Ghost Cities · Washington DC
The best ghost tour in Washington, D.C. is the Georgetown walk that ends at the steps from The Exorcist, 4.8 stars across 742 reviews from $49, with a 9pm start at the Supreme Court from $29.99 and a $25 night walk on Capitol Hill. The three tours we carry pages for were re-checked on Viator on August 3, 2026; the other two keep their July 29, 2026 numbers.
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Our top picks in Haunted Washington DC
The Ghosts of Georgetown and The Exorcist Steps Walking Tour is the best overall ghost tour in Washington, D.C., and our top pick. Ninety minutes on foot with DC by Foot through the city's oldest neighborhood, meeting outside the Old Stone House at 3051 M St NW and ending at the steps from The Exorcist, at 36th and Prospect St NW. The group is capped at 15. 4.8 stars across 742 reviews, from $49.
The Ghosts of D.C. Walking Tour is the value pick in the capital and the one we would book for a group with mixed needs: 90 minutes from the front of the United States Supreme Court Building at 1 First St NE, covering the U.S. Capitol and returning to the meeting point, run by Ghost City Tours of DC. Wheelchair and stroller access, groups of up to 30, and a Likely to Sell Out chip on the listing. 4.6 stars across 352 reviews, from $29.99 at a 9pm start.
The Haunted Washington D.C. Booze and Boos Ghost Walking Tour is the adults-only route, and the only tour on this page that spends its night indoors. Two and a half hours with Nightly Spirits, from the lobby bar inside the Hotel Washington at 515 15th St NW to the Round Robin Bar inside the Willard, through the four pub stops its listing promises. Its listing is blunt about the door: all guests must be age 21+ with a valid photo ID. 4.5 stars across 55 reviews, from $34.68.
More worth a look
The Haunted DC Night-Time Walking Tour on Capitol Hill carries the lowest listed price on this page and a group capped at 10. Ninety minutes with Scary DC, passing the Supreme Court, working the feuding ghosts of past lawmakers, the Lincoln conspiracy trials, and the curse the guides argue about. Wheelchair and stroller accessible, and the listing operates in all weather conditions. 4.4 stars across 177 reviews, from $25.
Dreaded Dead Descent of the District: DC Ghost Tour is the one hour option, meeting on the steps behind the Treasury Building at 15th St NW and F St NW, which the listing distinguishes from the Treasury Annex. It runs in all weather conditions, welcomes wheelchairs and strollers, asks that children be accompanied by an adult, and sets a dress code of smart casual. The largest published group on this page, up to 35. 4.2 stars across 466 reviews, from $26.
The historic splurge: a hotel overlooking the White House that has hosted presidents and dignitaries for a century, with the Lafayette Room serving breakfast through dinner and the Off the Record bar keeping a dinner menu and a long wine list. It sits 1.2 miles from the National Mall, and our own shortlist of the city's reported hauntings names it too.
History in the walls without the White House view: Riggs occupies the building that once housed Riggs National Bank in Penn Quarter, with Silver Lyan mixing cocktails in the original basement vault and the Gallery Place Chinatown Metro station a five-minute walk away.
The compact and modern pick, 1.2 miles from both the Supreme Court and the Capitol, which is where two of the tours above meet. Small rooms with flat-screen TVs, a hot and cold breakfast buffet, a bar, and rates that leave money for the tour.
The short answer, with the three tours we carry pages for re-checked on Viator on August 3, 2026 and the other two keeping their July 29, 2026 numbers: the best overall ghost tour in Washington, D.C. is the Ghosts of Georgetown and The Exorcist Steps Walking Tour, 4.8 stars across 742 reviews, 90 minutes from $49, and it ends at the steps from The Exorcist. The value pick is the Ghosts of D.C. Walking Tour, 4.6 across 352 reviews from $29.99, which gathers in front of the Supreme Court at 9pm. The lowest listed price is the Capitol Hill night walk at $25, 4.4 across 177 reviews, and it caps the group at 10. Adults who want a drink with the stories book the Booze and Boos route, the only one here that goes indoors, and its door policy is 21 and up with a photo ID. 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 Washington, D.C. ghost tour listings on Viator in a two-query sweep, one for ghost tours and one for haunted tours, and kept the five in the comparison table below, checking every price, rating, and review count that same day. The second query turned up nothing the first had missed, which tells you something about the capital: the supply here is modest next to Savannah or New Orleans, so this is a short list by necessity rather than by taste. Every listing we checked was still live. We left one off the table on purpose: an app-led scavenger hunt carrying two reviews and no rating block. We do not run tours in this city, so read this as an outsider's honest shortlist rather than a sales page.
