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Haunted Trails Family Amusement Center
Categories: Active Life Amusement Parks Active Life Mini Golf Amusement Parks, Mini Golf [Edit]
7759 S Harlem AveBurbank, IL 60459
(708) 598-8580
- Hours:
Mon-Thu 11 am - 10 pm
Fri 11 am - 12 am
Sat 10 am - 12 am
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
30 reviews for Haunted Trails Family Amusement Center
Review Highlights
"Not only that they have go-carts for adults and children..."
(in 3 reviews)
"...favorite movie monsters from Frankenstein to the Creature..."
(in 4 reviews)
"...the childhood fun of skee-ball, shooting games, video games..."
(in 3 reviews)
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30 reviews in English
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Review from B L.
Burbank, IL
9/14/2011
I would recommend this place to everyone, young and old alike!
I have had SO many fun times here as a kid and an adult! You can't go wrong with mini-golf, go-karts, and video games (and the prizes! oh the glorious prizes!).
What can I recommend? Not eating the pizza I guess. -
Review from Courtney S.
Westmont, IL
4/18/2011
Some of the best memories of my childhood were born here. There simply isn't a better place to be a kid (or kid at heart).
The games!
The rides!
The prizes!
While arcades may never again reach their halcyon days of the 80s and 90s when every kid's dream was to be weighted down with quarters and given the day to play, you can relive those memories here.
I simply cannot wait to come back. -
Review from David R.
9/6/2010
It's a shame that Yelp won't allow me to post photos right now, because this is a pretty neat mini-golf course. They have an eclectic Halloween theme--pretty cartoony, but still a lot of fun. You've got a Creature from the Black Lagoon, a haunted house, a Dracula's castle, a giant skull, a bubbling pool of blood, and so on and so forth. The garbage receptacles are five-foot pastel ghosts with wide-open mouths.
The course is fairly easy. I shot an even-par 46, which included a true hole-in-one on the 12th hole, plus another on the final hole, which netted me a free game by shooting the ball down a narrow chute and into the skull's mouth. However, on a couple of holes where you must shoot the ball up a ramp towards a structure (e.g. the haunted house) it is unclear where you should be aiming. Also, there's no provision for when your ball goes into the water hazard accidentally. I caught a freak bounce off the side bumper on the 5th, and my ball kicked up into the air, off the course, and into the water. There are no signs posted around or instructions on the score card about lost balls. So I climbed over the little fence and fished around in the drink with my club until I pulled out two balls; sadly, neither were my original one, but that was my penance for hitting a bad shot, I suppose.
After your round, of course you have to check out the games inside. This facility is apparently the sister location of Enchanted Castle in Lombard. I like the Lombard offerings better; Haunted Trails is smaller and lacks the really cool games such as dinosaur hunting. However, they do have Skee-Ball for fifty cents per game (nine balls). I love that stuff, man.
The candy selection seemed limited too, but we made off with some Twizzlers and Junior Mints and a Charleston Chew, and a few other delightful retro candies.
I would definitely come back here for mini golf. I would say that this is one of the three or four best courses in the greater Chicago area. I wonder if they are open through the Halloween season...Listed in: Chicagoland Mini Golf
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Review from Jolene G.
Chicago, IL
11/13/2011
I'm sorry, but people who say the pizza is bad are crazy! It is my FAVORITE pizza in all of Chicago, no lie! I love Haunted Trails, where tokens can be bought a lot cheaper than Chuck E. Cheese in packages with much more delicious food. We are even considering it for our daughter's first birthday party. The prizes at this place are much better than at Chuck E. Cheese and if nothing else, our baby will love the colorful lights and buttons on the machines and try to play a little. In the winter months, after labor day, even the cheapest party package comes with 40 tokens, while Chuck E. Cheese's cheapest package is more expensive and comes with half the tokens. I love this place and I have thousands of tickets waiting to accumulate when we take our next trip.
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Review from Rachel H.
8/6/2007
EEEEE! I love this place so freaking much.
A giant skull at the 18th hole? Check.
Ghost garbage cans? You got it.
Houses that moan at you when you hit your ball into them? Hell yes.
Batting cages? Three kinds of skee-ball? Spider stomping DDR? YES, YES, and TRIPLE YES!
I loved the ghostie trash cans and all the fun haunted things. The best part was winning enough tickets to "buy" a squeaky toy whale so annoying that my companion threatened to take out his squeaker. What a jackass. Actually that isn't the best part. The best part is that both me and my bff got one so we can make a squeaky whale harmony to terrorize my companion and anyone else that crosses us. -
Review from Becky S.
