New Orleans, Salem, Chattanooga? These popular U.S. Halloween spots will surprise you

Tourism a big part of Halloween, with people flocking to these sites

Beautiful, right? (Photo by James Wheeler from Pexels)

Whether you enjoy the day without kids or want to take the whole family to sample something new to celebrate Halloween, there are hot spots around the country to visit to enhance your Halloween experience.

Here’s a look at five places to visit that will give you all sorts of spooky Halloween delights.

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Salem, Massachusetts

The home of the 1692 Salem witch trials, Salem, located 16 miles north of Boston, has a museum to help people understand perceptions of witchcraft and interpretation of witches.

For the entire month of October, the town is known to host a festival called “Haunted Happenings in Salem,” which features a parade, family film nights, a fairy door trail featuring fairy doors created by local artists, ghost tours and haunted houses.

New Orleans

With a bevy of haunted hotels and a “Krewe of Boo” parade, it’s no wonder that New Orleans is one of the spookiest cities in America.

The Louisiana Children’s Museum typically hosts a kid-friendly “Museum Mash,” with games, prizes, a science lab and a dance party, and the French Quarter has a ghost tour for visitors.

Sleepy Hollow, New York

The highlight of visiting this town, located in New York’s Hudson Valley, is the Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze, which is a jaw-dropping display of more than 7,000 jack o’-lanterns hand-carved by local artists.

The jack o’-lanterns decorate a bridge that is named the “Pumpkin Zee Bridge,” a carousel called the “Pumpkin Carousel Twirl,” and a color-changing star show in the “Pumpkin Planetarium.”

There is also a jack o’-lantern Statue of Liberty.

Knott’s Berry Farm/Walt Disney World

Located just west of Anaheim, Buena Park is home to the famous Knott’s Berry Farm, an amusement park that hosts “Knott’s Scary Farm” during Halloween season. The park is turned into a 160-acre Halloween playground full of mazes, rides, roaming monsters and scare zones.

Walt Disney World in Orlando also has “Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party,” which features trick-or-treating throughout the park, entertainment, a fireworks show, parades and costume characters.

Chattanooga, Tennessee

This city is home to one of the top Halloween haunts in the country, Dread Hollow. Click or tap here to learn more about the “spooktacular” experience.

The Chattanooga Zoo also is known to host a kid-friendly event called “Boo in the Zoo,” and Halloween-themed cruises can be taken on the Chattanooga River.

Stanley Hotel, Estes Park, Colorado

This hotel is famous because it inspired horror novelist Stephen King’s to write “The Shining,” and thus, it turns into a Halloween hotspot for tourists each October.

For two weekends in October, the hotel puts on a murder mystery dinner, where guests dress in 1920s style mafia costumes and eat a four-course meal, a ball with dancing, drinks and theater characters from “The Shining,” and a theater performance in a concert hall with food, drinks and costumes.

This story was first published in 2018. It has since been updated.


About the Author:

Keith is a member of Graham Media Group's Digital Content Team, which produces content for all the company's news websites.