Enjoy the Halloween Travel Boom Without Getting Scared by Prices (Video Episode)

Today's episode is sponsored by Quince.

Megan, we are now in pumpkin spice season, which means it is also the season for a wardrobe refresh.

Right, I went from beach mode to layers mode.

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Parts of today's podcast were recorded out in the field and not just any field, but a cornfield.

And not just any cornfield, but a haunted cornfield.

Megan, I did the scariest thing I've possibly ever done in my life, which was experience a horror maze.

Not just any horror maze, but a horror maze by myself.

You are so brave, and you live to tell the tale.

We're talking Halloween travel today and some scary destinations you might not know about.

Welcome to Smart Travel, a deep dive into the tips, tools, and tactics to maximize your travel dollars.

I'm Megan Coyle, and I'm Sally French.

And yes, that is a haunted pig from Universal Horrors Unleashed, uncomfortably close to my microphone.

The haunted pig is also a travel nerd ready to help you plan your next big trip.

And today, we're taking a trip to the dark side.

We're talking haunted houses, villains, ghost tours, and why Halloween is quickly becoming one of the hottest travel seasons of the year.

I will even take you inside Universal's brand new Horror Unleashed attraction in Las Vegas, where I braved the haunted houses, well, most of them, and I'll tell you the story of the panicked text messages I sent to Megan here from the safety of a bathroom's doll at Universal Horror Unleashed.

Oh yes, we're gonna get into that story.

But first, our disclaimer.

Yes, we will talk about a few credit card companies that are NerdWallet partners in this episode, but that does not influence how we discuss them.

The benefits, terms, and fees mentioned were accurate at the time of posting, but things can change.

Some offers may have expired by the time you're listening, so for the latest details, follow the links in the episode description.

And by the way, if you've been dying to watch Smart Travel versus only listening to it, this episode is on video.

Join us over on YouTube.

Just search for NerdWallet.

Okay, let's start with Hilton, which just hit a big milestone last week when it opened its 9,000th hotel in the world, the Signia by Hilton La Cantera Resort and Spa.

What's wild about this is that makes for an average of nearly three openings per day of the year because it hit the 8,000 hotel milestone roughly a year ago.

That's crazy growth and also puts Hilton much closer to Marriott's size.

Marriott has over 9,600 properties according to its second quarter earnings report.

Yes, so if you are optimizing your points for the hotel program with the most properties, Hilton and Marriott now are pretty much neck and neck.

And because I love a luxury hotel, I also wanted to call out that Hilton now has more than a thousand lifestyle or luxury properties.

Lifestyle are kind of like luxury light hotels.

And 200 more are in the pipeline.

Okay, love this because now if you have a Hilton MX Expire card like I do, you have so many more options.

Now that card comes with a $550 annual fee, but it also comes with a free night reward each year you renew, and you can redeem this not just at some of the lower tier properties, but really almost any property in the Hilton portfolio.

There are some exceptions like all-inclusives, but this means you can use that certificate at its luxury properties.

Speaking of Hilton credit cards, the Hilton Amex cards have increased welcome offers across the board right now.

Besides the Aspire card, there is also a 100,000 Hilton Honors bonus points offer with the Hilton Honors American Express card after you spend $2,000 in purchases on the card within your first six months of card membership.

That's the $0 annual fee card, so a decent offer there.

Yeah, and then the welcome offer on the Hilton Honors Amex Surpass card is even better.

With that one, you can earn 155,000 points after you spend $3,000 in purchases on the card in the first six months of card membership.

Keep in mind that this card, even though it has a higher sign-up bonus, also has a higher annual fee.

That one is $150.

We'll link to those cards' reviews in the episode description.

Also, if you want to earn bonus points at Hilton's, there's a new hotel promo this quarter.

It's earn 1500 bonus points on every stay from October 1st to December 31st, 2025, but you have to register online before you stay.

Okay, Megan, I also hate to say this, but I saw this promotion and I was like, wait, how much is that worth?

And I feel like we value 1,500 points at like a few dollars.

So

this is not life-changing points, but I do still think this is a good idea to register.

Get points.

better than no points.

And then also, if you just want to keep your account balance active, you have to earn points anyway.

