Hard to imagine for US people, I guess, but I had to wait more than 41 years of my life to finally make it to a Ripley’s. The kind-of-museum is showing bizarre things, strange records and similar stories which fascinate the visitor started as cartoon series by Robert Ripley, but since the 1930’s there are also public displays of his collection. I visited the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not outlet right at Hollywood Boulevard during my West Coast trip with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

 

Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Hollywood – Location & Admission

Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Hollywood is located right at the Hollywood Boulevard and N Highland Ave crossing. The Hollywood / Highland metro station is just across the road. You will typically go there by car, the area features a lot of parking opportunities. Compared to that, the Los Angeles public transport system is rather poor.

At the time of visiting, visiting Ripleys’s Odditorium, how the place is also called was 25.99 USD (which is definitely rather pricey). For 35.99 USD, you could buy a VIP Pass, which included the Hollywood Wax Museum and the Guinness World of Records, which both are in very close proximity. Funnily, that pass does nowadays only include the two other attractions for a slightly lower fee, while Ripley’s teamed up with the peer in wax museum business, Madame Tussauds. Their combo ticket is 45.99 USD – which would have been not that much of a deal during my visit, as you got M.T. tickets for about half nominal price.

 

Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Hollywood – The Visit

I have been really curious how it would be like to visit one of the Ripley’s sites – and I have to say, I had a really entertaining time. The exhibits are well documented, so that you can really get well into the bizarre stories. Thereby, the exhibition features a lot of different stories, from movies to human records to weird technical inventions. They also had different pieces of art and craft made out of strange materials like pins or matches.

There is a lot you can explore at that Ripley’s outlet – and even though it might feel a bit of old-fashioned here and there, it may give you an hour or even slightly more of fun – depending on how deeply you get into the stories.

The detailed Terminator figure or Jimmy Hendrix (thanks for the correction, Jennifer 🙂 ) being designed in guitar picks has definitely been one of my favorites of my visit. But as you see in the picture, there were references to other movies as well. At the end, there was a section about rural people and bizarre stories from jungle life.

 

 

Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Hollywood – My View

I have to admit that I did not expect too much when I visited Ripley’s. I knew that their franchise is huge, but it always felt a bit like a rip-off to me. I have definitely been wrong. It is not a must-see attraction, but you just have a good time there, it is entertaining and educative. If you are bored of watching the stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, this is definitely a quite good option to have a nice time.

 

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