Haunted Ghost Tours – Why You Should Go!

Haunted ghost tours have sprung up all over the country.

You may have seen haunted ghost tours in your town or when on vacation. My first tour was in Richmond, Virginia. A woman with a long black cape advertised outside the Edgar Allen Poe house. Two hours later, she led our group through the most historical parts of downtown Richmond. She told stories about the community while pointing out the most historic of buildings. Among the many tales, I remember hearing about the Opera House fire and how a horse and carriage, carrying the Governer’s wife, slid down the icy pavement from the Governer’s Mansion and crashed. After that, I was hooked!

7 top reasons why I love ghost tours:

To become acquainted with a new place.

Many tourists take buses to get their bearings when traveling. I love haunted tours since we stop at each location to hear a story. Boston’s Ghosts and Gravestones combined both walking and busing since there was a lot of ground to cover. It’s a big city!

Haunted ghost tours and why you should go

We went to several historic locations including graveyards where we discovered Paul Revere’s grave; the small one with the flags.

Boston graveyard

To learn about the town’s history.

In New Orleans, we learned a lot about the sinking city, how it burned to the ground and was rebuilt. I enjoyed hearing about its unique culture including a hint of voodoo. Woven throughout were tales of surviving ghosts who still lurk at night.

angel shadow projected on church

See the string of lights on the balcony? They only showed up on film. I have three more pictures like this one!

New Orleans unexplainable lights

To learn about heinous crimes and the infamous evil-doers responsible.

Towns come to life when ghost tour guides spin yarns about perpetrators or the more colorful characters of a town. Suddenly, we’re no longer walking past a historic home from the 1800’s, but are glimpsing a part of the past that shaped history.

Bar Harbor Ghost Tour

To tour historic buildings.

In New Orleans, we toured a restaurant and bar notorious for ghostly visits.

New Orleans spooky speakeasy

In Breckenridge, we toured an old hotel and a home. There is a lot of activity in Breck since graves were dug next to the poor soul who died. Nearly every time they excavate for a new building’s foundation, they find human remains. Creepy or what?

the brown hotel

My first haunted indoor tour took place at the Stanley Hotel. You have to read about my experience to believe it. Or maybe you won’t…

To make discoveries.

While in Bar Harbor, our guide took us to a dark street. A man had written several notes and tossed them into the wind on the street, then went home and hung himself.

One man from the tour peered into a hollow in a tree and discovered this! Could the mason jar contain a note? No one was brave enough to find out…

mysterious jar in a tree stump

To exercise.

Whether you fly or drive to a location, it feels good to get outside and stretch your legs. Most tours take around two hours so you cover a lot of ground.

To get your heart pumping.

There’s nothing better than a good ghost story to tingle your spine. I especially love when I’m familiar with the history, but haven’t heard the paranormal and unexplainable details.

Back in 2008, they moved a little girl’s body from a backyard grave in Breckenridge to the Valley Brook Cemetery. That night, a wind shear tore down trees in a swath all the way to the cemetery and blew down the Victorian iron fence. Right before her grave, the wind changed direction and continued to knock down other gravestones and trees. I remembered reading about the damage in our local newspaper!

What to bring:

Whether it’s autumn, winter, spring or summer, tours are generally at night. Bring a jacket, a water bottle, and wear comfortable walking shoes. Pack a camera to take photos along the way. Most important, bring an open mind.

This photo gave me a heart attack when I got home from a ghost tour in Bar Harbor, Maine. Then I realized it was taken while the group was still in the theater. Ha!

Spooky Theater Bar Harbor

Have you been on a haunted ghost tour? Would you consider going?

Related Posts:

Haunted in Bruges! Photo Essay

Ghost Walk – A Breckenridge Ghost Tour

Haunted at the Stanley Hotel

Being Haunted… A True Story in Time for Halloween

Click for more Wild Adventures!

 

59 thoughts on “Haunted Ghost Tours – Why You Should Go!

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  1. Let’s just talk about New Orleans, where I live.

    The city isn’t sinking. Only the French Quarter burned, not the city, which is why the architecture is mostly Spanish and Vodou is Catholicism turned Haitian.

    As far as the “haunted” bar goes, that’s the meeting place for tours. It’s only haunted by former tour guides.

    Locals don’t take those tours but I passed by them enough to know that the “guides” make up history as they go. The classic example was when I heard a guide say, “this is an example of architecture.” Errr, great. So are the out buildings in my backyard.

