as someone who LIVES in St. Helens, there’s more things to do besides Halloweentown itself. in the summer, every thursday or friday, they do 13 Nights by the River, but it isn’t as fun as it used to be sadly.
As someone born and raised in saint helens I’ll tell you why it sucked. One year when the main character came to town (2015-2016) there were over 10,000-15,000 tourists in the small plaza and the town was SEVERELY under prepared.. and severely overwhelmed with all the traffic. It was great for the economy but the residents DID NOT like it. The town’s population is around 13,000 so to have that many people come in ONE NIGHT not including the surrounding days was VERY VERY overwhelming. And, the towns board and city council have down played and not funded the expansion of this tourist attraction due to unhappy residents.
That makes total sense 😭 and I feel for the residents because it’s out of their control with the amount of visitors each year 🥲 the city should try and prepare for it every year since it’s just once a year. But I get it 😭😭 thank you for sharing
@@TwinTravel03 I wish they did fund it properly! It could really be something cool! Especially with the twilight connection as well! Maybe one day!!🤞🫶🏼
I've been a St Helens resident for 30 yrs. When the movie was made it was very low key; no huge throngs of production ppl or tourists about (I used to live in southern California & I've seen movie productions) and it was business as usual in the town square. The only difference were the props strewn about. We, and Disney, did not realize how popular the movie(s) would be so it took well over a decade before St Helens capitalized on it. At the start it was just a normal street fair to buy food & trinkets. As the movie franchise expanded, so did the festival. We recreated the large pumpkin then added more decorations until we amassed quite a collection including the real taxi from the original film. The festival really took off when we were able to get the original cast, minus the late great Debbie Reynolds, to visit. That was the year the numbers soared & the town was ill equipped to handle it. Every year we learn from the year before & we do try to improve it, but unfortunately we are limited to space & resources. Only a B n' B & a few restaurants close to the festivities. Everything else is out by the highway including 2 motels (the one in this vlog used to be the Village Inn then a Motel 6, as evident by the decor).The best time to visit is when the cast is present otherwise it's just an average small town street fair with a wonderful Halloween theme. It's more of an afternoon out kinda thing. We have a haunted tour (the old Klondike Hotel & Restaurant is notorious for cold drafts, whispers & apparitions) & a tour of the Twilight movie locations. I was given a private tour of Bella's house just after filming wrapped; not much to see but the outside of the house. We have the mighty Columbia River & some wonderful hiking trails but not much else. I would like to see us get our pirate festival, with real pirate ship, & Renaissance Faire back in town. The latter was great with joisting, cooked turkey legs & mead, wenches & cod pieces (look it up) and lots of pseudo drunken comraderie. Now that's a festival. I live 5 blocks from Halloween Town square & have never experienced a problem. None of the locals I've talked to have a problem either so I think the complaints are coming from the ppl who live around the square & I could certainly see this as irritating because it's so compact down there. Also the highway probably gets congested. For the locals it's usually the same old vendors so we generally stay home and save our energy for the real event, trick-or-treating and eating all that candy. I hope this helps you plan your next trip. Sincerely, we are proud of our little town & we do love having visitors but please do not expect Disneyland as we have no room for the rides. Lol😮
@kaylafinch4206 Hi Kayla! You said you were born here & your name seems vaguely familiar. My daughter was a 2012 grad of SHHS. I'm wondering if you went to school with her.
I’m so disappointed with this. No wonder it says certain things were only opened on weekends. But still it’s Halloween.. there should be tons of things to do even if it falls on a weekday! Thanks for all the advice!
I was told to look you guys up because you had our wedding in it! Lol we have pictures of you guys in our photos too 😂❤ I'm so sorry you guys came at the slow time though! Saturdays are best and early Sundays are definitely the days to come. It is unfortunate there isn't more going on, on actual halloween day but durring the week the city buildings are open for business and because it's the courthouse and city hall right there they can't conduct business and have it shut down with vendors 😢. It's unfortunate for sure.
