Five best ... cemetery tours
Recoleta Cemetery, Buenos Aires
Eva Perón's grave is just one of many of the Argentine rich and famous whose private mausoleums lie in this prestigious district's bone zone. It forms the focus for half of a three-hour walking tour of Recoleta and Retiro, the rich northern areas of the city, full of posh mansions, green squares and boutiques. Ghost stories guaranteed.
Around US$100 for a group of three. buenostours.com.
Père Lachaise, Paris
Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Chopin, Edith Piaf, Colette ... If these souls were raised at night it would be some party. All lie buried beside the leafy paths of the city's most famous cemetery, which covers 44 hectares. Guided visits can be arranged through the Paris council.
0033 1 40 71 75 60, en.parisinfo.com/museum-monuments/781/pere-lachaise-cimetiere-du-. €5.70 per adult.
Tikhvin, St Petersburg
With beautiful gothic memorials and A-list residents such as Dostoevsky, Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky, this is an evocative site, sitting beside Alexander Nevsky Monastery, founded by Peter the Great. Several renowned architects and royalty are buried in the Lazarus Cemetery next door. The monastery's baroque churches are magnificent.
A tour of the cemeteries can be booked as an add-on to a three-hour city tour by car or bus from the monastery, with Ost-West (007 812 327 3416, ostwest.com). From £26pp for both.
St Louis No 1, New Orleans
Because the city is below sea level, historically, flooding would cause the air-filled coffins to rise up from the earth. To prevent this ghoulish sight, burials are now above ground, so New Orleans's cemeteries resemble cities, with big tombs, streets and street signs - St Louis is the oldest, dating from 1789, and where voodoo queen Marie Laveau is said to rest. They can be dodgy at night so go on a daytime tour.
Tourneworleans.com, 10am and 1pm Mon-Sat, 10am Sun, from 334B Royal St, Royal Cafe Beignet. $15 per adult.
St Mary's, Whitby
One of England's most picturesque graveyards, St Mary's has a striking harbour setting beside the abbey made famous in Bram Stoker's Dracula. Look for the graves of "Humpty Dumpty" - a tombstone shaped like an egg - and "Tom Thumb" - the grave of a child who drowned after falling off the harbour wall, which local kids were traditionally taken to see after church.
Tombstone Tour (March-Sept only, on demand in winter excl. Halloween), led by storyteller Harry Collett, from Whale Bone Arch, West Cliff, 8pm. Adults £4, under-14s £2. 01947 821734, users.global net.co.uk/~fcoll/. Dracula and Ghost walks of the town also available.
· The following clarification was printed in the Guardian's Corrections and clarifications column on Saturday November 1 2008. The Stravinsky buried in the Tikhvin cemetery in St Petersburg is Fyodor Stravinsky, father of the composer Igor Stravinsky. Igor Stravinsky is buried in Venice.