From haunted hotels and shadowy forests to infamous crime scenes and historic streets with centuries of strange stories, America is filled with wonderfully eerie places worth traveling for. My upcoming book, Eerie Escapes: 50 Scary Weekends in America, brings them together in 50 carefully curated, delightfully creepy weekend trips, including 30 regional trips and 20 seasonal escapes.
Inspired by the book’s regional trips, this Micro Eerie Escapes series gathers a few of the best experiences from my full weekend trips and compacts them into one-day spooky travel adventures, each built around a single day of eerie exploring and an overnight stay. Each escape combines haunted places, true crime, local legends, creepy accommodations, atmospheric meals, and thoughtful little details that carry the eerie mood from check-in to the final stop.
A Haunted Escape Through Boston and Beyond
It feels fitting to begin in Massachusetts, where the trip that inspired Eerie Escapes first took shape. Over one night and one very full day, you will sleep in a famously haunted Boston hotel, walk among old burying grounds after dark, enter the rooms where one of America’s most infamous murders occurred, venture into a forest known for unexplained encounters, and explore the shadowy corridors of a haunted warship. Take the trip in fall, when changing leaves color the roads through southeastern Massachusetts and darkness settles early over the forests and harbor.
The Itinerary
Preview: Omni Parker House • Boston Ghost Tour • Lizzie Borden House • Bridgewater Triangle • USS Salem • The Liberty Hotel
Check In to the Omni Parker House
60 School St, Boston, MA
Begin with an overnight stay at the Omni Parker House, Boston’s grand historic hotel and one of its most famous haunted landmarks. Founded by Harvey Parker in 1855, it has hosted generations of politicians, writers, performers, and other prominent guests beneath its glittering chandeliers.
Its best-known ghost is Parker himself, whose mustached apparition has reportedly appeared in rooms and hallways on the upper floors. The third floor has an especially active reputation. Guests have described unexplained noises and elevators arriving without being summoned, while the hotel’s former Room 303 became associated with lingering smells of whiskey and cigar smoke. Even without a ghostly encounter, the dark wood, ornate details, and long corridors provide an atmospheric beginning to the escape.
After checking in, explore the lobby and its historical displays, then have dinner nearby before beginning the evening’s ghost tour.
Take an Evening Ghost Tour
After dinner, step into the haunted heart of downtown Boston on a ghost walking tour. Look for a route covering Boston Common, Granary Burying Ground, the Omni Parker House, and other nearby locations associated with executions, restless spirits, and centuries of strange stories. As daylight fades, old gravestones, brick facades, and narrow streets give familiar Boston landmarks a darker character.
One option is the Underground Boston Ghost Tour: Gravestones & Gunpowder, a year-round walking tour that visits the Omni Parker House, Boston Common, Granary Burying Ground, King’s Chapel, and other haunted locations along Boston’s old streets.
Scare Challenge: During the tour or just afterward, locate John Hancock’s tomb inside Granary Burying Ground. Stand beside the tomb and whisper John Hancock’s name three times. According to rumors, those who call to him may hear footsteps approaching from behind.
The Next Morning: The Lizzie Borden House
230 Second St, Fall River, MA
Leave Boston early and drive south to Fall River for a morning tour of the Lizzie Borden House. Inside, patterned wallpaper, antique furnishings, and quiet domestic rooms preserve the setting of one of America’s most infamous murder mysteries.
On August 4, 1892, Andrew and Abby Borden were brutally killed inside the home. Abby was found upstairs in the guest room, while Andrew was discovered on a sofa in the downstairs sitting room. Andrew’s daughter Lizzie was arrested and tried for both murders, but the jury acquitted her in 1893. No one else was ever charged, and the question of who killed Andrew and Abby Borden remains one of America’s most enduring true-crime mysteries.
The house has been restored to evoke its appearance at the time of the crimes and now operates as both a museum and an inn. Visitors can enter the rooms where the bodies were discovered and hear about the strained Borden household, the investigation, Lizzie’s trial, and the paranormal activity reported inside the home. Guests and investigators have described footsteps, shadowy figures, weeping, cold spots, and unexplained floral scents. The upstairs guest room where Abby died is considered one of the house’s most active areas, and its stillness can feel especially unsettling.
House tours generally last about 90 minutes. Reserve the earliest available tour so there is enough time to complete the rest of the day’s itinerary.
Eerie Photo Op: Abby Borden’s Room While visiting the upstairs guest room where Abby Borden was killed, photograph the room from near the doorway. Frame the replica of Abby’s body against the antique bed, patterned wallpaper, and period furnishings to capture the unsettling stillness of the preserved murder scene. Try the shot without flash to deepen the shadows and give the room a darker, more natural atmosphere.
Share your trip photographs: #EerieEscapesBoston
Afternoon: Enter the Bridgewater Triangle
Freetown-Fall River State Forest
110 Slab Bridge Rd, Assonet, MA
From the carefully preserved rooms of the Lizzie Borden House, drive into the wilder and less predictable landscape of Freetown-Fall River State Forest, part of the mysterious region known as the Bridgewater Triangle.
The Triangle covers approximately 200 square miles of southeastern Massachusetts and has accumulated stories of UFOs, phantom lights, poltergeists, giant birds, strange disappearances, ritual activity, and encounters with unexplained creatures. One of its most frequently reported beings is the puckwudgie, a small humanoid figure said to watch travelers from between the trees.
