Are you attracted to the weird, the macabre, the strange in the world? Here are 50 crazy bucket list ideas you’ll be sure to add to your list!
Even if you don’t love the term ‘bucket list’ everyone tends to have a list of things they want to do and accomplish before they die. I personally don’t think this is morbid but it is what it is.
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A lot of these bucket lists have very similar suggestions – some thrilling like skydiving and some a little bit tamer, like an ice cave tour in Reykjavik.
But, it takes a special kind of person to be interested in these more crazy bucket list ideas – the kind of ideas for fans of horror, those who perk up when they hear a place is haunted, those who are intrigued by dark tourism destinations, and those just love really strange and unique things to do.
If any of those descriptions pertain to you, then you’ll want to stick around and read these 50 crazy bucket list ideas and see if there’s anything new to add to your own personal bucket list. Let me know if there are any suggestions not listed here in the comments too!
Crazy Bucket List Ideas – Haunted Locations
1. Spend the Night in a Haunted Hotel
Visiting a haunted location is one thing, but would you ever spend the night in a haunted hotel? There is plenty to choose from that’s for sure!
2. Visit the Stanley Hotel
The Stanley Hotel in Colorado is one of the places Stephen King drew inspiration for his book, The Shining.
3. Visit the most haunted hotel in the US
The most haunted hotel in the United States is said to be the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. I haven’t spent the night here but I did visit and took the ghost tour.
While I didn’t experience anything supernatural, the tour was fantastic and I definitely felt that the stories were real.
4. Go Ghost Hunting
5. Take a Ghost Tour
Different from ghost hunting, a ghost or haunted tour explores haunted destinations in a city or place while sharing ghost stories. There are amazing ghost tours in the United States and all over the world.
6. Visit Alcatraz
Alcatraz Island is considered one of the most haunted places in America.
7. Hike on a Haunted Trail
If being out in the woods creeps you out enough, then hiking on a haunted trail is probably not a good idea.
Otherwise, these haunted hiking trails are sure to be something you should add to your crazy bucket list ideas.
8. Visit the World’s Most Haunted Forest
The Hoia Baciu Forest in Romania is considered the most haunted forest in the world. Hoia Baciu Forest has a reputation for intense paranormal activity and unexplained events.
Reports have included, ghost sightings, unexplained apparitions, faces appearing in photographs that were not visible to the naked eye, and in the 1970s, UFO sightings were reported.
9. Go to a “Haunted” House
This may be a more popular thing in the US, but haunted houses are a dime a dozen in almost every city.
There are countless haunted houses in Nashville that are fantastic and it won’t take long to find one anywhere else from the end of September to the end of October.
10. Visit a Haunted Cave
Ever heard of the Bell Witch? We were actually told this in school when learning about Tennessee’s history.
11. Visit the Most Haunted Graveyard in the World
Greyfriars Kirkyard in Scotland could possibly be the most haunted cemetery in the world. You’ll have to visit to find out for yourself!
12. Visit a Haunted National Park
National Parks are beautiful and serene but some have some haunted tendencies too!
Horror-Related Crazy Bucket List Ideas
13. Go to a Horror Convention
14. Attend Halloween Horror Nights
You can attend Universal’s infamous Halloween event in Orlando, California, Singapore, and Japan now!
15. Visit Stephen King locations in Maine
Being a native of Maine, Stephen King draws a lot of inspiration from his home state, has one of his homes there, and many of the filming locations for his movies are there. Take your very own Stephen King tour in Bangor, Maine!
16. Spend Halloween in Salem, Massachusetts
Salem is known for its witchy history, Hocus Pocus filming locations, and their amazing Halloween events.
17. Spend Halloween in New Orleans
New Orleans definitely knows how to do Halloween right! There are plenty of things to do for Halloween in New Orleans.
18. Read Every Stephen King book
This is something I’m currently doing – reading every Stephen King book in order of release!
I’ve already read several before starting this chronological challenge, but I’m currently in the middle of The Stand – perhaps his longest book and arguably his best.
19. Visit a Horror-Themed Restaurant or Bar
There are several worldwide such as The Lovecraft in Portland, Oregon.
20. Visit Filming Location of Your Favorite Horror Movie or TV Show
It’s always fun to see your favorite movies or TV shows come to life by visiting the filming location – such as the American Horror Story sites in New Orleans.
Creepy Places – Crazy Bucket List Ideas
21. Island of the Dolls in Mexico
The area has thousands of people, but this small island is home to hundreds of terrifying dolls. Their severed limbs, decapitated heads, and blank eyes adorn trees. This along with the Pyramid of the Sun makes for perfect day trips from Mexico City.
22. The Gate to Hell in Turkmenistan
The Darvaza gas crater, also known as the Door to Hell or Gates of Hell, is a natural gas field that collapsed into a cavern in Derweze, Turkmenistan. Geologists intentionally set it on fire to prevent the spread of methane gas and it is thought to have been burning continuously since 1971.
23. Visit a Ghost Town
24. Visit an Old Asylum
Such as Wavery Hills Sanatorium in Lousiville, Kentucky – one of the most haunted places in the world.
25. Visit a Medical History Museum
Medical history museums can be quite creepy when you realize exactly how medicine was administered in earlier days.