So maybe stay at a hotel and then get those bonus points while you're at it.

You know what I saw recently that was kind of random?

Spirit Airlines is also doing a bonus point promotion.

Oh, Spirit.

Okay.

You know, I will say, at least to yay Spirit, airline bonus points promotions are kind of rare.

Yeah, they are.

So this promo is book and travel round trip now through November 20th, 2025 on any day of the week and earn 5,000 bonus points.

Round trip flights on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Saturday, those like least busy days at the airport, earn an additional $2,500 points.

Whoa, that's such a weird way to convince people to travel on those off-peak days, but I don't hate it.

Yeah, and we should know that you have to register for this one first before you do any of those flights to get the bonus points.

You know, Megan, I'm not super familiar with Spirit points.

How much is that actually worth?

I guess a one-way flight on Spirit starts at around 2,500 points.

So in theory, you could possibly redeem these points for up to three flights, but, you know, these prices are dynamic and they really vary.

Okay, and then of course there's still like all the checkbag fees involved on top of that.

Yeah, in addition to the taxes and fees that everyone pays for award flights, Spirit also charges for carry-on luggage and all sorts of other stuff.

So there will be fees.

Okay, brace yourself, people.

All right.

Now, I want to give a shout out to my peeps over in Missouri, and this is because British Airways announced it'll launch non-stop service between St.

Louis Lambert International Airport and London Heathrow Airport.

Now, Megan, if you recall the episode where I talked about how my parents lost their luggage in Europe, so they flew from St.

Louis to Heathrow, but they had a layover in Chicago, and I am pretty sure that layover is why that whole lost bag debacle even happened.

Oh, yeah, we talked about how the layover is the part where the bags get lost.

So, this sounds like good news if you are trying to mitigate the risk of losing your bags, but also another good way for Midwesterners to get to London.

Yes, and then maybe vice versa.

This is a good way to bring more Europeans into St.

Louis, which does have some exciting events coming up.

There is the 100th anniversary of Route 66 in 2026.

And then also St.

Louis is a nice little gateway to the FIFA World Cup games, which are in Kansas City.

That's assuming you want a road trip across the whole state, which I do recommend.

I love a road trip across Missouri.

All right, let's road trip to this cornfield.

Oh, let's do it.

Let's get there.

I just got back from Las Vegas where I was chased by a killer scarecrow.

Oh my gosh.

What does that have to do with travel?

Well, I traveled pretty far away from that scarecrow.

But I will say the scarecrow was at Universal Horror Unleashed.

This is at this all-new haunted house put on by the same people who put on the Universal Parks.

They now have this experience in Las Vegas that people are traveling far and wide to experience.

Today, we are talking about all the ways that people travel for Halloween, how expensive it can be, and the ways to actually pay for it.

I always think of Halloween as like a neighborhood thing.

Like, you know, the kids go trick-or-treating, the parents like maybe go to a Halloween party that their friends put on, but people are actually traveling outside of their neighborhood for Halloween events.

Yes, so many people do treat Halloween as a stay-at-home holiday, but I am calling it increasingly more.

Halloween is one of those holidays that people are traveling to experience.

Where do you think people are going the most?

Well, it is a bunch of special attractions, a lot of theme parks.

So Disney's got a all-specific Halloween event.

Universal Studios has a Halloween event.

These are separately ticketed events from having a standard theme park ticket.

And we're even seeing Halloween events at smaller theme parks, like not Scary Farm.

That's right.

And these tickets for these separate events are not cheap.

Yes, that is right.

So Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party is the Disney Halloween event that I'm talking about.

And I will say their prices vary.

If you go earlier in the season, you can get a ticket for $150, which is, you know, roughly in line with the standard theme park ticket.

But.

If you want to go on Halloween night after taxes and fees, you are looking at a ticket that is about $250 per person.

Yeah, I can't even imagine.

The real horror.

I can't eat that much candy.

Well, now, as Save as Sally, I will say the benefit of traveling during Halloween is you aren't facing the crowds that many people who travel during Thanksgiving or Christmas face.

You can still generally take advantage of things like lower airfares and lower hotels to actually go to these events.

Right, but it kind of depends where you go because there are destinations in the U.S.

that are known for their Halloween celebrations.

