The Museum of Illusions in Las Vegas is fun, but gets overshadowed by competitors offering similar attractions at a grander scale.
Visiting the Las Vegas Museum of Illusions
Sometimes an experience is coloured by what comes before it. In my case, that’s certainly true for the Museum of Illusions in Las Vegas.
My family visited on a hot afternoon. Crucially, this was after visiting the ARTE Museum (review here, tickets here) in the morning and Omega Mart (review here, tickets here) a couple of days beforehand.
Realistically, we should have done it the other way round.
What is the Museum of Illusions?
The Museum of Illusions is a franchised chain of museums, with 45-plus locations across 25 countries. The first Museum of Illusions opened in Zagreb, Croatia, back in 2015. Since then, the concept has done spectacularly well, spreading across the globe.
The basic premise of the Museum of Illusions is optical illusions and how they work. Sometimes this is looking at lines that appear to be different lengths, others it’s paintings with eyes that seem to follow you around the room.
There are also plenty of rooms with unusual layouts and mirrors that make for great photographs – a person being cut in half, or served on a platter, perhaps. Or two people looking like they’re wildly different sized while standing at what appears to be the same level.
The problem with the Museum of Illusions
This is unquestionably good fun for an hour or two. You’ll learn a bit about how the brain works and be pleasantly surprised at being tricked over and over again.
But the schtick starts to wear thin after a while – particularly if you’ve seen it before. If you’ve been to one Museum of Illusions, there’s really no need to go to another. The same applies to similar concepts with different names – last year in England’s Lake District we went to Puzzling Place in Keswick, and there’s a lot of overlap.
Where is the Las Vegas Museum of Illusions?
The Las Vegas Museum of Illusions is the largest in the franchise chain, and opened in August 2023. It is located on the Strip, in that strange nothing zone between the Cosmopolitan and the Shops at Crystals. It is, unfortunately, very close to the ARTE Museum. And it sadly pales in comparison.
Ticket prices are slightly cheaper – $40 if you book online, $45 on the door. But it doesn’t have the same sort of wow factor.
In other cities, this might not be an issue. But in Las Vegas, there is so much on offer, much of it on a scale unlike anywhere else. The Museum of Illusions, therefore, seems a little old hat.
More things to do in Las Vegas
For more things to do in Las Vegas, head here.
Other Las Vegas articles on Planet Whitley include:
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- Which is the best Las Vegas Cirque du Soleil show for children?
- What is the cheapest Las Vegas Cirque du Soleil show?
- Which hotels are on the Las Vegas Monorail?
- How to see the Hoover Dam from the water.
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