Summer may be over and the rainy winter months may be rolling in – but that doesn’t mean we’ve got to stay in the UK.
Manchester Airport has highlighted a host of spooky destinations to get your (vampire) teeth stuck into this Halloween.
While some more expensive destinations are available, some flights can be as cheap as a Sunday lunch in Rivington or a round of drinks in Manchester – if you’re at a proper posh place anyway!
Monster hunting in Germany
Fly to Frankfurt with Lufthansa from £217pp return*
A dark, imposing fortress on a hillside overlooking the city of Darmstadt lent its name to arguably the most influential gothic horror novel of all time. Frankenstein Castle, just outside Frankfurt, has been standing for more than 800 years – and aside from Mary Shelley’s monster, has multiple other myths, legends and purported hauntings attached to it, including a sleeping dragon and a coven of witches.
A blood-curdling break in Transylvania
Fly to Bucharest with Ryanair from £75pp return*
Another icon of gothic horror fiction, Count Dracula, was based on a very real historical figure with a thirst for blood. Vlad the Impaler ruled with an iron fist and his connections to Castelul Bran, a medieval castle tucked away in Romania’s Carpathian mountains, have lent it the ominous nickname ‘Dracula’s Castle’.
Deserted jails and wailing banshees in haunted Ireland
Fly to Dublin with Ryanair from £28pp return*
A little closer to home, travellers from Manchester need only take a short hop across the Irish Sea to find themselves pounding the pavements of, reputedly, one of Europe’s most haunted cities.
A plethora of haunted walks and ghost tours are available in Dublin, taking visitors to sites like Trinity College, the churchyard of St Patrick’s Cathedral and the centuries-old Brazen Head pub – all home to restless spirits with a tragic tale to tell. Tour guides will often clue you up on a bit of Irish folklore as well, such as the legend of the banshee, a ghostly wailing woman whose appearance foretells the death of someone close to whoever witnesses her.
Party the night away in Budapest
Fly to Budapest with Ryanair from £59pp return*
If Halloween revelling is more your thing than haunted houses, Budapest is the place for you. The city’s world-famous ruin bars, with their crumbling walls and passageways, create an almost post-apocalyptic setting for a Halloween party. Halloween-themed river cruises on the Danube, where creepy costumes are positively encouraged, are a great way to get the night started. The city’s Heroes Square hosts an annual jack-o-lantern display and the supposedly haunted network of tunnels under Buda Castle is open for tours.
A bone-chilling sight under the streets of Paris
Fly to Paris – Charles de Gaulle with easyJet from £47pp return*
Beneath the ‘City of Light’ lies a dark secret. In the 1790s, after the French Revolution, Paris’ cemeteries were quite literally overflowing – and a radical solution was required. The remains of almost six million people were exhumed and moved to the newly-created Paris Catacombs, a network of mausoleums housed in ancient stone quarries under the city’s streets.
More than half a million people now visit the Catacombs each year, which are accessed near the Barrière d'Enfer (or ‘Gate of Hell’), where a sign warns them they are entering ‘The Empire of Death.’ Inside, they’re greeted by hundreds of thousands of stacked skulls, arms and leg bones lining the corridors in intricate patterns.
After you’ve finished here, take a trip to the Palace of Versailles – where, in an infamous ‘timeslip’ incident, two tourists visiting its gardens claimed to have found themselves suddenly surrounded by people in period costume, who abruptly vanished.
Haunted hotels and Headless Horsemen in the Big Apple
Fly to New York with AerLingus from £374pp return*
In their modern form, many Halloween customs can be traced to the United States – so where better to spend spooky season than one of America’s most iconic cities? Few cities can claim to go bigger on Halloween than the Big Apple, and there’s heaps of ghoulish stuff to see and do – from the Halloween Parade in Greenwich Village, to a light display themed on Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas in the New York Botanical Garden.
Top off your trip with a stay in the haunted Bowery Hotel – where guests have reported being deep in conversation with fellow visitors in old-fashioned clothing, who then disappear mid-sentence. You could even take a day trip to Sleepy Hollow, a small rural community in upstate New York and the setting for Washington Irving’s novel Legend of Sleepy Hollow, where a headless horseman terrorises local villagers.
Executions, apparitions and the Black Death in Prague
Fly to Prague with Ryanair from £69pp return*
At nightfall in Prague, the city comes out to party – but behind the neon lights and dance music is a murky underbelly. Infamous 17th Century executioner Jan Mydlar ended countless lives in the Old Town Square, where he allegedly still makes his presence felt – and many of the city’s ghost walks start here. They also take in St Agnes Convent, where the ghost of a nun appears in an ever-changing mood – either singing joyously, or crying out in anguish and throwing stones.
Prague was hard-hit by the Black Death, with more than 30,000 of its residents dying in one year alone, and the ‘Plague Doctor’ tour is a popular visitor experience year-round, recounting the disease’s terrifying impact on the city. Round off your visit with a drink in the Nightmare Horror Bar, a themed bar near the castle which describes itself as a ‘shrine to horror films from the last 50 years’.
Satanic rituals in Malaga’s haunted mansion
Fly to Malaga with Ryanair from £94pp return*
An unassuming derelict villa on the edge of Malaga has earned a reputation as the most haunted house in Spain. The Cortijo Jurado was constructed for a wealthy family in the late 19th Century, and local legend has it that the family were Satanists – sacrificing girls and young women who were lured to the house, burying their bodies on the grounds and using their money and influence to escape justice.
Soak up Europe’s biggest Halloween festival
Fly to Derry with Ryanair from £35pp return*
Halloween has its roots in the pagan Samhain harvest festival, which has been celebrated in Ireland for centuries and endures in the city of Derry. Today, Derry hosts Europe’s biggest Halloween festival, where, say the organisers, ‘the worlds of past and present collide’ with entertainment including illuminations, aerial performance, pyrotechnics and live music over the course of four days. At the culmination of the festivities is a Derry Halloween Carnival Parade on the night itself.
Celebrate the Day of the Dead in Mexico
Fly to Cancun with TUI from £344pp return*
Mexico’s Day of the Dead, celebrated on 1st – 2nd November, needs little introduction. A blend of Christian and indigenous Mexican beliefs, it is a day of celebration and thanksgiving for the lives of those who have passed away, and is marked across the country with street processions, elaborately decorated papier-mâché skulls, face paint, and family altars lining people’s porches with offerings to lost loved ones. Cancun is a great place to see this tradition play out in real time – and when you’re done soaking up the culture, take a dip in one of the region’s famous cenotes, limestone sinkholes which the Mayans believed were gateways to the underworld.
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