Atlas Obscura 2024 review: Travel and explore the extraordinary!

One of the best things about planning your trip is the flexibility that comes with it. Where booking a guided tour allows you to benefit from an all-inclusive trip, planning a trip gives you total control over everything. Whether it's to visit a particular café or spend the entire day at a museum, you'll be able to control all aspects of your travel itinerary.

But how do you know where are the best places to go?

That's where travel guides come in! Big-name Travel guides, like Lonely Planet and Fodors, provide travel destinations and attractions to a broad range of travelers worldwide. While they're decent in inspiring people to travel, many of the attractions are common tourist spots that most people already know from a quick Google search. In comes Atlas Obscura.

Atlas Obscura targets and tailors travel content to frequent travelers looking for quirky, rare, or unusual attractions. Atlas Obscura has become one of the best travel guide websites, helping travelers avoid tourist traps and find incredible new attractions. But how do you know whether Atlas Obscura's content is suitable for a traveler like you?

Read our Atlas Obscura review to learn more. 

What is Atlas Obscura?

Atlas Obscura is an online magazine and a travel guide company that identifies itself as 'the definitive guide to the world's hidden wonders.' It also goes as a database of user-generated content on odd and unique places worldwide. 

It was initiated by Joshua Foer and Dylan Thuras in 2009. Since then, the magazine gained fame for steering travelers away from the commonplace to explore out-of-the-ordinary attractions.

At first, Atlas Obscura merely published content on places, food, drinks, and rare experiences worldwide. In 2016, the company extended itself as a travel booking site by offering guided tours designed by its team. During the pandemic, they leveraged their virtual experiences and courses. They have also began retelling stories through travel experiences of the change in 

If you'd like to consume their content on the go, they have a mobile app available. The Atlas Obscura Travel Guide app is available for iOS devices. 

What does Atlas Obscura offer?

Atlas Obscura offers its content and services under six main categories.

• Places: Offers 22,921 'extraordinary places' or 'hidden wonders' that you can explore worldwide. Places cover both natural and man-made sites.
• Food: A collection of local food and drink specialties, places to eat, and stories of fascinating gastronomy. 
• Stories: Includes contributions made by the Atlas Obscura community of travelers and explorers that focus on unusual discoveries.
• Courses: Online courses to gain knowledge, skills, and ideas on a range of topics, including food-making processes, writing, sewing, etc. Prices vary depending on the subject and the number of sessions. 
• Experiences: Virtual and in-person experiences include educational, adventurous, inspirational, or fun events/workshops. Members have exclusive access to a selection of experiences free of charge. 
• Trips: Guided, small group tours that promise a unique experience for participants. Trips are categorized under Art & Culture, Food & Drink, Hidden Cities, History, Photography, Private, Wildlife & Nature. 

Atlas Obscura's travel guide books

The company released its first-ever travel guide book titled "Atlas Obscura: An Explorer's Guide to the World's Hidden Wonders" in 2016. It is available in both paperback and ebook versions. You can purchase it from the Atlas Obscura website or leading sites like Amazon. 

In addition, there are also other titles available for purchase, like Explorer's Guide for the World's Most Adventurous Kid, Gastro Obscura: A Food Adventurer's Guide, and Atlas Obscura Page-A-Day Calendar 2022. 

How does Atlas Obscura work?

Visit the website and enter the destination you have in mind on the search bar. You can look for 'Places near me' or 'Random place' if you need ideas for exploration. Users can also browse for attractions and stories by category.

By creating an account, you can add places to your personal list of places, mark favorites, and flag places you have already visited. Use the forum to exchange travel ideas, start conversations, and engage in meaningful discussions with fellow explorers and readers. More importantly, you can provide submissions of extraordinary places you stumble across to let others know! 

You can also become a paid member to enjoy more perks like member-only online experiences/events, discounts on trips and courses, an exclusive newsletter, and fewer ads. Monthly subscriptions plans start from $5, and annual subscriptions start from $50.

What we liked about Atlas Obscura

• Unique spots

If you like off-the-beaten-path attractions and quirky subjects of interest, consider your curiosity piqued with Atlas Obscura. We loved how the content focuses on diverse subjects that are informative, fun, and provocative. More importantly, there are places you won't find in other travel guides. It is a very resourceful website to consider when planning your trip. You can search for attractions in the destination you hope to visit and add them to your itinerary. 

• Well-planned tours 

Atlas Obscura tours offer a rich, high-value-driven experience, and we came across raving reviews to validate it! They focus on aspects that go unnoticed and less popular places. That being said, they don't miss out on covering the basics either. Their tour guides are highly knowledgeable and communicative. As the tours are conducted in small groups, connecting and interacting with fellow travelers is easy. 

• Easy-to-use 

The website is very appealing both visually and content-wise. It's easy to navigate, and the mobile app makes it even more convenient to browse for hidden attractions near you. Even the booking process is safe and straightforward. The only downside here is that the app is unavailable for Android devices. As long as you follow the guidelines, submitting a story about a 'new place' or starting a discussion on the forum is a straightforward process.

What Atlas Obscura can do better

• Pricey 

Atlas Obscura's guided trips aim to provide one-of-a-kind adventures to travelers. So, they are more expensive than tours offered by other companies like G Adventures. For example, the trip to Greece exploring ancient ruins to modern culture costs $6750, while G-Adventures' Greece tours around $3000. So, Atlas Obscura is not an ideal choice for budgeted travelers. 

Is Atlas Obscura worth it?

Yes. It's highly resourceful and guides you away from mundane, crowded, touristy places. If you like your trip to have a touch of adventure and curiosity, we highly recommend Atlas Obscura. 

Our Rating: 4.6/5

Pros 

• Unique spots
• Well-planned tours
• Easy-to-use

Cons 

• Tours are expensive
• Mobile app only on iOS

An alternative to Atlas Obscura

Just like Atlas Obscura, Pilot's blog is the go-to resource for travelers to get inspiration on new travel destinations, attractions, and more. Whether you're a first-time budget traveler or an experienced digital nomad, our blogs provide new insights and inspirations on travel and travel-related topics!

Plan your trip with Pilot

Besides providing travel content to travelers worldwide, we help travelers plan and experience their best trips through Pilot.