Haunted History Tours of New Orleans

Can you imagine how many tour companies are located in New Orleans? Going by Tripadvisor, there are at least 135 companies in NOLA. They offer something for anyone in your group; there are bike tours, boat tours, fishing trips, jogging tours, haunted tours, movie tours, segway tours, private tours, pub crawls, sightseeing tours, swamp tours and walking tours. You name it; there is a tour company that caters specifically to it.

How do you decide which tour is right for you? First, you need to decide what you want to do and see while you are there. Do you want to take the hop-on hop-off busses that stop at all the must see places in the city? Do you want to take a tour through the swamp? Do you want to go with a group through one of the cemeteries? There are many choices and you can’t go wrong with any of them.

I will be in New Orleans in November and have always been fascinated with cemeteries. You are probably wondering why I am bringing up cemeteries when I was talking about tours. Great question and it has to do with wanting to take a tour through one of the cemeteries next month when I am in The Big Easy. For me, cemeteries have always been a place where you can glimpse into the world of those who have passed on before us. When you visit these places, you might notice on the tombstone that the person was in World War II or the Korean Conflict. While visiting another grave site, you might find out this person was a famous musician or poet. Cemeteries are a place to remember the world around us, to revisit our history and sense the quiet and peacefulness that comes from walking through these places.

After you decide which type of tour you want to take then it is only a matter of deciding which tour company you want to use. After doing my research on the net, I chose Haunted History Tours of New Orleans for the Cemetery History Tour since it will be offering a bit more than this specific tour I will be taking. It should be combining the history of the French Quarter along with visiting St. Louis Cemetery #1 and learning the history of Voodoo Queen, Marie Laveau.

Haunted History Tours offers more than the Cemetery History Tour. They have many tours to choose from so all you need to do is decide which one you would want to take with them. Besides the cemetery history tour, they have ghost, voodoo, garden district – ghost tours and vampire tours. Come on, you can’t visit New Orleans without taking a tour into the past and learning about the ghosts and spirits that have haunted New Orleans! Now if you are looking for something else than they have garden district tours, scandal tours and french quarter history tours. Seriously you can’t visit New Orleans without making your way to the french quarter. This is the one place that epitomes New Orleans but the city has so much more to offer its visitors. That is what taking one of these tours will show you: the locals love their city because it embodies history, architecture, food and festivals. Take any one of these tours and you won’t be sorry you did.

Since I wanted to know more about Haunted History Tours, I asked the owner, Sidney, if he could answer a few questions for me about his tour company and this is what he had to say.

What is the history behind Haunted History Tours?

To elaborate on above question: when was the company founded, how did you come up with the name of the company and anything else that gives people visiting New Orleans or planning a visit to the city that may not know about your company and tours you give.

The company was founded in 1995, (almost 20 years ago).    I’m a huge Beatles fan, so…Haunted History Tour…Magical Mystery Tour…You get the idea.  Not to mention the fact that (as a company) we take  the “History” in Haunted History seriously. All of the stories on our tours are based in fact, not fiction.  We have spawned a ton of imitators throughout the years, but when people leave OUR tours, they always leave with a “WOW!” experience…Not a “Ho Hum” experience.  New Orleans is considered to be the most haunted city in the country and when you take our tour, you’ll find out why.  And folks should bring a camera.  Quite often tour participants discover “things” showing up in their photos that were not there when the photo was taken.  Haunted History Tours has been featured on A&E, History Channel, and RECOMMENDED by the Travel Channel as...”The #1 Tour Company in New Orleans…a MUST DO!”

How did you decide you wanted to work in the tourism industry and specifically in running a successful tour company over other options that are available in tourism?

Several things come into play here. New Orleans is a MAJOR tourist destination, and convention capital. Festivals and events every day. I have also always had an interest in the paranormal and everyone loves a ghost story. What better way to promote the city’s history and its reputation as being haunted? Hence…Haunted History Tours! Find out more by going to Haunted History Tours

Check out the site for Haunted History Tours and you will see why I chose them for the Cemetery History Tour.

Haunted History Tours

What tours have you taken through New Orleans if you have been to the city? Were they everything you expected them to be or were you expecting something else from the tour?  Did you decide you wanted to see the city on your own? Did you forego going with a tour company and why? For me, it boiled down to the amount of time I would have in the city and wanting to experience some of the culture through the eyes of the locals who live there. Again I have this fascination with cemeteries and can’t wait to learn more about the history of this particular cemetery as well as a little history of the french quarter.

This article was written in collaboration with Haunted History Tours after I chose their tour company for my upcoming trip to New Orleans.