Halloween is right around the corner and this year why not do something to really get in the spirit?
Fall is such a great time to travel and what better excuse is there than to check out a few haunted hotels in person? Nicole Hockin of Hotels.com shares a few of her favorite ghost stories and top recommendations for some of the most haunted destinations. There's still time to make your plans and maybe even catch a ghost or two.
Nicole's Tips for Booking Your Haunted Hotel
Take advantage of the Halloween promotion that is going on right now on www.hotels.com till October 29. Whether you have a specific city in mind that you would like to visit, a haunted hotel story you have always wanted to check out first-hand, or you are just looking for a good excuse to get away this Halloween, check out the list of hotels the experts are recommending for travel in October!
Book now! Even though you may think you can wait a bit longer since Halloween is still a few weeks away, DON'T! These haunted destinations book up fast. Get a jump on your planning and book as soon as you make a decision so you can make sure to get the best room rate and availability. And if plans change, you don't have to worry. Now with hotels.com flexible booking, there is no hotels.com cancellation or change fee if you need to add a room, change your reservation or even cancel.
Make the choice easier by having your whole family take part in the planning. The kids will love getting involved in the selection process online. On a site like hotels.com, the family can choose from over 70,000 properties. And you can see your hotel and what your room will look like before you even get there by taking a virtual tour and reading guest reviews.
Nicole's Picks for Best Haunted Hotels
Savannah, GA -- In 2002, the American Institute of Parapsychology named Savannah, "America's Most Haunted City." Based on Savannah's history of fires, plagues, wars and voodoo, they determined Savannah was the perfect place for supernatural activity. With a recorded history dating back to colonial days, Savannah has many famous residents of a "spiritual nature"
Stay at the Marshall House -- an Award-Winning Historic Hotel on Broughton Street, was voted Savannah's Best Hotel In 2004 and 2005. This unique 68-room hotel has the perfect historic location downtown, in the heart of Savannah's historic district. Walk two minutes in one direction, and you're on River Street. Head out in another, and you're in City Market. Savannah's famous squares, historic homes and sultry night clubs are all within walking distance
Haunted Story: The Marshall House, offers Haunted Hotel Ghost Tour packages but guests don't need to leave this haunted hotel in Savannah to get that spine-tingling feeling. The 88-room inn, which has been featured on the Travel Channel's "Haunted Hotels", has been used as a hospital three times -- twice during Savannah's 19th century yellow fever epidemics and during the Civil War by the Union Army. Ghosts have been reported in the hallways and in the foyer& and even in guests' beds!!! So many have found the city of Savannah an inexplicable mix of haunting and healing energies and all the more reason for you to explore her for your own journey's sake.
**Hotels.com room rates starting from $172/night**
New Orleans, LA -- With 200 years of ghostly legends involving Voodoo curses, Spanish moss-draped oaks encircling duels, cold-blooded murders, stories of Revolutionary War-era Pirates, Civil War soldiers, and Jazz, New Orleans has earned a serious reputation as one of America's most haunted cities. The nightlife of world famous Bourbon Street can be filled with dark shadows of ghostly figures and ghoulish delights. Spirits of the dead are said to mingle with the living here at many local night spots. Some tourists and many locals can not account for strange images in "Ghostly Photos" they have taken but one thing is certain: The Crescent City's most famous street is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and spirits of all kinds are said to flow freely.
Stay at the Hotel Monteleone New Orleans -- a hotel that has proudly stood as a favorite haunt of Tennessee Williams, William Faulkner, Truman Capote, movie stars, dignitaries and royalty since 1886. The hotel sits in the French Quarter, one block from shopping on Canal Street, Jackson Square and Bourbon Street. The family-owned and operated hotel boasts a rich literary history, in which famed literary figures such as Tennessee Williams penned their novels here. The rotating Carousel Lounge offers live entertainment Wednesday through Saturdays.