And it's not super cheap to get a hotel there, or it might not be super cheap to fly there.

I will give you that.

And we will talk about those destinations later.

Now, what I will say is spooky season is also longer than ever.

Spooky season is not just October 31st.

I mean, all the holidays are getting longer now.

Like Christmas starts right after Thanksgiving, maybe before Thanksgiving, and now Halloween starts when?

When did you get your first pumpkin spice latte of 2025?

Um, okay, I already had it back in August.

August for sure.

So, fun fact, when I was researching this episode, I found Mickey's not so scary Halloween party, that is this Halloween event at Walt Disney World.

Their party starts closer in date to July 4th than to Halloween itself.

That's crazy.

I mean, there's just so much demand for like the spooky events and stuff like that that they can sell tickets for that many days.

So let's start by talking about the first Halloween event I went to of 2025, and that was Universal Horror Unleashed.

That is where I got chased by killer scarecrow, killer pig, and that is in Las Vegas.

I think we should just go ahead and play the video.

Yeah, let's see it.

And let's also put out a little trigger warning.

Trigger warning.

The video is a little bit scary.

So if you get scared easily, maybe maybe close your eyes.

I am here at Universal Horror Unleashed.

This is Vegas's first ever Universal Maze attraction, and it's Universal's first ever permanent maze attraction.

We see these so popular during the Halloween season, but now you can do this year-round here in Vegas at Area 15.

Now, this thing has four mazes, it's about $70 to enter, and we are gonna go check it out.

Those are real screens, everyone.

Megan, I gotta say, I don't like horror.

I don't watch scary movies.

I don't do haunted corn mazes, but I did brave one of these universal Halloween horror nights.

So I got invited to go to this actually by the Courtyard Marriott in Las Vegas.

They are one of the most conveniently located hotels to this attraction.

And so they wanted to get people out to Vegas to actually experience what this is about.

Yeah, I love that you were so game to go.

What were you expecting going in?

Because you'd never been to any kind of event like this.

Yeah.

So like, I know I don't like horror movies.

And I knew going in, I was like, I, this is going to be so scary to me.

And it just didn't register like how scary it was actually going to be.

So when I walk in

by myself, which is already like red flag, do not go to one of these things by yourself.

But you walk in and I started by just like.

going up to the ticket booth.

They immediately told me, you cannot have your camera with you.

You need to put that in a locker.

So I had to put my fancy Sony camera away in a locker.

It's like you lost your security blanket.

Oh my gosh.

Just walking in the door.

You are already in my bad mental health.

Literally, I was like, I didn't even think.

I just put everything I had in the locker.

All I had with me was my phone because you need to scan your phone to show your tickets to get into each of the mazes.

So anyway, I just immediately go into the maze.

And well, I go into this main room and it's this big dark room.

And like immediately these people can tell I'm alone.

And instead of being like, oh, that poor child, she's alone.

They're like these scare actors and they come up and they're like, are you alone?

And you're like, yes, I am alone.

And so I was like, I need to get into this maze.

So I go, there's four mazes there.

I go into the first maze and I'm like, farm style.

It's called Scarecrow the Reaping.

Okay, wait, hold on.

We should just tell people what this maze, like what a maze is.

Yes.

Okay.

Okay.

So if you've ever been to Universal Horror Nights, these are the Halloween horror nights.

They have these in Orlando and in their Hollywood theme parks.

Yep.

I've been in the one in Hollywood.

Very familiar.

Yep.

Yes, but we can get to that after.

Oh my gosh, Shorey.

Okay, so I've never been to one of those and those are a separately ticketed event and people will go and pay money basically just to be scared.

And there are scare actors who pop out around corners.

They have the makeup.

Yeah, they make kind of like a walkthrough maze and people jump out at you.

It's all themed around whatever the theme of that maze is.

Yes.

It's a very immersive experience.

It's kind of like a thrill ride, except there's no ride.

It's just a thrill walking through this thing.

Thrill understatement.

So you walk in and I did the scarecrow, the reaping one first, and you start by like seeing corn and there's like spooky sounds and then all of a sudden killer pig out, killer scarecrow out.

