When locals set up paranormal-searching equipment at the B&O Museum in Oakland, MD, they were in for a fright: they heard eerie footsteps and a spooky voice inquiring, “Is this hell?”

“None of the volunteers work in the museum alone at night anymore,” says B&O’s chairman, Terry Helbig. This haunted railway museum, along with Halloween hayrides and an annual autumn festival, helped land Oakland in the top 20 towns for Halloween, according to T+L readers.

For T+L’s first America’s Favorite Towns survey, we asked our fans, followers, and editors to nominate their favorites with the hashtag #TLTowns—and then to vote for the small towns in categories including best parades, most historic B&Bs, and vibrant Main Streets.

For some of the winning Halloween towns, the holiday is an excuse to party, with pub crawls, pumpkin beer on tap (Beaver Creek, CO), and late-night shows. Others take a more low-key, kid-friendly approach, hosting costume competitions for pets (Bar Harbor, ME) or autumn festivals with corn mazes and apple-wine tastings.

Related Links:

America's Most Haunted Places

World's Most Haunted Forests

World's Eeriest Most Abandoned Places

The festivities can stretch from mid-October into November, so if you want to avoid alienating the locals, do your homework before showing up in town in your ghastliest costume.

For the complete list of America's best towns for Halloween, click here.

No. 1 Lake Placid, NY

The zombies are coming! Each Halloween, this 19th-century town in the Adirondacks transforms to make way for the 5K Zombie Run. Main Street closes to traffic so that kids can trick-or-treat, while later on, adults on the Trek-n-Treat pub crawl slink through three bars, each giving out costume competition prizes. There are ghosts to be spotted on tours of Fort Ticonderoga, and performances of The Rocky Horror Show with prop bags so that the audience can play along.

No. 2 Snowmass Village, CO

Skeletons and bones litter this Rocky Mountain town, specifically, the 150,000-year-old bones, teeth, and tusks from mastodon and mammoth fossils on view at the Ice Age Discovery Center. As you stroll down Divide Road, listen for the howls of wolves—or more likely, the sound of 250 mixed-breed huskies and malamutes employed by Krabloonik, a restaurant that offers dogsled rides. Voted the No. 1 town for family vacations, Snowmass Village also drew high marks for its friendly—and attractive—locals. Mingle over drinks at Zane’s Tavern.

No. 3 Park City, UT

Squirrels, bees, sheep with Bo Peep, and bratwursts with mustard on buns: these are a few of the elaborately costumed dogs that march with their decked-out owners in “Bark” City’s Howl-o-Ween street party. It’s part of the bewitching charm of this old silver-mining town east of Salt Lake. Park City Ghost Tours takes visitors hunting for spirits while sharing ghastly tales of their lives and deaths.

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