Ghost Cities · Illinois
Two Chicago tours share the top rating in our comparison table at 5.0 stars, the Crime, Ghosts, and Capone walk across 321 reviews and the Murder Mystery Tour across 753, both from $35, while the Chicago Crime and Mob Bus Tour carries the most reviews of the seven at 4.6 across 3,457. Every number on this page was checked on Viator on July 29, 2026, and the three tours in our July 30, 2026 sweep were rechecked that day.
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Our top picks in Chicago
The Haunted Chicago: Crime, Ghosts, and Capone Walking Tour is our top pick for a ghost walk in Chicago. Magnifico Tours works the Loop for 90 minutes, putting the mob history and the reported hauntings at the same addresses, and the listing offers wheelchair access including accessible transportation, plus strollers. 5.0 stars across 321 reviews, from $35.
The Chicago Murder Mystery Tour is the pick for a group that would rather solve something than only listen. Same operator as our top walk: two hours on foot through the city's history with a mystery running underneath it, wheelchair access and strollers both listed, and a Likely to Sell Out chip on the listing. 5.0 stars across 753 reviews, from $35.
A costumed guide in flapper or gangster dress leads this mile-long pub tour past forgotten cemeteries and lingering spirits, with three bar stops along the way. Drinks at your own expense; stories included. The listing states "Minimum age is 21 years", takes a minimum of two adults per booking, and runs in all weather. 4.9 stars across 315 reviews, from $35.87 for 2 hours 30.
More worth a look
The Chicago Crime, Mobsters and Ghosts Walking Tour is the longer mob route, run by ExperienceFirst: 90 minutes to two hours through the city's crime and vice history with the hauntings attached. Infants ride on laps, the listing does not offer wheelchair access, and it is not recommended for travelers with back problems. 4.7 stars across 450 reviews, from $34.
A small-group night walk through Lincoln Park's supposedly haunted former burial grounds, pubs, and theaters, set against the era of gangsters, bootleggers, and jazz. The listing offers wheelchair access, welcomes strollers, and confirms bookings within 48 hours subject to availability. 4.4 stars across 122 reviews, from $26 for one hour.
The Chicago Crime and Mob Bus Tour is the seated option and the most reviewed of the seven tours in our comparison table, the one this page was missing until this update caught it. A coach covers the gangster-era map, Holy Name Cathedral, the Biograph Theatre, and the St. Valentine's Day Massacre site among them, with stops for photos. It is the only compared tour running day and evening. 4.6 stars across 3,457 reviews, from $49.
The Chicago River Ghost & Dark History Night Cruise is the water option on this page: 90 minutes on the river with the city's disasters and crimes told from a deck instead of a sidewalk, run by First Lady. Strollers are allowed and the listing does not offer wheelchair access. 4.0 stars across 170 reviews, from $46.
A historian leads this walk through the Loop's roaring-twenties underworld: bootleggers, speakeasies, and Al Capone's old orbit, with stops at reported hauntings like the Palmer House, the Congress Hotel, and Death Alley.
The long evening bus: three hours through the city's darkest recesses with a historian narrating. The route covers the old City Cemetery grounds, the Levee vice district, Prairie Avenue, and the site of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Children must be accompanied, infants ride on laps, and the listing is not wheelchair accessible. From $59.
A half-day history tour inspired by the book: the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and H.H. Holmes, covering the Prairie Avenue Historic District, Jackson Park, Midway Plaisance, and the site of the so-called Murder Castle.
Tour Lincoln Park with a paranormal investigator: the Great Fire of 1871, Suicide Bridge, the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, and the old City Cemetery, with time on the ghost-detecting equipment yourself.
Chicago's original Millionaire's Row after dark: the Gilded Age mansions of Marshall Field, George Pullman, and Philip Armour still stand on Prairie Avenue, and this combined history tour and ghost investigation works the block properly.
A private tour of the heavy hitters: the Murder Castle site, Death Alley, and the old Congress Hotel, with Al Capone's Chicago as the connective tissue. Your group, your pace, three of the city's darkest addresses.
