Need Last-Minute Halloween Plans? Here Are Some Spooktacular Trip Ideas!

Well, it’s here once again: Halloween. And just like last year, you started off October with grand plans and boasts to put together a sweet costume and organize an awesome party, but totally forgot about it until the week of. So why not hide your shame and do something cool (passing it off as your intention all along)? Additionally, if you’re a Halloween enthusiast, you don’t need to limit yourself to costume parties, and the barn haunted houses. You can have even more fun strolling through a good cemetery during the night, staying in a haunted hotel with a friend or partner, or taking your kids on a kid-friendly ghost tour. No matter how long you waited to make plans, here are some last-minute trip ideas to Halloween destinations you’ll love!

While most folks still associate Halloween with trick-or-treating kids, it’s actually become more of a costumed celebration for adults with plenty of grown-up events. Case in point: the Halloween festival. To find one, you just need to head to a major city. The celebrations in New York and Los Angeles (technically, West Hollywood) are pretty famous, but there are plenty of other major metropolitan areas that host their own festivities. No matter which city you’re looking to get spooked in, you’re likely to find Halloween flights there. So get your spookiest (or funniest) costume ready and celebrate the scariest day of the year in style!

Let’s not forget that a big part of Halloween entails the thrilling fun of getting scared. And now there’s an entire industry built around people looking for some fearful excitement. All you need to do is show up and pay the ticket price. Just use a guide like Hauntworld.com to find one in the region that you’re looking for and head on over, preferably with friends and family…because nothing makes getting scared more enjoyable than being with those you love.

Go on a Ghost Tour

Cameras sometimes catch things that the human eye doesn’t, so if you’re looking for last-minute trip ideas to Halloween adventures, a ghost tour can be a great pick for those who are looking for a fright. If you wait until the next day to check through your pictures, you may just run into something you didn’t know was there. Unlike the haunted hotels, some ghost tours are kid-friendly. One such haunt is the French Quartour Kid-Friendly New Orleans Tour and Ghost Hunt; it’s marketed for kids between five and 10 years old and is located in the Big Easy. You’ll get to search for lost pirates and ghosts using high-tech detectors and other equipment. Just make sure you stay hydrated and wear sturdy shoes in case you need to run, and don’t forget to take lots of pictures!

You may also enjoy: 4 of the Spookiest Ghost Tours Around the US Worth Traveling For

Visit A Famous Creepy Destination

Bizarrely enough, there is a slew of Guinness world records centered around Halloween, and a lot of them need as many participants as they can get. These include the largest gathering of zombies or the biggest crowd of people dressed as vampires (both real records, by the way). And while it may take some Googling to find an attempt near you, it would be pretty worth it.

Stay in a Haunted Hotel

If you’re staying in a haunted hotel, you’re in for a real spooky treat. For example, once a prominent ocean liner, the RMS Queen Mary is now docked permanently in Long Beach, California. Guests have most consistently reported a hot spot in room B340, one passenger passed on in there in the very late 1940s. Another that often makes the top of the most haunted hotels list is the Stanley in Colorado. It’s said to have inspired Stephen King’s novel, The Shining. Although you won’t find any creepy twin girls, they say that the spirits of Stanley’s first owner, Oscar Stanley, and his wife reportedly roam the halls.

Visit a Famous Cemetery

You can tour a good cemetery at just about any time of the year. Picnics and strolls in cemeteries used to be popular activities during the Victorian era. However, cemetery tours correlate with the spirit of Halloween. If you’re a celebrity enthusiast or a history buff, the Woodlawn Cemetery in New York is ripe with both. Many celebrities, including Duke Ellington, are buried there, and old-time feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s ashes are interred there. Some of the most beautiful and haunting cemeteries considered are those that are lined with trees and mausoleums, like the Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia. It’s home to one of the former governors of the state, Josiah Tattnall. Even more famously, it’s home to six-year-old Gracie Watson and her life-sized statue. John Muir reportedly spent six nights there while still alive, saying that it was cheaper than a hotel.

What other last-minute trip ideas to Halloween destinations can you think of? Tell us below!