Best Places in the World to Spend Halloween

Derry has been throwing a Halloween festival since the 1980s, and it shows. The whole walled city commits. There is a carnival parade, fireworks over the River Foyle, and a costume participation rate that would embarrass most fancy dress parties. The festival now runs across several days, so there is time to see the walls lit up and still make it to a pub before the parade crowds do. Book accommodation early.

On the night of 31st October, the Beltane Fire Society stages Samhuinn, a fire festival marking the Celtic new year. Expect drums, painted performers, a battle between summer and winter, and a great deal of fire in close proximity to people in costume. The rest of the city is well cast for the season regardless. The Old Town's closes and underground vaults do not need much help to feel haunted. A ghost tour is almost a civic duty.

If you want the source material, go to the Hill of Ward near Athboy, where Samhain fires are thought to have been lit more than two thousand years ago. It is a quiet, grassy mound now, which is rather the point. Back in Dublin, the city claims Bram Stoker as its own. He was born in Clontarf, and the city has marked him with an autumn festival in recent years. Check the programme before you travel.

Bram Stoker again. He stayed in Whitby in 1890 and borrowed its abbey ruins, its 199 steps and its sea fog for Dracula. The town has leaned in ever since. Whitby Goth Weekend runs twice a year, and the autumn edition often falls close to Halloween. Even without it, a late October evening among the abbey ruins does the job. Bring a coat. The fog is not decorative.

Bran Castle is marketed as Dracula's castle. Vlad the Impaler has only a loose connection to it and Stoker never visited. Nobody seems to mind, and the castle's Halloween events are popular for a reason. For something with more substance, go to Sighișoara, a walled medieval citadel where Vlad was born, and spend the evening in its cobbled upper town. It is the more convincing setting of the two.

The Village Halloween Parade marches up Sixth Avenue every 31st October, and anyone in costume can join. That is the entire entry requirement. It is chaotic, enormous and oddly wholesome. An hour north, the Hudson Valley offers a gentler version. Sleepy Hollow is a real place, with the Old Dutch Church and its burying ground from Washington Irving's story. Nearby, the Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze fills the grounds of a historic manor with thousands of hand-carved pumpkins. Someone carved every one. Think about that.

New Orleans does not need a special occasion to dress up, so Halloween here feels less like an event and more like a slight escalation. There is a costumed parade, the Krewe of Boo, and the French Quarter behaves much as you would expect. The city's above-ground cemeteries are the more affecting side of the season. St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 can be visited with a licensed guide, and it is worth doing properly.

Salem has made October its entire economy. The town runs a month-long programme of events, and by the final weekend the streets are dense with visitors in pointed hats. It can feel a little like a theme park built on the site of something grim, which it is. The 1692 witch trials memorial is quiet and worth your time. Go midweek if you can, or accept that you will be sharing the pavement.

Día de Muertos is not Halloween, and it is worth saying so. It runs from 31st October to 2nd November and is a celebration of family members who have died, not a costume party. But if you want to spend the end of October somewhere that treats death with care rather than fright, Oaxaca is extraordinary. Markets fill with marigolds and pan de muerto, homes build ofrendas, and cemeteries are lit with candles through the night. Go respectfully. Ask before photographing.