by Anna Hann
posted on 30 October 2026
This Halloween, let a spooky story choose your destination. Follow Dracula to the Yorkshire coast, visit Bath where Mary Shelley worked on Frankenstein, or take Shakespeare’s witches as your cue for a Scottish castle visit.
With Halloween falling on a Saturday in 2026, you can give the story a whole weekend. Pick up a car close to home, or take the train somewhere new and find your ride nearby. These five trips come with a few ideas for where to start.
|
||
Dracula: Whitby in a luxury saloon
Bram Stoker gave his count a memorable arrival in Whitby. Yours can be considerably more comfortable. Choose a luxury saloon for the drive across the North York Moors, then park up and follow the story on foot.
Climb the 199 steps to St Mary’s churchyard, then visit Whitby Abbey’s skeletal ruins above the town. Stoker drew inspiration from Whitby, and the steps themselves appear in the novel. Back down in the old streets, swap gothic drama for fish and chips. Even a Halloween trip needs lunch.
Make a trip of it: York makes a handy starting point, with Whitby roughly 90 minutes away by car across the North York Moors. Stay for the weekend and leave Sunday for more of the coast before heading back.
|
||
Frankenstein: Bath in an electric car
Bath looks terribly respectable. All that honey-coloured stone and Georgian symmetry. Yet Mary Shelley wrote much of Frankenstein here, while living near the abbey in 1816 and 1817.
Choose an electric car for the journey, and work any charging stops into your plans for coffee or lunch along the way. Once you arrive, park up for a walk between Bath Abbey, Pulteney Bridge, and the Royal Crescent. Then visit Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein to see what was brewing behind Bath’s genteel exterior.
Make a trip of it: Look at your options in and around Bristol, around 30 to 45 minutes from Bath. You can make a day of it, or stay overnight and give Sunday to a drive through the Somerset countryside.
|
||
The Hound of the Baskervilles: Dartmoor in an SUV
On Dartmoor, the landscape does much of the storytelling. Granite tors, open moorland, and centuries of local legends made fertile ground for Conan Doyle’s most famous canine mystery.
Choose an SUV for a moorland route linking Hound Tor, Princetown, and Two Bridges. For a closer look at Wistman’s Wood, park up and follow the approach path for views of its twisted oaks, keeping out of the fragile woodland itself.
Leave the detective work for your stops. On the moorland roads, take your time and watch for grazing animals.
Make a trip of it: Start your search for an SUV in Exeter, roughly an hour’s drive from Princetown. Two nights give you time to settle in on Friday, spend Halloween following the story across the moor, and fit in another walk on Sunday.
|
||
Jekyll & Hyde: Edinburgh in a hybrid
In Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, a doctor’s experiments unleash his sinister alter ego. A hybrid offers a considerably more reassuring take on a double identity, combining petrol and electric power in one car.
Stevenson grew up in Edinburgh, where the Old Town’s shadowy closes give way to the New Town’s grand Georgian streets. His novel is set in London, but his home city has its own connection to the story. Deacon Brodie, a respected tradesman who secretly worked as a burglar, is often linked to its inspiration.
Walk between the two contrasting neighbourhoods, with a stop at Deacon Brodie’s Tavern on the Royal Mile. Then let your hybrid’s combination of petrol and electric power take you further afield.
Make a trip of it: Give your weekend two distinct halves, too. Spend Halloween on foot in Edinburgh, then pick up a hybrid on Sunday for the East Lothian coast. North Berwick is around 45 minutes away, with a beach walk and lunch completing the transformation.
|
||
The mystery-solving gang: Pluckley in a people carrier
Pluckley looks like a lovely place for a quiet day out. But depending on who you believe, a few former residents have decided to stay… indefinitely.
Pluckley’s ghost stories include mysterious ladies in the churchyard, a phantom miller, and a highwayman still putting in the occasional appearance. Plenty to keep your backseat detectives busy.
Walk the village’s lanes before heading to Dering Wood, nicknamed the Screaming Woods after local tales of eerie cries heard after dark. Pick a people carrier to fit everyone in comfortably, then spend the journey home comparing tall tales and who to believe.
Make a trip of it: Pick up your people carrier in London and allow around 90 minutes to reach Pluckley. It works well as a Halloween day trip, with village wanderings, a woodland walk, and then a few treats for the drive home.
|
