Downtown Flagstaff is best seen on foot, and there are two honest ways to do it. Freaky Foot Tours runs three guided walking tours, all meeting on Aspen Avenue: an evening Haunted History Tour (75 minutes), an evening Route 66 walking tour (90 minutes), and a daytime mural tour (90 minutes), each $29 for adults, $25 for students, and $22 for children. If you would rather walk on your own, this guide also maps two free self-guided routes with addresses and dates.
A town you can read on foot
Flagstaff got its name from a flagpole: on July 4, 1876, settlers stripped a tall pine and flew a flag for the nation's centennial. The first train arrived on August 1, 1882 and stopped at a converted boxcar, and the railroad made the town. Route 66 came through in 1926, and although the highway was decommissioned in 1985, in Flagstaff the original downtown alignment is still the main street. That is why walking works here: the buildings that tell the story stand a few minutes apart, and the historic core reads like an open book if you know where to look. Below are the three guided walks we lead, followed by two self-guided routes you can take for free.
Three guided walks, one downtown
| Tour | Length | Time of day | Meets at | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Downtown Flagstaff Haunted History Tour | 75 minutes | Evening | Wheeler Park, 212 W Aspen Ave | $29 adult / $25 student / $22 child |
| Route 66 Walking Tour of Flagstaff | 90 minutes | Evening | Heritage Square, 22 E Aspen Ave, at the flagpole | $29 adult / $25 student / $22 child |
| Flagstaff Mural Tour | 90 minutes | Daytime | Orpheum Theatre, 35 W Aspen Ave | $29 adult / $25 student / $22 child |
All three meet on Aspen Avenue, and every ticket comes with the same policy: a full refund when canceled 24 or more hours before the tour, no refund inside 24 hours.
“This was a fun, family friendly way to get a history lesson of downtown Flagstaff and the characters who built it.” (Faith S., Google, August 2025)
The evening ghost walk
The Downtown Flagstaff Haunted History Tour is a 75-minute evening walk through the historic core: the Orpheum Theatre, the Weatherford Hotel, the Hotel Monte Vista, and the site of the 1937 Walkup family tragedy, which we tell as documented history, with the care it deserves. The stories were originally researched by our co-founder Susan Johnson, a published local author whose books Haunted Flagstaff, Wicked Flagstaff, and The Walkup Family Murders were published by The History Press, and downtown Flagstaff's haunts were featured on Travel Channel's The Dead Files in 2022. History comes first and the haunt follows it, which is why families keep showing up.
“We were a bit nervous bringing our kids on their first haunted tour, and it was the perfect mix of humor and haunted history (no nightmares and the kids loved it).” (Phillip G., Google, July 2025)
The Route 66 walk
The Route 66 Walking Tour of Flagstaff is a 90-minute evening walk along the road itself, from the 1876 flagpole story to the 1926 commissioning of the highway, the 1934 reroute that pushed traffic onto South San Francisco Street, and the neon that answered it. The timing is hard to beat: Route 66 turns 100 in 2026, and so does the red sandstone depot downtown, built the same year the road got its number. The tour is made possible with partial funding provided by the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona.
The mural walk
The Flagstaff Mural Tour is a 90-minute daytime walk that starts at the Orpheum Theatre and ends near Dark Sky Brewery. Downtown's walls carry serious public art, including the Mother Myth of Route 66 mural, painted in 2013 by the Mural Mice collective, which tells the road's story decade by decade. Most visitors have walked past these pieces without stopping; the tour is the stop.
“It was so fun and interesting to discover the hidden murals in downtown Flagstaff! I have walked by these many times, but never stopped to really look at and learn about them.” (Julia C., TripAdvisor, July 2025)
Free self-guided route: the downtown core
No ticket required for this loop, and every date on it is documented. Start at the Flagstaff Visitor Center inside the 1926 red sandstone train depot, open free seven days a week. Walk north to the corner of San Francisco Street and Aspen Avenue, where the Babbitt Brothers, who arrived from Cincinnati in 1886, built a mercantile that stretched a city block; their ghost sign is still on the brick. One corner over stands the Hotel Monte Vista, opened January 1, 1927, financed by public subscription and named in a community contest, its rooftop neon a downtown landmark. One block west at Leroux and Aspen is the Weatherford Hotel, opened January 1, 1900, red sandstone with a witch's-cap cupola. Finish at the Orpheum Theatre on Aspen: John Weatherford opened it as the Majestic on October 27, 1911, roughly five feet of snow collapsed the roof on New Year's Eve 1915, and the rebuilt house reopened as the Orpheum on August 31, 1916.
Free self-guided route: Route 66 and Southside
Start again at the depot and find the Route 66 centennial floor mural near the train station. Then cross the tracks, which is the point: the railroad divided the town, respectable storefronts north and a rougher district south. After the 1934 reroute put Route 66 on South San Francisco Street, Southside answered with motor courts and neon, and the surviving signs are originals, not reproductions. Look for the Motel DuBeau, built in 1929 by Albert DuBeau with carpeted rooms, indoor toilets, and a steam-heated garage, and listed in the Negro Motorist's Green Book, the guide that told Black travelers where they would be welcome. The 1925 Milum Building, a steam laundry that once served the motels, boarding houses, sawmill, and hospital, now pours beer as Mother Road Brewing. The Tourist Home, built in 1926 as a boarding house for Basque sheepherders, still keeps part of its 1920s handball wall out back.
Choosing between guided and self-guided
The self-guided routes above are genuinely worth an afternoon, and they cost nothing. What a guide adds is the connective tissue: the people behind the dates, the stories that never made the plaques, and answers to the questions the buildings raise. Freaky Foot Tours holds a 5.0 rating across 690+ Google reviews as of July 2026 and was voted Best of Flagstaff for guided tours in 2023. Whichever way you walk it, downtown Flagstaff repays the effort, and the two ways stack well: self-guided by day, guided after dark.
Questions people ask
How much do walking tours in Flagstaff cost?
The three guided walking tours run by Freaky Foot Tours, the Haunted History Tour, the Route 66 Walking Tour, and the Mural Tour, are each $29 for adults, $25 for students, and $22 for children. The two self-guided routes in this guide are free.
How long are Flagstaff walking tours?
The Downtown Flagstaff Haunted History Tour runs 75 minutes. The Route 66 Walking Tour and the Flagstaff Mural Tour each run 90 minutes. All three meet on Aspen Avenue in downtown Flagstaff.
Are Flagstaff walking tours kid-friendly?
The Haunted History Tour is written for mixed ages, with history first and the haunt second, and reviews from parents regularly say their kids enjoyed it. The Flagstaff Mural Tour is a daytime art and history walk, the Route 66 walk is an evening history walk, and both are suitable for all ages.
Is there a free self-guided walking tour of downtown Flagstaff?
Yes. Start at the Flagstaff Visitor Center in the 1926 train depot, which is open free seven days a week, then follow the downtown core loop in this guide past the Babbitt Brothers ghost sign, the Hotel Monte Vista, the Weatherford Hotel, and the Orpheum Theatre.
What is the cancellation policy for the guided tours?
Full refund when canceled 24 or more hours before the tour; no refund inside 24 hours. The policy applies to all Freaky Foot Tours products.