North Hollywood, CA
10/18/2009
Jack Skellington would definitely approve of this place---it's Halloweentime all year round!
I'm not an authority on miniature golf courses, but I think Haunted Trails is quite possibly the best ever. There are a few features with creepy sound effects, blood-red lakes and fountains, and all your favorite movie monsters from Frankenstein to the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Not to mention the open-mouthed ghost trash cans that sort of resemble blow-up dolls---perfect for photo-opps.
If you love Halloween as much as I do, then it's definitely worth a trek out to the southwest Chi-town suburbs.Listed in: Five Star Power, This is Halloween
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Review from Mark K.
Brookfield, IL
11/23/2010
Haunted Trails used to be one of my stomping grounds as a kid back in the late 90's/early 2000's. If you didn't have at least one birthday party there then you were obviously missing out. I was pretty masterful when it came to catching all that fake money in the wind machine.
I've made some trips there recently and it's still fun as an adult...and I use the term "adult" loosely. I get this wonderful nostalgic/retro/90's feel when I go there.
Some of the games are a bit outdated, but that is not a fault in my opinion.
Go! Enjoy! Be childish! -
Review from Becky S.
Chicago, IL
12/10/2007
Every time I remember this place, I think of the fact that I need to go there again before it closes. Rumors to this effect have been circulating for years, but to my knowledge, it still stands.
Haunted Trails was the site of many a childhood birthday party (never my own, and I was so jealous of the birthday kid, who got to stand in the fabled Money Machine--a glass box that blew dollar bills around while the chosen child frantically tried to collect as many as possible), Brownie/Girl Scout pizza parties, and general Friday nights in high school, being too young and broke to go anywhere interesting and too unhip to be invited to any parties.
Mini golf.. God. A few bucks got you 18 holes, a club, and a neon ball--which, if you were lucky, you did not chip into the blood bath on the sixth (?) hole. Challenging to hit your ball into a haunted house and a ghost's mouth while Frankenstein loomed menancingly. One of my oldest stuffed animals (Chompy the shark) came from an impromptu competition that my brother and I ended up winning (illegally, I might add.. the host took pity on me and gave me the prize after a hole-in-eight.)
Ah, nostalgia. Haunted Trails marked various moments of my childhood and adolescence, from triumphantly "winning" Chompy the shark to batting cages to being caught making out with my high school boyfriend outside the arcade. Good times.Listed in: Oh boy! We're going to the…, This used to be my…
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Review from Martha Z.
Chicago, IL
7/17/2007
When I was 8 years old I got a surprise visit from my pen pal, Carrie. Our parents arranged an awesome sleep over weekend that involved horseback riding, trips to the mall, and haunted trails. Unfortunately on our way to haunted trails I stuck my gum in Carrie's hair. We spent a good half hour trying to get the damn thing out, only making it worse. Eventually one of the arcade workers had to cut it out with a pair of scissors. I don't think Carrie ever answered my letters back after that.
Anyways...it's nice to know that Haunted trails hasn't changed much in almost 2 decades. Sure the arcade games my have been updated, or there are some new rinky dink rides, but essentially, it's 1988 all over again. This time I made sure not to stick gum in my friend's hair.Listed in: Roadtrip!
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Review from Mia S.
Chicago, IL
7/9/2008 1 photo
This place is sick. I could live here, nestled between the row of pinball machines and the claw machine that has tiers and tiers of silver plated bling.
I was here last weekend and while taking a break from some pinball, I stood by the go kart track trying to predict who would cross the finish line first. Maybe it will be the Taco Bell car? M&M? Oh but none of that mattered because a kid spun out on the track and I saw liquid spilling out of the front of his car and in the blink of an eye, that shit was on fire! Now I could understand the joy of NASCAR as I was watching a miniature version of it and the crowd was visibly horrified but more importantly, entertained. The kid struggled with his seat belt then finally hopped out in a rush and the Haunted Trails staff came with a fire extinguisher and the fiasco was over.
Just another day at Haunted Trails. -
Review from Paul F.
Chicago, IL
3/24/2009
I can't think of another place with such a high percentage of five star reviews. Haunted trails is worth every one.
It's like some genius (I think it might have been Rich Koz) decided to roll in all your favorite things about halloween, make it year round and divide it by two arcades, go karts, batting cages, miniature golf, blood fountains, a money machine (I never got to play it, but I'm still pretty sure the concept is a little over my head) and crappy pizza. What's more is the seasonal addition of a haunted house in october to balance out the off season haunted decor as though they were multiplying zero by zero but instead of zero they came up with a quadruple factor of perfect kind of monster gore which is perfect for children with a remainder of Frankenstein.