26. Sleep in Old Jail
There are actually quite a few old jails and prisons turned into hotels all over the world. I’m planning on checking out this one in Kentucky soon.
I’m also really excited to learn that my favorite hostel chain – HI – has a hostel in Ottawa in an old jail.
27. Visit the Deepest Lake in the World
Lake Baikal in Russia is the world’s deepest lake. It is an estimated 5,387 feet deep and its bottom is approximately 3,893 feet below sea level. Imagine swimming in that without knowing what’s swimming below you.
Crazy Bucket List Ideas – Dark Tourism
28. Visit Chernobyl
Chernobyl was on my radar far before the hit HBO show by the same name. Now, tourism is climbing there and sure to climb more. The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on Saturday 26 April 1986, at the No. 4 nuclear reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR.
29. Suicide Forest in Japan
The Aokigahara forest in Japan has the unfortunate distinction of being a destination for people who are contemplating suicide. Since the 1950s, recorded suicides in the forest have been rising at an increasing rate of between 10 and 30 per year. In 2003, a record number of 105 suicide victims were discovered.
30. Killing Fields in Cambodia
The Killing Fields on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia serves to remember the country’s genocide in the 1970s. Over four short years, from 1975 to 1979, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge systematically exterminated up to 3 million people.
31. Auschwitz in Poland
The Auschwitz concentration camp was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II and the Holocaust.
32. Pompeii in Italy
Pompeii is a vast archaeological site in southern Italy’s Campania region, near the coast of Naples. Once a thriving and sophisticated Roman city, Pompeii was buried under meters of ash and pumice after the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. The preserved site features excavated ruins of streets and houses that visitors can explore.
33. The Troubles in Northern Ireland
The Troubles was an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland during the late 20th century. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an “irregular war” or “low-level war”.
34. Culloden Battlefield in Scotland
Visit the powerfully moving site of the final Jacobite Rising – the last and most harrowing pitched battle to be fought on British soil.
35. Ground Zero in New York City
The National September 11 Memorial & Museum is a memorial and museum in New York City commemorating the September 11, 2001 attacks, which killed 2,977 people, and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, which killed six.
36. Catacombs in Paris
The Catacombs of Paris are underground ossuaries in Paris, France, which hold the remains of more than six million people in a small part of a tunnel network built to consolidate Paris’ ancient stone quarries.
37. Witness Open Cremations at Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu, Nepal
The Pashupatinath Temple is a famous and sacred Hindu temple complex that is located on the banks of the Bagmati River in Kathmandu, Nepal. Every day, you may visit to witness open-air cremations.
38. Hiroshima, Japan
Hiroshima, a modern city on Japan’s Honshu Island, was largely destroyed by an atomic bomb during World War II. Today, Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park commemorates the 1945 event. In the park are the ruins of Genbaku Dome, one of the few buildings that were left standing near ground zero.
39. Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. The Wall cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany, including East Berlin.
Crazy Bucket List Ideas – Strange & Unique Things to Do
40. UFO Museum in New Mexico
The International UFO Museum And Research Center is located in Roswell, New Mexico, United States, and is focused largely on the 1947 Roswell Crash and later supposed UFO incidents in the United States and elsewhere.
41. UFO Festival in New Mexico
Ever since the UFO crash in 1947, Roswell has been adorned with spacecraft, aliens, and hosts an annual UFO Festival.
42. Go on a Storm Chasing Trip
Saw Twister and now think you’re the next tornado chaser? Here’s your chance!
43. Travel on the North Yungas Road in Bolivia
Due to abysmal driving conditions, Yungas Road in Bolivia has earned the nickname “Death Road.”
Crazy Bucket List Ideas – Cemeteries
44. Visit the Gravesites of Famous People
The list can go on here but a cool one is Edgar Allen Poe’s grave in Maryland.
45. Visit the World’s Largest Cemetery
Wadi al-Salam cemetery in Iraq is the largest cemetery in the world and contains over five million graves.
46. Visit the Oldest Cemetery in the World
The ancient European cemetery known as Gross Fredenwalde in Germany is currently believed to be the oldest cemetery in the world. According to researchers, it is the earliest known instance of a “true cemetery”, in which people purposely and carefully buried the dead together.
47. Dive an Underwater Burial (Neptune Memorial Reef)
People’s cremated ashes (and small tokens of their memory) are mixed with cement to create stately columns that stand in a manmade reef inspired by the lost city of Atlantis located in Key Biscayne, Florida.
48. Take a Cemetery Tour
Some cemeteries require a tour guide such as St. Louis Cemetery No.1 in New Orleans – the site of the Voodoo Queen’s grave and the future tomb of actor Nicholas Cage.
49.Experience Día de los Muertos
50. Visit a Pet Cemetery
If Stephen King’s novel and movie didn’t ruin you for life, take the time to visit a real-life pet cemetery! I used to have one behind my house in Washington and hiked there often.
Crazy Bucket List Ideas Overview
There’s plenty here to keep any person who’s a fan of the weird, unusual, macabre, and dark busy. What other crazy bucket list ideas would you add to the list?
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I'm also a freelance writer and creator. You can see my published work here. I've been featured by Impact Travel Alliance as a creative who is transforming travel, and by Matador Network as a vegan travel blogger you should be following on Instagram.
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