Top 10 Scary Things To Do For Halloween
With Halloween just around the corner, we curated a list of 10 scary things to do for Halloween – activities that will target your scary bones but will also help you overcome your deepest, darkest fears!
No ghosts, zombies, or witches here but only real outdoor activities, accessible to everybody and really frightening. From diving with sharks to survival training – everyone will find their scary outdoor activity. Warning: this list is not for the faint-hearted.
#1 Shark Cage Diving
How about entering unannounced into the territory of an apex predator to kick off our list of things to do for Halloween? Which raises the question, who would be crazy enough to try this petrifying activity for the first time? Well, it’s hard to credit one man for the madness but French naval officer and filmmaker, Jacques Cousteau used a shark cage for his film – The Silent World in 1956. Soon enough, in the 1960s, Australian filmmaker, Rodney Fox developed his own version of the shark cage which was inspired by an almost fatal shark attack he faced while visiting a zoo!
Ever since shark diving has become an activity accessible to (almost) anyone. Shark diving begins with you suiting up in a way that allows you to breathe underwater before entering a metal cage: wetsuit, mask, regulator, and oxygen bottle. To be fair, it is refreshing to see humans rather than animals in a cage, isn’t it? The metal cage is then descended into the ocean… you have now entered the lair of the beast!
Fun fact about sharks: Sharks have been around for around 455 million years!
Soon enough you will be surrounded by sharks, often curious and sometimes aggressive. At only an arm’s length away at times, you can observe these magnificent mammoths of the ocean without any aquarium glass or television screens. The possibility to take pictures underwater is as real as the shark themselves, allowing you to back up your scary Halloween tales with amazing photographs.
The blue and clear waters of Gansbaai, Cape Town, and Durban in South Africa, are some of the most popular destinations in the world to go shark diving! You could also encounter sharks in the warm waters of Cancun and Playa del Carmen in Mexico as well as in the cold waters of South Australia.
#2 World’s Highest Commercial Bungee Jump
Bungee jumping is pretty secure, with the assurance of a harness and a tried and tested elastic rope. So why is it on our list of things to do for Halloween? Well, one of the most common fears that people have is acrophobia or the fear of heights!
For Halloween, you could completely eradicate this fear from your list by going bungee jumping. Even the toughest kid on the block will feel a bit light-headed with fear as they make their 216 m high to go bungee jumping from the Bloukran’s Bridge in the Western Cape region of South Africa!
For your information, the Bloukran’s Bridge is the highest commercial natural bungee jump in the world – giving you an idea of how scary it can be! One thing’s for sure: if you can do this jump, there are very few skyscrapers that will strike fear in you.
Fun fact: The likes of Prince Harry, Jack Osbourne, Thabo Mbeki, the Zuma family, Bobby Skinstad, Hansie Cronje, Fanie De Villiers, Kelly Slater, Andy Irons, The Amazing Race, and many more famous and not-so-famous visitors have tested their mettle at the Bridge!
The meeting point for this activity is at the border between the Eastern Cape and the Western Cape in the Tsitsikamma area of South Africa’s Garden Route. You’ll walk along the specially designed catwalk suspended beneath the road surface. This catwalk leads to the launch site at the top of the arch: the walk alone can be absolutely terrifying for some!
#3 Class V Whitewater Rafting down the Imbut River
Whitewater river rafting doesn’t sound like a scary activity on paper but minds you, when the forces of nature take control, as the Class V rapids in the Imbut River in the Verdon Gorge do, even the bravest souls shiver in their boots. Class V rapids are extremely exciting and dangerous at the same time but don’t take our word for it.
According to the American Whitewater Association, class V rapids are “Extremely long, obstructed, or very violent rapids which expose a paddler to added risk. Drops may contain large, unavoidable waves and holes or steep, congested chutes with complex, demanding routes.”
