12 Best Places to Go for Halloween in the US, No Car Needed

1. Salem, Massachusetts

⏱ 30 minutes from Boston by commuter rail; about 4 hours 30 from New York to Boston

• 🚌New York to Boston busesfrom $13
• 🚆New York to Boston trainsfrom $22
• 🚆Providence to Boston trainsfrom $6
• 🚌Hartford to Boston busesfrom $8
• MBTA commuter rail or the Salem Ferry from Boston

Salem is the Halloween town. Haunted Happenings runs the whole month, and 2026 is the city’s 400th year, so it’s going bigger than usual. Salem Night Faire takes over Pioneer Village on October 16, 17, 23 and 24 (5 to 10 p.m.), and the Haunted Speakeasy fills Hamilton Hall on October 24. On Halloween itself there’s live music downtown from noon and a 400-drone show over the North River at 10 p.m., weather permitting. Cry Innocent, the live re-trial of Bridget Bishop where the audience is the jury, plays select Saturdays at 3 p.m. in season for $26; check the schedule. Book tours and attractions ahead, especially on weekends, and take the city’s own advice: arrive before midday.

Getting there without a car is the whole point. The city tells visitors to park at a T station and ride in, and it’s right. Salem is about 30 minutes from Boston’s North Station on the Newburyport/Rockport commuter rail line: fare Zone 3, about $8 one way, and the MBTA’s $10 weekend pass covers it. The ferry from Long Wharf to Salem Wharf takes 50 to 60 minutes and runs through the end of October (confirm the last sailing before you count on it); you can book ahead for October weekends. Wanderu doesn’t sell MBTA or ferry tickets, so the routes above get you to Boston. Our Boston day trips guide has the commuter rail details.

2. Providence, Rhode Island

⏱ 40 minutes from Boston by train; about 3 hours 50 from New York by bus

• 🚆Boston to Providence trainsfrom $6
• 🚌Boston to Providence busesfrom $9
• 🚌New York to Providence busesfrom $13
• 🚆New York to Providence trainsfrom $17

Providence was the sixth most-booked of the forty-odd Halloween cities we checked in Wanderu’s bookings last year, and the train from Boston is the sleeper deal on this whole list: Amtrak’s Northeast Regional does it in about 40 minutes, and the cheapest fares start in single digits. From New York, the bus takes just under four hours.

Roger Williams Park Zoo’s Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular is the original of the form. The 2026 edition, “The Great Pun-Kin Trail,” runs nightly through November 1 from 6 to 10:30 p.m. (last entry at 10), with more than 5,000 carved pumpkins lit along the trail. Adults are $20 Monday to Thursday and $23 Friday to Sunday, kids $16 and $19, online timed tickets only. November 1 is a 21-plus “Last Call” night, if you’d rather see 5,000 pumpkins with a drink in hand. The zoo is a city bus ride from the train and bus stops downtown.

3. Sleepy Hollow, New York

⏱ 40 to 50 minutes from Grand Central to Tarrytown on Metro-North, about an hour to the Blaze; 2 to 4.5 hours to New York first

• 🚌Boston to New York busesfrom $13
• 🚆Boston to New York trainsfrom $22
• 🚌Washington to New York busesfrom $16
• 🚆Washington to New York trainsfrom $22
• 🚌Philadelphia to New York busesfrom $8
• 🚆Philadelphia to New York trainsfrom $11
• Metro-North Hudson Line from Grand Central

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is set here, and the village leans all the way in. The headline is the Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze at Van Cortlandt Manor in Croton-on-Hudson: 44 nights this year, its longest run ever, through November 8, with timed tickets from $24 on select evenings and a new Creature Feature Forest. In Sleepy Hollow proper, Twilight Village at Philipsburg Manor runs Friday to Sunday evenings through October 31 ($35 adults, $25 kids) with storytellers, fire performers and a Headless Horseman sound-and-light show, and Historic Hudson Valley runs “The Headless Horseman Files” on October weekends.

Get to New York first, then take Metro-North’s Hudson Line from Grand Central: 40 to 50 minutes to Tarrytown for Philipsburg Manor, about an hour to Croton-Harmon for the Blaze, which is a 15-minute walk or a short cab from the station. Both are fare Zone 5, $11.75 off-peak and $16 peak one way. Wanderu doesn’t sell Metro-North, and Sleepy Hollow has no intercity bus or train stop of its own, which is why it’s filed under New York.

