Halloween isn’t just a night for costumes. It’s a season that invites us to wander through old streets, trace forgotten legends, and feel that quick, electric pulse between the living and the unknown. From sleepy American towns to fog-draped European cities, these are our twenty destinations where, we believe, October feels alive in every sense of the word.
Back to Halloween History
But first, a few words from this holiday history. Halloween wasn’t always about candy aisles and costumes. It began more than 2,000 years ago, when Celtic farmers lit fires at the end of harvest to honor Samhain, the night when the veil between worlds grew thin. Over centuries, that ritual traveled from Ireland’s misty hills to Mexico’s vibrant cemeteries, from Europe’s gothic towns to Japan’s neon streets, shapeshifting into a celebration that reflects how each culture faces darkness and memory. In some places, it’s a night of masquerade and storytelling. In others, it’s a gentle nod to the dead, dressed in candles and marigolds.
Today, Halloween has become a passport to experience how the world keeps its ghosts alive through architecture, food, music, and the thrill of the unknown. Traveling for it is about finding the stories each city tells when the air cools and the nights stretch long. So let’s start with some of the most underrated places to travel for Halloween across America.
9 Underrated U.S. Halloween Destinations
1. St. Helens, Oregon
Every October, this small Columbia River town transforms itself into Halloweentown literally. The 1998 Disney movie was filmed here, and the town embraced it so fully that each fall, locals rebuild the magic from scratch. Streets glow with jack-o’-lanterns, shopfronts turn spooky, and families come from all over to relive the nostalgia of small-town Halloween.
What to do: Join the Spirit of Halloweentown Festival, stroll the riverside in costume, and stay until dusk for the giant pumpkin lighting ceremony that turns the square into pure movie magic.
2. Eureka Springs, Arkansas
What to do: Take the Crescent Hotel ghost tour, join the Eureka Zombie Crawl, or explore the haunted hiking trails that wind through the mist-covered woods.
3. Newport, Rhode Island
Newport’s Gilded Age mansions once hosted the country’s elite; today, they host a different kind of presence. Maritime legends, sailors lost to storms, and echoes from lavish 19th-century soirées give this coastal town an eerie grace each October. Atlantic fog drifts through its harbors like stage smoke for ghost stories.
What to do: Visit Fort Adams for its paranormal anniversary tours, explore Hocus Pocus filming locations, and stay at the Hotel Viking, whose hallways creak with centuries of history.
4. Savannah, Georgia
Few American cities wear their ghosts as elegantly as Savannah. Beneath canopies of moss-draped oaks lie colonial cemeteries and grand homes built on old burial grounds. The city’s blend of beauty and melancholy turns every evening stroll into a séance of sorts.
What to do: Join a haunted pub crawl, wander Bonaventure Cemetery, or spend the night at the Marshall House, where Civil War soldiers are said to linger.
5. Williamsburg, Virginia
Colonial Williamsburg is living history by day and haunted theatre by night. The city’s cobblestone streets, once home to revolutionaries, now host candlelit tours that reveal tales of lost soldiers, suspicious apothecaries, and weeping widows.
What to do: Take the Haunted Williamsburg Tour, brave Busch Gardens’ Howl-O-Scream, and finish with a mug of warm cider by the fire at the Williamsburg Lodge.
Source: Colonial Williamsburg Instagram
6. St. Augustine, Florida
Founded in 1565, St. Augustine is America’s oldest cityand its layered past shows in every brick and alleyway. Spanish fortresses, pirate legends, and centuries-old cemeteries make it a living archive of hauntings that stretch from the colonial era to modern-day ghost hunters.
What to do: Climb the haunted lighthouse, sail on a ghost ship tour, or explore the Castillo de San Marcos after sunset, when lanterns flicker along the old coquina walls.
7. Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston’s pastel facades and jasmine-lined courtyards hide a haunted heart. Once a bustling colonial port, the city has seen fire, storms, and sorrow, and its ghosts are woven into the stories told on every corner. Locals embrace the season with charm, sharing their history through candlelight and whispered tales.
What to do: Tour the Old City Jail, walk the Battery at twilight, and end your night in a centuries-old tavern where folklore flows with the rum punch
8. Estes Park, Colorado
High in the Rockies, Estes Park looks peaceful until you step inside the Stanley Hotel, the inspiration for The Shining. Its creaking corridors and mountain isolation have made it a pilgrimage site for fans of the paranormal and the cinematic alike.
What to do: Take a Stanley Hotel ghost tour, catch a screening of The Shining, and hike the nearby trails in Rocky Mountain National Park, where the golden aspens glow like candlelight against the peaks.
Source: Stanley Hotel Instagram
10. Half Moon Bay, California
Here, Halloween trades ghosts for harvest. This coastal town celebrates autumn’s gentler magic with seaside pumpkin farms, hay bales, and salt-tinged breezes. Its legendary Pumpkin Festival began in the 1970s and remains one of California’s most beloved fall traditions.
What to do: Visit the Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival, pick your own gourds from local farms, and walk the foggy sea cliffs as the Pacific roars below, proof that Halloween can be warm, golden, and calm.
