World’s Wackiest Theme Parks

One thousand statues and 150 massive dioramas depict scenes from Chinese legend, lore and history at this free-to-the-public park. While informative, parts of Haw Par are downright terrifying, like The Ten Courts of Hell, a nightmarish exhibit with gruesome depictions of the Buddhist underworld including beheadings, drownings, stabbings and more.

Photo via Oddity Central

Whimsical, weird and tad gross, this park named after the popular Danish candy is dominated by depictions of bodily functions. Rides include a farting dog, urinating ant and vomiting rat. These rather disgusting attractions do well with the under-8 crowd, since they usually have a fine appreciation for bathroom humor.

Photo via BonBonLand

Nicknamed “Stalin World,” this 500-acre theme park near the Belarus border pays homage to the Soviet regime. While barbed wire fencing and watchtowers meant to imitate Gulag prison camps make for a rather oppressive feel, Grūtas also includes a zoo, playground and sculpture garden with 86 enormous statues of Communist leaders.

Photo via ComTourist.com

At this Hello Kitty theme park visitors can check out the title character’s castle, ride a boat through her Sanrio pals’ underground apartments and experience “Time Machine of Dreams,” a 3-D and special-effects–filled show that features scented seats. A Ferris wheel and roller-skating themed rollercoaster round out the attractions at this over-the-top amusement park.

Photo via TopTenTop

This amusement and water park is meant to simulate Buddhist heaven with dragons, unicorns, tortoises, phoenixes and of course, Buddhas, used thematically throughout the rides. While generally family-friendly, the park has one unsettling feature: a pond with 1,500 live crocodiles that visitors are invited to feed with raw meat on fishing poles.

Photo via BattleFieldHeroes

This controversial park is devoted to and staffed entirely by little people, who live on the grounds in miniature domed houses. Twice a day the employees emerge to perform dance, acrobatics and music for the hundreds of tourists who visit daily. While some praise the park for giving jobs to people who traditionally cannot find work in China, others see the arrangement as exploitive.

This construction theme park with four locations across Great Britain gives kids—and kids at heart—the chance to operate real construction equipment, including diggers and dump trucks. The park also features machinery converted into rides and a stunt team called “The Dancing Diggers,” who perform private shows.

Photo via Diggerland

Visitors to this Evangelical theme park just 11 miles outside Disney can hang out in a simulated Garden of Eden or dine at a recreated Last Supper. Those with young children should skip the blood-filled Crucifixion reenactment, despite an undeniably entertaining karaoke performance by none other than Jesus, himself.

Photo via The Holy Land Experience

With a 2,152,782-square-foot roof, Ferrari World is the largest indoor amusement park in the world. The over 20 attractions include the world’s fastest roller coaster, which tops out at 149 mph; a junior grand prix, where kids can drive tiny Ferrari F1 racecars; and the Pit Wall, an interactive theater where visitors dictate how a virtual driver races a course.

Photo via Ferrari World Abu Dhabi

Similar in theme to Grūtas Park but even more depressing and less kid friendly, this odd attraction transports park-goers to Communist-era Lithuania. Housed inside an ex-Soviet bunker, visitors wear gas masks, undergo a Galug-style interrogation and recite the Soviet anthem under duress. Survivors are rewarded with a shot of congratulatory vodka.

Photo via All That's Interesting