5 Underrated Halloween Towns Across the US

Some are abandoned Gold Rush boomtowns; others are rife with haunted history. All are worth skipping Salem for.GettyI’ve always been a sucker for spooky season. My childhood consisted of watching scary movies with friends, being fascinated by ghosts and ghouls, and happily disappearing down rabbit holes about witch trials, haunted places, and the stranger corners of American history. Halloween is the perfect excuse for people like me who enjoy leaning into the mystery and having a little fun along the way—especially those of us in the Northeast, who get to enjoy the holiday alongside crisper weather and shorter days. If you ask me, it's the perfect time of year. So, why not make a trip out of it?Salem, Massachusetts, is the obvious place to make a Halloween pilgrimage, but if you try going on “Halloweekend,” you’ll quickly realize you’re sharing the same idea with roughly every other fright seeker. The good news? The US is rife with cities that celebrate Halloween in their own wonderfully weird ways. Think jack-o’-lantern-filled destinations with family-friendly fall festivities, quirky Gold Rush mining towns with weathered saloons and abandoned buildings, and hot spots down South where voodoo tradition is very much alive. Add haunted hotels, ghost tours, and passed-down local lore, and suddenly you have plenty of reasons to look beyond Salem to embrace your inner spook enthusiast this October and beyond.Read on for the best Halloween towns across the US to celebrate the season.Bodie, CaliforniaSleepy Hollow, New YorkNew Orleans, LouisianaTerlingua, TexasVirginia City, MontanaBodie, California GettyBodie, CaliforniaBest for: Gold Rush history in the high desertBodie is what happens when a Gold Rush boomtown disappears and then refuses to put up a front for tourists. High in California’s eastern Sierra, the road into Bodie State Historic Park winds past a lonely cemetery and into what was once a lawless mining town of around 10,000 people and nearly 60 saloons. Today, you can walk these same dusty streets and peer through the windows of homes, hotels, shops, a church, and a schoolhouse that are still in the same condition as when they were abandoned in the early 20th century.Designated a National Historic Site in 1962, California State Parks promised to preserve the ghost town's state of “arrested decay.” There are no fake shoot-outs or kitschy storefronts in Bodie, but you can opt in for an expert-led tour or spooky-yet-informative ghost tour to hear stories like the tale of Rosa May, a woman said to have been buried outside the cemetery fence whose presence is still felt to this day. Some Bodie visitors claim to hear footsteps, feel random cold spots, and fear the “Bodie curse,” which is said to place bad luck on sticky-fingered folks who do so much as pocket a rock from the street.Halloween or not, Bodie is a stellar road trip stop. The high-desert landscape makes it feel removed from the present in an eerie yet endearing way, and it's only a 20-minute drive to Mammoth Lakes and just over an hour to Yosemite National Park's eastern entrance.Where to stay in and around Bodie:Sleepy Hollow, New York GettySleepy Hollow, New YorkBest for: Iconic local traditions within driving distance of NYCIf you’re from New England, you’ve likely heard just how much Sleepy Hollow wakes up during the Halloween season. Just north of New York City along the Hudson, the village is forever tied to Washington Irving’s 1820 book The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, where the Headless Horseman sends Ichabod Crane, the main character, running for his life.Stop by in October to walk the atmospheric grounds of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery by lantern light, visit the Old Dutch Church, see more of the iconic landmarks woven into Irving’s story, and catch the village’s famously robust Halloween programming. This year, the festivals and events are set to run through November 8, 2026. Of course, this includes the popular Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze, an evening where over 7,000 hand-carved, illuminated pumpkins line a half-mile riverside trail, complete with a pumpkin planetarium and a Headless Horseman display.New Orleans, Louisiana GettyNew Orleans, LouisianaBest for: Embracing the supernatural via voodoo historyIf you're in for a spooky trip that goes beyond your average ghost tour, head to New Orleans for its spiritual history, centuries-old cemeteries, and French Quarter legends. Start with the city's roots in voodoo: A spiritual tradition shaped by West African practices, Catholicism, and the Haitian diaspora. You can dig into the history of Marie Laveau—the legendary 19th-century voodoo practitioner whose name still pops up all over the city—at Marie Laveau’s House of Voodoo in the French Quarter. Or you can take an expert-led voodoo tour, where you'll learn all about the history and how it's ingrained in the city's culture today. The New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum can also help put the traditions into context.Be sure to also make your way to the Garden District to visit Buckner Mansion, the enormous Greek Revival house built in 1857 that American Horror Story: Coven fans will recognize as Miss Robichaux’s Academy. (It’s a private home, so you'll have to admire it from the sidewalk rather than tour inside.) You can also check into the Hotel Monteleone, a French Quarter landmark dating back to 1886 with generations of reported ghost stories, from doors said to open on their own to mysterious elevator stops. I stayed there myself and found no sign of ghosts—they do make a terribly mean martini in the lobby bar, though.For even more Halloween spirit, attend a witch brunch at restaurant Copper Vine, reserve your spot at the Endless Night Vampire Ball at the House of Blues New Orleans, take an adults-only ghost tour, or visit haunted houses like The Mortuary or New Orleans Nightmare.Where to stay in New Orleans:Terlingua, Texas GettyTerlingua, TexasBest for: A lively ghost town experienceIf your idea of Halloween involves leaving the paved world behind, Terlingua, Texas, is about as good as it gets. Tucked into the Chihuahuan Desert outside Big Bend National Park, this former mercury-mining town is all dusty roads, weathered buildings, desert mountains, and remnants of the ol' mining operation that once kept the place alive. Mercury was discovered here in the late 19th century, and the Chisos Mining Company eventually turned Terlingua into a bustling mining settlement before the mines shut down after World War II, and much of the population disappeared.Today, the old mining district is said to be haunted by fallen miners, and has the bones of a ghost town—among them the ruins of the company store, mine-era buildings, the Perry Mansion (a private mansion turned hotel), and the colorful Terlingua Cemetery, where a celebration of Día de los Muertos is held annually in early November. Spend the afternoon poking around the old town, grab dinner and live music at the Starlight Theatre and Saloon, then step outside after dark, when the desert sky turns the strange little place into something that feels worlds away.Where to stay in and around Terlingua:Virginia City, Montana GettyVirginia City, MontanaBest for: An exceptionally well-preserved Gold Rush town out WestVirginia City, Montana, is about as close as you can get to walking straight into a Gold Rush ghost story. Gold discovered in nearby Alder Gulch in 1863 turned this remote corner of Montana into a boomtown complete with saloons, hotels, theaters, shops, and boardinghouses. The gold ran dry about 10 years after its founding, but the town didn’t quite disappear. More than 150 historic buildings still line its wooden boardwalks—many preserved, with their period character intact—so a stroll through town will take you past the old hot spots and the historic county courthouse.For a Halloween-inspired visit, make time for Boot Hill, Virginia City’s first cemetery, where several men executed by vigilantes during the town’s rough-and-tumble early years are buried. Join one of the cemetery's many ghost tours (I suggest the haunted itinerary) to hear the stories attached to the buildings you’ve just walked past. Add in a stop at nearby Nevada City, another preserved Gold Rush settlement, and you have the makings of a very different kind of spooky-season road trip. Hot tip: It's just 90 miles outside of Yellowstone National Park.Where to stay in and around Virginia City:Jessica Chapel is a Commerce Writer at Condé Nast Traveler, where she covers travel booking and retail content. Previous to this role, she was Traveler's Editorial Assistant and has been working with the brand for over three years. Her passions inspire her published works, where she writes of indulgent travel ... Read More