Ripley's Museum

If you are interested in the weird and unusual, do not miss touring the Ripleys Believe it or Not Museum while vacationing in Key West, Florida. This odd assemblage of the odd and wonderful has been collected in one place in order to entertain and astound the general public. Robert Ripley once traversed the whole planet searching for the rarest and most bizarre cultural and natural attractions. He travelled to more than two hundred countries to procure artifacts to show the American public. Ripley was a true showman who took the circus sideshow to an entirely new level, collecting pieces from the four corners of the globe. You can witness firsthand the results of the relentless pursuit of extraordinary curiosities from across the world.

Ripleys is a spacious air-conditioned facility that houses thirteen different themed rooms chock full of fascinating attractions.

This museum even has possessions from one of Key Wests most famous former residents, the late great writer, Ernest Hemingway. The museum has its own Hemingway displays, showing some of the tools of Hemingways trade, his reading glasses and typewriter. You can imagine Papa Hemingway writing one of his literary masterpieces like The Old Man and the Sea on that very typewriter in his writing den of his Key West residence before heading down to Sloppy Joes for s drink with the locals. There is even a shrunken torso from Hemingways personal collection of global eccentricities.

In addition to plentiful displays of intriguing natural and cultural oddities, the Ripleys Museum is also home to multimedia presentations that will entertain everyone, including the children of today who, due to the proliferation of electronic media, seem to suffer short attention spans.