Ten most haunted hotels, as ranked by travelers


Planning a creepy getaway this Halloween? Don’t rely on rumors when hunting for a hotel with the most paranomal activity. According a poll of more than 800 on TripAdvisor, 17% of travelers say that they have had a supernatural or ghostly encounter while staying at a hotel. Just in time for Halloween, the site has released their list of the country’s most “haunted hotels,” ranked by the number of times “ghost,” “haunted” or “supernatural” appeared in reviews.

“Paranormal experiences may not be guaranteed at these ‘haunted’ properties, but their rich histories and colorful pasts offer travelers an entertaining and spine-tingling trip back in time,” said Karen Drake, senior director of communications for TripAdvisor.

So go ahead – “boo”k away this fall. Just don’t blame anyone if things go bump in the night.

1. 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa , Eureka Springs, Arkansas – Average Nightly Rate: $91 – $214

Constructed in 1886, this mountaintop spa resort boasts a number of spirits, including Michael, an Irish stonemason who fell to his death while building the hotel, and even a cat, named Morris. Daily ghost tours ($18 for adults; $7 for under-12s) offer a behind-the-scenes peek at the property, and access to otherwise off-limits sights including the basement and morgue. According to one TripAdvisor traveler, “I found it to be the spookiest of all the ‘haunted’ hotels I have stayed at… I was surprised to find many orbs in the photos we took.”

2. Hotel Queen Mary , Long Beach, California – Average Nightly Rate: $89 – $179

Since making her maiden voyage in 1936, this historic steamship has served as a luxury ocean liner, troopship and in more recent years, a stationary hotel. Some 55 ghosts are rumored to linger on-board, including Jackie, a young girl who can be found taking a dip in the swimming pool. One TripAdvisor traveler noted, “I want to believe that everything that we experienced was real. We did record some orbs flying around our room while we slept. (We set up our video recorder on night vision).”

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3. Stanley Hotel , Estes Park, Colorado – Average Nightly Rate: $142 – $291

This property, which first opened its doors in 1909, is known for its inspirational role in the Stephen King classic, “The Shining”. Regular ghost hunts ($7 – $50 for adults) take travelers to some of the property’s most haunted hotspots, including the concert hall, in search of paranormal experiences. One TripAdvisor traveler wrote, “Had a lot of activity from the playful spirits there. The closet door opened and closed several times, the TV turned itself off and on, the covers were pulled off of us in the night and there was audible whispering in the room.”

4. Copper Queen Hotel , Bisbee, Arizona – Average Nightly Rate: $75 – $150

Completed in 1902, this property was the product of a booming mining town, and built to accommodate visiting investors and dignitaries. Today, guests can rub shoulders with three resident ghosts: Julia Lowell, a lady of the night; a dapper gentleman wearing a cape and a top hat, and a mischievous young boy. One TripAdvisor traveler noted, “If you want to try finding a ghost ask for an ‘active’ room! We had an active room and let’s just say I couldn’t quite explain all that I saw and heard!”

5. Marshall House , Savannah, Georgia – Average Nightly Rate: $112 – $236

Designated as a National Historic Building by The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, this property has served many different uses since being built in 1851, including serving as a hospital for Civil War soldiers. Since reopening as a hotel in 1999, many guests have reported ghostly sightings. One TripAdvisor traveler stated, “…Heard someone running in the room above me. Upon telling the staff we were told the entire floor above us was empty. So if you’re looking for a ghostly experience, definitely consider this hotel.”

6. Admiral Fell Inn , Baltimore, Maryland – Average Nightly Rate: $154 – $333

This historic property, comprising seven different buildings dating back to the 1770s, boasts a rich history. Among other uses, the Inn has formerly served as a theater and a boarding house for sailors – and today, travelers can choose from 80 unique guestrooms and partake in free ghost tours on Friday and Saturday evenings. “If you are searching for character, charm, great service and ghost history this is the place to stay,” suggested one TripAdvisor traveler.

