Where to go for All Saints’ Day 2024? Our destination ideas in France and Europe

Rather a cultural bath or a sea bath? Are you a history buff and want to spend a holiday that is low on CO2 emissions? The two-week All Saints’ Day holiday in 2024, between October and November, will give you the opportunity to explore a new destination. At this time of year, Europe’s major cities are the place to be for educational family holidays.

It is still possible to replay the summer holidays under the autumn sun, breathing in the fresh air before the winter frosts. As for those who love fright, they will celebrate Halloween by laying down their claws on both sides of the Atlantic. In France, Europe or elsewhere, find our selection of the best destinations to go on a trip during the All Saints’ Day holidays 2024.

Where to go and learn during the All Saints’ Day holidays?

For the studious, Paris stands out as a major cultural destination, rich in a collection of institutions where all curiosities can be satisfied. The museums of the City of Paris have tons of things to teach without overwhelming schoolchildren. The Centre Pompidou, the Louvre Museum, the Cité des Sciences, the Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac and the Atelier des Lumières offer programs and services adapted to young audiences: interactive devices, lecture tours and storytelling tours, artistic workshops, immersive or interactive exhibitions, game booklets and treasure hunts, shows, etc.

If your princesses dream of life in a castle, the most beautiful residences in Île-de-France open their doors to a procession of activities: discovery trail booklet, themed visits and workshops in Vincennes; immersive sound trail, costumed guided tours and a booklet of puzzles in Vaux-Le Vicomte; themed visits, workshops, shows, and electric tuk-tuk rides through the estate in Fontainebleau.

For city dwellers, organizations like My Urban Experience or Tootbus Paris organize educational and unusual visits, and treasure hunts with local guides.

The cultural outing can turn into an investigation or even an adventure with the escape games. These themed puzzles in an enclosed space allow you to understand local heritage from a fun angle. The principle is also available outdoors, with free applications such as BaladEnigm, Foxie or Baludik, whose circuits and treasure hunts allow you to explore a city or a neighborhood, a monument or a forest, while learning and sharpening your sense of observation.

As for Europe, it is an open-air museum. The capitals and major cities are as many history books, inexhaustible sources of museums, monuments and historical sites: diving into Roman civilisation in Rome or ancient Greece in Athens, London in the footsteps of Harry Potter or Paddington Bear, a journey around comics in Brussels, Barcelona between trendy beaches and astonishing architectural creations by Gaudí… Teenagers will feel the breath of History on the places of memory of Berlin, or observe the committed frescoes of street art in London, Bristol, Belfast, or Stavanger in Norway.

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Which castles to visit during the All Saints’ Day holidays?

The Loire Valley castles exert an eternal power of fascination. Through little royal stories, they tell the great History of France during dynamic and fun visits that bring this fabulous heritage back to life.

Time travel is all about technology. The castles of Amboise, Chambord, Loches, Blois and Chinon are reinventing the historical tour with HistoPad touch tablets, which allow immersive dives in augmented reality. The scanning of interactive terminals gives access to content on historical facts, architectural details or even characters. The tablets present historical reconstructions of rooms or scenes from life, interactive plans, virtual animations and reconstructions of events. The tablet sometimes serves as a map as part of an investigative visit or a treasure hunt.

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Which amusement parks should you go to during the All Saints’ Day holidays?

Dreamers and thrill seekers will seek unforgettable memories in the theme parks. While Disneyland usually promises fairy tales, the atmosphere changes completely during the Halloween festival (from 1^is October to November 3, 2024). We then let ourselves be enchanted by mischievous encounters with the Villains of the Disney universe and the costumed cavalcade.

For history buffs, the Puy du Fou (open until November 3, 2024) takes you on a journey through time to the heart of reconstructed villages. In addition, the reputation of its grandiose shows is well established.

Lovers of ancient history and the ninth art will play the role of die-hard Gauls at Parc Astérix. During the All Saints’ Day holidays, the “Peur sur le parc” program will give you cold sweats around zombie shows and inside haunted houses (until November 11, 2024).

At the antipodes of time, Futuroscope specializes in attractions on the theme of technology. We embark on sensory experiences, thrills, and attractions mixing 4 dimensions and augmented reality.

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Where to go outdoors during the All Saints’ Day holidays?