    Most tourists are better off going to any of the US historical buildings and picking up information produced by the US Park Service. Most park rangers know more than most people could ever hope to know. And, it’s free. There are also clean bathrooms… for free.

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  2. Do we even need to explain why? If the words “haunted ghost tour” don’t move you, you’re dead inside (and not in the good, seasonal sense of the word). Happy Halloween!

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    1. A man after my own heart, well, you know what I mean. Hahaha!
      Tour guides can be very entertaining. The guide in Boston sang to us! I haven’t gone in Boulder yet, but it’s on my list!
      Happy Halloween to you, Paul! I’ll have to stop by your blog for some extra special Twilight Zone stories! Do you have another blog too?

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  3. I’ve always wanted to go on a ghost tour, but never have. There’s one in a town nearby where I live but I never went on one. I like it’s unusual way to learn about history.

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  4. Always wear dark trousers when ghost touring, and a change of fresh clothing packed in the Car. And one more thing, never ever fall into the Warm Green waters in New Orleans or swamps, in La. Or you’ may surface with leaches. To marrow night, On Dogman Encounters Vic will be presenting the Halloween episode.

    ‘Yes the tragic Horse and carriage accident would be the ripe making for a Haunting.

    ‘I recall once reading a story from the East coast’ that came from a news paper, It where a young women and her two friends accompanying her home late one night from a nearby town from an social event, who as their carriage horse was leapt up at by a road side phantom lit vaguely by the moonlight. Startling the horse’ it bolted off uncontrollably so. And the only thing to do to assure their survival was to rise up and leap off the racing carriage. When the young women as the last of the three to leap did so, her ladies Victorian laced shoe got hung up in the carriage tackle. She fell with only her head touching the ground and she was left screaming as the Horse race off.

    It was her father whom existed his estate, when upon peering out in worry of his late returning daughter saw the carriage and lone house across the acreage. When he approached the horse and carriage it was upon then that he discovered tragic hideous reality, of his dead faceless scalped daughter who had been tragically worn down to the bone, and she had been brought faithfully home by their Phantom panicked horse.

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  5. The story about the little girl in Breckinridge is ultra creepy. Gives me the newbie jeebies! I’m too chicken to go on a ghost tour. My son and his wife love that kind of stuff. You guys are brave. I’d rather live vicariously through you and others like you who share your experiences and I can read about them! Your photos are very cool. I like how they’re all dark and spooky!

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      1. I didn’t even notice the spelling, Lynn! Ha!
        The tours are totally family friendly. The good ones include a lot of the town’s history with the ghosts who continue to haunt woven between.

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    1. Thank you, Mindful Traveller! Me too. I especially love the good tours in which we learn a ton about the history of the town. I’ll never look at Breckenridge the same way, knowing what I do about the wind shear and the red light districts. Yes, there were two of them!

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Oooh! That gave me shivers, Peg. I love haunted tours. The one in Breckenridge really opened my eyes to history. Who knew there were TWO red light districts?
      Always great to “see” you, Miss Peggles!

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  6. Ooh I love a ghost tour. I wish I’d gone on one in New Orleans when we were there. If you come back to the UK, I thoroughly recommend ghost tours in both York and Edinburgh.

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  7. I love ghost tours! We went on one in New Orleans. All the reasons you give for going on these tours make perfect sense to me. Why not discover the history of a place through the stories they tell of the unexplained? Your experience at the Stanley Hotel still gives me chills. I love that you don’t shy away from the ethereal and weird. It’s all part of the Wild Ride.

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    1. It sure is! Ha! Thanks for reading.
      I would love to go on a tour in Boulder. I bet they would tell some chilling tales. I already know of a few hauntings. My friend bought a home where a murder occurred. It had such a negative vibe, he hired a woman to burn sage to rid the house of its “memory.” It totally worked!

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  8. There is a two hundred year old school in Ireland that has had a lot of poltergeist activity for a while, the school has set up Cameras and have had resent footage, but I am still no sure. As chairs and doors can be moved about by clear fishing line. The bookshelves are set up in front of windows and things like that.