And like they come up to you and they're like, we won't touch you and you can't touch them.

And I'm like, good, I'm glad we've agreed on that.

And it just gets scarier and scarier and like more things pop out.

And they were like, like, most people spend like 10 or 15 minutes in amaze.

I was out of that thing in three minutes.

Oh my gosh.

I love it.

You ran out of there shamelessly you're like i can't handle this screaming screaming yeah okay but did it get any better like once you went through the first one you're like okay i know what to expect i know these people are going to jump out at me yes what happened on your second one i guess there are four mazes i was like i want to leave i don't want to do anymore but i came all this way i'm going to at least do another one so i'm like

this lady is like you should do the exorcist maze and i was like isn't that the scariest one and she's like yes that's why you should do it so i was like Fine, I'll do the exorcist maze.

So this one had a line.

So the scarecrow maze didn't have a line.

The line was my saving grace.

Like 15 minutes in line.

Thank goodness.

I meet these two guys behind me, Jason and Edward.

God bless them.

I was like, these are my reinforcements.

I'm going to go in with these people.

And I was like, if you guys don't want to wait in line with me as much, you can go with me.

And they're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, sure.

Oh, I was like, that's smart.

That's smart travel right there.

You're my travel buddy.

Jason in the front, me, Edward in the back.

And we were going along.

And I will say it was significantly less scary when you can kind of like.

absorb because this killer girl with killer knife she comes out behind you but i was like she's going for edward because edward's in the back god i'm safe okay killer knife girl so anyway we did the maze that one was better but then jason and edward were like we gotta go so i'm back by myself and at this point i'm like absolutely panicky and i this is where i started texting you i'm in the bathroom because i'm like this is the only place that is safe they cannot come for me when i'm in the bathroom they're not playing spooky music in the bathroom it's just

oh okay but you're like i'm safe here so i literally was like in the bathroom for like 30 minutes and like among the things that happened someone like tapped on the bathroom stall like normal people do to make sure someone's in there.

And I was like, jump scare right there.

And then I'm like, my stomach hurts.

And then I'm like, Googling, like, can you get stomach cramps from being scared?

And the answer is yes.

Oh, man.

This was intense.

Yeah.

Oh, my God.

It was so awful.

So I was like, I need to do at least one more.

So I did.

They had a third maze that was the Universal Monsters.

And that one was actually less scary.

It was like the Dracula and, you know, things like that.

So actually, like, Loki enjoyed that maze until at the end, like, this creepy girl comes out after the Dracula scene.

scene and i was like i'm out of here the fourth maze was texas chainsaw massacre and i was like nah i'm out

so i gotta leave one to be desired so i did not finish the universal horror unleashed but that was my experience there and many people love it all right so would you go back would you pay money to go to one of these events yeah well i'm glad you asked about the money so this thing starts at 70 there's higher price points if you want to be able to go to the mazes multiple times i didn't even go to all four so I definitely didn't need to pay for the multi-path, but many people like that.

And also, many people go to this thing.

So in fact, Universal won't give official numbers, but there was this great Forbes piece that said that 1.5 million people go to the version.

in Orlando every year.

I mean, that's not surprising.

They built a whole land that's kind of like this horror nights thing that's permanent in Orlando.

So that makes sense.

Yes.

So the other thing that's really interesting is that Vegas is a cheap destination to do this, especially in 2025.

Yeah, they have a lot of land.

They have a lot of space to make these amazing attractions like that.

Well, and Megan, Vegas is particularly compelling in 2025 because have you heard, there are so many fewer tourists this year than usual.

Yeah, tourism is down by so many different metrics.

There's fewer people arriving at the airport.

And I think because international travelers are not coming to the U.S.

as much generally, Vegas is really feeling that hit.

Yeah, well, I actually have some official stats for you.

From June 2025, tourism is down 11% from the year prior.

If you want to go to a horror maze, and you know who you are.

If you're listening to this and you want to go to horror maze, you know who you are.

Vegas is a surprisingly affordable place to do this.

Yeah.

I do want to give a plug though for the original horror nights events at Universal Hollywood New Year

because I've been to the one in California.

It's $77.

$77 for a ticket to go to the Hollywood Horror Nights at Universal Hollywood.

