The Best Hideous Tourist Destinations

Pack your bags and be prepared to spend your vacation in the best hideous tourist destinations one can find. There is no resort, no server with a cool drink at the swimming pool, and no buffet. You will not want one! Instead, you are about to enter the realm of the most frightening and macabre tourist locations on the planet.

Leave your bathing suit at home, and bring your stomach pills as some of these attractions will leave you writhing in pain with loathsome shock. 

Are you ready?

1  Lake Natron

Tanzania

In the country of Tanzania in eastern Africa, there is a lake that contains very high levels of bicarbonates—causing any animal that takes refuge there to mummify. As a result, hoards of calcified animals surround lake Natron. However, the high sodium levels in Lake Natron are not dangerous only to the animals that inadvertently and ancestorially called this home. 

The high alkalinity can cause caustic burns to animals not used to the water. That can be as hot as 60 degrees C (140 °F). The sterile environment is very volatile towards humans as well. Such high alkaline content can do severe damage to lung tissue. Making this a very grotesque place for anything that tries to inhabit its shores.

2  Akodessawa Fetish Market

Togo

The word alternative keeps coming up in conversation recently; however, here in Lome, Togo, they genuinely have found the “alternative” to the modern-day pharmacy. Practioner of this form of medicine travel from near and far to have the opportunity to purchase some of the most exotic items they can find.

As it is named, the Fetish market handles many of the items used in conventional “witch doctor” or “Voodoo” ceremonies or treatments. Large displays are available for you to view the heads of various creatures in varying stages of decay. Monkey and reptile heads can be found complete with some of the “squishy” parts intact. If the skulls are not to your liking, you will also find a wide assortment of animal bones and organs. Can you imagine the aroma of such items during a hot African afternoon?

You will find the right elixir here, depending on what type of spirit you are trying to protect or gain favour. Perhaps a wildebeest legs to protect the house or a monkey’s paw as a talisman worn around the neck. They are all here at this very bizarre market in Lome, Togo.

3  Temple Of The Rats

India

When thinking of a holiday destination, rats are not something that anyone wants as part of their holiday tale, or is it? If you are going to Rajasatn, in India, take this opportunity to visit a Hindu temple in Deshnoke. Why you ask? The temple, infested with rats, and no call has ever been made to the pied Piper to rid the temple of them. Tourists from all over the world come to take in this unique attraction.

Over 20,000 rats inhabit the temple. According to the Charan people, they are cherished creatures and considered sacred. The rodents are fed daily by their worshipers. To protect the rodents from other predators, they have erected a system of wires to keep them safe. The majority of the rats are black. However, you may see or encounter a white rodent on an odd occasion, which is good luck and a very positive blessing. Here we have another unique experience while enjoying The Best Hideous Tourist Destinations.

As in most temples, visitors remove their shoes before entering the hallowed ground. Unfortunately, this does not make walking through rat excrement or having a critter(s) scurry across your feet, which is considered good luck any more enjoyable than you would think it would be.

4  Siriraj Medical Museum

Thailand

Bangkok, Thailand, is known for its many tourist attractions. Many of them are beyond the scope of this article. However, you may not know it yet, but it is also the home to one of the most gruesome museums ever to be explored. Their collection houses a morbid and disturbing display of items related to illness, death, and deformity.

The Siriraj Medical Museum, also affectionately known as the “Museum of Death,” is located in Thailand’s oldest hospital. Here you will find a disturbing array of ghoulish exhibits. Initially, the museum was an educational resource for both medical students and professionals. Recently it has become a very shocking attraction for tourists that seek this grisly entertainment. 

Many of the exhibits that are on display are not for the faint of heart. Here you can expect to see deformed babies preserved in formaldehyde, various body parts from accident victims and what tour would be complete without an in-depth expiration of dissected body parts.

