Chicago Hauntings Ghost Tour
Categories: Local Flavor, Tours [Edit]
Neighborhoods: Near North Side, River North610 N Clark St.
(between Ohio St & Ontario St)
Chicago, IL 60610 (888) 446-7891
- Nearest Transit:
Grand (Red)
Merchandise Mart (Purple Express, Brown)
17 reviews
Neighborhood: Near North Side
"I have to say , as a big fan of the PBS special they ran a few years back about the Chicago river, This tour is literally seeing that live.…" read more »
11 Reviews for Chicago Hauntings Ghost Tour
I was quite worried when I saw the condition of the bus. I thought " oh no this is going to be terrible" but I was completely wrong! This was a fantastic way of seeing the "haunted" side of Chicago. Our guide was very knowledgeable and was able to answer everyones questions. Its quite an interesting tour and well worth the money.
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My office rented the whole bus for the night, packed our bags with beer and bat-shaped jello shots, and climbed aboard the coolest short bus in the city. This tour rocked. It was like going on a history tour of Chicago, except about scarrrrrry, horrible things. I can't say how sure I am about the whole concept of ghosts, but I guess I'm willing to think about it... so, as a skeptic, I was a little unsure of what this was going to be like. I would definitely recommend this tour to anyone looking for a fun/educational/drunken (and does it get much better than those 3 things at once?) way to spend a night. The tour guides are EXTREMELY knowledgeable, and totally tolerate drinking on the bus and general ridiculousness, to boot. I didn't see anything too scary, but it was like a death tour of Chicago, which turns out to be a really interesting and a great time.
Four of us went on the Shots of '29 Gangland Pub Crawl last Saturday. As other reviewers have noted, it's chock full of fascinating tidbits. Don't count on spotting any ghosts; if you want to be scared shitless, try picturing Della Reese naked.
We climbed aboard the trolley, poured our booze, and listened as our guide Dave regaled us with tales of days gone by in Chicago. We stopped at four bars. I must have had a good time because I can only remember the names of two of them...The Green Door and Richard's Bar, which is now my new favorite dive bar! I love the bartender! I want to know if he has a fedora collection from the 50's at home!
Our tour guide Dave was great...he drank with the group at each bar, told us some great stories, and is an all together cool guy!
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3/18/08
We went on the Chief O'Neill Memorial Pub Crawl on Saturday, March 15. It was fun--Dave was the guide again and he's awesome! But the crowd was a little different this time; young 20-somethings looking to get extremely wasted, some suburban moms in their camel toe jeans, and some people our age, in their 30's, who really didn't want to chat it up, even though we're all on a freakin' pub crawl getting a little happy. It's really the crowd that can make or break this. My advice: go on the off season (October - February). You are guaranteed a cooler crowd and no middle aged mom jeans in sight. On the last crawl, by the end of the night we were all sharing the booze that we brought on the bus. On this one, no one wanted to be sociable at all. Thank God there were 5 in my group...we made our own fun....fuck those dead asses!
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dunno if it was my hangover from the nite before, or if it was that the tour guide Dave was hung over (he admitted this to us at the start of the tour) but the tour felt like a 3 hour lecture.
We were supposed to be on a tour that would go over some interesting stuff. I was not too interested in much that we were told. It seemed like everything is Chicago is built on an Indian burial ground or some other burial site and hence the spooks. We did not stop to drink or eat anywhere. We had a pee stop at the bowling alley next to the Hull house.
redeeming qualities: Bill the bus driver was awesome. I did get creeped out when we stopped at the Hull house.
Oddly enough, I am willing to give it another go and try out one of the more specialized tours.
Two friends and I went on this tour this past Sunday evening. We were properly equipped with a large thermos of red wine and cupcakes. We also knew we were involving ourselves in some serious kitsch. And it most certainly was. That being said, with a good sense of humor, this trip is not bad at all. I'm not much of a ghost believer, however I did find myself experiencing goosebumps here and there. The most interesting part were the historical stories. Sometimes it's just nice to be a dork, drink wine on a bus, listen to ghost stories and look around your city. It's kinda like sitting around the camp fire, only urban style.
