If you're feeling inspired, Sun Online Travel has put together the ultimate list of chilling attractions around Europe, so forget your beach towel and read on for some very different types of tourist must-sees.
Costa Concordia shipwreck, Italy
Costa Concordia was a cruise ship that had 3,206 passengers and 1,023 crew members on board when it crashed on 13th January 2012.
The ship hit an underwater rock off the waters off the coast of Tuscany near Isola del Giglio.
The ship capsized and the disaster claimed the lives of 32 passengers.
Today you can visit the rusted and battered remains of the cruise ship by boat. Locals run hour-long tours on zodiacs that leave from Genoa’s old harbour and take you within 200 yards of the morbid spectacle.
Babenhausen Barracks, Germany
The Babenhausen Barracks used to house soldiers during World War II but fell into disrepair after the war finished.
Nothing will raise the hairs on your arms quite like a good ghost story and Babenhausen Barracks has a great one – and is supposedly haunted.
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When you get there you may get a fright as you hear ghostly German voices coming from the basement shouting commands to their officers.
Ghostly German soldiers have been seen strolling the halls in their military uniforms and soldiers who have visited the site even report picking up a telephone in the barracks and hearing a woman's voice “speaking backwards” – and no one is able to make out what she is saying.
Oradour-sur-Glane, France
Men, women and children in the village were rounded up by the Waffen SS and massacred. 642 people were killed – some asphyxiated, some machine-gunned and some burnt alive.
The women and children were rounded up and held in the local church which the SS locked and set on fire.
Today if you enter the church you can still see a flattened pushchair, left in its place where it had been found before the altar.
Stepping into the village is like stepping through time with all remains left as they were as a reminder of the tragedy.
Overtoun Suicide Bridge, Dumbarton, Scotland
Near the quiet and peaceful village of Milton in Scotland, there is a mysterious bridge. For reasons unknown, this bridge has been attracting suicidal dogs since the 1960’s and an estimated 50 dogs have taken their lives here.
Witnesses have seen a number of dogs plummet to a gruesome death from the same spot on the bridge.
Some dogs are even so lucky as to survive their brush with death only to return to the bridge and attempt the second jump.
The Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has even gone so far as to send investigators to the bridge to determine the cause of the dogs' suicides. They were also unable to explain the cause of this bizarre behaviour.
Pripyat, Ukraine
In the north of Ukraine, you will find the town Pripyat where the Chernobyl nuclear disaster happened in 1986.
A horrific disaster turned tourist attraction, Pripyat now attracts over 10,000 visitors a year.
Two people were killed during the explosion and 237 servicemen, firemen and employees were diagnosed with acute radiation sickness of which 31 died within the first 3 months.
In the greater population, men, women and children developed cancer, deformities and had symptoms of acute radiation sickness.
Today, the Ukrainian government allows tourists to take short and regulated visits 30 miles into the exclusion zone and into the abandoned town of Pripyat.
The ghost town is like a freeze frame form the Soviet-era, with communist propaganda hanging from the walls – there’s even a decaying school and amusement park.
All the clocks have stopped at 11:55 – the moment that power was cut to the town.
Museum of Genocide Victims, Vilnius, Lithuania
Until 1991, Vilnius, Lithuania was home to a full operation KGB headquarters and prison.
Nowadays the old headquaters has been converted into the Museum of Genocide Victims, educating visitors about the repression of Lithuanian citizens under Soviet rule, including the deportations to Siberian gulags.
Over 75,000 Lithuanians disappeared during the Soviet rule and were sent to the gulags, and others put in prison or executed.
Lithuanians attempting to resist the regime were rounded up, tortured and killed by the KGB.
The museum includes a basement with KGB prisons cells and an execution room, where 1,000 people were put to death.
Troubles Tours, Northern Ireland
Now in post-Troubles Belfast, tourists flock to the streets to learn about the brutal history of the IRA.
This conflict, often described as a guerrilla war, was ended in 1998 by the Good Friday Agreement, but before this involved many bombings and killings between nationalists and loyalists.
Today vistors flock to see the city’s famous political murals and the peace line that was used to keep nationalists and unionists apart during these times and lead to further division among the communities.
You can also get a tour of Crumlin Road Jail and Court House, the place where many people involved in the war were convicted, imprisoned and even executed.
Pompeii, Italy
Pompeii has been famed for centuries for its volcanic eruption in 79AD that left the entire city in ruin after Mount Vesuvius erupted.
The site lay covered in ash but was discovered in the 18th Century and has since held a draw for those interested in the grim and gruesome.
In an archaeological dig of the site, a number gruesome were made of perfectly preserved human bodies.
The bodies are the main draw for many dark tourists with the opportunity to see how Roman citizens tried to flee the eruption, displaying the last agonizing moments of Pompeii.
Sun Online previously revealed chilling photos of the world's most morbid dark tourism sites.
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