Where Are the Top Five Spookiest Cities To Spend Halloween?

Last year I wrote about five popular real haunted places that also have top Halloween haunted houses.  I got to thinking about it the other day when I was reading a copy of Woman’s World magazine.

In their Getaway section they had a “Get Scared, America!” article that listed eight great places to spend Halloween. Among them were:

1. Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party
2. Knott’s Scary Farm
3. Headless Horseman Hayrides & Haunted Houses
4. The Queen Mary’s “Dark Harbor”
5. The Bonaventure Cemetery Tour and “Hag Hunt” in Savannah
6. Halloween Horror Nights
7. The Count’s Spooktacular Halloween
8. Salem’s Haunted Happenings

Many of the above make “Best Places to Spend Halloween” lists year after year. I also see people who have gone to them proclaiming year after year what fun they had and how they hope to go back again.

If I was going to put together a list of the Top Five Spookiest Cities to Spend Halloween, it would have to be the cities below. I haven’t been to all of them, whether for Halloween or otherwise. I’m basing my selection on the buzz I see in all my social media circles, along with the PR that’s propagated for them.

1. Salem – Haunted Happenings is hot, hot, HOT. It seems to get hotter every year. It ties all of the city’s history, haunted lore, and haunted places together and packages them into one spookrific celebration of the season.
2. New Orleans – This is another city that’s proud of its paranormal folklore and has a lot of fun with it during Halloween. Among the events you’ll find here are the New Orleans Voodoo Fest, a Halloween parade, and a vampire ball.
3. Anoka – This town in Minnesota boasts itself as “The Halloween Capital of the World.” It gets into the act with a Halloween House Decorating Contest, a parade, and an Orange Tie Ball, among a calendar full of other Halloween-themed things (like movie nights and even a Pumpkin Bowl football game).
4. Hudson Valley – Okay, so I know this is cheating a little bit. However, there are a ton of great Halloween events in this area, and even though they’re technically in different cities, they’re all in the same general vicinity. For instance, you’ve got Horseman’s Hollow, a haunted trail, at Phillipsburg Manor in Sleepy Hollow; the Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze at Van Cortland Manor in Croton-On-Hudson, and Irving’s “Legend” performed at the Old Dutch Church in Kingston.
5. Orlando – The Woman’s World article definitely hit the nail on the head by including Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween and Halloween Horror Nights to its list. The theme parks do not miss an opportunity like Halloween to strut their spooky stuff. (As I’ve written about before here and here, I can personally attest that HHH definitely merits being described as “the most petrifying of all theme park Halloween experiences” as phrased in the WW article.)

It got me thinking, though. I hear of places here and there that do Halloween, like the Queen Mary or Knott’s Berry Farm, out West, but as far as cities go…not so much.

If you have been to any cities west of the Mississippi that also go all out for Halloween, please let me know.  Or anywhere else really, be it north, west, south or east.

And if you’ve been to any of the above, please also feel free to share your experiences.

Courtney Mroch

Courtney Mroch is a globe-trotting restless spirit who’s both possessed by wanderlust and the spirit of adventure, and obsessed with true crime, horror, the paranormal, and weird days. Perhaps it has something to do with her genes? She is related to occult royalty, after all. Marie Laveau, the famous Voodoo practitioner of New Orleans, is one of her ancestors. (Yes, really! As explained here.) That could also explain her infatuation with skeletons.

Speaking of mystical, to learn how Courtney channeled her battle with cancer to conjure up this site, check out HJ’s Origin Story.