Like Robin, I redeemed report cards here for tokens based on my grades They never gave me too many for math. I believe the redemption system went A=4 tokens, B=3, C=2, D or F= NOTHING! All you parents should see if this still happens. -
Review from Lois A.
Chicago, IL
9/11/2009 1 photo
I think I would have been at Haunted Trails all the time if I had grown up around here. Haunted things + go karts are the only things I really need for an awesome evening.
My boyfriend told me that he had never been on a go kart and that just seemed soooo wrong. I wanted to get him on one immediately and race him to the death. Haunted Trails jumped into my brain. I'd driven by the huge Frankenstein lots of times and always wanted to go and I now had the perfect reason.
We went later in evening so we wouldn't have 8 million kids to deal with. It was awesome. We were the only two people on the track the first two times we went around and it totally satisfied the need for speed in both of us. We recently took an out of town friend here to play mini golf and that was a lot of fun too. Way more fun than the average boring course. Again, we went in the evening and it wasn't crowded at all. Totally fun! -
Review from Mandi S.
Chicago, IL
4/30/2010
Haunted Trails is a great place to take the kids you can get great deals, and join the birthday club to get coupons. However when hosting a birthday party the staff does not interact with the kids during the games, they do not seem to have much pep or really want to be there. the food wasn't that great chuck e cheese pizza is way better,
However the mini golf, archade part, rides go karts prizes are nice, way better than chuck e cheese on that one. -
Review from Robin W.
Chicago, IL
5/21/2008
It's important that you know, that somewhere on the outskirts of Chicago (Burbank), there exists a mini-golf course where all of the fountains are dyed red to resemble blood...not because it's Halloween, not because people have died in them (though this is a possibility), but simply because these trails....they's haunted!
p.s. when i was a scout, I could get extra tokens for bringing in a report card that had good grades.
Not sure about the age cut off for this...
But, if you've failed everything in your adulthood like I have, you may want to bring some extra bones. -
Review from Marissa P.
Chicago, IL
9/8/2008
I've loved coming here since childhood. I think I remember having my birthday party here too once!
Whats not to love about Haunted Trails? The Go Karts, ghost garbage cans, the minature golf course, fountains of blood. Although some things aren't the same. Like my biggest favorite about Haunted Trails, the arcade room. Way back when it had the best up and coming games out there. I remember playing Survival Arts, Tekken Tag Tournament, Marvel VS Capcom, Generation X (Aerosmith!). Now its its been stripped bare bones with a few old machines still standing. Plus anyone remember the Headless Horseman in front of the ticket room?
I will always love this place if only for nostalgic reasons. Its definitely a place you need to experience once in your life however. -
Review from Bryan W.
Chicago, IL
11/4/2009
Corny check
Crazy Carny rides that can somehow make you dizzy or feel like your going to die check
putt putt check
awesome haunted house that scared us. Check
awesome check check check.
Good times, the only reason I give this place 4 stars is because I actually expected it to be more run down. Everything was just a little to "new" for my tastes. But it was perfect the night before drunken debochary. Plus no old 80's arcade games? What the hell? -
Review from Michelle H.
Bolingbrook, IL
11/9/2006
I have been coming here for years. Not just as a kid either. It turns out to be a good place to go on a fun date. They have a miniature golf course that has a ghostly theme, with all the water traps and fountains running with a red colored water. Not only that they have go-carts for adults and children, and batting cages for both baseball and softball. Tired of outdoor activities, go inside to the game room and indulge in the childhood fun of skee-ball, shooting games, video games, and all kinds of carnival type games. Starting in mid to late September, they have a fairly decent haunted house. They of course mainly cater to a younger crowd, and have a special party room where they serve mediocre pizza. But no matter what, this is just a really cool place to go, kids or no kids.
Listed in: Kid at Heart
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Review from Amber M.
Indianapolis, IN
12/18/2007
OMG!!! I can't believe I'm the first one to rant and rave about the go-karts here!!! I had a very competitive father growing up, Kinda of Ricky Bobby "If your not first- You're last" thing going on, which has had a MAJOR impact on how I do...well...EVERYTHING!
I can remember one time my brother, uncle, father and I went as a special treat, We had to be separated, my dad went with my brother and I went with my uncle and these 2 other suburban bratty chicks, that I still want to punch in the face. First one practically knocked me over to take the #11, it wasn't faster, just had my lucky number (which I had commented about while in line next to her). So we pull outta the gate, she is in front of me swerving all over the track so I can't get around her, till the 2nd to last lap when we hit the "S" curve and she goes wide, I knock the back quarter panel of her go kart and spin her out to hear my father scream-"THAT'S MY GIRL!!" She got stuck on the tire edging for the last lap and the guy couldn't get her out. I'm evil but I took first place that's all that mattered to me!!! -
Review from Brian H.
