Spooky Cities to Celebrate Halloween

Halloween, oh, Halloween…. The 31^st of October is an exciting day indeed, a night where you can embody someone or something you’re not, join with friends and family in fun, spooky parties, scare yourself silly in haunted houses, and explore a darker side of the world—and yourself—in a safe way where nobody gets hurt.

Oh, and you can get lots and lots of candy (and you can get even more the next day, when all the candy’s on sale). And if you’re a kid, you probably get that candy by walking from house to house ringing doorbells. And if you’re a parent, you get to escort the kids as they walk from house to house.

As such, the ideal Halloween experience is one that involves lots of fun, perhaps some frightening experiences, and a heaping helping of safety, especially if trick-or-treating is involved. To help you consider how to best spend your Halloween and have the most fun in the safest way you can, we’ve examined what some of the best cities to celebrate Halloween in—whether you’re looking to move somewhere or just want to take a late-October family vacation—to share with you, so you and your loved ones can have a spooky fun time without fearing for their safety.

Best Trick-or-Treat Cities Based on Crime Rates and Walkability
First off, if you’re taking your kids trick-or-treating and just want a safe locale to do it in with plenty of residences close together to walk through, consider St. Paul MN, Minneapolis MN, Dallas TX, or Santa Ana, CA. These are some of the best U.S. trick-or –treating cities based on low crime-rates and easy walkability.

Head to Salem, Massachusetts…
…And visit the site of the infamous Salem witch trials. The trials themselves were a tragedy, with people being put to death based on unfounded accusations of witchcraft. However, in years since, the site of those horrible trials has become one of the best places to celebrate the spooky, sinister, magical spirit of witches and witchcraft.

Tour a Swamp by Torchlight in New Orleans, Louisiana
On Halloween, take a nighttime tour of the local Manhac swamp, while being told spooky stories about the legend of the swamp being haunted by the souls of those who have died there. Stick around afterward, too, and look up some local public celebrations; Halloween is the second most celebrated holiday in this city after Mardi Gras.

Paris, France
Not just anywhere in Paris, though. Paris is, of course, a lovely place to visit for any occasion, and there are plenty of noteworthy landmarks and attractions to check out (Eiffel Tower, anyone?), but on Halloween in particular, you’ll want to head to two of the spookiest spots in the city: Père Lachaise Cemetery, and the Paris Catacombs.

The aforementioned cemetery is enormously vast, contains the graves of Chopin, Edith Piaf, and Jim Morrison, and is widely rumored to be haunted, owing to its incredibly eerie nature. The catacombs run underground beneath Paris streets, and are lined with actual human bones. If you want to visit somewhere that’s the very definition of “haunting,” the catacombs are for you.