Glide through the city by moonlight on a guided Segway run past the sites of Chicago's most notorious disasters and crimes, with the landmarks lit up along the way. A costumed local guide keeps the stories coming, in a group kept small.
A Halloween-season evening bike ride through hauntings, tragedies, and overflowing cemeteries, led by professional actor guides in a small group. Covers Resurrection Mary, the Levee District, and H.H. Holmes at a pedal-friendly pace.
Advance tickets to the Medieval Torture Museum with an audio guide covering the practices and the devices. Gruesome, informative, and a reliable rainy-day pairing with an evening tour.
A phone-guided scavenger hunt and tour: follow clues and solve puzzles at haunted locations while the story unfolds and directs you to the next stop. Private to your group, and you go at your own pace, whenever you like.
A smartphone-guided audio tour of the city's dark side: open the app at the first stop, press play, and get guided turn by turn between locations on your own schedule.
LondonHouse Chicago occupies a historic landmark building where Michigan Avenue meets the Chicago River, a short walk from Millennium Park, with a tri-level rooftop bar and skyline views from some rooms. Navy Pier and the Art Institute are both within 1.2 miles, which makes the walk home after a night tour a short one.
Pendry Chicago sits a 19-minute walk from Ohio Street Beach and close to Millennium Station, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Cloud Gate, with free bikes, private parking, a fitness center, and a 24-hour front desk. City views from some rooms, and the Loop's haunted addresses within walking distance.
Viceroy Chicago holds the Gold Coast end of the map, steps from the Magnificent Mile and a 10-minute walk from Oak Street Beach, with a rooftop bar and seasonal pool above a building that mixes historic character with modern rooms. Navy Pier and Millennium Park are both close by.
The short answer, with every number checked on Viator as of July 2026: two of the seven tours we compared share the top rating at 5.0 stars, both from Magnifico Tours and both from $35. The Haunted Chicago Crime, Ghosts, and Capone walk holds 5.0 across 321 reviews over 90 minutes, and the Chicago Murder Mystery Tour holds 5.0 across 753 reviews over two hours. For bar stops, Booze and Boos runs 2 hours 30 from $35.87 and sets a minimum age of 21. The most reviewed of the seven by a wide margin is the Chicago Crime and Mob Bus Tour, 4.6 across 3,457 reviews from $49, and it is the one compared route that runs day and evening. The water option is the Chicago River Ghost and Dark History Night Cruise, 90 minutes from $46. The shortest and cheapest of the seven is Embers of the Windy City, one hour from $26. The booking cards above carry the links; the comparison table below carries the numbers.
How we built this page: on July 29, 2026 we worked through the Chicago ghost tour listings on Viator and kept the seven in the comparison table below, checking every price, rating, and review count that same day. Three of the seven fell inside a second sweep on July 30, 2026, Booze and Boos, Embers of the Windy City and the crime bus, and the only number that had moved was the crime bus review count, now 3,457. One of the seven, the Chicago Crime and Mob Bus Tour, was missing from this page entirely until this update added it. Ten listings here also carry new names on Viator since our last pass, and the cards now match what you will see at checkout. The filters are the ones we use at home in Arizona: routes with something behind them, group sizes that let you hear the guide, access claims a listing will actually stand behind, and cancellation terms we would accept ourselves.
Chicago's haunted reputation is really three histories stacked on top of each other: the Great Fire of 1871, the 1893 World's Fair with H.H. Holmes working its edges, and the gangster decades of Al Capone and John Dillinger. Add hotels like the Palmer House and the Congress, a lakefront park built over the old City Cemetery, and the S.S. Eastland disaster, and the Windy City supports more ghost tour formats than any town in the Midwest. We are Arizona tour guides who research haunted history everywhere, so read this as our honest shortlist for Illinois. The ranked list lives in our guide to the best haunted ghost tours in Chicago.
