Cemetery and Ghost BYOB Bus Tour in New Orleans is a two-hour evening bus tour run by NOLA GhostRiders, booking from $30 per person at our July 30, 2026 check. The named route is short: Masonic Temple Cemetery No. 2 on City Park Avenue, plus a pass-by at City Park. The bus is the whole point, because that cemetery sits well outside the French Quarter and is not walkable from it. You bring your own drinks, and the listing carries its own line about drinking responsibly. It is not wheelchair accessible, and its age bands run child 6 to 11 and adult 12 to 99, so it is not adults-only. It suits people who want the cemetery corridor rather than another Bourbon Street walk.
| Detail | What the listing shows |
|---|---|
| From price | $30 per person (checked July 30, 2026) |
| Duration | 2 hours |
| Departures | Evening. No clock time verified. |
| Ages | Child 6 to 11, adult 12 to 99, per the listing's age bands |
| Format | Bus tour, bring your own drinks, drink-responsibly line |
| Wheelchair access | Not accessible |
| Group size | No cap verified |
| Meeting point | Not captured. Confirm it when booking. |
| Cancellation | Free cancellation to 24 hours at our check |
| Rating | 4.5 from 2,809 Viator reviews, not a thin sample |
| Stops named | Masonic Temple Cemetery No. 2; City Park pass-by |
| Operator | NOLA GhostRiders. We do not run this tour. |
What you will see
The one stop the listing names is a cemetery on City Park Avenue, and the first thing to say is that the name on the itinerary is unreliable. The ground is generally called simply the Masonic Cemetery, at 400 City Park Avenue, and grave-index databases split it into No. 1 and No. 2, which appears to number the two blocks it occupies either side of Conti Street rather than two separately founded burial grounds. No authoritative source we could find confirms that an institution called Masonic Temple Cemetery No. 2 was founded on its own. The cemetery is documented: The Cultural Landscape Foundation records it as founded in 1865 by the Grand Lodge of the State of Louisiana Free and Accepted Masons. The founding day of January 18, 1865 circulates in enthusiast writing rather than in any archive we could open, so take the year as solid and the day as unconfirmed.
What makes it worth the drive is that this is a fraternal order's ground rather than a church's, so the tombs do not look like the Catholic cemeteries most visitors picture. It is two irregular blocks with a triangular footprint and angular walkways read as echoing the Masonic square and compass, and the interior is deliberately open, so the tombs read as architecture. Among the structures are a lodge tomb with an exterior stair to its roof, columns salvaged from a demolished Masonic lodge, and the society tomb of the Red River Pilots Association, an alliance of steamboat pilots long since disbanded (The Cultural Landscape Foundation).
Now the corrections, because this is where New Orleans cemetery copy goes wrong. This is not St. Louis Cemetery No. 2, which is Catholic, sits on North Claiborne Avenue near the Quarter, and gets conflated with this ground constantly. Marie Laveau is in neither: she died on June 15, 1881 and is interred in the Widow Paris tomb in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 (64 Parishes). You cannot wander in to see that tomb either. A vandal painted it with pink latex in December 2013, and removing the paint took the Archdiocese and Save Our Cemeteries roughly three months (nola.com); from March 2015 the Archdiocese admitted visitors only as family members, as scholars, or with a licensed guide, as reported at the time. If Laveau's tomb is why you are booking a cemetery tour, this is not the tour that goes there.
There is also no named haunting here: no documented apparition, no witness, no folklore tradition to compare with the Laveau material at St. Louis No. 1. The mystery rests on Freemasonry's ritual privacy rather than on the dead, and the conspiracy material about occult ritual, hidden chambers or coded burials has no source. The real explanation for why the place looks so ambitious for the money is the better one: lodge members pooled resources and bought together what none of them could have bought alone. The listing does not name it, but the same corridor holds the Hurricane Katrina Memorial, opened on August 29, 2008 at 5056 Canal Street on the former Charity Hospital Cemetery grounds, where unclaimed and unidentified storm victims are interred (New Orleans Historical). City Park is passed without stopping.
Who it suits
This is two hours on a bus after dark, out of the Quarter and back, built around the one cemetery the listing names, and the vehicle is what buys you that stop. The bring-your-own-drinks format points at an adult group, but the age bands accept children from 6, so read it as a tour that permits children rather than one built for them.
- Skip it if anyone in your party uses a wheelchair. The listing states it is not accessible.
- Skip it if you are booking to see Marie Laveau's tomb. That is St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, not this route.
- Skip it if you want a documented ghost story attached to the ground under your feet.
- Take a walking tour instead if you want French Quarter street history.
How it compares
NOLA GhostRiders runs a second New Orleans listing, and the two are not substitutes. Haunted Ghost and Paranormal Tour in New Orleans is also two hours but costs $15, the lowest from-price among the fifteen New Orleans listings in our research, and it is wheelchair accessible. Its stops stay inside the Quarter, among them the LaLaurie Mansion and Muriel's Jackson Square. It carries 4.5 across 98 reviews, a thin sample next to this listing's 2,809. For the Quarter, take that one; for the cemetery, only the bus gets you there.
Among other operators, The Ghosts of New Orleans Tour is $29.99 for 90 minutes, wheelchair accessible, and capped at 9 travelers, the smallest stated cap among the fifteen New Orleans listings in our research. New Orleans Haunted History Ghost Tour from Haunted History Tours matches this one at $30 and two hours, rates 4.6 across 2,274 reviews and is wheelchair accessible, but it walks the Quarter rather than leaving it. For the wider field, see New Orleans ghost tours compared and the best haunted tours in New Orleans.
Questions people ask
Which cemetery does it actually visit?
The listing names Masonic Temple Cemetery No. 2, but the ground is generally called simply the Masonic Cemetery, at 400 City Park Avenue, and we could not confirm that an institution by that exact name was separately founded. City Park is a pass-by.
Is Marie Laveau's tomb on this tour?
No. Laveau is interred in the Widow Paris tomb in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, a different cemetery across town, and since March 2015 the Archdiocese has admitted visitors there only as family members, as scholars, or with a licensed guide.
Can I really bring my own drinks?
Yes. This is a bring-your-own-drinks bus, and the listing asks travelers to drink responsibly. The stated dress code is smart casual.
How long is it and what does it cost?
Two hours, from $30 per person at our July 30, 2026 check. It runs in the evening; no clock departure time was verified, so read the times on the booking page.
Can children come?
The age bands run child 6 to 11 and adult 12 to 99, so children from 6 can be booked, though it is an after-dark tour with drinks on board.
Is it wheelchair accessible?
No, per the listing. Several other New Orleans listings are, including both tours compared above.
