Unusual Tours in Historic Prisons

Locations in this article:  Philadelphia, PA

Next time you’re visiting a city, before locking down a typical tour, get locked up! Alcatraz isn’t the only prison you can visit.

Make like Pretty Boy Floyd and visit the Missouri State Penitentiary.

Tours include viewing an old gas chamber and learning the history of the infamous 1954 prison riots.

Or you can go say hello to “Old Sparky.”

Don’t worry, the electric chair is no longer in use but it’s on display at the West Virginia State Penitentiary.

This former prison is known for its executions, stabbings, and riots.

Some visitors not only get to look into these cells, but get inside of them and see what life looks like from behind bars.

Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has expanded its tours to include two new options.

You can feel like The Warden with the TowerCam, which gives visitors a chance to remotely control cameras inside the center guard tower.

Or you what it is like to be a prisoner with the new Prison Inside a Prison tour.

It takes visitors into the Cellblock 14 punishment cells, which are windowless cells in a tunnel known as the Klondike.

Now that’s a Klondike bar you don’t want.

For more travel adventures, check out the Peter’s Travel Detective Blog: The World’s Most-Traveled Man, Maxjet & Prison Hotels.

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