Pack your passport, but don’t leave the house without consulting our guide to the geekiest, kookiest and downright weirdest places worldwide. We’ve included directions, so just plug ’em into your sat nav, pump up the volume and away you go! Don't forget to download your free companion, Bizarre's GEEKBOT!

Hôtel Sidi Driss
6070 Matmata Ancienne, Tunisia
Nicknamed ‘The Star Wars Hotel,’ the interior of this building was filmed as Luke Skywalker’s family home on Tatooine in A New Hope and Attack Of The Clones. It’s a traditional Berber house, composed of caves. The hotel is open all year round, and you can eat inside the room where the movie was made.

Tourismtunisia.com

Conquest Of Mythodea
Rittergut Brokeloh 1, 31628 Landesbergen, Germany
Every summer, the Brokeloh Manor near Hannover is transformed into the magical world of Mythodea for the pleasure of 7,000 live action role-players. The five-day event has over 1,000 fully trained extras, 120 tons of props and over 60 hectares of fields and forests to fight in. All you’ll need is a tent, a fantasy costume and your imagination.
 
Live-adventure.de

Pythagoras’ home
Samos, Greece
Maths nerd hero Pythagoras was born on the island of Samos in 582BC. Tigani, a town on the island, was renamed Pythagoreio in his honour in 1955. The remains of the Pythagoreion, an ancient fortified port with Greek and Roman monuments, and the temple of goddess Hera, are a joint UNESCO World Heritage Site. Samos was also home to the astronomer Aristarchus, the first known person to suggest that the Earth revolves around the Sun.
 
Pythagorion.net

elBulli
Cala Montjoi, Ap. 30, 17480, Girona, Spain
Diners at this three Michelin star restaurant run by chef Ferran Adrià are served up to 30 courses of experimental dishes on a set menu that includes delights such as a cloud of air that tastes like popcorn, parmesan marshmallows, or melon caviar. It’s where the original fusion of food and science evolved and you’ll have to beg, borrow or steal a reservation as it only opens June-December. There are 400 requests for each table, and it’s expected to close at the end of next year.

Elbulli.com

Large Hadron Collider
CERN, CH-1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland
The world’s largest particle accelerator lies in a 17-mile circular underground tunnel beneath the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, Switzerland. It’s at CERN, the world’s largest particle physics laboratory as featured in Dan Brown’s bestseller Angels & Demons. CERN also houses the world’s first internet server and guided tours are free, but need to be booked at least three months in advance.

Cern.ch

Istituto E Museo Di Storia Della Scienza
Piazza dei Giudici, 1, 50122 Florence, Italy
Galileo has been called the father of modern science and this museum houses his compass, telescope, microscope... and the middle finger of his right hand. The finger was removed from his body when his remains were transferred to the mausoleum in the church of Santa Croce in 1737. The museum is due to be renamed Museo Galileo Galilei, but it also has letters, instruments and mind-boggling equations from other top Italian scientists.

Imss.fi.it

Schneiders Buero
Adalbertstr. 80, D - 10997 Berlin, Germany
This analogue synthesiser shop was the subject of documentary Totally Wired. The business was started inside a socialist office block in former East Berlin and remains popular despite the rise of digital music. It regularly hosts workshops for both technicians and musicians about how to create and play instruments.

Schneidersbuero.de

Bletchley Park
Milton Keynes MK3 6EB, UK
German radio communications were decrypted at Bletchley Park in WWII. Here, you’ll find replicas of all the cipher machines involved: the Germans’ Enigma, a replica of the Bombe used to decode its messages, and the Lorenz cipher along with its decryption machine the Colossus. Entry to the on-site National Museum Of Computing is free.
 
Bletchleypark.org.uk

Warhammer World
Willow Road, Lenton, Nottingham NG7 2W, UK
At the Games Workshop HQ, you’ll find a gaming arena set in a castle courtyard, a working museum full of armies, a hobby centre, and art exhibitions. Not to mention the dwarfen drinking hole, Bugman’s Bar. Admission is free and it’s open seven days a week, 10am-6pm, with the exception of early closing at 4pm on Sunday and late night gaming until 10.00pm on Wednesday. Why not go via Derby and swing by Lara Croft Way?

