Is anybody out there? Cracking mysteries of the world's UFO hotspots

There are numerous different accounts, but according to the exhibits at the city's International UFO Museum and Research Center, the overall narrative went something like this... ranch foreman William Brazel found strange debris in a field from what looked like a crash site and delivered it to the local air base. The air base then issued a press release saying it had retrieved a crashed flying disc. Cue media frenzy. The very next day the army retracted the release saying it was actually just fragments from a weather balloon.

Of course, there's much more to it than this, including compelling eye-witness accounts, death-bed confessions and sworn testimonials from many of those involved. But there are so many conflicting reports, it's impossible to discern what's fact from what's fiction. What I hadn't realised is that until the museum opened in 1992, Roswell wasn't a tourist destination - it was just an unremarkable city surrounded by featureless high plains whose main industries were farming, oil and gas. The museum put it on the UFO tourism map and the community has enthusiastically jumped on the bandwagon.

Approach from the south and you'll get your first dose of alien exuberance at the Welcome to Roswell sign, which is accompanied by a surreal collection of cut-outs showing a group of locals offering apple pie and a jump start to the mystified-looking alien occupants of a crashed flying saucer.

It's a taste of things to come, because once you hit the city's main drag, it's hard to find a business that isn't alien-themed. There's a neon-lit McDonald's in the shape of a spaceship, an alien vape store, an alien-adorned tyre depot and a Dunkin' drive-thru whose sign is held up by an unusually muscular extraterrestrial (why are most aliens so skinny?). Heck, even the street lights have alien faces.

In terms of notable attractions, the International UFO Museum and Research Center is the main drawcard. And it presents a compelling case that there was indeed more to the Roswell Incident than just a downed weather balloon. There's a detailed timeline with photos, newspaper clippings and testimonials from retired officials saying they recovered alien bodies from the wreckage. But then you round a corner to find a Disney-esque mock-up of the alien crash site plus a disturbing hospital scene showing an alien being dissected and the credibility rating tumbles. While the Roswell Incident is the museum's main focus, there are also exhibits on other famous extraterrestrial encounters plus a research library with more than 7000 UFO-related books.

Around the corner is the Roswell UFO Spacewalk, an immersive blacklight art experience where you walk through a creepy, neon-lit maze with a toy space gun shooting aliens and other bizarre creatures. This, I'm a little ashamed to admit, is a lot more fun than I expected, even if I am the oldest person in there by several decades.

Then there's Spaceport Roswell, a 20-minute virtual reality simulation where you can re-live the Roswell Incident from the perspective of the crash-landing aliens. Or experience that other fertile 20th-century source of conspiracy theories, the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing.

For the true believers, there's even an annual UFO Festival, a family-friendly three-day event in June with concerts, costume competitions and alien-inspired sustenance.

And then, of course, there are the countless souvenir shops, selling everything from alien mugs and T-shirts to snow globes and abduction jerky (yup, that's a thing). If you manage to leave Roswell without an alien-inspired trinket in your luggage, you have more self-restraint than me.

The good news is that the city has other worthwhile attractions for when you reach your ET threshold. Founded in 1935, the Roswell Museum and Art Center contains several interesting exhibits explaining the region's history as well as a wide range of art, including Native American, Spanish colonial and modernist works. One of the most interesting exhibits is a re-creation of the workshop of Dr. Robert Goddard, the scientist credited with building and launching the world's first liquid-fuelled rocket in 1926.

Even more unexpected is the Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art. Housed in a nondescript building a few blocks off the main drag, this 12-gallery space contains more than 500 artworks created by artists who have participated in the Roswell Artist-in-Residence Program. It's hard to overstate just what an impressive collection this is. I have a low tolerance for modern art but I find myself genuinely captivated by the eclectic and thought-provoking range of sculptures, drawings and paintings. Not only is the museum free but, refreshingly, there isn't an alien in sight.

Further afield, there are outdoor attractions too, such as Bottomless Lakes State Park, where you can swim, kayak or paddle board in one of nine emerald-coloured sinkholes. Meanwhile, wildlife enthusiasts will want to check out Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge, a vast wetland that's home to more than 100 species of dragonflies and more than 350 types of birds, including thousands of sandhill cranes who visit every year between September and December.

Predictably, Roswell has no shortage of alien-themed beers, burgers and burritos on offer and even if you've never stepped inside a McDonalds in your life, it's worth visiting the city's unique flying saucer-shaped outlet, particularly if you've got kids as they'll love the space-themed play room. However, at some point you're going to want to eat like an earthling again and fortunately there are places that will oblige.

