The Austin stories to know before you book
The murders came first. A run of night attacks on Austin households ran through 1885 and did not stop until Christmas Eve, and no one was ever convicted. The closest account of how that felt is in the city's own paper. The Austin Weekly Statesman of December 31, 1885 reported that Mrs. Moses H. Hancock, one of the victims of what it called the horrible butchery of Christmas eve, had died the previous evening at fifteen minutes past 6 o'clock, lying in the same bed where she was "struck with the murderous axe, in the hands of a midnight assassin," per the issue held by the Library of Congress. The phrase on the tour posters is not a modern invention. It is what the paper printed at the time.
The city's answer sits in the same issue, and it is dated. An executive committee of citizens, with members named for each of Austin's ten wards, published an appeal for funds dated Austin, December 28, 1885, arguing that money was needed at once to hunt down whoever had been terrorizing the city for the previous twelve months, and that the work had to be both quick and quiet. Read that beside the building site at the north end of Congress Avenue: Texans laid the cornerstone of the present Texas Capitol on March 2, 1885, per the Texas State Preservation Board, so the granite was going up through the same year the city was locking its doors.
The Driskill came after. The four-story hotel at Sixth and Brazos opened on December 20, 1886 with sixty steam-heated guest rooms and four suites on the second floor, per the Texas State Historical Association's Handbook of Texas, which also records that financial trouble forced it closed within a few months and that the ownership changed hands repeatedly afterward. Jesse Driskill is the one guests still report at a window with a cigar. The Capitol was dedicated on May 16, 1888, and it burned again inside living memory: the State Preservation Board dates the fire that gutted the second floor to February 6, 1983, started in the Lieutenant Governor's apartment. Both buildings turn up on most of the routes in the table above. The longer files on every address in this section live in our guide to haunted Austin.
Which Austin ghost tour is right for your group?
The classic haunted history walk
The default Austin format is 90 minutes on foot downtown, with the buildings doing the set dressing. Our pick is the Haunted Austin Walking History Tour, the best overall tour on this page at 4.7 stars across 957 reviews, from $30, run by Walking Tours of Austin. Its listing welcomes strollers, asks for a moderate level of fitness, and cancels free up to 24 hours before the start. It does not list wheelchair access.
- Choose it if this is your first ghost tour in Austin and you want the version with the deepest review record here, 957 of them.
- Choose it if the Driskill is the reason you are booking; this route works it into the walk.
- Skip it if anyone needs wheelchair access; three other tours in our table list it and this one does not.
Verdict: the default pick, and the one we would book first.
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The true-crime murder walk
The Austin Murder Walk sells one story rather than a circuit of them: the 1885 killings, followed at street level past the three stops its listing names, The Driskill, 6th Street, and the Speakeasy, with no interiors promised. It runs 1 hour 45 from $35, the highest starting price in our table, and it holds 4.8 stars across 341 reviews. Two honest notes: it states "Not recommended for ages under 13," and it does not list wheelchair access.
- Choose it if the unsolved case is the reason you want a ghost tour at all.
- Choose it if you want the case told on the blocks where it ran; the route passes The Driskill, 6th Street, and the Speakeasy.
- Skip it if you are bringing a child; the listing says it is not recommended for ages under 13.
- Book earlier than feels necessary; the listing states "On average, this is booked 9 days in advance".
Verdict: the true-crime pick, and the deepest single story on this page.
Book the Austin murder walk
The small-group walk
Austin's Haunted Ghost and Murder Tour is the newest name on this page and the highest rated on it: 5.0 stars across 238 reviews, two hours from $30, run by Spirits of Austin with the group capped at 15. That cap is the product. Two hours with fourteen other people is a different night from two hours with thirty. Its listing cancels free up to 24 hours out, and it does not list wheelchair access.
- Choose it if group size is what ruins tours for you; 15 is the smallest cap in our comparison.
- Choose it if you want the only 5.0 on this page, with 238 reviews behind it.
- Skip it if two hours on foot is more than the evening has room for; the shortest tour here runs one hour.
- Skip it if anyone needs wheelchair access; this listing does not offer it.
Verdict: the small-group pick, and the addition this page owed its readers.
Book the small-group Austin ghost and murder walk
The all-ages walk
The Ghosts of Austin Walking Tour is the family lane, run by Ghost City Tours Austin: 90 minutes from $29.99, and its own listing bills it as the city's all-ages, family-friendly ghost tour. Read its numbers carefully. It holds 4.4 stars across 77 reviews, the second-thinnest record in our table, so the format is a bigger part of the purchase than the crowd verdict. What it does list is wheelchair access, strollers, and free cancellation up to 24 hours out.
- Choose it if the youngest member of the group sets the tone for the night.
- Choose it if you need wheelchair access; this is one of three tours in our table that lists it.
- Skip it if you want a deep review record behind your booking; only one tour here has fewer than its 77 reviews.
Verdict: the easy yes for mixed ages, bought with one of the thinnest review records on the page.
Book the all-ages ghost tour in Austin
The pub crawl
The Austin Haunted Pub Crawl Walking Tour trades some story time for bar time: two hours from $34.99 through central Austin's more atmospheric drinking rooms, with a story and a chance to buy a drink at each stop. It holds 4.3 stars across 245 reviews and publishes a group cap of 30. It lists wheelchair access and cancels free up to 24 hours out. On age, the booking band runs 21 to 99 with a stated minimum of 21, so this is the true adults-only entry in the table.