😂😂😂❤️❤️❤️ love this!!! Yes!! We stayed for the whole ceremony lol I know it was disappointing but at least we got the chance to experience it for ourselves ✨ we did twilight filming locations so that was great 🐺 ❤️🧛♂️
You should try sleepy hollow in upstate New York they actually have the headless horseman hayride where they chase you and the Halloween parade where everybody dressed up ✌️
@@TwinTravel03 trying to take a trip down there I'll be way easier for me to go the distance from the Bronx to sleepy hollow is a 23-minute drive depending traffic
Tip: you don’t have to pay anything to walk around there. Shuttle is cheap to take down, weekends are busier, and the activities are mainly for the kids mostly. No parade this year for October 2024, but Hocus Pocus actress Kathy Najimy will be there for autographs and photo ops (single, and groups).
Weekends is usually when it comes more alive. They have vendors and much more going on. Also down the street they have a street filled Halloween displays It does get super packed.
@@beardedbox80 Our home too. We actually live 5 blocks from the Klondike & ate dinner one night when the ghosts were particularly busy (cold drafts & weird, non food odors). After that, we stuck to the Dockside.
i do also have to say, because so many people came from portland and other areas around, and St. Helens is meant to be a small town, there isn’t gonna be a parade again as far as i know. but too many people came to St. Helens just to see the parade and pumpkin lighting. honestly this year, the parade wasn’t all that great as the years before, but i marched in the band, so i didn’t really see it all.
Yes we only did a day stay since we were also visiting Portland. But now we know to go for the pumpkin lighting and parade 🫤 we thought it was an every weekend thing specially during Halloween day
Oh-yo hotel the most ghetto one St Helens has to offer😂 cool video here, I live in St Helens and have only gone down a few times it gets way too busy for the locals but it does draw in people to our community which is great. Thanks for sharing our little town!
We had no idea 😂😂😂 everyone kept telling us after the fact lol but we were trying to save money & that hotel was close to the stuff 🥲 but it was an adventure for sure lol
I didn't even know they changed the name till I saw this video (I'm bed bound so I don't get out). Remember it used to be the Village Inn? That was truly the most run down, out dated motel till Motel 6 took it over. Now it's only marginally run down. I do remember returning from PDX one night when it was the former & seeing a bevy of ppl with cameras standing in the parking lot. A man was on the upper balcony waving to the small crowd. It was Andrew McCarthy & they were filming Things I Never Told You. I was horrified he was staying there. At least with Twilight they brought in trailers for the cast.
Hello ladies, I'm writing back to you with my own Halloweentown review! I went September 30th and for the most part had a BLAST! I was with good company and I enjoyed the sights! HOWEVER, one of the attractions I paid for was not handicapped accessible so that was a bummer and near the end of the haunted house I literally had to get out of the wheelchair and push it through the narrow doorway before climbing back in. Still, I had fun.
@@zacharyjames9602 awwww that’s awesome!! I’m glad you had a great experience 🎃✨ ugh sorry about the wheelchair 😭😭 but overall how were the vendors and was there a parade?
