UPDATED Every Meow Wolf: Reviewed

Our Ratings of Every Open Meow Wolf

We’ve been to all FOUR permanent [open] Meow Wolf exhibits in the US and this is our non-spoiler review of each. We visited each Meow Wolf installation in the order it opened starting with Santa Fe.

Here we rate:

• Meow Wolf House of Eternal Return in Santa Fe
• Omega Mart in Las Vegas
• Convergence Station in Denver
• The Real Unreal in Grapevine (Dallas).

UPDATED! An earlier version of this review only included Santa Fe, Las Vegas and Denver. We visited Grapevine (Dallas) shortly after opening and are awaiting the Houston opening scheduled for 2024 and the very newly announced Los Angeles, California installation.

If you want to skip right to the rankings, click here

What is Meow Wolf?

When was the last time you had an inter-dimensional neon fever dream?

Meow Wolf is THE best immersive art experience in the US. They are masters at what they do. These intricate and bizarre artscapes makes those instagram museums look like your crayon drawings from kindergarten. It’s like if you could walk around in the real-life version of the movie Labyrinth with David Bowie.

Each project is an artist-centric 4-dimensional interactive exhibit integrating sculpture, light, sound and an underlying storyline. The storylines are always fantastical and have something to do with other dimensions.

But what can you expect while you’re there? The exhibit itself is a maze of interconnected rooms each with a theme and an artistic vision. Some of these rooms are huge and contain an entire house, other time they are the size of a closet. There are easter eggs, or hidden surprises, throughout the show and people go back multiple times to try and unlock more of the secrets.

Meow Wolf History

Fun Fact: Omega Mart in Las Vegas was inspired by a Meow Wolf project in 2012 where artists collaborated with local students to create strange and hilarious new food products like “Powdered Dreams,” and “Celebrity Backwash.” See a timeline of Meow Wolf projects here.

Meow Wolf as an artist collective dates back to 2008 but the flagship Meow Wolf permanent installation opened in Santa Fe in 2016. The reaction to House of Eternal Return was swift: rave reviews from national media suddenly had people flying to Sante Fe just to experience this one-of-a-kind art experience.

Our mission is to inspire creativity in people’s lives through art, exploration, and play so that imagination will transform our worlds.

via the Meow Wolf website

Due to the overwhelming reviews and the positive impact on its home city of Santa Fe, it only took about 2 years for rumors to circulate about new Meow Wolfs in new cities. Despite a global pandemic (you know the one) two more Meow Wolfs opened in 2021 followed shortly by two more announced for Texas in 2023 & 2024.

The original Meow Wolf holds artwork from about 200 artists and each subsequent installation employs hundreds more with an emphasis on hiring makers local to the exhibit.

My favorite Meow Wolf fun fact is that their name was selected by throwing a bunch of words in a hat and then selecting two at random.

Meow Wolf Tips

1. Plan for at least 2 hours inside each Meow Wolf exhibit.
2. Surprisingly, there are bars and/or restaurants inside each Meow Wolf close to the entrance.
3. To avoid crowds, try to go on off days and off hours. This means Monday – Wednesday and earlier in the day is better.
4. To avoid children, check for adult only nights which they call “adult-iverse”
5. I got this advice from a Meow Wolf host: the first time you go to any given exhibit, you don’t need to get the pass card. Enjoy the show for what it is and get the pass card (which unlocks extra content) on your second visit.
6. If you see a door handle, try it. You never know what it could open. BONUS: sometimes doors don’t look like doors at all.

Meow Wolf Santa Fe (the OG) Review

House of Eternal Return

FACTS: Opened in 2016, this is the first permanent Meow Wolf exhibit. House of Eternal Return is 20,000 sq ft and over 70 rooms of twists and turns (literally) and bizarre new worlds flawlessly executed by sculptors and artists. There’s a bar and seating area inside the entrance which also serves snacks. The exhibit also houses a 400 person music venue called Fancy Town.

STORYLINE: A family mysteriously disappears into the ether while performing scientific experiments in an attempt to contact the dead. It seems that they discovered an “anomoly” which can tear the fabric of space-time and which now permeates their home. It appears that the government is behind a coverup of what really happened here.

MEOW WOLF SANTA FE REVIEW: Pay attention to how remarkable this experience is. You quite literally enter the installation in the real world (trying hard not to post spoilers here) and are whisked away to far off realms in ways that are surprising and brilliant. This is everything you want from a grown-up funhouse including narrow spiral stairways up to a tree fort and magical realms hidden behind unassuming closet doors.

Meow Wolf Las Vegas Review

Omega Mart

FACTS: Omega Mart opened in January 2021 inside the entertainment complex Area 15. Explore a maze of 60 rooms in this 52,000 sq ft space, including a parody super market which is your passageway into the storyline. There’s also a bar connected to the back corner of the grocery store that serves themed drinks.

STORYLINE: The sketchy owners of a megacorporation have stumbled on an inter-dimensional power that the call “the source” to make and sell strange dystopic food products. There’s something nefarious going on in the background and you can collect hints to try to uncover the conspiracy.