| Best for | Tour | When | Length | From | Rating (reviews) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gangsters on foot, our top pick | Crime, Ghosts, and Capone Walk | Evening | 1 hr 30 | $35 | 5.0 (321) |
| Groups who want a puzzle | Chicago Murder Mystery Tour | Evening | 2 hr | $35 | 5.0 (753) |
| Bar stops, 21 and over | Booze and Boos Ghost Walk | Evening | 2 hr 30 | $35.87 | 4.9 (315) |
| Mob history in depth | Crime, Mobsters and Ghosts Walk | Evening | 1 hr 30 to 2 hr | $34 | 4.7 (450) |
| A short first walk | Embers of the Windy City | Evening | 1 hr | $26 | 4.4 (122) |
| Riding, day or evening | Chicago Crime and Mob Bus Tour | Day and evening | 1 hr 30 to 2 hr | $49 | 4.6 (3,457) |
| Seeing it from the water | Chicago River Ghost & Dark History Night Cruise | Night | 1 hr 30 | $46 | 4.0 (170) |
Prices and ratings in this table were checked on July 29, 2026 on Viator. The Booze and Boos, Embers of the Windy City and Chicago Crime and Mob Bus Tour rows were rechecked on July 30, 2026.
Start with the fire, because everything downtown dates from either side of it. When word reached downstate, the Ottawa Free Trader of October 14, 1871 ran the news under the headline CHICAGO IN ASHES, counted 80,000 people homeless, and described a city left without light or water, its courthouse walls still standing over a business district that no longer worked.
"Potter Palmer's splendid hotels are heaps of ruins, and in fact the great business center of Chicago has been swept out of existence," the same issue reported from the ground. The Palmer House on that line is the hotel the Loop walks still stop under, and it is one of two downtown addresses guides tend to save for last.
Thirty-two years later the Loop lost a theater. In the Iroquois Theatre fire of December 30, 1903 close to 600 people died, so many that the alley behind the building was stacked with bodies. The next afternoon the Rock Island Argus of December 31, 1903 reported the inspector's finding that the wire rigged for the show's biggest effect had held the asbestos curtain in place and kept it from coming down, and described coroner's jurors who could not finish viewing the dead at the city's morgues. That alley is the one now called Death Alley, and it is a stop on more than one route on this page.
The third file is on the water. On July 24, 1915 the steel steamer Eastland rolled over at her dock in the Chicago River, loaded with roughly 2,500 excursionists, Western Electric employees and their families headed for a company picnic. By 2:40 that afternoon the coroner's estimate of the dead had reached 1,300, per the Rock Island Argus of that day, printed hours after it happened. The final count was 844, and the ship never got under way: it rolled onto its side at the dock in about twenty feet of water. The river running through downtown is the same water the night cruise works.
Between those three sit the addresses guides ration out: the Congress Plaza Hotel and the Palmer House, the old City Cemetery ground under Lincoln Park and its zoo, the so-called Murder Castle site tied to H.H. Holmes and the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, the St. Valentine's Day Massacre site, and Resurrection Mary, the hitchhiking ghost who belongs to the roads southwest of town. The longer files on each live in our guide to haunted Chicago.
This is the format most people mean when they say Chicago ghost tour: the Loop on foot after dark, with the mob history and the reported hauntings told at the same addresses. Our pick is the Haunted Chicago Crime, Ghosts, and Capone Walking Tour from Magnifico Tours, 5.0 stars across 321 reviews, 90 minutes from $35. Its listing offers wheelchair access including accessible transportation and welcomes strollers, which is not the norm in this field.
Verdict: the default pick, and the one we would book first.
Book the Crime, Ghosts, and Capone walk
The mystery format trades some listening for something to do. The Chicago Murder Mystery Tour comes from the same operator as our top walk and holds the other 5.0 on this page, across 753 reviews, two hours from $35. Its listing carries a Likely to Sell Out chip, and lists both wheelchair access and strollers.
Verdict: the group pick, and the easiest sell to people who say ghost tours are not their thing.
