15 Real-Life Horror Locations You Can Actually Travel To
For thrill seekers and those that love a good horror, there are locations where the past collide with the present. These places give you chills and make it feel like you stepped right out of a spine chilling horror story. They also shed light on some of the more sinister sides of storytelling and their histories and legends.
Here’s a list that will take you through some of the most infamously spine tingling sites on the globe (that are open to exploration).
The Catacombs of Paris
Bustling Paris streets lie piled up with millions of dead in a somber maze of tunnels. Well-known as the walls of skulls, where bones are arranged in a haunting display. It is said that the oppressive silence hanging in the air only breaks for the sound of visitors’ footsteps. But it was a grim reminder of cemeteries that had spilt over the days of the city’s past plagues.
The Stanley Hotel
Inside a now iconic hotel in Colorado, where Stephen King did in fact spend a night in room 217, was the inspiration for Stephen King’s book ‘The Shining’. The Stanley Hotel’s history of paranormal activity goes on and on: Laughter (and sometimes ghostly piano music) has been heard down hallways. But the hotel doesn’t shy away from its spooky reputation, and will offer nightly ghost tours and psychic readings for true brave souls, or just plain fools.
Aokigahara Forest
Aokigahara is the densest forest at the bottom of Japanese iconic Mt. Fuji, and has a reputation of being a place to go and commit suicide. It’s also known as the Suicide Forest because compasses are supposedly thrown off here because the volcanic soil contains rich deposits of magnetic iron. This is why this eerie stillness is a place of contemplative beauty.
Poveglia Island
Poveglia Island is just a short boat ride from Venice and is often called one of the world’s most haunted places. It was also once a colony for the mentally insane, and rumours of a curse persist. The bell tower remains, as does the silent sentinel over the abandoned buildings, and it is said to be owned by the ghosts of plague victims.
Eastern State Penitentiary
Philadelphia’s Eastern State Penitentiary was once the most famous and expensive prison in the world, but now it’s a crumbling ruin whose spooky cell blocks and eerie underground punishment cells are open to visitors. It’s renowned for its radical architecture as well as its strict discipline, and many believe that these conditions led to the hauntings today: These are disembodied voices and shadowy figures you can only see out of the corner of your eye.
The Winchester Mystery House
In the case of San Jose, California’s sprawling Winchester Mystery House, the monument belonged to an eccentric mind — Sarah Winchester’s. Sarah was heiress to the Winchester rifle fortune, and she thought her family rifles were her hereditary ghosts, the ghosts of those they had killed. She built a house with staircases to nowhere, doors to walls, to appease these spirits. Its mazes are available to visitors to navigate, and maybe even meet its ghostly residents.
Salem, Massachusetts
Salem’s reputation as haunted is due in large part to the hysteria of the 1692 witch trials in which twenty people were executed. Salem has embraced the witchy history of today, and there are tours and museums dedicated to the tragic telling of those events. October is when Salem comes alive as a Halloween festival for people from all around to come and soak in its spooky past.
The Myrtles Plantation
Myrtles Plantation in St. Francisville, Louisiana is one of America’s most haunted homes, according to legend. The plantation, built in 1796, is home to at least 12 different ghosts. Perhaps the most infamous ghost is that of a slave named Chloe, who is rumored to have poisoned two members of the family. Guests of the plantation are given the opportunity to experience the spooky sights and sounds of the plantation each night on ghost tours.
The Island of the Dolls
A pretty haunting sight, the Island of the Dolls, just south of Mexico City, is home to hundreds of dolls that hang from trees and litter the island. The island’s caretaker hung the dolls in the 1950s in an attempt to placate the spirit of a girl who had drowned nearby. And apparently, these decaying dolls with blank eyes are possessed by the ghost of this girl, so it’s probably a scary place for people who like the macabre.
Banff Springs Hotel
In addition to its reputation for ghostly occurrences, this chateau-style hotel situated in the midst of Canada’s Banff National Park is renowned. Staff and guests have seen a bride who fell down the stairs and broke her neck walking the hallways. One of these is a constant apparition of a friendly bellman who vanishes when he helps guests to their rooms, and when the guests attempt to tip him.
Leap Castle
Ireland’s Leap Castle has a particularly ill-fated history of family betrayals and brutal massacres. Most famous of all is the castle’s ‘Bloody Chapel’ in which a priest was killed by his brother during a mass. The ghost of the priest has been reported by visitors on tours through the castle, and they complain of running into the malevolent Elemental spirit.
Disclaimer: This list is solely the author’s opinion based on research and publicly available information.
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Even if you’ve been on a safari in the past, an African photo safari is something you want to experience or at the very list add to the top of your bucket list.
But first, what is a photo safari? The phrase “photo safari” is not a common sentence structure but its meaning can be deduced easily. An African photo safari in general context means going on an adventure with the sole purpose of taking high-quality pictures.
10 Best African Photo Safaris You Must Experience