MEOW WOLF LAS VEGAS REVIEW: The grocery store as the gateway into this storyline is brilliant. We spent at least 30 minutes in this fascinating entrance room alone. The interior spaces are a good mixture of interactive light and sound shows and cool art spaces. This Meow Wolf is much more focused on storyline so many rooms are dedicated to laboratories or computer stations around the mystery. If you want to really enjoy that part, you’ll need more than 2 hours to follow the clues.

Meow Wolf Denver Review

Convergence Station

FACTS: Convergence Station opened in September 2021 in a custom-designed building curiously wedged into a busy intersection of two major highways. It’s the largest Meow Wolf so far with 80 rooms over 90,000 sq ft and 4 floors. The lower entrance level has a mini cafeteria-style restaurant. There’s also a music venue housed in the building called The Perplexiplex.

STORYLINE: A mysterious cosmic event has taken place which scrambled various distant worlds and maybe also contains the soul of an alien. Convergence Station is at the center of this mashup as a multi-dimensional meeting place. Luckily, the Quantum Department of Transportation has built a portal connecting earth to these new worlds.

MEOW WOLF DENVER REVIEW: As a huge fan of dystopian city renderings in movies, I loved the main room (Convergence Station) and how it connects to the various worlds of the storyline. The grand installations of the space cathedral and the tree house world brought me back to our Meow Wolf Santa Fe visit but somehow grander. Despite the massive footprint, there are still those tiny surprises that we love from Meow Wolf.

Also fun fact: Lincoln’s Denver cousins helped erect this building!

Meow Wolf Grapevine/Dallas Review

The Real Unreal

FACTS: The Real Unreal in Grapevine, Texas opened in July 2023 in a gutted Bed Bath & Beyond …Beyond… This makes me happier than I can put into words. It’s a 30,000 square foot space with 30 rooms. In the massive lobby is a cafe featuring snacks and drinks by Texas-based makers, plus a great gift shop. Per usual, The exhibit also houses a 300 person music venue called The Neon Kingdom.

STORYLINE: When a kid in a suburban neighborhood suddenly goes missing from his home, his family starts to wonder if his imaginary friend is as imaginary as they thought. This house, which has sheltered three generations, seems extraordinary in the literal sense. But it also may have swallowed its inhabitants and portaled them to another time and place.

MEOW WOLF GRAPEVINE REVIEW: If you’ve already visited Meow Wolf Santa Fe, you’ll find The Real Unreal pretty familiar. Some of the best parts of House of Eternal Return make an appearance in Grapevine in a nod from the creators, but it left us a eager for something new and different. The classic Meow Wolf tricks are tried and true and will be fun for those who haven’t been to Santa Fe in a minute. But it feels more like rereading a favorite book rather than discovering a new and alien world.

Meow Wolf Complete Ratings

So… which Meow Wolf is our favorite? Starting with our number one pick:

#1 Meow Wolf Santa Fe

Maybe it was because it was our first, but we still like the original Meow Wolf the best. The insane attention to detail and the little easter eggs hidden throughout are unrivaled. Santa Fe has the benefit of being a work in progress since 2016 which means that they’ve continued adding to and perfecting the installation for years.

After Santa Fe, I will forever be suspicious of household appliances (IYKYK) in case they lead to an inter-dimensional portal. This Meow Wolf does the best job of transporting you from the world we know into a completely different realm.

#2 Meow Wolf Denver

We were happy to see that Denver maintained the artist-centric, handmade feel that we loved in the original Meow Wolf. And still the interactivity is next level – look out for the light show at the cathedral and the robot seats. Plus, this thing is massive. I’m still convinced that I haven’t seen it all.

One of my favorite parts of MW Santa Fe is a small alley meant to look like a futuristic city and in Denver that concept gets blown up into a central part of the overall show. There is some really beautiful craftsmanship in these rooms and concepts that are really fun to see in real life.

#3 Meow Wolf Vegas

It’s important to note that we still really liked Meow Wolf Las Vegas. But we both feel that it’s more about the story line and less about the art. The rooms are heavy on interactivity, which is great, but it leans into the slickness and loses a bit of the handmade feel.

That said, Omega Mart itself – the entrance area to Meow Wolf modeled to look like a dystopian grocery store – is incredible. It felt like stepping into the movie Idiocracy. I love the brilliance and cynicism that comes through this particular installation.

#4 Meow Wolf Grapevine/Dallas

This one is complicated. Meow Wolf Grapevine is beautiful and we loved that it’s a throwback to the OG Santa Fe location. But because it is so reminiscent of the original, it’s hard not to judge it against the original. In that sense, the Santa Fe installation has been actively improved, added to, and altered for 8 years and has a depth and texture that Grapevine will achieve in time but doesn’t have quite yet.

It feels unfair to rank this one last, but unforch that’s the nature of rankings. Here’s what this ranking means practically: If you have only ever been to Meow Wolf Santa Fe, then I would recommend not going to Grapevine next.

If you’re trying to figure out which two Meow Wolfs to visit in your life, I would recommend choosing first between Santa Fe and Grapevine, and then choosing one additional location. And between Santa Fe and Grapevine, I slightly favor the first.

Final Note on Our Meow Wolf Reviews:

And just to be perfectly clear, I would go back to every single Meow Wolf if given the chance. Just because we’re rating them in this review does not mean that any of them are not worth visiting.

See you after Houston!