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The Steampunk Explorer’s City Guides have multiple functions. For local residents, they serve as guides to local cultural attractions and retailers. For visitors from out of town, they serve as travel guides. They also provide links to regional steampunk and fandom groups.
Looking for a place to hang out with other steampunk fans? Check out the Eat & Drink section, or perhaps take a group to a local science or history museum. Attending a steampunk or sci-fi convention in a new city? You can find local places to visit when you’re not busy with convention activities.
The guides currently include listings of more than 5,000 locations in 12 categories. Few are actually steampunk-themed locations. Instead, these are places likely to be of interest to steampunks, or sci-fans in general. Some are places where steampunk creators can draw inspiration.
The Sections
Amusements is a new section that includes theme parks and escape rooms.
The Arts & Crafts sections include local art museums and galleries, along with places that offer 3D printing and other fabrication services.
In Books & Comics, you'll find information about retailers of books, comics, games, and related items.
In the Emporia sections, you'll find listings of retail outlets, including antique malls, vintage apparel shops, costume shops, art supply stores, thrift stores, and purveyors of architectural salvage.
Food & Drink includes information about tea houses and steampunk-themed restaurants.
Ghosts & Mysteries includes local ghost tours, cemeteries, and places that are alleged to be haunted.
Higher Education has information about colleges and universities. The listings include information about academic libraries, which often provide extensive resources for historical research.
The History sections include museums, historic houses and other sites that focus on life in the 19th century and other past eras.
Local Guides are listings of regional entertainment, travel and paranormal guides.
The Science & Technology sections include railroad, aviation, medical and science museums. You'll also find history museums with significant exhibits on industry and technology.
In Groups (formerly Societies), you'll find information about local organizations, including steampunk, science-fiction and Burning Man groups, as well as groups for writers, artists, and cosplayers.
Finally, Steamiest Places is a "best of" section highlighting places likely to be of greatest interest to steampunks. In the other sections, the "steamiest" places are identified by a gear icon. The Steamiest Places section compiles all of those attractions in a single location.
Changes in the 2025 Redesign
The biggest change is that we went through the entire database (more than 5,000 listings) to verify accuracy. We last checked these listings in 2018, and many locations have since closed or moved. The listings are now much more accurate than they were in the old design.
As noted above, we’ve added the new Amusements category, and the Societies section is now Groups.
We've expanded the Ghosts & Mysteries sections to include cemeteries.
We’ve dropped the listings for zoos and aquariums. They seemed to be of marginal relevance, and dropping them meant we have fewer listings to track.
Changes to regions: We now have a separate section for locations in Orange County, California. They were previously in the Los Angeles section.
The "New Jersey" section is now called "North Jersey." It includes locations in northern and central New Jersey – the portions of the state in the New York City metro area. Locations in South Jersey are now in the Philadelphia section.
The Philadelphia section has also been expanded to include the Lehigh Valley area (Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton).
The Pittsburgh section has been expanded to cover a larger portion of Western Pennsylvania.
The Austin section has been expanded to cover other locations in Central Texas, including Waco.
The Houston section has been expanded to cover more of East Texas.
The Cleveland section has been expanded to cover more of northern Ohio.
Tips for Using the Guides
We've made every effort to ensure the accuracy of information here, but before traveling to any attraction, it's always a good idea to check the website to ensure that the place is open and that the address is correct.
Keep in mind that many locations are open seasonally or only on certain days of the week.
Inclusion of a listing (especially the for-profit establishments) does not constitute an endorsement. We've personally visited only a small percentage of these places. Due diligence is always warranted.
