America's Top 10 Scariest REAL Haunted Houses and Ghost Hunting Attractions

Best Places in America to get SCARED 
Are you looking to find the scariest places on Earth to get scared?  All of the attractions below are either real haunted sites offering ghost tours, or they’re real haunted locations turned into professional haunted house attractions.  Many people LOVE to explore real haunted houses, conduct a paranormal investigation or go ghost hunting.  HauntWorld Magazine has created a list just for those people.  Below is our list of our top 10 favorite places to find ghosts and spirits, while also experiencing a Halloween attraction:

America's Top 10 Scariest Real Haunted Houses and Places to Visit

1. Salem, Massachusetts:  www.salem.org.  Salem is the best place in AMERICA to get scared because it has more haunted houses, ghost stories, witch museums, and Halloween related events than any other place in America!  Salem is our hands-down top pick for locations to visit during Halloween season!

2. Pennhurst Asylum:  One of the most infamous real asylums in America, shut down by the government for abuse against patients, has reopened its doors.  After thirty years, this long abandoned property now brings you one of the most terrifying haunted house adventures ever…The Pennhurst Asylum Haunted House.  Walk the grounds and see the eerie inside of this 100 year old building.  Prepare yourself for real ghosts and spirits of the dead.  Pennhurst Asylum was featured on Travel Channel as one of America's scariest REAL haunted houses, and today it's a real haunted attraction.  Learn more at www.pennhurstasylum.com.

3. Waverly Hills Sanatorium: Louisville, Kentucky, www.therealwaverlyhills.com.  This historically haunted place is run by The Waverly Hills Historical Society, and it not only offers paranormal tours, but you can book an overnight investigation too.  Paranormal investigators from all over the country continue to visit the sanatorium.  Additionally, this location offers an elaborate haunted house attraction during Halloween season.  I don’t doubt for a minute it’s filled to the brim with actual ghosts!

4. Lemp Mansion and Lemp Brewery Haunted House:  This 1860’s mansion was home to the Lemps, a prominent St. Louis family and owners of one of the largest breweries in the World until prohibition, the start of the family’s demise.  One family member died under mysterious circumstances, four took their own lives, and one died of heart attack ALL inside the mansion itself.  Today you can visit the Lemp Mansion for ghost tours, mystery dinners, and even overnight investigations.  Next door, visit one of America's scariest haunted houses located under The Old Lemp Brewery inside real caves and caverns.  Years ago, the natural cave system under St. Louis provided the perfect temperature for aging beer.  Today, it’s a horrific haunted house experience like no other.  Visit www.lempmansion.com or www.Scarefest.com for more details.

5. Eastern State Penitentiary:  In 1829, Eastern State Penitentiary opened its doors to criminals, murderers and more.  The prison closed its doors in 1970 and remained abandoned for two decades until it was opened for daytime prison tours and museum.  It’s one of America's oldest standing prisons and home to ghost hunting, paranormal investigations and one of America’s longest and best haunted houses in the nation, Terror Behind the Walls.  Visit www.easternstate.org for all the gory details.

6. New Orleans, Louisiana:  Visit New Orleans and see some of the scariest graveyards in America with crypts, voodoo shops and YES several haunted houses too!  House of Shock (www.houseofshock.com) and 13th Gate Haunted House (www.midnightproduction.com) are sure to please, but another nearby haunt is located in a REAL mortuary.  Check out The Mortuary Haunted House at www.themortuary.net.

7. Winchester Mystery House: San Jose, California, www.winchestermysteryhouse.com.  This mystery house is filled with endless rooms of eerie intrigue.  Turn off the lights and try to find your way out.  Legend has it that ghosts inspired the original owner to keep building onto this house…the house that never ends.

8. Alcatraz Island: San Francisco, California, www.nps.gov/alcatraz.  Through the years, Alcatraz served many purposes from a military base to a prison, America’s most infamous prison actually.  Housing prisoners like Al Capone and other notoriously hardened criminals, Alcatraz had been the subject of much controversy.  Just the thought of Alcatraz conjures up ghostly thoughts of the paranormal, but it now serves as San Francisco's number one tourist attraction.  

9. Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast: Fall River, Massachusetts, www.lizzie-borden.com.  Well over 100 years ago, “someone took an axe and gave a man eleven whacks.”  Both Lizzie's father and step mother were slaughtered.  Lizzie stood trial for the murders, but was found not guilty.  Today, you can spend the night in the same room where Lizzie's parents were killed.  The actual house of the murders is now a museum and bed and breakfast.     

10. Niagara Falls: Ontario, Canada, www.cliftonhill.ca.  Niagara Falls has a ton of haunted houses.  Several of which are found up and down the old Clifton Hills.  Even the wax museum has a makeshift haunt s as part of the show.  Additionally, you can check out the Fort George Ghost Tours, St. Catherines Haunt Walks, Drummond Hill Cemetery and more haunting sites while visiting Niagara Falls this season.

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