Washington, D.C. is not part of any state; the initials stand for District of Columbia, and the city inside the beltway is one of the better walking towns in the country, packed with museums, historic architecture, and a night scene that runs late. It is also, by the count of its own guides, one of the most story-dense haunted cities in America, because power leaves ghosts. The addresses do the work here: the White House, the Capitol, Lafayette Square, Mary Surratt's boarding house, and the Octagon House all sit on ground you were going to walk anyway. We are Arizona tour guides who research haunted history everywhere, so read this as our honest shortlist for the capital. The ranked version lives in our guide to the spookiest ghost tours in Washington, D.C.
| Best for | Tour | When | Length | From | Rating (reviews) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First-timers, and our top pick | Ghosts of Georgetown and The Exorcist Steps | Varies | 1 hr 30 | $49 | 4.8 (742) |
| A 9pm start, and wheelchair access | Ghosts of D.C. Walking Tour | Night | 1 hr 30 | $29.99 | 4.6 (352) |
| The lowest listed price | Haunted DC Night-Time on Capitol Hill | Night | 1 hr 30 | $25 | 4.4 (177) |
| Adults 21 and up, a drink with the stories | Booze and Boos Ghost Walking Tour | Evening | 2 hr 30 | $34.68 | 4.5 (55) |
| One hour, any weather | Dreaded Dead Descent of the District | Varies | 1 hr | $26 | 4.2 (466) |
Prices and ratings in this table were checked on July 29, 2026 on Viator, and the Georgetown, Capitol Hill, and Booze and Boos rows were re-checked August 3, 2026. Clock times are July 29, 2026 records: our August re-check returned none for the three rows we re-pulled, and two of the five publish none at all, so take the departure for your date from the booking page.
Start with April 14, 1865, because the capital's ghost stories still orbit that night. The Evening Star of Saturday, April 15, 1865, held by the Library of Congress, printed the War Department dispatches as the news broke: the President shot in his private box at Ford's Theater the evening before, at 10.30 p.m. by Secretary Stanton's timing, with Mrs. Lincoln, Miss Harris, and Major Rathbun beside him; the Secretary of State stabbed in his sick bed at his house on Lafayette Square within the same hour; a ten thousand dollar reward posted from the Department of Washington before the day was out. Page two of the same issue carried the surgeons' bedside record minute by minute, and it ends at 7.22 that morning.
The line that stops us is on page one, four columns from the news. Under Amusements, beneath its Tenth Street address, the theater ran its own notice: "THERE WILL BE NO PERFORMANCE AT THIS THEATER TO NIGHT," per the Evening Star of April 15, 1865. Guides still stop on that block, and the private house across the street, where he was carried, is where the record on page two ran out.
A few blocks away, the boarding house at 604 H Street NW is where Booth and his conspirators did the planning, per the National Park Service, and its keeper is why the block still draws tour groups. Mary Surratt was hanged on July 7, 1865, the first woman executed by the federal government in the United States, and the building still stands: it is in use today as a Chinese restaurant and karaoke bar. By many accounts she never left, and her figure has been reported in the halls, along with crying and murmurings attached to her name.
The Octagon House earns its place on a different set of dates. On August 24, 1814 an invading British army set fire to the White House and the Capitol; the Madisons moved into the Octagon on September 8 of that year, which made it the temporary White House; and the Treaty of Ghent was signed in its circular tower room on February 17, 1815, per the National Park Service. The ghost story attached to the house is older and sadder than the treaty. Both of Colonel John Tayloe's daughters are said to have died in falls from the spiral staircase, before marriages their father disapproved of, and whether they fell or jumped is the part the guides argue about. Staff have described shrieks and cries in the night, and several paranormal groups have investigated the building.
