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Iowa

Find Iowa travel tips, stories, maps, videos and news for unusual tourist attractions and sights.

Top Rated Attractions

  • Grotto of the Redemption

    Grotto of the Redemption

    West Bend, Iowa

    A priest promised the Virgin Mary he'd build a wondrous shrine if pneumonia didn't kill him. It didn't, and he did.

  • Albert the Bull

    Albert the Bull

    Audubon, Iowa

    Albert is a 45-ton, 28-foot-tall concrete replica of the perfect Hereford bull. Push a button and he'll tell you his story.

  • Snake Alley: A Very Crooked Street

    Snake Alley: A Very Crooked Street

    Burlington, Iowa

    A combatant in the World's Crookedest Street battle, in an unexpected place. No traffic back-ups to drive down Snake Alley, unlike San Francisco's more famous crooked street.

  • Squirrel Cage Jail

    Squirrel Cage Jail

    Council Bluffs, Iowa

    The largest revolving jail in the U.S., although it no longer revolves. Three stories high, built in 1885. Experience the horror of hi-tech Victorian criminal justice.

  • Replica Cardiff Giant

    Replica Cardiff Giant

    Fort Dodge, Iowa

    Full-size copy of the famous prank. Fort Dodge is where the gypsum block came from that was carved into the original Cardiff Giant.

  • Matchstick Marvels Museum

    Matchstick Marvels Museum

    Gladbrook, Iowa

    Pat Acton builds impressively-detailed, giant models of buildings, spaceships, whatever, out of hundreds of thousands of wooden matchsticks.

  • Spook Cave: Underground Boat Tour

    Spook Cave: Underground Boat Tour

    McGregor, Iowa

    All-boat, all underground tour. Relax, but don't ignore warnings to duck.

  • Pocahontas: the Princess Giant

    Pocahontas: the Princess Giant

    Pocahontas, Iowa

    Impressive sculpture of the town's namesake, 25 feet tall, stands next to a road that doesn't get a lot of traffic. Built in 1956.

  • Future Birthplace of James T. Kirk

    Future Birthplace of James T. Kirk

    Riverside, Iowa

    This is the place. A photo-worthy monument marks the spot.

  • Star Trek Voyage Home Museum

    Star Trek Voyage Home Museum

    Riverside, Iowa

    Star Trek collectibles, home-built exhibits, and occasional artifacts in the town where Captain James T. Kirk will be born in the 23rd century.

  • Buddy Holly Crash Site

    Buddy Holly Crash Site

    Clear Lake, Iowa

    Corn field where the pioneer rocker with the geek glasses and hiccup-y voice met an early end, along with Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper.

  • Surf Ballroom: Buddy Holly's Last Gig

    Surf Ballroom: Buddy Holly's Last Gig

    Clear Lake, Iowa

    Preserved as 1959 site of the last performance of rockers Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper, before their plane crashed nearby.

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