Interactive museums, immersive art, quirky festivals, and playful attractions are inspiring travellers to build holidays around joy. (Left image by @meowwolfsantafe; Right image by @lego)
For years, travel has been framed as something that should change us. We set off in search of transformation, wellness, self-discovery, or cultural immersion. But a different style of travel is quietly making a comeback — one where the goal is refreshingly simple: to have fun.
Not the kind of fun squeezed in between sightseeing and restaurant reservations, but immersive experiences where play is the destination itself.
Around the world, travellers are embracing immersive art installations, whimsical museums, quirky festivals, and larger-than-life attractions that invite adults to let go and simply join in. These aren’t children’s attractions dressed up for grown-ups; they’re thoughtfully designed and interactive experiences that celebrate creativity, curiosity, and participation.
If you’re looking to build a trip around joy, creativity, and participation rather than simply ticking off landmarks, these destinations deserve a place on your list.
teamLab Planets, Tokyo, Japan
Forget “do not touch” signs. At teamLab Planets, visitors are encouraged to walk barefoot through warm water, wander beneath floating orchids, navigate mirrored rooms, and interact with digital artworks that respond to movement.
Rather than only observing the exhibits, you become part of them. Every room changes depending on the people inside, making each visit slightly different. It’s an experience that blurs the line between art gallery and playground, leaving even the most serious travellers grinning as they splash through water or lose themselves in seemingly endless reflections of light.
Japan is home to several teamLab museums and permanent exhibitions, but the collective’s immersive digital art experiences can also be found elsewhere. Permanent exhibitions include teamLab Future World at ArtScience Museum in Singapore, teamLab SuperNature Macao, teamLab Borderless Jeddah, and teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi. If you enjoy the playful, participatory approach to art found at teamLab Planets, you can experience other teamLab creations without travelling to Japan.
Museum of Illusions, Zagreb, Croatia
The Museum of Illusions began in Zagreb in 2015, where its first museum introduced a playful mix of optical illusions, interactive exhibits, and the science of perception. The original location is an intimate introduction to the concept, with rooms that make visitors appear to shrink or grow, including the famous Ames Room, where the room’s distorted perspective makes people standing in different corners appear dramatically different in size. You’ll also find mirrors that create seemingly endless spaces, holograms, and other mind-bending installations that challenge your sense of reality.
The concept has since become a global phenomenon, with more than 70 Museum of Illusions locations across over 30 countries, including Dubai, New York, Madrid, Kuala Lumpur, and Toronto. Each museum has its own location-specific experience, so visiting one doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve seen them all.
Beyond the Museum of Illusions chain, travellers may also find independent illusion museums and optical-illusion attractions in cities around the world. Whichever one you decide to visit, these museums are perfect for travellers looking for an activity that’s equal parts entertainment and conversation starter.
LEGO House, Billund, Denmark
Known as the “Home of the Brick”, LEGO House isn’t simply a museum dedicated to a beloved toy. It’s an interactive experience where visitors of every age are encouraged to build, create, and experiment.
Spread across multiple themed zones, guests can design race cars, construct cities, create stop-motion films, and even build robotic creations. Whether you grew up with LEGO or are discovering it for the first time, the experience celebrates imagination rather than nostalgia, making it surprisingly easy to spend an entire day immersed in colourful creativity.
At the heart of LEGO House are six Experience Zones, each focused on a different form of creative play, from storytelling and problem-solving to collaborative building. The building itself, designed by Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, is shaped like a giant stack of white LEGO bricks, with colourful terraces and rooftop play areas adding to the sense that you’ve stepped inside a life-sized version of the toy. It’s the kind of place where there is no pressure to be good at building — the fun comes from seeing what you can make.
Ghibli Park, Aichi, Japan
Fans of Studio Ghibli’s beloved films won’t find high-speed rollercoasters here. Instead, Ghibli Park invites visitors to step into the worlds of My Neighbour Totoro, Spirited Away, and Howl’s Moving Castle through beautifully crafted environments that prioritise exploration over spectacle.
