Start weaving your ghost tales now so you’re all set for a spooky Baton Rouge Halloween weekend break. Baton Rouge is the perfect budget getaway with your family, compared with New Orleans. Kids and teens who want a scary haunted house, a real haunted house, a haunted house tour and some gret Cajun’ cooking will find it in Baton Rouge.
Located less than an hour’s drive from New Orleans, it offers more than just haunted house stories. (New Orleans has its fair share of scares, too.) Baton Rouge Halloween season means hayrides and pumpkin picking for little ones, plus museums, leaf peeking, corn mazes and more.
For more haunted house options across the country, visit our Haunted House and Halloween Weekend Breaks Directory Page.
Whoever heard of the 13th Gate in Baton Rouge?
Go for the big Baton Rouge Halloween attraction — the famously scary, haunted The 13th Gate. This scream-arena is highly rated by Hauntworld.com. What makes it special is Louisiana’s active movie industry, which brings 160 actors, more than 40 skilled crew people, and trained special effects makeup artists to work on each year’s production. So expect detailed and realistic frights at more than a dozen — you guessed it! — 13 different themed areas. Think about Jack the Ripper prowling fog-filled streets, grave robbers, creepy clowns, zombie crypts and more.
One of the things that makes the 13th Gate so much fun is its swamp-like setting, perfect to give you the feeling that hungry alligators will follow you around the house’s darkened corridors. The house decor, horror film worthy, is lots of fun, too. Look for a mix of animatronic creatures and live animals. It’s a perfect Halloween treat (or trick) for teens looking for the ultimate scare. You’ll never experience a Baton Rouge Halloween the same way again.
No alligators, right? Right? Did anyone hear an answer?? Don’t forget midway tickets for the Carnevil. If you dare, pause to listen to live music or let yourself into one of five escape rooms.
More to be Less Afraid of in Baton Rouge
Baton Rouge is a cultural Southern city with style and a vibe like no other, not to mention boasting a rich historical background. Take the whole family on a plantation tour. Discover guides dressed in period costumes. Explore authentic houses — some of which are so authentic they are haunted for real. The very opulent San Francisco Plantation is a nice diversion by daylight. Sadly, the Covid pandemic has forced them to reduce hours and it is currently open summers only.
More contemporary history was made aboard the USS Kidd, a World War II-era Fletcher-class destroyer known as the “Pirate of the Pacific.” The restored ship serves as a memorial to those who fought in the war, has a nominal admission fee, and also hosts overnight group tour visits for anyone interested in sleeping in a sailor’s bunk, a ghost sailor that is.
Looking for Baton Rouge Louisiana hotels?
A New Orleans Detour for a Haunted Halloween
Any family who has dodged the party crowds on Bourbon Street knows New Orleans — fondly known as “The Most Haunted City in America” — is terrifying year round. Locals accept that their above-ground cemeteries, eerie voodoo shrines and Spanish moss-covered homes are full of previous occupants. Costumes in storage since Mardi Gras come out again, and the city boasts dozens of big and small events to mark the Halloween holiday.
With so many spooky things to see, we’ve picked out the New Orleans Ghosts, Vampires, Witches and Voodoo Walking Tour” to keep everyone on their toes during this fall season. In two hours, a living guide will expose tour-goers to the French Quarter’s most haunted houses and sites of depravity. There’s only a quick refresh break so bring snacks, especially if the kids in your group tend to get fidgety.
Baton Rouge Animal Attractions
A Baton Rouge Halloween also offers less creepy animal experiences that are easy on the pocketbook. They will also save the sanity of your little ones.
The Global Wildlife Center in Folsom is worthwhile day of Halloween fun. Observe the zoo’s reticulated giraffes, zebras, camels, bison and other exotic animals on a Safari Wagon Tour. The tours allow every member of the family, no matter how big or small, to enjoy the beauty of animals on a special 90-minute adventure across 900 acres of wildlife preserve.
Can you really pack anything else into that weekend of Halloween in Louisiana fun? The Baton Rouge zoo has over 1,800 animals and nighttime safari sleepover. Plan ahead for events like the Boo Den with a KidsZoo boardwalk for a completely not scary “haunted habitat”. There’s also a Hay Maze and a fun and spooky train ride. Boo at the Zoo runs for the last two weeks each October.
A Louisiana Halloween for Families
It’s football season, so of course, the boys might want to watch a game at LSU where the living Bengal tiger mascot, Mike the Tiger, paces the grounds year round. Louisiana folks take their tailgating seriously. When you have a stadium seating more than 100,000 fans — plus thousands cooking jambalaya in the lot — you can believe that this crowd’s enthusiasm has registered on the Richter Scale! Make a weekend getaway of it and find a great deal on a Baton Rouge Louisiana hotels.
Ready to get spooked? Scare us with your favorite Baton Rouge Halloween activity.
For more haunted house thrills around the country, visit our Haunted House and Halloween Weekend Breaks Directory.
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3 Replies to “Baton Rouge Halloween, Haunted Houses, and Halloween Fun”
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Melanie
I know it is late but my family lives in Baton Rouge. I would like to find something applicable to Halloween. My usual accommodations are high end but I would like the real feel of the Halloween experience. If I can talk my best friend into joining me, I would like to invite her. We have been best friends since kindergarten. Being born and raised down river in Placquamines Parish, we have had many experiences in the paranormal. In high school we hopped the fence and placed a ritual "x" on Marie Laveaux's gravesite;that would have been in 1966. I have since acquired a very nice collection of Marie Laveau Glapion Baptiste's estate in Florida. I have not been able to acquire an actual address for the site as it has been ravaged by Hurricane Andrew and has probably been demolished. I have been collecting for about 20 years. I have many interesting items such as an altar jar which inclued her potion at each full moon. I had to transfer the potion as one night at my present home in Las Vegas, the well secured top flew off of the jar and landed at least 10 feet from the jar. The top is in many pieces but can be adhered together. So that is just part of my experiences. I would like to find something interesting yet tasteful. Any ideas?