The Stanley Hotel, Estes Park, Colo.

The Stanley Hotel gained fame for inspiring The Shining, a novel Stephen King penned in Room 217. Take the hotel's "ghost tour" to learn all about Freelan O. Stanley, who invented the Stanley Steamer automobile with his twin brother, and who built the hotel. You may even catch a glimpse of him in his favorite room, the Billiards parlor. If the sight, or mere thought, of a ghost leaves your nerves in a knot, visit the hotel's soothing spa.