Chicago Hauntings Ghost Tour

We had a group of 3 who did this tour. It was a very fun and interesting tour of the city. It was nice that we had a large charter bus which was very comfortable. The man who did the tour really knew his history of the city and pointed out a lot of interesting things. My group and I the following day went to some of the older buildings ourselves that we drove past and walked through them, pretty creepy stuff! Specially the congress plaza hotel!

I took their Chicago Hauntings bus tour in ²⁰⁰⁸⁄₂₀₀₉ and it was amazing. We were on a small, decorated school bus, the tour guide was knowledgable and told captivating stories. We learned so much history around Chicago that we continued to share the same stories for years. The tour left us so scared that half of us couldn’t fall asleep that night!
I took this tour again last night with some visitors and was severely disappointed. They put you on a huge bus with a horrible microphone. We could not hear half of what the guide was saying. Eventually he stopped using the microphone and moved to the middle of the bus to tell us the stories.
Unfortunately though, even if we could hear him, our tour guide was awful. His stories were not easy to follow and cheesy. He frequently stopped and corrected himself for a mistake he made. He forgot the name of the Iroquois theater (one of the major stops on the tour). Every other word was «um» or «uh.» He told eye rolling jokes and casually mentioned he is a comedian (trying to promote himself I guess?). He would tell stories but then trail off at the end, we had to ask at one point what the ending of one of his stories was. He mentioned HH Holmes but made NO effort to explain who he was or why HH Holmes was significant. We were pretty sure he had a few beers before the tour. He also told inaccurate information — for example he said 2 of the Chicago Flag stars were for the World’s Fair and Colombian Exposition… which is inaccurate and also just a plain dumb thing to say because those are the same event.
About 30% of the riders hopped off the bus halfway through the tour. That truly means something if a large portion of your audience just gets up and leaves.
If you cannot tell, I am quite salty about this experience. I’m sure the tour guide is a nice guy but he was what truly ruined this experience for all of us.

We booked a private ghost tour for a family bachelor/​bachelorette party and everyone loved it. Our tour guide was Dave and he was very knowledge about all the haunted history of the city! Amazing what you don’t know about a place you’ve lived in your whole life and places you’ve driven or walked past and never knew the history behind them. It was a great tour and some of the family are actually looking into the different tours they offer! Would definitely recommend!

My wife and I were so excited to find another great Chicago tour! The Hauntings Tour was perfect so us horror movie lovers, but we were not sure what to expect. What really made the tour amazing was that we stopped at a couple key locations of paranormal activity. It gave us the opportunity to walk around and take in the experience for ourselves rather than just hearing the stories, we got to go to the sites. Great tour, I recommend this when you are in Chicago!

This tour was the best tour I have ever had! Our tour guide Dave have my boyfriend and I a private tour of some of the most haunted and infamous locations in Chicago. He was informative, a great story teller and his knowledge of historical fact combined with legend was outstanding! It was great. I can’t wait to visit Chicago again and take another haunted ghost tour.

Our tour guide was fantastic, very knowledgeable and engaging. I recommend every Chicagoan to delve into the rich history of our great city on this tour while listening to some spooky details hidden throughout.

Currently on the tour bus and felt the need to Unilocal here.
This is not scary or even close to it. This is a bus tour that stops at 4 «haunted» buildings/​locations. Before the last stop the heat in the bus was so bad that everyone’s breath fogged the windows so bad you couldn’t even see out the windows.
The guide is nice and funny and knows a lot. The history aspect of the tour is interesting. But it is misleading beyond belief. It’s so hot on this bus right now I want to die.
I will not take this tour again but I will sign up for other tours that give the history.
Started at 8 and it’s now 10 and we aren’t done. It said the tour was 2 hours from 8 – 10. Might miss dinner reservations.
The bus is soooooo loud you can’t hear what he is saying half the time bc the microphone is even worse than him just talking. If you feel the need to take this tour sit about 5 rows back.

