This Halloween season, teens and tweens in the Philadelphia area have plenty of options for a spooky adventure. We’ve compiled a list of haunted houses, hotels and hospitals, ghost tours, zombie-filled amusement parks, horrifying hayrides, and creepy corn mazes. Older kids will encounter witches, werewolves, skeletons, bloody monsters, ghosts, and ghouls around every corner at many of these terrifying entertainment attractions. Most of these events are NOT recommended for children under the age of 12. Be sure to check each location's website for more info on dates and schedules. Enter if you dare!

Kids cannot live by Halloween alone—or can they? Just in case, we've included several events on our October GoList that are not about Halloween. Just to mix it up. Of course, if Halloween festivals, pumpkin patches, and corn mazes are what you're craving, they're with us all month long in abundance. Ghost trains, too. But with all the activities October has to offer, a little curating is definitely in order. Read on for our top choices of things not to miss in LA, Ventura, and OC this month. We'll keep adding to our calendar daily and sending our weekly newsletters, too; with so much going on, we'll have to!

Ah, October—one of the most beautiful months in Connecticut is also packed with fun events for families. Pumpkin patches, corn mazes, and apple picking orchards are all in full swing. Check out a Faerie Village, touch a truck (or sit in a cockpit), show off your costumes in a Halloween parade, or check out one of the many fall festivals happening across the state. Mommy Poppins' Fall Fun Guide offers up more ideas for harvest and farm activities, while our Halloween Guide is filled with both spooky and not-spooky-at-all events. Still craving more? Our event calendar includes even more great happenings all month long, and we're constantly adding things to do. Happy fall—and Halloween!

No parent likes to contemplate it, but the day will come for our kids when trick-or-treating is no more. If your family is as hooked on Halloween as ours is, you'll want to find a way to keep the magic going, even once your baby starts to look really big to other people (particularly people opening their doors at night). Filling this void is the main reason for the many seriously spooky big kid haunts around the Southland—haunts like Universal Horror Nights, Knott's Scary Farm, and Dark Harbor. But how to transition? You can't just hit the brakes on collecting candy with Elsa and suddenly start running from chainsaw wielding zombies.

The first time I visited this haunt, I had a theory that Dark Harbor at the Queen Mary might be the perfect tween transition to a different way of celebrating All Hallows' Eve, and I committed so fully to this theory that I booked our whole family (and some friends) for an overnight on the haunted, haunting ship. And guess what? It worked! Three tweens I know had the time of their lives screaming with the spooks all night at the Queen Mary. The evening was enormous fun, and I think a few things we did to prepare helped stack the deck in favor of success.

Halloween may be the star of the show this month, but there's plenty of other fun to be had in the days and weeks leading up to the big event. This month is jam-packed with fall fun, including harvest festivals and corn mazes, plus a kite festival and three-day street fair.

There are Halloween happenings aplenty, geared toward everyone from older kids to the littlest trick-or-treaters. Head down the shore for Boo at the Boardwalk, enjoy not-too-spooky fun at Goblins in the Garden in Camden, and don your black hat for Witch's Day Out in Smithville. Throughout the month, you can take the family for a ride on a Halloween train, check out a cool pumpkin display, and enjoy kid-friendly Halloween and fall fun at amusement parks like Diggerland and Storybook Land. 

Read on for more of the best events this October for NJ kids. For even more ideas, check out our list of 50 Things We Can't Wait To Do with NJ Kids This Fall, and find fun that's just right for little ones in our roundup of the Best Fall Events for NJ Preschoolers. Be sure to check our Event Calendar often for new happenings added daily. 

Get your calendars ready: Here are the top things to do with kids in New York City this October, many of which are FREE. Halloween may generate the hoopla, but there are plenty of other must-do activities this month, including a huge pumpkin display on Governors Island, the world's largest Lego art exhibit at the New York Hall of Science, and a tuneful celebration of Sesame Street's 50th anniversary.

The fall culture season kicks into high gear with amazing events and theater. Many annual seasonal favorites also take place in October, including the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine's blessing of the animals and the Little Red Lighthouse Festival—plus the return of Open House New York, which offers a peek inside buildings and sites citywide that are normally closed to the public.

October is loaded with Halloween and fall fun, and there's no shortage of either in Westchester and the Hudson Valley! We've mentioned the best places to go apple and pumpkin picking, and we've rounded up fantastic fall festivals to check out, but there's even more fun to be had. Historic Hudson Valley shines this month with Halloween events including the Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze and other seasonal attractions happening all month long. Many of these are super-hot tickets, so book yours soon to avoid missing out.

There’s also the popular Eastchester Columbus Day Carnival and Parade, family performances like Moon Mouse, and festivals that don’t fall under the “autumn” category, like the Chappaqua Children's Book Festival.

With so many tremendous events this time of year, we barely scratch the surface here, so be sure to check our Event Calendar for many more options. You can find many more Halloween highlights in our Ultimate Halloween Guide for Westchester Kids. And don't miss our roundup of best fall events for toddlers and preschoolers, many of which take place this month. Now grab your calendar and read on for the best events happening this month in Westchester and the Hudson Valley!

October in Boston is the greatest. In addition to fall fun like pumpkin picking and the excitement of Halloween, there are country fairs, festivals, special events, and performances galore. Opportunities for families to enjoy the fall foliage during special day or weekend trips are bountiful (and so are the pick-your-own apples at local farms!). Narrowing down our favorite things to do with kids in October is tricky, but here are our top 10 picks; and don't forget to look at our guide to all-free October family activities, too.