4 Best Ghost and Mystery Tours in Houston

From the well-known story of the haunting of the Gálvez Hotel on Galveston Island to the horror stories at Spaghetti Warehouse, a good tour of the city streets will reveal its dark history, so if you like to be scared, these tours are one of the best things to see and do in Houston.

These tours take place at night and take you to places that are said to be haunted. In addition to hearing these stories from the tour guides, you can also experience for yourself the feeling of walking through a haunted place, definitely an experience for the more daring.

This is a dual experience that you can enjoy whether you want to learn more about the most famous ghosts in downtown Houston or have a fun time enjoying the city's most iconic pubs and bars. It's a tour for all tastes and ideal if you want to meet new people.

Throughout the tour, you'll visit trendy pubs and sample the most popular drinks, so this also counts as one of the best wine tours in Houston. You'll be accompanied by your expert tour guide who will tell you the history of each of the most haunted places in the city center.

The tour will begin in the late afternoon, so you'll have the opportunity to see the city streets at night. It's definitely a good time to hear the most spine-chilling stories about the ghosts of the area.

Details of interest

• Price: This experience costs approximately $36 per person.
• Duration: The tour lasts around 2.5 hours.
• Transportation: You will need to make your own way to the starting point, while the rest of the experience is done on foot.

Downtown Aquarium

This is an incredible and fun Halloween adventure to enjoy any time of year. It consists of a series of clues that will appear on your phone to guide you to the next stop on your tour. Each of these places is part of a spine-tingling story that unfolds as you unravel each mystery.

The best part of this experience is that as you uncover each mystery in the story, you'll learn about every secret and haunted place in Houston. It's an ideal experience for those who like fun but also mystery. Due to the time of day it takes place, it's an excellent option among things to do in Houston at night.

Some of the places you'll visit during your tour include the Downtown Aquarium, Alley Theater, and the Esperson. You'll also get to see other lesser-known places in the city, including the place where John F. Kennedy stayed the night before his assassination. You'll also get to visit an ecological park. This entire tour will take you on an incredible journey through history.

Details of interest

• Price: You can enjoy this outdoor experience for approximately $144 per person.
• Duration: The tour lasts approximately two and a half hours.
• Transportation: The tour is on foot, so you will need to make your own way to the meeting point.

This is one of the most spine-chilling supernatural experiences you can have in Houston, so I recommend that you take this tour with adults only, as it is not suitable for children. During the tour, you will hear firsthand the most heartbreaking and terrifying stories of this city that has so much to tell.

At each of the stops on this tour, which is definitely one of the best tours in Houston, you will learn a different story. You will also have the opportunity to hear the terrifying stories from the voices of the witnesses themselves.

You will also have the opportunity to learn about the history of the city and how it is linked to supernatural encounters. The tour lasts approximately one hour, during which you will walk to each of the locations suggested by your tour guide, who will also make sure that you don't miss any of Houston's iconic haunted places.

Details of interest

• Price: You can experience this paranormal encounter with history from $27 per person.
• Duration: The tour lasts approximately one hour.
• Transportation: The tour is on foot, so you will need to make your own way to the meeting point.

This will be a spooky but fun walk in the company of a tour guide who will be dressed up and show you truly haunted sites such as Buffalo Bayou, Market Square Park, and the underground market at the Conservatory. All of these places have dark stories that you have to hear.

But that's not all! Your guide will also tell you everything you need to know about the history of Houston and how it is closely linked to ghost stories.

The walk will last approximately two and a half hours, and as it is a spooky and fun experience, it is a great activity to do in Houston with children.

Important details

• Price: This tour can cost approximately $30 per person.
• Duration: The tour lasts approximately 2.5 hours.
• Transportation: You must make your own way to the meeting point. Once there, the tour will continue on foot.

The duration of this type of tour varies greatly depending on what you want to see and the number of places you visit. A tour that takes you through the city center to see some of the most iconic places could last around one to one and a half hours.

If you want to choose a much longer family tour, with more places to visit and many more stories to discover, the tour can be extended to two hours. On the other hand, if you choose the type of experience that takes you on a scavenger hunt and is completed in the form of a game, the time can be extended even further.