Book the Chicago Murder Mystery Tour
A pub crawl trades story time for bar time, and this one is the longest night out in our table. The pick is the Haunted Chicago Booze and Boos Ghost Walking Tour from Nightly Spirits, 4.9 stars across 315 reviews, 2 hours 30 from $35.87, a mile on foot with three bar stops and a guide in flapper or gangster dress. Two lines from its listing settle it for most groups: "Minimum age is 21 years," and a minimum of two adults to book.
Verdict: the best format for a group that measures a story by the round.
Book the Booze and Boos pub walk in Chicago
One hour from $26 is the lowest bar to entry on this page. Embers of the Windy City: Chilling Chicago Ghost Tours took a new name on Viator since our last pass and still runs its small-group night walk in Lincoln Park, passing the Red Lion Pub, the Biograph Theatre and Oz Park. The five points it names are all pass-bys, and none of them is a former burial ground. It holds 4.4 stars across 122 reviews, the smallest review base in our table, and its listing offers wheelchair access and welcomes strollers.
Verdict: the low-commitment option, and the one to pair with a late dinner.
Book the one-hour Chicago ghost walk
Chicago's haunted geography is spread across the map, and the bus is the answer to that. The Chicago Crime and Mob Bus Tour carries 3,457 reviews at 4.6 stars, more than the other six compared tours put together, and runs 90 minutes to two hours from $49 with photo stops along the way. It is the only compared tour that runs in daylight as well as after dark, and it is the one this page was missing until this update caught it.
Verdict: the coverage play, and the safest pick for mixed walking ability.
Book the Chicago crime and mob bus tour
The water option is the Chicago River Ghost and Dark History Night Cruise from First Lady, 90 minutes from $46 and the only night classification in our table. It also carries the lowest rating of the seven, 4.0 across 170 reviews, which is worth knowing before you pay the second highest per-person price on the page.
Verdict: the change of angle, best booked for a clear night.
Book the Chicago River ghost night cruise
Practical notes: evening departures are the norm here, the bus and the cruise both run long, so eat first, and October books out well ahead. On accessibility the pattern is clear and it favors the walks: three of the seven compared tours list wheelchair access on Viator, Embers of the Windy City, the Crime, Ghosts, and Capone walk, and the Murder Mystery Tour, with the Capone walk's listing including accessible transportation. The four that do not are the Booze and Boos pub walk, the river cruise, the crime bus, and the Crime, Mobsters and Ghosts mob walk. Strollers are welcome on the cruise and the bus per their listings, and the mob walk allows infants on laps while noting it is not recommended for travelers with back problems.
Two hotels do most of the work in this city. The Congress Plaza Hotel was built for visitors to the 1893 World's Fair, and guides put Peg Leg Johnny in the South Tower and room 441 at the center of everything else reported there. The Palmer House carries the Loop's other long record, and the 1871 line above explains why the name has more than one building behind it. We keep the longer versions in our guide to haunted Chicago; the short version is that in this city the stories and the room keys tend to share an address.
If you would rather sleep near the story than inside it, three downtown properties put you inside the walking radius. LondonHouse Chicago occupies a historic landmark building where Michigan Avenue meets the river, a short walk from Millennium Park. Pendry Chicago sits close to Millennium Station and Cloud Gate, about a 19-minute walk from Ohio Street Beach. Viceroy Chicago holds the Gold Coast end, steps off the Magnificent Mile and a 10-minute walk from Oak Street Beach. All three carry booking cards in the list above.
The full rundown, river-view towers and the ballpark hotel included, lives in our guide to where to stay in Chicago.
Two tracks work here. The early track takes the bus or the Capone walk while there is still light in the sky, saves dinner for after, and keeps the night short enough for anyone who has to be awake in the morning. Daylight plans live in our guide to things to do in Chicago.
The adults track starts later: a slow dinner, then Booze and Boos with its 21 and over floor and its three bar stops, or the night cruise if you would rather be on the water than on the sidewalk. Either way the Loop empties out after the offices do, which is when the walks work best.
