One of the best haunted attractions I've been to in a while! I was genuinely scared and their…read moreeffects were outstanding. The parking was organized and there were many employees available to help you with any questions. Some notes: 1. Wear sneakers -- there are long lines outside on grass and lots of walking through the haunted areas. 2. Porta potties located throughout the attraction. Bring hand sanitizer. 3. They have smoke throughout the entire area -- inside and outside. If you have asthma, bring your inhaler just in case. 4. Lines are long so think of ways to entertain yourselves during the wait. The earlier you get there, the less you'll wait in the lines. There were entertainers throughout the lines but they were infrequent. 5. There was a snack stand right before the first attraction that sold pretzels, hot dogs, candy, and drinks. There is also the pumpkin patch at the end of the route that has carnival vibe food areas with funnel cake, corn dogs, fries, slushies, candy, etc. 6. The first haunted house has many exits if the place is too scary. Because of this, the first one wasn't as scary. On the other hand, the other 2 attractions did not have exits if it is too scary. 7. There's a VIP line and it looked worth it after standing in lines all night.

Incredibly disappointing tour; Many of the individuals in our tour group drove 1-2 hours for this…read moreexperience. Our tour started almost 30 minutes late because the guide was waiting for a personal friend to arrive - and on top of that we hended up having a spark notes version of the tour because of an event happening later in the afternoon. Our questions were shot down and we were told we would cover that topic during a different section of the tour. That part never came. We missed several buildings and the buildings we did see we weren't permitted to view inside/certain floors. They tried to end the tour over an hour early, but as soon as we demanded a refund/reschedule opportunity they said we could go backtrack to a few different places that we had initially not been permitted to see. The guide started the tour full of energy and stories - she told us about court cases that lead to many current laws and legislations that have been passed. However, after she tried to end the tour early that same energy she had was lost. For the entire last hour of the tour we were brought to empty rooms and told very little history of the place. Instead she just spoke to a few individuals (which I'm assuming are the ones she knew personally). This experience was a wasted drive, and quite frankly wasted money. They prioritized a specialty event that was happening instead of focusing on each and every individual tour - who honestly had paid just as much to be here. We spent more time standing around and waiting than we did hearing about this places history.

Located in a former church, now an event space, the grave is front and center. It has a short time…read moreline of Poe's life and brief introduction about the famous author. It is easily accessible and near the University of Maryland campus.

Super cool spot. It was a cloudy and gloomy day when we walked by so it made this place feel eerie…read more The grounds and graves all looked well kept.

I wanted to visit this place as I read it was the burial place of Edgar Allen Poe. Which I had no…read moreidea that Poe was associated to or lived in Baltimore. When I got there I realized more than Poe is buried on these grounds. His wife and some family, and other notable people in Baltimore. The grounds are regal, classic and beautifully maintained. Lined with historic mausoleums including identification and information, it took me more than an hour to walk the outside. It could have easily taken much longer but I skimmed over much of it. If you're in Baltimore this place is with the stop.

We went on a tour with Baltimore Heritage to come see the burial grounds and Poe's final resting…read moreplace. We were also able to see the catacombs. It's a beautiful place and so interesting to see the different grave styles and read about the people buried there. The catacombs were very interesting and eerie! I loved learning more about Poe and other notable people buried on the grounds. An amazing gentleman who works there also let us step into the church! I believe his name was George (thanks!). The inside of the church is gorgeous with beautiful stained glass and an amazing organ. I definitely recommend coming here, whether on a tour to explore the grounds on your own. I'll definitely return!

It was definitely a unique experience, and well worth the admission fee. I found it to be…read moreeducational and creepy, yet in a highly photogenic and artsy kind of way. I couldn't stop taking pictures. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Besides, I don't think I can add anything to this review about its history that hasn't already been said. I'll just give you a few tips before your visit. Bring ear buds so that you can listen to the self-guided audio tour that is narrated by Steve Buscemi. It's 45 minutes long and is included with admission. Otherwise, just do as we did and go through each cell block at your own pace. You can always listen to the audio tour later. There's also a guided tour that can be booked for a higher fee. The best time to go is in the morning. It didn't feel quite as hot inside as I thought it would be. There are a few exhibits that have air-conditioned rooms if needed. One of them is the "Worship Behind Walls" exhibit that was closed off when we we there. Only the outer room was open in that exhibit. One of the cell blocks was closed off for the "Halloween Nights" event that starts in October. We were told that it's an amazing night experience. They even set up a speakeasy at Al Capone's cell for VIP ticket holders. It's just something to think about when planning your visit. It took us about 2 hours to go through it all. It's easy to navigate through each cell block due to the wheel design of the building from it's central hub. It's on the top 10 list of things to do in Philadelphia for a reason. It also gives you a chance to check out the Fairmount neighborhood while you're there. It was a great experience overall!