Awesome video and review. I havent been yet, but i might go this weekend. If i do im going to drive from south Cali. What camera do you girls use btw? Its good quality
Thank you 😊 that’s great!! This weekend is the pumpkin lighting & parade so it will be worth it. Some ppl are saying it’s better this year. I’m using the iPhone 14 😳 lol
@@jerrywiththeugh That's a long haul to drive from southern Cali. I'm a SLO town girl & used to make the drive once a year, 14 hours non-stop. I love my adopted town but even I wouldn't drive it for a Halloween festival, unless I had plans to do other things. If you drive 1 hour past our town on Hwy 30 you'll come to Astoria where they filmed The Goonies & Kindergarten Cop. If you continue down the coast you will reach Cannon Beach and recognize the huge rock formation off the coast as the one in The Goonies. On the back roads leading from Portland to Astoria they filmed Short Circuit. We have tax-free shopping here so bring your Christmas list & stock up (that's at least an 8% savings). If you take Hwy 1 back to Cali you come across one picturesque coastal town after another. Tillamook has the famous cheese factory were you can tour the cheese making part & taste ice cream flavors. They have a cafe & market on site where I tried cheese curds for the first time & fell in love. I highly recommend the jerky. Farther south is Newport where they have Ripley's Believe It Or Not, a wax museum & the wonderful Newport Bay Aquarium. Don't forget the local seafood (had the best crab cakes here). Go to the docks & puruse the art galleries. Go further south to Florence & traverse the Sea Lion Caves. The Hwy 1 drive is spectacular all the way home. And the coast route to Seattle & beyond is like nothing you will see in Cali. Look up the Olympic National Park in Washington outside Seattle. It's one of the best places in the world to see four temperate rainforest ecosystems. Don't forget attactions on the way like the Jelly Belly factory outside San Francisco. So, please, come see us but plan to do more than this. Did I say that pre-pandemic, Portland had more restaurants per capita than any city in the US (some claimed the world). We are foodies here & have great food since we have a culinary school in town. We also are going for the US record on most breweries. If you're gonna be downtown take the underground tour were they'll show you how they Shanghai'd bar patrons into working the freighters (patrins would pass out in bars & wake up on a ship out to sea). And you must climb Multnomah & Silver Falls (you actually walk behind the falls in the latter). Hope this helps you make your decision. Enjoy your trip!
This year they want everyone to park in an off site lot and pay 15$ to be shuttled in. On top of paying 45-145$ for a general admission ticket that includes a few activities they have. (Not relating to the movie at all). Photo ops with cast members are 50-95$. I think most people will be highly disappointed once they see what they are paying for. Im so glad I went a couple years ago when it was all free.
What?!!! Wow 😮 that’s sad actually. I hope people do their research and not spend so much money 😭 that is a rip off! That makes me mad actually 😡 ours was free too but even the parking fee is ridiculous! What’s more ridiculous is the admission 🤯
WTF? When did this gouging begin? I'm a local & I'm appalled the city council sanctioned this. Why do you have to pay admission at all? Do they fence off the town square? Meet-and-greets were $15 & that gave you access to all cast members, although Kimberly J Brown was the only one who came the first few times. I did hear about the shuttle but not the cost. I'm so angry in fact that I'm thinking of writing our council members. We're trying to promote St Helens & good family fun. Surely we don't need the money so badly that we get a reputation as "Rip Off Town".
This is my hometown. I went and watched part of them filming Halloweentown in the late 90’s. I have never recommended anyone to go to Halloweentown. 😅 If you went on a weekend…you would feel overwhelmed with the amount of people. They have a Facebook page with events and I’m assuming a website. It’s best to plan ahead. 😊
By trick or treating, do you nean at the festival or in the neighborhoods? Beware of trick or treating in the surrounding neighborhoods because of low lighting & accessibility. They are old neighborhoods so sidewalks are uneven & in some cases lighting is non-existent. Otherwise we are a very safe town.
It's videos like this that really make me appreciate my Samsung phone over my IPhone for video recording and editing. The glare from the lights reflecting off your phones lenses is visible in the video at night and is a common problem with iPhone. Great video none the less but you would really enjoy the camera of the Samsung ultra series for making videos.
@@TwinTravel03 Exactly! I'm from Australia and planning to do a US trip to all the spooky places. So coming all the way for that would of been major disappointing 😂
Agree completely. Just got back and had the same experience. The shops mostly all sell the same shirts, all made super cheap where the plasticy graphic will crack and wash off within a couple washes. And they want $25. Not worth it for the quality. I warn all of you AVOID the OYO hotel. Omfg. The grossest pos ive ever had to stay in. I normally read reviews (they get a horrible 5.8!) But let my gf book it and what a mistake. So ghetto, people living out of the hotel looking like tweakers and prostitutes. Shouting outside all night. Room was filthy in every way possible and beds rock hard. Neverrrr again. The marina was cool and city hall was cool to look at but the shops were pretty over priced. The 2 Cs vintage shop is massive and has tons of cool stuff. Cool record store and one art store had all kinds of great stuff that wasnt overpriced suprisingly. But the town felt like Rip city. They could do So much more! The klondike was fun to eat at. Good food. Atmosphere reminded me of a McMenamins resturant. Would i go again? Not anytime soon lol luckily i live under 2 hours away so maybe a day trip in the future..
