4 Florida cities ranked among the best towns to visit for Halloween

When it comes to celebrating Halloween, several Florida cities are among the tops in America to celebrate the spooky season.

A new study by WalletHub, a personal financial management website, concluded that four Florida cities are among the top 25 in the U.S. on the list of “Best Cities for Halloween in 2024.” Miami was ranked the third-best city in the country for the observance of the scary holiday.

“It has a very high number of pumpkin patches and Halloween party supply stores per capita. It also has the ninth-most Halloween costume stores and ninth-most candy stores per capita, making it easy to grab all of the essentials for the holiday,” WalletHub analysts said.

“Miami also has plenty of places to go trick-or-treating, with the sixth-highest population density in the nation. It’s the sixth-most walkable city, too. Teens who have aged out of trick-or-treating can benefit from the fact that Miami has the 14th-most amusement parks and ninth-most movie theaters per capita. And for adults who want to party, Miami has the 13th-most bars and clubs per capita.”

WalletHub researchers compared 100 U.S. cities to determine the best Halloween destinations in the country. They factored in several elements including trick-or-treat friendliness, Halloween fun and weather, among other factors, to determine a Halloween score to compile the list.

Miami scored a 60.77 to earn its third-place ranking.

The best city for celebrating Halloween was New York City with a score of 71.3, followed closely by Jersey City, New Jersey, coming in second with a score of 63.45.

Other Florida cities that fared well on the best places to visit for Halloween included Hialeah at 14th, Orlando at 16th and Tampa at 23rd. Hialeah was ranked first in the country for percentage of trick-or-treat stops on Halloween.

Much further down on the overall list was St. Petersburg ranked 85th followed closely by Jacksonville at 86th.