 In case that has not brought you inner Borys Karloff, there is also the mummified body of a notorious serial killer. Why is that is anyone’s guess? The display exists to deter anyone else from committing such violent crimes. It seems to be a very loose connection. Other exhibits that “should not be missed” are how tumours react to different body parts and genetic deformities. 

Still, there are exhibits depicting murder weapons and gruesome displays of strange deaths. These are all included in the collection and under one admission price—a bargain.

Who visits this museum exactly? That is anyone’s guess. However, unless you are a pathologist or forensic researcher, this museum seems to be too dreadful for most of us.

5  Phnom Sampeau Killing Caves

Cambodia

Most tourists go to Cambodia to explore the jungles, the temples, the wide variety of wildlife, and the amiable people. However, there is a lesser-known and disconcerting attraction deep in the jungles near Battambang, Cambodia.

The Killing Cave of the Khmer Rouge genocide. The vile location where the victims of this genocide would find their final resting place. After being tortured and bludgeoned to death, the “mostly” dead bodies were discarded into the depths of these caverns. Each cave contains the remains of both men and women in separate caverns. 

The Killing caves are preserved as a memorial to men and women that lost their lives during this tumultuous time. Today, tourists can trek through this macabre site to these caves where the murdered bodies of countless individuals lay in the darkness below. Glass cases display the Piles of unidentified bones. Other collections of random remains lay in chicken wire-enclosed crates throughout the cave as a horrifying reminder of the cave’s morbid history. Being one of the most appalling tragedies in human history, yet another stop on The Best Hideous Tourist Destinations.

6  Sedlec Ossuary

Czech Republic

Often, you will never know what you will find unless you peer a little deeper into your surroundings. Here, “curiosity may have killed the cat,” but that is probably the only remains you will not find in the Sedlec Ossuary in the Czech Republic. From the outside, there is nothing renowned, just an example of a medieval gothic church. However, open the doors and leave the security of the outdoors, and you soon begin to see what makes this church unique. In many churches, made of marble and gold, the design is substantially starker. The church is designed with the remnants of human remains, giving it the dubious name of the “bone church.”

In many churches in the 19 century, the ossuary under the church became cluttered with the remains of centuries-old skeletons. In 1870, the church, seeking a solution for these remains, commissioned a local woodcarver tasked with sorting and organizing these human remains. Unfortunately, the final design may not have been what the small church anticipated.

The genius of the woodcarver took the more than 40,000 skeletons and set about to decorate the church. His zealousness created skeletal remains that adorned the archways, making some into coats of arms to list a couple of items. Not being satisfied, there is a large Chandelier that consists of every bone in the human body. In essence, this artisan used all of the bones to decorate each area of the church.

Although the results may seem a little bizarre, this skeletal design choice now welcomes thousands of tourists each year to witness this gruesome display.

7  Paris Catacombs

Paris, France

While many make vacation plans to Paris, France, to see such sights as the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. There is an attraction that you must see, especially if you have a taste for the extraordinary. During the 18th century, Paris was a bustling metropolis. Along with population growth comes the “age-old” problem as to what to do with the deceased. The cemeteries of Paris were grossly overcrowded, and public officials needed to find a solution. The situation was becoming so dire that people were beginning to discard their dead into the streets, and the smell of the decaying corpses became unbearable.

 A solution was sought and found. However, it would be a grand undertaking. It would mean placing the corpses in the centuries-old tunnels that had existed beneath the streets of Paris since the 13th century, a 320 Km labyrinth. Soon after, the exhumed bodies were “dumped” down old mining tunnels into the catacombs for efficiency. As you can guess, the ossuary became nothing more than a confusing depository for these skeletal remains.

Bone Distribution

Starting in 1810, the mountain of bones became stacked along the walls in decorative patterns creating the mausoleum that is a tourist attraction today. Interestingly, there is no record as to who belongs to these skeletal remains with no papers. There is no class distinction in the placement of the bones. The wealthy and poor together for all eternity. A rare opertunity during your Best Hideous Tourist Destinations.

