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Halloween is a real scream in Philadelphia.
Each fall, Philly takes spooky season to the next level as creepy haunted houses, nerve-wracking hayrides and terrifying Halloween attractions pop up throughout the region, scaring up new and over-the-top Hollywood production-level experiences set inside some of the creepiest places you can imagine.
Eastern State Penitentiary, an abandoned prison, hosts the massive annual Halloween Nights. The basement of a century-old industrial warehouse morphs into the Fright Factory. Infamous Pennhurst Asylum, a deserted psychiatric hospital, transforms into a terror-inducing haunted house. Lose your sanity on a haunted ski lift (Scream Mountain) or aboard a runaway antique train (No Hope After Dark).
As one of the nation’s oldest — and possibly most haunted — cities, Philadelphia is also home to a bevy of frightening historical ghost tours that offer up chilling tales of the city’s paranormal past and shocking true events, with a chance to witness other-worldly phenomena for yourself.
Read on for our picks of the top haunted houses, startling hayrides, scary attractions and moonlight ghost tours in Greater Philadelphia for 2023.
September 22 – October 30, 2023 (select dates)
Located at the Phoenix Sport Club in Feasterville-Trevose, The Valley of Fear has offered thrilling Halloween frights for 35 years. The twisting, disorienting Original Haunted Hayride — rated 5 out of 5 skulls by Fright Review (and one of their “favorite trails”) — offers a dozen new scenes for 2023 and an all-new sound experience. Then risk it all seeking One Eyed Willie’s lost treasure as you Escape From Willie’s Shipwreck Cove, featuring brand-new elements for the new season. Lastly, explore the dreaded mansion of evil at the risen-from-the-ashes Miles Manor Haunted House.
Where: Phoenix Sport Club, 301 W. Bristol Road, Feasterville-Trevose
September 22 – October 31, 2023 (select dates)
Hollywood-level special effects ramp up the trilogy of terror at The Bates Motel in Delco, named one of the 10 Best Haunted House Attractions in America by CNN. The Bates Motel Haunted House offers high-tech effects, digital sound and lighting, and astonishingly realistic details. The Haunted Hayride is a 25-minute horror ride through the tall forest of Arasapha Farm featuring huge sets — including a full-sized Wild West town, new for 2023. And the Revenge of the Scarecrows Haunted Corn Trail is a walk-through experience riddled with terrifying animatronic monsters and professional actors.
Where: The Bates Motel, 1835 Middletown Road, Glen Mills
September 22 – November 11, 2023 (select dates)
I scream, you scream, we all scream … because we’re all inside an abandoned prison! Eastern State Penitentiary opens its cell blocks each fall after dark for Halloween Nights, one of Philly’s most beloved Halloween attractions and America’s largest haunted house. The legendary prison (that once housed infamous criminals from Willie Sutton to Al Capone) has ramped up bigger and better for 2023 with 15 different attractions across its 11 acres, including five haunted houses, two walking tours and five themed bars — plus the Fair Chance Beer Garden.
Where: Eastern State Penitentiary, 2027 Fairmount Avenue
September 23 – November 4, 2023 (select dates)
A relative newcomer, Lincoln Mill Haunted House spins a spine-chilling story: Bodies were “discovered” in a secret basement chamber after flooding from Hurricane Ida in 2021, uncovering the mill’s dark and gruesome past. Explore the 160-year-old abandoned mill as you avoid the lingering spirits of workers who were subject to torment and experimentation by their disturbed boss a century ago, featuring scare actors, high-quality sets, special effects and animatronics. After your horror adventure, enjoy nightly food trucks and local craft brews. Bonus: Daytime no-scare tours and scavenger hunts are also available.