7. The Menger Hotel , San Antonio, Texas – Average Nightly Rate: $90 – $175

This hotel, situated next to the Alamo, was built in 1859 on the site of Texas‘ first brewery. Photos of prominent former guests, from Babe Ruth to President Theodore Roosevelt, line the walls – and Roosevelt’s spirit is rumored to have since been seen sipping on a drink at the hotel bar, in which he recruited cowboys for the Rough Riders. One TripAdvisor traveler noted, “…Felt cold spots in several places in and around the hotel and got plenty of goose bumps during our stay, but I never once felt afraid.”

8. Bullock Hotel , Deadwood, South Dakota – Average Nightly Rate: $100

This historic hotel was founded in the 1890s by Deadwood‘s first Sheriff, Seth Bullock, and today, visitors to the town can pay their respects to the former lawman and other notable Wild West figures, including Calamity Jane, at the nearby Mount Moriah Cemetery. Hotel guests may be in for a much closer encounter with Bullock, whose spirit has supposedly roamed the property since his passing in 1919. One TripAdvisor traveler commented, “Heard tell of the ghost tour, but didn’t need to go on it as we could feel Seth Bullock‘s presence in the hotel already!”

9. Place D’Armes Hotel , New Orleans, Louisiana – Average Nightly Rate: $119 – $480

Located in the heart of the French Quarter, this property is said to have been built on the site of a former school house that was destroyed in a fire, in which many perished. Resident ghosts are rumored to include former pupils, as well as an elderly bearded man dressed in 1800’s attire. One TripAdvisor traveler noted, “…My husband and daughter said they heard children laughing and playing in the next room and the ceiling fan came on all by itself. There was no next room, it was a brick wall outside!”

10. Hotel Del Coronado , Coronado, California – Average Nightly Rate: $289 – $720

Sun, sand and spirits are the order of the day at this beachfront getaway, built in 1888. The property has seen a stream of famed visitors over the years, from Charlie Chaplin, to Humphrey Bogart – but it is a former guest by the name of Kate Morgan who has continued to make her presence felt, since taking her life at the resort in 1892. According to one TripAdvisor traveler, “I brought my K2 Meter (it’s believed the meter can pick up the ‘magnetic fields’ of spirits). I actually got some ‘hits’ on it while we were having breakfast in our room.”

5 terrifying haunted houses in New York

What’s Halloween without a good old-fashioned haunted house? While that may be true, there is nothing old-fashioned about these terrifying haunted houses in New York.

Blackout Haunted House
54 W. 39th St. (between 5th and 6th)

Just based on the fact that you are required to go in solo is scary enough. Some things to expect as you make your way through this dark house of horrors include sexual and violent situations, physical contact, fog, complete darkness, crawling, water, and more. You must be 18 to enter and tickets are $30-$55.

Blood Manor
163 Varrick St. at Charlton St.

This haunted attraction is comprised of horror-themed rooms, dark hallways, and terrifying labyrinths and takes about 20-25 minutes to complete. According to Time Out New York, some things you will encounter include creatures, serial killers, twisted sideshow acts, and gruesome scenarios, like a blood drenched slaughter house with hanging pig carcasses. Children under 14 must be accompanied by an adult and tickets are $28.50-$50.

Nightmare: Fairy Tales
Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Educational Center, 107 Suffolk St. (between Rivington and Delancey)

The focus of this haunted attraction is taking the most gruesome scenarios from original children’s fairy tales (not the the one’s that evolved into bedtime stories for kids, but the one’s that were first created to keep children from acting out). Make your way through a dark, scary forest in this interactive experience as you become one of the characters in the story and live out a real life nightmare. While Nightmare: Fairy Tales is definitely scary, it is more disturbing and creepy than your usual haunted house. Children under 10 will not be admitted and children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult. Tickets range from $30-$100.

Trapped in Purgatory
2 Locations: Wizard of Gore is located at 2449 Veterans Rd. W., Staten Island. Hotel 666 is located at 5050 Hylan Blvd., Staten Island

You can choose the storyline behind your terrifying experience with this haunted attraction. Hotel 666 is based on a woman and her daughter who once stayed at a haunted hotel, never to be seen again, while Wizard of Gore will send you through a disturbing corn maze. Small children should go before 6PM when visitors are allowed to enter without the actors around. After 6PM, general admission is $18, or $30 if you want to do both attractions.

