Boston Ghosts and Gravestones Trolley Tour

Boston Ghosts and Gravestones Trolley Tour is a two-hour seated night ride from Historic Tours of America, booking from $46.20 per person at our August 2, 2026 check. Four stops are named: the Boston Tea Party Ships as a pass-by, then the Granary Burying Ground, Copp's Hill Burying Ground and the North End. It is the only seated product among the four guided Boston ghost listings we track, the only route that crosses into the North End, and by a wide margin the most reviewed thing we carry in this city at 4.4 from 2,570 Viator reviews. Two things to weigh first: it is the priciest of those four, and the trolley is listed not wheelchair accessible.

What you will see

Four stops, all named by the listing, and only one flagged pass-by: the Boston Tea Party Ships, on which we hold no research beyond its presence on the list. The other three are stopped sites, and two of them, Copp's Hill and the North End, appear on no other Boston product we track.

The Granary Burying Ground was established in 1660 as the third burial ground in Boston Proper, behind King's Chapel in 1630 and Copp's Hill in 1659, so it is neither the oldest nor the first. Its name dates from 1737 and a granary moved to the site Park Street Church now occupies. Roughly 2,345 markers stand over more than 5,000 burials, and because the stones were rearranged into rows, the stones do not mark the bodies. The Massacre dead went in at two funerals rather than one: Gray, Maverick, Caldwell and Attucks after the procession of 8 March 1770, and Patrick Carr later. A sixth grave here is often folded into the Massacre and should not be: Christopher Seider, shot on 22 February 1770, eleven days before it. James Otis Jr., killed by lightning at Andover on 23 May 1783, is buried here. Mother Goose is not. Benjamin Franklin is not here either, though his parents are; the severed-hands story about John Hancock has no documentary basis; and we print no tomb number for Samuel Adams.

Copp's Hill opened on 20 February 1659 as the North Burying Ground, Boston's second, and took its later name from William Copp, a shoemaker who lived nearby. It is second oldest rather than oldest, and not the largest by surviving markers. The city counts more than 10,000 burials against roughly 1,200 marked graves, and a section on the Snowhill Street side holds the unmarked graves of the North End's Black community, free and enslaved. Captain Daniel Malcom, merchant and smuggler, died on 23 October 1769 and was buried in a stone grave ten feet deep. His stone carries visible musket damage, which the City of Boston says is believed to come from British troops using the burying ground for target practice while they occupied it. The stone reads MALCOM, though modern references often print MALCOLM, and it says nothing about being safe from British bullets; that line is a later gloss on the depth of the grave. The story that soldiers spat on the grave and fired at it for luck is legend. The damage is not.

British guns on this hill fired on Charlestown during the Battle of Bunker Hill on 17 June 1775 and set the town ablaze; the sources disagree about where on the hill they stood, so we leave the placement out. Prince Hall, who organized African Lodge No. 1 on 3 July 1776, is buried here. Newspaper records put his death on 4 December 1807 while the monument beside his grave carries December 7, and the year the monument went up is itself disputed, so we print no year for it. The Mather tomb is here too, and it is not a witch-trial site: neither Increase nor Cotton Mather was a judge at Salem, Cotton wrote in support of the prosecutions and Increase wrote against the spectral evidence that drove them. Phillis Wheatley's burial place is not established, and we do not place her here.

The North End is the last of the three, and the densest. The Paul Revere House dates to about 1680 and is, per the National Park Service, the oldest residence in downtown Boston, which is not the oldest building in the city. Old North Church broke ground on 15 April 1723. On the night of 18 April 1775 the sexton Robert Newman and Captain John Pulling Jr. showed the two lanterns from its steeple: Revere devised the signal and rode, he did not hang the lanterns, and the signal was not sent to him. The line about one if by land is Longfellow, written in 1860. The neighborhood was majority Irish by 1850 and roughly 90 percent Italian by 1920, so it was not Italian from the beginning. And on 15 January 1919 a tank at 529 Commercial Street holding 2.3 million gallons of molasses burst. The wave ran at about 35 miles an hour, killed 21 people and injured 150, and a 1925 auditor's ruling found the owners negligent. Twenty-one, not a hundred. It is not a joke, the record does not need help, and nobody can promise you will smell it.

Who it suits

Anyone who wants Boston's burying grounds without the walk between them: two hours seated, at night, a child band from 6, and the only route in our Boston set reaching Copp's Hill and the North End. It is also the deepest evidence base we hold in this city. Its 2,570 Viator reviews on August 2, 2026 are more than four times the 620 carried by the other three guided Boston listings combined.

• Not for wheelchair users. The trolley was listed not accessible at both our July 29 and July 31, 2026 checks.
• Not the cheapest way in. At $46.20 it is the priciest of the four guided Boston listings, against $26, $34 and $36.16 for the three walks.
• Not automatically the most child-friendly choice. Its child band starts at 6, while the ExperienceFirst walk we track opens its child band at 4.
• Have a local Boston hotel or a reachable cell number ready. The listing asks for one at booking.

How it compares

Within Boston this is the only seated option of the four guided listings we track, the priciest and the most reviewed. The other three cluster on the Beacon Hill and School Street block: Underground Boston Ghost Tours: Gravestones and Gunpowder ($26, one hour, 4.2 from 269 reviews), Boston's Haunted Historic Streets Walking Tour ($34, 1 hour 30 minutes, 4.6 from 190 reviews) and the Haunted Boston Booze and Boos Ghost Walking Tour ($36.16, 2 hours 30 minutes, 4.6 from 161 reviews, 21 and over). Those figures are from our August 2, 2026 check, and the denominator of four leaves out two self-guided Boston products we neither rate nor rank.

Beyond Boston, the same Ghosts and Gravestones franchise supplies three other pages we carry: the St. Augustine trolley (4.2 from 1,155 reviews, $36.39, one hour), the Savannah trolley (4.0 from 3,202 reviews, $42.80, 1 hour 15 minutes, checked July 30, 2026) and the Key West trolley (4.4 from 1,363 reviews, $38.85, one hour). Boston is the longest of the four at two hours and the priciest at $46.20. Savannah, not Boston, holds the largest review corpus across the franchise, so read the corpus claim above as a Boston claim only. Our Boston page has the rest of the city.

Questions people ask

Is the trolley wheelchair accessible?

No. It was marked not accessible at both our July 29 and July 31, 2026 checks. One of the three guided Boston walks we track carries the accessible flag and two do not, so check each listing rather than assuming a pattern.

How long is it, and when does it run?

Two hours, at night per our July 29, 2026 facts pass. No clock start time is verified.

Can children come?

Yes. The bands are child 6 to 12 and adult 13 to 99. If you need a lower floor, the ExperienceFirst walking tour we track opens its child band at 4.

Where does it go?

Four listing-named stops: the Boston Tea Party Ships as a pass-by, then the Granary Burying Ground, Copp's Hill Burying Ground and the North End.

When is my booking confirmed?

Check the terms at booking. The listing states both a 48-hour confirmation subject to availability and instant confirmation, and because those contradict each other we will not print either as fact.

Why does booking ask for a hotel or a cell number?

The listing asks for a local Boston hotel or a reachable cell number when you book. Have one ready before you start.