While haunted walking tours are fascinating all year long, taking one around Halloween makes for an especially spooky, unforgettable celebration. You’ll get to hear grisly tales of the city’s past from knowledgeable guides while getting an up-close look at famous sites said to be haunted. From London to Salem, Chicago, Boston, and Paris, these are some of the spookiest walking tours across the globe.
San Francisco, California
Home to the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, Alcatraz and some of the most infamously frightening ghost stories in America’s past, San Francisco is a fabulous place to visit for scenery and haunted tales.
Best Haunted Walking Tours: The Haunted Haight Walking Tour is a good choice that includes a two-hour walk to infamous and lesser-known haunts in the city. It includes the Haight-Ashbury district, which was not only the base for the 1960s “Summer of Love” but it was home to famous murderers and cult leaders.
Haunted SF: Ghosts, Murder, and Mystery is another top pick, where you can learn of paranormal activities, true stories of unsolved crimes, and enter the historic St. Francis Hotel and haunted underground speakeasies.
Tombstone, Arizona
Tombstone is well known as another one of America’s most haunted places with numerous sightings throughout the town, including Boothill Cemetery, famous for its high number of specters that have been seen. You can often spot them wandering through old wooden grave markers – and, some have even been captured on film.
Best Haunted Walking Tour: If you’re looking for a day trip from Phoenix, join the Small Group or Private Tombstone & San Xavier Mission Day Trip from Phoenix and travel back to the days of the Wild West, visit the Mission at San Xavier del Bac and see OK Corral where the most famous gunfight in the history of the Old West took place.
New York City, New York
Ghosts and ghost stories can be heard throughout each and every New York City neighborhood. With tales of disease, murder, lost opportunities and political intrigue just about everywhere you turn, you’re likely to encounter numerous spirits.
Best Haunted Walking Tours: The Ghosts of New York Tour is sure to frighten you with its strange, unusual tales of centuries past, haunted places, ghostly sightings, and the supernatural intrigue of Manhattan, including the spirits of Alexander Hamilton and Captain Kidd. In Brooklyn Heights, you can search for the ghosts of Jackie Robinson and Walt Whitman, and in East Village, you’ll want to keep an eye out for Harry Houdini and Edgar Allen Poe.
You can also sign up for the New York City Ghost Tour of Greenwich Village, which is a walking tour to the city’s most creepy places, including Washington Square Park’s Hanging Tree, the New York University campus and West 10th Street.
Savannah, Georgia
Savannah’s Historic District is filled with magnificent, stately old homes – and many of them are haunted. Take the Hearse Ghost Tour, where you’ll actually ride around the city in a hearse, and visit the Pirate’s House on Broad Street, one of the Savannah’s oldest buildings, as well as the Olde Pink House, where the ghosts of the home’s former owner, and some of his former slaves, are said to still roam. You’ll also want to check out Sorrel-Weed House on Harris Street, which has been featured on HGTV and Syfy – it’s renowned as the most haunted place in all of Savannah.
Best Haunted Walking Tour: The Ghost City’s Dead of Night Tour is a popular choice, where you’ll visit some of Savannah’s most haunted locations, including Colonial Park Cemetery.
Paris, France
Paris has a long and tragic history of murder and execution as well as rampant disease among the lower classes, not to mention its numerous battles fought against a corrupt monarchy.
Best Haunted Walking Tour: You can visit the famed catacombs of Paris and explore the fascinating underground passageways lined with the bones of thousands of former Parisians on your won. For a VIP experience, sign up for the Skip-the-Line: Paris Catacombs Tour with VIP Access to Restricted Areas for a personalized tour with an English-speaking guide and avoid the two-hour queues.
Boston, Massachusetts
Boston is known for its especially bewitching past with its long history of hauntings from colonial times to today. The hangings at Boston Common, pirate executions, Civil War dungeon prisons, the Boston Strangler, and even tales of being buried alive have led to a very interesting present.
