Haunted Places to Stay

If you're looking for haunted places to stay, the following locations should be on your list.

Visit more haunted places...

Not everyone has the opportunity to hook up with paranormal investigators and go on a ghost hunt, but finding haunted hotels and inns to visit and pass the night in can be the next best thing. Unfortunately, spirits rarely show up on command, and many visitors spend uneventful evenings in these places while other guests can't make it through the entire night. Still, the establishments profiled below all have strong reputations for being haunted, and they may just offer your best chance of having a true paranormal experience.

Surrounded by tales of murder, the Myrtles Plantation located in St. Francisville, Louisiana seems like the perfect place for a haunting. Once a family home, the Myrtles is now a bed and breakfast.

The Myrtles has been the target of numerous paranormal investigations. Most of the haunting activity is centered around the story of a slave servant named Chloe whose ear was lopped off for eavesdropping. In revenge against the owners, she poisoned a cake with oleander leaves and served it to the family. The wife and children of the plantation owner ate the cake, became ill and died. Chloe was subsequently hung in the courtyard. Interestingly, many historians dispute the entire story, and there is little more than anecdotal evidence to support it. Still, there is a photo that supposedly shows Chloe's spirit standing outside of the house. You can view it on the Myrtles website in the fourth and fifth photos at the end of the page.

Another Myrtles ghostly tale centers on the murder of William Drew Winter who was shot on the side porch of the mansion. Although Winter most likely died on the spot, legend has it that he tried to make it to his wife on an upper floor, but died on the seventeenth step of the staircase. As the story goes, footsteps are heard going up the stairs, but they always end on the seventeenth step.

Whether or not either of these stories contain the absolute truth, guests and staff alike continue to report mysterious smells and sightings at the Myrtles.

The Stanley, inspiration for The Shining

Located about an hour north of Denver in Estes Park, Colorado, the majestic Stanley Hotel served as the inspiration for Stephen King's haunted Overlook Hotel in The Shining.

Reports of ghostly activity include visits from the now deceased owners, F.O. and Flora Stanley. It's rumored that Flora occasionally plays the piano in the middle of the night, but the playing stops as soon as someone enters the room. The old servants' quarters located on the fourth floor are said to be the hub of paranormal activity. Many guests and staff report hearing children at play, but no one ever sees them.

If you need stronger confirmation of paranormal activity before you make the journey to this fairly isolated location, consider the findings of The Atlantic Paranormal Society, better known as TAPS. The TAPS team's investigation of the Stanley led them to conclude that the hotel appears to have both residual and intelligent haunting activity. The closet in lead investigator Jason Hawes' room opened and shut by itself, and a glass sitting on his nightstand suddenly shattered without being touched. The sound was captured on video. In another instance, a table suddenly moved while investigator Grant Wilson was sitting there.

Permanently docked in Long Beach, California, the Queen Mary Hotel and historical museum is believed to be one of the most haunted locations of all. A luxury liner that once carried the wealthy back and forth across the Atlantic became a troop transport ship during WWII and included an infirmary and a morgue. The ship is said to be rife with ghosts, including the following:

• The spirit of a cook who was murdered onboard
• The spirits of two women who drowned decades apart in the ship's pool
• The spirit of a little girl who died near the pool area
• A "lady in white" who appears near the Queen's Salon area
• The spirit of a young crewman who was crushed to death by a watertight door during a drill
• Pounding heard on the hull, believed to come from the shipwrecked crew of an escort ship the Queen Mary sliced through while attempting to evade German ships

The hotel actually offers a ghost tour that guides visitors through areas where the most activity has been reported, complete with special effects to enhance the experience. However, visitors can use a guidebook to explore various haunted locations on their own, and this likely offers a better chance at having a genuine paranormal experience.

You can also spend the night in a number of other hotels that boast the presence of a ghost or two. A few include:

• Hotel Chelsea - This is the hotel where punk rocker Sid Vicious murdered his girlfriend, Nancy, and it's said their ghosts still haunt room 100. Poet Dylan Thomas also died at the hotel.
• Hotel del Coronado - Pictured at the top of the page, the Coronado is said to be the home of the spirit of a young woman who committed suicide over a failed marriage.
• Farnsworth House Inn - Located in historic Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the inn itself and the surrounding area have been the subject of numerous ghost sightings. Guests can even sign up for a ghost hunting investigation using the same equipment used by professional ghost hunters.

There are many more haunted places to stay and explore. Do some research, and decide for yourself which ones offer the best chance of a ghostly encounter.

• Signs of Paranormal Activity
• Chupacabra Images
• Top Scary Places to Visit
• Test Psychic Skills
• Past Life Quiz

• Survey:Psychic Ability Quiz
• Survey:Past Life Quiz
• 10 Most Haunted Places in America
• Haunted Insane Asylum Stories
• Really Scary Ghost Story

• Self Past Life Regression
• Northern California Hauntings
• Haunted Mansions
• Real Haunted Places in San Antonio
• Main Page