My wife and I were in Philly for a long weekend and saw that this was a cool spot to checkout…read more I am glad we did. It is an old prison set in a neighborhood, kind of like Wrigley Field is in the middle of a neighborhood. The structure is huge and has a hub and spoke type of detention with 8 cell clocks around a center location. The cells were small, but they did have Al Capone's cell, which was decked out! He was there for a year for an illegal weapon. Nice narration and a great way to spend an hour or two in Philly!

A wholly original and beautiful little spot with an incredible story behind it. Really cool to see…read morehow one man's vision endured against long odds and now has left a great space for other artists to share their work too. The gift shop also has great, unique stuff. Worth making a little trip here and strolling the neighborhood to see the vendors and Isaiah's other work nearby. Pro tip: Get your ticket in the gift shop and don't worry about timed entry!

We love quirky places like this. There are a number of these "weird" art installations in our home…read morestate of Wisconsin so we knew we had to visit this when in Philadelphia. We bought timed ticks online a couple of weeks in advance - with our reciprocal museum membership we got free admission. The history of this place and the artist who created it is fascinating. There is so much to see in each area and around each corner. It's easy to miss stuff. Don't forget to walk around the block to see the exteriors of nearby buildings. They have all been given the "mosaic" treatment! We were here a bit under one hour. Definitely worth a stop!

What a neat theater design! Being out of town I had to come here instead for the Studio Ghibli fest…read morescreening of Ponyo. Wish I would've taken some pictures inside, but overall no complaints! Just like any movie theater except way cooler

A theatre that truly made me fall in love with the idea of going to the movies anu chance I could…read morepossibly get. With 24 theatres making it a massive theatre in the area and located in Arundel Mills Mall, Cinemark Egyptian has it all. Can't recommend this theatre enough. It's big enough that there's two concession stands on each side and the lines move rather quickly, too!

The first thing you, dear reader, should understand is the historic location where this faire has…read morebeen held for the past several years. It is Fort Mifflin, originally constructed in 1771 in a place they then called "MUD ISLAND". Yes, that's right. Mud. Fort Mifflin is still an active base for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and is currently the oldest active U.S. military base and the only base in use that predates the Declaration of Independence. So, back to the location: MUD. As in very wet ground. This fort sits on part of the remaining wetlands situated along the Delaware river where the Schuykill River empties. It's essentially built on a giant natural sponge. What does that mean? It means wear waterproof shoes whenever you visit this place, Faire or not. It does not matter if it hasn't rained in weeks: You are likely to still have mud. Today, Fort Mifflin sits very directly next to the Philadelphia International Airport, right along an active runway. What does that mean? Dragons, cleverly disguised as aircraft coming in for landing. Stripey Dragons (American Air), Triangle Dragons (Delta), Brown and Gold Dragons (UPS), even Dragons hailing from Southwest. We saw lots of dragons. :) It's a place that was built before cars, and so in between the faire vendors and performers who are there all the time, the parking lot is super full. You CAN take a chance and park your car along the side of Hog Island Road, however please understand you are right at a major airport, and you are also close to the airport's fuel storage tanks, so there's a better-than-average chance that your car will be towed while you're frolicking. The faire organizers rented the closest available lot, which, because of that big airport runway, is about a mile drive away. If you could walk in a direct line between the two, it's like 1/4 of a mile. Great, except it's an ACTIVE RUNWAY and they don't take kindly to pedestrians. Anyhow, we DID read the instructions for parking before we arrived, paid our $5, and hopped a shuttle. They had 4 large 12-15 passenger vans running constantly and I think the longest we waited in the 3 days we were there was maybe 20 minutes, during which they had a folk singer with his guitar and kazoo. The faire itself is probably more what you'd call a 'pop up' faire, compared with some very large fairs like Pennsylvania that is 'purpose built' with permanent village structures, this is much more pop up tents and temporary stages. I like both kinds of fairs, however I don't compare them. That would be like comparing the St. Denis Fun Fair with Great Adventure, right? The shuttle drove us right to the gate, and we had zero problems checking in using our $40 season passes. The first section when we entered had a stage, food trucks and a couple vendors. There were covered and open sky tables for people to sit at while they ate. The next two spaces were shows and vendors. I visited the hair braiding booth first where the lovely person braided my hair right up and put pretty decorations in too. YAY. Then we saw the falcon show - the falcons were not flying free because of the very close by airport. Airport + bird = bad. The falconer was great, she told us all about the birds, how to become a falconer, etc. There were like 5 total stages and we saw some great acts, a storyteller, harpist, daredevil fire and magic act, and a singing group were all on hand. They had taken care to rope up the wettest mushiest areas, and they had laid flat plywood all along the walkways, which definitely helped. The vendors were all very nice, no temu re-sell crap, and they had two different 'find it' games for families to play while they were there. Find the Cheese was really funny too. I really enjoyed my time at this faire and would go again next year. I will bring a hat and sunscreen next time, I always forget these. If you're looking for big showy stages that look like the globe theater and a village, this isn't your faire. However if you're looking for genuine artisan crafts, great shows and a lovely sense of ...community, then this is your place. By day 3 I was greeted like an old friend, which was super cool.