The White House tops every list on the strength of one tenant. Visiting dignitaries, staff, first families, and guests have described a tall, gaunt figure in the halls, or entering a room before vanishing with a smile; Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson turn up in the accounts too, in the gardens or a parlor. The Capitol keeps the strangest file rather than the most famous one, including workers who died during the building's construction and the Demon Cat of Capitol Hill, a legend the guides love to unpack, and we are not going to spoil the cat on a page you can read at home. Lafayette Square is the hardest stop of the three: the seven-acre park across from the White House is a gathering place today, but it was once the site of a slave market where human beings were auctioned during the 1700s and 1800s, and some visitors report that cries of despair and the rattle of chains can still be heard on certain nights.
The default format in this city is a neighborhood walk, and the one with the deepest review record is in Georgetown. Our pick is the Ghosts of Georgetown and The Exorcist Steps Walking Tour, the best overall tour on this page at 4.8 stars across 742 reviews, 90 minutes from $49, run by DC by Foot. It meets outside the Old Stone House at 3051 M St NW, works the city's oldest neighborhood, and ends at the steps from The Exorcist, at 36th and Prospect St NW. Its listing caps the group at 15 and carries a Likely to Sell Out chip.
Verdict: the default pick, and the one we would book first.
Book the Georgetown ghost walk
The listing we added to this page at the July 29, 2026 rebuild is also the one we would hand to a group with mixed needs. The Ghosts of D.C. Walking Tour runs 90 minutes from $29.99 at a 9pm start, 4.6 stars across 352 reviews, run by Ghost City Tours of DC. It gathers in front of the United States Supreme Court Building at 1 First St NE, covers the U.S. Capitol, and returns to the meeting point, so nobody has to plan a separate way back. Its listing offers wheelchair and stroller access, carries a Likely to Sell Out chip, and takes groups of up to 30.
Verdict: the value pick, and the most accommodating listing in our table.
Book the 9pm walk from the Supreme Court
The lowest listed price on this page comes with a group capped at 10. The Haunted DC Night-Time Walking Tour on Capitol Hill runs 90 minutes from $25, 4.4 stars across 177 reviews, run by Scary DC. Its 8:30pm start and its 237 Pennsylvania Ave SE meeting point are July 29, 2026 records that our August 3, 2026 re-check did not return, so take both from the booking page. Its itinerary passes the Supreme Court, working the feuds of past lawmakers, the conspiracy trials, and the curse the guides argue about. Two honest notes from the listing: it caps the group at 10, the smallest published cap in our table, matched only by the pub route, and it operates in all weather conditions and asks you to dress appropriately.
Verdict: the value floor, and the best odds of standing close enough to hear.
Book the $25 walk on Capitol Hill
A pub crawl trades some story time for bar time, and in this city it also trades the sidewalk for two hotel bars. The Haunted Washington D.C. Booze and Boos Ghost Walking Tour runs 2 hours 30 minutes from $34.68, 4.5 stars across 55 reviews, run by Nightly Spirits; its 7:30pm start is a July 29, 2026 record our August 3, 2026 re-check did not return, so take the departure from the booking page. The listing promises a costumed guide, Lafayette Square's stories, and four haunted pub stops with a drink at each; inclusions were not captured in our checks, so confirm what the ticket covers when you book. It begins at the lobby bar inside the Hotel Washington at 515 15th St NW and ends at the Round Robin Bar inside the Willard on Pennsylvania Avenue. The door policy is the only age threshold in the lineup: all guests must be age 21+ with a valid photo ID.
Verdict: the best night out on this page, and the only one that puts you inside the buildings.
Book the 21 and up pub route in Washington, D.C.
The shortest listed length on this page is one hour, and it stands alone there since the Georgetown listing moved to 90 minutes at our August 3, 2026 re-check. Dreaded Dead Descent of the District: DC Ghost Tour runs one hour from $26, 4.2 stars across 466 reviews, supplied by DC Ghosts By Us Ghost Adventures. It meets on the steps behind the Treasury Building at 15th St NW and F St NW, which its listing is careful to distinguish from the Treasury Annex. It publishes no start time, offers wheelchair and stroller access, operates in all weather conditions, asks that children be accompanied by an adult, and, in the quirk we did not expect on a ghost walk, sets a dress code of smart casual. It takes up to 35, the largest published group in our table, and its 4.2 is the lowest rating here.
