Three years running. Readers of the Arizona Daily Sun have named Freaky Foot Tours the Best of Flag winner for Guided Tour Company in 2023, 2024 and 2025. For a company that started in 2015 with less than $150, a mother, a son and a stack of library research, that still feels a little surreal.
What is Best of Flag?
Best of Flag is the Arizona Daily Sun's annual readers' choice contest, a Flagstaff tradition since 2001. Locals vote across dozens of categories, from restaurants and bars to services and activities, and winners are announced each December in a printed magazine and online. It is decided by the people who actually live here, which is why it means more to us than any badge on a booking site.
Three wins and counting
The Guided Tour Company title came home in 2023, then again in 2024, then again in 2025. It sits on a shelf that was already getting crowded:
- TripAdvisor's #1 Nightlife Activity in Flagstaff since 2021
- #17 on the US News list of Things to Do in Flagstaff
- Featured on Travel Channel's The Dead Files in 2022, a story we tell in full in Dead Files Came to Flagstaff
- 2023 Winner, Discover Flagstaff's Most Sustainable Tourist Attraction
How a mother and son built Flagstaff's top tour company
Freaky Foot Tours is mother and son owned, run by co-founder Susan Johnson and Nick Jones, with five generations of Arizona roots behind the name. It began with Susan's curiosity about Flagstaff's beginnings in the late 1800s. Between work and raising a family, she supported the local historical society, sat through lectures, tours and festivals, and dug through the library archives until the town's founding figures started to feel like neighbors. Somewhere in all that research she realized most people had never heard the darker stories, and the tour was born.
That research habit never stopped. Susan went on to write The Walkup Family Murders for The History Press, the full account of the 1937 case we cover in the notorious Walkup family tragedy. And what began as seasonal Halloween walks with small groups has grown into year-round tours and more than 30,000 guests.
Our guides are home-grown performers, not textbook historians. Revel the Devil, the goth cowboy our reviews mention more than anyone else, works the same streets as Michelle de los Muertos and Steve "The Heathen." Each one knows which doorway holds a story, and which story has to wait for the right corner.
The company we keep
The winners' list shows how deep Flagstaff's bench runs. In 2023, Avail Tattoo Studio took Best Tattoo Parlor for the seventh straight year, Brown Bag Burger doubled up with Best Burger and Best New Restaurant, Sportsman's Bar and Grill claimed Best Dive Bar, Best Happy Hour and Best Sports Bar Food, and Little America Hotel stretched its Best Hotel streak to 14 years. If you are building a full day around a tour, our guides to things to do in Flagstaff and the best restaurants in Flagstaff pair well with any of them.
Questions people ask
Who votes for Best of Flag?
Arizona Daily Sun readers do. The contest has run since 2001, covers categories from restaurants to activities, and announces its winners each December in print and online.
What has Freaky Foot Tours won?
Best of Flag Guided Tour Company in 2023, 2024 and 2025. Add TripAdvisor's #1 Nightlife Activity in Flagstaff since 2021, a #17 spot on the US News list of Things to Do in Flagstaff, a 2022 feature on Travel Channel's The Dead Files and the 2023 award for Discover Flagstaff's Most Sustainable Tourist Attraction.
Which tour should a first-timer take?
Start with the Flagstaff Haunted History Tour, the city's original ghost tour: $29 for adults, nightly at 7 PM with an 8 PM walk added on Fridays and Saturdays, 75 minutes on foot through historic downtown.
Walk this story
Awards look nice on a shelf. The stories are the point. The votes came from the same streets, saloons and hotel corridors our guides walk every night, and the full Flagstaff lineup lives on our Flagstaff tours page. Pick your evening below and see what the town keeps voting for.
Choose from these Flagstaff tours
- Flagstaff Haunted History Tour, $29, nightly at 7 PM
- Mountain Town of Madness, the 18+ tour, $39, Friday and Saturday at 9 PM
- Spirits With The Spirits haunted pub crawl, 21+, three bar stops, private bookings for groups
- Flagstaff Mural Art Tour, $29, daytime