So that's slightly more expensive than the Vegas one.

It's slightly more expensive, but I think you get way more value.

And you get to go to rides.

Four mazes.

I think I counted.

There's eight haunted mazes this year.

Okay.

There's also scare zones.

There's also rides.

And I'm a big rides person.

So when you need that break, instead of hiding in the bathroom with the scary music, I'm going around the Jurassic Park ride.

I'm going to Minions Land.

You know what I mean?

I don't think Minions is open, actually, during the Halloween horror night.

Okay, so Megan, I got to say, you asked me if I would go back, but you have been to one of these mazes before in Hollywood.

I asked you if you wanted to go to Vegas with me and you explicitly declined.

Yeah.

You know, I've been to these before.

I've also covered them for work.

Like I have been to scary things for work and I'm like, you know what?

I know what that experience is like.

I really love theme parks.

I don't need to go for the scare events.

Okay, let's talk about a theme park that is much less scary, that our scary cat levels can tolerate better.

And we will do that after the break.

Today's episode is sponsored by Claude.

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Hello, Finny.

Did you think our story was over?

It's the crabmer.

This Friday, you're dead.

Dead is just a word.

Critics are saying Ethan Hornock is pure nightmare fuel.

Discover the secret behind the mask.

What do you think happens when you die?

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We're filming two Omega in theaters Friday.

Read it R.

Under 17, not admit without parents.

Okay, when you said we were going to talk about something not so scary, I didn't realize you meant like literally.

Mickey's not so scary Halloween party.

Okay, thank God we're out of the Universal.

Really, really scary event.

Yes, so Universal's event is truly not for the week, but Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party is their version of the ticketed Halloween party that happens every year and it's starting in August over in Orlando.

There's also a version in Disneyland that's called the Oogie Boogie Dash that's also really not that scary.

And what happens at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party at Disney World?

Yes.

So this is their separately hard ticketed event.

You can get in at 4 p.m.

and I have willingly gone to this.

Much like the Universal version, much much of the rides are open, but instead of spooky monsters popping out at you and scaring you, you trick-or-treat.

And that's kind of the highlight is many of the rides are shut down and you can literally go inside the tiki room and trick-or-treat.

It's kind of this out-of-body experience, especially for super Disney fans who have done it all.

Have you trick-or-treated in the tiki room?

Yeah.

Or have you seen the characters dressed up in their Halloween outfits?

Also cute.

And so with this, you also get candy.

And so I went with my now husband and we were, you know, walking around all the different spots.

and we said, we are not going to try to get candy.

We don't need candy.

But if someone willingly gives us candy, we will sure take it.

Right.

By the end of this thing, we got eight pounds of candy.

That's too much.

You need a check-in bag for that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, and so this is wild is we looked on Amazon like roughly how much it costs to buy eight pounds of candy and it's like $50.

I was like, well, save with Sally.

We got a deal here.

Okay, but you paid way more than that for the ticket.

Is that worth it?

When you can trick or treat anywhere, you can buy the candy from Amazon or Costco or anywhere else.

Well, I will tell you, these these parties sell out.

So for many people, they are worth it.

But I do want to give you some context.

Tickets for the 1995 version of this After Hours party were about $17, which is about $34 in today's dollars.

Might I remind you, the most expensive ticket this year is nearly $250.

I mean, that's what I'm saying.

There's a lot easier ways to get candy than paying for this ticketed event.

I don't know, supply and demand.

All right.

Well, let's move on from theme parks and talk about some of the destinations in the U.S.

that are very popular for Halloween.

I think Salem, Massachusetts.

Ooh, the witch city.

Yeah.

So Salem has Salem haunted happenings.

It runs pretty much all month from the end of September to the end of October.

And they've got all the kinds of Halloween festivities you might expect, like ghost tours, a parade, costume balls, haunted houses, you know.

everything you want to get in the spirit they have.

Yeah, so they have obviously long been the witch city, but their first official Halloween festival started in 1982.

During that festival, they had about 50,000 people come in for it.

Now that festival has extended to basically the whole month of October.

And get this, they have about a million people who come each year for this thing.

That's a lot of people for a really small town.

Yes.

