Hauntings and travel go hand in hand!

Are you looking for haunted places to visit? Want to be spooked? With or without a passport, we’ve found some international and close to home hauntings for your consideration! From haunted fortresses and historic military spots to grisly tales of suffering and death, grab something to hold onto, here we go .

With visits to countries with hidden hauntings, scary shadows and spooky superstitions, are you afraid of the dark?  From history, ancient sites and age-old areas and experiences, the line between history and ghost stories is very fine one. With the haunting season upon us, we’ve rounded up some of our favorite places to feel a little ghoulish. Traveling and experiencing the tension, the panic and the spirits of the past will take you down many roads to many places including fortresses, castles, cemeteries, mansions, forests, jungles, caves and unexpected gardens and grounds. As an individual or group the haunting of past events will stir your soul.  Here’s a few known and perhaps unknown journeys that will raise the hair on the back of your neck.

Dracula’s Castle:  sitting on the Transylvania border, Bram castle is well known for its ties to Bram Stokers’ legendary horror novel, Dracula. Inspired by this 15th century Roman Prince Vlad III, the Impaler.

The Catacombs of Rome: first used in the second century and popular through 400 A.D. Rome’s underground burial sites were mysteriously forgotten but rediscovered in 1This is now available to see on several of our Grand Tours of Italy!

Edinburgh Castle: known as Europe’s most haunted city and the castle is reportedly home to ghosts of prisoners past and phantom musicians. Tour the Highlights of England!

Fengdu Ghost City: the hilltop city build to resemble Youdu, the Underworld according to Chinese mythology and Buddhism. The statues and building pay tribute to mysterious and spooky myths and legends.

Closer to home, spine tingling ghost stories and believe it or not experiences are not in short supply, Do you need to turn on the lights?

The proclaimed Salem, Massachusetts 1692 Witch Trials include books, movies and creeped out first-hand witness diaries. Paranormal or not, the theme is evident not only in shops, but this is one awesome Halloween party.

Moundsville Penitentiary: During over 100 years in operation, the Moundsville Penitentiary, West Virginia was one of America’s most violent correctional facilities and final stop for almost 1,000 criminals. The prisoners lived in cramped quarters, rioted, were hung or killed in the electric chair, others were murdered by other prisoners. Not closed til 1995, according to some, the tortured spirits are still behind bars and in the bowels of the prison and may be seen or heard on a tour.

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum: once the Weston State Hospital, was home to thousands of people with mental illness, starting in 1864. Hundreds of people died here before the facility closed in just 1994. Spirits haunt the building and grounds today, dating back to the Civil War era when the asylum’s grounds was a military post. Paranormal tours offer 2-hr visits to 4 asylum’s hot spots. Do you dare, take the intense Ghost Hunt, an 8-hr overnight with experienced ghost-hunting guides.

Villisca Axe Murder House: June 10, 1912, the old white frame house, 508 E. 2nd Street became a grisly crime scene. The heinous murder of Josiah B. Moore, his wife, their 4 children and 2 young girls who were overnight guests rocked the small town of Villisca, IA, AND the murderer was never identified. Residents of the home continue reported visions of a man with an ax, children crying and unexplained paranormal activity. In 1994, the home was restored to its original condition with no indoor plumbing or electricity. These touches add to the chilling ambience during a lamplight tour from April through November or dare you the overnight experience available for groups.

Thinkstock: Jerome, AZ, is a former copper-mining town with a paranormal reputation that dates back to the Wild West. The town is home to just 400 residents (down from 15,000), but legend says there are many more ghostly residents from the days of mining accidents and shoot-out gunfights. One well-known spirit is the working girl Sammie Dean, a prostitute strangled by a customer in the old Crib District. Her beautiful spirit roams the alleys looking for her killer who was neve.

The Cuban Club, also known as Circulo Cubano de Tampa, is found in Tampa’s Ybor City neighborhood. In 1917 this spot was a popular hangout for Cuban immigrants who enjoyed the ballroom, outdoor band shell and cantina with a stage and dance floor. Today the compound, protected by the National Historic Register, hosts concerts and special events and is the setting for many ghost stories about spirits playing the piano and riding the elevators. You’re not alone in then elevator here.

Fort Mifflin, built in 1771 is the country’s only Revolutionary War battlefield still intact. 14 restored buildings on grounds on the Delaware River with report spirits from the past. Ghosts haunting here include the terrifying screams of a woman whose cries are so loud, the Philadelphia police have been called to investigate, only to find no one there. The local ghost stories include a faceless man wandering around the fort, a tour guide dressed in revolutionary garb and numerous children and dogs.

Moon River Brewery brought its beloved beers to Savannah in 1999, but the building, one of the oldest in town, dates back to 1821. It was the City Hotel, a high-end hotel with a history of violence during the Civil War. Men were killed here during  heated fights, including a Yankee beaten to death by locals in 1860. Some bar patrons today say they’ve seen bottles mysteriously fly through the air and have witnessed guests being pushed, touched and even slapped by unseen forces. One resident apparition, Toby, is said to skulk around the billiard room looking for the next great bar brawl.

The Sultan’s Palace, the house at 716 Dauphine Street is a classic French Quarter beauty with wrought-iron balconies and large courtyard. In the 1800s, it was a house of horrors for the Sultan, a wealthy man with a depraved lifestyle, multiple wives and children, a harem of women and young boys all held against their will. Neighbors complained about mysterious habits for partying, opium and torture. But the greatest mystery is the finding the sultan buried alive in the courtyard after his family and harem were hacked to pieces in a bloodbath by an unknown perpetrator. There is no escaping his angry spirit responsible for unusual noises, loud music and strong incense smells that waft from the home Past female residences and visitors swear to unwelcomed advances by the Sultan is still up to his old tricks of groping.

Calcasieu Courthouse, the talk of the small town of Lake Charles since the 1940s. She killed a man in cold blood and just as notorious were her stunning good looks. The former prostitute charmed a gentleman in a pickup truck for a ride while walking the highway with a friend en route to spring her true love from a Texas prison.  3 trials later a jury finally convicted her. It’s said she charmed the courtroom, jail staff and divided the town over her presumed guilt. In 1942, this murderous beauty known as Tiger Girl was the first female to die in the electric chair in the state. Her spirit lingers in the courthouse today, and workers swear they feel her presence, hear her screams and smell her burning hair. Many believe that she has a hand with office equipment, locks doors and meddles with everyday office life at the courthouse.

Want more? Here are more haunted places also on the radar. http://paranormal.about.com/od/hauntedplaces/ig/World-s-Most-Haunted-Place/

It hooves me to express the continuous difficulties I am experiencing collecting and writing here.  There is an unexplainable changing with capital letters and delayed and deleting of text followed by fluent backspacing. No, I am not kidding, it has given me pause. I am not responsible for those who choose to continue from this point forward.

* thanks to Travel Channel for your investigations and beware of those we whisper of

. There seem to be stories which want to tell more or less. Channel Specialist, I want to thank travel channel for their reporting also!

Take care tonight, PJ