The House on the Rock

Overlooking the Wyoming Valley in Spring Green, Wisconsin, the House on the Rock is filled with treasures from around the world. The interior of the house contains 14 rooms designed in a complex pattern of hallways and stairs. Life-size wind-powered music machines scattered throughout the property spring to life at the drop of a coin. The most popular room is the Infinity Room, a glass-walled structure that juts 218 feet above the treetops and gives visitors a chance to view the valley below from a glass table in the floor.

In addition to the original house, there are 12 more buildings connected under one roof. Each one features its own unique attractions, from massive antique collections to the world's largest carousel, a blinking, swirling structure filled with 269 hand-carved animals, but not a single horse.

The Heritage of the Sea Building features an undersea adventure, where a 200-foot whale battles with a giant squid amongst artifacts of sea voyages, including mementos from the Titanic. The Streets of Yesterday allows guests to wander along old storefront windows filled with collectibles of a previous time. The Circus Building contains a miniature circus composed of more than one million pieces, as well as a pyramid of life-sized elephants positioned in the middle of the room. The rest of the property contains rooms dedicated to themes as varied as aviation materials, transportation artifacts, automated musical machines, dollhouses, weapons, and the Orient.

The tours are self-guided, so visitors can wander at their own pace, and it may take several hours to see everything in each room. Jennifer Greene, director of operations at the House on the Rock, states, "To get the most out of a visit I would suggest comfortable shoes, plenty of time, and a camera."

Admission is $27 for an adult to tour the entire property, but viewing fewer rooms can cost less. Visitors can also stay at the House on the Rock Inn, where they can find package deals that include entrance to the house. For more information, visit the House on the Rock's website.