And what's interesting is just, I mean, the capacity, all these people coming into the small town.

Now, you'll typically fly into Boston and many people will stay in Boston.

It's just about an hour train or drive over to Salem.

So, so you might want to stay in Boston just to save some money, have some more hotel options.

But this is wild.

Tourism is so huge for Salem.

In fact, it was in $144 million industry last year, generating 1,200 jobs.

But the catch is most of that money actually comes during spooky season.

Whoa, that's so crazy.

Okay.

Also, I believe the thing about staying in Boston because I looked up prices at the Hampton Inn in Salem during the month.

The luxury hotel, the Hampton Inn.

Yeah, during the month of October in Salem, you know, high season.

Sally, do you want to guess what the cost of a one-night stay?

It is over the weekend, like a Saturday night.

Oh, it's like Saturday right after Halloween.

Also, I'll let you know that when I look this up, the three weekends closest to Halloween were already sold out.

So this is the first weekend in October.

Well, I will say.

I stayed in a Hampton Inn in Columbus, Ohio, which you would also not think of as like the top tourism most expensive destination, but I did it during the Arnold Sports Festival, which is like their top event.

And when I stayed in a Hampton Inn there, it was $600 per night.

So I'm going to go with $600.

I mean, and you did tee me up for it to be expensive.

Yeah.

It is more than $900.

More than $900.

More Hampton Inn in Salem, Massachusetts.

Oh my gosh, that's the real horror.

Wow.

And just waffles are included, though.

There you go.

Super good.

Compare that to a Saturday night in November.

Yeah.

$200, $300.

Yeah, exactly.

It's under $300.

So, I mean, that goes to show you how powerful and exciting their Halloween is.

I hope you at least get like a pumpkin spice waffle out of it.

Me too.

All right, let's give a quick shout out to some other cool Halloween destinations that we've done some research on.

Okay, I want to give a shout out to Esses Park.

My cousin got married in Esses Park, and I obviously wanted to go for his wedding, but I really wanted to go to check out the Stanley Hotel, which is a very famous hotel.

You might know it from the Shining.

Two creepy girls may or may not be there when you visit.

I will not be going there.

Yeah, so every November, they do this spooky macabre ball and their tickets are surprisingly affordable, $75 for this.

And even if you don't go the weekend, the ball is only a one-weekend only event.

If you don't go, you can still do hotel tours any time of year.

And I highly recommend doing the spooky tour.

Okay.

All right.

Well, I'm going to shout out New Orleans because I feel like we can't talk about Halloween in the US and not talk about New Orleans.

They have a lot of...

Really cool events, including the crew of boo parade.

Everyone dresses up for it.

I feel like no one in New Orleans needs an excuse to dress up.

They're already going all out.

Shout out people of New Orleans who have amazing costumes.

One of my best friends, Caroline Dobrez, shout out.

She can rock a costume and she's the one person i know who lives in new orleans they go together exactly that's my favorite part of halloween is like drinking and people watching and looking at all the costumes so i think new orleans is the perfect Halloween destination for me.

Okay, that's good.

I'm also going to take us over to San Jose, California for the Winchester Mystery House.

You know this?

Oh, yeah.

I think I've seen the outside of it, but I think that's the inside.

That is the scary part.

So the legend goes that there was this woman who owned this house and she kept building and she builds these like doors to nowhere and staircases to nowhere.

So obviously the perfect haunted house.

And during the Halloween season, they do fright nights.

So kind of like the universal bases we were talking about, they bring in scare actors and fun time.

Okay.

Well, no matter where you're going this year, let's give people a few tips so that they can travel and hopefully save a little bit of money during the holiday weekend as well.

Yeah, number one tip, you have to buy your tickets early.

As you said, with this Hampton Inn in Salem, it sells out.

And many of these Halloween nights, even though it's $250 for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party, these tickets are selling out.

So if you want to go especially closer to Halloween, you do have to book early.

And smart travelers know there's so much dynamic pricing and travel.

If you go when there's less demand, like September or August, if the events are going on, then you might be able to get a cheaper ticket when it's a little bit further from Halloween.

So I recommend that's another reason to book early is just go early.

Halloween in August.

Just do it.

