capricorn Museum to see historic artifacts and sort through Capricorn's discography with interactive kiosks, as well as tour the incredibly well-preserved, historic Studio A and the modernized Studio B which is still in use as a recording studio and features live performances frequently.

More than 1,300 mineral specimens are displayed at Montana Tech University's Mineral Museum, including a 27½-troy-ounce gold nugget and a massive iron-nickel meteorite, which was discovered in Beaverhead County.

When Pat Arnell began collecting miniatures in the late 1970s, she probably didn't imagine that her hobby would eventually outgrow her house and become an offbeat but effective vehicle for people of all ages to explore history and culture. The modern museum displays more than 275 doll houses and room boxes, antique through contemporary, from the United States, Europe, and Asia. There are also plenty of wee folk, like fairies, wizards, and kewpie dolls, and even tiny appliance "samples" that were carried door-to-door by traveling salespeople.

Mobile boasts America’s oldest annual Carnival celebration, which started in 1703, 15 years before New Orleans was founded. Festivities, including parades and masquerade balls, begin in November and continue through Fat Tuesday in mid-February. Find the celebration schedule and learn about the city’s Mardi Gras history at the Mobile Carnival Museum at the historic Bernstein-Bush house. Fourteen gallery rooms, a pictorial hallway, theater, den, and gift shop show off royal robes, crowns, scepters, and more.

The Montana Auto Museum is a car buff's delight. Displays include more than 160 vintage Mopars, Chevys, Fords, and Studebakers dating from 1903 to the 1970s, including such rarities as a 1886 Benz replica.

Exhibits include a collection of Native American artifacts and some on local history. Regional artists are featured in the gallery, and the giant Columbian Mammoth metal sculpture is a fun photo op.

On a 20-acre site the museum exhibits some of the machines that helped develop Alaska, from dogsleds to jet aircraft and everything in between. The Don Sheldon Building houses aviation artifacts as well as antique autos, trains, and photographic displays. There is also a snowmachine (Alaskan for snowmobile) exhibit.

This behemoth museum's displays range from expansive collections of Cuban and American art to Coca-Cola and Americana items. Other highlights include a rare Napoleonic exhibit and a complete (and eye-popping) skeleton of a giant ground sloth that's 130,000 years old. Kids love the Charles and Linda Williams Children's Museum, which features interactive science, engineering, and physics exhibits; a nature preserve with ½ mile of boardwalks and nature trails; and a state-of-the-art planetarium with daily shows. Florida art dating back to the 18th century is featured in the Cici and Hyatt Brown Museum of Art, a freestanding, 26,000-square-foot Florida Cracker–style addition. Artists represented include John James Audubon, Thomas Hart Benton, and N.C. Wyeth.

The curtain lifted on the new Museum of Broadway in 2022, in its prime location next door to Broadway’s oldest venue, the Lyceum Theatre. Inside you’ll find three stories filled with 300 years of Broadway history, from early New York theater through vaudeville through daring, unforgettable 20th-century productions. The stage is set with a short film, with the next acts spotlighting hundreds of individual musicals and plays—and the people who make them. Expect to be dazzled by costumes, props, sketches, rare photos, videos, and groundbreaking moments from beloved shows, including West Side Story, Oklahoma!, The Wiz, Hair, Phantom of the Opera, Rent, Cabaret, and many more. The museum is very photo-friendly, so be ready to drop yourself into sets and strike the poses of your favorite characters. As you explore from the top to bottom floors (all of which are accessible), leave a good 20 minutes for one of the last exhibits, “The Making of a Broadway Show,” to learn about all the departments buzzing behind the scenes of each production, like song- and playwriting, set design, lighting and sound design, music, and the brilliantly talented pros who make Broadway shine.

Introduce yourself to life behind bars at the Museum of Colorado Prisons, which formerly housed the Women's State Correctional Facility and where many of the exhibits are housed in cells. The museum exhaustively documents prison life in Colorado through old photos, including images of prison gang tattoos and women wardens through the years, newspaper accounts, and inmates' confiscated weapons and contraband. The gas chamber sits in the courtyard, where visitors can sometimes hear the voices of inmates in the working men's prison next door. While an important window into prison life, past and present, the museum can be disturbing for young kids and those with loved ones in the prison system.

Inside the Empire Stores building is this small, family-friendly museum that does a deep dive into the food and drinks that tantalize our taste buds and appease our appetites. Going beyond what we see served at the dining table, the rotating interactive exhibitions here explore the science, culture, history, and communities behind the scenes of our meals. 

Opened in late 2024, this whimsical entrée into the Seaport District has locals and visitors alike licking their lips. Check out 14 immersive, interactive exhibitions across two floors inspired by the eponymous dessert, including a sprinkle pool, a carnival, and the Hall of Freezers. It should go without saying that there are samples of the real thing—as many as you can eat, in fact.

The 1935 stone-and-log building, which resembles a pueblo, is almost as interesting as the Native American artifacts and exhibits inside. Baskets, kachinas, pottery, rugs, and beadwork make up the collection, which represents Indigenous cultures from the pre-Columbian period to the present.

Take an interactive journey through 100 years of popular music with displays of more than 500 vintage instruments and samples of memorable tunes from the past century. Hands-on activities include playing a digital piano, drums, guitar, and more.

The history of the sport of kings is displayed in a time line here, with other exhibits focusing on polo ponies, star players, trophies, and a look at how mallets are made. It provides a great introduction to the surprisingly exciting, hoof-pounding sport that is played live on Sunday from January to April in nearby Wellington.

The provocative collection at this 14,000-square-foot museum features artwork as well as intriguing ephemera like vintage pornographic photos and condom tins, S&M paraphernalia, antimasturbation devices from the 1800s, and explicit film clips. Interactive exhibits include the multifloor "Super Funland: Journey into the Erotic Carnival." Titillating special exhibitions have probed such topics as desire on the Internet, the sex lives of animals, and erotic content in the media. Although the subject matter is given serious curatorial treatment, the museum experience is geared to fun and the gift shop is full of fun sexual kitsch. Only patrons over 21 are admitted, and the museum is open late—until midnight on Friday and Saturday and 10 pm on other evenings—which makes it a great date night venue.