Concierges' Picks for Spooky Places

It’s the season to be scared! Local haunts are preparing to spook visitors and natives alike, and our concierges know some great places to discover frightful shivers. Why wait for Halloween night? Grab your favorite specter protector and join the ranks of the trembling all through the month.

Dawn Purser of Best Western Island Palms Hotel & Marina plans to take a gaggle of teenagers and a pal to Haunted Trails at Balboa Park. “I’ve gone for the last two years.” What makes this spooky spectacle very special to her, she says, is that “they limit the number of people going in, so you can’t see others’ reactions. With the trees and the wind, it’s really spooky.” Even the bravest of her group screamed and jumped, she recalls. A self-confessed fan of fear, Dawn went twice last year.

“Haunted Trails in Balboa Park is where I would not go,” says Donna Frey of Humphrey’s Half Moon Inn. “I don’t like being scared, and that is just like the places you see in movies, with the woods and all. It’s bad enough to hear a squirrel rustling in the leaves at night without wondering what’s going to come at me.” Instead, she prefers the tamer Scream Zone at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. “It used to be just a haunted house, but it’s become an entire little fair for families,” she says. There’s a haunted hayride, with roadside ghosts and goblins that waylay wagon travelers, a scary tunnel with monsters and zombies, rides, vendors and things to do. “It’s kind of like a carnival,” she says.

Christian Marin of Hotel Solamar likes to make his own frights. He recalls his youthful surfing experiences at the military training beach south on Silver Strand in Imperial Beach. “There was nobody there at night, and it felt really eerie,” he says. This year, he might walk all the way out on the Ocean Beach pier in the dark to imagine the terrors that lurk underneath. “At night, you can’t see the water, but you feel the wind rocking you and hear that old wood creaking,” he says. “It’s scary at night.” 

So is the Whaley House in Old Town, says Robbie Mandagie of Ivy Hotel. “There are even actors in the cemetery nearby, and that’s fun and spooky,” he says.

For those of you who want another frightfully good experience, try the limo or walking version of Ghostly Tours in History. See page 21. They'll take you to the haunts and haunted.