So how does one prepare for such a scary and unpredictable outdoor activity for Halloween? First things first, one must know how to swim before considering rafting down the Imbut River in the Verdon Gorge. The activity demands a certain level of physical fitness from participants as one must hike the Imbut trail for around 2.5 hours before one hit the river trail. Other than an adrenaline-fueled experience, the frightening activity down the Imbut River can also be gorgeous as it gives you the opportunity to explore the Verdon Gorge and its spectacular landscapes!
If you’ve never been rafting before, we encourage you to read our complete guide on whitewater river rafting.
#4 Crocodile Cage Diving
I bet we’ve all been scared for Steve Irwin aka the Crocodile Hunter, when he got up close with crocodiles as if it was child’s play, realizing how dangerous it is! Well if you’re looking for scary things to do for Halloween, why not emulate the Oz zookeeper himself?
Crocodile diving is very similar to shark diving, in the sense that you’re inside an impenetrable metal cage, which allows you to safely observe these, sometimes 7 m long, scaly reptiles. These cages are then descended in the water, meaning you will definitely wet your pants, making the deadly crocodiles within touching distance.
Fun fact about crocodiles: Crocodiles are one of the only animals to have survived the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs.
Cape Town, South Africa, and Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, belong to the few places in the world where you can go crocodile cage diving. Every dive includes 25 to 30 minutes in the enclosure with regular feeding by the crocodile handlers. The face-to-face encounter and allows you to view the unbelievable power of a crocodile's jaws snapping shut! The average price you have to pay for a priceless experience like this is around 60 euros.
#5 Pretending to be Bear Grylls during a Survival Course
Among all the scary things to do for Halloween, is there anything scarier than the prospect of being stranded on a desert or an island and having to survive against all odds? Yeah, that one sends a shiver down everyone’s spine.
Watching Bear Grylls on "Man vs Wild" makes us feel so uneasy, so imagine what it would be like to live in his shoes for a day. In many ways, survival training is the scariest activity out of all the ones mentioned on this list of scary things to do for Halloween. That’s because the fear is not inflicted by an external source like crocodiles, heights, or sharks but from within – the fear of survival!
So what does survival training involve? Well you’re basically out in the wild with an instructor, who will teach you the basics of survival, including:
• The contents of a backpack and survival kits
• Find water and purify it
• Food: wild plants, insects, making and setting traps
• Shelters: building, principles, where and how to set up your bivouac
• Thermal regulation: isolate yourself from cold or heat, start a fire in degraded conditions
• Travel: learn knots, find your bearings with or without equipment
• First aid: emergency stretcher
Please note that survival training in Jura, France can be very different from survival training in Marrakech, but the basic idea is the same. Since no two survival training camps are the same, feel free to browse through our various survival training options on our website. And don’t forget to share your photos of toasted ants or root soup with your friends at dinner time!
#6 Whizz with the World’s Longest and Fastest Zipline
The next location on our list of scary things to do for Halloween takes us to the quiet, medieval village of Rocca Massima in Italy. The town which is close to Rome and 730 m above sea level, is also home to the world’s fastest and longest zip line.
To put things into perspective, an average zip line is 50-60 km/h fast whereas the Velocity Zipline reaches speeds of 160 km/h! The flight that lasts around 4 minutes is essentially you plummeting towards the land spot, covering a distance of 2 km. Don’t be vexed, it’s not all scary. As you descend you will see the Alban hills, the mountains of Abruzzo, and the route that passes through vast olive groves and karst areas gliding up the slopes of Monte S. Angelo Cradle of Falco Pellegrino.
We also understand that going to Rome might not be an option for everyone, so we have curated a list of 13 of the best zip-lines in the world.
With activities such as zip-lining, skydiving, or even bungee jumping, the scariest part is getting out there! Then, the fear is quickly replaced by an adrenaline rush of memories for life.