    ‘The Apparitions, the half and headless dog and nude ghoulish women in the 1860’s mining town high up in the Inyo Mountains with her face gone as she appears to have been the victim of a acid attack, but most more likely the disfigured victim of a horrid decaying Social disease. Are the real deal, you know when you’re looking at seemingly impossible people or animals. And unless it’s your own kitchen cupboard door repeatedly slamming open and closed, then you alone know it 100 percent the real deal, after your mind has processed what you have just encounter.

    ‘Have you ever expearenced Apparitions or Poltergeist activities? You had mentioned of seeing the guy that looked like he had just gone through a windshield. Was it nighttime or was like my encounters which both happened in the middle of Hot’ summer days in broad daylight? I think having an encounter in the middle of a cold and windy night or meeting an apparition in the upper story hallway of your bedchamber in a old Irish or Scottish or Bulgarian castle would just as frightening if not more so.

    ‘I would love to hear the Encounter stories that happened out of the normal context of the everyday garden verity haunting. You know where I would not like to encounter a ghoul? Underwater while diving an old ship wreck. Nothing like Blowing suba mask off your face in bellowing creams and filling your Latex Scuba jammies. Shit! And that was just what happened to a couple of guys diving a well know sunken shipwreck in the cold waters of the Great Lakes. It’s the wreck of the SS Kamloops, they call him ‘Grandpa’ Also known as ‘Old Whitey’ the victim’s corpse has long remained trapped in the wreck, for nearly 100 year now, is still down there, in the frigid cold waters, which preserves flesh far longer than in sea water, or warmer waters.

    ‘There is actually a underwater video taken of Old Whitey in the wreck, and old whitey’s legs can be seen. Because of the Human remains of the crew members still on the sunken vessel the national park Service has protected the shipwreck as a culture treasure. Some divers that have encountered the old preserved corpse says there is just something no ok, some divers have stated the old buoyant corpse seemed to follow them around as they explored the wreck, others write it off as just changing currents.

    ‘I don’t dive anymore. You see back in 1963’ that night in our bedroom that encounter caused me to scream my ass off continually as an automatic response to shear fright, and I screwed up my air in doing so, Hyperventilated, of which I can only explain as drowning out of water, air fills your lungs but you cannot breathe it. And that’s nothing I want to ever go through again, especially while under water, with ships wreckage to renegotiate to find a way out of and resurface. There would be no way to survive that if it happened.’

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  9. I found the perfect haunted spot for a sensitive to stay.
    I am searching for the perfect establishments for you and Danny to stay at when you travel to and tour the State of Oregon, I found one such establishment a mid 1800’s era Hotel haunted by a ghoulish specter and other ghosts. But it far across state, no airport, and a full days travel. But I found one better, with over a hundred sightings of the ‘Grey Lady’ by guests and renovation workmen. There is a gong sand by ‘Birdy’ and there is PSI paranormal investigation with positive results a active video of moving orbs, a flash of a shadow, and light anomalies captured, rattling dishes, and opening window latches and windows, and opening doors, items disappearing, and the Lady Specter herself seen floating outside the on the estate.

    He name’s is said to be that of ‘Rue’ although she the specter is not matched by later Victorian photos, it was during a séance session in which the Letters R – U – E were observed through the middle circular hole of the Planchette. While the participants of the séance where seated before ‘Talking board as they were called back then. I had heard that Rue was the little girl whom died by falling off the cliff and was discovered by her mother down at the water edge or down while playing in the tide pools at low tide. There is supposedly the head stone of the little girl upon the hill side hidden in the tall grasses or in the brush, but no can seem to rediscover it. Life’ magazine has done a article upon the haunted Lighthouse as well. You won’t want to book it in the winter months as our winters upon the Oregon Coast are brutal to say the least of it. But then some people love getting drenched and sporting Hurricane hair around town.

    The Lighthouse is still their although now dismantled. And the lumber was transported inland and used in the building of an establishment in Mapleton. The Lighthouse Keeper assistant house is still there and it is what Rue or the Gray lady haunts. The Lighthouse Keepers house in now a Bed and Breakfast. But you must reserve you stay at least three months in advance. You can rent a room or rent the entire house for a privet family event. I send you more history and details the Lighthouse and keeper’s inn is nestled on the coast sloping hill, overlooking the sea. I suggest booking your stay during The Migration of the whales.

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    1. Ops, too many hours up researching, I made an error it was not the Singer Birdy it was another singer that sang about the Gray Lady ghost of Heceta Light House Haunting(s).

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