What to Know
- Scary theme park mazes, a trick-or-treating event at Heritage Square, an Anaheim scavenger hunt, and daytime kids' parades are just ahead
- Some events will take place all weekend, while others will happen on Oct. 30 or 31; check times and details, and if advance tickets are required
- Día de los Muertos events will happen through Nov. 7, with several beginning now, including the Hollywood Forever festivity and the Pasadena Chalk Festival art happening
Halloween With Scares: The final day of October is when all of the phantoms emerge, and monsters roam the streets, and some revelers begin to seek out startles, thrills, and shrieks. If this is you, and you like a jump or two in your Halloween brew, there are plenty of places to find it, including Halloween Horror Nights, LA Haunted Hayride, and Knott's Scary Farm. If you're on the grown-up side and partial to a ghoulishly good go-out, check out our round-up, and make sure your chosen pick still has tickets for the time and night you want to attend.
A Sweeter Halloween: Have a tot in the house who loves wearing a costume and maybe even getting some goodies? Then you'll want to find a less-intense take on the holiday. That's possible, too, around the region, thanks to the daytime parades at Kidspace Children's Museum, the old-school trick-or-treating at Cemetery Lane, and various pumpkin-filled wonderland, like Underwood Family Farms. Before you go, do see if you'll need an advance reservation, and ticket in hand, and eye any other details you need to know. Our list of family-cute fall outings is on this page.
Día de los Muertos: The veil between worlds is beginning to gently sway, as if caught in a beautiful breeze, and several festivals will take place in the coming days and night, right through to the first weekend in November. If you'd like to find a festivity or way to honor the holiday over the final weekend of October, look to Hollywood Forever Cemetery, where "The Return of Quetzalcoatl The Feather Serpent" will flower on Oct. 30, while beautiful community altars will lend mystery, enchantment, and connection at Olvera Street (there's a nightly procession as well). Want to make art from home? The Pasadena Chalk Festival wants to see your tributes. And if you're calling up on LA Zoo through Nov. 2? Add a dearly departed animal companion's photo or illustration to the Beloved Pets Ofrenda.
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Frightful Freebies: If you're seeking more of a money-saving expression of the eerie occasion, there are plenty of routes to do so, from Haunted Little Tokyo's 21+ block party on Oct. 30 (you'll need to RSVP first, do note) to the Huluween pop-up at Santa Monica Pier on Oct. 30 and 31 to Booniun Station, which is haunting Union Station all weekend long (but not haunting the landmark *too* hard, as this is a family-cool to-do).
More Monstrously Merry Events: Pirate's Cave Haunt, a swashbuckling realm imagined by father and son duo Dave and Jacob Larson, is a long-running home haunt providing thrills/chills in Orange. The Anaheim Fall Festival and Halloween Parade will pop up this year as a scavenger hunt, with a twist: You'll need to find the parade's famous floats, which will be hidden around downtown Anaheim. And Spooky Transformations Community Day, a celebration of movie make-up, will deliver not-too-terrifying tips to the brand-new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on Oct. 31.
