Creepiest Halloween destinations include scariest place in India and Scotland

Edinburgh, New Orleans and Rajasthan have been identified as among the most haunting, scariest destinations in the world for getting your chill on in advance of Halloween.

The list, curated by Cheapflights.com, shines the spotlight on cities that offer the best “creepy tours around the world,” deliciously frightful itineraries that take visitors through cemeteries, prisons, bridges and forts, purportedly haunted by unhappy spirits and shadowy figures of the dead.

Here’s a sample of some of the best places to get your spook on:

New Orleans, Louisiana

A New Orleans Ghost Tour presents a striking contrast to the lively music and color traditionally associated with the city, by showing visitors its darker, more sinister side, namely via Madame LaLaurie, a 17th century socialite known for the heartless, brutal torture tactics she used on slaves. The tour also sheds light on the city’s vampire past.

Salem, Massachusetts

In the 17th century, mass hysteria beset a small New England town, in which a group of locals were accused of practicing witchcraft. The town would execute 19 women at the famous Salem Witch Trial in 1692. Participants of the Spellbound Tour are taken to the old Witch Dungeon, and the second oldest cemetery in the US.

Rajasthan, India

Urban lore has it that the Bhangarh Fort is the most haunted place in India. Story goes, the fort is cursed by a scorned sorcerer, angry that his love for the palace princess was not returned. Naturally, he placed a curse on the palace, sentencing its residents to death. To this day, the site prohibits visits between sunset and sunrise, and locals claim that no one who has stayed in the ruins after sunset has returned.

Edinburgh, Scotland

Ghost hunters would have a field day in the Scottish capital, said to be a hive of paranormal activity and ghost sightings. When the plague caused massive die-offs in the mid 1600s, people were left to die in hidden underground streets and tunnels that became mass graves. Tours take participants through the city’s labyrinthine underground like Mary King’s Close and to the South Bridge Vaults, said to be haunted by ghostly locals.