4. New York City

⏱ 2 hours from Philadelphia; about 4 hours 30 from Boston or Washington

• 🚌Philadelphia to New York busesfrom $8
• 🚆Philadelphia to New York trainsfrom $11
• 🚌Boston to New York busesfrom $13
• 🚆Boston to New York trainsfrom $22
• 🚌Washington to New York busesfrom $16
• 🚆Washington to New York trainsfrom $22
• 🚌Baltimore to New York busesfrom $15
• 🚌Albany to New York busesfrom $15

The Village Halloween Parade is the biggest Halloween parade in the country, and the 53rd one steps off at 7 p.m. on Saturday, October 31, up Sixth Avenue from Canal to 15th Street. This year’s theme is “Body & Soul.” Anyone in costume can march: the lineup is at Canal and Sixth between 6:30 and 9 p.m. Watching is free, and the crowd is half the show.

New York is also, by a mile, where Halloween-week travelers on Wanderu are going: about 18,000 bus and train tickets into the city between October 16 and November 2 last year, more than three times as many as Boston. Buses from Boston, Washington and Philadelphia run all day, so a sold-out departure just means the next one.

5. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

⏱ about 2 hours from New York; 2 by train or 3 by bus from Washington; 1 hour 15 from Baltimore by train

• 🚌New York to Philadelphia busesfrom $8
• 🚆New York to Philadelphia trainsfrom $11
• 🚌Washington to Philadelphia busesfrom $15
• 🚆Washington to Philadelphia trainsfrom $11
• 🚆Baltimore to Philadelphia trainsfrom $6
• 🚌Baltimore to Philadelphia busesfrom $14

The bus terminal at 1001 Filbert Street reopened in May 2026 after three years of curbside boarding, so Greyhound, FlixBus and Peter Pan all land you a short walk from Reading Terminal Market. From New York the bus is the cheap way and the Keystone train is the comfortable one; from Baltimore the Northeast Regional wins on both.

Eastern State Penitentiary’s Halloween Nights is the one haunted attraction on this list inside a real abandoned prison, and it’s a short ride from Center City. Five haunted houses (The Crypt, Nightmares, Machine Shop, Dark Tides and Big Top Terror) run on select nights through November 7. General admission is $49 to $79 depending on the night, with half-hour arrival windows, recommended for 12 and up; no one under 7.

Pennhurst Asylum, 45 minutes out in Spring City, is scarier and harder to reach: October 30 and 31 and November 1, 6 and 7 are its last nights, but you’ll need a ride from the city. Closer in, Laurel Hill East’s Soul Crawl walks the Victorian cemetery after dark on Saturday the 24th and Halloween night, 7 to 10 p.m., $25.

6. Washington, DC

⏱ about 4 hours 30 from New York by bus; 2 from Philadelphia by train, 3 by bus; 40 minutes from Baltimore by train

• 🚌New York to Washington busesfrom $15
• 🚆New York to Washington trainsfrom $22
• 🚌Philadelphia to Washington busesfrom $15
• 🚆Philadelphia to Washington trainsfrom $11
• 🚆Baltimore to Washington trainsfrom $6
• 🚌Baltimore to Washington busesfrom $10
• 🚌Richmond to Washington busesfrom $13

DC’s best Halloween nights this year are the grown-up ones. Night of the Living Zoo, the 21-plus after-hours party at the National Zoo, is Friday, October 23 (7 to 11 p.m., $75). The family version, Boo at the Zoo, is October 16 to 18 (6 to 8:30 p.m., $35), so it’s over before Halloween week.

On Tuesday, October 27 the 17th Street High Heel Race runs its 39th year on 17th Street NW between P and R Streets, free, with the block party from 6 p.m. and the race later in the evening. Congressional Cemetery’s Soul Strolls run on October 16, 17, 23, 24, 30 and 31 ($40). On Halloween night the Exorcist Steps in Georgetown get a free light-and-fog show from 7 to 11 p.m.

If you stay through the weekend, the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden reopens on October 31 after a $68 million redesign.

DC was third on that same list of Halloween cities. New York is the big feeder, and the Baltimore-to-Washington train is 40 minutes with fares that start in single digits, which makes Baltimore a legitimate place to sleep.