From foggy coastal towns to candlelit Southern streets, America carries Halloween in a hundred different accents, each with its own rhythm, its own kind of haunting. Yet the spirit of the season doesn’t stop at the border. Across oceans and centuries-old cities, autumn and Halloween take on new faces
10 International Halloween Destinations
1. Transylvania, Romania
In the heart of Romania, Halloween feels like a homecoming. Transylvania’s medieval villages, mist-filled forests, and fortress towns have carried ghost stories long before Bram Stoker ever wrote Dracula. For centuries, locals whispered of strigoi, who are restless spirits who walk at night. Those old superstitions became the world’s favorite gothic tale.
What to do: Tour Bran Castle, rumored home of the Count, wander Sighișoara, the birthplace of Vlad the Impaler, and dine by candlelight in a centuries-old hall where shadows seem to breathe.
2. Edinburgh, Scotland
Where Halloween began. Long before jack-o’-lanterns, the Celts celebrated Samhain, marking the shift from harvest to darkness and the thinning of the veil between worlds. Edinburgh still burns with that ancient fire. The city’s volcanic skyline, cobbled closes, and underground vaults pulse with old energy every October.
What to do: Stay at The Witchery by the Castle, explore the city’s haunted underbelly, and join the Samhuinn Fire Festival, where drummers, dancers, and masked performers reenact the turning of the seasons.
3. Mexico City, Mexico
In Mexico, Halloween merges with Día de los Muertos, a celebration that feels more like poetry than ritual. It’s a time to honor ancestors through color, food, and remembrance. Streets bloom with marigolds, candles flicker on altars, and families gather to laugh, cook, and remember.
What to do: Visit the Day of the Dead Parade, explore the ofrendas of Coyoacán, and spend the evening in Mixquic Cemetery, where candlelight turns loss into something luminous.
4. Venice, Italy
Few places capture mystery as beautifully as Venice. In autumn, the fog drifts low over the canals, and the echo of footsteps on wet stone feels timeless. The city’s Carnival traditions, such as masks, music, and secrecy, flow naturally into Halloween’s sense of disguise and desire.
What to do: Attend a masked ball in a candlelit palazzo, glide through quiet canals by gondola, and visit eerie art installations inside the Arsenale, where centuries of maritime history meet modern imagination.
4. Paris, France
Beneath the boulevards and bright cafés, Paris hides a darker beauty. The Catacombs, carved in the 18th century, hold the bones of over six million souls, which is a silent reminder of mortality beneath the city of light. Every October, Parisians lean into this poetic shadow, celebrating the beauty of impermanence with art, fashion, and reflection.
What to do: Descend into the Catacombs, wander Père Lachaise Cemetery among marble angels and moss, then take a ghost walk in Montmartre before ending the night with chocolate chaud in a dimly lit café.
5. Prague, Czech Republic
If Halloween had a European capital, Prague would be it. Gothic spires rise above cobbled streets that once hosted alchemists searching for eternal life. The city’s legends about restless monks, haunted towers, and enchanted clocks still linger in the cool night air.
What to do: Explore Old Town Square by lantern, descend into Prague Castle’s underground tunnels, and sip honey mead in a medieval tavern while street musicians play old Bohemian ballads.
6. London, England
London’s history reads like a ghost story anthology. From royal hauntings to Victorian séances, its fascination with the afterlife helped shape Halloween as we know it. In October, fog rolls across the Thames, theatres host macabre plays, and pubs whisper tales of their lingering patrons.
What to do: Take a Tower of London ghost tour, visit Highgate Cemetery, and dine in a centuries-old pub in Mayfair, where the laughter feels older than the building itself.
7. Tokyo, Japan
Halloween in Tokyo is pure transformation. Halloween celebration here is less about fear and more about creativity. The Western holiday arrived only a few decades ago, yet the city made it its own, blending cosplay culture, street style, and neon spectacle. Beneath the chaos, it echoes the Japanese Obon tradition, when spirits of ancestors return home.
What to do: Join the Shibuya Halloween Parade, watch costumed revelers fill the crossing like a living art installation, and end the night in a sky bar overlooking the glowing city below.
9. Dublin, Ireland
Ireland gave birth to Halloween. The ancient Celts marked Samhain as the end of harvest and the beginning of winter’s long dark. Fires lit the hills, stories fed the night, and villagers wore masks to confuse wandering spirits. Today, Dublin still glows with that same magic of old myths wrapped in city lights.
What to do: Join the Púca Festival, where folklore takes the stage through fire and music, then retreat to a pub for a night of storytelling and stout beside a crackling hearth.
10. Hong Kong, China
Few cities embrace Halloween with such flair. Hong Kong blends Western revelry with its own ghostly traditions like the Hungry Ghost Festival, when spirits are fed with offerings to ease their passage. The result is a fusion of thrill and ritual that fills the city’s skyline with color and sound.
What to do: Visit Ocean Park’s Halloween Fest, join the street parties in Lan Kwai Fong, and take a tram to Victoria Peak for sweeping night views over a city that seems to shimmer between worlds.
When the nights stretch longer and the air turns sharp, the world feels different, alive with old stories and unseen company. Halloween is an invitation to chase that feeling, to wander through the season’s shadows and see how every culture keeps a light burning in the dark.
Whether it’s mist over a New England harbor or candles flickering in a Mexican graveyard, these moments remind us that travel, like Halloween, is about transformation. So pack your curiosity, lean into the mystery, and let the world show you how beautiful the unknown can be.
Images Source: Unplash
