International Spy Museum

Some people complain that the Spy Museum is campy, but I think it’s a blast. It’s more tightly orchestrated than most museums; you start in a room where you are told to pick and memorize a cover identity, which you will be quizzed on later through interactive exhibits. More fun are the exhibits that allow you to polish your spy skills, such as finding the two H-6 bombers in an actual satellite photograph from China, or learning the sound of a sub on sonar. There are short clips on subjects like how to pick a lock, along with plenty of vintage spy paraphernalia, much of it from the Cold War era: a cufflink compass, a camera disguised as a cigarette lighter, examples of invisible ink, a tweed coat used by the KGB in the 1970s with a camera hidden inside one of the buttons (look closely and you can see the lens) and “spy dust” used by the KGB to track the movements of U.S. officials in the 1980s. While kids crawl through an actual airshaft and practice eavesdropping, their parents can ogle James Bond’s tricked out Aston Martin. Tip: Save yourself a wait by buying your tickets online ahead of time. Tickets are time specific (e.g. 9 A.M.).