With thousands of locations worldwide, McDonald’s is one of the largest fast-food franchises. The Golden Arches has successfully set up post in more than 100 countries and some of the wildest places you can conceive of.
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Today, the McDonald’s brand is one of the most recognisable in the world and although you might think you would be able to spot its restaurant building from a mile away, you might have to reconsider this when you view the list of some of the most unique McDonald’s restaurant locations in the world. While some of these are conceptually unique with Instagram-worthy settings, others are downright bizarre.
If you love to check out what McDonald's locations and menu abroad looks like whenever you travel, here are some of its locations in different countries that you must add to your travel bucket-list.
Read also:McDonald's: Iran, Bermuda, North Korea...these countries have banned the fast food chain
Taupo, New Zealand
If you are ever in New Zealand, make sure to visit Taupo for one of the most unique McDonald’s dining experiences in the world. Here, customers can have their McDonald’s food inside a decommissioned Douglas DC-3 plane! As reported by Business Insider, the plane is almost in its original state, except for the owner adding features such as McDonald’s Golden Arches and tables for diners.
Before becoming part of the McDonald’s chain, the plane carried passengers for South Pacific Airlines of New Zealand during the 1960s. Once its travel days were over, it found its home in the town of Taupo as a restaurant!
After people shared images of this unique McDonald’s location on Instagram and Flickr, it is now a popular spot for tourists and local people alike, with visitors flocking in droves to get a look inside and find out what eating inside a fast-food aircraft is really like.
Dallas, Texas
As reported by Eat This, Not That!, Dallas Texas has a McDonald’s which is unique for how it showcases one of McDonald’s iconic menu items: the McDonald’s Happy Meal. Indeed, this unique McDonald’s location is called the Happy Meal location, because the entire restaurant is designed in the image of a huge Happy Meal box!
Just imagine, a huge Happy Meal in the middle of a street! The inside of this fun location is like any other McDonald's but its furnished with wooden booths and chandeliers giving it a beautiful, upscale feel.
Roswell, New Mexico, USA
The city of Roswell in New Mexico has become an undeniable fixture in the canon surrounding aliens and UFO, ever since rumours started that an alien spacecraft crash-landed here in 1947. Irrespective of whether you believe that Roswell was the site for alien-human contact or not, you will definitely enjoy visiting the giant McDonald’s here which pays homage to this city’s UFO legend.
The McDonald’s in Roswell is built to resemble the image of a flying saucer or UFO. Inside the restaurant, along with the classic Golden Arches, there are features with alien themes, like metallic panels, bright UFO-inspired fluorescent lightings and flying rockets. Needless to say, this bizarre location has inspired many customers to visit there not just for the fast-food but also for the UFO experience.
Barstow, California, USA
Turns out, planes are not the only locomotive of choice when it comes the McDonald’s chain. In Barstow, California, the fast-food giant opened up a franchise inside old train carriages at Barstow Station on Route 66. Unused train cars have been refurbished here to have dining carts fitted in, making visitors feel as if they are travelling in trains back in the mid-20th century while eating their hamburgers and fries. This is definitely another location which is a total hit on Instagram.
The train-turned restaurants is also a way for the owners to acknowledge and honour the local history of the town, which is a major transportation junction and has a rich locomotive history.
Melbourne, Australia
McDonald’s franchises have also been opened in some very old and beautiful buildings with interesting histories including old banks, post-offices and even former private residences. The Clifton Hill suburb of Melbourne is home to one of the such off-beat McDonald’s building in the world. The distinctive building captures the view of passers-by through its distinctive ornate Art Deco- style architecture, which is both beautiful and peculiar. To add another layer of quirkiness to this location, it is right next to an operational brothel.
Sources used:
Business Insider: ‘A McDonald's in New Zealand lets diners eat inside a decommissioned airplane’
Eat This, Not That!: ‘The Most Unique McDonald's Restaurants in the World’
Love Food: 'The world's most unusual McDonald's restaurants