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What an awesome way to tour Chicago! The gf and I went on All Saints Day. We took plenty of pics but unfortunately caught no ghosts. Will definitely return to check out their other specialized tours, like the Southwest Side/Archer Ave. tour.
PS
Friends who have worked at the Oriental Theater confirm that it's haunted!
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I've been on this tour twice and I enjoyed it both times, although my first trip was better. We went on one of the freaking coldest nights I have ever endured in early 2006. It was a good thing that they allow you to bring alcohol on the trip, because we were nipping just to keep warm!
It's a good tour - yeah, it does start out slow, but then you get to go to cool places like Death Alley and the site of the Eastland disaster, Hull House, etc. I got some freaky pics in Death Alley, the scariest of which the guide (Ken) shows on his website. LOTS of mist and orbs showed up on the film - even a couple faces, which was kind of disconcerting - if that sort of thing floats your boat.
I enjoyed it so much that I took a visiting friend on the tour for my second time. Not as cool and novel as the first, but still enjoyable nonetheless.
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BORINGBORINGBORING. We were told not to write bad reviews online before the tour started, but oh well. We were crowded on a bus that looked allright, but then were told to close the windows, so the air conditioner would work. The air conditioner barely worked. This was a very long drawn out two hours. You get to go all over the city, which was the best part. We thought that we were going to stop at some bars on the tour, and have a drink, but we didn't. I remember why riding the bus to school was such a pain in the ass, and this pretty much the same thing. Very uncomfortable, falling asleep near the end, being thrown around on the bus every bump we hit, overpriced for the entertainment value. It was a three hour tour of hell. If you've got the money, just ask a cabbie where some stuff is. Otherwise, your going to end up on this bus from hell. Maybe some people would like this tour, but there was a small group of strangers that became friends joking around about how bad it was. That was one of the better parts of the tour. Ursella Belewski(sp?) is supposed to be a haunted/mystery/paranormal investigator/author. The driver was supposed to married to her. Mysteriously, the driver's wife, couldn't make the tour. He also forgot her name a few times. It added to the reality of a ghost tour i guess.
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this tour started off horrifically slow at the site of fort dearborn, and the only thing that i was afraid of was being stuck on a bus for a 3 hour tour of hell. it really heated up, however, after that first half hour and was a lot of fun. a great tour if you are interested in stuff like this or even if you like random facts about (haunted) places in chicago. my only real complaint is that there was almost too much stopping to get off the bus. or at least too much stopping at places that were not that interesting or applicable-like clark bar. but i suppose the people who started pounding drinks at the bar loved that part.
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My Countess & I actually vent on this tour for the first time back in 2004, but my memories are still fresh from going on it. Back then Ursula Bielski's husband (famed fire lover David Cowan) vas the tour guide/bus driver. Ve boarded that little black bus over by the former Rock 'N Roll McDonald's (that vas just starting to get rebuilt) on Clark & Ohio. Ve vere then driven to such infamous "haunted" locations as the back alley of The Oriental Theatre (formerly the Iroquois Theater), the Eastland river disaster site, Harpo Studios (Yes, there are scarier things in those studios than Oprah!), the St. Valentine's Day Massacre site on Clark, Hull House and Candyman's favorite haunt as vell as former Mayor Byrne's one time residence (for those of you old enough to remember) at the left over "Good Times" of Cabrini Green. Ve vere alloved to get off the bus to investigate and take pics at just about each location except at Cabrini, but I didn't hear anyone complaing about that. David Cowan vas very informative and he made for a fun tour.
Update: David Cowan no longer conducts the tours from vhat I hear.
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Creepy! They take you around the city and show you spots that are supposedly haunted and where creepy events took place.. its a funny time!
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