Haunted houses and Halloween nights in Philadelphia, and where to eat after

Halloween 2026 is a Saturday, so Friday, October 30 and Saturday, October 31 make one long Halloween weekend in Philadelphia. The Eagles play the Dallas Cowboys at Lincoln Financial Field on Monday, October 26, and no Eagles game is scheduled from October 27 to November 2. Clocks go back one hour at 2 a.m. on November 1. Only a few haunts are inside the city: Eastern State in Fairmount, Lincoln Mill in Manayunk, and the Old City ghost walks. The farm haunts are in Bucks, Montgomery, Chester and Delaware counties and New Jersey. This is the scary half of a night out. The eating half is at the end, at three kitchens open until 11 p.m. or midnight on Saturday.

I write the haunt guides on Mr. Fear, a Halloween site, and I am a guest here. Top of Philly asked for the haunted houses. They supplied the tables.

The night, in order

Pick the haunt before the costume, because the rules differ: Eastern State does not allow full-face theatrical masks, props that look like weapons, open-toed shoes or high heels. Buy a timed ticket where one is sold. Eastern State sells half-hour entry times and says online is always the cheapest way; Winding Brook Farm sells tickets only on the premises. Pennhurst and Bates Motel tickets are printed, and both, like Eastern State, say sales are final. For a smaller crowd, Lincoln Mill suggests Thursdays or Sundays, and the Bates Motel says a visit takes longer on Fridays and Saturdays than the 90 minutes of a weeknight. Check the forecast: the Bates Motel closes its attractions when it rains, and Philadelphia’s average October low is 49°F. Eat after, not before. The three kitchens below stay open until 11 p.m. or midnight on Halloween Saturday.

The haunted houses

• Halloween Nights at Eastern State, Fairmount: five haunted houses inside the former penitentiary, The Crypt (expanded for 2026), Nightmares, Machine Shop, Dark Tides and Big Top Terror. Select nights through November 7; times vary by night. Parking is at the Philadelphia Zoo lot.
• Lincoln Mill Haunted House, Manayunk: a story-driven haunted house inside the historic mill, built around bodies found in a secret basement after Hurricane Ida flooding in 2021. Select nights from September 26 to November 7, with tickets sold online. The official pages do not state an age rule.
• Pennhurst Asylum, Spring City: the organizer advertises four haunted attractions. The box office is open 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. It allows children as young as 10 but does not recommend it, actors may touch you, and no alcohol is permitted. Confirm the 2026 nights on its calendar before you drive out.
• The Bates Motel and Haunted Hayride, Glen Mills: a 25-minute haunted hayride through the forest, the Bates Motel haunted house and Revenge of the Scarecrows, a corn field walk. The organizer does not recommend the haunted house for children under 8 but says the hayride is fine for kids.
• Fright Fest at Six Flags Great Adventure, Jackson, NJ: nine haunted mazes for 2026, including two new ones, Jason: Blood Reign and Final Destination: Death’s Playground. Select nights from September 18 to November 1. The mazes need a separate or bundle ticket, and Six Flags does not recommend Fright Fest for children under 13.
• Field of Terror, East Windsor, NJ: four attractions on a working farm. Its FAQ, which does not state a year, lists October 30 and 31 as operating nights, with ticket windows closing at 10:45 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

With kids

Most of the organized trick-or-treating here happens in daylight. The Count’s Halloween Spooktacular at Sesame Place in Langhorne runs select dates from September 19 to November 1, with trick-or-treating in Big Bird’s Beach and a Halloween parade included with admission. Boo at the Zoo at Elmwood Park Zoo in Norristown runs October weekends from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and its Trick-or-Treat Night on Friday, October 30 runs 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. The Philadelphia Zoo runs its own Boo at the Zoo, included with admission; its page shows no year, so confirm the dates, and leave toy weapons and adult masks at home. Kids Boo Fest at Six Flags Great Adventure is daytime trick-or-treating for kids 12 and under. On Saturday, October 24, the Penn Museum’s CultureFest! Día de los Muertos runs 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Twenty-one and over

The adult Halloween nights here are mostly on foot in Old City. Ghost City Tours runs the Philadelphia Haunted Pub Crawl every night at 8 p.m., two hours, ages 21 and up, and its Founding Phantoms tour at 9 p.m. is for ages 16 and up. Grim Philly’s Dark Philly Adult Night Tour meets outside the Independence Visitor Center at 8 p.m. every night and is for mature audiences. Inside Eastern State, The Speakeasy at Al Capone’s Cell and The Fair Chance Beer Garden serve alcohol only with a physical photo ID; digital IDs are not accepted.

What is not open this year

I have no confirmed closures for 2026, but two haunts are left off my list on purpose. Visit Philadelphia lists Sleepy Hollow Haunted Acres in Newtown and The Fright Factory in South Philadelphia for 2026, but I could not confirm either season on an official organizer page. Shady Brook Farm’s FallFest in Yardley closes October 30, the night before Halloween, and the Monster-Mania convention on Halloween weekend is in Baltimore; the Philadelphia-area edition in Oaks is November 20 to 22.

The full list

Dates, ticket rules, ages and directions for every one of these, plus the Bucks County hayrides, Frightland in Delaware, Fort Mifflin after dark and the Laurel Hill cemetery evenings, are on my beat, not a restaurant site’s. The Philadelphia haunted house and Halloween events guide on Mr. Fear has all 25 listings checked against each organizer’s own page, with the links to buy.

Where to eat after

Two of these are on South 18th Street in Center City, a short ride from Eastern State in Fairmount and the ghost tours in Old City. Suraya is on Frankford Avenue in Fishtown, north of Old City. These three are on the Top of Philly best restaurants list. The scores are theirs, not mine.