6 Queen Mary

After voyaging for 30 years in the ocean, the beautiful Queen Mary is a ship permanently docked at Long Beach, California. Now she is just a tourist attraction, but when the ship was at sail, it was the site of several deaths, which makes her a real haunted ship.

At the advent of the Second World War, the Queen Mary came into use for the Allies as a transport ship, and it was nicknamed “The Grey Ghost.” In 1942, the ship collided with its escort counterpart, HMS Curacoa, and split it into two pieces.

Because of the enemy threat, the Queen Mary had to leave behind 239 of the Curacoa‘s crew members. In 1967, there was advancement in air travel so the ship failed to attract passengers and was retired. 

There are multitudes of haunted stories recorded in the ship’s logs with its infamous storeroom reporting the most cases.

Now tourists visit the permanently docked ship at Long Beach and experience unusual happenings. They include hearing the screams of a dead young man in the boiler room or a young girl playing hide and seek in an empty swimming pool.             

Several companies attempted to transform the ship into a restaurant, but its haunted character never allowed them to. Therefore, now they have capitalized on the same characteristic of ghostliness to monetize and attract tourists.

Even Time Magazine once labeled the Queen Mary as one of the “Top 10 Most Haunted Places on Earth.” (Source)

7 The Stanley Hotel

The Stanley Hotel in Colorado is one of America’s most haunted places. This destination is believed to serve as the inspiration for Stephen King to write his famous novel, The Shining. The staff of the hotel has allegedly encountered ghosts of maids, children, and even pets.

Freelan Oscar Stanley, an inventor, built the Stanley House, and he moved in in 1903. The house turned into a hotel in 1909. Stanley died in 1940 at 91, but his spirit is said to roam in the billiard room and bar. Flora, his wife, too has been spotted playing the piano keys.

Elizabeth Wilson, a former housekeeper, exclusively haunts in room number 217, and spirits of children with autism tease guests’ hair on grounds. Moreover, ghosts of a couple of animals, a dog, and a cat had been noticed running around.

Stephen King happened to be a paying guest with his wife for a night at the Stanley Hotel. He coincidently rented room number 217 and experienced a nightmare that partly inspired him to write The Shining.

Even if the hotel is greatly cursed, it now hosts weddings, events, and parties all year long. It has been restored beautifully. (Source)

8 Lawang Sewu 

Indonesia’s most haunted place would be the Lawang Sewu, which is a former railway building and World War II Prison. Many ghosts have been reported at the place including a Dutch woman, a headless spirit, and a feminine vampiric ghost from Indonesian mythology.

Located in the capital Jawa, Newang Sewu was a Dutch-initiated construction between 1904 and 1907. It was the head office of Dutch East Indies Railway Company until 1942. Then the Japanese used it as their military headquarters during World War II.

The structure caught the nationwide public eye after the release of the 2007 movie Lawang Sewu: Dendam Kuntilanak. The movie features ghosts who seek revenge on one of three young friends who disrespectfully urinate on the building.

The ghosts who avenged the place’s dignity included a Dutchwoman who took her own life, and kuntilanak, a vampiric feminine figure who died during childbirth.

Indonesians are fond of ghost stories. so it was obvious for the movie to do well. Then a television show starred another headless ghost of a Dutchwoman of Lawang Sewu who was possibly killed by the Japanese.

Indonesia’s obsession over the building grew with its social media circulating blurry images of alleged ghosts. (1, 2)

9 Hoia-Baciu Forest

Visitors have reported feeling anxious and having a sense of being watched while traveling through the Hoia-Baciu Forest. Some sightings mentioned creepy faces and UFOs appearing only in photographs that were not visible to the naked eye. This Romanian place is certainly the most haunted forest in the world.

Hoia-Baciu Forest is located in Transylvania, Cluj-Napoca. The ambiance of this haunting forest is extremely eerie, scary, and quiet. The silence is only said to be interrupted by the footsteps of the haunting figures. Due to its evil nature and atmosphere, the place is also sometimes referred to as the “Bermuda Triangle of Romania.”

There exist a particular spot in the middle of the forest where nothing ever grows. And the trees that do grow new there, grow in weird and spooky patterns and are enough to scare the traveler before the ghosts do.

Legends tell the story of a young girl who disappeared into the forest, appeared five years later, and forgot where she had been for all that time.

More rumors include the disappearance of shepherds and alien encounters in 1968. Terrifying the forest might be, but at some places, it’s still peaceful to walk on the hiking roads surrounded by trees all around. (1, 2)

10 Poveglia 

Situated close to the city of Venice, Poveglia is a beautiful island that was once a quarantine zone used for people suffering from the Plague. In the early 20th century, it was also an asylum for the insane. Ghost hunters assert that the place is a hotbed for paranormal activities.

Besides just being a quarantine shelter for the insane and diseased, the place was also used as a dumping ground for the dead.

When the Bubonic Plague cursed Europe in 1348, there was widespread fear since it killed one of every three citizens. In such deadly times, the island was used by the people of Venice to confine the symptomatic people there. The thousands of dead and weak at the Poveglia were simply burned on giant pyres.

In the late 1800s, it was used more like an exile for the insane than a rehabilitation center. One of the doctors of the place conducted strange experiments and eventually committed suicide.

Towards the mid-20th century, the island was opened as a geriatric center. but it closed in 1975. Now the entire island is abandoned, and both locals and tourists are banned from entering the place. (Source)