If you want to meet a voodoo queen, pirate, or Civil War soldier – in ghost form! — New Orleans is the spot. According to Google Trends data supplied by Travel + Leisure, the Louisiana location ranked first among the top “haunted” cities searched in the United States in the previous three months.
While New Orleans is most known for its Mardi Gras revelers, the city is also recognized for its haunted attractions. Marie Laveau, the aforementioned voodoo queen, is believed to have been sighted conducting ceremonies on St. Ann Street, where she once lived.
She and pirate Jean Lafitte are also said to have sat down at the 200-year-old Old Absinthe House tavern, together with General Andrew Jackson. Civil War lovers might look for a Confederate soldier walking around the Napoleon House’s second-floor balcony, while literary fans can try their luck at Faulkner House Books, where William Faulkner once wrote at his 1920s desk.
With all of those stories, it’s no surprise that New Orleans attracts paranormal enthusiasts and scare seekers, particularly this time of year. And ghost hunting isn’t the only creepy activity in town.
Bloody Mary’s Tours offers Victorian Seances, and Muriel’s Jackson Square has a Seance Lounge where you can consume spirits (pun intended!). There are numerous cemetery excursions available, such as those offered by Haunted History excursions and Save Our Cemeteries, or you might go set-hopping via locales featured in spooky pop culture favorites such as “Interview with a Vampire,” True Blood, and American Horror Story: Coven.
However, New Orleans is not the only creepy city that Americans lookup on Google. Salem, Massachusetts, comes in second with its Haunting Happenings, making it a popular Halloween trip. This includes parades, fairs, and events, as well as numerous haunting ghost tours of the witch trials site.
The top five are rounded out by Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, haunted by the remnants of the Battle of Gettysburg from 1863; Jerome, Arizona, a former mining-turned-ghost town with a reputation as the “Wickedest Town in the West;” and Savannah, Georgia, where tales of ghosts and unexplainable pasts seem to ooze out of every building, cemetery, and hotel.