It’s crazy how when we went there was no merch at all. The ones we took we got them on Etsy. A lot of ppl have been mentioning that about the OYO 🥴😳😳 we didn’t even know lol when we went there was other tourist but we didn’t see anything sketchy but never again!! Yea for us it was a two hour flight but we won’t be returning anytime soon 😭😭😭
Haven't been downtown in years but prior to covid we had mostly resale shops with some specialty home goods stores of reasonable price thrown in. We had a great hommade pizza parlor & Umpqua ice cream shoppe. We also had a Twilight store once with nothing but Twilight souvenirs (got me a t-shirt). Fritz & Sassy was my favorite store - so eclectic with all kinds of home goods, new & old. Very Bohemian chic. The theater is my fav. Not only was it used in the movie but they offered kids season matinee tickets: ten new movies for $8 & the parents got in for free. We went every season, spring & fall, & got to be real good friends with all the employees (if you're reading this, we miss you). The Klondike restaurant can be great or good depending on who owned it when you visited. We went to the Dockside because we knew the family & the food was consistently good. The owner/chef would visit the tables & if interested give you a cooking tutorial on your dish. My fav was the carbonara, yummy! Sorry but the rent on their building went sky high & they were forced out, then covid hit so they aren't around anymore. Our current fav is Plymouth Pub. The food is fab from burgers to Rib eye dinners. And the fish is better than at the coast (read the reviews). If you drive a mile towards the highway, try Miyako's Japanese restaurant. The food is outrageously good, reasonably priced & kid friendly. We also have a new wave of food carts that came in, some serving Greek food. I'm hungry now.
as someone who LIVES in St. Helens, there’s more things to do besides Halloweentown itself. in the summer, every thursday or friday, they do 13 Nights by the River, but it isn’t as fun as it used to be sadly.
Haven't been to that in years. Loved it. We also used to have a pirate festival & a Renaissance Faire.
As someone born and raised in saint helens I’ll tell you why it sucked. One year when the main character came to town (2015-2016) there were over 10,000-15,000 tourists in the small plaza and the town was SEVERELY under prepared.. and severely overwhelmed with all the traffic. It was great for the economy but the residents DID NOT like it. The town’s population is around 13,000 so to have that many people come in ONE NIGHT not including the surrounding days was VERY VERY overwhelming. And, the towns board and city council have down played and not funded the expansion of this tourist attraction due to unhappy residents.
That makes total sense 😭 and I feel for the residents because it’s out of their control with the amount of visitors each year 🥲 the city should try and prepare for it every year since it’s just once a year. But I get it 😭😭 thank you for sharing
@@TwinTravel03 I wish they did fund it properly! It could really be something cool! Especially with the twilight connection as well! Maybe one day!!🤞🫶🏼
@@kaylafinch4206 yes!! That would bring in so much revenue to the city 😭😭
I've been a St Helens resident for 30 yrs. When the movie was made it was very low key; no huge throngs of production ppl or tourists about (I used to live in southern California & I've seen movie productions) and it was business as usual in the town square. The only difference were the props strewn about. We, and Disney, did not realize how popular the movie(s) would be so it took well over a decade before St Helens capitalized on it. At the start it was just a normal street fair to buy food & trinkets. As the movie franchise expanded, so did the festival. We recreated the large pumpkin then added more decorations until we amassed quite a collection including the real taxi from the original film. The festival really took off when we were able to get the original cast, minus the late great Debbie Reynolds, to visit. That was the year the numbers soared & the town was ill equipped to handle it. Every year we learn from the year before & we do try to improve it, but unfortunately we are limited to space & resources. Only a B n' B & a few restaurants close to the festivities. Everything else is out by the highway including 2 motels (the one in this vlog used to be the Village Inn then a Motel 6, as evident by the decor).The best time to visit is when the cast is present otherwise it's just an average small town street fair with a wonderful Halloween theme. It's more of an afternoon out kinda thing.
