The Charleston Boo Hag and Brews Ghost and Bar Tour

The Charleston Boo Hag and Brews Ghost and Bar Tour is a two-hour evening bar walk run by Charleston Historic Tours LLC, booking from $35 per person at our August 3, 2026 check, when it carried 4.9 from 208 Viator reviews. It is 21-and-over in the strict sense: the only booking band runs 21 to 99, and the listing's own line is that guests must be 21 and bring valid photo ID. It is also the only one of the 23 live Charleston ghost products we compared built around the Boo Hag, a figure documented in Gullah Geechee folklore rather than invented for the tour trade. Snacks are included, it is marked not wheelchair accessible, and it excludes back problems, heart or other serious medical conditions, and pregnant travelers.

Two things the listing does not say, and this page will not fill in. Nothing in either of our checks records what is or is not served at the bars, so nothing is promised about drinks either way. And a 10 percent offer was showing $31.50 on July 28, 2026, which is a promotion rather than the fare: $35 is the base and $35 is what we print.

What a Boo Hag actually is

This one is not a tour invention, which is rarer on a ghost circuit than it sounds. Elsie Clews Parsons published Folk-Lore of the Sea Islands, South Carolina in 1923 as volume 16 of the Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society, collected from Sea Islands informants, and it records the belief in their words: women who shed their skins and victimise sleepers, "ol' haigs what ride people in de sleep." The countermeasures are as specific: salt in the abandoned skin so it will not go back on, and mustard seed at the door, so fine the hag would be picking it up until morning. Two of the tales Parsons printed turn on the hag pleading with her own salted skin, one ending "'Kin, 'kin, you na know me?" That plea is the oldest reliably datable element of the story, and the Federal Writers' Project collected the tradition again in the 1930s for Drums and Shadows in 1940.

Three things are worth holding on to while you listen. This is a living community's belief rather than a Halloween monster, and the Gullah Geechee of the Lowcountry and Sea Islands are a present-day people with a federally designated heritage corridor. The compound boo hag appears nowhere in the 1923 text, where the words are hag and haig, so the belief is documented from the early twentieth century and understood to be older, while the name in common use today may be later. And she is not a vampire: what the sources attest is breath or energy, plus the skin, the salt and the counting.

If the guide points at a blue porch ceiling, treat the usual explanation carefully. The story that Gullah people mixed leftover indigo with lime and milk into protective paint is repeated everywhere, including by paint companies. In February 2020 the architectural conservator George Fore examined the blue in the attic of the Davenport House in Savannah, long read as 1820s work by enslaved people, and found it was the last layer of paint rather than the first, probably 1890s or later, and commercially bought; the Historic Savannah Foundation published that correction against its own property in March 2020. The founder of the Gullah Museum on Hilton Head Island told the same piece it was never mentioned in her family there, and Parsons's 1923 collection contains no reference to blue paint at all.

The five points, and what is safe to say at them

The Circular Congregational Church at 150 Meeting Street and St. Philip's Church at 142 Church Street are both flagged pass-by, and the listing's own copy is blunt that the tour does not enter the graveyards. Two corrections belong at the Circular yard: Lavinia Fisher is not buried there, and the building in front of you is not Robert Mills's round church of 1804 to 1806, which burned on December 11, 1861. Keep the congregation's own careful phrase for the ground, likely the oldest English burial ground still in existence in Charleston.

Philadelphia Alley gets sold as a duelling ground where Dr. Joseph Brown Ladd was shot in 1786. Ladd was real and died on November 2, 1786; the passage was not, since in 1786 it was Kinloch's Court, a private lane behind Francis Kinloch's rental houses, opened as a public street only on January 30, 1811. No duel has ever been documented there. At the Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon, what matters here is what is not included: no admission appears on the listing, and the cellar was a customs space repurposed as a prison between 1780 and 1782 rather than a dungeon built as one. Only one Charleston listing we track puts that ticket in the price, the Ghost and Dungeon walk. Washington Square is the fifth point, and our research holds no file on it, so we name it and stop.

Who it suits

Drinkers who want Lowcountry folklore with documented roots rather than a jump-scare script, and who are content with two hours on foot and no interiors. Bring photo ID.

• Not for families. The only booking band is adult 21 to 99, and the listing asks for valid photo ID.
• Not for anyone who needs step-free ground. It is listed not wheelchair accessible, unusual in a set where most Charleston walks are marked accessible.
• Not for travelers with back problems, heart or other serious medical conditions, or for pregnant travelers, all of whom the listing excludes.
• Not a graveyard visit. The churches are pass-by and the listing says the tour does not enter them.
• Snacks are listed and drinks are not described either way, so ask what the fare covers.

How it compares

The denominator is the 23 live Charleston ghost listings banked on July 30, 2026, 12 of them rechecked on August 3. The Boo Hag is the differentiator, named by 1 of 23. Three bookable 21-and-over bar walks sit in that set: this one at $35 for two hours, the Haunted Booze and Boos walk at $39.42 for two and a half hours at 4.9 from 1,611 reviews, and the Charleston Haunted Pub Crawl at $34.99 for two hours with a cap of 15 at 3.8 from 104. This one is mid-priced and ties the first on rating with roughly an eighth of its sample, so it is not the top-rated bar walk in the city. Two counts belong in the open: 1 of 2 flagged likely to sell out, and 1 of 7 marked not wheelchair accessible. Eleven of the 21 priced listings undercut it, and the Real Hauntings of Charleston matches it at $35. The rest of the field is on our Charleston page and in our guide to the best haunted ghost tours in Charleston.

Questions people ask

How old do I have to be?

Twenty-one. The only age band offered is adult 21 to 99, and the listing's line is that guests must be 21 and bring valid photo ID.

How long is it and how much?

Two hours, from $35 per person at our August 3, 2026 check, in the evening. No clock time is published, so take the departure from the booking page. A 10 percent offer showed $31.50 on July 28, 2026, a promotion rather than the base fare.

What is a Boo Hag?

A figure in Gullah Geechee folklore of the Lowcountry. A hag sheds her skin at night, enters a sleeping person's house and rides them, taking breath or energy; salt in the skin and seed at the door are the defences. Elsie Clews Parsons documented it from Sea Islands informants in 1923.

Are drinks included?

Snacks are listed. Nothing about drinks was captured by either of our checks, so we make no claim in either direction and you should ask the operator what the fare covers.

Is it accessible?

No. It is marked not wheelchair accessible at both our checks and excludes back problems, heart or other serious medical conditions, and pregnant travelers. Stroller access is not stated.

Do you go inside the graveyards?

No. The two churches are flagged pass-by and the listing's own copy states that the tour does not enter the graveyards. No admission of any kind appears on it.