The World’s Most Powerful Science Labs You Can Visit

From CERN to NASA, these real science labs around the world offer public tours. Step inside the places where discovery happens — no PhD or badge required.

Credit: Hertzog Samuel Joseph, CERN

Most people go to Paris for croissants. I once flew to Geneva to stare at a particle accelerator. Because tucked away behind barbed wire and bad cafeteria food, there are places on Earth where people are actually building the future. And, sometimes, they let you in.

This guide is for anyone who’s ever read a novel about a rogue physicist and thought: I’d like to see that in real life. From underground colliders to spaceflight training centers, these are real, ground-breaking and functioning science labs you can visit. In most cases, you just need some curiosity, a reservation, and a passport.

• For more obsessive genius energy 👉 here’s our list of fiction books about scientists that pair disturbingly well with this itinerary. Perfect reading before (or after) your lab visit. 

1. CERN (Geneva, Switzerland)

Credit: Brice Maximilien, CERN

CERN is the lab. The birthplace of the World Wide Web. The home of the Large Hadron Collider. The place where physicists smash particles at near light-speed just to see what happens. If you’ve ever cracked open a science thriller and thought, “no way this is real,” CERN is your reality check.

The best part? Visiting CERN is absolutely possible. Public tours include visits to operational control rooms, giant detectors that look like alien engines, and exhibitions explaining what the heck antimatter is (without making you feel dumb). If you’re lucky — and you plan well in advance — you might even get a spot on one of the limited underground tours, which take you inside the LHC facilities.

And while Geneva itself is polite and expensive, CERN is chaotic in the best way, with its multilingual hive of postdocs, caffeine, and whiteboards. You really don’t need to understand string theory to enjoy it.

How to visit: Tours are completely free but must be booked usually months in advance via the official website: visit.cern. Again, if you’re lucky, you can snag a rare underground visit when maintenance allows.

Requirements: Visitors must be at least 12 years old. Tours are offered in English and French. You’ll need ID, and closed shoes are required.

2. Super-Kamiokande (Hida, Japan)

Credit: sk.icrr.u-tokyo.ac.jp

Deep inside a mountain in Gifu Prefecture sits one of the most surreal scientific installations on Earth: Super-Kamiokande. It’s a giant underground tank filled with 50,000 tons of ultra-pure water and lined with over 11,000 photomultiplier tubes. Its job? Detect neutrinos — invisible, nearly massless particles that constantly pass through your body and basically everything else.

The science is complex. The vibe is science fiction. And while you can’t just walk into the detector chamber (radiation and all that), Super-K does run official, small-group tours that take you through the control facilities and surrounding research areas, all inside the actual Kamioka Mine.

How to visit: Tours are limited, available only once a month, and must be booked via the official SK website. English tours are offered occasionally, so check ahead. The observatory is managed by the University of Tokyo.

Requirements: Advanced registration required; tours last about 90 minutes and include safety gear for the mine. Not suitable for children or anyone with mobility issues, as it’s underground and still very much a lab.

3. Gran Sasso National Laboratory (L’Aquila, Italy)

Credit: WikiMedia

Beneath 1,400 meters of solid rock in central Italy, there’s a lab the size of a cathedral where scientists are trying to catch particles that barely exist. The Gran Sasso National Laboratory (LNGS) is also the largest underground physics lab in the world.

Built to escape cosmic radiation, Gran Sasso is where neutrinos, dark matter, and theoretical physics collide (sometimes literally). You won’t get into every experiment hall, but guided tours take you inside the actual underground complex, alongside the experiments themselves. There’s something deeply surreal about walking through a concrete tunnel inside a mountain, then stepping into a room where scientists are chasing dark matter. It’s quiet, eerie, and unlike anything else in Italy.

How to visit: Public visits are offered throughout the year and must be arranged through the official INFN site. The lab also participates in science festivals and open days with extended access. Tours are free but require advance booking and security clearance.