#7 Caving in the 2004 Lava Tube, Reunion Islands
The picture you see above is of a man smiling because he conquered his fears. That could easily be you. Jokes aside, of all the scary things to do for Halloween, caving is probably the most deceptive. After all, how scary can it be to roam around in a dark cave, with no sound, unknown insects, dungeons, and complicated escape routes? The answer is – very!
So much so that doctors don’t recommend people with claustrophobia or breathing conditions to go caving without expert supervision. That doesn’t mean caving doesn’t have amazing benefits such as the satisfaction of discovery and exploration!
There are thousands of caves around the world but in this article, we will talk about one of the scariest caves in the world – the 2004 Lava Tube in the Reunion Islands! During the excursion in the narrow labyrinth, which can last around 6 hours, you will be 3.5 km under the earth! Going through curved passages, walking on all fours, and walking in pitch-dark conditions with no sound, can get pretty intimidating and requires good physical conditions!
#8 Ice Diving in Winter
Just writing about ice diving sends a chill down my spine! Extreme activities are not only scary on a mental level but also physically. Ice diving, as the name suggests, is a type of penetration diving where the dive takes place under the ice! The pioneers of the activity were divers – Jim Thorne, a photographer from New York City, and Donald Johnson, a project engineer from Skokie, Illinois. Together, these fearless men attempted a single open-circuit scuba dive under the ice in Antarctica on 5 January 1961.
Ice diving can have potentially deadly effects if not done under the correct conditions. The most common risks are, getting lost under the ice, hypothermia, and regulatory failure due to freezing.
The brutal activity, however, is a lot about putting your mind before your body. Once you overcome the fear mentally, your body can cope with the frigid water, with the help of the appropriate equipment, of course. Needless to say, you must know how to swim for an activity like ice diving. Furthermore, you get the rare opportunity to explore the underwater arctic world, including seals and other exotic animals.
Some of the best destinations in the world to go ice diving are Les Angles, Val Thorens, La Quillane, and Tignes in France.
#9 Skydiving
While most people hope for a safe landing before exiting an aerial vehicle, André-Jacques Garnerin decided to do otherwise. The brave Frenchman was way ahead of his time as he jumped off a hydrogen balloon 3,200 feet above Paris, way back in 1797! We’ve come a long way in terms of technology and can safely skydive from an aircraft, from even higher.
One thing hasn’t changed yet – the gripping fear before jumping off into the void – and understandably so.
To be frank, there’s not much we can do in terms of taking away the pre-jump nerves. However, we could reassure you about the safety of the activity. The USPA recorded a total of 3.5 million jumps in the US in 2015, including solo and experienced jumpers. Out of which there were 21 skydiving accidents. Equating to just 0.0006%.
Tandem skydiving is even safer! The safety rate is 0.002 fatalities per 1000 jumps over the last 10 years. This means you are more likely to die being struck by lightning or stung by a bee.
And now for some practical knowledge: on average, you will pay around 250 euros for a tandem skydiving flight. There are plenty of skydiving spots all over the world but here are some of the best skydiving spots in the world. You could also go ahead and book a skydiving activity at a spot near you, by clicking the provided link.
#10 Rock Climbing
Do not look down! That phrase is heard by beginners of rock climbing quite often and pretty much sums up the fear it induces. As you may know, rock climbing is the outdoor activity of climbing up and down a natural rock formation. You may think the presence of a harness takes away all the fear. That’s not true – it only takes away the possibility of a horrific accident, but fear finds ways to creep in, and that’s why climbing definitely belongs to the things to do this Halloween.
For instance, the view from the top of the Verdon Gorge in France can make you dizzy, even though you are completely safe thanks to the equipment! Even though you don’t require expertise to go rock climbing, being physically fit for this activity is very important. A tired mind and body isn’t the best host for fear, which is why rock climbing requires your complete focus!
Now it’s up to you to face and overcome your fears by choosing one of Manawa’s many adventures that will make your heart beat faster! Happy Halloween by the way!