Browse All Louisville Ghost Tours

All three of our ghost tours tell true stories from Louisville’s past, but each is a different kind of night out. Here’s a quick overview:

• Phantoms of Prohibition: A 3-hour evening cocktail and ghost tour through Whiskey Row speakeasies, with four cocktails and food included. Best for those who love Jazz Age history, a little spookiness, and great cocktails.
• Whispers on Whiskey Row: A 1.5-hour walk through Louisville’s darker history of murder, crime, and ghosts, with one cocktail at a haunted bar. Best for history buffs and true-crime fans who want to go beyond the well-known narratives.
• The Haunted Trolley Tour: A 2-hour ride on a vintage trolley through Old Louisville and beyond, with a stop for a spooky-themed cocktail. Best for those who would rather ride than walk.

Looking for food, bourbon, or daytime history instead? Browse all of our tours.

A few questions to help you decide:

Do you want a full evening out? The Phantoms of Prohibition tour combines a Prohibition history tour with ghost stories, food tastings, and cocktails at multiple stops in downtown Louisville.

Do you want dark history and true crime? The 1.5 hour Whispers on Whiskey Row is a dark history, true crime and ghost tour with one included cocktail in a haunted bar. It’s our shortest and most affordable ghost tour.

Would you rather ride than walk? The Haunted Trolley Tour takes you through Old Louisville, long whispered to be America’s most haunted neighborhood, aboard a vintage trolley.

Are you planning a group event or celebration? Any tour can be made private and customized. Contact us and we’ll help you find the perfect fit.

Still not sure? Reach out — we’re happy to help you find the best experience for your group.

The two walking tours stay on flat downtown sidewalks around Whiskey Row, and Phantoms visits several bars and speakeasies along the way. The Haunted Trolley Tour covers more ground aboard a vintage trolley, journeying through Old Louisville and into the heart of the city, with a stop for one spooky-themed cocktail or mocktail.

Yes. Every single story on our tours is firmly rooted in verified historic sources and first-hand accounts. They’re deeply researched, with no tall tales. The history is documented. The ghost sightings are first-hand accounts people have reported over the years, and your guide will tell you which is which.

No. These are storytelling tours based on historical events, so we can’t promise a sighting. You won’t use any paranormal equipment, and the tours don’t go inside buildings other than the bars and restaurants on your route.

Our tours are designed to be unsettling, not frightening. The content comes from real history, including murders, crimes, and tragedies, rather than jump scares or actors.

You can book directly right here on this page, at louisvillefoodtours.com, or call or text us at (502) 591-6155 to book over the phone. Booking directly guarantees the lowest price and gives you access to direct local support from our team — no third-party booking fees or middlemen.

Yes, if you purchase a refundable ticket! We offer two ticket types: refundable and non-refundable.

Refundable tickets can be rescheduled or cancelled for a full refund up to 48 hours before the tour.

Non-refundable tickets cannot be cancelled or rescheduled for any reason at any time.

To cancel or reschedule a refundable ticket, simply let us know! You can call or text (502) 591-6155, email [email protected], or submit a contact form.

Yes! We offer both digital and physical gift cards, redeemable for any Louisville Food Tours experience, including our ghost tours. Physical gift cards can be mailed anywhere in the USA for a small fee. They make a wonderful gift for birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, and corporate gifting. Purchase a gift card here.

Yes, a minimum of 4 guests is needed to run a public tour. If your tour does not reach 4 guests, you may receive an email from us asking you to reschedule, or notifying you of a cancellation.

Phantoms of Prohibition is capped at 12 guests for a more personalized, small-group experience. Whispers on Whiskey Row accommodates up to 20 guests, and the Haunted Trolley Tour seats up to 30. Private tours can accommodate up to 20 guests at a time on our walking tours. Groups larger than 20 may need to be split into multiple tour groups.

Absolutely — we love hosting private tours, and any of our ghost tours can be made private! Visit our private tours page to learn more and book. Private tours can be fully customized for your group’s dietary needs, interests, and occasion.

For corporate or team building events, see our team outings page.

For bachelor or bachelorette parties, head this way.

Ghost tour ticket prices range from $49 to $179 per person depending on the tour and the season.