Warhammerworld.typepad.com
Games-workshop.com

Elia Sculpture
Birk Centerpark 15, 7400 Herning, Denmark
Could this be the geekiest sculpture ever? It’s a 60m-diameter dome, with four pillars that each contain a lightning conductor. During a thunderstorm, the pillars conduct lightning strikes and the energy taken in makes a deep sound in the middle of the sculpture for up to      20 seconds. Once every 18 days, a big flame shoots up between the pillars and burns for 15 seconds. Elia is open to the public for guided tours every year on the Saturday closest to 27 September.

Elia.dk/English

Funspot
North Laconia, New Hampshire NH 03246
Gaming geeks will know The Funspot from the arcade showdown flick
The King Of Kong. It’s the place where the two champion joystick jockeys battle to get the highest-ever score on Donkey Kong. This 58-year-old gaming Mecca claims to be the biggest arcade in the world. It’s home to The American Classic Arcade Museum, which houses hundreds of peak-condition cabinets, and if you can remember it, they’ve got it. The enormodome smells of loose change, pizza and anguish.
 
Funspotnh.com

The Science Fiction Museum
Seattle, Washington WA 98109
If you have the slightest interest in science fiction books or film, the SFM will slay you. Founded by local boy and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen – to whom many of the exhibits belong – the museum houses priceless first editions, film and TV props. When Bizarre visited last year, we were bowled over by the original Death Star model, Captain Kirk’s command chair, Twiki from Buck Rogers, original costumes from Planet Of The Apes and Aliens, a full size Gort from The Day The Earth Stood Still, and hundreds of communicators, laser guns, lightsabers and other drool-inducing ephemera. If a sci-fi geek was given an endless budget and a free run at every Hollywood auction, this is what their garage would look like.

Empsfm.org

The House On The Rock
Spring Green, Wisconsin WI 53533
A roadside attraction for over 50 years, The House On The Rock is a conglomeration of haphazard buildings, collections of automatic music machines, re-creations of American towns and gigantic sea creatures. At its heart is the creaking, colourful ‘world’s largest carousel’. The House had a starring role in geek hero Neil Gaiman’s novel, American Gods, where deities from past and present rode the roundabout to enter the mind of Odin. Fittingly, Halloween 2010 will see the first American Gods convention at The House, featuring a talk from Neil Gaiman, a costume party, and the chance for a lucky few to ride the carousel. Nerd-vana!  

Thehouseontherock.com

Scrabble Street Sign
Corner of 35th Ave and 81st Street, Jackson Heights, New York NY 11372
Scrabble and quirky street furniture enthusiasts will be equally excited by the numbered and tiled 35th Avenue sign in this leafy Queens neighbourhood. The Scrabble-a-like sign pays homage to the game’s history. Its creator, Alfred Mosher Butts (yep, really) lived on nearby 79th street, and he refined the rules at the Community Methodist Church on 35th Avenue and 81st Street, where a Scrabble club still meets. Butts didn’t make silly money on his 1938 invention – he sold the rights to businessman James Brunot in 1948, and made m (£700,000) from the game in total – but he got enough to buy back his ancestral home in Poughkeepsie in New York and keep his descendants happy. Take your travel Scrabble set, and play a quick game on the ‘sidewalk’ in tribute.

Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash
Red Bank, New Jersey NJ 07701
What does the geek who has everything buy himself? His own comicbook shop, of course. Film director and über-nerd Kevin Smith’s store stocks View Askew-related merchandise, action figures and enough comics to satisfy the most demanding graphic novel fan. Plus, have your photo taken with the original Buddy Christ statue from Dogma!
 
