Meow Wolf Santa Fe Review: Is House of Eternal Return Worth It?

Meow Wolf’s House of Eternal Return art installation in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is not to be missed. It’s like an immersive, trippy art experiment combined with a playground for children and adults, united with an Alice-in-Wonderland-like acid trip, sprinkled with some escape room, and topped with an appropriate amount of funny. But with tickets ranging from $32 to $54 apiece, it begs the question: Is Meow Wolf worth it?

Kristen Cummings

Quirky & Cool, Kids & Family

New Mexico

September 5, 2021

September 25, 2026

A couple years earlier, the hubs, Jason, and I went to Meow Wolf for the first time while driving through Santa Fe, New Mexico, on our way back to Colorado from Havasu Falls. We went in curious, not knowing a ton about it, with an open mind and only moderate expectations. The experience was more than we could have hoped for. I struggle to even write about it because it was one of those “you had to be there” kind of experiences. No description can really do it justice.

In April 2021, I decided to take my 19-year-old son, Aaron, to Meow Wolf. He had graduated from high school during quarantine, and I’d promised him that as soon as Meow Wolf opened back up, I would take him as a graduation present. We made a weekend out of it since Santa Fe was a seven-hour drive from home. This time, I knew what I was getting into. Aaron didn’t. And that gave me a chance to find out something else: Is Meow Wolf worth visiting a second time?

Going to Santa Fe to see all the art museums on Canyon Road is touristy. Having your mind warped by Meow Wolf’s immersive art experience is touristish.

A note about this review: I originally wrote this article after my second visit in April 2021, when COVID restrictions significantly changed the Meow Wolf experience. I’ve since updated it to remove the outdated restrictions and focus on what House of Eternal Return is actually like, whether it’s worth the price, and whether it’s worth visiting more than once.

Planning a Colorado trip? Read my Meow Wolf Denver review →

Meow Wolf’s House of Eternal Return, at its core, is an art museum. Nobody finds an art museum more boring than I do, I assure you, so don’t let that turn you off. It’s basically an art museum without rules. The artists don’t have limitations when creating, and the visitors don’t have rules when experiencing it. Want to touch everything? Go ahead. Want to fully immerse yourself in the mysterious storyline and try to solve the riddle? Knock yourself out. Want to climb around and play? You can. Want to sit quietly and just observe? That’s ok, too. 

The museum starts in the front yard of a large house. Nothing unusual about it (except, of course, that there is a large, life-size house inside of a museum.) Entering the house, you can explore the living room, kitchen, laundry room, or upstairs to explore some bedrooms. There are clues about the Selig family who once resided there and have now disappeared in each room. If solving this mystery interests you, you can spend hours reading through files and journals, clicking through computer files, or thumbing through photos, hand-written letters, and newspaper articles. This aspect of the installation feels similar to an escape room, and the storyline is reminiscent of the Netflix series Stranger Things.

The more you explore the house, the more odd things you find until, at some point, you are spit out into another dimension. This may happen because you walked through the refrigerator or entered through a clothes dryer. Or maybe you found a moving wall. This dimension is colorful, strange, and mind-bending. One with no rules. A world oozing with creativity, inspiration and awe. This is where the art and fun really begin.

House of Eternal Return boasts 70 rooms of art, each completely different from the other. Guests are encouraged to explore them in any order or way they want and are also encouraged to touch and interact with the art. There are treehouses, a treetop retro camper, a bus turned on its backside to be experienced lying down, mirror rooms, laser rooms, music rooms, recycled trash turned into beautiful mosaics, dinosaur bones in the arctic that have musical instrument rib cages, hamsters appearing in strange places… you get the idea. And those are just the things that can be put into words. 

The awe and wonder that someone feels when going to Meow Wolf for the first time are hard to beat, so I wondered whether it would even be fun going a second time. I will say it is worth going a second time! First, it was fun to go with someone who had never been, to watch them explore and experience it for the first time. I told Aaron all about it and showed him photos, but it’s not the same as seeing it in person.

Second, there was an entire wing of the museum that my husband and I never found when we were there the first time. We literally missed about an eighth of the museum and had no idea. I was so excited to find these new rooms that they were worth the price of admission themselves. Meow Wolf also periodically updates some of the rooms, so there is almost always something new to discover.

The first time I went, there was so much to take in that I was experiencing everything on a macro level. Meow Wolf can be joyfully overwhelming, in fact. The second time, I noticed the smaller details and weird little nuances I’d walked right past before. There was somehow even more to see.

So, hands down, it’s worth going a second time. And probably worth returning every couple of years, at least.

A quick heads-up: Some links on Touristish are affiliate links, which means I may earn a commission if you book or buy through them, at no extra cost to you. It helps support my travel habit (and this site). Affiliate relationships don’t determine what I recommend. I only share places and products I genuinely think are worth your time and money.

Things worth doing in Santa Fe

A quick heads-up: Some links on Touristish are affiliate links, which means I may earn a commission if you book or buy through them, at no extra cost to you. It helps support my travel habit (and this site). Affiliate relationships don’t determine what I recommend. I only share places and products I genuinely think are worth your time and money.