Best Haunted Walking Tours: Take the Haunted Boston Ghost Tour to visit all of the city’s historic sites, including historic graveyards like the King’s Chapel Burying Ground in downtown Boston. This fascinating cemetery is said to have seen restless spirits roam since the headstones were moved in 1810. The Central Burying Ground in Boston Common is home to the ghosts of some of the city’s poor and forgotten children too.
Alternatively, the Boston Ghosts and Gravestones Tour is where you can discover some of Boston’s deepest, darkest secrets. Step aboard a trolley and visit Copp’s Hill Burying Ground, the final resting place of Cotton Mather, a man famous for his “intimate” involvement with the Salem Witch Trials.
Edinburgh, Scotland
Edinburgh is not only one of Europe’s most beautiful cities, it’s said to be one of its most haunted. Considering that Mary King’s Close, in Old Town, a street now enclosed underground, was a place where victims of the plague in the 17th century were quarantined and left to die, it’s not all that surprising. There are a number of shadowy figures of lost souls that lurk in the depths of magnificent Edinburgh Castle too, which sits atop an extinct volcano overlooking the city, including a phantom piper and a headless drummer that are counted among its resident ghosts.
Best Haunted Walking Tour: A must when visiting the city, the Edinburgh Darkside Walking Tour: Mysteries, Murder and Legends is led by a knowledgeable guide, who will recall the stories and sites of witch trials, pagan rituals and executions.
Sydney, Australia
While Sydney is known today for its beautiful beaches, nightlife, and other city attractions, it was once a convict colony, resulting from the overcrowding of British jails in the 18th century.
Best Haunted Walking Tour: Visitors can take the Convicts and The Rocks: Sydney’s Walking Tour Led by Historian in Sydney and get access to what lies behind locked gages, on narrow alleys, and explore exclusive locations while listening to creepy tales from a guide. Learn about Australia’s convict history and how it has shaped modern Australia.
Chicago, Illinois
Chicago has a history that is wrought with tragedy and criminal activity, including the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, which tore through the heart of the city, leaving at least 300 people dead and thousands homeless. In the 1920s and ‘30s, mobs ran through the city, killing thousands of victims.
Best Haunted Walking Tours: Take the Chicago Hauntings Ghost Tour, where you’ll visit places like disaster sites, a serial killer’s body dump, haunted houses, murder sites, and abandoned graveyards. You can even look for specters at Bachelors Grove Cemetery, renowned as one of the world’s most haunted cemeteries. You’ll learn about the history of the city from its early beginnings as a frontier outpost through the gangster era and today, with tours based on Ursula Bielski’s nearly three decades of ghost hunting in the city and her “Chicago Haunts” book series.
Don’t miss the Gangsters and Ghosts Tour in Chicago, which takes you back to the roaring 20s and to Chicago Loop, where you’ll learn about gangster hangouts and haunted sites like the Palmer House, Congress Hotel, and Death Alley.
Prague, Czech Republic
Prague’s Old Town is not only stunningly magnificent, but it’s also known as one of the most supernatural spots in all of Europe, where numerous dark events have taken place throughout history. In the 16th and 17th centuries, it was a popular meeting place for astrologers and alchemists during the reign of Emperor Rudolf II, and the area’s beautiful architecture is replete with esoteric symbols that can reveal secrets to those who know how to read them. At the Old Cemetery in the Jewish Quarter, home to an estimated 100,000 bodies, there have been numerous supernatural sightings recorded.
Best Haunted Walking Tour: Join the Walking Night Tour – Ghost Stories and Legends of Prague’s Old Town for a chance to learn about the shady side of Prague as you stroll the dark streets and visit less-traveled routes of the Old Town.
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
As the site where 51,000 Union and Confederate soldiers died during the three-day battle at Gettysburg in 1863, the bloodiest conflict of the Civil War, it’s no surprise that Gettysburg is considered one of America’s most haunted places, particularly on the battlefield. There have been many sightings of ghost soldiers and the sounds of battle heard over the years.
Best Haunted Walking Tour: Take the Civil War Ghosts Walking Tour, where you can explore the paranormal and learn about the history of the city, stopping at places like Unity Park, Gettysburg National Cemetery, Dobbin House Tavern, and Brickhouse Inn Bed & Breakfast.
