Halloween Family Travel: Fun and Freaky

Halloween is a family-friendly holiday. However, if you have a number of kids spanning a wide age range, it can be challenging to find a Halloween-themed event that can be enjoyed by the entire clan. Fortunately, there are quite a few travel attractions that feature thrills and chills appropriate for kids of all ages, including: LOWRY PARK ZOO BOO The “family-friendly fright zone” at Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo features Halloween fun for young and old alike. Older kids will love navigating haunted houses, spooky trails, and a creepy Egyptian tomb, while younger trick-or-treaters can satiate their sweet tooth by collecting … Continue reading

Halloween Travel: Diabolical Destinations

Tis the season for theme parks to transform into haunted horror shows that come alive with strobe lights, ultraviolet rays that dilate your eyes, and a cacophony of wicked wails and high-pitched screams. Halloween is a huge moneymaker for amusement parks across the country, so you can bet that places like Six Flags, Universal Studios, and Knott’s Berry Farm are pulling out all of their walking corpses to terrify guests. Maze-like corridors, mock graveyards and trick mirrors that make it appear as though you are about to be devoured by flesh-eating zombies are just some of the tricks that are … Continue reading

Spooky Halloween Adventures

These are no kiddie Zoo Boos. The following Halloween travel attractions are not for the faint of heart. Literally. Many theme parks post large signs warning guests that suffer from heart conditions NOT to partake in the gory Halloween hauntings that are a dime a dozen this time of year, for fear it may cause serious medical emergencies. If you are cool as a cucumber and creepy mazes, disorienting strobe lights, fog and fake blood don’t make your heart skip a beat or trigger panic attacks, then you might consider traveling to the following Halloween events: Busch Gardens Williamsburg in … Continue reading

Halloween Travel: Something for Everyone

This week is prime scaring time for Halloween lovers the world over. The second week in October is traditionally when most venues open their haunted houses and other spooktacular attractions to shrieking guests. While some major theme parks kicked off their fright fests and horror nights at the beginning of the month, the vast majority of smaller organizations waited until this week to debuted their ghoulish thrills and chills. If you are looking to feel the tingle of terror this month or you simply want your kids to make the most of their expensive costumes, then consider these varied Halloween … Continue reading

Halloween Happenings for Kids

(My daughter pretending she is Sylvester the Cat attacking Tweety Bird at Six Flags Great America’s Scare-Free Fright Fest Zone.) My six-year-old is a cream puff when it comes to Halloween spooks and scares. She refuses to walk near store aisles that contain Halloween decorations, which makes trips to Wal-Mart and Target sheer horror this time of year. However, she is not alone. The world is filled with kids, who love getting candy at Halloween, but despise getting freaked out by the gory sights that are trademarks of the haunted holiday. Fortunately, there are a number of not-so spooky Halloween … Continue reading

Serious Scares in Sin City

Who says amusement parks are the only places you can get your scare on during the Halloween season? October is primetime for spooktacular fun in Las Vegas… and I’m not referring to triple digit losses in the casinos. Sin City is home to a growing number of terrifying attractions that will haunt even the hardiest travelers: CIRCUS CIRCUS The hotel with the magical Big Top is home to some of the scariest attractions in the nation, according to TV’s Travel Channel. The horror begins at the resort’s Adventure Dome, which has undergone a death defying transformation and now bears the … Continue reading

Looney Tunes Love

It happened so fast. He didn’t know what hit him. Or was it a she? He, she, it, who or whatever donned the Sylvester costume at Six Flags Great America last Saturday; you have this mom’s heartfelt thanks. Thank you for rebounding so quickly when my overzealous 6-year-old tackled you like a rag doll. I didn’t realize you would be so short. Thank you for embracing my daughter in your furry arms with extra enthusiasm after she screamed: “Sylvester, I drove three HOURS to hug you!” I didn’t realize you could hear so well through all that fluff. Thank you … Continue reading

Six Flags Minus the Scares

Bloody appendages, stabbed rats, decapitated creatures, knife-wielding, pig-faced butchers and intestine-covered caskets don’t make for sweet dreams, especially if you’re a six-year-old looking to meet Bugs Bunny for the first time. Thankfully, the folks at Six Flags Great America realize this. Hence the decision to keep certain portions of the theme park scare-free for its youngest guests during its annual Fright Fest extravaganza, which runs weekends throughout October. If the popular Gurnee, Illinois, attraction didn’t offer thrills without chills, then there would be no way that I could have spent last Saturday making magical memories with my daughter at Six … Continue reading

Get Your Freak On at Fright Fest 2010

What do you get when you mix 200 pounds of blood-red dye with hundreds of rubber snakes, bats, rats, skulls and body parts, a gigantic mutated spider and armies of eye-gouging, flesh starved zombies? Seriously spooktacular fun at Six Flags Great America. Halloween is in the air and no place helps you get your creep on better than Great America’s annual Fright Fest extravaganza. The popular Midwest theme park located in Gurnee, Illinois, is pulling out its most hair-raising haunts to celebrate the 20th season of Fright Fest. Then, it’s topping itself by unveiling spine-chilling new spooks to scare even … Continue reading