Paris the city girl knows how to go green. In addition to the city parks, the entire Île-de-France is dotted with forests and green spaces: Bois de Vincennes, Bois de Boulogne, Fontainebleau forest, Chevreuse valley, Vexin français regional natural park…

All over France, the regions are going out of their way for families. Castle parks, botanical gardens and theme parks are ideal for a nature bath, at a time when the vegetation is donning its autumn finery. Zoos and aquariums reveal the richness of biodiversity and the secrets of wildlife. You can play hide-and-seek behind the menhirs, dolmens and megaliths of Brittany, budding volcanologists in Auvergne, your ancestors in a regional eco-museum, or the Far West in the Colorado of Provence.

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A life-size playground, France is teeming with treasure hunts and trail games, in town or in the countryside. Geocaching East an original outdoor activity, consisting of finding hidden boxes (“geocaches”) in nature, using a (GPS) or a smartphone. The official app is a goldmine of treasure hunts.

Autumn is also a great time for wine tourism. From the Loire Valley to Burgundy and from Bordeaux to the Rhone Valley, the vineyards display a range of warm colors. In October, the grape harvest ends, but the properties remain open to the public. The winegrowers are a little more available, and visitors can sometimes give the vines a few cuts with their pruning shears.

Still craving some sun? Head south! In the Mediterranean basin, we replay summer holidays in natural parks and seaside paradises accessible by medium-haul flights: Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, Catalonia, the Canary Islands, Greece, Croatia, Sicily, Sardinia, and even Tunisia. These flagship summer holiday destinations benefit from lower crowds in the off-season, milder temperatures, and sunshine that is still worthy of summer.

For eco-responsible holidays, each region has its eco-responsible leisure activities. We will opt for soft mobility along the cycle-tourist routes: Véloscénie from Paris to Mont-Saint-Michel, Vélodyssée from Brittany to the Basque Country, La Loire à vélo from Nevers to Saint-Nazaire… Other ecological outings and activities are not left out: local producers’ markets, Gally farms in the Paris region, exhibitions, workshops, conferences at the Good Planet Foundation in Paris, navigation in an electric or solar-powered boat… To choose your restaurant or accommodation, the sustainable tourism labels “Ecolabel” and “Green Key” list eco-responsible establishments. Eco-responsible activities are as inexhaustible as renewable energies.

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Where to celebrate Halloween and All Saints’ Day in the world?

At the Jardin d’Acclimatation in Paris, the “Enchanted River” becomes the “Spellbound River”, for a gently terrifying cruise, and the Haunted Museum can be visited by torchlight.

Halloween is well established in London. The city of Jack the Ripper returns every year with macabre decorations and blood-curdling events, from the London Dungeon (museum of horrors) to the Tower of London, via the Clink Prison museum and the Harry Potter studios. For a tour of horror, the Ghost Bus, a double-decker bus, takes you on a theatrical tour as terrifying as it is comical through the monuments, shown in their darkest light.

To delve into the Irish origins of Halloween, Londonderry’s Derry Halloween Festival (October 28-31, 2024) is one of the biggest celebrations this side of the Atlantic. A spooky carnival is in full swing in a terribly festive atmosphere, culminating in an over-the-top parade with floats, dancers and musicians. Also on the program: pumpkin carving competitions, exhibitions, cooking workshops, costume contests and concerts.

But the craziest parades and the most “deadly” parades on the planet are those in Manhattan (New York), Hollywood (Los Angeles) and Tokyo. Halloween fans will turn green with envy in front of the most extravagant costumes and the most monstrous makeup.

Halloween is particularly popular in North America: decorations, eccentric costumes and the custom of ” trick or treat » in the United States; pumpkin carving, costume parades and trick-or-treating in Canada.

In Central and South America, death is viewed from a different perspective than we know it, and All Saints’ Day is celebrated in a rather festive atmosphere. On November 2, the Day of the Dead (Day of the Dead) is celebrated from Mexico to Colombia. Cemeteries and homes are decorated with floral arrangements, candles and offering altars. After cleaning and decorating the graves, Mexicans even share picnics there. In Guatemala, the All Saints’ Day (All Saints’ Day) has been listed as a cultural heritage site, particularly for the kite flights in the sky of cemeteries. In Mauritius too, graves are decorated with flowers and watered.

Good humor is also the order of the day in Sicily, where traditional biscuits are eaten. Children receive gifts from the deceased… actually bought at the “fairs of the dead”, local markets. It’s a bit like Christmas before its time!

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