The 5 Weirdest Theme Parks on Earth

Forget Disneyland — these theme parks offer a dose of the brilliantly bizarre. Stranger than fiction, they will pique your curiosity and may have you scratching your head in awe. Still, millions of people a year are drawn to their odd attractions. Curiously quirky, these parks break the mold and offer visitors a strangely memorable experience.

Since the 1600s, amusement parks have entertained the masses. The world’s oldest amusement park is near Copenhagen, Denmark and has been in operation for over 400 years. Theme parks evolved as a static version of the traveling carnivals common in 17^th-century Europe.

Usually featuring a combination of attractions from rides to performances, theme parks have since developed into high-tech miniature cities. Disney World, Disneyland and SeaWorld are among the world’s most popular parks, but off the beaten path there are some hidden gems worth the trip.

These five theme parks are so wonderfully weird you might think they’re not even real. They’re silly, quaint, adventuresome, creative and even a little creepy. They might entice you to seek cheap flights and book trips to visit them for the sheer thrill of it.

Diggerland: A Dynamic Destination

A family-oriented park built around the theme of diggers? Yes, construction vehicles are the focal point of this U.K. attraction. With four locations in England, Diggerland offers a combination of real construction vehicles and rides built to resemble them. There is something primal and alluring about the presence of enormous construction gear. Diggerland harnesses that mystique. Featuring large rides designed to make you feel like you’re part of a monumental construction site, Diggerland can ignite a sense of awe usually only felt by young children.

BonBon-Land: A Sweet Retreat?

About 50 miles southwest of Copenhagen sits a wacky gem. As the brainchild of Danish confectioner Michael Spangsberg, BonBon-Land was created to promote candy — not that candy needs to be promoted to the park’s target visitors: young children. The park is notable for its bizarre cast of cartoon animal statues and its odd murals. Along with more traditional theme park features, like log-plume rides and roller coasters, BonBon-Land offers up its weird array of attractions.

Legendary Dragons Meet Fruit at Suoi Tien Amusement Park

At Suoi Tien Amusement Park in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, visitors are treated to a seemingly endless barrage of dragon statues, rides, dolphin shows and a crocodile farm. The park is landscaped and decorated in a manner meant to honor Vietnam’s history and legends, but is often diluted by excessive eccentricities. Life-sized statues depicting soldiers from ancient battles are juxtaposed with colossal plastic gardens of fruit. Suoi Tien also features a water park for swimmers which is — thankfully — not combined with the crocodile farm.

Get Creepy at Crocosaurus Cove

In Darwin City, Australia, visitors to Crocosaurus Cove are met with attractions featuring iconic saltwater crocodiles. Yes — real crocodiles. The theme park features a 200,000-gallon aquarium filled with tropical fish and approximately 200 crocodiles. The “Cage of Death” is the park’s most popular attraction, allowing visitors to descend underwater in a glass cylinder and view the crocodiles face-to-face. While most theme parks offer up adrenaline through rides, Crocosaurus Cove relies on some of nature’s most fearsome creatures for thrills and chills. In case you’re wondering, they don’t actually have a crocosaurus.

Harmonyland: The Kingdom of Hello Kitty

Harmonyland Park in Otia, Japan is owned by Sanrio — the masterminds behind the world’s most omnipresent cat. Yes, Hello Kitty has her own amusement park complete with several roller coasters, restaurants and boutiques. Hello Kitty is the focal point of the park, but a host of other whimsical characters populate its sprawling grounds. Harmonyland exemplifies a uniquely Japanese attention to detail — even providing fleece blankets for visitors who ride its roller coasters in winter. For those who adore Hello Kitty, Harmonyland is a blissful sanctuary.

[box]About the Author: Carol Gerber is a travel writer, blogger and amusement park enthusiast. She enjoys hopping on Spirit Airlines flights to explore new territories as often as possible, cataloguing her experiences in blogs and magazine articles.[/box]