Halloween Week: Trick-or-Treating Now, Trip Talk for What's Next

It's Halloween week. Costumes are (finally) decided, the candy bowl is stocked, and somehow my kids are already asking what's next before we've even carved a pumpkin. I used to find this exhausting. Now I just think of it as free trip-planning momentum I don't have to manufacture myself.

The trending topic: Halloween goes big this week, then everyone looks ahead

This is peak week for it — costume parades, trick-or-treating, and the kind of only-happens-once-a-year events that make Halloween worth building a trip around if you haven't yet. Big flagship events like Salem's Haunted Happenings and major city Halloween parades hit their final stretch this week, alongside Dia de los Muertos celebrations that run into early November at several theme parks and cultural sites. If you're anywhere near one of these, it's worth checking what's still happening this weekend, since a lot of the "peak" programming clusters right around October 31st.

There's also a trend worth naming here: more families are building trips around things they already love — a favorite show's filming location, a theme park event, a concert — rather than picking a generic destination first. Travel folks are calling it "entertainment travel" or "set-jetting," and Halloween week is honestly a great, low-stakes way to try it, since the "thing they love" is usually a costume theme or a favorite Halloween movie staring you right in the face already. If your kid is obsessed with a specific movie, show, or theme park character right now, that's basically a built-in idea for your next trip.

Small local win, if you want one

Before the season wraps, a lot of towns run their biggest Halloween event of the year this exact week — parades, trunk-or-treats, small-town festivals. It's an easy, no-planning-required way to end the season on a high note, and it's usually run by the same local organizations and small businesses that make a town feel like home.

This week's move

• ✅ Check for any local Halloween events happening this weekend — parades, trunk-or-treats, festivals — before the season wraps

• ✅ Ask your kids what movie, show, or theme they're obsessed with right now — it might just be your next trip idea

• ✅ If a holiday trip conversation hasn't started yet, this is a good week to bring it up before the candy's even finished

  
  

Halloween might be the main event this week, but if your kids are anything like mine, the "what's next" question is never far behind. Might as well use it.