5 Best Haunted Tours in San Diego

Of the many San Diego neighborhoods that still retain their connection of the past, this connection is perhaps felt most strongly in Old Town, which is full of historic buildings and notable landmarks. While the neighborhood is great to explore during the day, a visit after dark will provide and experience to remember!

As the first European settlement in California, the area has an extensive history, much of which involves the unexplainable and the paranormal.

See this for yourself on the Old Town Walking Ghost Tour, where you will feel just like a real ghost hunter. On this tour, you’ll visit some of the most haunted buildings and sites, and you’ll get to use ghost hunting equipment just like the professionals.

The tour also includes real photos of ghosts and 10 different stops. If you’re lucky, you may also spot vortex energy, which is believed to be a portal for spirits to cross between our world and the realm of the dead. This tour is also featured on the Best Things to do in San Diego.

This tour also includes a stop at the Cosmopolitan Hotel, where you’ll be taken to a private room. Here, your tour guide will call on specific spirits to show themselves so you can witness them for yourself. This is a very in-depth tour that offers new spooky encounters for every visit.

Board the “trolley of the doomed” and prepare for a truly terrifying hour and a half on the Ghosts and Gravestones Tour of San Diego. This tour will take you to notable historic locations and gravesites of some of the city’s most notorious and nefarious previous residents.

This tour includes some scary content, and it’s recommended for visitors 13 and older. Great for couples, small groups and families with older children, there are few to no jump scares, and the content is primarily focused on providing a historical, educational angle.

The trolley will take you through popular haunted sites in Pioneer Park, El Campo Santo Cemetery, Grant Elementary School, and the Whaley House, one of the most haunted places in America!

The Ghosts and Gravestones tour unveils the darker, more mysterious side of San Diego, shedding light on unexplained and unnerving deaths that haunt its past as effectively as any spirit. If you’re ready to see the city in a whole new light, this tour is the perfect way to spend an evening under the full moon.

If you’re looking for a family-friendly option, try the Old Town Ghost-Themed Walking Tour.

This tour is suitable for anyone six or older. Instead, everyone can sit back, relax, and enjoy some spooky stories and local history.

This walking tour goes throughout Old Town San Diego including the El Campo Santo Cemetery one of the oldest cemeteries in California.

Old Town Ghost-Themed Walking Tour are available as a year-round attraction, but you’ll really feel the spirit of Halloween as you learn about paranormal activity sightings. Tour guides help to round out the atmosphere by wearing their own creepy costumes, so you can feel completely immersed for the entire one and a half tour.

The Gaslamp Quarter Ghost Walking Tour is an hour and a half long walking tour that explores several haunted locations around the Gaslamp Quarter.

The Gaslamp Museum at the Davis-Horton House is a very popular historic location in San Diego, as it is one of the oldest buildings that is still standing and in good enough condition that you can walk around inside. It’s managed by the Gaslamp Quarter Historical Foundation, who have done their part to ensure the history of the house never gets forgotten. This includes the supernatural mysteries that surround the old building.

Many people have claimed to see ghosts lingering at the Davis-Horton House, which has made the Ghosts of the Gaslamp Tour a popular choice for many visitors and locals alike.

This is a walking tour that includes historic and paranormal stories about multiple buildings in the Gaslamp Quarter, starting and ending back across the street from the US Grant Hotel in Horton Plaza Park.

One of the highlights you will visit a historic hotel where it is said the ghost of a brutally murdered man still haunts his room.

This is a small group walking tour around the Gaslamp Quarter and your guide will tell you about the spooky past of what was once called the Stingaree District.

The Whaley House is one of the most popular tourist destinations in San Diego. This self-guided tour is featured on Unique Things to Do in San Diego

During the daytime, you can visit and learn about the building’s Greek Revival architecture from the mid-nineteenth century, as well as its extensive history as a home, granary, courtroom, and more.

At night, however, is when the ghosts come out to play. Take the Whaley House Ghost Tour to learn about the house that has been called America’s most haunted.

Ghost sightings on the Whaley property typically involve either one or more of the Whaley family members, or one of the criminals who were hanged on the property where the Whaley House was built. Other apparitions have included Yankee Jim, a man convicted of grand larceny before the construction of the house; previous tenants; and even the Whaley’s terrier, Dolly Varden.

Walking tours include the Whaley House itself as well as the surrounding grounds.