Jayandsilentbob.com

Dungeons & Dragons-themed Park
Carbondale, Illinois IL 62902
The perfect pit stop for fans of dodecahedron-shaped dice, this privately owned park is open to members of the public. Stuffed with stone statues of dragons, castles, fountains and mazes, it’s scruffy and rundown, but there’s potential for a lot of role-playing fun. The park was built as a memorial to Jeremy ‘Boo’ Rochman, a Dungeons & Dragons fan who was killed in a car accident nearby in 1993.

The Computer History Museum
Mountain View, California CA 94043
Over 2,000 years of tech history are crammed into this giga-shrine to man’s nerdery in the shiny, gleaming heart of Silicon Valley. Exhibits you can’t miss include a Difference Engine, built to pioneer Charles Babbage’s original plans, an in-depth history of computer chess and an Apple 1 – Mac’s first, hand-built PC. The museum regularly has lectures and screens documentaries about the history of digital technology to keep the chipper mind a-tickin’.
 
Computerhistory.org

Area 51
Nevada
The truth is out there. Well, when we say “out there” we mean “in here”. This huge stretch of barren, inhospitable desert is the source of more conspiracy theories per square inch than David Icke’s diary. This is where alien spacecraft crash and strange lights are seen nightly – and the local tourism industry cashes in accordingly. Buy ‘alien’ jerky, visit the Little A’Le’Inn in Rachel, and try to coincide your visit with the Roswell UFO Festival in early July – where people dress up as their favourite extra-terrestrial and learn about other life-forms – to maximise your photo opportunities.  

Roswellufofestival.com

La Luz De Jesus Gallery

Los Angeles, California CA 90027
Any fan of lowbrow art will already have this address on their to-visit list. Owned by Billy Shire, the gallery has hosted exhibitions by pretty much every US artist Bizarre loves, including Joe Coleman, Robert Williams, Coop, Liz McGrath and Jessica Joslin. The gallery is at the back of the mind-blowing Wacko store, which piles plastic toys, crazy novelties and pop-culture junk high, and sells it cheap. Take an empty suitcase.
 
Laluzdejesus.com

Atomic Books
Baltimore, Maryland MD 21211
The world’s strangest book store has literature section categories including ‘Monster Lit’ and ‘Disturbed Children’. It’s local resident John Waters’ favourite book shop and he filmed the Divine-eats-dog-shit scene in Pink Flamingos in the alley out the back. Pick up a signed copy of one of his books, a rare comic, a blind-boxed art toy, or a tome you can’t get anywhere else. The workers tell us, “You can hear people gasping, laughing, being repulsed or excited as they walk through the store and look at the books we carry.” It sounds like heaven.

Atomicbooks.com

THE FAR EAST

Bruce Lee’s House
41 Cumberland Road, Kowloon Town, Hong Kong
Calling all martial arts maniacs. Pay homage to kick-ass kung-fu master Bruce Lee by staying at his former gaff in Hong Kong. Lee’s pad is now a run-down, seedy ‘love motel’ (where , or £17 gets you three hours to get busy) and not the most appealing of accommodation. But who cares when you can say you had sex in Bruce Lee’s house? Plans are underway to turn the mansion into a ‘Graceland’ style shrine to the Godfather of giving-out-slaps, so get there before all the other geeks overrun the joint.

Zhongguancun Electronics Market
Zhongguancun, Beijing, China
Known as ‘China’s Silicon Valley’, Zhongguancun is just the place to get your thrills if gadgets turn you on. This sprawling series of technology parks is where many IT companies – such as Sony, Microsoft and Intel – have based their Chinese operations. But the real attraction is the electronics shopping – there are a slew of markets selling the latest electronics at reasonable prices. Even better, every price is negotiable – so get haggling.
 
Beijing-visitor.com

Digital Media City Seoul, Korea
Considered one of the most technologically advanced cities in the world, Seoul is a tech-head’s paradise. The jewel in the crown is Digital Media City, a new development four miles from the city centre. Over 10 years ago, the area was garbage landfill – now it’s a technological wonderland powered by the methane from the decaying rubbish that it’s built on. The area features smart street lamps, interactive displays and exhibitions from the world’s biggest tech companies. It’s a dweeb’s wet dream.

