Transylvania. Home to a brutal historical figure, Vlad Dracul (perhaps better known as Vlad the Impaler) who partly inspired Bram Stoker’s iconic character. The imposing Bran Castle even served as inspiration for Dracula’s cosy abode. But despite these connections to one of the most famous faces of horror, vampires are not the scariest thing about Transylvania, Hoia Baciu Forest is. 

In this eerie forest known for its paranormal activity, you’ll find ‘The Clearing’, where the trees stop in a uniform oval where nothing has grown inside since records began, baffling scientists. A military technician even photographed a UFO hovering over The Clearing, bringing the forest international attention, which in 1968, lost him his job and damaged his reputation. Not something one would risk for a publicity stunt. It’s also a site of many disappearances, including that of a shepherd and his flock of 200 sheep, and a young girl. According to the story, she turned up 5 years after going missing, looking the same age, in the same clothes, with no memory of where she’d been, leading people to believe Hoia Baciu holds a portal to another dimension. What a recce that would make...

What’s more terrifying than a creepy doll? An island with a population of creepy dolls. The Island of the Dolls, or Isla de las Muñecas, is located just south of Mexico City. Legend has it that years ago the island’s owner, Don Julián Santana Barrera, found a young girl drowned in the canal under mysterious circumstances and wasn’t able to save her life. Not long after, he found a doll floating in the same canal and hung it up out of respect for the girl’s spirit. But this didn’t seem to please her much and according to Don Julián, she began to haunt him.

Don Julián continued to hang dolls all over the island to appease the young girl and ward off evil spirits, which still didn’t help. Things escalated and, supposedly, the child began to possess the dolls on the island, and apparently still does. They reportedly move, whisper to each other and generally just hang out being creepy. Stranger still, Don Julián reportedly met his own end near the same spot where he pulled the girl from the canal, dying from a heart attack. The Island has since become a tourist attraction, but why anyone would choose to visit here voluntarily is beyond us. 

Cemeteries won’t often make for a must-see stop on the tourist trail unless you have a particular proclivity for them. But La Recoleta may just be the most beautiful and unusual cemetery you’ll come across. The final resting place of Argentina’s iconic first-lady, Eva Peron (a full 22 years after her passing), you’ll notice all the graves are above ground and each one unique, adopting various architectural styles. As unexpectedly beautiful as this cemetery is, what’s less unexpected is that it’s haunted.  

One of the most popular ghost stories is that of Rufina Cambeceres, whose horrified family discovered her lifeless body the morning of her 19th birthday. They took her to La Recoleta to be laid to ‘rest’, but her burial was postponed due to rain and a few days later, when a groundskeeper returned to bury her, noticed her coffin out of place. Poor Rufina had woken up inside her tomb and tried to claw her way out, before dying...again. It’s said her spirit now wanders the cemetery.  

The 17th-century Bhangarh Fort, located in the Alwar district of Rajasthan, is known as the most haunted location in India. Two legends attest to this claim. The first was that before building the fort, it was negotiated with a local ascetic that construction could begin as long as the fort wouldn’t be taller than his house and a shadow wouldn’t be cast over his property. Which of course, it was and a shadow was indeed cast over the sadhu’s house, which earned the fort a damn good cursing. 

The second is the legend of the enchanting Princess Ratnavati of Bhangarh who captured the heart of a local sorcerer, who then attempted to make her fall in love with him using a sort of love potion. The Princess foiled his plans and cast the potion away which shattered over a boulder. The boulder then rolled over the tantric and crushed him to death, but not before he cursed the entire village with his last breath. The curse ensured nobody would be able to live peacefully in the village, would never be reborn...and also, nobody is allowed to build a roof. Roofs will mysteriously collapse. Bit petty, but hell hath no fury like a sorcerer scorned. The fort is sealed off from sunset to sunrise, with local villagers believing misfortune falls on anyone who ventures the grounds at night, with ghostly sightings and screams reported. 

This beautiful dense forest at the foot of Mt Fuji might just be the perfect setting for Japanese legend and folklore. But the spooky factor jumps up a notch when you learn that the Sea of Trees is, unfortunately, one of the most popular sites in the world for troubled souls to end their lives. It is thought that the forest is haunted by yurei - or ghosts - who lure victims away from the path to get lost amongst the jagged trees. It doesn’t help that the forests density and sound-absorbing lava rock make it eerily silent and the magnetic iron-rich soil messes with GPS, phone signal and compasses. So haunted or not, this is not a place you’d want to get lost. 

The forest is associated with a brutal practice called ubasute, which is a form of euthanasia apparently practised in ancient times (though some insist it’s just an urban legend), where families abandoned elderly relatives to lessen the mouths to feed in times of famine. Succumbing to starvation and the elements, their vengeful spirits were left behind to haunt the forest. Understandable, really. 

The beautiful city of Savannah is widely considered the most haunted in America. It may be, in part, due to what lurks beneath. A network of tunnels run below Savannah’s streets and the history of what they were used for still hasn’t been confirmed. One theory states that they were used to transport slaves while another is that they hid the huge number of bodies that fell victim to yellow fever during the epidemic. So you don’t necessarily have to be inside one of the historic buildings here to experience something paranormal. Ghosts have been spotted in Forsyth Park, and Factors Walk gets particularly creepy at night. 

Ghosts are so common in Savannah that some have even been named. The resident ghoul at The Moon River Brewing Company is known as Tony. Despite sounding like the kind of ghost you could kick back and have a beer with, Tony is actually pretty aggressive, known for pushing people, knocking over bottles and grabbing the ankles of terrified patrons. Considering Savannah’s turbulent history features, alongside epidemics and slavery, pirates and wars, old Tony most likely has plenty to be disgruntled about.