In Recession, Sewage Tour, Offbeat Destinations Thrive

With fancy island getaways now out of most people's price range, alternative attractions are gaining ground, Newsweek reports. Local families have begun flocking to Louisiana's oil rig museum, San Francisco's sewage-plant tour, and Ireland's Famine Museum, perhaps in a spirit of "things are bad, but at least they're not this bad."

A lot of the traffic in places like the Texas Prison Museum comes from families and senior citizens—often grandparents bring grandkids. But even the director of citizen involvement for San Francisco's utilities is mystified at the popularity of the sewage tour. "Don't they have anything better to do on a Saturday morning?" she says. "It smells."
(More tourism stories.)