Requirements: Valid ID is mandatory. No children under 14. Tours are typically in Italian, but English groups can be arranged. Helmets provided — yes, really.

4. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Pasadena, California, USA)

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

If you’ve ever screamed at your TV during a Mars rover landing, this is the room where most of the magic happened. JPL is precisely where robotic space exploration is designed, built, tested, and launched. From the Curiosity rover to the Europa Clipper, most of what we’ve sent to other planets started here.

And while JPL doesn’t let the general public roam around unsupervised (for obvious reasons), they do offer official tours that take you inside working mission control rooms, spacecraft assembly facilities, and the infamous Mars Yard — an outdoor testing ground where they simulate the Martian surface with rocks, dust, and robotic prototypes.

How to visit: Tours are free but highly limited and must be booked months in advance via the official portal: jpl.nasa.gov. They also host an annual open house event that draws thousands, and it’s worth timing your trip for.

Requirements: visitors must register with full ID info in advance. No one under 18 allowed. No backpacks or photography in some areas.

• Touring JPL? 👉 Here are California’s best weekend destinations to tack on before or after your brush with the future.

5. ITER (Cadarache, France)

Credit: iter.org

This one’s still under construction, but don’t let that fool you — ITER is the world’s most ambitious nuclear fusion experiment. Think of it as humanity’s attempt to build a tiny, contained sun on Earth. The lab brings together 35 countries to answer one question: can we produce unlimited, clean energy by fusing atoms instead of splitting them?

And while the reactor itself won’t be fired up until the late 2020s, tours are already happening. Visitors can see the massive assembly hall, the reactor pit, and the growing infrastructure of what will soon be one of the most powerful labs ever built. You’ll be walking through an active megaproject, with cranes, welders, and hard-hatted plasma physicists. Visiting is basically like getting a backstage pass to the future.

How to visit: Public tours are available for individuals, schools, and groups via the official Iter site. Tours are free and typically last 2 hours. The facility is located in southern France, not far from Aix-en-Provence.

Requirements: Visitors must register in advance and bring government-issued ID. Ages 16 and up only. Closed-toe shoes required.

• If you’re heading to ITER, it pairs surprisingly well with this 👉 7-day South of France itinerary. Fusion, rosé, repeat.

6. ALMA Observatory (Atacama Desert, Chile)

Credit: Alex Pérez, almaobservatory.org

If the previous labs made you feel small, this one makes you feel microscopic. The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array — ALMA — is the most powerful radio telescope on Earth, perched 5,000 meters above sea level on the Chajnantor Plateau. It’s where astronomers peer deep into cosmic dust clouds to study galaxy formation, black holes, and the chemical fingerprints of distant planets.

ALMA is less about wires and glowing detectors and more about giant white antennae pointed toward the cold silence of space, 66 of them, to be exact. They move in eerie sync across the desert, listening to signals older than Earth.

How to visit: ALMA offers free public tours every Saturday and Sunday morning to its Operations Support Facility (at 2,900 meters). You’ll see live control rooms, the antenna assembly area, and labs where scientists monitor the array in real time. Tours depart from San Pedro de Atacama and must be booked here: almaobservatory.org.

Requirements: Registration opens every Saturday at 9 a.m. (Chile time) for tours two weeks in advance. The high-altitude Array Operations Site is not open to the public for safety reasons, but the support facility is immersive and staffed by real researchers.

7. Baikonur Cosmodrome (Baikonur, Kazakhstan)

Credit: Wikimedia

This is it: the world’s first and still largest space launch facility. Baikonur is where Sputnik launched, where Yuri Gagarin took off, and where cosmonauts (and now astronauts) still board Soyuz rockets to reach the International Space Station. It’s not a science lab in the traditional sense, but something stranger: a functioning, Soviet-legacy launch complex that looks like a Cold War time capsule and still sends humans into orbit.

And here’s the twist: you can go. With advance planning and a little paperwork, civilians can attend actual rocket launches. You’ll tour the facilities, visit the launchpad, see crew rollouts, and stand on the very ground where space history was made and continues to be made.