Adam Selzer was AWESOME! Devil in the White City tour was something I wanted to do, but my husband surprised me and took us for my birthday! Tour was listed at BYOB, so we did as well as others, but it seemed Adam was not aware this was the policy… not a problem though! Coach bus was nice and it was an intimate crowd which made it more enjoyable. All people on the tour had previous knowledge of H.H. Holmes but everyone was still able to learn a lot of new information from Adam. Seamless transitions, super funny guide who is also a through researcher. My husband and I had such a blast! I don’t want to give any places away but if you love Chicago history, jokes, booze when you don’t have to drive, and the amazing Adam (whose books I just purchased on Amazon!!), then this is the tour for you. Wear good walking shoes and check that the bus has a bathroom before you imbibe– makes it more fun to know you don’t have to wait until the next stop! Thanks a lot!

We booked a private H.H. Holmes bus tour for my birthday and couldn’t have had a better experience! The company worked with us to arrange for the bus to pick us up at our house to make it convenient for us. We had Clarence as our tour guide, and he was so knowledgeable about the history surrounding the world’s fair events. He was entertaining, and he had us on the edge of our seats the whole tour. We absolutely loved the entire experience, and I would recommend this company to everyone!

This tour was fascinating, informative, sometimes scary, and always fun. Even if you don’t believe in the paranormal, it’s a great history lesson. I paid for a two hour tour and instead received a nearly three hour tour with a knowledgable and approachable guide. If you love the paranormal, this is a must.

The tour was interesting and we visited some sites that I haven’t visited in a long time. Ursula was a great guide As a Chicago history buff, I found her facts and information very accurate and entertaining. The only problems we had were with the stop at the bar in the Congress hotel, which seemed to have only 1 bartender on duty who wasn’t able to keep up with the demand, so we never had a chance to get a drink. The other was that the bus driver who was a good driver and friendly, was smoking on the bus when one of our party (who is very sensitive to smoke) returned early. This was the 2^nd tour we have done with Ursula (the other was through Lincoln Park Zoo) and we enjoyed both.

We had to cancel our tour due to a change in plans, so I can’t review that aspect of the business.
However, after complying with all cancellation requirements and leaving multiple messages, I have yet to receive any reply or refund from anyone at the company. It’s been almost 2 weeks, and I have zero hope of getting any reply regarding the money due to me.
I’ve now had to go through an official bank dispute. Ursula is clearly unwilling to return my calls, though she apparently has time to reply to negative Unilocal reviews since I’ve contacted her.
As per your own policy — please process my refund. We didn’t go on the tour, but businesses that are run this way do not lead to me to believe they deliver good products either.
Good luck trying to get anyone on the phone if you have questions too.

I was afraid after reading the reviews. I booked a two hour bus tour, I already had booked the tour a month prior for a nice gift for my mother who loves all things paranormal. I bought a ticket for my father who is more of a history lover. I’m happy to say they both had a good time. I went too of course :)
Clarence was our magnificent tour guide, he was so knowledgeable and there was never a dull moment in that bus. Every corner we turned there wais another fun fact or story.
We stopped at two locations, one for a brief history, and other for a refresher. I definitely enjoyed this tour and even my parents were interested to go on more!
Thanks for a fun, memorable birthday gift for my mom, I’ll definitely check out more tours. I only wished I could snap more pics off the bus, but really, I’m already sold to explore more fun tours :)

Wow! Now, being that I’ve been on this tour before with the owner (Ursula) I can say the removal of the person in my original review bumps this back up a few stars. It goes to the full five stars because I was contacted immediately by Ursula to rectify the situation — and she absolutely did! It is humbling to see somebody that cares so much about the quality and content of their business.
Highest Recommendation — they care about giving you the best tour.

Honestly so upset and disappointed by the whole experience. I had two friends in from out of town (that had never been to Chicago before!) who love all things paranormal, so they decided this was a must, and they should spend some of their very limited travel budget on it. What a mistake!
First, the tour guide was late. The bus was on time, but the driver told us we had to wait because the guide wasn’t there yet! We didn’t get moving until twenty minutes after the start time. This after we rushed out of our pricey dinner to get there fifteen minutes early, as recommended by the tour company itself.
Second, the guide was VERY rude to the bus driver. He was barking orders at him and very disrespectful. As someone who has worked in customer service their entire life, this upset me deeply. We are all worthy of respect, and this tour guide gave the driver NONE.
Third, as someone who is fairly familiar with Chicago supernatural lore, much of what was said was just outright wrong. Even my friends, whose knowledge was very limited, noticed! Creative liberty is one thing, but this guy was just making stuff up.
Finally, the tour guide outright asked for tips! After the absolute mess of an hour tour he put us through (paid for two hours!), he had the nerve to remind us that this was his «living» and that cash was appreciated.
Ultimately, it was an hour of driving around listening to some boring aspiring comedian make stuff up about Chicago. At the last stop he asked if we even wanted to get out of the bus to look around, and when the group was completely disinterested, he just said «ok, I guess we’ll just go back to McDonalds.» I honestly thought he was kidding, until he had the driver roll us up to the McDonald’s where they picked us up!
My friends do not have a lot of disposable income, and they spent a chunk of their honeymoon (!!!) budget on this tour. They were so disappointed that one of them cried on the way home. I am so, so annoyed at this whole experience. Avoid this tour! You’d be better off just googling Chicago hauntings and doing your own walking tour.

