With Halloween on the horizon, thoughts turn to all things spooky – and for some people that might even mean travel inspiration.

There’s not much spookier than a vampire because they occupy the threshold between life and death, love and terror.

Whether you prefer them brooding in black lace, coffin bound in a Gothic castle or greedily devouring human souls, this extract from Lonely Planet’s Secret Wonders of the World, opens the crypt to a Dracula-inspired journey.

Here’s 10 of the world’s best creepy, vampire-hunting destinations.

1. New Orleans, Louisiana, US

If vampires have a modern-day HQ, it’s New Orleans, where a subculture of “sanguinarian” (blood-drinking) vampires look for volunteer victims.

Locals say it began when an early-20th-century resident, suspiciously wealthy and handsome Jacques St Germain, was accused of biting a woman on the neck. Hang around the French Quarter’s Vampire Cafe for long enough and you’re bound to meet one …

Mardi Gras souvenirs for sale in New Orleans’ French Quarter. Photo: AAP

2. Whitby Abbey, Whitby, England

When Bram Stoker put quill to paper to write Dracula (1897), eerie Whitby Abbey struck him as a perfect setting – and tales of a local shipwreck inspired a climactic scene in the novel. The vampires live on at dark-hearted Whitby Goth Weekend.

A brooding Orava Castle. Photo: Canva

3. Orava Castle, Oravský Podzámok, Slovakia

Long before Lily-Rose Depp writhed in blood-drenched ecstasy in the 2024 movie, the 1922 silent film Nosferatu made audiences tremble. The count’s lair is Romanesque Orava Castle, dramatically perched on a 520-metre-high limestone spire.

A gloomy welcome to Forks, the setting for the Twilight books. Photo: Unsplash

4. Forks, Washington, US

In her Twilight books, author Stephenie Meyer made this sleepy logging town the home of glittering vampires and werewolves.

But this area has held stories of people transforming into wolves long before that series. Among the people of the Quileute Tribe, their origin story tells of two wolves turning into humans.

Poienari Citadel has what all of Romania’s castles want – a Dracula connection. Photo: Canva

5. Poienari Citadel, Arefu, Romania

Castles throughout Romania clamour to claim a link with Vlad “the Impaler” Țepeș, but Poienari is the real deal.

Wallachia’s warlord chose this crag as a lookout, and its walls offer the most authentic glimpse of the real Dracula’s military prowess.

6. Bela Lugosi’s grave, California, US

With mesmeric eyes and a velvety Hungarian accent, Bela Lugosi was immortalised in Dracula (1931). At his final resting place in the Greater Los Angeles Holy Cross Cemetery, Lugosi lies buried in a vampire’s cloak.

The Indonesian city of Pontianak, looking suitably spooky in a haze of bushfire smoke. Photo: AAP

7. Pontianak, West Kalimantan, Indonesia

Pale skin, blood-smeared clothing and the odour of death all tell of the Pontianak, a long-haired female vampire.

The Indonesian city was named for her after 18th-century noble Syarif Abdurrahman Alkadrie battled horrifying wraiths here.

A pensive angel in Prague’s Olsany Cemetery. Photo: Pixabay

8. Olsany Cemetery, Prague, Czechia

If you’re extra clumsy as you walk between tombs in Czechia’s largest cemetery, blame Krvavé koleno (Bloody Knee): He was bitten during a bar fight and still lashes out at passersby, licking blood from their scuffed knees.

Rhode Island was briefly a “vampire capital” because of the Mercy Brown story. Photo: Reddit

9. Mercy Brown gravestone, Rhode Island, US

During a 19th-century tuberculosis outbreak, rumours swirled that the undead were returning. Panicked exhumations followed, and young Mercy Brown’s body was deemed suspiciously vampiric.

Mercy was burned to ashes, which were fed to her ailing brother (no, this didn’t save him).

A bucolic scene today, but a bloody history at Clachtice Castle. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

10. Čachtice Castle, Čachtice, Slovakia

Elizabeth Báthory was accused of murdering maids and bathing in their blood, or was it a smear campaign against a noble who owned land and educated young women?

Explore the ruins of her mid-13th-century castle and contemplate the patriarchy’s nightmare …

This is an edited extract from Lonely Planet’s Secret Wonders of the World: 385 Places You Never Knew Existed. RRP $44.99. shop.lonelyplanet.com