There are ghost stories everywhere! We experienced a ghost tour in Galveston just this week and decided to share ghost-ish travel stories from ghost tours we have experienced over the years. I am very intrigued by ghosts, ghost tales, and ghost stories.
We honestly never expect to see a spirit or have a “ghostly experience,” but I am interested because I love the historical stories about these ghosts. I am curious. It is unlikely I will have ghostly experiences, just not going to happen. Well, except for that odd thing when we stayed overnight in The Quarters at La Presidio La Bahia.
Ghost City Tours
This was not your average senior ladies’ evening out. I contacted two of my fun-loving and adventurous friends who were ready and willing to join me recently on a Galveston walking ghost tour. It was the Ghost City Tours’ Shadows of Revelry Tour, to be specific.
Steve had no interest in the tour but did want to visit with our friends. He drove all of us to Galveston in the RV where we all enjoyed dinner at a local restaurant.
Steve dropped us off for the ghost tour and then drove to the Seawall, parked, and settled in to watch tv in comfort until the tour ended and we called for a pickup. Just an ordinary night out for dinner, right?
Take the tour to find out the significance of this building.
This adults-only tour was more of a Galveston red light district tour than a ghost tour, although several ghost stories were told throughout the evening. I had no idea Galveston had such a prolific red-light district in the late 1800s that continued all the way until the late 1990s.
The last brothel in Galveston finally ceased business in 1991! The red-light district encompassed 25th street to 27th street, and at one time, 55 brothels were operating in Galveston.
Just one of the madams, Mary “Gouch-Eye” Russel, ran a brothel in Galveston for over twenty years. She operated with the mayor’s blessing, who would give her advance notice of planned raids. She repaid his kindness by providing “entertainment” for his visiting guests.
Molly Waters was another madam from Galveston’s past. She was a millionaire when she retired from the business. A single bordello in Galveston earned much more money than the famed Maceo crime family of Galveston ever did, sometimes bringing in $20,000 in just a week.
Of course, along with these brothels and bordellos came some suspicious and sudden deaths, which have resulted in ghost sightings reported at many of these establishments.
We heard some interesting stories, and I recommend you spend a few hours on this particular tour to learn the details of these haunted buildings right in the downtown area of Galveston.
We were told that sometimes a ghostly figure will appear in photos taken at this entryway. I don’t see one here, do you?
I often take out-of-town guests on these enormously entertaining walks. There are several tours to choose from in Galveston. A quick Google search will pull up several, including a cemetery tour, a ghost bus tour, and different walking ghost tours.
You probably wouldn’t want to spend your life going on ghost tours, but over a period of time, it would, in my opinion, be great fun to take all the tours. I cannot imagine how many wonderfully exciting stories there are to be told!
A ghost tour in Ireland
A favorite ghost tour of mine and Steve’s was in Kinsale, Ireland, a few years ago. The tour, which began at a pub, was a theatrical and entertaining presentation that wandered through the tiny and narrow little streets of Kinsale – in the dark, of course.
It was very kid-friendly and involved surprise appearances throughout the evening in the most unsuspecting places. At one scary moment, a costumed character popped up out of a trash can! We, of course, heard tons of fascinating historical facts about the town of Kinsale and Irish history.
However, the most memorable part of this tour is that Steve had a few beers at the pub before the tour started and then mid-tour needed to find a bathroom. He took off down some, never seen before dark street, searching for a bathroom, leaving me behind on tour.
About 45 minutes later, the tour ended back at the same pub — and that’s where Steve was! I told him not to drink beer BEFORE the tour! I had worried the entire time about how he was ever going to find his way back and if I would ever see him again.
The Stanley Hotel
I’ve stayed at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, just once, but I have taken the hotel’s ghost tour twice. If you don’t know already, the Stanley Hotel is reportedly the hotel the Overlook is based on in Stephen King’s book The Shining. Isn’t it a magnificent hotel?
I’m sure some of you have stayed here and taken the same tour also. There are tons of marvelous ghost tales told during this tour. One that sticks out in my mind is the story of the ghost children playing in the hallway during the night on the third floor. They are supposedly playing with balls and making a lot of racket.