Nightmare Z-Day
1157 Commerce Ave., at Gleason Ave., Bronx

Experience the beginning of the zombie apocalypse. Prepare to scream while you are chased around this haunted house by the undead who seem hungry for some flesh. No children under 10 will be admitted, and children under 14 must be accompanied by an adult. General admission is $15, while students will pay $10. For $30, you can buy a VIP ticket and jump to the front of the line.

Alabama celebrates its haunted past with an entire month of events

Throughout October, the state of Alabama in the United States will celebrate its haunted past with a variety of events, including ghost walks, story-telling festivals, and a moonlit tour of Old Cahawba, a historic ghost town.

Here are some of the scheduled events:

7th Annual “Historic Haunts Walk”
Athens, Alabama (Oct 4, 12, 14, 19)

This spooky walk will begin at the Houston Library and includes stories about paranormal activity at twelve local structures. For instance, hear about the girl who fell to her death at Athens University and is still said to wander the halls. Each walk lasts about 90 minutes, with tickets costing $5. For more information, contact Limestone County Tourism at 1-256-232-5411 or Jeanette@visitathensal.com.

Storytellin’ Campfire Talk: Spooks in the Valley
Fort Payne, Alabama (Oct 22)

This free event takes place at the large pavilion in DeSoto State Park. Sit around a campfire and listen to ghostly tales and scary stories. For more information, call 1-256-782-5697.

Ghost Walk & Fall Festival
Thomasville, Alabama (Oct 23)

The Thomasville Arts Council will be acting out some of renowned storyteller Kathryn Tucker Windham‘s famous scary stories. There will also be haunted tours, street dancing, a motorcycle poker ride, a car show, and a haunted house. For more information, call the Thomasville Chamber of Commerce at 1-334-636-1542.

To view the complete list of scary events for the month of October, click here.

5k zombie infested obstacle course comes to the United States

Adventure-lovers and zombie-enthusiasts will be excited to hear about a new zombie infested obstacle course coming to the United States this Fall. Like any other obstacle course event, such as Warrior Dash or Spartan Race, Run for Your Lives will include man-made challenges (12, to be exact) as well as tests of physical fitness. This obstacle course in particular will involve mud, water, climbing, crawling, ducking, diving, running, and maybe even blood, as you navigate through sewage systems and conquer uphill climbs to reach the finish line.

However, unlike your usual obstacle course race, there is a scary twist here. Participants will be given a flag belt that will hold flags that represent their health during the course. While making your way through the event, zombies will be attacking and trying to grab these flags. Don’t worry too much if you lose a flag, however, as there are “health bonuses” hidden throughout the course. If you lose all your health flags, you die and the zombies win.

This video game come to life has different possible routes to the finish line, so runners should be aware that while Run for Your Lives is called a 5K it could end up being longer. Participants are encouraged to dress up however they would like, as the living or the dead. There will also be an Apocalypse Party after the event so you can celebrate your survival (or drink with the rest of your new zombie friends).

Just in time for Halloween, the first Run For Your Lives event will take place on October 22, 2011, in Baltimore, Maryland. Other dates and locations include:

Galley Gossip: Flight attendants, turbulence & scary flights

One of the scariest flights I ever worked also happens to be one of the first flights I ever worked for an airline called Sun Jet International Airlines. I lasted three months before moving on. Sun Jet is no longer in business. I’m going to guess this had a lot to do with gimmicky $69 flights to cities like Dallas, Fort Lauderdale, Newark, and Long Beach. While cheap tickets attract a lot of passengers interested in saving a buck, they don’t always cover the cost of maintenance and upkeep of aircraft for smaller airlines. At least that’s what I assumed based on the fact that I quickly became accustomed to the FAA meeting our flight in Long Beach, California every Tuesday afternoon and taking the equipment out of service. And this had nothing to do with all those duct taped armrests or the black plastic garbage bags some passengers had to sit on after they discovered their seat cushions were soaked with urine. Because that’s what happens when you mix cheap tickets, a quick aircraft turn-around on the ground, and seventeen unaccompanied minors on a previous flight! Hey, better a damp seat than no seat. Unfortunately that was the only alternative most of the time, because our flights were always full.