Whispers on Whiskey Row is our lowest-priced ghost tour, at around $49-$69. It includes one cocktail but no food. The Haunted Trolley Tour is around $69-$89 and includes one spooky-themed cocktail. Phantoms of Prohibition is $149-$179 and includes four cocktails and food at multiple stops, so it’s closer to a full evening out.

We do vary our pricing by day of the week and season. Our lowest pricing of the year would be mid-week in January, for example. High season pricing is typically the weekends and during local events that flood the city with visitors, including Halloween season, when ghost tours are in highest demand.

All tickets include your guide, your drinks, and a 20% gratuity for bar and restaurant staff. Private tours are priced separately — contact us for a custom quote. You can see current pricing and availability for all tours in the calendar at the top of this page, or at louisvillefoodtours.com/tours.

We recommend booking at least 1–2 weeks in advance, especially for weekend tours and for October, our busiest month for ghost tours.

If you’re visiting during a major Louisville event — such as during Kentucky Derby week, Bourbon & Beyond, or a big convention — book as early as possible.

Weekday tours and off-season dates tend to have more availability. You can always check real-time availability in the calendar at the top of this page, or at louisvillefoodtours.com/schedule.

Please do your best to arrive 5–15 minutes before your tour start time so we can get everyone oriented before setting off. If you’re running late, call or text us at (502) 591-6155 and we’ll do our best to help connect you with our guide.

Unfortunately, because our tours move through the city with a full group and we are often on a tight schedule with our bar and restaurant stops, we are not able to hold the group or backtrack for late arrivals. Our tour begins exactly on time, and late arrival or missing part of the tour does not qualify for a refund or reschedule.

We do strongly recommend that you do NOT book a tour with us as soon as you arrive in town, especially if you’re flying in. The most frequent reason given for late arrivals is that they’re coming from the airport and their plane was delayed! Please allow for at least several hours after arrival before booking a tour, if you can.

But things happen – and we’re here to help. We can usually ask one of our restaurant partners to store your luggage safely if you’re in a pickle. And because we stay on a strict schedule, we can tell you exactly where to go to meet your guide at their next stop. Just get in touch right away so we can help coordinate.

Yes! We run tours year-round, though schedules vary by season. In winter, we run a reduced schedule with select dates available. Check the availability calendar at the top of this page for current dates, or contact us if you have questions about a specific date or time of year.

Yes! For large groups, we recommend booking a private tour rather than joining a public one. Private tours accommodate up to 20 guests at a time. Groups larger than 20 can be split across multiple simultaneous tour groups, with our team coordinating logistics so everyone has a seamless experience. We regularly host corporate groups, conference attendees, family reunions, wedding parties, and more. And we’ve even got a fleet of gorgeous, historic trolleys available to transport you from place to place.

Contact us to discuss your group’s needs and we’ll put together a custom plan.

Phantoms of Prohibition lasts about 3 hours and covers about 1.5 miles. Whispers on Whiskey Row lasts about 1.5 hours and also covers about 1.5 miles. The Haunted Trolley Tour lasts about 2 hours. Both walking tours stay on flat sidewalks at a relaxed, leisurely pace, so comfortable walking shoes are highly recommended.

Dates and start times change seasonally, and you can find current times in the calendar at the top of this page. During busy seasons, Phantoms runs Tuesday through Friday at 5 PM and 5:30 PM, Whispers runs Tuesday through Sunday at sunset, and The Haunted Trolley runs Thursday through Sunday at sunset. During slower season, we limit the number of days we run our tours.

Phantoms meets downtown at 101 E Washington St, on Whiskey Row. Whispers meets downtown at the entrance to Belvedere Plaza, at 5th Street and Main Street, and ends at Jefferson Square Park. The Haunted Trolley meets in Old Louisville at the Conrad-Caldwell House. Your confirmation email includes the exact meeting point for your tour.

Phantoms includes four Prohibition-era cocktails (or mocktails), food at multiple stops, priority seating at each venue, a lightweight audio headset, and a 20% gratuity for restaurant and bar staff. Whispers includes one cocktail or mocktail at a haunted bar and a headset, but no food. The Haunted Trolley includes one spooky-themed cocktail or mocktail and transportation aboard a vintage trolley. Guide gratuity is not included in any ticket.