Verdict: the short, cheap, all-weather option, and the one we would book last of the five.
On accessibility, the pattern runs opposite to instinct. Three of the five compared tours list wheelchair access on Viator, and the two that do not are the Georgetown walk, which ends at a staircase, and the 21 and up pub route. The three that do, Capitol Hill, Ghosts of D.C., and Dreaded Dead, all welcome strollers as well; Capitol Hill and Dreaded Dead list both the transportation and the surfaces as accessible, and Ghosts of D.C. lists the surfaces. Group size is the other access question worth asking, and the published caps here run from 10 on Capitol Hill and the pub route to 35 on the Dreaded Dead walk, which decides how close you stand to the person telling the story.
In this city the haunted hotel is not a detour from the tour, it is the tour. The Booze and Boos route starts at the lobby bar inside the Hotel Washington at 515 15th St NW and ends at the Round Robin Bar inside the Willard on Pennsylvania Avenue, which makes it the only listing on this page that spends its night indoors and puts two of the capital's most storied hotel bars on one ticket. Our own shortlist of reported hauntings adds a third address on the same walk: the Hay-Adams, on the far side of Lafayette Square from the White House.
Three properties from our D.C. list put you inside the story rather than across the river from it. The Hay-Adams overlooks the White House itself and has hosted presidents and dignitaries for a century, which makes it the historic splurge. Riggs occupies the former Riggs National Bank building in Penn Quarter, with a cocktail bar in the original basement vault and the Gallery Place Chinatown Metro five minutes away. citizenM in NoMa is the compact and modern one, 1.2 miles from both the Supreme Court and the Capitol, which is where the 9pm walk gathers. All three carry booking cards in the list at the top of this page.
The full rundown, the Wharf rooftops and the Dupont Circle kitchenettes included, lives in our guide to where to stay in D.C.
Two tracks work here, and the difference is the door policy. The all-ages track eats early and walks: the Booze and Boos crawl is the only listing with an age threshold, and the Dreaded Dead walk is the only other one that says anything about children, asking that they be accompanied by an adult. None of the five gave us a family framing or an age policy beyond those two lines, so read the description for your group before you book. Daylight plans live in our guide to things to do in D.C.
The adults track starts later. Our July 29, 2026 records put the Booze and Boos route at 7:30pm from inside the Hotel Washington, the Capitol Hill walk at 8:30pm, and the Ghosts of D.C. walk at 9pm from the front of the Supreme Court, the latest published start among the five; our August 3, 2026 re-check returned no clock times for the two of those we carry pages for, and the Georgetown and Dreaded Dead walks publish none at all, so take the departure for your date from the booking page rather than from us.
Meeting points are not in one corner of downtown, which matters more in this city than in a compact old town. Georgetown gathers outside the Old Stone House at 3051 M St NW and finishes up the hill at 36th and Prospect St NW, across town from the Capitol Hill start, whose address our August 3, 2026 re-check no longer returned. The Dreaded Dead walk meets on the steps behind the Treasury Building at 15th St NW and F St NW, not at the Treasury Annex, and the Booze and Boos crawl is the one meeting point that is indoors. Read the address on your own booking page the day before rather than the hour of.
Two practical notes for a late start. Metro is the cheap way back: a one-way Metrorail trip after 9:30 p.m. on a weekday, or any time on a weekend, runs $2.25 to $2.50 no matter how far you go, against as much as $6.75 in the weekday daytime window, per WMATA's own fare table. And if you are booking inside a week of your date, the Capitol Hill walk is the listing to read twice: it confirms instantly outside that window, but bookings made within 7 days of travel are confirmed within 48 hours subject to availability. That is a confirmation term, not a cancellation term. Cancellation on all five is free up to 24 hours before start time.
Evening and night, and the clock times we hold are July 29, 2026 records: 7:30pm for the Booze and Boos crawl, 8:30pm on Capitol Hill, and 9pm for the Ghosts of D.C. walk, the latest published start here. Our August 3, 2026 re-check returned no clock times for the two of those we carry pages for. The Georgetown walk and the Dreaded Dead walk list no start time, so their When column reads Varies; Viator's own page title calls the Georgetown route a nighttime tour, which is framing rather than a departure. For the exact clock time, the booking page for your date is the authority.