Tosy Robotics
Lane 538, Lang Road, Hanoi, Vietnam
It’s time to do the robot. Topio 3.0 is a 6ft tall, ping-pong playing humanoid badass developed by Tosy, a Vietnamese robotics company. This Terminatoresque hunk can play table tennis with humans and calculate the best shot, so grab your bat and head down to Tosy HQ for a game.

Tosy.com

Urashima Taro Statue

Mitoyo, Kagawa, Japan
Where would science fiction be without time travel? Pay tribute to one of the earliest instances of time travel in literature by visiting this statue of Urashima Taro; the fisherman in Japanese legend who was taken to an underwater palace by a giant turtle and returned to land three days later to find that 300 years had elapsed. We hate it when that happens.

Kyoto International Manga Museum
Karasuma-Oike, Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto 604-0846, Japan
Got mangamania? Then a trip to the International Manga Museum in Kyoto is a must. The museum, which opened in 2006, holds approximately 300,000 items of manga and charts the rise and rise of this quintessential Japanese culture. Many items are for gallery purposes only but the museum’s ‘Wall Of Manga’ holds 50,000 publications and it’s free to browse. Entry to the other bits is a measly 500yen (£3.70).

Kyotomm.jp/english

Omacha no Machi Bandai Museum
Mibu, Tochigi, Japan
No geek trip to Asia is complete without checking out the Bandai Museum in Mibu. About three hours north of Tokyo, Omachi no Machi, which means ‘Toy Town’, holds the ultimate collection of play-things, including Bandai company originals, historical figures from Europe and pre-war Japan, and Gundam, Japan’s immensely popular mecha-robots. Be warned, it’s only open Saturdays and Sundays.

Kyotomm.jp/english

Rashomon Gate
Kyoto 601-8453, Japan
Much imitated, never bettered, Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon was the first film to take a single narrative and re-tell it from different characters’ points of view, distorting the story. Rashomon was an ancient city in Kyoto, and the largest entrance to it – made famous by Kurosawa’s film – was the unofficial dumping site for corpses and unwanted babies. Check out where it stood by heading to the historic part of Kyoto. There’s only a single engraved pillar dedicated to it there now – and it’s in a children’s playground surrounded by a rusty metal fence – but you could go with a group of friends and each make up your own version of what happened during your visit. Now that’s nerdy.

Harajuku District
Harajuku, Tokyo, Japan
If you’re in Tokyo, you’re bound to end up in Akhibara, otherwise known as Electric City, where otaku (geek) culture is king. Here it’s all about gadgets, anime and cosplay. But once you’ve bought that pitch-perfect Astro Boy costume, where do you go to wear it? Harajuku, just west of the city centre, is the perfect place. On Sundays, Harajuku throngs with people dressed head to toe in spectacular cosplay outfits.

World’s First Microprocessor
National Museum of Science and Nature, 7-20 Ueno Park, Taito-ku, Tokyo 110-8718, Japan
You can’t miss Intel 4004 – the world’s first microprocessor. In 1971 Japanese company Busicom contracted Intel to design processors for calculators and the microprocessor was born. Busicom went bust after selling the design back to Intel, who went on to become one of the biggest companies in the world. Oops. Luckily one of the chips, and the calculators that used it, is preserved here. Binary win!
 
Kahaku.go.jp/english

Sony Headquarters
5-3-1 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0061, Japan
OK, so we were going to recommend going to Nintendo HQ, in Kyoto, but we realised there’s nothing there to see and you’ll probably get manhandled out of the place. So check out Sony’s mothership in Ginza, Tokyo. The lower floors showcase their technology and Sony isn’t averse to visitors getting hands-on with all their latest gadgets.
 
Sonybuilding.jp/e