I took this tour and had a great time. It was a lot of fun, and I learned something I didn’t know about Chicago history.

Ursula Bielski is the premier authority on Ghost Haunts in Chicagoland. Her knowledge of lore and local history is second to none! Her books are equally entertaining and invaluable for your research in Chicagoland. Book a tour or attend a special event with Ursula and I guarantee to will be blown away !!

This was the worst tour I’ve ever been on. First of all it was very difficult to get a hold of anyone. That’s very bad business. Next the tour started about 35 min late. Then we got on the bus and did the Irish ghost tour and we were supposed to see about 10 places. The tour stopped at empty parking lots while the Ursula told us there used to be a firehouse at that location. It was literally an empty lot and she told a story that wasn’t even factual-​there was a fireman in our group that told us the real story. The stops were dumb-​nothing scary or haunting at all. It was like a tour of the history of the Chicago Fire Department. At the end of the tour, Ursula pulled my husband to the side and told him that she would give him a refund of some of the money he paid because we only stopped at 5 of the 10 locations on the tour. Well that was a scam-​just like the tour was. She never returned messages and never refunded any money.
I have done several other ghost tours in Chicago. Weird Chicago is pretty good. The guy who runs it is really into his job and takes the ghost stories very seriously. Save your money with this tour company and book with someone else. We had family with us –all of whom had never been on a ghost tour. They were so bored and couldn’t wait to get off the bus and go home because the tour was horrible.
I could have forgiven it if my husband would have gotten a refund at least partially like she promised. I learned my lesson though-​I will never book a tour with this company again. Like I said-we’ve done other tours. We like doing tours. This «company» doesn’t deserve my hard earned money. I will go elsewhere when we book a trip or take a group with us –like we normally do.
I can’t believe all the good reviews. There were only a couple people on our tour and it was obvious they friends with Ursula the owner. I feel like these positive reviews have to be from people like them because this was an awful tour from start to finish. No returns of calls for days when booking, no returns of emails for days when booking, no return of either when calling and emailing for our promised 50% refund for the crappy tour that only went to a few of the spots we were promised we would be going to. No company can have REAL reviews, that are positive like the ones on here, and run their businesses like that.

Tour Guide says: «GOOGLE FOR MORE INFORMATION; CREATE THE EXPERIENCE FOR YOURSELF»
I grew up in the western suburbs and love visiting downtown Chicago. I thought this would be a great way to learn about some haunted history of our beloved city. However, This tour was the biggest waste of money I have spent in a long time. I went on the 10:00pm tour and was so bored with the places we were taken and the stories that were told that I was literally falling asleep from «destination» to «destination» within an hour of the tour. Our guide was obnoxious, paying more attention to the people on the streets and traffic than he was telling us haunting stories. Every story we were told «you can look this up online for more information and that kind of stuff». And «I’m not more than a guide, giving you background information, you create the experience for yourself.» Dear Mr. Tour Guide, Aren’t I paying YOU to create the experience and give me more information???
We went to 2 or 3 alleys, a mausoleum and parked in front of 2 buildings. The stories we were told were gangster mob stories and didn’t interest anyone it seemed.
Chicago is rich in history and has some of the most haunted places in the country. This wasn’t a scary tour, no spooky mood was set to get our group going, and we kept waiting for our guides nonsense yapping to amount to something good, besides a few historical facts about the city and it’s mobsters.
When asked if he had any experiences for himself, the tour guide told us that his experiences are in the pictures the people take. Come on!!! LIE TO ME AT LEAST to create some sort of excitement. Tell me a spooky story of something that «happened» to you to get this party started.
I wouldn’t waste your time or money on this tour. After all, you can google places for more information, and be your own guide to set the mood and create your own experiences for yourself.

