Ghosts & Gravestones Tour Key West — Local services in Key West

I had done this door with a freind who was visiting a few years ago and we had so much fun! The guide was great, very funny, interacted with people. This March I suggested it to 3 of my friends and I dragged my husband along. He loves history so I knew he would think it was wonderful. Unfortunately this time - it was awful. 1. We walked up to the podium to check in and got screamed at to get in line and shooed like rodents over to a line by the trolley. We obliged, assuming this was normal check in process. Then got screamed at while online That we didn’t have stickers on ? So we had to leave the line and go back to the podium and get stickers. Okay fine. Maybe the person was new. These things happen. We would completely have forgotten about a small thing if the tour was remotely good. First a woman gets on the bus and yells at everyone about wearing masks. We know you need to wear a mask, everyone was wearing a mask. You don’t need to scold people who are fallowing the rules. There is a difference between being informed and be chastised . Someone needs to teach her how to talk to people. This rude thing is a theme over this entire tour. Because : The tour guide was so rude!! She looked completely bothered by anyone on the bus. A very exited young girl yelled out something with joy which was part of the guides story and he responded- thanks for ruining my story and basically stopped telling it. So we never really found out much about Robert - which brings me to ... NO ROBERT THE DOLL STOP. The biggest draw on this was stopping at Robert the doll and visiting. Instead we spend extra time at the ship wreck museum. Which was not nearly as good as Robert. I am very interested in the history of the island. No matter how many times I hear it it never gets old, key word... hear. You couldn’t hear a single word the guide was saying. Passengers even told her that we couldn’t hear her and she didn’t speak up or care at all. While telling the stories she would roll her eyes and talk really fast - but at the end she had that tip cup out!! This brings me to the last part that I will touch on. The bus driver. GIVE THAT MAN A RAISE. He tried so hard. He even did a silly magic trick to try and cover for her lack of effort. He was an excellent driver and really cared about his job. He was the only part of the entire tour that good. To sum it up. Save your money. Not worth it. You can’t hear anything, you get yelled at a lot , the seats are small and the tour guide...

Rating: ⭐️ 1/5 Title: -50/10 — Nothing Like St. Augustine, Sadly Disappointing

We were genuinely excited for Ghosts & Gravestones Key West after such an amazing experience with the St. Augustine tour. That one was spooky, fun, well-organized, and left a lasting impression — so we booked this one expecting something similar. Unfortunately, it was a huge letdown.

Our guide spoke extremely fast with a very thick accent, and even though we were sitting in the front row, we couldn’t understand most of what was said. There was no printed brochure or materials to follow along — and I later found out they were offered the option to create guides but chose not to. That would’ve helped a lot, because we had no idea what we were supposed to be looking at or learning about.

I even tried recording the audio to translate later — but who wants to do that on vacation? I also searched online for a list of stops or ghost stories, but nothing came up.

My sister was trying to enjoy it and stay upbeat — she said she could follow along and kept chatting during the tour, but between the speed, the background noise, and all the “YOU’RE DOOMED” yelling from the street, it was already hard enough to concentrate. I gently asked her to hold off on talking so I could try to catch what I could.

The most heartbreaking part? My 8-year-old son, who loved the St. Augustine version, was visibly sad the entire ride. He even wore the souvenir shirt we bought from that trip because he was so excited to do it again. This one had no merchandise, no vibe, no real engagement — just fast, confusing narration and missed opportunities. He couldn’t understand a word, and you could tell he was let down.

The one bright spot was our driver, Howard — kind, helpful, and the only one who gave us any useful information during the stop at the Shipwreck Museum. He was great, but unfortunately couldn’t make up for the rest of the experience.

There was also no indoor waiting area like in St. Augustine, and the entire thing felt rushed, disorganized, and just poorly executed. For families — or honestly anyone hoping to be immersed in a spooky, engaging experience — this tour doesn’t deliver.

Final score: -50/10. Do yourself a favor and go to the St. Augustine one instead — this was a ghost tour...

The second half of what this tour offered made it worth while for us. The tour is around an hour and a half long and offered us a nice tour of Key West at night filled with history and spookiness.

The bus itself is customized with fake candles and black light to set the mood. There’s a few different guides you randomly get and we are very happy that we got The Butcher and Howard the driver because they were fantastic! The Butcher was very laid back and easy to understand and follow along with. He had a good sense of humor and added a great amount of personality to the history he shared with us on the tour.

The first half of the tour was not very good, in my opinion. I completely understand we took a “ghost tour”, but I was more interested in the dark history of the island and not at all interested in spooky stories of dolls or haunted buildings. We stopped at the Shipwreck Museum for a good bit and it was a giant waste of time. Filled with a fake story (Confirmed fake. Searched online after tour) about tragedy that happened there while the driver of the bus very obviously went upstairs and stomped his feet and dragged things across the floor for the fake haunted building. Absolutely no one was buying it and at this point I was getting a little nervous because of the quality the tour was.

Once we got back on the bus to complete the second half, I enjoyed every bit of it. It was filled with awesome history of true events that happened on the island and near the end the story of Dr. Carl was something everyone applauded for and well worth it. The second half of the tour was the best part and that second half alone is why I recommend taking this tour if you are into darker history of where you are. Very enjoyable and...