Some of My Favorite Spooky Places - Part 2

In my last post, I took you through some of my favorite spooky places, but there are so many, I decided to break it up into two posts, giving you more inspo for your fall travels, or to build your own creepy stops into your existing trips.

Some places are creepy or spooky to some and completely normal to others. I visit a lot of cemeteries and undergrounds, but there are places that have so much history that they feel creepy to others. I find I have a mix of such things.

Colonial Williamsburg

While not spooky upon first glance, Colonial Williamsburg is steeped in history, much of it not great. Everything is frozen in time here and the ghost tours are really interesting. I grew up going there most summers, so I have a soft spot for strolling the streets and interacting with the period actors, learning about the history of the area...and watching Shakespeare for some reason.

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Eastern State Penitentiary

Abandoned buildings have a dilapidated beauty to them. They are fascinating and present so many questions, even places that are not entirely abandoned, because they've become a part of the parks services. There's an audio tour and small art exhibits at this old prison that tells so many stories it's hard not to get spooked and feel so many different things for the people who were placed here, no matter their crimes. Eastern State gives you a good inside look at the prison system in the U.S., even if it hasn't been used for 50+ years.

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Lone Fir Cemetery

Again, I love a cemetery. This beautiful one in the middle of Portland, Oregon has such a variety of headstones and tombs of notable people who lived and died in the city. You can spend several hours visiting with the dead here and Portland's usual drizzly day just adds to the atmosphere. You can even take ghost tours around Halloween, or regular tours throughout the rest of the year. 

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The Mütter Museum

This museum had been on my list for a long time and when we traveled to Philadelphia, I knew I would go there. You can't take photos inside, so I can't show you any of the things inside, but trust me when I say that if you're fascinated by medical oddities, then you will love exploring this place. From bones, to drawers full of things people have swallowed, to tumors. They, somehow, have it all. Is it gross? Some of it. Is it awesome? 100%.

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The Pharmacy Museum

On the same note, if medicines are more your thing, visit the first apothecary shop (pharmacy) in the U.S. It holds a wide variety of cures and artifacts from old medical practices and voodoo rituals, including ghastly instruments used in the past for dentistry, many by the former owner, a dentist known to conduct grisly experiments on patients. Though the daily "tours" are interesting, they can get quite crowded and you won't be able to look around while they occur. Try to go at a different time, so you have the room to see everything. It's also said that the museum is haunted, but I didn't see or feel anything on either of my visits. Of course, I was really into the exhibits, so it's possible I wasn't aware of anything trying to get my attention.

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Mary King's Close

Old Town Edinburgh, Ireland is full of little alleyways that lead to other buildings, shops, and restaurants. These are called closes. Mary King's Close was once the second widest street in Edinburgh, only matched by the Royal Mile. This seems like a feat when you visit, because it's probably only 6 feet wide. This small alley used to be the main street for housing and was 11 stories high on both sides. During the day you'd find stalls on either side selling wares and also stairs going to people's front doors. 

Mary King's Close has remained unchanged for the last 400 years, except for the electricity and safety measures added, and can be found underneath the streets of Old Town. As such, you are not allowed to take pictures, but that just makes it that much more authentic. Learn about the poor people of Edinburgh and how they lived, including those who contracted the plague. Your one-hour tour teaches you about Plague Doctors (and how they avoided contracting the plague by sheer luck/superstition), what life was like in the Close, the ghosts that might still reside there, and the man who had the first indoor toilet.

I have a lot more spooky things on my list for when I travel in the future, so I'll definitely bring them to you when I get to them.

Share your favorite creepy places in the comments.

Some of My Favorite Spooky Places - Part 1

Often when we travel, we look for non-traditional activities and attractions. Sometimes this leads us to a cemetery or a ghost tour or a haunted building. It's easy to find these things in most destinations you visit, so we are always doing something that other people find odd. We have fun, which is kinda the point of traveling and doing it with another person or other people. 

An elaborate gravestone in Pere Lachaise

Here are some of my favorite spooky places that might be something to add to your travel list:

Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris

Paris may be the City of Lights and be known for romance, but it has a lot in the way of spooky stuff. Now, I love a good cemetery, especially one with as much history as Père Lachaise. The tombs and headstones are so ornate and beautiful, it's almost as if there are hundreds of tiny churches on the grounds. I have been lucky enough to visit twice, seeing different parts each time, and feel so peaceful saying hello to strangers and admiring their graves, hoping that at least a few that I've stopped to spend a little extra time are just waiting for a visitor to come by. (The guy in the title pic seems to be waiting for someone to come chat.)

The Catacombs

I've also been to the Catacombs in Paris, though it's been over a decade now. I was thrilled to be able to snag tickets and wander among those that didn't have much choice of where their bones ultimately ended up. It appears that a lot of care went into stacking them though, and they get visitors each day. People have said it's haunted down there, but aside from it being dusty and kind of dark, I didn't feel like someone else - who wasn't on my tour - was with me. It's pretty beautiful down there. 

The Resting Place of Edgar Allan Poe

This is not the last cemetery on my list, and it's not even that creepy, especially if  you visit during the day, which is the only time it's open. Of course, I say this, and half of my pictures had this weird glaze to them, so maybe some ghosts were with me after all on my stroll around the yard. This small graveyard outside of a church in downtown Baltimore has both the original burial site of Edgar Allan Poe and then the new and more impressive headstone. 

One of the homes of Edgar Allan Poe

Poe lived and wrote in a handful of houses during his career. This one in Philadelphia is a historic building. they have not added modern lighting or heating to it, so you're basically walking around in half darkness, which makes this little house even creepier. You can really feel how this atmosphere could contribute to spooky stories like the Cask of Amontillado and The Black Cat. 

Chislehurst Caves outside of London

Take the Underground to the Orpington station and you're almost there. Chislehurst Caves housed families during the war and then became a concert venue for amazing bands and then was a filming location for Dr. Who. Now you can visit with a guide (so you don't get lost in the tunnels) and walk through all those iterations. Yes, it's very cool, but it's also dark and echo-y and spooky, made even moreso by us being the only people on the tour. We made a friend of our tour guide and still keep in touch. 

These are just a few of the spooky places I have enjoyed. Stay tuned for a part two, because there's no shortage of weird, wacky, and creepy places for you to visit when you travel. Share some of your favorites in the comments.

Travel In Search of Monsters

Do you love creepy creatures and reading about the folklore? Everywhere you travel has their own myths and legends. If you want to encounter some of the most popular ones - or at least try your luck - here are some of the coolest or scariest monsters and places you can go all year long.  

Often, the scariest monster is man. And while I've been to the Paris Catacombs, I didn't find them scary in the least. What I did find unnerving and creepy was the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. 

Where's the most haunted place you've ever traveled?