🎯 Why Weird Tours Work (and Why They Sell)
Novelty = Memory
The brain remembers what’s different. A haunted night walk or bull run leaves a mark — much deeper than “here’s another Renaissance façade.”
Social Media Factor
People don’t post Cathedral #18. But a photo of themselves eating fried scorpions while dressed as a Viking? Viral-worthy.
The Viking roleplay scene in Helsinki: a cheerful Finnish tour guide and an expressive tourist couple in Viking gear.
Emotional Rollercoasters
Fear, awkwardness, excitement, absurdity — these tours aren’t just informative. They’re experiential, which is precisely what modern travelers are paying for.
🧭 What Kinds of Tours Are We Talking About?
Let’s tease a few types — all of which will be explored in juicy detail in the upcoming articles of this series.
☠️ Creepy & Haunted Tours
Midnight walks through abandoned prisons. Ghost hunts with EMF detectors. Cursed monasteries with a whispering guide in a cloak.
The first article in the series of the BIZZARE TOURS articles will be about the Creepy & Haunted Tours.
Tourist appeal: Safe fear. Folk stories. Adrenaline.
Guide tip: No actual ghosts required. What you need is a dark atmosphere, local legends, and the ability to pause dramatically.
🏚️ Abandoned Places & Post-Apocalyptic Zones
Chernobyl. Japanese ghost islands. Forgotten communist monuments in Bulgaria. Deserted theme parks in Vietnam.
A tour to the abandoned place - Chernobyl in Ukraine.
Tourist appeal: Mystery, exploration, Instagram gold.
Guide tip: If it’s crumbling, eerie, or politically uncomfortable — it’s probably marketable.
🌶️ Extreme Food Dares & Delicacies
Fermented shark in Iceland. Insects in Bangkok. Chili contests in Oaxaca. Fugu fish in Tokyo.
Extreme Food Tours are the tourists' nightmare and the biggest temptation!
Tourist appeal: Bragging rights and culinary adrenaline.
Guide tip: Turn your food tour into a survival game. Include weird snacks and make them optional but daring.
🥕 Hands-On Agricultural or “Harvest-Your-Own” Tours
Pick your own lunch. Clean your own carrots. Cook what you grow.
A tour may include hands-on work in the farm fields, followed by a delightful lunch featuring the freshly harvested produce.
Tourist appeal: Escape from urban life + reward through food.
Guide tip: If you’ve got access to a garden, vineyard, or family farm — package it. Tourists are dying to get dirty.
🪦 Cultural Immersion in Rituals, Funerals & Festivals
Cliff burials in Toraja, Indonesia. Tree graves for infants. Running with bulls in Pamplona. Throwing tomatoes in Buñol.
Cliff burials in Toraja, Indonesia, are the leading tour goal.
Tourist appeal: Pure madness + cultural depth.
Guide tip: These are not performances — explain the meaning, the rules, and how to participate without offending.
🤡 Absurd, Funny & Theatrical Tours
Tours led by stand-up comedians. Viking roleplay experiences. Goat yoga in a vineyard. Bizarre street performances with local improv actors.
Tour guide preparation for the next tour about the city's ghosts!
Tourist appeal: Pure joy and weirdness.
Guide tip: If you’ve got charisma, use it. Be a character. Lean into absurdity.
🧠 Tour Guides: Why You Should Get Weird
- You stand out in a saturated market.
- You attract younger and more adventurous travelers.
- You create stories people want to tell (and review).
- You earn more — weird experiences justify higher prices.
The variety of bizarre tours is vast.
You don’t need a ghost to do a haunted tour. You don’t need a Michelin star to run a bizarre food tour.
You need an idea, a bit of guts, and a platform — like PRIVATE GUIDE WORLD — where you can showcase it.
💥 Tourists: Why You Should Try the Weird Stuff
You’ve seen enough old stones. What you remember are the moments when you were:
Any tourist has the right to travel in their preferred and individual way.
- Screaming in a haunted forest
- Giggling at your goat yoga instructor
- Crying from chili while a smiling guide told you it’s “mild”
Weird tours break the travel routine. They create stories, not just selfies.
A yoga tour with goats is a hit!
🚀 Coming Up Next
This article is the gateway drug to our upcoming series:
- “Private Ghost Hunts You’ll Regret Taking Alone”
- “Culinary Extremes: The Weirdest Things You Can Eat with a Tour Guide”
- “Farms, Carrots, and Chaos: Food Experiences You Work For”
- “How to Get Respectfully Involved in Wild Cultural Rituals”
… and more.
Is it a tourist, a tour guide, or a travel attraction?
🔚 Final Words
Tourism is changing. Travelers want meaning, madness, and memories.
Tour guides: Give them that.
Tourists: Demand that.
PRIVATE GUIDE WORLD: Find each other.
Tourists must demand new exotic tours even if they seem bizarre.
📢 CALL TO ACTION
🔍 Tourists: Browse unusual private tours now on PRIVATE GUIDE WORLD.
🧭 Tour Guides: Got a bizarre idea for a tour? Create your profile and make it real. You don’t need a license to be unforgettable.
«Zagreb + Mirogoj Cemetery Walking Tour» – suggested by the Local Private Tour Guide Samanta Bićanić in Croatia in PG World. Click the image to explore the details and watch the pictures.
Read our previous article - What To Do If You Forget Your Password on the PGW Platform
Read our next article - Private Ghost Tours With a Guide: How to Turn Local Legends into Night Walk
