Haunted History Tour Review: What This Vampire Tour in New Orleans Was Really Like
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Searching for the best vampire tour in NOLA and wondering if Haunted History Tour New Orleans lives up to the hype?
With dozens of vampire and ghost tours in the French Quarter, choosing the wrong one can ruin your trip. Nothing’s worse than spending your hard-earned money and precious time on a tour that promises spine-tingling stories but delivers boring lectures and a disinterested guide, or—even worse—offensive commentary that makes you want to leave halfway through.
After taking their Vampire Tour with family members during a family wedding weekend in June 2016, I learned that not all tours are created equal, and rave online reviews don’t always translate to stellar experiences.
As someone who’s done haunted tours in multiple cities, I know what makes a one memorable versus forgettable—and unfortunately, this tour fell into the latter category despite its “Voted #1 New Orleans attraction” claims.
If you’re a vampire enthusiast, history buff, or anyone planning their New Orleans itinerary, this honest review will save you from making the same mistake we did. Whether you’re debating between multiple tour companies or just want to know if this tour is worth your time and money, I’ll give you the unfiltered truth about what to expect.
Are Haunted History Tours Worth Taking?
Based on my personal experience, I can’t recommend the Haunted History Tours. Our guide spent a third of the 90-minute tour on introductions, made inappropriate comments, and was disengaged throughout. However, I saw another group from the same company having a positive experience nearby, so this may be guide-specific rather than a company-wide issue. If you’re set on a NOLA vampire or ghost tour, I’d research recent reviews carefully or consider an alternative.
My Haunted History Tour New Orleans Review
Sad to say, but unfortunately, it wasn’t the fantastic tour I had expected based on all those wonderful Haunted History Tours reviews.
To start, our tour guide spent 30 minutes giving an 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 use of time.
On top of that, during that whole intro, 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 we aren’t blocking foot traffic, but having 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 vampire 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.
Inappropriate Commentary from the Guide
In addition, the guide expressed several anti-Catholic sentiments.
I don’t identify with a religion. But she should be aware that her audience may contain someone who does.
Rather than keeping her remarks in the context of historical vampires and past beliefs, her comments came across as personal and offensive.
It also made members of my group uncomfortable.
One specific comment she made that stood out was her explanation that the above-ground burials were not due to the water table but rather to the 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 the film, 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.
🧛 If you are a fan of the Interview with a Vampire book series, movies, or TV show, check out Lafayette Cemetery No. 1, as it’s a notable location within Anne Rice’s world
Visiting the Carter Brothers
We then headed over to the Carter brothers’ place, one of the few exciting topics she brought up.
I had never heard of them before this Haunted History Tour New Orleans, so I was intrigued by John and Wayne’s 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 learn this. 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.
Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop Bar
Just down the road is Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop Bar, one of the oldest bar buildings in the United States, dating back to the 18th century and associated with pirate Jean Lafitte’s smuggling days.
It’s now a popular historic watering hole steeped in a ghostly reputation—patrons and tour guides alike tell tales of spectral figures (sometimes said to be Lafitte himself) lingering inside and of unusual occurrences around the old fireplace and shadowy corners.
Purportedly a hangout for vampires, it was a quick stop on our tour and a location I’d actually highly recommend you visit outside of the tour time.
I’ve since gone back, just on a random night with my cousin, and had fun wandering around the building, as it does truly feel like Jack Sparrow would hang out here.
Book Recommendation
Check out Bridge of Souls. This is the 3rd in a series, but you aren’t required to read the prior novels to understand this one if you’re short on time.
I get my audiobooks from Libro.fm—they split the profits with an independent bookstore of your choice.
Ending the Tour Early
At about halfway through the tour, 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!
Not expecting special treatment here, just common courtesy of not being rude.
Is Haunted History Tours New Orleans Worth It?
On our way out, we passed another group from the same company, Haunted History Tours New Orleans, whose tour guide was deeply engaged in his story.
I don’t think our experience is a company-wide problem, just a tour guide who needs to brush up on speaking properly 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’ll find another ghost tour or do something else entirely, since there are many fun things to do in New Orleans.
Note that 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 attendees.
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.
Related Louisiana Travel Guides
- Haunted History Tour New Orleans: Is it the Best Ghost Tour?
- Save Our Cemeteries: Reviewing This Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 Tour
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New Orleans has so many locations that are haunted. You got plantation homes, battlefields, cemeteries, and more. Now after Katrina the area near the levees are said to be haunted.
Sorry for the delay! Just been getting back to this blog! Thanks for your comment and yes, so many haunted places!
I recently went on the 5-in-1 Ghost & Mystery Tour by Haunted History Tours, and I couldn’t have been more disappointed. Our guide spoke a lot while saying very little. It was mostly theatrics, saying “spoooooooky…riiiight?” and making our group of 20 or so adults respond with enthusiasm to his generic mascot-esque calls for excitement – “are you ready for something spooky??”…”aw c’mon, you can do better than that!”…”I said are you ready for something spooooooky?!” Every time he goaded us in this way, my energy levels waned, and I felt like I was in middle school again. At one point, someone else in our group murmured “hell, I could give this tour…” & frankly, I wish she would have.
I thought it was interesting how your guide seemed too ready to assume folks on the tour shared her perspective/beliefs/value system, or didn’t care if they did, and potentially alienated tour goers or made the group uncomfortable. For the four days we were in New Orleans, our tour guide was the only person in the entire city who made me feel unwelcome, bamboozled, and disappointed. For a city whose inhabitants are eager to share a polite greeting on the street & generally live-and-let-live, I was shocked at the veiled misogyny leveled at me by this man. I peeled off during his final speech, and I wish I would have done it sooner.
Hey Kim,
Firstly, thank you for visiting my blog and commenting. I am sorry you had a poor experience as well. I had hopes that by writing my honest review, now years back, and communicating my concerns with the company directly would have helped improve their tours. I’m sad to hear that it has not. And you’re right: 99.9% of my encounters in New Orleans were positive as well, so I’m not sure what is lacking at this company that doesn’t hold it to that same value. I hope the rest of your time there was more enjoyable and that Haunted History Tours sees this and takes steps to improve their company for future visitors of NoLa.
I’m sorry to hear you had such a bad experience. I came across this review because I’m doing some research on New Orleans Haunted History Tours for my own blog, bit of a nostalgic look back on a visit to New Orleans during spring break in 2000. It was awesome back then! We had a great tour that went to over a dozen different sites. The guide really knew his stuff.
Yeah, as I mentioned in the review, I believe this situation was caused by the tour guide, not the tour company in general, which they admitted as much as well. I do hope they have improved since; however, there was another comment on here about another poor experience, so I’m not so sure.