Haunted Places & Oddities
The eerie, the macabre and the wonderfully strange. 18 places, mapped and ready to build a trip around.
Plan a trip on Trailwind →Winchester Mystery House
San Jose, CaliforniaBestMar, Apr, OctClimate43–88°FCurrencyUSDLanguageEnglishAirportSJCA widow's 160-room maze of stairs to nowhere and doors that open onto walls.
Catacombs of Paris
ParisBestVariesClimate36–77°FCurrencyEURLanguageFrenchAirportCDGMiles of tunnels lined with the bones of six million Parisians.
Sedlec Ossuary
Kutna HoraBestMay, Jun, SepClimate30–79°FCurrencyCZKLanguageCzechAirportPRGA chapel decorated with the artfully arranged bones of 40,000 people.
Eastern State Penitentiary
Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaBestApr, May, OctClimate28–88°FCurrencyUSDLanguageEnglishAirportPHLA crumbling Gothic prison that once held Al Capone, now famously haunted.
Island of the Dolls
XochimilcoBestMar, Apr, NovClimate45–82°FCurrencyMXNLanguageSpanishAirportMEXA chinampa hung with hundreds of decaying dolls to appease a drowned girl.
Capuchin Catacombs
PalermoBestApr, May, OctClimate48–88°FCurrencyEURLanguageItalianAirportPMOThousands of mummified bodies in their Sunday best line the Palermo crypts.
The Stanley Hotel
Estes Park, ColoradoBestJun, Jul, SepClimate10–75°FCurrencyUSDLanguageEnglishAirportDENThe grand hotel that inspired Stephen King's The Shining.
Bran Castle
BranBestVariesClimate23–75°FCurrencyRONLanguageRomanianAirportOTPThe clifftop Transylvanian castle forever tied to the Dracula legend.
Highgate Cemetery
LondonBestMay, Jun, SepClimate36–73°FCurrencyGBPLanguageEnglishAirportLHRA gloriously overgrown Victorian necropolis of ivy, angels and Karl Marx.
Mutter Museum
Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaBestApr, May, OctClimate28–88°FCurrencyUSDLanguageEnglishAirportPHLA cabinet of medical oddities: skulls, specimens and the Soap Lady.
Waverly Hills Sanatorium
Louisville, KentuckyBestVariesClimate28–88°FCurrencyUSDLanguageEnglishAirportSDFAn abandoned tuberculosis hospital said to be one of America's most haunted.
Hoia Baciu Forest
Cluj-NapocaBestMay, Jun, SepClimate27–79°FCurrencyRONLanguageRomanianAirportCLJTransylvania's "Bermuda Triangle" of twisted trees and strange lights.
The Myrtles Plantation
St. Francisville, LouisianaBestVariesClimate45–93°FCurrencyUSDLanguageEnglishAirportBTRAn antebellum home wrapped in ghost stories along the Mississippi.
Darvaza Gas Crater
DerwezeEst. 1971BestVariesClimate27–100°FAirportASBThe "Door to Hell": a fiery pit in the desert burning since 1971.
Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum
Weston, West VirginiaBestVariesClimate27–84°FCurrencyUSDLanguageEnglishAirportCRWA vast Gothic asylum offering ghost tours through its abandoned wards.
Salem
Salem, MassachusettsBestSep–OctClimate23–82°FCurrencyUSDLanguageEnglishAirportBOSThe Witch City, where 1692's trials still haunt every cobblestone. Peak in October.
Poveglia Island
VeniceBestMay, Jun, SepClimate34–86°FCurrencyEURLanguageItalianAirportVCEA plague-quarantine island in the Venetian lagoon, long off-limits and eerie.
Chateau de Brissac
Loire ValleyBestMay, Jun, SepClimate37–79°FCurrencyEURLanguageFrenchAirportNTEThe tallest château in France, home to the legend of the Green Lady.