How to visit: Baikonur is accessible only via licensed tour operators who handle the permits and logistics. Launch tours are built around the Soyuz schedule and must be booked months in advance via the specialty agency BaikonurTour. 

Requirements: Russian visa and Kazakh entry clearance may be needed (varies by citizenship). Expect background checks, long-distance transfers, and desert heat.

8. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (Menlo Park, California, USA)

Credit: Wikimedia, Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

SLAC is home to one of the longest linear accelerators in the world — a 3.2-kilometer beamline that stretches underground like a buried sci-fi weapon. Operated by Stanford and the U.S. Department of Energy, SLAC conducts high-energy experiments in particle physics, X-ray science, and cosmology that rival anything happening at CERN.

And yes, they let you in. Free public tours include the facility’s beam control center, experimental halls where the action happens, and massive detector equipment that would look at home on a Marvel set. The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) is also here — a device that produces X-ray laser pulses so powerful they can image atoms in motion.

SLAC doesn’t pretend to be cute or family-friendly. It’s sprawling, complex, and unapologetically focused on physics that pushes the edge of human knowledge. You leave with your brain buzzing and a strange urge to go rewatch Interstellar.

How to visit: Tours are offered once a month and must be booked through the official site: slac.stanford.edu. Slots fill quickly. Tours last about 2 hours and are led by staff scientists.

Requirements: Government-issued ID required for all visitors 18+. Flat shoes recommended — you’ll be walking across some serious concrete. Cameras allowed, but no touching the particle beams.

9. LIGO (Livingston, Louisiana or Hanford, Washington, USA)

Credit: LIGO Hanford Observatory

LIGO doesn’t look like much, just a few white buildings and two long tunnels stretching across flat American terrain. But inside, it’s doing something no other lab on the planet can: measuring ripples in spacetime. Yes, actual gravitational waves. The kind predicted by Einstein and finally detected here in 2015.

There are two identical LIGO facilities in the U.S., both of which offer public access. You can tour the real, functioning site, including the control room where scientists wait for the universe to wobble. Staff and docents are often researchers themselves, which means the science doesn’t get watered down.

LIGO is not underground or futuristic-looking like other sites on this science labs on this list, but it is the place where the fabric of the universe was caught flinching. If you’re into subtle, mind-breaking science, this is a must-see.

How to visit: Public tours and open house events are offered at both LIGO Livingston and LIGO Hanford through the official website: ligo.caltech.edu. Group tours can be scheduled in advance. Some events also include access to the vacuum systems and interferometer areas.

Requirements: Tours are free but must be booked in advance. No technical background needed. Great for adults and older kids. Expect strong security, because this is still a working federal research site.

10. IceCube Neutrino Observatory (South Pole, Antarctica)

Credit: icecube.wisc.edu

If you’re looking for remote, extreme, and mind-bending, this is the one. IceCube isn’t just underground, it’s under ice. A full kilometer beneath the Antarctic surface, a cubic kilometer of crystal-clear ice has been wired with more than 5,000 sensors to detect neutrinos fired from the farthest reaches of the universe. It’s the world’s largest neutrino detector, and it makes every other lab look… cozy?

The U.S. Antarctic Program allows a limited number of civilian visitors to Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station each year, typically through guided expeditions, research support roles, or programs like Antarctic Artists and Writers. While IceCube isn’t a tourism operation, it is possible to tour the observatory infrastructure and meet the scientists working on-site, if you’ve got the stamina, funding, and possibly frostbite insurance.

How to visit: Civilian access to the South Pole is extremely limited. Start with the U.S. Antarctic Program and look into partnerships, fellowships, or private logistics companies offering pole access (e.g., Antarctic Logistics & Expeditions).

Requirements: You’ll need medical clearance, serious planning, and a budget that makes CERN look like a bus stop. This is not for casual tourists, but if you’re committed, it’s the ultimate science pilgrimage.

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