Approximately over six million deceased Parisians call the catacombs beneath the city their final resting place. The trendy attraction has been a must-see on many visitors’ lists since the late 19th century. Today, only a tiny fraction of the 320 Km of catacomb is open to the public. Rumours have been that there are alternative entrances into the tunnels often used for “unofficial” gatherings.

8 Capuchin Catacombs

Sicily

Sicily is known for many things, friendly people, great beaches, and fantastic food. Located just outside of Palermo, you can find the remains of over 8,000 bodies on display at the Capuchin Catacombs. A visit to the ghastly tourist attraction would be the stuff that nightmares are made from and not for the faint of heart.

Historical documents indicate that the Capuchin monks created the catacombs in the 16th century. As the centuries of decaying bodies built up in the cemetery, the monks realized that the cemetery was at maximum capacity. Soon they began to excavate a crypt under the church. Next, the Monks moved the bodies to the new location. Here, they still lay in rest today in various states of mummification.

The monks believe that the catacombs would make an ideal place for fellow monks to rest. Soon some of the wealthier members of society began to pay for the privilege. Thus, being embalmed and making this their resting place. The bodies are displayed against the walls or with others in open caskets. Many of the interred are visible wearing their best clothing. The best-preserved corpses still have their teeth, hair and some very live facial expressions that can be haunting.

Although the local authorities made embalming illegal in the 1920’s One of the last and perhaps most macabre displays is of a young child named Rosalia Lombardo. Locals refer to her as ‘The Sleeping Beauty,” primarily due to her age and exceptional state of preservation.

9  Museum Of Death

United States

As you may have guessed, the Museum of Death houses anything and everything you would associate with modern death. The museum’s website claims it holds “the world’s most extensive collection of serial killer artwork, antique funeral ephemera, mortician and coroners instruments, a hideous display of murder weapons, crime scene photos, and death-related memorabilia. They also have the biggest collection of Manson family memorabilia housed anywhere in the USA.

You would think that a museum based on death and others’ misfortune would not be a good business venture. On the contrary, the success of these museums indicates that the public’s salacious lust for violence and death is unyielding. Should you need to see a guillotined head or body bags, this is the place to find it. On your journey to find The Best Hideous Tourist Destinations.

The museum’s New Orleans location is still operating. However, at the time of the article, the Hollywood location was seeking relocation.

10 Island Of The Dolls

Mexico

On one of the small islands in the canals of Xochimilco, Mexico City, Don Julian Santana Barrera took up a reclusive existence. After making the discovery of a dead young girl that drowned in these waters, obsessed with the deceased girl, he began to collect old dolls as a way to appease the girl’s spirit and pay homage to her life. During his life, he became so preoccupied with the young girl that he spent the rest of his life collecting and hanging the dolls in the trees that surrounded him.

Unbeknownst to him that the Isla de Munecas would become a spooky tourist attraction. To this day, thousands of tourists add to this tormented man’s obsession by hanging dolls, some without limbs, some expressionless in the jungle. A scene that would make even the prominent of us wonder in disbelief. Many visitors still believe that the dolls communicate with one another during evening hours, as if possessed by the souls of dead children.

Although it could simply be the wind rasping its voice through the high foliage, or perhaps it is not?

Bone Chilling Attractions

Have you stopped the sweat from running down your face yet? Or did you succumb to the best hideous tourist destination? Once you visit one or more of these locations, your lust to explore will only heighten. For that, we are dreadfully sorry.

The resort will no longer be palatable. Again sorry.

Are you thinking of visiting any of these unique locations? Or, perhaps you have. We invite you to share your experience with our readers. Maybe you have your bags packed and are just waiting to clear your covid-19 test. Our readers would like to know your opinion. So please submit your comments below. Let us know what is on your mind!

As covid -19 is still ever-present, don’t hesitate to contact the country and attraction before leaving to your destination.

As always, it is our privilege to share the experiences of the travel world with you.

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