We have a haunted tour (the old Klondike Hotel & Restaurant is notorious for cold drafts, whispers & apparitions) & a tour of the Twilight movie locations. I was given a private tour of Bella's house just after filming wrapped; not much to see but the outside of the house. We have the mighty Columbia River & some wonderful hiking trails but not much else. I would like to see us get our pirate festival, with real pirate ship, & Renaissance Faire back in town. The latter was great with joisting, cooked turkey legs & mead, wenches & cod pieces (look it up) and lots of pseudo drunken comraderie. Now that's a festival.
I live 5 blocks from Halloween Town square & have never experienced a problem. None of the locals I've talked to have a problem either so I think the complaints are coming from the ppl who live around the square & I could certainly see this as irritating because it's so compact down there. Also the highway probably gets congested. For the locals it's usually the same old vendors so we generally stay home and save our energy for the real event, trick-or-treating and eating all that candy.
I hope this helps you plan your next trip. Sincerely, we are proud of our little town & we do love having visitors but please do not expect Disneyland as we have no room for the rides. Lol😮
@kaylafinch4206 Hi Kayla! You said you were born here & your name seems vaguely familiar. My daughter was a 2012 grad of SHHS. I'm wondering if you went to school with her.
I went on the weekend and it was sick! nice vlog!!
We went on a Sunday ☹️ thank you 😊
I’m so disappointed with this. No wonder it says certain things were only opened on weekends. But still it’s Halloween.. there should be tons of things to do even if it falls on a weekday! Thanks for all the advice!
Yes super disappointing 😭😭😭 it’s only worth it if you’re going during opening weekend. It should be live specially during Halloween day 😩
Love your moniker!
I LIVE THERE!?
I was told to look you guys up because you had our wedding in it! Lol we have pictures of you guys in our photos too 😂❤ I'm so sorry you guys came at the slow time though! Saturdays are best and early Sundays are definitely the days to come. It is unfortunate there isn't more going on, on actual halloween day but durring the week the city buildings are open for business and because it's the courthouse and city hall right there they can't conduct business and have it shut down with vendors 😢. It's unfortunate for sure.
😂😂😂❤️❤️❤️ love this!!! Yes!! We stayed for the whole ceremony lol I know it was disappointing but at least we got the chance to experience it for ourselves ✨ we did twilight filming locations so that was great 🐺 ❤️🧛♂️
@@TwinTravel03 well I'm glad you got to do the twilight houses and enjoyed that! And thanks for attending our flash wedding 🥰🤣
@petshopchick132 thank you for letting us be a part of it ❤️✨☺️🙌🏻
Congratulations, posthumously. As a local, I agree with everything you said.
You should try sleepy hollow in upstate New York they actually have the headless horseman hayride where they chase you and the Halloween parade where everybody dressed up ✌️
We visited in 2021 🙂 but we only did a morning visit since we were going to Napanoch. But that sounds like fun & we definitely need to go back 🙌🏻
@@TwinTravel03 trying to take a trip down there I'll be way easier for me to go the distance from the Bronx to sleepy hollow is a 23-minute drive depending traffic
@@stephanieramirez9151 that’s super close 👌🏼 we’re from LA 🙃 so who knows when we’ll be back 🥲
@@TwinTravel03 damn you're far did you do a video for sleepy hollow
Tip: you don’t have to pay anything to walk around there. Shuttle is cheap to take down, weekends are busier, and the activities are mainly for the kids mostly.
No parade this year for October 2024, but Hocus Pocus actress Kathy Najimy will be there for autographs and photo ops (single, and groups).
You guys also went on a weekday and on the website it says the activities are open on the weekend
Weekends is usually when it comes more alive. They have vendors and much more going on. Also down the street they have a street filled Halloween displays It does get super packed.
