With school back in session and the holidays just around the corner, most families may not be thinking about fall vacations. However, the spooky season's sweet combination of crisp weather and great travel deals makes it the ideal time to fit in a family trip. While September and November are both beautiful months, there is no better time to visit for Halloween fans like me than October.
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Perhaps it's because I grew up near Salem, Massachusetts, a city that knows how to celebrate the holidays. (A lifetime of Salem Halloweens inspired my novel, The Witches of Willow Cove.) Maybe it's because everything feels a little creepier as the weather cools and the nights grow longer. Whatever the reason, October always puts me in the mood for ghostly adventures, especially when I'm on the road.
Fortunately for Halloween enthusiasts, there is no shortage of places across the country that go all out for the holiday. Here are the best places in the country for family-friendly Halloween vacations.
1. Massachusetts's Salem
The Witch City celebrates all things mystical and magical 365 days a year, thanks to a year-round tourist industry centered on the infamous Salem Witch Trials. Year-round highlights include the Salem Witch Museum, the Salem Witch Dungeon, and the Salem Pioneer Village. When fall arrives, Salem definitely ups its game for Halloween vacations. Its annual Halloween celebration, now in its 40th year, is the largest in the world, with parades, parties, ghost tours, haunted houses, museum displays, Hocus Pocus recreations, and other eerie events taking place across the city throughout October.
The city fills up with tourists in the fall, but that's what gives Salem its perpetually Halloween vibe. Check out the city's Haunted Happenings calendar for events and activities throughout the season, and don't be afraid to venture outside of Salem for some Halloween fun. In the fall, corn mazes, hayrides, apple picking, and other fun family activities abound throughout New England.
2. New York's Sleepy Hollow
When the leaves begin to change color, the real-life town made famous by Washington Irving's fictional Headless Horseman transforms into an unrivaled mid-Atlantic fall getaway destination. Families travel from all over to Sleepy Hollow and the Hudson Valley for Halloween vacations that include haunted hayrides, cemetery tours, gothic mansions, and costumed 5k runs.
The annual Great Jack o'Lantern Blaze in nearby Croton-on-Hudson features over 7,000 hand-carved pumpkins. For an extra dose of spooky chills, the after-dark illumination uses synchronized lightning set to an original soundtrack.
3.Anoka, Minnesota
It takes a special kind of city to call itself the Halloween Capital of the World, but Anoka earned the title more than a century ago by being the first city in the country to hold a massive Halloween celebration on October 31.
Halloween now includes ghost tours, scarecrow contests, pumpkin weigh-offs, outdoor movie nights, a house decorating contest, a 5k ghost run, an illuminated nighttime parade, and the daytime Grande Day parade in this riverfront city about 30 minutes from Minneapolis (the largest in the state).
4. Mount St. Helens, Oregon
For those of a certain age, the 1998 Disney Channel film Halloweentown is Halloween. And each year, the real-life Oregon town where Halloweentown was filmed, St. Helens, near Portland, celebrates the movie magic with its Spirit of Halloweentown celebration.
With the lighting of the Great Pumpkin in October, the small city attracts legions of Halloween-loving families to its Riverfront District, which is transformed into the Spirit of Halloweentown. Throughout the month, there are costume contests, haunted tours, parades, and all manner of creepy scarecrows. The majority of the action occurs on weekends, but the Halloweentown vibe is present every day of October.
5.Orlando, Florida
Every year, the theme park capital of Florida gets into the Halloween spirit early, with festivities beginning in August. The headline attractions for Halloween vacations are Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party at Walt Disney World (for all ages) and Halloween Horror Nights (for teens and adults) at Universal Studios Florida, but SeaWorld, LEGOLAND, and the other Orlando theme parks also participate with spooky events throughout the season.
Tickets to the Halloween events at Disney and Universal, like most Halloween destinations, sell out quickly and must be purchased in advance. Even if you don't plan ahead of time, you can still enjoy the season by visiting the parks when they're all decked out for Halloween.