Where: Lincoln Mill Haunted House, 4100 Main Street
Operating in the same facility that housed an infamous psychiatric hospital for 80 years before being shut down, Pennhurst Asylum is a terrifying near-real-life attraction in Chester County. Described as the “scariest place I have ever seen, period” by HauntWorld, the 120-acre property offers three chilling attractions: the main Pennhurst Asylum haunted house, the disturbing Pennhurst Morgue and the panic-inducing Pennhurst Tunnels, all respectfully presented while reappropriating the site’s problematic history through feedback from the disability and mental health communities. For those looking for a little less horror, professionally guided daytime and paranormal investigation tours are available.
Where: Pennhurst Asylum, 250 Commonwealth Drive, Spring City
September 29 – October 28, 2023 (Fridays and Saturdays)
Montco’s Scream Mountain at Spring Mountain Adventures takes you up the dark side of a ski mountain on a chilling haunted chairlift ride, letting you out at the top only to guide yourself down an eerie, dimly lit trail to the bottom. Once at the bottom, you’ll hop on a haunted hayride to visit the remains of quarrymen murdered in their sleep (who, naturally, haunt the resort). For those with acrophobia, the hay ride is available as a separate attraction. Live bands play nightly.
Where: Spring Mountain Adventure, 757 Spring Mount Road, Schwenksville
September 29 – October 29, 2023 (Fridays – Sundays)
Offering suburban scares since 1990, Sleepy Hollow Haunted Acres features three ghoulish attractions all located on the 230-acre Gunser Farm, a working family farm in Newtown. At a mile-and-a-quarter, the Sleepy Hollow Hayride is one of the longest in the region, winding through dark woods and pumpkin fields. Afterwards, make your way through the abandoned village Field of Fright to old Malfate Manor, known as The House in the Hollow, a terrifying haunted house. End your night by the bonfire pit with live music at the brand-new concessions building.
Where: Sleepy Hollow Haunted Acres, 881 Highland Road, Newtown
September 29 – October 31, 2023 (select dates)
Get ready for a three-part chilling adventure: Warrington’s Winding Brook Farm features three classic haunted attractions (ticketed separately) in one terrifying location. The Night Chills Hay Ride winds through woods transformed into the Gates of Hell — populated, of course, by eerie nighttime creatures. The Corn Walk of Horror is a haunting trail with blood-curdling screams at every dark turn. And try not to get trapped in the Haunted Hay Maze, where spooky characters chase you into a (seemingly) never-ending series of dead ends.
Where: Winding Brook Farm, 3014 Bristol Road, Warrington
Like a nightmare right out of a Stephen King novel, the dark and cavernous basement of a 120-year-old abandoned factory is surely one of the scariest places on earth. That’s the setting for the high-scare, high-startle Fright Factory, a crowd-pleasing, creep-factor-100 warehouse in South Philly. The 25,000-square-foot space is split into three themed areas: Industrial Nightmare, South Side Sanatorium and Fright Factory Unholy. By the time you’re done, you’ll be begging to be let out of the basement.
Where: Fright Factory, 2200 S. Swanson Street
October 6-31, 2023 (select dates)
Step aboard a frightful Halloween festival on the rails as the New Hope Railroad takes you on the No Hope After Dark journey (round-trip) to the unknown aboard antique trains where terror and holiday revelry collide. While on board, experience sinister characters, immersive sets, and heart-pounding fear as your electrifying ride to the chilling abyss takes a haunting turn when nightmares come alive. The 100-minute multi-location journey departs from New Hope Train Station, with luxurious first-class table seating or high-back bench seats in coach available.
Where: New Hope Railroad, 32 W. Bridge Street, New Hope
Ongoing
Historians, authors and professors lead the highly researched, mature-audiences-only Grim Philly Tours, including several Halloween season excursions. The nightly R-rated Dark Philly Adult Night Tour features risqué tales of ghosts, sex, vampires, espionage and murder from the days of the Founding Fathers. The Saturdays-only Serial Killers and Cemeteries Tour mixes true crime and history lessons with tales of serial slayings and psychopathic killers. And the ever-popular Haunted Pub Crawl starts with visits to the sites of live witch trials and colonial boneyards before hitting up local taverns each Friday.