London, England
When it comes to ghost stories, London is full of them. It’s home to a haunted tower, gloomy dungeons, and, with a rather bloody history, there is also practically an endless number of places where ghosts are known to roam.
Best Haunted Walking Tour: You can take a Ghost Bus Tour through the city accompanied by a ghoulish guide. You’ll visit notorious haunts and delve deeper into the dark history of the city, including murder, execution, and historic sites like St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Tower of London, and the infamous Fleet Street. Hear fascinating facts about London’s grisly history as you make stops at some of the capital’s most eeriest landmarks and haunted sites.
Salem, Massachusetts
In this charming east coast village back in 1692, 20 townspeople were accused of witchcraft and put to death. Today, Salem is known as one of the most popular Halloween vacation destinations, as well as a place for year-round haunted tales.
Best Haunted Walking Tour: Take the 2.5-hour Salem History Walking Tour and join a local guide while learning about the city’s history and visiting landmarks such as the Coven’s Cottage, the Salem Witch Trials Memorial, the Burying Point, and the Witch House. While you’re here, visit the Salem Witch Museum to learn about witchcraft and the historical reasons behind the witch trials.
New Orleans, Louisiana
Haunted walking tours in New Orleans are renowned as some of the best on the planet. They’ll bring you into the city’s uniquely eerie brew of vampire legends, famed cemeteries, voodoo rituals, and surrounding swamplands. Hear the stories of legendary urban apparitions like Queen of Voodoo Marie Laveau, the Armory Ghost, and the Creole Lady of Faubourg-Marigny. You can also explore the Haunted Mansion on Royal Street, where victims of notorious criminal Delphine LaLaurie reportedly still cry and scream at night. If it happens to be a rainy night, be sure to listen for the sound of Pere Dagobert, a French monk whose singing is said to haunt the rain in the Big Easy.
Best Haunted Walking Tour: New Orleans is full of haunted walking tours, but the New Orleans Ghost, Voodoo & Vampire Walking Tour is a favorite, taking you to the city’s most eerie sites at night, including the LaLaurie Mansion and New Orleans Pharmacy Museum.
Victoria, Australia
In Victoria, there are several infamous asylums that are renowned for haunted sightings, including Aradale, a rural town in the southwest region. The Aradale Lunatic Asylum was the largest abandoned asylum in the entire country. There were 13,000 people who died in this institution that operated for 130 years, with many of those deaths likely attributed to what were considered some of the most controversial psychiatric experiments in Australia. Public tours are available at night.
Best Haunted Walking Tours: Join the Hidden Bars & Creepy Tales Tour Of Melbourne CBD tour for a look at the city’s past as you walk around the city center. The haunted walking tour stops at Queen Victoria Market, the Old Melbourne Gaol, Chinatown, and more as a guide shares spooky stories and historical facts about the city.
Located two hours from Melbourne, the J Ward Lunatic Asylum once served as Australia’s home for the criminally insane. When you join the 2-hour J Ward Lunatic Asylum Ghost Tour, you’ll hear stories of notorious prisoners while hearing about the restless souls that are rumored to roam there and learn about reports of the supernatural that have occurred on the grounds.
Reykjavik, Iceland
Iceland is known for its out-of-this-world scenic beauty, but in the capital city’s Old Town, you’ll also find plenty of fascinating ghost stories.
Best Haunted Walking Tour: To learn about popular folklore characters, take the Reykjavik Folklore Walking Tour: Meet the Elves, Trolls & Ghosts of Iceland tour and walk through the oldest parts of Reykyavik, the oldest operational cemetery in the city and a local pond where a water monster lives.
Seattle, Washington
Pike Place Market is not only famous for its seafood, fresh flowers and being a fabulous place to shop, but it’s also renowned as an incredibly haunted spot. The market is home to an old brothel, graveyard, and the city’s first mortuary.
Best Haunted Walking Tour: Enjoy a tipple or two on the Haunted Seattle Ghost and Pub Walking Tour, which combines a pub crawl with a walking ghost tour. A costumed guide will lead you to three different bars, where you’ll learn about all the spooky happenings.