Take a short walk through the forest rather than attempting an extended hike. Beneath the dense canopy, the sounds of rustling leaves and snapping branches can make the woods feel far more isolated than they are. The area around Assonet Ledge is associated with some of the forest’s darkest stories, including apparitions, unexplained voices, sudden disorientation, and disturbing thoughts near the steep granite drop.
This is a tightly scheduled day, so bring water and pick up a quick lunch before entering the forest or between stops. Allow approximately an hour for a short, atmospheric walk before continuing north to Quincy.
Late Afternoon: Explore the USS Salem
549 South St, Pier 3, Quincy, MA
The final daytime stop trades dark woods for narrow steel corridors aboard the USS Salem, a Cold War-era heavy cruiser now serving as the centerpiece of the United States Naval Shipbuilding Museum.
Although the ship never saw combat, it assisted with relief efforts after the devastating 1953 Ionian Islands earthquake. Some of its ghost stories are associated with injured and dying earthquake victims who reportedly received medical treatment aboard the ship. Visitors and paranormal investigators have reported screams, unexplained voices, shadow figures, and the apparition of a woman in white near the former sick bay.
Move through cramped passageways, medical spaces, crew quarters, and immense steel compartments where footsteps clang against the decks and every metallic sound seems to travel. Deep inside the ship, far from the daylight on the pier, it is easy to imagine how those hollow corridors might feel after dark.
The USS Salem operates seasonally and currently has limited public hours, generally from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays from spring through late fall, with additional Friday hours during July and August. Confirm the current operating schedule before planning this escape and aim to arrive no later than midafternoon.
Dinner and Late-Night Drinks at The Liberty Hotel
215 Charles St, Boston, MA
Return to Boston and finish the escape at The Liberty Hotel, a luxury hotel created inside the former Charles Street Jail. Much of the original jail structure remains, including granite walls, towering arched windows, ironwork, and catwalks that once overlooked the jail’s cellblocks. After dark, the softly lit stone and iron give the soaring central rotunda a distinctly moody atmosphere.
Former prisoners and guards are said to linger inside the building. Guests and employees have reported shadowy figures, heavy boots crossing the catwalks, phantom voices, clanging cell doors, and unexplained activity in the kitchen.
Have dinner at CLINK., where remnants of the former jail surround the dining room, then stop for a late cocktail at Alibi, a dimly lit lounge tucked inside the old jail building. It is a fitting place to raise a glass beneath the old ironwork and let the final stories of the day settle in.
Darker Stories: Local Crime and Legends
True Crime Story: The Murder of Jane Britton
On January 7, 1969, 23-year-old Harvard graduate student Jane Britton was found sexually assaulted and bludgeoned to death inside her apartment in Cambridge, just across the Charles River from Boston. Reddish-brown powder discovered around her body was initially connected to red ochre used in ancient burial rituals, inspiring sensational theories involving Britton’s work in anthropology and Near Eastern archaeology. Investigators later determined that the substance was probably pigment from her artwork.
The case remained unsolved for nearly 50 years. In 2018, investigators announced that DNA evidence had identified Britton’s killer as Michael Sumpter, a convicted rapist who died in 2001 and was later linked to two other Boston-area murders. Investigators believe he may have entered Britton’s apartment using the fire escape, although exactly how he encountered or selected her remains unknown. The identification ended decades of speculation surrounding one of Harvard’s most notorious murders.
Local Legend: The Curse of Nix’s Mate
A few miles from downtown Boston, a black-and-white daybeacon rises from the waves above the remnants of Nix’s Mate, once a much larger island in Boston Harbor. According to legend, Captain Nix was murdered at sea and one of his mates was wrongly accused of the crime. Before being executed or abandoned on the island, the condemned man proclaimed his innocence and cursed the land, declaring that it would disappear beneath the waves as proof that he had been unjustly punished.
Over time, the island’s high cliffs and grassy acreage eroded until little more than a rocky shoal remained. Today, much of Nix’s Mate vanishes beneath the harbor at high tide, seemingly fulfilling the condemned sailor’s final prediction. Historians question the story’s accuracy, but the sight of the lonely marker standing above the water has kept the legend alive for generations.
Complete the Escape
Pair It with a Ghost Story: “The Shadows on the Wall”
Before turning out the lights at the Omni Parker House, read “The Shadows on the Wall” by New England writer Mary E. Wilkins Freeman.
First published in 1903, this chilling tale of a grieving family and an inexplicable shadow is short enough to read in one sitting, but difficult to forget, especially in an unfamiliar hotel room after dark.
What to Read Along the Route: The Boston Stranglers
For a deeper look at another of the region’s most notorious crime mysteries, read The Boston Stranglers by Susan Kelly.
Kelly examines the 13 murders attributed to the Boston Strangler and the possibility that more than one killer was responsible. Later DNA evidence conclusively linked Albert DeSalvo to the murder of Mary Sullivan, but questions surrounding the other cases remain.
Scary Souvenir: A Lizzie Borden Newspaper Replica
Look for the Lizzie Borden House’s collectible newspaper replica, designed to resemble nineteenth-century coverage of the murders.
Frame it as macabre wall art or add it to a true-crime collection. Availability varies, so check online or look for it while visiting the house.
Until the Next Escape
I hope you’ve enjoyed coming along on this Micro Eerie Escape and feel inspired to take the trip yourself. Follow the entire itinerary or choose the stops that intrigue you most, then make the adventure your own. Until the next escape, may you find strange stories, atmospheric places, and just enough unease to follow you home.