Toronto is easing out of a long weekend with a packed few days, and the line-up leans heavily on two things the city does well: cheap culture and Halloween. If you're in town between October 13 and 16, there's plenty worth planning an evening around.

Start with the free stuff, because there's a surprising amount of it. The Aga Khan Museum, home to more than 1,200 works spanning Islamic art and culture, waives admission every Wednesday between 4 and 8 p.m. — an easy pairing with the striking building and grounds themselves. Across town, the Gardiner Museum, Canada's ceramics museum just off Queen's Park, is also free after 4 p.m. on Wednesdays, no registration needed. Beyond this week, all ten Toronto History Museums are free at all times, from Fort York National Historic Site to Mackenzie House, Spadina Museum and Montgomery's Inn — the city frames it as making heritage spaces open to everyone, and it makes for a bargain-filled itinerary on any visit.

If you'd rather be scared than educated, Casa Loma's Legends of Horror is marking its tenth October of turning the hilltop castle and its tunnels into an hour-long haunted maze, with scare actors hiding in the gardens. Family hours run early evenings Friday to Sunday; regular scares start at 7 p.m. and tickets begin at $35 plus fees. Over in Vaughan, Canada's Wonderland's Halloween Haunt runs select nights until November 1, adding The Conjuring: Beyond Fear to its mix of mazes, scare zones and after-dark rides, with tickets from $45. For something gentler, Halloween Nights of Lights and Pumpkinville at CF Sherway Gardens in Etobicoke strings up 1.5 million lights and scatters more than 15,000 real pumpkins, plus midway rides and seasonal food — $21.99 for adults, $16.99 for kids, select dates until November 1.

Broadway is in town too: Hell's Kitchen, the Alicia Keys musical loosely built on her life and music, plays the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre through Friday, with evening shows most nights and a Wednesday matinee. Tickets start at a fairly reasonable $29.

For low-key nights, Leaside bar Local hosts free trivia every Tuesday with a $100 gift card for the winning team, and board game café Snakes and Lattes on Bloor runs a general knowledge night the same evening from $12. On the food side, Harry's Charbroiled Burgers has a limited-run breakfast collaboration with Boxcar Social at Waterworks Food Hall on weekends — breakfast sandwiches from $14.50, plus coffee combos and hash browns, served 8 to 11 a.m.

The takeaway for travellers: mid-October is a sweet spot in Toronto. Halloween events run all month, several major museums cost nothing on Wednesday evenings, and theatre and trivia nights keep evenings busy without wrecking a budget. Most of these run on weekly schedules rather than one-off dates, so the same plan works almost any autumn week in the city.

Story spotted via Curiocity.