Hottest Hell Tours New Orleans: Ghost, Crime and Voodoo Walk

The Verified Split

Only one item in the Includes list is confirmed: a guided walking tour of the French Quarter. Food and drinks are listed but the listing never says what is served, and hotel pickup is listed although the tour advertises two fixed meeting points. Treat both as not included until the operator tells you otherwise, and do not count on a pickup from your hotel.

The stop at Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop Bar is marked optional with an extra fee. The bar is at 941 Bourbon Street and any drink there is your own money. Louisiana's legal drinking age is 21, so part of your group may sit out that stop.

The listing names no museum or building entry. The itinerary lists the stops as pass-bys, including the LaLaurie Mansion at 1140 Royal Street, which is a private residence.

If you want a building in the deal, the French Quarter Ghost Tour with Interior Visit costs $37 and includes one private haunted location inside.

Meeting Point: the Armstrong Park Arch

All travellers meet under the glowing arch of Armstrong Park at 801 N Rampart St, or at 400 Esplanade Ave depending on the option you booked. The guide explains that some of the earliest gatherings of Voodoo and Hoodoo practitioners took place here. The park sits in Tremé and holds Congo Square, 2.7 acres where an 1817 ordinance confined gatherings of enslaved Africans.

Visitors recorded 500 to 600 people dancing and drumming there on Sundays, and the square joined the National Register of Historic Places in 1993. A drum circle still meets every Sunday.

Near the Old Parish Prison

Depending on the guide, the walk may pass near the old Parish Prison, which the listing calls the haunting site of the American Mafia. Here the guide covers organized crime in North America, from the largest mass lynching in U.S. history to one of the nation's most notorious unsolved cases of serial murder, the Axeman. The documented history backs the Axeman part: the killer struck between May 1918 and October 1919, usually chiseled out a back door panel and used the victim's own axe, and most victims were Italian immigrants or grocers.

A letter dated 13 March 1919 promised to spare any house where a jazz band played, and dance halls filled that night with no one killed. The case was never solved.

Old St. Peter Street Cemetery

A pass by of about 10 minutes at the site of the old St. Peter Street Cemetery, which St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 replaced after the 1788 fire. The listing gives the stop no named story, so what you hear depends on the guide and the week. Ghost lore thrives in this city for documented reasons: the fires of 1788 and 1794, yellow fever and the above-ground cemeteries.

The 1853 yellow fever epidemic killed 8,647 people across Louisiana, and the last U.S. outbreak hit New Orleans in 1905, killing 452.

Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop Bar (optional, Extra Fee)

A 10 minute break and walk at one of the oldest bars in North America, at 941 Bourbon Street. The listing says it is still haunted by boozed-up patrons from its treacherous past. The building dates from the 1770s and is a rare surviving example of briquette-entre-poteaux French colonial construction, named a National Historic Landmark on 15 April 1970.

Note that no documentation proves the privateer Jean Lafitte ever ran a business here. The link is legend. Pierre Lafitte was a blacksmith and may have run a shop in the building.

This stop is optional and any drinks are an extra fee.

LaLaurie Mansion

A 15 minute pass by at 1140 Royal Street, the stop the listing calls the city's most haunted home. Delphine LaLaurie bought the property in 1831 and the mansion was finished in 1832. A kitchen fire broke out in 1834 and rescuers found bound and mutilated enslaved people in the attic.

The New Orleans Bee reported seven people, more or less horribly mutilated, suspended by the neck, and a 70-year-old cook chained to the stove admitted setting the fire. A mob then heavily damaged the house and LaLaurie fled to Paris, never brought to justice. Modern retellings claim up to 100 deaths, but records document 12 deaths of enslaved people in the household between 1830 and 1834.

The house is a private residence and can only be seen from the street, not visited.

The Haunted Hotel and the Finish

A 10 minute pass by at a haunted hotel in the French Quarter, with a walk through the Quarter on the way. On any given night the guide may also mention Marie Laveau's house at 1020 St. Ann Street, where legend says her spirit still holds ceremonies. Laveau was born 10 September 1801, worked as a hairdresser, herbalist and Voodoo practitioner, and died 15 June 1881.

The Sultan's Palace scandal may come up too. Be aware the legend places an infamous orgy and blood bath there in 1792, in a house that was not built until 1836. The tour finishes at 623 Ursulines Ave, New Orleans, LA 70116.

Under 18s, Outright

The tour is not suitable for children under 18 because of the adult content, and this is a hard rule in the listing. If you are travelling with teenagers, book the Dark Side of New Orleans: French Quarter Ghost Tour instead, a 1.5 hour family walk for $29. For an adults-only format with a far bigger review base, the New Orleans Adults-Only True Crime and Ghost Walking Tour runs 1 hour 45 minutes at $38 with a 5.0 rating from 2,113 reviews and admits guests 17 and over.

Anyone Who Wants a Fixed Route

The stops change from tour to tour and the listing says no two tours are exactly the same. Guides may add Marie Laveau's house, the Sultan's Palace or the star-crossed lovers story depending on the night. If you want to know exactly which buildings you will see, pick a tour with a published stop list, such as the New Orleans Haunted Ghost, Voodoo and Vampire French Quarter Walking Tour at $33.

Anyone Expecting Entry, Meals or a Pickup

No building is entered, no food or drink is confirmed as served, and hotel pickup should not be counted on because the meeting points are fixed addresses. Intoxication is not allowed. If you want to bring your own drinks, the Cemetery and Ghost BYOB Bus Tour in New Orleans is a BYOB tour, though it costs $30 and heads to graveyards by bus rather than the Quarter on foot.

For cemetery access with a guide, see the guide to New Orleans cemetery tours.

What You Can Do Alone for Free

Every building on this route is on a public street and free to see from outside. Walk to Armstrong Park and Congo Square any day, stand outside the LaLaurie Mansion at 1140 Royal Street at the corner of Governor Nicholls Street, and look at Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop at 941 Bourbon Street, a 1770s building and a National Historic Landmark since 1970. None of it costs a cent and you can linger as long as you like.

A good self-guided start is the roundup of haunted places in New Orleans.

What Costs a Little and Rewards You More

Two museums near the route can be visited alone. The New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum at 724 Dumaine Street charges $10 for adults and $8 for seniors, military and students, and is open Monday to Thursday 10 AM to 6 PM and Friday to Sunday 10 AM to 7 PM. Its own walking tour costs $36 for about 2 hours and passes Congo Square and Marie Laveau's house.

The Historic New Orleans Collection at 520 Royal Street is free with tickets, open Tuesday to Saturday 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The guide to the LaLaurie Mansion separates the documented 1834 fire from the later invented details.

What You Genuinely Cannot Do Alone

St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 is entered only with a registered guide. The Archdiocese restricted access to approved tour groups after restoration of the tomb ended in 2014, following vandalism that included Marie Laveau's reputed tomb being painted pink. Laveau is believed buried in the Glapion family crypt there, though even that is disputed.

The official walk is the St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 Official Walking Tour at $25 for 55 minutes, and the guide to St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 explains the rules. What a guide like this one adds is the stories, the Axeman detail, the LaLaurie record and the weekly churn of new research, plus the projector recreations if you pick that option. If the history is enough for you, walking alone is honestly enough.