Why Travelers Are Still Drawn To Dark Tourism

by Noreen Kompanik
Last updated: 7:00 AM ET, Sat October 31, 2026

Dark Tourism is still having a moment.

This popular trend includes traveling to destinations associated with death, tragedy, suffering, disaster, war, crime or other onerous moments in history. These can include battlefields, Holocaust memorials, former prisons, ghost towns, cemeteries and catacombs, historic sites associated with notorious crimes and more.

So, what is the draw of dark tourism?

For each person, the answer may be different. There’s the mystery factor of unsolved crimes and intriguing legendary locations. Human stories behind many dark tourism destinations offer riveting stories of survival, courage, loss and resilience. Other reasons include personal reflection as visiting places associated with suffering can prompt people to think about the human experience and mortality. And for some, memorials and remembrance are a way of honoring victims and ensuring that difficult histories throughout time are not forgotten.

Though the world is filled with compelling dark tourism experiences, the following places bring some of history’s darkest chapters to life.

Auschwitz-Birkenau

One of the most significant Holocaust memorial sites in the world, Auschwitz-Birkenau, located in southern Poland preserves the remains of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp where over a million people were brutally murdered, the vast majority of them Jews. Today, the site serves as a museum, memorial and educational center. Visiting is not just a history lesson but an encounter with the evidence of the Holocaust and the human lives destroyed by heinous Nazi hatred and persecution.

Alcatraz Island

Every visitor to San Francisco needs to see Alcatraz at least once. Located just 1.25 miles from shore, this infamous prison is one of the city’s popular attractions. Best known for its reputation as a maximum-security federal penitentiary, Alcatraz housed some of the nation’s most unmanageable convicts. Al Capone, Machine Gun Kelly and Robert “Birdman” Stroud were among the “invited” guests to the 12-acre island known as “The Rock.”

The island is accessible only via boat tour. Visitors can stroll past decrepit and crumbling cell blocks of the

abandoned and reportedly haunted prison, closed since 1963.

Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

This abandoned landscape surrounding the April,1986 nuclear disaster has become of the world’s most famous examples of dark tourism. In the aftermath of the catastrophic accident, communities were evacuated, homes were abandoned and a large area of northern Ukraine was placed under restrictions because of severe radioactive contamination.

The Soviet authorities evacuated the city of Pripyat, built for plant workers and their families the following day, but roughly 36 hours after the accident. Today, its empty apartment blocks, schools, hospitals and overgrown streets have become powerful symbols of a community abruptly uprooted, whose lives were changed overnight. The yellow Ferris wheel at Pripyat’s abandoned amusement park has become a defining image of Chernobyl tourism, as it the park was due to open on May 1, 1986, just days after the accident.

As of October 2026, the exclusion zone remains closed to regular tourists amid Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine. Before the invasion however, licensed operators offered guided day trips from Kyiv.

Tower of London

Centuries of imprisonment, executions, political intrigue and royal history give this famous landmark fortress, one of London’s top attractions, a particularly dark past. Situated on the River Thames, the Tower of London housed political prisoners considered threats to the Crown, including royalty, nobles, religious dissenters and suspected spies.

Torture instruments such as the rack, were used during periods of political and religious turmoil and several high-profile prisoners were beheaded inside the grounds or publicly executed. It is said that the ghost of Anne Bolyn, Henry VII’s second wife, imprisoned and beheaded here in 1536 haunts the area around Tower Green, along with the ghosts of former prisoners and vanished royal figures.

Pompeii Archaeological Park

The preserved ancient Roman city frozen in time, offers an unusually vivid look at life —and death, during the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Southern Italy in 79 AD. The city was buried beneath volcanic ash and pumice killing thousands of people and destroying buildings, streets, shops, artwork and homes within 24 hours of the eruption, with some areas engulfed in as little as 10-20 minutes.

Today, visitors can walk through the impressive remains of a once-bustling Roman city, passing homes, bathhouses, temples, bakeries and public spaces that reveal how people lived nearly 2,000 years ago. Pompeii is especially compelling for dark tourism because its tragedy is not just a story from ancient history: the archaeological evidence offers a deeply personal glimpse of people caught in a sudden catastrophe.

Gettysburg National Military Park

It was the infamous, bloody Battle of Gettysburg that resulted in over 51,000 casualties during the Civil War. Today, the surrounding countryside is dotted with mountains, cannons, stone walls and preserved battlefields.

Gettysburg’s most intriguing places to visit include Devil’s Den, the boulder-strewn landscape which was the scene of fierce fighting and Gettysburg National Cemetery with more than 6,000 U.S. soldiers and veterans buried here. Visitors also visit the battlefield because of its reported paranormal accounts which include apparitions of soldiers, sounds of battle and unexplained photographs and equipment malfunctions.

Catacombs of Paris

While Paris is known for its magnificent sites, world-class art, exquisite food and romantic atmosphere, there’s a much darker side beneath the city of light: the Catacombs of Paris with miles of dimly lit underground tunnels containing carefully arranged skull and bone remains of an estimated six million Parisians.

It has become one of the world’s most unsettling historical attractions because rather than a traditional cemetery, the Catacombs were created when Paris was dealing with overcrowded burial grounds and serious public-health concerns.

Human skulls and bones stacked up inside the Paris catacombs.

Eastern State Penitentiary

The crumbling former prison in Philadelphia opened in 1829, designed around a revolutionary idea that harsh solitary confinement practices might inspire remorse and rehabilitation. The prison drew criticism from reformers like Benjamin Franklin and Dr. Benjamin Rush who advocated for a more humane approach to incarceration.

Today, the abandoned complex is a museum and historic site where visitors can explore the cells, learn about its notorious inmates and consider the complicated history of American incarceration. It remains famous for its eerie paranormal activity.

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