Halloween at San Diego Theme Parks and Local Annual Events

San Diego is a popular vacation town, of course, what with theme parks, the San Diego Zoo, and miles and miles of terrific Southern California coastline. Late October presents families with a different sort of travel altogether, though; the door to door variety seen on Halloween. In San Diego, Halloween isn’t just for small children. In fact, some of these Halloween events and activities in San Diego would scare the costumes right off small children, so consider yourself warned. Now, Halloween falls on a Sunday this year, which means neighborhoods get to be terrorized by those little tramps and witches (and vampires and Harry Potters) potentially all day long. The idea of a weekend Halloween strikes terror in the hearts of many of us trick-or-treat chaperones; little kids hopped up on sugar all day just isn’t as charming as one might think! One or any of these San Diego theme park Halloween events and other activities will either sate Halloween-loving kids, or get them excited for more.

Halloween in San Diego Theme Parks and Events

LEGOLAND California; the LEGOLAND theme park embraces the fun of Halloween in a family-friendly, non-scary way. Children 12 and under are invited to take part in trick-or-treating and costume contests every Saturday of the month during the theme park’s annual “Brick or Treat” event.

SeaWorld San Diego has its annual Halloween Spooktacular, child-friendly events every weekend in October. This isn’t very frightening for children: there’s a Sesame Street themed Halloween show, trick-or-treat stations, interactive characters and Halloween-themed sea lion shows at SeaWorld.

Old Town’s Most Haunted is more fitting for older kids and teens (and Halloween-loving adults). Nightly walking tours of Old Town San Diego are led by a “ghost hunter” Thursdays and all weekend long. Nighttime visits include a stop at The Whaley Hose, which was built on a former gallows site in 1856; it’s believed to be one of the most haunted houses in the USA. Brr! Just got a chill.

Del Mar Fairground’s Scream Zone completely embraces the spirit of Halloween (sorry about that pun) from late September through to Halloween.  There are specially done-up midway rides, a haunted hayride, 25-room House of Horror — better for older children — and a spooky 3-D ghost maze in the Scream Zone.

Ghostly Tours in History operates year-round, but it’s never more appropriate an activity than for Halloween. This 3-hour “frightseeing” activity goes through the oldest areas of San Diego, stopping at sites like Villa Montezuma and a Gaslamp Quarter restaurant which was once once of San Diego’s first mortuaries.

The Monster Bash is great fun, but only on Halloween, only from 6 PM to midnight, and only for adults 21 yrs and older. This annual outdoors Halloween music festival is in the Gaslamp Quarter — downtown San Diego’s streets are taken over by beer gardens, live music or multiple platforms, and a wild costume contest. While not too scary for kids, it can get pretty wild.

The Haunted Hotel and the Haunted Trail of Terror in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter and Balboa Park are both fun activities running from Sept 24 through to Halloween. The Haunted Hotel has horror movie scene inspired frights in the rooms and hallways, and the Haunted Trail of Terror has an outdoor maze of walkways for guests, full of surprises. These are both fun for teens and adults, but is too creepy for all but the hardiest of children.

A Halloween in one of San Diego’s theme parks or at one of its October events is sure to be fun. No matter how you and your family decide to spend Halloween, The Vacation Gals hope it’s a safe and happy one.