This is a review from the 2023 Faire…read more Based on the past reviews I'd say they've figured things out much better than in previous years. The only issue I had was that they didn't prepare the parking lot on time, so myself and a half dozen others were driving around before being sent back to the deserted lot where we had already been. But only a few minutes after the Faire opened the attendant showed up and setup a little tent. From there on everything was great. It was a small Faire, but it was a lot of fun. One of my friends mentioned that compared to the bigger faires they actually thought the quality of the vendors was much higher. She liked everything she saw and I guess at larger faires that's not usually the case. The Fort was a cool setting that worked well for the atmosphere. They needed a few more food stalls because the lines got intensely long by midday. I was one of the first people in and I really wish I'd been hungry earlier because it went from zero wait to 30 minutes + and that wasn't even the slowest line. Some of the vendors even ran out of food with several hours left. But I'm still giving the Faire 5 stars because it was fun. I got a bullseye with a throwing knife. It was a beautiful day. So yeah none of the other stuff matters it was a good time and I'd happily come again next year. Oh yeah, and there were swallows all over the place! Nested in the "catacombs" and flying over the Lilly pads. Beautiful.

Every once in a while you drive past a place so many times that it almost becomes part of the…read morescenery. That was the Turkey Hill Experience for me. I'd driven past it countless times over the last few years but either didn't have enough time to stop or couldn't convince anyone else to stop with me. During my Lancaster Adventure Day, though, all of that changed. I purchased a Single Scoop ticket online ahead of time for $16.75 and reserved the very first time slot of the day at 10am. I figured a late-summer Thursday morning would be the sweet spot, and it turned out to be a great decision. It was busy enough that the place felt lively but not so crowded that I had to wait for every exhibit. Parking was plentiful, and I somehow managed to snag a spot right in front of the GIANT cow out front. Honestly, my day was already off to a fantastic start! The only hiccup of the visit came during check-in. Even though I'd already purchased my ticket online, I still had to wait in the same line as everyone buying gift shop items, purchasing admission and asking questions. Since there were only a two employees working both the registers and admissions, the line moved a little slower than I expected. If I could change one thing, it would be creating a separate express check-in line for folks who already have tickets. Once I finally made it inside, though, everything became easy peasy! The exhibits are completely self-guided, so you can wander at your own pace learning how Turkey Hill makes its ice cream and iced tea while playing with interactive displays along the way. One of my favorite parts was creating my own virtual ice cream flavor, complete with custom packaging. I also wanted to film my own Turkey Hill commercial, but those stations stayed busy the entire time I was there, so that'll have to wait until another visit. Naturally, I made a beeline for the tea sampling station. As someone who appreciates sugar-free options, I was thrilled to find both Zero Sugar Sweet Tea and Zero Sugar Fruit Punch available to sample. Both were fantastic! Then it was time for the part we'd all been waiting for...unlimited ice cream samples. One thing I really appreciated is that they weren't tiny little "blink and it's gone" samples. You picked two flavors, and they served actual scoops in a bowl. For an attraction centered around ice cream, that felt exactly right. My only tiny complaint? Wooden popsicle sticks instead of spoons. They definitely got the job done, but they made eating melting ice cream a little more awkward than it needed to be. Still...free and unlimited ice cream? I'm not about to complain too loudly! I spent about an hour wandering through the exhibits, playing with the interactive displays and enjoying the air conditioning on a hot August morning before making one final stop in the gift shop. Prices there were about what you'd expect for a tourist attraction, but there were plenty of fun souvenirs if you're looking to bring a little Turkey Hill home with you. Overall, I'd absolutely recommend visiting the Turkey Hill Experience at least once. I don't know that it's somewhere I'd return over and over again, but it was a fun, interactive way to spend an hour learning something new, eating entirely acceptable quantities of free ice cream and escaping the August heat. That sounds like a pretty successful adventure day to me!