Our ghost tours happen in the evening and mostly outdoors, so dress for the weather and bring a layer if it’s cool after sunset; Louisville’s climate changes frequently so check the forecast that day. Cash for gratuity is appreciated but never required.

Yes, all tours run rain or shine. Please check the weather and plan accordingly. In the event of severe or unsafe weather conditions, the tour may be cancelled or delayed. We wait until about an hour before the tour, when radar is most accurate, to make that call. If a tour is cancelled for severe weather, refundable tickets receive a full refund and non-refundable tickets receive a rain-check credit to use on a future tour.

For the Haunted Trolley tour, yes. Phantoms and Whispers each end about a 10-minute walk from where they begin, so we recommend a rideshare over driving if you’re leaving a car at the start. Your confirmation email will include exact start and end point details for every tour, and your guide will make sure you know exactly how to get back to where you started.

Parking varies by tour. Check your confirmation email for your specific start location and parking tips.

Yes. Ghost tours cover murders, crimes, and tragedies from Louisville’s past, along with other difficult subjects. We believe it is important to acknowledge and honor these events and the people who lived through them. As company policy, we do not tolerate racist or discriminatory commentary on our tours and reserve the right to remove any guest who makes our guides or fellow guests uncomfortable, without a refund.

Yes, all of our ghost tours include a lightweight audio headset for every guest, and it is one of the standout features that sets our tours apart. The headset lets you hear your guide clearly even from a distance, in noisy bars and restaurants, in our out of a trolley, or when the group is spread out. This is especially helpful for hard-of-hearing guests or those moving at a slower pace, and means you don’t have to be close to your guide to catch every story. The headsets are small, comfortable, easy to use, and are sanitized after every tour.

Only Phantoms of Prohibition includes food.

For Phantoms, with advanced notice we can accommodate most food allergies and do our best to ensure every guest has something delicious to eat. However, we cannot safely serve guests with celiac disease, as none of our restaurant partners are celiac-safe. We recommend eating a light meal beforehand if you have multiple food allergies, as you may not receive a full meal’s worth of food. Vegetarians and guests with nut allergies can usually be easily accommodated. Please indicate your dietary needs when booking and remind your guide at the start of the tour. For guests with significant dietary restrictions, a private tour allows us to fully customize the menu for your group.

Whispers on Whiskey Row and the Haunted Trolley Tour include a drink but no food. You’ll be picking your own cocktail from an exclusive menu.

Don’t worry: you’ll be enjoying delicious beverages too! We’ve worked closely with our partners to ensure that all guests abstaining from drinking alcohol will still enjoy a delicious, unique, hand-crafted mocktail.

Now when I say mocktails, we’re not talking orange juice and grenadine, y’all. Here in Louisville, the mocktails are just as good – and creative – as the cocktails! We’ve even got alcohol-free bourbon, so nobody has to miss out on Kentucky’s favorite beverage.

Now, we can’t give you a cheaper ticket, because you’ll be enjoying a full mocktail while everyone else is sipping a half-sized cocktail. What that means is that your drinks actually cost more than everyone else’s (because you’ll be enjoying twice as much of it!). But for ease, and fairness, we keep prices standardized whether or not you choose to partake in alcohol or not.

If you choose to enjoy mocktails instead of cocktails or would like an alcohol-free experience for any reason, please let us know so we can accommodate you!

Please note that one of our core company values is to pay our staff fairly and above a livable wage, regardless of tips. But if you recieved outstanding service and would like to tip, a tip for your tour guide and/or trolley driver is deeply appreciated. We do not pool tips, so drivers and guides each receive their own tips seperately.

Most guests tip between 5–20%. You can pre-tip during booking if you prefer. Another wonderful way to show appreciation is to leave a 5-star review mentioning your guide by name — this earns them a paid bonus directly from us.

Please note: your ticket already includes a 20% gratuity for the restaurant and bar staff at every stop we visit — you do not need to tip anywhere we go.

Yes! Our walking ghost tours follow flat sidewalks and are wheelchair and stroller accessible, and service animals are always welcome. Our walking tours include a lightweight audio headset so guests can hear their guide clearly from a distance, to allow guests to set their own pace.

