In the unlikely event that you’ve never heard me say it before… autumn is my absolute favourite time of year and October is my favourite month (we even got married in October – Halloween Weekend :)). The weather is ideal (sunny but crisp) and the festivities are on another level… New Yorkers really know how to do Halloween! If you love autumn and Halloween as much as I do, I recommend you try to visit New York during that period. Besides the weather, and the decorations, there is so much going on!
In this blog post, I’ve listed things that we’ve done during Halloween in New York, and a couple of things that we plan to do this year 🙂 For the most part, you can do a lot of these things all year round, not just during Halloween! They’re just especially great during spooky season (“,)
I’ve highlighted in orange those things to do that are open to children. Whether or not you’d want to bring them…I’ll leave that up to you 🙂
Blood Manor
Blood Manor is basically a haunted house experience but it’s a good one! The building is over 10,000 square feet and made up of different rooms/ themes and the actors come out of everywhere and anywhere!
It was scary (well more so jumpy!!!) but it was also GAS! The laugh we had. I would say we were in and out in about 15 minutes and we didn’t die in there so… I would recommend :)! Jimmy Fallon and Kevin Hart visited before and there’s a video! Click here and scroll down to watch.
Unlike many of the other things to do on this list, Blood Manor is a seasonal event so you will only be able to go during October/ early November.
Greenwood Cemetery Tour
The walking and trolley tours in Greenwood Cemetery are extremely popular. The guides are so full of knowledge and we loved learning about different periods (and some haunted happenings :p) in American history. We’ll definitely go again this year. Click this link here to see upcoming events.
Salem
Salem is one of my favourite places in the world. I just love the energy there. This year will be the second time we’ve visited and it most certainly won’t be the last. Salem is in Massachusetts, close to Boston, so it is possible to get there from New York City. We went by train last time, and this time we’re renting a car, but you can also get the bus or fly to Boston (then make your way to Salem from there)! We go with whatever works out the cheapest at the time.
There is so much to do in Salem. I recommend the following:
- Hocus Pocus Filming Locations* (you can visit them yourself, you don’t need to pay for a tour)
- The Witch Museum
- A play in the Town Hall (this is also where the ‘I put a spell on you’ scene in Hocus Pocus is filmed)
- History & Hauntings Walking Tour
- Salem Night Tour
- Visit the Bewitched statue and the Hawthorne Hotel (which has a lot of Bewitched memorabilia)
- Count Orlok’s Nightmare Gallery
- Visit ALL the knick knack shops (loved them!)
*Hocus Pocus Filming Locations are listed in my Instagram post here:
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House of Spirits: a Haunted Cocktail Soirée
This venue is like no other! It’s definitely the biggest, and most beautiful house (mansion!) I’ve ever been in. It’s the perfect venue for Halloween festivities. There are actors and activities on every floor and it’s actually deadly (and scary in parts lol). It’s so worth doing! Read more and purchase tickets here.
BeetleHouse Restaurant & Broadway Show
A Beetlejuice themed bar/ restaurant… what’s not to love! The food is not great, it’s grand, but the experience is awesome. Beetlejuice is also on Broadway. While I haven’t seen it, I would say the combination of a visit to the restaurant and the Broadway show, makes for a very festive day out 🙂 We’ve seen lots of other broadway shows, you can read about some of our recommendations, including how to get cheaper tickets, here.
The Catacombs by Candlelight Tour at St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral
Seeing catacombs was definitely a first for us 😮 The tour itself starts outside of the Cathedral, where the guide highlights some key periods in history, which include lots of facts on Irish immigration. We found it really interesting. It’s a very popular tour and tends to book out, especially during spooky season, so try to book your tickets in advance here.
New York’s Village Halloween Parade
We’ve spent a few Halloween’s in NYC and yet we still haven’t gotten a decent look at the parade! This year is the year though… we are definitely going to go see it and I recommend you do too because it’s supposed to be brilliant!
MadHouse on Mulberry
This is the only thing on the list that we haven’t experienced at all. BUT… we are going this year with our pals so I said I’d add it here so you can look into it. It’s essentially a haunted house experience that “…takes place in an abandoned asylum that housed patients in New York City over 200 years ago… Rumor has it their spirits still haunt the asylum…”. CAN’T WAIT :p All ages are welcome but if you’re over 21, you’ll have access to the bar 🙂 Read more and buy tickets here.
Stoop Hopping at Halloween
Nobody, and I mean absolutely nobody, does Halloween (or Christmas) decor like the New Yorkers. The stoops on the brownstone buildings are so, so cool. You should try to see as many as you can. I recommend the Upper West Side, Upper East Side and the West Village for the best ones!
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NYC Haunted Walking Tours
You’ll find lots of options for haunted walking tours on Tripadvisor and Viator. Most of them are good so I just recommend going with the one that’s the highest rated at the time of booking. These tours are so full of general NYC history as well as many, many ghost stories!
New York at Halloween sounds deadly doesn’t it? It’s my favourite time of year in the city by far. If you have any recommendations that I haven’t mentioned, definitely write them below, so myself and other readers can get some inspo!
Thank you for reading,
Author: Carly Colgan Bates
