The Spookiest US Destinations for a Halloween Getaway
Petrifying Places
Halloween is a time to embrace fear and what better way to be spooked than by taking a trip to one of America’s most haunted destinations. Every city and town has its fair share of frightening history and alleged run-ins with the paranormal but these places are in a league of their own when it comes to offering a truly ghoulish getaway.
Salem, Massachusetts
Salem—most famous for its late 17th-century witch trials—is not only a must-visit city for fans of the Disney classic Hocus Pocus, who can tour some of the film’s iconic sites, but for anyone who lives for Halloween. One of the best ways to experience Salem’s spookiest places, including the Witch House, House of the Seven Gables and the Burying Point, is to take a candlelit walking tour. In addition to ghost tours, Salem offers visitors eerie witch and vampire walks.
New Orleans, Louisiana
Mardi Gras is certainly New Orleans’ biggest moment of the year but Halloween is a close second. Autumn visitors will have plenty of haunted tours to choose from led by knowledgeable and passionate guides and can also tour some of the city’s renowned historic cemeteries dating back centuries. Travelers can also check out voodoo shops and hair-raising attractions such as the Museum of Death, take in the famous Krewe of Boo parade or put their courage to the test inside one of New Orleans’ terrifying haunted houses.
Savannah, Georgia
Don’t let its charm fool you, Savannah is arguably the most haunted city in America. The Hostess City of the South has something to offer everyone this spooky season, even pets, who can participate in the annual Wag-O-Ween event downtown. Meanwhile, travelers can look forward to haunted bar crawls through the city’s historic district and embrace the creepy at a handful of eerie attractions, including the infamous Gribble House, where three women were brutally murdered in 1909.
Charleston, South Carolina
Savannah isn’t the only chilling city in the Southeast’s Lowcountry as historic Charleston will feature plenty of frights this fall in the form of Halloween festivals and bar crawls as well as ghost walks and the Boogieman Halloween Festival featuring performances by more than a dozen different bands. The city offers up an array of spooky attractions in the form of haunted hotels, old jails, church cemeteries and more.
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
The site of the deadliest battle of the Civil War, Gettysburg has been a hotspot for paranormal activity for decades. “About 10 percent of Gettysburg ghost encounters have been visual. Another two-thirds have been auditory, with sounds such as footsteps, cannon fire, hordes of men cheering, and intimate whisperings in one’s ear,” states VisitPA.com. Whether seeking out the “Woman in White” at Spangler’s Meadow or the spirit of Union soldier James Culbertson inside of the historic Gettysburg Hotel, visitors to this Pennsylvania town are in for a hair-raising experience this Halloween.
Sleepy Hollow, New York
Halloween is undoubtedly the best time to experience Sleepy Hollow, a charming and equally unnerving village on the Hudson River an hour north of New York City that served as the setting of Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” featuring the mythical Headless Horseman. Two-hundred years later, the village continues to embrace the legend, going all out for All Hallow’s Eve with evening lantern tours through the local cemetery and lighthouse, haunted hayrides and the not-to-be-missed Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze featuring more than 7,000 hand-carved pumpkins.
San Francisco, California
There might not be a spookier major city on the West Coast than San Francisco. Whether touring goosebump-inducing Alcatraz or diving into the disturbing and still unsolved case of the Zodiac Killer, the Bay Area offers plenty of horrifying sites for travelers who want to be afraid. Visitors can find creepy mansions, haunted hotels and maybe even encounter a ghost in places like Golden Gate Park, where past visitors have been spooked by the Lady Ghost of Stow Lake.
San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio boasts a plethora of haunted sites that visitors can experience on their own or on a guided after-dark tour. The iconic Alamo is a can’t-miss site, of course, but so is the Menger Hotel, which has been dubbed the Most Haunted Hotel in Texas. And don’t forget about the San Fernando Cathedral, where some visitors have reported seeing the faces of people buried in its walls. For an unforgettable experience, schedule a haunted evening with Sisters Grimm Ghost Tours, which has been named the number two ghost tour in the country by USA Today.