The other thing that I want to say is on the show, we did talk about a lot of really expensive things,

these things that require a ticket, but I really do want to let people know that there are so many ways you can experience halloween and traveling for halloween even without a ticket there are many kind of free versions so if you go to salem for their event you could stand on the street corner and watch a parade and that's free Totally.

Or you can find like the neighborhoods that do Halloween really big.

I've seen like some really cool homemade haunted houses.

Yes.

So, I mean, a lot of those are free to enter.

I also would say you don't have to fly somewhere.

You don't have to go very far.

You might be surprised once you start doing a bit of research that there's Halloween festivities everywhere and some of them are really unique.

And I also want to remind people to take advantage of shoulder season.

This is a phrase that we talk about on the show often enough, but I just want to remind people there is the peak season, there is the off season, and then there is that Goldilocks window that is the shoulder season.

Of course, shoulder season varies by destination, but in many destinations, shoulder season falls right on top of Halloween.

This is where you can take advantage of cheaper airfares and cheaper hotel room rates.

I like it.

In fact, we got data from our friends over at Expedia and they showed that the cheapest flights are on September 29th and October 27th for domestic fairs.

So that lines up pretty well with Halloween.

That's perfect for Halloween travel.

All right.

And then last tip, if you are flying with your costume, I would say pack smart, you know, figure out what's going to fit in your carry-on.

Better fit.

Although I would advise if you are traveling for Halloween, going to multiple events, you might want many different costumes for the different events.

So I would pack multiples.

Sally's not bringing any costume.

Megan is bringing multiple costumes.

I'm here to the party.

Are you bringing blow-up dino costume?

I'll surprise you.

Oh, and one more tip from Cody.

He's one of our producers.

For new parents out there, he says that finding a babysitter for Halloween is really, really difficult.

It's the one night of the year that like everyone is out doing something, whether it's trick-or-treating or going to a party or whatever.

Interesting.

So if you are planning on traveling without your kids, maybe lock in that babysitter right when you buy the tickets.

So that way you have some child care while you're out.

Most expensive night of babysitting.

Do you think it's Halloween?

Maybe.

All right.

Should we go into hot takeoffs?

Yeah.

I think you have one for this.

Okay.

I want to talk about something that is very scary.

And that is when you are in the airport and they are blaring boarding announcements.

Someone overhead is like, Megan, your flight is boarding.

Megan, where is Megan?

Okay, I'd never want to be that person.

That's the scariest thing is the shame involved with being called out on the airport intercom.

Well, I want to give a shout out to SFO, shout out SFO, that they eliminated those.

Now they only do localized boarding announcements at the gate, that they have become a quiet airport.

And it is so much more peaceful.

It is so much more calm.

This is why I love SFO.

It is the best airport.

And we have said this many times on the show, but my hot takeoff basically is that there should be more quiet airports.

Cut the boarding announcements because I'm sorry, Megan is not here.

She is not boarding her flight no matter how many times you call.

If it works at SFO, I don't see why they can't do it at other airports.

Yeah, well, you know, in fact, more airports are adopting this.

Amsterdam, Dubai, they have also become quiet airports.

And 10 out of 10, if your local airport is not yet a quiet airport, lobby and make it a quiet airport.

It will change your life.

All right.

Make sure to follow Smart Travel on your favorite podcast app, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and iHeartRadio.

That way you'll automatically download new episodes.

And if you're listening on Spotify, give us a comment right in the app.

Shout out to Cody Goff, who produced this episode.

Thank you to Nick Harissimi for editing this episode.

Thank you, Hilary Georgie, for fact-checking.

And thank you to Edem Visuals for this beautiful studio.

And here's our brief disclaimer.

We are not financial or investment advisors.

This info is provided for general educational and entertainment purposes and may not apply to your specific circumstances.

We hope you are inspired to keep your passport full and your wallet even fuller.

Thanks everyone.

See you next time.

Parenting is hard.

We're out here trying to childproof everything.

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It's easy to get overwhelmed by tiny humans.

You're somehow responsible for not messing up.

It's nice to know you're not alone, though.

We've been there.

I'm Tori Phantom, and I'm Gwenna Lakeland, and we host ChildProof.

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