As long as the tour has a specific duration, you will have the option to extend it for an additional fee. The duration may also vary depending on the quality of the group and how enjoyable the trip is. It also depends on the type of transportation you use; if you go on foot, it may take longer than by car.

Another factor that determines the duration of this type of tour is undoubtedly the number of stories you will hear along the way. When the experience includes storytelling by people who have had certain paranormal experiences, you may spend more time than you expect on the tour.

You will mainly learn about Houston's most famous ghost stories. Needless to say, this is one of the spookiest and most haunted cities in the United States, so there is no shortage of stories.

You will also hear about paranormal experiences from people who have had them, and if you are lucky, you may even have a real paranormal experience of your own. The ghost stories in the city vary depending on where the story takes place, some are in hotels, others in restaurants.

You won't just hear ghost stories, because on most of these tours you'll hear firsthand about the history of the city in general, from its formation to the present day. In fact, on some family tours you'll hear more than just scary stories, you'll hear interesting and even funny stories.

Returning to the paranormal theme, you're sure to meet some of the city's most popular and friendly spirits, because not all the stories are dark and terrifying. You'll also hear love stories whose protagonists have become urban legends in this city.

• If you want to go with children, first make sure that the tour is suitable for them. There are many tours for the whole family, so try to find one of those.
• Be sure to wear appropriate clothing for the weather, as most experiences are canceled due to inclement weather.
• If you have mobility issues, I recommend thinking carefully before booking this type of walking tour, as it could be a real problem for you.
• Wear comfortable shoes because you will walk more than 2.5 kilometers on all the experiences.
• Keep in mind that none of the experiences include food or drinks, so I recommend eating before you start the tour because you won't have a chance to eat during the tour.
• Make sure there is public transportation near the starting point and end point of the tour.
• If you use a wheelchair or are accompanying someone who does, be sure to choose tours that offer adapted routes for these cases.

As Houston is a city with many iconic and, above all, spooky places, it is common to visit the places where the most paranormal activity in the city is said to occur. These places include the Houston Zoo, the ICON Hotel, La Carafe, and Hermann Park. Each has its own chilling stories.

Houston Zoo

This is one of the most incredibly haunted places in Houston. In fact, one of the experiences that haunts the site tells the story of a Houston Zoo keeper, the first one, who was caught by the police trying to spy on some teenagers in a nearby car.

When the police discovered this person, they decided to shoot him. Since then, it is said that the soul of this keeper, named Hans Nagel, continues to appear at the zoo when the gates close and the lights go out.

If you don't want to wait for the lights to go out to experience the splendor of the zoo, I recommend purchasing the Houston CityPass, which allows you to visit the city's most iconic places at no additional cost.

La Carafe

This is definitely one of the most haunted bars in Houston. But besides that, it's one of the oldest places to stop by for a glass of wine or a beer. La Carafe is such an old bar that the cash register doesn't accept debit or credit cards, so you'll have to bring cash to pay.

On the other hand, and returning to the spooky nature of this place, if there's one thing that's certain, it's that this tavern is haunted. Occasional séances are held upstairs. The staff also often say that they have seen bottles fall over by themselves many times.

The atmosphere of the bar itself is really creepy, because it is lit by candlelight and is almost always dark inside, so from the moment you arrive, the vibe starts to feel heavy and turns into a completely spooky atmosphere that grabs you from start to finish.

This type of tour is especially recommended if you love scary stories, interesting stories, and, above all, if you are fascinated by everything related to the development of a city. I recommend this tour whether you are a local or a tourist in Houston, because it is a way to see the other side of the city.

On the other hand, I love this type of ghost tour because it gives you the opportunity to learn more about the protagonists of these stories, what their lives were like in the past, and why they are now stuck in this kind of limbo, living in the city of Houston but from the afterlife.

I recommend taking this tour with a guide because it's much more fun to experience it in a group with someone to guide you through all the spookiest places in the city. That way, you're guaranteed to learn things you didn't know before. And look on the bright side, if something scares you, at least you'll have company.

And of course, I recommend taking any of these ghost tours because Houston's reputation as a haunted city is not in vain, so it's a real waste if you visit the city and don't dare to take a tour like this to discover the dark side of the city.