What a bummer!! Seems like a waste not to go all out on Halloween Day in Halloweentown. 🎃🎃
Yes it was disappointing 😭😭😭
This is my home. That yellow building at 4 minutes is the Klondike restaurant. Ghost hunters tv show did a episode there
@@beardedbox80 Our home too. We actually live 5 blocks from the Klondike & ate dinner one night when the ghosts were particularly busy (cold drafts & weird, non food odors). After that, we stuck to the Dockside.
i do also have to say, because so many people came from portland and other areas around, and St. Helens is meant to be a small town, there isn’t gonna be a parade again as far as i know. but too many people came to St. Helens just to see the parade and pumpkin lighting. honestly this year, the parade wasn’t all that great as the years before, but i marched in the band, so i didn’t really see it all.
Yes we only did a day stay since we were also visiting Portland. But now we know to go for the pumpkin lighting and parade 🫤 we thought it was an every weekend thing specially during Halloween day
@man1c.prncss you would think st Helen's would appreciate tourist at Halloween time, it brings revenue to this small town
Oh-yo hotel the most ghetto one St Helens has to offer😂 cool video here, I live in St Helens and have only gone down a few times it gets way too busy for the locals but it does draw in people to our community which is great. Thanks for sharing our little town!
We had no idea 😂😂😂 everyone kept telling us after the fact lol but we were trying to save money & that hotel was close to the stuff 🥲 but it was an adventure for sure lol
I didn't even know they changed the name till I saw this video (I'm bed bound so I don't get out). Remember it used to be the Village Inn? That was truly the most run down, out dated motel till Motel 6 took it over. Now it's only marginally run down. I do remember returning from PDX one night when it was the former & seeing a bevy of ppl with cameras standing in the parking lot. A man was on the upper balcony waving to the small crowd. It was Andrew McCarthy & they were filming Things I Never Told You. I was horrified he was staying there. At least with Twilight they brought in trailers for the cast.
That's too bad. Already got my ticket for the 14th. Oh well, how's the wheelchair accessibility?
Make the most of it 🙌🏻🎃 I think it’s good because everything is spacious
@@TwinTravel03 ok cool, thanks for responding
Hello ladies, I'm writing back to you with my own Halloweentown review!
I went September 30th and for the most part had a BLAST!
I was with good company and I enjoyed the sights!
HOWEVER, one of the attractions I paid for was not handicapped accessible so that was a bummer and near the end of the haunted house I literally had to get out of the wheelchair and push it through the narrow doorway before climbing back in.
Still, I had fun.
@@zacharyjames9602 awwww that’s awesome!! I’m glad you had a great experience 🎃✨ ugh sorry about the wheelchair 😭😭 but overall how were the vendors and was there a parade?
@@TwinTravel03 vendors were cool, didn't buy anything and didn't go day of parade.
Awesome video and review. I havent been yet, but i might go this weekend. If i do im going to drive from south Cali. What camera do you girls use btw? Its good quality
Thank you 😊 that’s great!! This weekend is the pumpkin lighting & parade so it will be worth it. Some ppl are saying it’s better this year. I’m using the iPhone 14 😳 lol
@@jerrywiththeugh That's a long haul to drive from southern Cali. I'm a SLO town girl & used to make the drive once a year, 14 hours non-stop. I love my adopted town but even I wouldn't drive it for a Halloween festival, unless I had plans to do other things.
If you drive 1 hour past our town on Hwy 30 you'll come to Astoria where they filmed The Goonies & Kindergarten Cop. If you continue down the coast you will reach Cannon Beach and recognize the huge rock formation off the coast as the one in The Goonies. On the back roads leading from Portland to Astoria they filmed Short Circuit.
We have tax-free shopping here so bring your Christmas list & stock up (that's at least an 8% savings). If you take Hwy 1 back to Cali you come across one picturesque coastal town after another. Tillamook has the famous cheese factory were you can tour the cheese making part & taste ice cream flavors. They have a cafe & market on site where I tried cheese curds for the first time & fell in love. I highly recommend the jerky.
