A shop full of natural curiosities, carnivorous plants, and costumed taxidermied mice.

An historic and oft-filmed spot for musclebound iron pumpers on the Pacific coast.

Hollywood's most famous landmark, the "temporary" sign that has stood for decades longer than intended.

These delicate buggers are some of the rarest fossils that have bubbled up from the Tar Pits.

This iconic L.A. bookshop is housed in an abandoned bank—both symbolic and chic.

The biggest museum dedicated to insects in North America, one of the largest in the world.

A massive Montreal stadium that has seen nothing but trouble since its inception.

This psychedelic tourist trap is a leisurely descent into madness.

This former textile district now is now a thriving center for contemporary Chinese art.

The once highest point in China blends symbolic design with a kick of adrenaline.

An out-of-place slice of France, smack in the middle of Shanghai.

This ratty natural history collection is a charming relic among a city rushing into modernity.

Tour the world's largest deep-hole dimension granite quarry, where you can view the plant where gravestones are made and roll a ball down the outdoor granite bowling alley.

In upstate New York, gorgeous waterfalls and a watermill are slowly being reclaimed by nature.

Pluto is still considered a planet in Ithaca, New York.

One kilometer of thick brass rod laid out before your eyes.

Order scoops of pandan, lychee, and black sesame at this family-run institution.

Avoid gangster interaction while window-shopping.

Dedicated to the art and science of glass in equal measure, this space is as much laboratory as museum.

This oversize piece of novelty cookware once cooked the largest pancake in the world.

Surprisingly aquamarine waters fill deep lakes formed at the end of the last ice age.

A reversed traffic signal that was once violently misinterpreted as a statement on British-Irish relations.

This Art Deco fortress in upstate New York gives Manhattan's vaunted examples of the style a run for their money.

The filming location of a shark attack in Steven Spielberg's famous shark movie.