Halloween is a great holiday for families: little kids have lots of fun, and grownups get to act like kids. Families can also take the opportunity to have a fall weekend getaway in the country with Halloween themes. Below are suggestions, in the Northeast US.
Halloween Packages at Country Inns & More
Many inns and B&B's welcome families, and lay on special events for Halloween itself and perhaps also for preceding weekend(s): a great opportunity for a country getaway with seasonal fun and great breakfasts.
BedandBreakfast.com
This site lists hundreds of country inns and B&B's, and has a special section for Halloween Happenings. (Click "Search", then "Special Packages", then "Halloween Happenings".) For example, at Farm by the River B&B, North Conway, NH,
A two-night package includes wagon ride, and a Ghost and Goblins tour of nine inns (with a treat at each). Location is in NH's scenic White Mountains. This property has stables, so horseback riding and hayrides are special features.
And at Lathrop House B&B, Springfield MA, on Halloween night, kids can help carve a pumpkin and then trick-or-treat in the historic neighborhood; or hand out candies to the the goblins and princesses who drop by. Also, this B&B is just 10 minutes from Six Flags New England, where Frightfest has trick-or-treating for little kids in daytime, and scary fun at night.
Green Mountain Inn, Stowe, VT
Ghoulish Getaway has two nights lodging, country breakfast, welcome box of hand-dipped Halloween chocolates, "choose your own" pumpkin from a nearby farm, and a guided evening lantern tour of historic Stowe village.
Poconos, PA
The Poconos Mountains are a popular vacation zone, with spectacular foliage in fall. October also brings Halloween fun: The Great Pocono Pumpkin Festival (Oct. 1-31). (October also brings a Harvest Festival, Arts & Crafts Festival at Jack Frost Mountain, and lots more.) Several hotels have packages, such as Halloween Party Weekend at The Resort at Split Rock Resort, and Halloween Weekends at thousand-acre Woodloch Pines.
Mount Washington Resort, NH
With a location on nearly 800,000 acres of White Mountain National Forest, Mount Washington Resort is another great place for fall foliage, plus outdoors activities such as biking and rock-climbing. Annual Hallow-Brew Weekend has ghost tours, jack-o-lanterns, carriage rides where the driver tells ghost stories, Tarot Card readers,tales round a campfire; afternoon costume party for kids, night-time costume party too. (The "brew" comes in at a Saturday Hallow-Brew dinner, featuring local brews.)
Cherry Valley Lodge with CoCo Key Water Resort
This lodge with indoor waterpark is in Newark, Ohio, 25 miles east of Columbus. "CoCo’s Halloween Week Package" -- available from October 26 to November 4, 2007-- costs $144 plus tax, and includes room for one night, four passes for CoCo Key Water Resort, and two Trick or Treat Goodie Bags with $5 arcade cards.