Two of my sisters shared a room on that floor and heard all kinds of racket in the hall during the night and became very annoyed. They knew the story of the kids playing in the hallway, but being mostly asleep did not register that the noise was probably the ghost children!
The ghost stories told here are marvelous but the historical stories told during the tour are so very interesting.
Jefferson, Texas Ghost Walk
A lovely haunted home we visited on the tour.
I’ve visited Jefferson, Texas, three or four times through the years and experienced Jodi Breckenridge’s original ghost walk at least twice that I can remember. It is a great little town, with tons of history, shops, haunted houses, hotels, and events happening throughout the year.
It is often referred to as the most haunted town in Texas, and I’ve enjoyed taking my grandchildren to Jefferson to (PG-13) “scare” them! The history of Jefferson is staggering. Jefferson was named after Thomas Jefferson, and during the mid-1800s, Jefferson was the leading inland port in the State of Texas and was a big commercial center.
Jodi Brekenridge is telling us wonderful stories here!
One of the great Jefferson tales is about Steven Spielberg staying overnight at the Excelsior Hotel here. He saw an apparition that frightened him so much he left the Excelsior and drove 20 miles away to another hotel. He refused to return to Jefferson again.
The story goes that his encounter at the Excelsior inspired the movie Poltergeist. This is only one of the many interesting stories this town has a claim to.
It is a great weekend getaway destination, and there are so many things to see and do there, ghostly and not so ghostly, but I have to say the ghost tours I’ve experienced here were terrific experiences. Try one for yourself!
Lloyd Hall Plantation
This beautiful old plantation, built in 1820 in Cheneyville, Louisiana, is purportedly haunted by multiple ghosts. The home was built by William Loyd, the black sheep of his Lloyds of London family.
Mr. Loyd is actually one of the ghosts that haunt the home today. He was tarred, feathered, and hanged in his front yard after discovering he was a Union spy.
This was such a beautiful home! One of the stories here is that the stains shown in the center photo are blood stains from a Union soldier.
Steve and I stayed here overnight in the Jenkins Suite. The suite was beautifully decorated, but it was a bit on the spooky side. The tour identified four different ghosts that haunt this home, including William Loyd.
Historic Farnsworth House Inn
Our visit to Gettysburg and overnight stay at the Farnsworth House Inn was an amazing adventure. We, of course, participated in a ghost tour here at the Inn as well as a walking ghost tour of the city.
Although not one single ghost jumped out in front of us, the history we learned about Gettysburg and the Farnsworth House Inn was so fascinating. We stayed in Jeremy’s Room at the Farnsworth Inn.
The story, completely unrelated to the Civil War, is that young Jeremy played in the street and was hit by a passing buggy. He was carried up into this room, where he died not too long after his accident. His ghost is said to haunt the room that he died in.
Children’s toys are laid about all over the room, and Jeremy has been known to play with and rearrange the toys. As you might predict, Jeremy did not feel like playing with toys the night we were there. Still, the Inn tour was very entertaining, and amazing history is found at almost every step you take in Gettysburg.
Guthrie Ghost Walk
In Guthrie, Oklahoma, this tour is not quite 25 miles north of Oklahoma City and is another of my favorites. Guthrie is a charming and peaceful town to wander around in after dark. All ghost walks are after dark.
The one thing I like best about this tour is that our guide told us upfront at the beginning that, while it was possible, it was not at all likely that a ghost would pop out in front of us. We were told this was a storytelling walk, and it was – great stories about past lives and events in this lovely town.
This town is chock full of ghost stories! I want to experience this walk again next time we are in that part of the world.
A ghost tour is one of the best ways I know of to get to know a city when traveling. You’ll learn so many tidbits about the city’s past that you might never discover at a museum or traditional walking tour of the city.
It is easy enough to Google the stories told and decide for yourself what is fact and what is fiction, but it doesn’t really matter to me. It’s the stories that are so entertaining to me.
Surely you have a great ghost tour story to tell, don’t you? Can you recommend a tour to me that was especially fun? Ready to visit Galveston and investigate the tours there? They are always a good time for me.
Fun read! Alabama has some great ghostly towns!
I am really looking forward to traveling in Alabama. Ghostly towns makes it even more fun!
These ghost tours sound like so much fun!
They always are. We meet really interesting people and hear great historical stories.