I should have known when I boarded it was going to be a strange flight based on the aircraft lighting alone. Throughout the all-economy class cabin the side wall lights were on the blink and flickering in the dark. This made the airplane feel less like a disco and more like a haunted house. But it wasn’t until we hit severe turbulence half an hour before landing in Dallas that the creepy mood lighting actually became a problem. It started to freak the passengers out. At one point even I began to feel like I was starring in my very own Stephen King horror movie at 30,000 feet.

“Flight attendants take your seats!” boomed the Captains voice over the PA.Strapped into my jump seat, I noticed passengers clutching the armrests while others held hands across the aisle. I didn’t see any praying, but I’m sure there was plenty of that going on because with each dip there were moans and groans and even a few full on screams, making a bad situation sound even worse.

Keep in mind most of our flights were filled with first time fliers with little-to-no interest in racking up frequent flier miles, so a lot of these people had never before experienced turbulence in their lives and here they were experiencing it at its worst for the very first time! While it was my job to keep the cabin calm, there was very little I could do from my jump seat except reassure those sitting nearby that everything was going to be okay. It’s a fact that most injuries occur only when passengers don’t have their seat belts on. But with each bump, the screams got louder and louder until someone yelled out the unthinkable:

“I don’t want to die!”

For a split second all was quiet. That’s when I got scared.

Unpredictable behavior makes me nervous. I tell you this because the flight was a non-smoking one, but from my jump seat I could see a few passengers were lighting up. Great, I thought, because here we were on a flight so bumpy there was no way I could possibly get up and run to the back in order to grab a bottle of halon to fight a fire if I had to. Fire in the cabin, by the way, is about the only thing that scares me in flight.

“You need to put that out!” I yelled from my jump seat, but as soon as the words had left my mouth I regretted saying them as I imagined a cigarette being squashed into the fabric of the seat back in front of them.

Instead of doing as they were told, they continued to puff harder and faster as the airplane jolted side to side and the lights blinked rapidly on and off. This is when others began to join in. Someone seated close to me said something about smoking one last cigarette before the airplane crashed. That’s when I heard a familiar voice scream out again.

“I don’t want to die!”

Of course, no one died that night. But later on I learned there was a Delta flight in front of us that aborted landing. That, however, didn’t deter our Captain from attempting his approach. When he did finally manage to get the airplane on the ground, we landed so hard I thought the aircraft might split in two. There was thunder and lightening all around as we taxied to the gate. Passengers began jumping up out of their seats and rushing toward the aircraft door.

“Sit down!” I cried. “We’re not at the gate yet!”

“Hold the passengers back when I open my door!” a coworker barked at me. But my colleague never did get that door open because half a second later the Captain announced over the PA that the airport was closed due to thunderstorms in the area. Because of this there weren’t any open gates available. Airport traffic had come to a halt. That meant we were going to have to sit on the tarmac until the weather cleared with an airplane full of passengers on the edge of revolt.

“Let us off!” passengers demanded. We would have, if we could have, but there was no where to go! We were stuck. All of us together in a flickering flying tube.

After the flight I spotted the Captain standing outside of the terminal leaning against a brick wall. An older guy, the quiet type, he stood there with his pilot hat in one hand, a cigarette in the other, while waiting for the employee bus. Immediately I noticed his face looked ashen. Quickly he inhaled and exhaled, eyes on the ground, shirt drenched with sweat under the arms. I couldn’t help but think he looked a lot like those crazy passengers smoking on the airplane, the very ones who thought they were going to die. That’s when it hit me. Right then and there I realized just how scary our flight had truly been.

Photos courtesy of Satanslaundromat and Caribb