Expected much more from this tour. The guide we had left a lot to be desired. I thought I knew what to expect… a historically based tour. But it felt like listening to a third grader giving a book report. Guessing he wasn’t one of the regulars.

This was definitely not what I was expecting. First figuring out what bus we were on was a mess. Our tour guide knew his stuff but he was overly obnoxious! We were told a bunch of information of Chicago and then stopped at 4 – 5 stops to take pictures. The information was cool to hear but was not what I was expecting at all! Cannot believe we paid $ 92 for 2 tickets for this. Will not be recommending this tour :(

I wasn’t impressed with the bus tour. They arrived very late, we made a couple of stops outside some buildings. Overall towards the end of the tour our tour guide was shouting out to people on the street and making obnoxious remarks and it wasn’t what I paid for. The Tour guide showered all of us with history in the beginning to only disappoint me in the end by not being professional. This shows the non popularity of this tour and is not organized. I wish I knew what I was getting into before I spent money on something not worth my time. Be careful and be aware you will be waiting a while for the bus.

Simply one of the Ghost Tours I have ever taken. Very informative, and even a tad bit spooky…

I just wanted to share an experience I had with the owner, Ursula, who is a really hard working and great person. I had some issues with the payment and I was accidentally overcharged. Ursula went above and beyond to accommodate me, and this was in spite of me being very rude. Ursula puts great effort into this tour and it definitely shows. Please support this local business as it is as real as Chicago gets!

If you’re going to get an accurate portrayal of Chicago haunted history this is the only tour to go on. Ursula is highly regarded in the paranormal investigator world and has made Chicago paranormal her life’s work. She has written books on the subject and has been on paranormal investigator TV shows. She has an aura to her that feels very inviting and when you go on her tours you get a sense that the supernatural are drawn to her. Bring your camera and enjoy her stories– Chicago is lucky to have her.

I went to this reluctantly and was the biggest scaredy cat of the four of us that went along, and let me tell you, this didn’t phase me really at all.
The tour started a bit late (some people, including me, showed up a little late, and then the bus waited some more) at around 7:20 PM and was over by 9:10 PM. I didn’t like this as the tour was advertised to be 2.5 hours long, and it was suddenly shortened by 40 min. without even being brought up as to why. The bus was about 75% full, which does go to show the popularity of the tour.
It was interesting in that you get to learn a lot about the history of the city — being a Chicago native, it’s always cool to learn a little more about your surroundings. I also liked that we were able get off the bus at a few stops to look around. Our tour guide (forgot his name, but he’s a YA novelist by day) was really knowledgeable, he just promoted his new book a few too many times during the tour.
I got my ticket at a super discounted rate thanks to a few different promotions on LivingSocial, I don’t think this is worth its full rate at all (especially if they’re going to shorten the tour last minute). Maybe the themed tours (such as on Halloween) have more to offer.

So, I won a trip for two on the Chicago Hauntings Ghost Tour in our office Halloween costume contest. I called on Halloween to see what days were available, and booked our trip for the following weekend, since the Halloween tours were packed.
So we showed up at the Rock N Roll McDonalds to hop on the bus, and the fun began. The tour guide, Adam, seemed knowledgeable about the sites we visited: Eastand sinking site, St. Valentines Day Massacre, death site of Resurrection Mary, Hull House, the Couch mausoleum in Lincoln Park and one of the body dump site of H. H. Holmes. Questions were encouraged. The tone was matter-​of-​fact and entertaining, with a bit of razzing of the passers-​by, when our host periodically opened the bus doors and shouted things like «And they found her bloody body RIGHT THERE, over where those people are standing!». The onlookers seemed to take it with good humor.
We were encouraged to get out at the stops and take pictures, to see if any ghost images showed up in them later. (None did on my pictures) It was an entertaining evening and was fun to drive around the city at night.
Had the tickets not been a prize, and I’d had to pay the full price, I’m not sure I’d have been happy with their cost, especially given what I had to pay to park in the area, but I am glad we went. The hubby had a good time too, but I think if I were to go on another tour, I’d choose either a pub crawl, one with a more historical tone or a focus on the suburban sites.