Farther south is Newport where they have Ripley's Believe It Or Not, a wax museum & the wonderful Newport Bay Aquarium. Don't forget the local seafood (had the best crab cakes here). Go to the docks & puruse the art galleries. Go further south to Florence & traverse the Sea Lion Caves. The Hwy 1 drive is spectacular all the way home. And the coast route to Seattle & beyond is like nothing you will see in Cali. Look up the Olympic National Park in Washington outside Seattle. It's one of the best places in the world to see four temperate rainforest ecosystems. Don't forget attactions on the way like the Jelly Belly factory outside San Francisco.
So, please, come see us but plan to do more than this. Did I say that pre-pandemic, Portland had more restaurants per capita than any city in the US (some claimed the world). We are foodies here & have great food since we have a culinary school in town. We also are going for the US record on most breweries. If you're gonna be downtown take the underground tour were they'll show you how they Shanghai'd bar patrons into working the freighters (patrins would pass out in bars & wake up on a ship out to sea). And you must climb Multnomah & Silver Falls (you actually walk behind the falls in the latter).
Hope this helps you make your decision. Enjoy your trip!
Thank you for the advice saved me a trip there
Yes save your money 🙏🏻 unless you’re going opening weekend
This is so cool. I've love to make this a reality in my own town. How do you make this happen?
❤🎃
🫶🏼✨
This year they want everyone to park in an off site lot and pay 15$ to be shuttled in. On top of paying 45-145$ for a general admission ticket that includes a few activities they have. (Not relating to the movie at all). Photo ops with cast members are 50-95$. I think most people will be highly disappointed once they see what they are paying for. Im so glad I went a couple years ago when it was all free.
What?!!! Wow 😮 that’s sad actually. I hope people do their research and not spend so much money 😭 that is a rip off! That makes me mad actually 😡 ours was free too but even the parking fee is ridiculous! What’s more ridiculous is the admission 🤯
WTF? When did this gouging begin? I'm a local & I'm appalled the city council sanctioned this. Why do you have to pay admission at all? Do they fence off the town square? Meet-and-greets were $15 & that gave you access to all cast members, although Kimberly J Brown was the only one who came the first few times. I did hear about the shuttle but not the cost. I'm so angry in fact that I'm thinking of writing our council members. We're trying to promote St Helens & good family fun. Surely we don't need the money so badly that we get a reputation as "Rip Off Town".
This is my hometown. I went and watched part of them filming Halloweentown in the late 90’s. I have never recommended anyone to go to Halloweentown. 😅 If you went on a weekend…you would feel overwhelmed with the amount of people. They have a Facebook page with events and I’m assuming a website. It’s best to plan ahead. 😊
Omg how cool!!! That’s a great memory ✨ we really wanted to go because of the movie and feel all the nostalgia lol but now we know lol
@@TwinTravel03 it’s too bad you missed the big festivities. Hope you got to explore more of the PNW. 😘
You girls are the woman of my dreams....I love Halloween
😊🫶🏼
Where will u be on halloween 2024?
Ok but is it a good place to take kids trick or treating?
I hardly saw any trick or treaters on Halloween day but they do have a lot of activities for the kids in Halloweentown between 11am-3pm
@@TwinTravel03 thank you 🙏
By trick or treating, do you nean at the festival or in the neighborhoods? Beware of trick or treating in the surrounding neighborhoods because of low lighting & accessibility. They are old neighborhoods so sidewalks are uneven & in some cases lighting is non-existent. Otherwise we are a very safe town.
So this was Halloween 2022?
Yes 👻 this was last year
I went back in 2017 and it was awesome. Seems like it's been dying down recently.
Yes 🥲 we were so disappointed ☹️ but at least it wasn’t expensive for us to visit & we’re also twilight fans so that also helped lol
How about going there in October?
Go the first weekend in October for the parade and pumpkin lighting 🎃
It's videos like this that really make me appreciate my Samsung phone over my IPhone for video recording and editing. The glare from the lights reflecting off your phones lenses is visible in the video at night and is a common problem with iPhone. Great video none the less but you would really enjoy the camera of the Samsung ultra series for making videos.
They should make scare haunted houses in Halloween Town and make music Halloween festivals.
