Salem Ghosts: Ghost Tours & Haunted Pub Crawls — Local services in Salem

STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY.

We had the worst tour experience you can imagine in Salem, MA. Here's just a sample:

We received a text from our tour guide, Jon, at 5PM reminding us of our meet up spot and time - 210 Essex Street at 5:45pm for the 6pm tour. He said he'd be wearing a tan cap and black hoodie, which was not what the email confirmation said he'd be wearing (a marked US Ghost Adventures shirt and holding a lantern).

When we arrived at the meetup spot at 5:45pm, Jon was there as described in his text, and smoking a cigarette. We were apprehensive to approach due to him not looking like a professional tour guide, until we saw him talking to another couple that was on the tour. When we approached him to check in for the tour and ask if he needed to see our tickets, he joked around saying that he trusted us and never asked to see ID, scan our tickets, or any indication that we were supposed to be on this tour. He did the same thing with another couple that approached him for the tour - never asked for their tickets or checked them in.

From the beginning of the tour, nothing was as expected: At the start of the tour he asked US what tour this was... he should probably have that information. He also asked us where we wanted to go and see - shouldn't he be telling us that? Nothing about his stories described the historic nature of the time His stories were confusing and long-winded, never hitting any historical facts We barely walked anywhere in the town. At one point we were in a parking lot looking at a new construction building 300 feet away and at another point we were looking into people's windows at an apartment complex where the prison once stood. We were not shown any main attractions that were advertised on the website

The tour was supposed to end at 7pm and by 7:15pm we were down near the subway station with no end in sight. The final straw was when he told us all to walk ahead to Howard Street so he could hang back and have a cigarette. My sister is pregnant and our entire family did not appreciate the lack of respect and professionalism and at that point decided to leave the tour.

Traveling all the way from California, we had one day to spend in Salem. We planned our entire day around this tour and it completely wasted our time and was not what we expected at all. We left feeling like we were taken on a tour by a random local scam artist. Do not take the risk with this company when there are so many other reputable tour companies out there.

Also, when I notified the company of this horrible experience all they did was give a 50% refund and offer to send us on another one of their horrible tours. Terrible customer service on top of a terrible tour....

It was a good tour and the history was explained very well and was very interesting to hear. However, the first 30 minutes of the tour were disappointing for multiple reasons. First, there was a huge group of us gathered at the meeting location at 8:45. We did not see the guide anywhere. He finally showed up at 9pm and then we spent 15 minutes checking everyone in. Then, the guide went to check for people on the other side of the building and said we will be having another guide join us. The other guy joined us as soon as he left and again, started checking everyone in. Thankfully, someone in the group spoke up and said that was already taken care of so we didn’t waste another 15 minutes of tour time duplicating work. The guides instructed the group to split up since we were so large, so we did. Once the tour started, the guide mentioned that this will be a long tour and a long walk since we signed up for the extra long tour. He stated it would take about two hours. When we bought our tickets, it made no indication that the tour was any more than an hour. All of us were confused. Since I was in Salem as part of a road trip, I had to stick to my schedule, which means I only got to see 3 locations and I missed over half of the tour. I was told the tour would be from 9pm - 10pm. We did not start until 9:15 and we had to leave promptly at 10. It’s disappointing that we paid for a tour that we didn’t get to finish due to inaccurate information being provided to customers.

It was a good tour for what we were able to stay for, but I wouldn’t tour with them again because I can’t trust the information provided. Yes, I could have called to verify information. But, why would I think to do that when it’s all outlined in the email?

Also, the guides need microphones. I never knew our guides name, but he was new and we were his 5th tour. He was very kind and asked us at every stop if we could hear him okay, but then once traffic started going, we no longer could.

None of the problems listed above are at fault of the guide. It is all the fault of the company operations.

Small detail to add - neither of the guides were wearing the t shirt that the email states they...

HUGE WASTE OF MONEY!! Came up to Salem with my friends this weekend. We had been looking forward to this trip for a long time, and were very excited to go on a ghost tour. I booked the 8:30 tour on October 19. When we got to the meeting spot, we were very confused. The email I received said that there would be someone standing outside this bank with a specific t-shirt on and holding a lantern. So that’s what we were looking for. We couldn’t see a lantern or the tshirt, but we did see people looking just as confused as we were, so we asked people around us if they were meeting for the tour and sure enough they were. Neither tour guide at the meeting place was wearing the t-shirt we were told to look for, or a lantern. If we didn’t see all of the other confused people, we would’ve just walked away and wasted our money. And that was only the beginning… we left the meeting spot and went to the first stop on the tour. I wish I could remember any of the history and the stories that we heard, but that is practically impossible. Our tour guide basically whispered the ENTIRE tour. Everybody around us was complaining, asking the guide to please speak up. No matter how many times somebody asked, her voice never got any louder. She just kept telling us all to get closer to her, but at that point I was basically in a strangers lap trying to hear her. She claimed that she couldn’t use her microphone on most of the streets because it was “prohibited”, yet every time we walked by another group, the other tour guides had their mic on, and that was all you could hear. I think I learned more from the other tour guides that we walked by just because we could actually hear them. By the third or fourth stop after walking around for a mile and not hearing any of her stories, we decided our best bet was to leave and explore the history by ourselves. And I am very glad we did, since I finally got to enjoy the history around me. Do not pay for this tour, it is a giant...