Haunted Story: Many people who visit the Hotel Montelone New Orleans don't want to leave. Some never do... generations of hotel guests and staff have regularly experienced events that would cause even the staunchest skeptic to take pause like a restaurant door that opens almost every evening and then closes again, even though it is locked&and an elevator that stops on the wrong floor, leading a curious couple down a hallway that grows chilly and reveals the ghostly images of children playing.
**Hotels.com room rates starting from $179/night**
Long Beach, CA -- home of the haunted Queen Mary, permanently moored in San Pedro Bay.
Stay at the Queen Mary Hotel - floats adjacent to the Russian submarine, Scorpion, and the ship provides access from her pier to the Catalina ferry. The Aquarium of the Pacific and Long Beach Marina are less than two miles away. Art Deco ambience permeates the Queen Mar Hotel with brass-and-nickel fixtures and vaulted ceilings. Piped-in classical music serves as a reminder of the era's original resplendence. Measuring 1,019 feet in length, the hotel features original art, and 1930s dinnerware and furniture. The Queen Mary Hotel features three harbor-view restaurants, an on-board spa, a bar, wedding chapel, a three-level, 45,000- square-foot exhibition hall, and conference and reception space that accommodates up to 2,000 attendees. Cabaret, comedy and live-music shows are presented in the ship's salons throughout the week.
Haunted Story: From her beautiful Art Deco hotel staterooms and salons to her darkest corridors and machinery rooms in the bowels of the ship deep below the water line, the Queen Mary has been a constant source for stories, articles and documentaries about supernatural sightings and other unexplained activity aboard the historic 1936 ocean liner. Do ghosts really exist aboard the Queen Mary? Investigations by a number of paranormal experts seem to verify the ship's ghostly passengers, however more than 1.5 million visitors each year are invited to explore for themselves. Most of the restless spirits seen throughout the ship are believed perhaps to be former crew members and passengers who may have met an untimely death while sailing aboard the Queen Mary but no one knows for sure.
Throughout the year, the Queen Mary offers regularly-scheduled day and night guided and self-guided paranormal tours of the haunted ship. There's also the very popular Dinner with the Spirits that begins with a decadent meal with a paranormal expert in award-winning Sir Winston's restaurant and concludes with a tour of personal paranormal discovery though especially haunted areas. A GhostFest event featuring investigations with paranormal researchers is presented annually, and twice monthly at midnight, there are ghost-hunting tours, complete with high tech sensing equipment. The Ghosts & Legends Show, open daily, offers dramatizations of some of the ships most popular ghostly encounters.
**Hotels.com room rates starting from $109/night**
Austin, TX -- one only needs to take a quick downtown walking tour to enlighten them on the history of Austin, its many undead residents, and the spooky events that go on from Sixth Street to the Capitol itself. Even a skeptic will see the city of Austin in a whole new light!
Stay at the Driskill - Located in downtown Austin, the Driskill Hotel was once the showplace of a cattle baron. Located seven miles from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, this historic 12-story hotel is adjacent to Sixth Street entertainment district and less than one mile from the Texas State Capitol Complex. Palatial guestrooms and suites span from the Driskill's Traditional Wing, built in 1929 featuring the colorful surroundings of the Texas Hill Country, to the Historic Wing's vaulted decorative ceilings, detailed woodwork and balconies. Both wings include original art, lavish draperies, and opulent beds featuring Frette Italian linens. Gargoyles and busts of The Driskill Hotel's owner and his sons still peer out from high above each entrance, and shorthorn steer heads adorn the outer walls.
Haunted Story: Colonel Driskill himself is said to wander through the original side of the hotel. His ghost is marked by the smell of cigar smoke and a fascination with bathroom lights. The spirit of a young child bouncing a ball haunts the first floor lobby, the ladies bathroom on the second floor near the bar, and along the stairs leading to the mezzanine. In 1887, while the Texas Senate was in session, the daughter of a Senator fell to her death while chasing a ball down the grand staircase. Her death was the first at the hotel. Within a week she was back running around and playing. Her spirit is also the first recorded ghost at The Driskill.
**Hotels.com room rates starting from $199/night**
For more information, visit www.hotels.com or call 800.2.HOTELS
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