Before leaving for the three-hour drive north to Santa Fe, I call into Martin's Capitol Cafe, a local institution that's been serving authentic New Mexican cuisine since 1989. Over a plate-filling sopapilla (a kind of pillowy tortilla) stuffed with minced beef, beans and cheese and then smothered with red and green chile sauce (delicious, by the way), I wonder what it would be like to run a business in a place that suddenly erupts into a world-famous tourist destination. I guess you'd have a choice - join the conga line and plaster your storefront with little green men or do as Martin's has and carry on as normal. Given how busy it is in here on a Monday lunchtime, it's a strategy that has clearly worked. Perhaps they didn't want to alienate the locals...

The writer travelled as a guest of New Mexico Tourism and Brand USA

According to the National UFO Reporting Center, California is your best bet in the US for a UFO encounter. Since 1974, the centre has received reports of 15,766 sightings in California, almost double the number in second place Florida (New Mexico doesn't even make the top 10). Joshua Tree National Park is a well-known hotspot, which some believe is due to its position on the 33rd parallel and the landscape's high mineral content. All of which could explain why California was chosen as the home for the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute, an organisation that is scouring the universe for signs of life using a large array of radio telescopes.

Over the decades, there have been so many UFO sightings in the small Chilean town of San Clemente, 275 kilometres south of Santiago, that in 2008 the Chilean tourist board created the country's first "UFO Trail". The 30-kilometre route squirms its way through the Andes mountains, passing many of the locations where encounters have been reported before finishing at El Enladrillado, a 2200-metre-high plateau of unusually uniform volcanic stone blocks, which some say is a landing spot for alien craft. Getting there is no trivial matter, though, given it involves an eight-hour walk or a four-hour horse ride through the Altos de Lircay National Reserve. Alternatively, you could just hitch a lift from a passing flying saucer.

Arguably the US's second-most famous UFO hotspot, Area 51 is a highly classified US Air Force base located roughly 160 kilometres north of Las Vegas. Over the years, countless UFO sightings have been reported in the region and many UFOlogists claim that it was to Area 51 that the alien remains from the Roswell crash were taken. While the closest you'll get to the top-secret base is to peer through its perimeter fence, you can still enjoy a healthy dose of alien-themed shenanigans on the Extraterrestrial Highway, a 157-kilometre route that winds its way through the Nevada high desert and includes a stop at the famous Little A'Le'Inn in the tiny town of Rachel.

Located 133 kilometres south of Tenant Creek on the Stuart Highway, Australia's self-proclaimed UFO Capital is a sad shell of its former fun-loving self. Having been repeatedly flooded over the last year, the kitschy, alien-themed Wycliffe Well Holiday Park has closed, which means visitors can no longer read its UFO sightings logbook or browse the ET-related newspaper clippings that once plastered its walls. However, that doesn't negate the profusion of sightings that have been reported in the area, dating back to when servicemen were stationed here during World War II. Apparently, May to October is peak UFO season, when locals claim that there can be a sighting every other day.

Reports of mysterious goings-on in the English county of Wiltshire date back to the 17th century, but things have really hotted up over the past 40 years with numerous videos capturing a strange set of lights (known as the "Warminster Thing") appearing over Cley Hill, a 240-metre-high Iron Age hill fort. The region is also known for its crop circles - large and often elaborate designs that mysteriously appear overnight in wheat fields. And, of course, let's not forget that Wiltshire is home to one of the UK's great archaeological enigmas - Stonehenge, a circular arrangement of colossal stones (some weighing 30 tonnes) that dates from around 3000BC. Ancient temple or alien landing pad? You decide.

According to locals in the small town of Iinomachi in the Fukushima region of north-eastern Japan, the 462-metre-high Mount Senganmori is the reason the area is such a UFO magnet. Sightings around the unusually symmetrical mountain date back to the 1970s and the town's International UFO Lab recorded 450 unexplained phenomena in 2022 alone. For visitors, the main drawcard is the Iino UFO Museum, located halfway up the mountain, which contains more than 3000 UFO-related exhibits, including what it claims are almost 1000 classified CIA documents. After the region was devasted by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, visitors are now returning in droves, including, it seems, those from other galaxies.

Getting there: Qantas flies from Sydney to Albuquerque via Los Angeles. From Albuquerque, Roswell is a three-hour drive.

Staying there: The alien-themed Roswell Inn is conveniently located on Main Street and offers clean, recently renovated rooms with fridges and microwaves. Rates start from about $US70 ($110) a night and include breakfast. See roswellinn.us

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