If your family travel this fall doesn’t include a trip to a destination theme park, you can still find spooky experiences and haunted houses for your kids. Most major theme parks have Halloween events, but more budget-friendly options are found in every state and cost less than a day at Disney or Six Flags.
New York
The location for a lantern-led haunted tour couldn’t be better than Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, in the town where Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was set. This after-dark tour is best for kids 10 and up. More spooky performances and witch-centric events add to Sleepy Hollow’s Halloween fun.
On Long Island, Gateway’s Haunted Playhouse is a fully staged theatrical performance as visitors tour a haunted house designed and built new each year by the theater’s stage production team. The house is inhabited by costumed professional actors.
Michigan
In Jonesville, Darkside Acres offers something spooky for kids of all ages, with a haunted house best for kids over 16 or scare-proof younger ones. More suitable for younger kids are the haunted hayrides, haunted mazes, haunted corn mazes and haunted trails.
One of the most unusual haunted “houses” is set on a historic car ferry. Step aboard Manistee’s Ghost Ship to tour its four decks, where costumed actors inhabit a world of creepy scenes, graveyards, haunted forests, ghosts, spiders, demons and eerie sounds (definitely for older kids).
New Jersey
Family-friendly activities at The Red Mill Museum in Clinton cater to different age groups with daytime and night experiences. The maze, haunted hayride and terror trail are filled with scary sights and startling surprises, while the Happy Haunts daytime experience is a low-scare event. Designed for younger children, the tour is led by a guide who keeps all the scary creatures at a safe distance.
Idaho
Designed for ages 8 and up, The Haunted Swamp in Twin Falls is a mile-long walk of frightening fun through trees; over bridges; among shifting lights; and past ghosts, scary witches and goblins.
In Athol, Silverwood Theme Park transforms into Scarywood during the month of October. Five haunted attractions and nine scare zones are filled with immersive and grand-scale features, and several of the thrill rides are open at night.
New Hampshire
Choose from three levels of fright at Haunted Overload in Lee. During Daytime Haunts, walk the haunted trails by daylight to see the props and sets without actors popping out. “Fright Night Lite” is also designed for younger children, with all the lighting and sound effects, but no monsters. During “Haunted Overload,” the trail becomes a fully immersive horror show, definitely not for young children, no matter how scare-proof they are.
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