They should make it into a huge yearly event. They have one haunted house but for little kids 🙁
Since the place is iconic for the movies it should be a big event like you said. That would attract mire tourist.
Appreciate the honesty! I'm going to save my money and limited time and take it elsewhere.
Yes 😭😭 I wonder how many people out of state they receive each year & feel the disappointment
@@TwinTravel03 Exactly! I'm from Australia and planning to do a US trip to all the spooky places. So coming all the way for that would of been major disappointing 😂
@sarahmeed5227 oh nooooo 😱🫣 don’t that to yourself lol you might as well reroute to Salem & Sleepy Hollow
Agree completely. Just got back and had the same experience. The shops mostly all sell the same shirts, all made super cheap where the plasticy graphic will crack and wash off within a couple washes. And they want $25. Not worth it for the quality. I warn all of you AVOID the OYO hotel. Omfg. The grossest pos ive ever had to stay in. I normally read reviews (they get a horrible 5.8!) But let my gf book it and what a mistake. So ghetto, people living out of the hotel looking like tweakers and prostitutes. Shouting outside all night. Room was filthy in every way possible and beds rock hard. Neverrrr again. The marina was cool and city hall was cool to look at but the shops were pretty over priced. The 2 Cs vintage shop is massive and has tons of cool stuff. Cool record store and one art store had all kinds of great stuff that wasnt overpriced suprisingly. But the town felt like Rip city. They could do So much more! The klondike was fun to eat at. Good food. Atmosphere reminded me of a McMenamins resturant. Would i go again? Not anytime soon lol luckily i live under 2 hours away so maybe a day trip in the future..
It’s crazy how when we went there was no merch at all. The ones we took we got them on Etsy. A lot of ppl have been mentioning that about the OYO 🥴😳😳 we didn’t even know lol when we went there was other tourist but we didn’t see anything sketchy but never again!! Yea for us it was a two hour flight but we won’t be returning anytime soon 😭😭😭
Haven't been downtown in years but prior to covid we had mostly resale shops with some specialty home goods stores of reasonable price thrown in. We had a great hommade pizza parlor & Umpqua ice cream shoppe. We also had a Twilight store once with nothing but Twilight souvenirs (got me a t-shirt). Fritz & Sassy was my favorite store - so eclectic with all kinds of home goods, new & old. Very Bohemian chic.
The theater is my fav. Not only was it used in the movie but they offered kids season matinee tickets: ten new movies for $8 & the parents got in for free. We went every season, spring & fall, & got to be real good friends with all the employees (if you're reading this, we miss you).
The Klondike restaurant can be great or good depending on who owned it when you visited. We went to the Dockside because we knew the family & the food was consistently good. The owner/chef would visit the tables & if interested give you a cooking tutorial on your dish. My fav was the carbonara, yummy! Sorry but the rent on their building went sky high & they were forced out, then covid hit so they aren't around anymore. Our current fav is Plymouth Pub. The food is fab from burgers to Rib eye dinners. And the fish is better than at the coast (read the reviews). If you drive a mile towards the highway, try Miyako's Japanese restaurant. The food is outrageously good, reasonably priced & kid friendly. We also have a new wave of food carts that came in, some serving Greek food. I'm hungry now.
lol I’m still taking my son everyone’s opinion is different.
Yes this is true. Hope your experience is better than ours 🫶🏼
Thank you 🤍@@TwinTravel03
Seems like they have no interest in competing with Salem Massachusetts.
They should 😭😭
In our defense, we can't. Our town is too small to accommodate all the Salem activities or the crowds. Plus, we're Halloweentown, duh!
someone used your footage @ 9:55 th-cam.com/video/EcZ8X0r9CKs/w-d-xo.html (Top 10 Best Halloween Cities in America)
Oh wow! Thank you for letting us know!!
Yup I’m not into it
Went the first year back in 2019 I think but never going back
We went in 2022 and you would think it would get better and it didn’t ☹️
It's definitely NOT WORTH visiting! Too expensive and very phony and overdone! So many of the St. Helens citizens are SICK of this garbage!