- Choose it if your group measures a story by the round.
- Choose it if you want a route that goes indoors; this one visits the bars on its itinerary.
- Skip it if anyone in the group is under 21; the booking band starts there.
- Skip it if a group of up to 30 is more crowd than you want; the small-group walk caps at 15.
Verdict: the social option, and the one where the venues do half the atmosphere.
Book the haunted pub crawl in Austin
The short, cheap one
The Hauntings, Apparitions and Ashes of Austin Ghost Tour is the budget entry: one hour from $26, the shortest and the cheapest in our table, on an evening route that has taken in stops like the Museum of the Weird. It lists wheelchair access and strollers. Two things to weigh against the price: 3.8 stars across 71 reviews, the lowest rating on this page, and a listing whose confirmation can take 48 hours, so this is not the one to book for tonight. It also carries a new name; until recently it ran as Austin Ghosts Weird and Haunted Dark History.
- Choose it if one hour is all the walking your evening has room for.
- Choose it if $26 is the number that decides it; nothing else in our table starts lower.
- Skip it if you are booking for tonight; confirmation on this listing can take 48 hours.
- Skip it if the rating matters more than the price; 3.8 is the lowest in our comparison.
Verdict: the cheap seat, honestly priced and honestly rated.
Book the one-hour Austin ghost tour
On accessibility, the pattern runs opposite to instinct. Every compared tour in Austin is a walking tour, so format explains nothing here; the operator does. Three of the six list wheelchair access on Viator: The Ghosts of Austin and the Austin Haunted Pub Crawl, both from Ghost City Tours Austin, and the Hauntings, Apparitions and Ashes tour. The three that do not are the local independents, both Walking Tours of Austin routes and the Spirits of Austin small-group walk, which happen to be the highest rated and the best-booked tours on the page. Strollers are welcome on the Haunted Austin Walking History Tour, The Ghosts of Austin, and the Hauntings, Apparitions and Ashes tour, per those listings, and the Haunted Austin walk asks for a moderate level of fitness.
Haunted hotels in Austin
Austin's most famous haunted address is a hotel, which is not true of most cities on this site. The Driskill has been generating reports for well over a century: Jesse Driskill himself at a window with a cigar, a child on the staircase, a bride tied to room 329, and a portrait on the fifth floor that leaves people cold as they walk past. Two tours in our table work the building into the route. We keep the longer versions in our guide to haunted Austin.
Three downtown properties put you within walking distance of the meeting points rather than a ride away. The Driskill is the obvious one, the 1886 landmark itself, now part of The Unbound Collection by Hyatt, with the 1886 Cafe and Bakery on site and live music in the bar every night. The Westin Austin Downtown is the straightforward option, within walking distance of Sixth Street and an 11-minute walk from the Texas State Capitol, with a rooftop pool and a 20th-floor bar. The Firehouse Hostel is the budget bed, set in Austin's oldest standing fire station half a mile from the Capitol, with a lounge reached through a concealed bookshelf in the lobby and a 24-hour reception. All three carry booking cards in the list above.
The full rundown, the modern towers and the select-service tier included, lives in our guide to where to stay in Austin.
Planning your Austin ghost tour night
Two tracks work. The family track books the all-ages walk: The Ghosts of Austin runs 90 minutes from $29.99, lists wheelchair access and strollers, and keeps the material at a size kids can carry home. Put dinner downtown first and the night still ends at a sensible hour. Daylight plans live in our guide to things to do in Austin.
The adults track starts later and runs longer: the 1 hour 45 Austin Murder Walk on the 1885 case, which its own listing does not recommend for ages under 13, or the two-hour pub crawl through central Austin's older bars. If the group is small and particular, the Spirits of Austin walk caps at 15 and holds the only 5.0 on this page.
Every tour in our comparison departs in the evening, and the meeting points sit on the individual listings rather than in one shared corner of downtown, so read yours the day before rather than the hour of. Book earlier than feels necessary: the Austin Murder Walk's listing states "On average, this is booked 9 days in advance," and the Hauntings, Apparitions and Ashes listing can take 48 hours to confirm. Being early costs nothing here, because all six compared tours cancel free up to 24 hours before start time.
If you are driving in, plan for the meter. The City of Austin lists downtown metered parking, from I-35 to Lamar Boulevard and Lady Bird Lake to 10th Street, as payable Monday and Tuesday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Wednesday through Friday from 8 a.m. to midnight, and Saturday from 11 a.m. to midnight, per its paid parking page, which puts a Wednesday-through-Saturday ghost tour squarely inside the paid window rather than after it. The same page notes that parking is not allowed on 6th Street between Red River and Brazos streets from Thursday through Sunday, 9 p.m. to 3 a.m.
One free thing worth stacking in front of your walk: the bats. The City of Austin puts the colony at 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats flying out from under the Congress Avenue Bridge nightly between March and November. The bridge sits at the south end of the same avenue these tours work, and the flight is an evening event, same as your tour, so check the night's timing before you pick a departure.
Book the highest-rated ghost tour in Austin