For the Haunted Trolley Tour, wheelchair-accessible trolleys are available with advance notice. If you have specific accessibility needs on any tour, please contact us before booking and we’ll make sure everything is set up for a great experience.

Phantoms of Prohibition is 21+. On our other tours, recommend at least 12+ for mature historical content. We leave the decision to your discretion within those limits, as you know your child best. (Infants are always welcome on our tours and do not need a ticket. Take that baby and enjoy a night out with us!)

For a family-friendly daytime option, the Secrets of Louisville in NuLu tour welcomes guests of all ages, as does the Louisville Legends Downtown Derby City food tour. Children under 2 who share food with a parent do not need a ticket and are welcome to join any of our tours for free!

Service animals are always welcome on all of our tours by law. Unfortunately, pet dogs cannot join our public ghost tours as Kentucky law prohibits non-service animals inside restaurants and bars, and all of our ghost tours include indoor stops in bars. However, we offer a private dog-friendly version of our Highlands tour, held entirely outdoors on dog-friendly patios. Your pup will even get locally-made dog treats and a stop at a dog library! When booking the private 2 PM Highlands Tour, just let us know you’d like the dog-friendly option.

Yes! Louisville Food Tours is a small, local, family-owned company founded in 2022 by Lia Garcia, a second-generation Louisvillian, and her husband Jeremy Garcia (learn more about them). Most of the restaurants and bars featured on our tours are also locally and family-owned businesses.

Louisville Food Tours provides optional pronoun pins for guides to wear to identify their preferred pronouns (she/her, he/him, they/them). The pins make it easy for guests to use the correct pronoun and represent our company’s commitment to supporting Louisville’s LGBTQ+ community. As company policy, we do not tolerate anti-LGBTQ+ commentary on our tours and reserve the right to remove any guest who makes our guides or fellow guests uncomfortable, without a refund.

We currently offer eight distinct public tour experiences, plus private and custom tour options. Three of them are ghost tours: Phantoms of Prohibition, Whispers on Whiskey Row, and The Haunted Trolley Tour. Our other public tours include the Secrets of Louisville NuLu Food & History Tour, Beyond the Barrel Bourbon & Food Tour, The Bourbon Trolley, the Victorian Charm Highlands Tour, the Downtown Derby City Food Tour, and the Queer History Tour. We also offer themed seasonal and special event experiences.

Browse all current offerings at louisvillefoodtours.com/tours.

Yes! We’re proud to be one of Louisville’s most recognized tour companies. Louisville Food Tours has earned a TripAdvisor Traveler’s Choice Award and has been featured in Forbes, AARP, MSN, Yahoo, and AOL, among other publications. We’ve also been recognized as one of the top walking tours in the country. With over 4,000 five-star reviews across Google and TripAdvisor, we’re Louisville’s most reviewed tour operator. You can read more about our press coverage on our Media & Press page.

Louisville Food Tours is fully independent and locally owned. We are a small, family-owned business founded by Lia and Jeremy Garcia, and every experience we offer is designed, guided, and operated by our own local team. Our Haunted Trolley Tour runs through our exclusive partnership with Old Fashioned Express. When you book with us, you’re supporting a local Louisville business, not a franchise or national chain.

It depends on what kind of trip you’re after. Downtown puts you steps from the waterfront, Museum Row, Whiskey Row speakeasies, and two bourbon distilleries — great boutique options include The Grady Hotel and 21C Museum Hotel. Downtown is also the closest base for our Whiskey Row ghost tours. NuLu is ideal for walkable access to fantastic food, nightlife, and local art galleries. The Highlands offers Victorian architecture, lush greenery, and Louisville’s best restaurant corridor along Bardstown Road. Old Louisville, which our Haunted Trolley Tour journeys through, is quieter and beautiful if you prefer a historic residential feel. For full neighborhood guides and specific recommendations, visit our sister site Let’s Go Louisville.

Plenty! Our sister site Let’s Go Louisville is a Kentucky travel blog written by Louisville locals, packed with helpful trip planning resources — including an ideal Louisville weekend itinerary, a guide to bourbon distilleries in Louisville, tips for attending the Kentucky Derby, neighborhood guides, restaurant recommendations, and much more.