Love Unusual Attractions? Check Out These Unique Museums.

There is certainly truth to the idea that with such a wide variety of interests out there, there’s a museum dedicated to it somewhere. When travel opens up again and more attractions have opened their doors, be sure to add a visit to these captivating collections to your “someday” list for further exploration.

Canine couture at a dog collar museum

What’s the well-dressed dog wearing these days? And what were his wardrobe favourites a century or two ago? A visit to the Dog Collar Museum at Leed’s Castle in Kent, England offers more than 100 answers. Stretching back to medieval times, the collection even includes protective gear, such as spiked iron collars designed for defence against bears and wolves.

A fascinating ode to funerals

Vienna, Austria, best known for elegant waltzes and decadent pastries, also has a penchant for death. In addition to housing Europe’s second-largest cemetery, the city boasts the morbidly fascinating Funeral Museum. Collecting the more than 1,000 pieces of funeral and mourning memorabilia was quite an undertaking, but the results are fascinating. The must-see? A reusable coffin with a trap-door bottom, recommended by thrifty Emperor Joseph II as a means of saving wood.

Souvenirs from the lovelorn

Suddenly single? Make a visit to the Museum of Broken Relationships in either Zagreb, Croatia or Los Angeles, California and have a weep over their collections of miserable memorabilia that includes everything from a vial of tears to an axe used to wreak havoc on a heartbreaker’s home. Want to get rid of your own mementos of love gone wrong? They take donations.

Commode culture at a toilet museum

Closed temporarily because of the pandemic, put New Delhi, India’s Sulahb International Museum of Toilets on your future list. Expect a stunning collection of bidets, chamber-pots, water closets and more, dating from 1145 AD. Their rarest gem? A portable potty, disguised as a treasure chest and used by fashionable Englishmen on fox hunts.

Hair heaven

Comb through the artifacts in Turkey’s Avanos Hair Museum, curated by Chez Galip, a local potter and lover of locks. What began as a snippet of hair kept as a remembrance of a departed friend has become a collection of more than 16,000 women’s tresses filling the chamber below Galip’s pottery studio.

Get more with CAA

When you’re ready to travel again, contact a CAA Travel Planner to help map out the details of your own visit to one of these unique museums and other unique attractions.

Image credit: Tim E White/Alamy Stock Photo