Hidden details reward curious visitors, while recreated settings allow fans to wander through places they’ve previously only seen on screen. It’s a reminder that immersive attractions don’t need adrenaline to create a sense of wonder.
Located in Nagakute City within Expo 2005 Aichi Commemorative Park, Ghibli Park is the only park of its kind in Japan and is divided into five areas: Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse, Hill of Youth, Dondoko Forest, Mononoke Village, and Valley of Witches. Inspired by the worlds created by Studio Ghibli and filmmakers including Hayao Miyazaki, the park is designed for visitors to explore rather than simply observe.
And if you’re looking for the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Tokyo, that’s a separate attraction — Ghibli Park and Ghibli Museum are not the same place.
Meow Wolf, Santa Fe, USA
Part art installation, part mystery, and part interactive theatre, Meow Wolf has redefined immersive entertainment.
At House of Eternal Return in Santa Fe, the collective’s first permanent exhibition, visitors enter a seemingly ordinary Victorian house before discovering secret passages, unexpected rooms, and clues to a mysterious family story. You can open a refrigerator and find yourself somewhere entirely unexpected, crawl through a fireplace, or follow a trail of clues that leads deeper into the story. Rather than following a prescribed route, you’re free to explore at your own pace, making the experience feel part art gallery, part puzzle, and part choose-your-own-adventure.
You can spend an hour admiring the artwork — or several hours uncovering the story hidden within it. And Santa Fe is just the beginning: Meow Wolf now has five permanent exhibitions across the United States, with locations in Las Vegas, Denver, Grapevine, Texas, and Houston, each offering its own immersive world, artwork, and storyline.
Quirky festivals where joining in is the main event
Sometimes, the destination is less important than the event itself.
In South Korea, the Boryeong Mud Festival transforms an ordinary beach into an enormous outdoor playground where thousands of people dive into mud pools, tackle obstacle courses and enjoy live entertainment.
In Gloucestershire, England, the annual Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake sees competitors hurtle down a near-vertical hill in pursuit of a wheel of cheese. The race lasts only moments, but has become one of Britain’s most delightfully eccentric traditions.
Meanwhile, Spain’s La Tomatina turns the streets of Buñol into a giant tomato fight, attracting visitors from around the world who happily exchange pristine clothes for unforgettable memories.
These events aren’t about observing from the sidelines. They’re about joining in.
Museums that turn visitors into participants
Not every museum expects visitors to move quietly from one display case to the next.
The Museum of Ice Cream, with locations in cities including New York, Chicago and Singapore, transforms the museum experience into a colourful celebration complete with interactive installations, oversized exhibits, and its famous sprinkle pool.
Similarly, the Balloon Museum, a travelling exhibition that has appeared across Europe and North America, fills enormous spaces with inflatable artworks designed to be explored rather than admired from a distance.
These attractions recognise that participation often creates stronger memories than observation.
Zafigo Pro Guide: Planning a holiday around play
Many travellers build itineraries around landmarks, restaurants, and sightseeing, leaving interactive experiences as optional extras if time allows. Try reversing the order.
Start with one experience you can’t wait to try: Identify one experience you’re genuinely excited to take part in, whether that’s exploring an immersive art installation, attending a quirky local festival, taking a creative workshop, or visiting an attraction designed around participation rather than observation. Then build the rest of your itinerary around it.
Look beyond the usual attractions: When researching a destination, look beyond lists of top sights and ask different questions. Which experiences encourage visitors to join in? Where can you make something, solve something, learn a new skill, or play? These are often the moments that create the strongest travel memories.
Leave room to play: Don’t pack every day with scheduled activities. Leave some space to follow your curiosity, linger at an experience you are enjoying, or say yes to something unexpected. The best playful experiences aren’t always the ones you planned months for.
Choose joy over productivity: Not every holiday needs to be transformative, educational, or packed with achievements. Sometimes the best trips are the ones that leave you laughing, curious, and fully immersed in the experience.
That change in perspective might change the way you travel.