Chicago, IL
7/4/2010
used to come here all the time when I lived closer, not much has changed. A round of minigolf is 6$ per adult, which is fairly reasonable. It gets a reduction in stars because one hole (the 5th) was closed due to disrepair and the smell of gasoline from the speedway next door was very strong and gave me a migraine
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Review from Kevin C.
Burbank, IL
4/1/2011
I'm going to start working here on Saturday just to let you guys know that there is going to be a new arcade room(only runs in quarters) and a new snack shop. So come stop bye people great place to go to this time of year before it gets surrounded by kids haha!
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Review from Edward B.
La Grange Park, IL
5/23/2010
Mini-golf, go karts, the arcade...lots of fun here, and relatively affordable. My boys and I (11, 18 and too old to mention) have gotten addicted to the arcade games that pay out tickets that can be turned in for prizes that are worth SO much less than what you spend at the arcade...but it's soooo fun. Kinda like gambling at a casino, but open to all ages and you spend WAY less money. Were' up to about 3,300 tickets....let's see how high we can get it before we turn them in :) Great fun....and the go kart track is REALLY fun.
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Review from Joe C.
Chicago, IL
1/21/2008
Some say it's haunted.
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Review from Corley S.
Naperville, IL
7/16/2009
The only thing haunting about haunted trails is it's location. Maybe I picked the wrong time to go but I would not recommend this place unless you have kids or you are on a death wish.
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Review from Marie M.
Frankfort, IL
6/4/2010
I never went to play miniature Golf at such a clean and creatively designed course! The workers are all very happy and friendly, wiling to go out of their way. I will never forget the day in the arcade with my little boy, they have every fun game invented. You could really empty your wallet here. It's worth the drive to go here above any other place- it blows Hollywood out of the water!
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Review from ELLIE M.
Chicago, IL
6/10/2009
What better place to come and enjoy a party with your family and kids and just have a great day. All in all I can honestly say this place turns me into a lil kid again I love going on the go carts, miniature golf, and playing the deal or no deal game. And the pizza is pretty decent too. My kids love this place and I would definitely recommend HT if your throwing a party for your kid. They have very reasonable party packages and I guarantee you'll have a great time.And in October they have a cool lil haunted house.
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Review from Tara D.
Chicago, IL
8/30/2010
The mini-golf is nice, not too challenging and has some of the expected corny-fun challenges (but not on every hole). However, I would not go here if the temperature is above 80 and I especially wouldn't bring kids if it was that hot - better to wait for cooler weather. The course has very little shade, no place to sit down and no way to easily exit without walking across the other players' games. Make sure you bring water.
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Review from cher b.
Plainfield, IL
3/5/2008
Good variety of fun for all ages. I enjoyed HT when I was 11 years-old and I enjoy HT now, and I'm a bit older. Clean restaurant with great service.
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Review from mike k.
7/1/2009
I have two reviews for this place - i ran summer camp last year and after taking the kids to a place that bored the living crap out of everyone i detoured the bus driver into randomly coming here, where we were greeted with free ice cream for all the kids and a sweet deal for pizza and tokens. Haunted Trails kept all the kids busy, kids from all ages, with video games, go carts, mini golf, etc. It was a kick ass field trip. I spent a random Tuesday night after bball practice with my buddy Amie on a mission to win a giant Stewie doll (actually I wanted Brian dressed as a banana but that wasnt in the cards). The games are limited, which is the only issue...there's only so much to do or play to win stuff. Yet i did have the best "monster mix"...which is basically a blizzard with m&m's...but with a lot more m&m's mixed in. It was truly the best thing ever! Ive eaten here before, they have great messy fries and nachos for cheap, along with the typical drinks. No weightwatchers meals here, folks. The pizza is average yet cheap and edible, and the staff is very helpful, if not proactive.
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Review from Christina K.
Chicago, IL
9/6/2008
Loves it!! My friends almost made me puke on one of the rides but I am still very excited to go back!
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Review from Fedai F.
Oak Lawn, IL
10/6/2009
Fun for the kids. Have them bring in their report cards for tokens! Lots of games to play and as well as rides outside when the weather is nice otherwaise the rides outside are closed. Ditch the rides and take the family to play mini golf which is probably the best part of Haunted Trails. There is an eattinng area and they serve the regular junk food..pizza, hotdogs, chips...we were invited to a birthday party and it was pretty nice. Decor needs to updated though, I feel like I'm sitting in an old place when I go here.
