Avoid Mardi Gras Crowds At This Haunted City For A Halloween Getaway Just As Festive

New Orleans' Mardi Gras season is infamous, beginning on January 6 and leading up until the day before Ash Wednesday. This time of year is chaotic in the city, culminating with the Mardi Gras celebration which attracts roughly one million people annually. For smaller crowds, check out New Orleans around Halloween. It's a great place to travel in October thanks to its celebration of the spiritual and the supernatural.

You don't have to be named Louis or Lestat to know that New Orleans is a wonderfully spooky city. There's a reason the eternal protagonists of Anne Rice's "Interview with the Vampire" spend a few good centuries of their undead existence in New Orleans, one of the most culturally rich and downright ghostly cities in America, and a place that Rick Steves considers one of the best cities in America for tourism. The area is the home of the Choctaw, Houma, Chitimacha, Biloxi, and other Indigenous people and was colonized by the French and Spanish. It was eventually purchased by the newly-founded American state and became the epicenter of the slave trade in the early 1800s. This rich mix of cultures and influences has left its mark on the city.

Early Indigenous inhabitants and members of the local Black community participated in Mardi Gras with the French, who brought the Catholic tradition with them from Europe when they colonized the city in 1718. The city's Black population, which included both enslaved and free people in the Antebellum era, incorporated African magic rituals and Haitian Vodou into the religious practices of the Catholics, which all contribute to what modern-day residents practice as voodoo. Although it's not the only Southern city with ghost-riddled hotels and haunted homes, the opening of the spirit world in voodoo ceremonies and cemeteries can put you in a spooky mood at Halloween.

The ritual of Mardi Gras floats and thematically-chosen costumes started with the organization of the first "krewe" in 1857, the Mistick Krewe of Comus. The Krewe of Boo borrows the language and tradition of Mardi Gras to bring their own parade to New Orleans' French Quarter, complete with fantastical props and costumes in October with a 3-mile route filled with spooky fun.

Besides the carnival-like atmosphere of the parade, masquerade balls are also a tradition adapted from Carnival season, and especially fitting for those with a proclivity for the vampiric. A spooky vampire masquerade, the Court of the Light Fae, inspires participants to dress in historic costumes and ball gowns for this fantasy held around Halloween. At the House of Blues on 225 Decatur Street, the Vampire Ball Weekend is held each year, as is the Anne Rice Vampire Ball, hosted by the Vampire Lestatt Fan Club, held at the Derbes Mansion, 2257 Bayou Road. While tickets for these events can be pricy, you don't have to go to a Halloween-themed party to have a spooky good time in New Orleans. 

New Orleans' oldest district, the French Quarter, dates back to the 18th century and a perusal of its historic bars, restaurants, and hotels is sure to kick up some paranormal frequencies at places that leave you with more questions than answers. Visit the Old Absinthe House at 240 Bourbon Street for pub food, classic Southern cocktails, and sightings of historical figures, like pirates and voodoo queens, or General Andrew Jackson himself. At the oldest active Catholic cathedral in the United States, St. Louis Cathedral at 615 Pere Antoine Alley, an 18th century priest, Pere Dagobert, has been known to wander the aisles. For more details of the ghoulish variety, take one of four top-rated Unique NOLA Tours. Each can be up to two hours long and include about 1 mile of walking. Advance reservations are recommended, as guides limit groups to 15 participants. Call the office at 504-777-7769 to be sure your desired tour is available.

To explore ghost stories for yourself, stay at the Andrew Jackson Hotel at 919 Royal Street. In 1792, a boys' home was built on the site for orphans from the Yellow Fever plague that had ravaged the city; only two years later, a fire enveloped the building, burning much of the French Quarter and five boys inside the orphanage. Their ghosts are said to haunt the hotel's rooms, guided by Andrew Jackson, who was charged with obstruction of justice at a courtroom built after the fire and demolished in 1890. Check-ins are daily at 4 p.m., and room rates start around $110 per night.