San Diego’s favorite haunts come back to life for Halloween, the scariest season of them all, with events for every age.
School is back in session, marking the end of the sizzling summer season and the beginning of the crisp fall sweater weather. While San Diego slowly transitions from summer to fall with the green leaves changing to their autumn brown, the city also prepares for the spookiest season of all.
While the majority of the holiday’s events cater to the older crowd, there is fun offered for young children and the whole family. Haunted attractions can be found throughout the city at varying costs.
SCHOOL CARNIVALS
St. Paul’s Lutheran
School Fall Carnival
St. Paul’s Lutheran School, 1376 Felspar St., hosts the second annual Fall Carnival Saturday, Oct. 20, from noon to 4 p.m.
About nine classrooms will have two game booths each with games like ring toss and wheel of fortune where players can win tickets to trade for prizes.
The finest in popcorn and cotton candy will be available for purchase alongside traditional carnival fare like hamburgers, hot dogs and a chili cook-off.
Activities also include a face-painting clown.
The Mission Bay High School Jazz Band will perform from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
“It’s a big fundraiser for the school to help pay for computer labs, supplies, field trips and other necessities,” said Lindy Martinet, Parent Assistant League president for St. Paul’s Lutheran.
Pacific Beach Recreation
Center Halloween Carnival
The Pacific Beach Town Council, working with Mission Beach Recreation and Community Center, hosts the center’s Halloween Carnival, Friday, Oct. 26, from 4 to 7 p.m., at the Pacific Beach Recreation Center, 1405 Diamond St.
Activities will include games, arts and crafts, a costume contest and a slide. The costume contestants will compete by age group.
Contests for costumed characters ages 2 years and under start at 4:30 p.m.; ages 3 to 5 years start at 5 p.m.; ages 6 to 8 start at 5:30 p.m.; ages 9-12 start at 6 p.m. and ages 13 years and older start at 6:30 p.m.
Tickets for the carnival games cost four for $1. For information call (858) 589-9927.
Bay Park Elementary 58th
Annual Halloween Carnival
The Bay Park Elementary PTA invites the community to its annual Halloween carnival, Saturday, Oct. 27, from 4 to 8 p.m. at Bay Park Elementary School, 2433 Denver St.
Admission is free fun for the whole family. The carnival features a DJ, a silent auction, a cakewalk, basket raffle games and a haunted pirate maze.
Food such as carne asada tacos, hot dogs, cotton candy and snow cones will also be for sale.
Neewolah’s Kid’s Carnival
The Southcoast Community Church and Crown Point Elementary School will host Neewolah’s Kids Carnival Halloween night, Wednesday, Oct. 31, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Crown Point Elementary, 4033 Ingraham St.
The free event includes Halloween carnival activities, complete with games, candy, food, raffles and live music.
FAMILY-FOCUSED HAUNTS
As the only haunted house attraction in San Diego County that caters to young children and families, Monster Manor is back for its seventh year of haunted Halloween fun.
Monster Manor is an all-volunteer charity Halloween attraction that benefits local community groups.
Lite Frite is a daytime attraction at Monster Manor designed to expose younger children to the lighter side of Halloween as the manor transforms into Pirate’s Landing, where kids will have to help rescue the governor’s beautiful daughter from nasty pirates in search of the legendary treasure of Lord Blight. Appropriate for toddlers to pre-teens, kids walk from room to room where they will encounter pirates, buccaneers, swashbucklers and fortune-telling gypsies.
During the Night Haunt evening attraction appropriate for children 13 and up, guests tour the cursed Victorian mansion of the Ghastleys, which includes the Hellevator, Frank’s Laboratory and the Boiler Room.
Visitors might bump into giant man-eating rats, flying vampires, flesh-eating zombies and possibly even the cannibalistic Ghastleys.
Monster Manor is located at 8235 Mira Mesa Blvd. in the Target shopping center.
Lite Frite runs Oct. 20-21 and 27-28 from 12:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tickets are $5. The Night Haunt runs Oct. 12-13, 19-20 and 26-31 from 7 p.m. Tickets are $10.
For more information visit www.monstermanor.org or call (858) 693-8558.
HAUNTED HOTEL
The Haunted Hotel opened on Sept. 28 and will continue through Oct. 31. For this, the 15th year, The Haunted Hotel is ruled by horror movies. Guests can check out this year’s hotel based on this year’s most gruesome movies. They will find themselves running from the inhabitants of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Slaughter House.
The Haunted Hotel operates Sundays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. and Fridays and Saturdays from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. The Hotel is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays except for Oct. 29 and 30.
The Haunted Hotel is located at 424 Market St. between 4th Avenue and Market Street in the heart of the Gaslamp Quarter. Tickets are $13.99 at the door. This event is not recommended for children under 10. For more information call (619) 696-SCARE (7227) or visit www.hauntedhotel.com.
HAUNTED TRAIL
Channel 93.3 presents the Haunted Trail in Balboa Park, San Diego’s only all-outdoor haunted attraction. Like the typical haunted house attractions where performers dressed in ghoulish garb jump out to scare guests and give them a fright, visitors of the Haunted Trail get the same experience while navigating a mile-long trail through a twisted grove of pines and gnarled oaks.
The trail opened when the sun went down on Sept. 28 and runs through Oct. 31. The trail is not for children or the faint of heart and is not recommended for children under 10.
The trail runs on Sundays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. and Fridays and Saturdays from 7 p.m. to midnight.
The trail is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays except for Oct. 29 and 30.
The Haunted Trail is located at Marston Point, just east of 6th Avenue and Juniper Street in Balboa Park. Tickets are $13.99 at the gate, deals are available online.
For more information call (619) 696-SCARE (7227) or visit www.hauntedhotel.com.
DEL MAR SCREAM ZONE
For the 10th year Del Mar Scaregrounds presents The Scream Zone, with one new attraction this year. The House of Horror is a typical haunted house with the scariest ghouls, ghosts and zombies jumping out at ever turn. The Haunted Hayride takes riders through some of the spookiest and creepiest areas of the fairgrounds. New this year is The Chamber with unique scenes creepy enough to celebrate the Scream Zone’s 10 years of scares.
The Scream Zone is open Oct. 5-7, 12-14, 18-21 and nightly Oct. 24 through 31. It opens at 7 p.m. and closes at midnight on Fridays and Saturdays and 11 p.m. other nights. Admission prices range from $13.99 for one attraction or $26.99 for admission to all three attractions.
For more information visit www.sdfair/screamzone.