7. New Orleans, Louisiana

⏱ about 6 hours from Houston by bus; 1 hour 30 from Baton Rouge

• 🚌Houston to New Orleans busesfrom $36
• 🚆Houston to New Orleans trainsfrom $50
• 🚌Baton Rouge to New Orleans busesfrom $15
• 🚌Atlanta to New Orleans busesfrom $52
• 🚆Atlanta to New Orleans trainsfrom $38
• 🚆Memphis to New Orleans trainsfrom $47

New Orleans treats Halloween as a second Mardi Gras. The Krewe of BOO! parade rolls Saturday, October 24 at 6:30 p.m. from Elysian Fields through the French Quarter to the Warehouse District, with the NOLA Zombie Run that morning and the 18-plus Monster Mash at Generations Hall after. On Halloween itself, VoodooFest at Voodoo Authentica (612 Dumaine) is free from 1 to 7 p.m., with talks on Marie Laveau, drumming and a closing ancestral ritual. The Frenchmen Street party fills in after 10 p.m. The above-ground cemeteries are the daytime draw; St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 is guide-only, so book a tour rather than turning up. The vampire tours take over after dark.

Fewer tickets are booked to New Orleans for Halloween week than for early October, two years running, so it’s a good week to go. Everything arrives at Union Passenger Terminal on Loyola Avenue, Amtrak and Greyhound alike, a short walk from the Superdome and a streetcar ride up Loyola from Canal Street. Houston is the main feeder: about six hours by bus, or nine and a half on the Sunset Limited, which runs three days a week. Amtrak’s Crescent from Atlanta is affected by track work south of Washington from October 16 to 26, so check its status before you book that one. Once you’re there, our list of free things to do in New Orleans covers the daylight hours.

8. Savannah, Georgia

⏱ about 4 hours from Atlanta; 2 hours 30 from Jacksonville

• 🚌Atlanta to Savannah busesfrom $35
• 🚌Jacksonville to Savannah busesfrom $22
• 🚆Jacksonville to Savannah trainsfrom $31
• 🚌Orlando to Savannah busesfrom $34
• 🚆Orlando to Savannah trainsfrom $42

Savannah’s squares were built for October: Spanish moss, iron gates, a ghost tour on every corner. The American Institute of Parapsychology named it America’s most haunted city in 2002, and its own founder called the title “more honorary than scientific,” which is about the right level of seriousness. The tour operator that holds the award, 6th Sense World, runs a 90-minute walk for $32.

The event that sells out is Bonaventure Cemetery’s All Souls’ Night, the third of its “Three Nights of Halloween,” on Sunday, November 1 from 5 to 8 p.m. ($75): three hours of after-dark storytelling inside the cemetery with Shannon Scott and Megan Morgan. The weekend before has Trick-or-Treat on River Street on Saturday the 24th, and Halloween night itself has the Nightmare on Congress Street bar crawl.

Savannah is one of the few places in our bookings where Halloween week is busier than the weeks around it, two years running, on a small base of a few dozen tickets. Atlanta is the nearest big city, about four hours by bus; Jacksonville is about two and a half hours by bus or train, though Amtrak’s track work south of Washington shortens or buses some Silver Meteor and Palmetto runs from October 16 to 26, so check the train before you count on it. The bus station on West Oglethorpe Avenue is downtown; the Amtrak station is four miles out, a short rideshare from the squares.

9. San Antonio, Texas

⏱ 1 hour 40 from Austin; about 3 hours 30 from Houston

• 🚌Austin to San Antonio busesfrom $13
• 🚆Austin to San Antonio trainsfrom $17
• 🚌Houston to San Antonio busesfrom $27
• 🚌Dallas to San Antonio busesfrom $31
• 🚆Dallas to San Antonio trainsfrom $30

San Antonio’s big weekend is the one before Halloween, and it’s Día de los Muertos rather than trick-or-treat. Muertos Fest at Hemisfair is free: Friday, October 23 from 5 to 11 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 11 p.m., Sunday noon to 9, with more than 80 altars, five stages, and processions Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon. The Day of the Dead River Parade floats down the River Walk on Friday the 23rd at 7 p.m. (ticketed), La Villita runs its own festival all three days, and Historic Market Square adds the Las Monas processions on the 24th and 25th. The Tradition Trail of altars along the River Walk stays up through November 2.