Turkey Hill Experience was a fun stop for our family! We visited with three kids, and everyone…read morefound something to enjoy. The interactive exhibits were engaging, and the kids loved learning how ice cream is made and creating their own virtual flavors. The highlight was definitely sampling the different ice cream flavors and making our own ice cream creations.

I visited the Strasburg Rail Road recently, but not for the train ride this time and it still…read moreturned into a really easy outing with kids. When we first got there, staff greeted us and let us know when the next train was leaving. I hadn't planned ahead to ride this time, but they also told us there's a park a little ways down that's included at no additional cost, which was a really nice option to have. From the parking lot at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, you can actually see the playground behind a fence across the street. Once we walked over, we just took our time looking at the trains up close, passing the shops, and letting the kids explore as we went. The playground isn't huge, but it works. It's not gated, but it's tucked in enough that I wasn't worried about my kids running off. The ground is tire shred (which I prefer over tan bark), and there's seating for adults nearby. Bathrooms are right by the playground, which makes a big difference with little kids. There's also a Thomas the Train LEGO display at the Toy Train Store (not too far from the playground) which my kids loved. Next time, I'll plan ahead to include the train ride, but this was still a really good visit.

We came here about an hour before our train and spent some time walking around the little shops…read more There was a small empty stage, and my sister stepped onto it for a quick joke picture my mom wanted to take. A man sitting nearby suddenly yelled at her that she wasn't allowed on the stage. My mom and sister apologized right away, but I jokingly said to my sister, "He probably doesn't even work here." The man immediately jumped into the conversation with an attitude and said, "I actually do work here." The whole interaction felt unnecessarily aggressive from the start. He was dressed in plain clothes with no name tag, uniform, or anything showing he worked there, so there was no clear way for visitors to know he was staff or that the stage was off limits. The situation could have been handled much more politely and professionally. Because of that experience, I honestly wouldn't come back. I also wanted to quickly add that if there was a sign, we did not see it.

My last stop on my weekend trip to Lancaster County this past weekend was at the National Watch and…read moreClock Museum in Columbia. I love a quirky, specific museum, and this museum was no exception. The museum is operated by the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors and was founded in 1977. Its collection includes over 12,000 clocks and watches, with about 3,000 of them on display in the museum. The museum is large enough that they hand you a map when you walk in! To be honest, I don't know the first thing about the mechanics or history of watches and clocks - although I know much more after my visit to the museum - but I really enjoyed my stop at the museum! The museum might be a little dated (especially the "Learning Center," but there were signs saying they were working to upgrade that area soon), but they had some interesting and beautiful pieces, but whether you're a collector of watches and clocks or don't know the first them about them, the museum is worth a stop! I'd be happy to return for another visit with friends or family!

Rock Out with Your Clock Out…read more The National Watch and Clock Museum houses the largest collection of timepieces in the country, with over 12,000 individual pieces. The Good: * Large, plentiful, free parking lot * Fairly inexpensive to visit at $15/adult and $10/child, plus there are additional discounts for families, vets, and senior citizens. * Research library available. * If you're into clocks, watches, and other types of timepieces, then boy howdy, is this the place for you. Lots to see and do. * Live demonstration (check schedule) The Meh: * If you're really not into timepieces then this probably isn't the place for you, but it's still an interesting place to learn history. The Ugly: * I wouldn't recommend bringing younger kids, as it's not within their attention span to enjoy these kinds of things, but I suppose it depends on the kid. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Conclusion: Fun place to check out if you're visiting Lancaster County, and especially if the weather outside isn't great.