Haunted History Tour New Orleans: Is it the Best Ghost Tour?

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Last week I attended a Haunted History Tour of New Orleans. I had reached out about a month ahead to the Haunted History Tours company to offer a review. I was excited about this tour having read “CELEBRATING 20 YEARS OF EXCELLENCE! Voted # 1 New Orleans attraction by Travel Channel!” I thought these Haunted History Tours reviews are great, so it must be awesome! After hearing back from them, I invited several members of my family who were in town for a wedding to attend this ghost tour in New Orleans. Was it worth it? Well you’ll have to read my honest Haunted History Tour New Orleans review below to find out.

My Haunted History Tour New Orleans Review

Sad to say, but unfortunately, the Haunted History Tour New Orleans wasn’t the fantastic tour I had expected from all those wonderful Haunted History Tours reviews. Our tour guide took 30 minutes to do her introduction for an hour-and-a-half ghost tour. Taking a third of the time just to get through an intro isn’t an efficient guide. She really needed to manage her time better.

During that whole intro time, we were in an alley next to the St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square. I understand wanting to get us out of the way of a busy street or something for a short time so that we aren’t blocking foot traffic, but to have us stand there with nothing to look at for half an hour was ridiculous. Mind you, this is the same church we had been waiting at to start the tour, so it’s not like we had migrated far in 30 minutes. Instead, seeing the sights and having your group move throughout New Orleans would have been far more interesting.

She quizzed the group on things like ‘Do vampires sparkle?’ and ‘Can you kill them with sunlight?’ We’re on a haunted tour. We are taking it to hear the ‘real’ story, not recap the latest TV show or film for 30 minutes! To make matters worse, she didn’t seem all that interested in what she was saying and kept repeating the same joke over and over.

A Vampire Tour That Bites the Dust

In addition to this, she made several anti-Catholic sentiments. I don’t identify with a religion. But she should be aware that her audience may contain someone who is. Rather than keeping her remarks in the context of historical vampires and past beliefs, her comments seemed personal and offensive. It also made members of my group uncomfortable.

One specific comment she made that sticks out was her explanation of the above-ground burials not being a result of the water table but actually, Catholics’ desire to be closer to God.  While this information is fascinating, her delivery of the comment was flippant and disrespectful. As though it was insane that anyone would ever choose to believe something so ridiculous.

I got the feeling these comments, from her perspective, were views we all shared; however, they weren’t. She should know that in a place like New Orleans, there are a lot of tourists, so there will be a broad mix of people with different religions and beliefs.

Interview with a Vampire

After standing in the alley, we finally moved to another part of New Orleans. We stood across the street from a building used in Interview with a Vampire. This could have been interesting, but our tour guide’s enthusiasm level was lacking. I would have felt for her had she seemed new to this, but alas, she wasn’t. From there, we headed over to the Carter brothers’ place.

Visiting The Carter Brothers

One of the few exciting topics she did bring up was the Carter Brothers, John and Wayne. I had never heard of them before this Haunted History Tour New Orleans, so I was intrigued by their story. They lived in New Orleans in the 1930s and made their living on the Mississippi River. One fateful day, however, before returning home from work, it was said that a young girl had escaped from their apartment in the French Quarter.

The girl made her way to the police, where she showed that both her wrists were cut. Not deep enough for her to bleed to death, but deep enough for her to have been fed upon. Upon finding this out, the police headed to the Carter Brother’s apartment to discover four others tied to chairs with their wrists cut as well. There were also over a dozen bodies found that had been drained of blood. The police then waited for the Carter Brothers to return, and when they did, it took eight of them to hold them down and detain them.

Now, granted this was interesting, but it took about 40 minutes into the tour to get this bit of information. And the bit I’ve posted above is from some online research, not her speech. After standing at this location for about another 10 minutes, we moved just a few hundred feet to another building.

Ending this Haunted History Tour New Orleans

By this point, it had started to rain. Between the disinterest we’d grown and not wanting to get drenched, my family and I chose to leave the Haunted History Tour New Orleans. While my cousin tried to give the guide a tip, she bad-mouthed us to the rest of the group that remained. Mind you, I had handed her my media pass at the beginning of the tour, so one would think better of doing this. Especially to someone who is going to write a review.

Final Thoughts on Other Haunted History Tours ReviewS

On our way out, we passed another group from the same company, Haunted History Tours New Orleans, which had a tour guide who was very engaged with his story. I don’t think our experience is a company-wide problem, just a tour guide who needs to brush up on properly speaking to an audience. That said, I don’t know if I’d do this tour again for fear of getting into the same situation, even with all the other great Haunted History Tours reviews. If I return sometime soon, I think I’ll find another ghost tour in New Orleans or just do something else completely, as there are many fun things to do in New Orleans.

I contacted Haunted History Tours before posting this. They have been very responsive and are taking my feedback seriously. I greatly appreciate this and hope that it improves the tour experience for future tourists to New Orleans.

Have you taken the Haunted History Tour since this posting? Let me know your Haunted History Tours New Orleans review in the comments below.

Transparency: This was a complimentary pass for the Haunted History Tours New Orleans, but all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

Please note I get a commission off links in this post that help fund this blog.

Header photo by Martin Lostak on Unsplash

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