Manchac Swamp (near New Orleans, Louisiana)

"One day I'm gonna die, and I'm gonna take all of you with me," oracle Julie Brown would sing on her front porch. And in 1915, on the day of her funeral in Frenier, Louisiana, it happened. A hurricane swept hundreds of residents to their deaths in the Manchac Swamp near Lake Pontchartrain's western shore. See the mass graves by torchlight on a nighttime swamp tour through the cypress trees. Hear stories of the spirits sighted, and see the red eyes of crocodiles as you float into the moss-draped darkness.

Get creeped: Plantation Adventure offers nighttime tours for groups year-round, and Cajun Pride Tours has day tours. On Halloween weekend in nearby New Orleans, partygoers in outlandish and bizarre costumes come out of the shadows for the Frenchmen Street block party, a French Quarter parade, and a vampire ball.

Stay: The phantom package at the haunted Bourbon Orleans Hotel in New Orleans includes two tickets to a French Quarter haunted walking tour and breakfast from $149 per night.