Atlas Obscura

Hey all, recently I used the website Atlas Obscura on a vacation and it was a lot of fun. I went to places off the beaten path, that were interesting and unique. After my trip I just had to see what the GR page had to offer. It turned out our page is pretty bare and there wasn't much on there that I would consider on par with other cities.

I'm wondering if you'd share your favorite Atlas Obscura things to do in GR. Things that are unique and potentially "hidden gems".

Here's what our page looks like now:

If anyone hasn't heard of Atlas Obscura, its basically a list of all of the "weird and obscure" locations around the entire world. There could be season where they only visit these sites in a specific location and do challenges. This would be a cool collab.

Website:

Actual book on Amazon(has only the weirdest ones):

My girlfriend and I are visiting Indy soon for a day and a half (second half of a Saturday and an entire Sunday). So far on the potential to do list I have:

1. Newfields

2. Atomic Bowl Duckpin

3. Slippery Noodle Inn

4. Nicky Blaine’s

5. The Inferno Room

I’m looking for any other suggestions, particularly the sort of thing you might find on AtlasObscura. I discovered Atomic Bowl duckpin from this sub, which is great! Exactly what I was looking for!

Any other ideas?

I chanced upon VoV in 2014 while passing through HS, spent four days immersed in it, and loved the whole thing. Made a return trip in in 2022, the second year at Cedar Glades. There was a different feel, it being slimmed down and removed from the energy of the National Park, and lacking (at least to my knowledge) the secret shows and pop-up performances of years past. I still enjoyed it though, and there were some great bands. As an outsider (from PA), I'm glad Low Key is still active and keeping VoV alive through different permutations.

I see that this year they've teamed up with Atlas Obscura to really take it to the next level, expanded back to four days, culminating in an eclipse viewing. I witnessed healthy, if modest attendance in 2022, definitely with the capacity to host more visitors. For instance, I had a camping pass (I was car camping), and the park was pretty desolate at night. There was a small tent village, a few RVs, and a small handful of car campers. Maybe this new collab will bring focus and attention to your steely gathering.

Okay -- the reason I thought to make this post. I'm seeing the tickets for VoV/Ecliptic 2024 are $408.44 for the full four-day weekend. That's general admission, not inclusive of a camping pass or parking. If I were to car camp, which would be the equivalent of tent camping with a parking pass, it would cost me another $682.45 for the tent camping pass and $114.72 for the parking pass. That's a total of $1,205.61 for one person to camp the weekend and attend the festival.

What did I pay in 2022? $75 even.

Buying an early-bird admission and car camping ticket to Bonnaroo, by way of comparison, would cost about $663.

I really don't want to make this another ranty, shit-stirring internet post. More just curious if anyone else is surprised by the cost of this. I fully believe and accept that VoV has probably leaned towards being heavily subsidized for its attendees, likely stretching back to its origin. I mean, looking back, $75 is an incredible value to see, like, 15 bands + camping. In 2014, they let me in for free all four days for just picking some recyclables out of the trash.

Cheers. Love yous and your town.

So I just put together a proof of concept that takes a GPX file and searched Atlas Obscura's database, spitting out distance to POI, title, location, and the URL:

Has someone built this? I don't have a lot of appetite for actually building it into an app, but it seems pretty useful for trip planning purposes =)

While travel still seems like a bit of a pipe dream at the moment, I'm considering signing up for a group trip when it looks more realistic. I'm considering the standards (Contiki, TopDeck, G Adventures), but saw on an old Reddit post that Atlas Obscura actually .

Has anyone ever been on one of these trips? I'm intrigued by their offerings, especially the , which seems incredible (I'm really interested in space travel).

Disclaimer (based on other threads I've read where people have asked about organised group travel): I'm aware that these are expensive and it would be cheaper to organise myself; I'm very comfortable organising my own trips, just keen to give some group travel a go later in the year and these seem like very unique trips.

I swear I see it recommended more than any other travel website.

I find it is worth a look on the map when going somewhere new to see if I am passing by anything that is worth a look/detour that I might have missed otherwise. It can do a good job of making it easy to find an obscure little thing that nobody would have thought to look for. But for me at least the content doesn’t really seem to match how popular the site is.

• Much of the content (maybe a third in some places) isn’t so much obscure as it is ‘one of the most famous, popular, and heavily advertised tourist attractions in the area’.

• The coverage of what there really is can be very hit and miss. Cities are often (relatively) dense with points of interest, but outside of them most stuff is overlooked. For example the Isle of Mull in Scotland has standing stones, fossils of animals and trees, unique landscape formations, ruined castles…. But the only content on AO is Iona and Staffa, two of the most famous destinations in the country which are so on the beaten path that (and I say this with no ill intent to the man or his fans) Iona features on the thumbnail for the Rick Steve’s Scottish Isles video.

• It is user generated, but the only way to contribute is to be a paying member, as opposed to Wikivoyage where anyone can click edit and add something in seconds. So you have to pay them to let you improve the service which will make them more money. Edit: My bad, I misread the website.

What is Atlas Obscura?
It's an online magazine that talks about hidden and weird places of the world. I stumbled across it some time ago while I was daydreaming with my girlfriend about which places we could visit after the pandemic was over. Their site is a bit ad-happy but it's usable. I looked at some since I'm from there, and it's got some cool gems. Here are some entries (links contain details and photos):

• (Alchemic Door): An alchemist's "magic door" stands in the middle of a Roman park. 

• (High Water Bookshop): This Venice bookstore has resigned itself to constant flooding by keeping its books in bathtubs and boats.

• : The underground sanctuary of a mysterious ancient cult. 

• : The yawning maw of this pagan visage is said to bite off the hands of liars. 

Have fun! And come to Italy if you have the chance :)