America's Best Attraction Is A Florida Icon That's Even Better Than Disney World

NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida is a larger-than-life travel experience, so much so that it now rates as America's best tourist attraction. The visitor complex came in at number one on the U.S. list this year in Tripadvisor's annual Travelers' Choice Awards, where it's earned over 20,000 five-star reviews as of October 2025. The awards were announced in a press release and determined "based on the quality and quantity of traveler reviews and ratings posted on Tripadvisor over a 12-month period." On the worldwide list, only two European landmarks, Sagrada Familia in Barcelona and the Eiffel Tower in Paris, ranked ahead of Kennedy Space Center. Meanwhile, Disney World — arguably the more famous Florida attraction — was nowhere to be found on either list.

Located on Merritt Island (adjacent to the U.S. Space Force station at Cape Canaveral, with which it's also identified), Kennedy Space Center is one of those unique experiences you can only have in Florida. Where else are you going to see a working spaceport — maybe even watch a rocket launch — on a day trip from the theme park mecca of Orlando? It only takes an hour by car to get to Kennedy Space Center from Disney World. You don't even have to do the driving, since Disney's Swan Hotel is a pickup location for Gray Line's Kennedy Space Center transportation service.

While there are other NASA field centers, Kennedy Space Center is the only one where human space flights, including the historic Apollo missions, have launched since 1968. Seeing those achievements writ large in more than one outsized spacecraft elevates the visitor complex, which still functions like a Florida theme park in some ways. It has attractions, even motion simulators, along with paid parking, annual passes, discount offers for Florida residents, and more.

Kennedy Space Center features its own on-site, behind-the-gates bus tour, which is included with admission. Some Tripadvisor users recommend doing the tour first thing in the morning, since it averages three hours, and the line for the bus tends to get longer as the day goes on. This tour is how you will see facilities like NASA's 525-foot-tall Vehicle Assembly Building and Launch Complex 39A, where moon missions achieved liftoff, and where SpaceX now conducts rocket launches. In the Apollo/Saturn V Center, you can walk under the biggest rocket ever flown, see a lunar module that landed on the moon, and touch a moon rock that astronauts brought back.

Another can't-miss attraction at Kennedy Space Center is the Space Shuttle Atlantis. This shuttle, which flew over 30 missions between 1985 and 2011, remains on permanent display with its payload doors open, as they would be when undocking from the International Space Station. The Atlantis exhibit includes the Shuttle Launch Experience, a simulator where guests can vicariously experience liftoff and a moment of weightlessness. On a more somber note, there's also a memorial to the astronauts who died in the Challenger and Columbia shuttle disasters.

In the visitor complex, you can see the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame, too. The Astronaut Encounter attraction allows you to meet a real astronaut who's been to space and ask them questions during a live presentation. Separately priced add-ons like the Microgravity Simulator in the Astronaut Training Experience will take you further down the rabbit hole at Kennedy Space Center. The Explore Tour, another optional add-on that you can do instead of the regular bus tour, features less wait time and more stops and photo ops en route to the Apollo/Saturn V Center.

The Saturn V rocket is taller than the Statue of Liberty, while Kennedy Space Center ranked ahead of four other New York attractions on the U.S. top 10 in the Travelers' Choice Awards. This includes the Empire State Building, Central Park, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In terms of Florida attractions, what's more surprising is that Kennedy Space Center rates higher than the world's most-visited theme park, the Magic Kingdom. On the corresponding list of America's 15 best amusement and water parks, the Magic Kingdom ranked second to Tennessee's Dollywood, while Hollywood Studios — which rang in 2024 as the worst-rated Disney theme park — ranked fourth.

Disney World's two other theme parks, Epcot and Animal Kingdom, didn't even make the top 15. The reason for their exclusion could be a combination of factors, including fewer thrill rides and the prevailing sentiment that Disney vacations are way too expensive now. Whatever the case, it's clear from perusing some of those 15,000 five-star reviews on Tripadvisor that many vacationers prefer Kennedy Space Center as an alternative to Disney World.

More than one reviewer describes Kennedy Space Center (KSC) as "better than Disney," recommending it as a family trip that will appeal to kids and adults alike. One parent wrote, "My son smiled and enjoyed himself more in just 1 visit to KSC than he has the combined 2 weeks at Disney." Another, who said their 9-year-old "loved the visit," wrote that they "would visit KSC over Disney or any other theme park." It can be fun to indulge in some escapist fantasy at a castle park with overgrown mice, but reviewers say there's also enjoyment to be had seeing "history brought to life" at Kennedy Space Center.