Meeting points sit on each listing and they are not all in the same corner of downtown, so read the meeting point line before you plan the walk to it, and treat the arrival window on your own booking page as the authority. Getting there is the cheap part: a full fare is $2.50 on the 'L' and $2.25 on a bus, transfers are free for up to two more rides within two hours of a new fare, and a 1-Day Pass is $5, per the CTA's downtown sightseeing by transit guide, August 2024 edition. Paying cash on a bus costs $2.50 with exact change and buys no transfer, so load a card before the tour rather than after it.
Chicago has one of the deepest documented dark histories in the country: the Great Fire, the Iroquois Theatre fire, the Eastland disaster, the gangland killings, and a lakefront park that used to be a cemetery. Whether the reported activity convinces you or not, the history underneath it is real and the tours are built on it.
The Congress Hotel and Palmer House top most lists, with Death Alley, the old City Cemetery grounds in Lincoln Park, and the St. Valentine's Day Massacre site close behind. Resurrection Mary, the city's famous hitchhiker, belongs to the roads southwest of town.
Take the Crime, Ghosts, and Capone walk for the Loop on foot with the gangster material included, the Murder Mystery Tour if your group wants something to solve, the Chicago Crime and Mob Bus Tour for the sites too far apart to walk, Booze and Boos if you want bar stops and everyone is 21 or older, and the river cruise if you would rather see it from the water. Embers of the Windy City is the one-hour, $26 way to find out whether the format is for you.
Yes. The Devil in the White City history tour covers the 1893 World's Fair and the H. H. Holmes story, and its listed stops include the Prairie Avenue Historic District and Jackson Park. The operator's description also names the so-called Murder Castle site, which is not on the itinerary stop list and is a post office today. It is the pick for true-crime and history readers, and it sits in the card list above rather than in the compared table.
Mostly in the evening. Five of the seven compared tours are classified as evening departures, the river cruise runs at night, and the Chicago Crime and Mob Bus Tour is the only one that runs day and evening. None of the seven publishes one fixed clock time that holds across the calendar, so the booking page for your date is the authority on departure times.
Earlier than feels necessary. The Chicago Murder Mystery Tour carries a Likely to Sell Out chip on its listing, and October is the crunch here as everywhere. Booking early costs you very little, because all seven of the compared tours offer free cancellation up to 24 hours before the start. One scheduling note that is not a cancellation matter: the Embers of the Windy City listing confirms bookings within 48 hours, subject to availability, so give that one room in the plan.
One tour on this page publishes a hard age line: the Booze and Boos pub walk states "Minimum age is 21 years," and its listing also requires a minimum of two adults to book. The Chicago Crime, Mobsters and Ghosts walk allows infants on laps and notes it is not recommended for travelers with back problems. The other five compared listings did not publish an age policy at our check, so ask the operator before bringing young children on a true-crime route, and read the tour description for tone.
Plan on $26 to $49 per person. As of the July 29, 2026 check on Viator, Embers of the Windy City starts at $26, the mob walk at $34, the two Magnifico walks at $35, Booze and Boos at $35.87, the river cruise at $46, and the crime bus at $49. Party math: two adults on Booze and Boos comes to $71.74 before fees, which is also the smallest party its listing will take, and a family of four on the Crime, Ghosts, and Capone walk runs $140 at its $35 from-price. For the crowd's verdict on the field, the seven compared tours carry more than 5,500 reviews between them.
One listing answers it outright: the Booze and Boos pub walk operates in all weather. The others do not publish a weather policy we could verify, so check the listing for your date. The cancellation terms take most of the sting out of a bad forecast either way, since all seven compared tours are free to cancel up to 24 hours before the start.
Walk if the Loop is your focus; the Palmer House, the Congress, and Death Alley sit within blocks of each other. Take the bus for the far-flung sites like the Levee district and Prairie Avenue, and note it is the only compared tour that also runs in daylight. Take the boat if you want the skyline with the stories and nothing to walk. Dress in layers whichever you pick; the lake wind is not a legend.
The One State Where We Hold the Lantern
Everywhere else, we write the guide. In Flagstaff, Tucson and Prescott we lead the tour, nightly, in person, with five generations of Arizona roots behind every story.