If you want actual scares, Six Flags Fiesta Texas’s Fright Fest runs select nights through November 1 with a new Conjuring Universe maze; the haunted houses need a separate pass. Sisters Grimm runs ghost walks from the Menger Hotel on Alamo Plaza from $25, and the Menger has its own resident ghosts.

Austin is 1 hour 40 by bus, with departures all day, or a slower ride on the Texas Eagle. Houston and Dallas are three to five hours.

10. Orlando, Florida

⏱ about 2 hours from Tampa; 4 hours 30 from Miami

• 🚌Tampa to Orlando busesfrom $13
• 🚆Tampa to Orlando trainsfrom $16
• 🚌Miami to Orlando busesfrom $24
• 🚆Miami to Orlando trainsfrom $27
• 🚌Fort Lauderdale to Orlando busesfrom $24
• 🚌Jacksonville to Orlando busesfrom $22

Orlando is the theme-park Halloween. Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights runs its 35th year on select nights through November 1 with ten haunted houses, and single-night tickets for the remaining nights run about $95 to $145. SeaWorld’s Howl-O-Scream runs through October 31 from about $48, and Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party at Magic Kingdom runs through October 31 too, but every remaining night is sold out.

Orlando came ninth on the same list. Come in from Tampa if you can: about two hours by bus or on Amtrak. Miami and Fort Lauderdale are three and a half to four and a half hours by bus or train. Amtrak’s Floridian and Silver Meteor are among the routes affected by track work south of Washington from October 16 to 26, so check the train’s status for those dates. Amtrak arrives at Sligh Boulevard and the Greyhound and FlixBus stop is on John Young Parkway; from either, LYNX buses are $2 a ride.

11. Chicago, Illinois

⏱ 1 hour 30 from Milwaukee by train; 3 to 5.5 hours from Madison, Indianapolis, St. Louis or Detroit

• 🚆Milwaukee to Chicago trainsfrom $21
• 🚌Milwaukee to Chicago busesfrom $15
• 🚌Madison to Chicago busesfrom $24
• 🚌Indianapolis to Chicago busesfrom $29
• 🚆St. Louis to Chicago trainsfrom $29
• 🚆Detroit to Chicago trainsfrom $39
• 🚌Detroit to Chicago busesfrom $30

Arts in the Dark is Chicago’s Halloween parade, and it’s back on Columbus Drive this year: Saturday, October 24, 6 to 8 p.m., stepping off at Balbo and heading north to Jackson along Grant Park, with more than 100,000 people expected. On Halloween night itself the Haunted Halsted parade runs up Halsted Street from Belmont in Northalsted, free. For pumpkins, Jack’s Pumpkin Pop-Up in West Town runs through November 1, and Lincoln Park Zoo’s Fall Fest is free Friday to Sunday through the same day.

Add Milwaukee. Amtrak’s Hiawatha does it in about 90 minutes, and the bus is cheaper still. Madison, Indianapolis, St. Louis and Detroit are all three to five and a half hours.

12. Los Angeles (West Hollywood), California

⏱ about 3 hours from San Diego; 5 from Las Vegas

• 🚆San Diego to Los Angeles trainsfrom $35
• 🚌San Diego to Los Angeles busesfrom $22
• 🚆Santa Barbara to Los Angeles trainsfrom $25
• 🚌Santa Barbara to Los Angeles busesfrom $16
• 🚌Bakersfield to Los Angeles busesfrom $17
• 🚆Bakersfield to Los Angeles trainsfrom $25
• 🚌Las Vegas to Los Angeles busesfrom $35
• 🚌San Francisco to Los Angeles busesfrom $40

The West Hollywood Halloween Carnaval is back for 2026: Saturday, October 31, 6 to 11 p.m., on Santa Monica Boulevard from Doheny to La Cienega, free, no tickets, main stage at San Vicente, with more than 100,000 people in costume. The city runs a free Halloween Ride shuttle from 6 p.m. to 3 a.m. with connections to the Hollywood/Highland Metro station until midnight, so the B Line from Union Station gets you there and back. Universal Studios Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Nights runs through November 1 with eight houses, and Knott’s Scary Farm in Buena Park stays open until 2 a.m. on Halloween (Metrolink to Buena Park, then the OC Bus 29).

San Diego is the cheap way in: the Pacific Surfliner runs about three hours up the coast to Union Station, and the bus is cheaper. Santa Barbara and Bakersfield are two to three hours; Las Vegas is a five-hour bus.