Earlier than feels necessary, and two of the five say so on their faces with a Likely to Sell Out chip: the Georgetown walk and the Ghosts of D.C. walk. Booking early costs almost nothing here, because all five compared tours offer free cancellation up to 24 hours before start time, five out of five, with no exception to read around. October is the crunch in every ghost tour town, and in this one the spring cherry blossom weeks and any busy week in Congress squeeze the hotels too. One term to keep separate from cancellation: the Capitol Hill listing confirms instantly unless you book within 7 days of travel, in which case confirmation comes within 48 hours subject to availability.
Plan on $25 to $49 per person. As of the July 29, 2026 check on Viator, with the Georgetown, Capitol Hill, and Booze and Boos prices re-checked unchanged on August 3, 2026, the Capitol Hill night walk starts at $25, the Dreaded Dead walk at $26, the Ghosts of D.C. walk at $29.99, the Booze and Boos crawl at $34.68, and the Georgetown walk tops the range at $49, the highest listed from-price on this page. For party math: a party of four on the Capitol Hill walk runs about $100 before fees at its $25 from-price, and two adults on the pub route come to about $69 at $34.68 a head, with what the bar tab covers governed by that listing's own inclusions. If you want the crowd's verdict on the field, the five compared tours carry more than 1,750 reviews between them.
One is closed to anyone under 21 and the rest publish no age policy at all. The Booze and Boos crawl is explicit, and it is the only age threshold in the lineup: all guests must be age 21+ with a valid photo ID. The Dreaded Dead walk is the only other listing that mentions children, asking that they be accompanied by an adult. The Georgetown, Capitol Hill, and Ghosts of D.C. walks gave us no age line to print, which is not the same as a promise that the material is gentle, so read the description for your group before you book. Three of the five note strollers: Capitol Hill, Ghosts of D.C., and Dreaded Dead.
Two of the five answer on their listings, in almost the same words. The Capitol Hill night walk operates in all weather conditions and asks you to dress appropriately, and the Dreaded Dead walk says the same. The other three publish no weather policy, so the booking page for your date is the place to ask. Either way a bad forecast the day before costs you nothing, because all five cancel free up to 24 hours out.
One does, deliberately. The Booze and Boos crawl starts at the lobby bar inside the Hotel Washington at 515 15th St NW and finishes at the Round Robin Bar inside the Willard, so both ends of that night are indoor rooms with reputations of their own. The other four are street-level routes, meeting on sidewalks and steps: outside the Old Stone House in Georgetown, on Capitol Hill, in front of the Supreme Court, and behind the Treasury Building. The White House is the clearest case for staying outside; visiting requires advance arrangements, which is why the tours tell its stories from the fence line.
The White House, on the strength of the Lincoln accounts alone. The Capitol and the Octagon House round out the usual top three, and the shortlist widens quickly from there: Lafayette Square, the Library of Congress, the Hay-Adams, and Mary Surratt's former boarding house on H Street.
Lafayette Square is a public park, the Octagon House exterior and Surratt's former boarding house are easy walk-bys, and Capitol tours cover the building's history. The White House requires advance arrangements, which is why most ghost tours tell its stories from outside the fence. The steps where the Georgetown walk ends, at 36th and Prospect St NW, are a public staircase, open whenever your legs are.
The boarding house keeper convicted in the Lincoln assassination conspiracy. Booth and his conspirators met at her house to plan the kidnapping and then the murder, per the National Park Service, and she was hanged on July 7, 1865, the first woman executed by the federal government in the United States. The house still stands at 604 H Street NW, in use today as a Chinese restaurant and karaoke bar.
The review record says yes, with a spread worth reading. The five compared tours run from 4.2 to 4.8 stars and carry more than 1,750 reviews between them. The deepest record belongs to the Georgetown walk at 4.8 across 742; the thinnest in our table is the Booze and Boos crawl at 55, which is the one number on this page we would like to see grow. Format matters more than brand in this city, so pick the neighborhood walk, the 9pm Capitol start, the pub route, or the one hour version, and let the addresses do the rest.
Read our ranked list of the spookiest ghost tours in Washington, D.C., then plan the rest of the trip with our guides to things to do in D.C. and where to stay in D.C., or start from our Washington, D.C. hub.
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