Where: Tours depart from the Independence Visitor Center, 599 Market Street
While other ghost tours concentrate on famous landmarks, the Philly Ghosts: Phantoms of Philadelphia Tour explores the dark underside of Philly’s Old City, one of the oldest residential regions in the nation. Expert guides lead you on a journey through the city’s shocking past via its most haunted buildings, ancient streets and ghostly monuments, telling stories of historical events, local legends and eyewitness accounts. The standard tour lasts about an hour and covers eight stops over a mile, while the extended tour runs 90 minutes across a mile-and-a-half with a dozen stops.
Where: Tours depart from Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, 217-231 W. Washington Square
Through Saturday, November 18, 2023 (select dates)
The lantern-lit Ghost Tours of New Hope, led by best-selling author and long-time paranormal investigator Adi-Kent Thomas Jeffrey, are one-hour, one-mile ghostly ambles through the streets of the Bucks County river town offering interesting and surprising stories of spine-tingling hauntings and spooky locales. Public tours are available every Saturday, plus Friday nights during October only, as well as on Halloween night. Tours meet in front of Parry Mansion.
Where: Tours depart from Parry Mansion Museum, East Ferry & South Main streets, New Hope
Through Saturday, November 25, 2023 (Fridays and Saturdays)
The paranormal stories heard along the Spirits of ’76 Ghost Tours are “one part history, two parts haunt.” Experience moonlight stops at more than 20 of Philly’s (definitely) historic and (possibly) haunted sites for chilling and grisly stories from the city’s past like the ghosts of Independence Hall, the dancing statue of Ben Franklin, paranormal Pine Street Church & Cemetery, and grim tales of Edgar Allan Poe and Leo Callahan (the only person to successfully escape Eastern State Penitentiary), plus haunted movie set locations from The Sixth Sense and National Treasure.
Where: Tours depart from 325 Chestnut Street
Through Thursday, November 30, 2023 (daily)
Wander the streets of Independence National Historical Park, Old City and Society Hill by candlelight on the guided Ghost Tours of Philadelphia. Hear chilling ghost tales, visit haunted houses and see where the bodies were buried (literally) from the days of William Penn to the Founding Fathers to today. Costumed tour guides spin spooky tales of villains, tragedies and plagues as you explore haunting burial grounds and historic sites along the dark city’s back alleys and secret gardens on a journey based on the book Ghost Stories of Philadelphia, PA.
Where: Tours depart from Signer’s Garden, 434-498 Chestnut Street
October 6-28, 2023 (Fridays and Saturdays)
Explore what’s been called the most haunted borough in Pennsylvania along the spooktacular Ghost Tours of Phoenixville in Chester County. Led by renowned paranormal author Peggy Schmidt, the 90-minute walking tour stops by the town’s most eerie and supernatural locales, including Phoenixville Library, Colonial Theater (setting for The Blob), Forge Theatre (a former funeral home), and more with stories dating back to the Revolutionary War and Civil War. Reservations required.
Where: Tours depart from Mansion House 37, 37 Bridge Street, Phoenixville
October 7-29, 2023 (select dates)
Explore one of the nation’s oldest active military facilities after dark with Candlelight Ghost Tours at Fort Mifflin, a pure Halloween experience free of decorations and costumed characters. It’s just you, your tour guide, a few candles and whatever friendly apparitions might be roving the historic site near Philadelphia International Airport. The one-hour walking tour covers three-quarters of a mile through America’s only operating base predating the Declaration of Independence. While you wait for the tour to begin, grab a few “spirits” from the pop-up bar — and be sure to arrive in costume Halloween weekend.
Where: Fort Mifflin, 6400 Hog Island Road
The only way to fully experience Philly? Stay over.
Book the Visit Philly Overnight Package and get free hotel parking and choose-your-own-adventure perks, including tickets to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Franklin Institute, or the National Constitution Center and the Museum of the American Revolution.
Or maybe you’d prefer to buy two Philly hotel nights and get a third night for free? Then book the new Visit Philly 3-Day Stay package.
Which will you choose?
Fall for Philly all over again...