Haunted houses and Halloween nights in Las Vegas, and where to eat after

Halloween 2026 is a Saturday, and the Friday before it is Nevada Day, a state holiday. That makes October 30 and 31 the busiest two nights of the Las Vegas haunt season, and most of what is worth your ticket money is not on the Strip. The haunt that bills itself as the longest-running in town is in a mall parking lot. Universal’s four haunted houses sit next to AREA15. The one built by a Hollywood monster maker is in Boulder City. This is the scary half of a night out. The eating half is at the end, in Chinatown, where the kitchens stay open long after the last scare.

I write the haunt guides on Mr. Fear, a Halloween site, and I am a guest here. Top of Las Vegas asked for the haunted houses. They supplied the tables.

The night, in order

Pick the haunt before the costume, because the rules differ. Buy a timed ticket if the attraction sells one, and go early in the month if you can: Asylum & Hotel Fear says its prices rise closer to Halloween and that Fridays, Saturdays and Halloween week are its busiest nights. Most haunts open around dark and run past ten. Eat after, not before. Nothing here is worse than a line in fog on a full stomach, and Chinatown on Spring Mountain Road keeps kitchens open until 2, 4 and even 24 hours a day. If you have anyone under 18 with you on October 30 or 31, keep them off Las Vegas Boulevard after 9 p.m. unless an adult is along. That is county code, not advice.

The haunted houses

• Asylum & Hotel Fear, Meadows Mall: two separate haunted houses with connected stories, in their 28th season. Open October 2 to 31 on select nights from 6:30 p.m., to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. General admission is sold on site; VIP timed passes are online only. No bags, and metal detectors at the door.
• Universal Horror Unleashed, next to AREA15: four year-round haunted houses including The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Exorcist: Believer. Thursday to Sunday, 4 to 10:30 p.m., last entry two hours before close. Universal does not recommend it under 13, and costume masks are not allowed.
• The Fright Zone, Boulder City: Blackwell Manor, a haunted house by special makeup effects artist Tom Devlin, with his Monster Museum on the same ticket. October 9, 10, 16, 17 and 23 to 31. The organizer recommends ages 12 and up.
• House of Screams, Boulder City: a second haunted house downtown, at the former Alien Store, open 20 nights from October 2 to 31.
• Moapa Valley Cornmaze, Logandale: a family farm by day that runs a haunted corn maze, haunted hayride and zombie paintball on haunt nights from 7 to 11 p.m., October 2 to November 1.
• Zak Bagans’ The Haunted Museum, downtown: year-round, closed Tuesdays. Nobody under 12 gets in, and 12 to 17 need an adult.

With kids

The Strip is not the trick-or-treat plan. The organized nights are. HallOVeen at the Magical Forest runs October 2 to 4 and 9 to 31 with rides and treat stations, and children three and under are free. Haunted Harvest at Springs Preserve is October 22 to 25, online tickets only, with public sales opening September 17. Parade of Mischief in Downtown Summerlin rolls Fridays and Saturdays at 6 p.m. through October 24, with no performances on the 30th or 31st. The Halloween Express train in Boulder City runs weekends October 10 to 25, and the museum says it sells out. For free, Henderson’s Trunk or Treat is October 29 and Craig Ranch Regional Park’s is Halloween night, 6 to 9 p.m.

Twenty-one and over

The Sin City Halloween Ball is in its 30th year at The Theater at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas on October 31, 21 and over. AREA15 throws ScAREA15: Strange Circus the same night, 18 and over, with Valentino Khan. Circa’s rooftop Haunted Heights is free to enter with a $5,000 costume contest. The clubs have posted Halloween night headliners too: Martin Garrix at OMNIA, Mustard at Hakkasan, Steve Aoki at Marquee and Adriatique at LIV. Tao Group’s clubs and Circa both ban full masks and simulated weapons, so read the costume rules before the rubber head comes along.

What is not open this year

Freakling Bros is taking 2026 off and plans to return in 2027, even though its own homepage still says otherwise. Fear Zone at Circus Circus has not announced a 2026 season; its site still shows last year’s tickets, and the original Fright Dome has not run since 2017. HallowScreamCon moved to 2027. XS at Wynn is closed for renovation until November 5.

The full list

Dates, ticket rules, ages and directions for every one of these, plus the Día de los Muertos festivals, pumpkin patches, horror bars and ghost tours, are on my beat, not a restaurant site’s. The full Las Vegas haunted house and Halloween guide on Mr. Fear has all 25 listings checked against each organizer’s own page, with the links to buy.

Where to eat after

Chinatown runs along Spring Mountain Road just west of the Strip, a short drive from AREA15, and it is the one part of town built for eating at midnight. These three are on the Top of Las Vegas late-night list. The scores are theirs, not mine.