If I can help it, I prefer to send people on a personal friend who called herself, "Bloody Mary". She operates a very intimate and personally guided tour in the Haunted aspects of New Orleans. I used to work closely with her when I worked at a haunted guest house in New Orleans. Bloody Mary is quite amazing and beautifully theatrical while still maintaining total plausibility in her storytelling. I recommend her first.However, she's booked a lot of the time, so call beforehand, and I usually don't plan ahead (IMAGINE THAT RIGHT!?) and end up WISHING I was able to use her when I have to make other arrangements in New Orleans. She answered my emails and texts almost immediately a few days ago but was busy with a wedding group. She's even entertained several celebrity groups.
Her official website is http://www.bloodymarystours.com.
However, I also worked in several larger hotels and dealt with other ghost tour operators in New Orleans. A gentlemen named, Sydney Smith also has helped me out in the past in New Orleans. He runs 'Haunted History Tours' and the five of us went on his tour with a familiar tour guide named Ernie who was quite the talker.
We heard a few stories on this more commercial tour such as;
- ...the horrific tale of the 'LaLaurie House.'
- ...the building that is now 'Muriel's' where a table sits even this week for the ghosts,
- ...the revolutionary singing ghosts in 'Pierre Antoine's Alley.' (Right near my New O
- ...the 'Hotel Provincial' (Google it, it's one of the most haunted hotels in New Orleans apparently since it was a Civil War hospital.)
- and a few others that you can all find in his book HERE.
Speaking of New Orleans haunted hotels, I have mentioned in the past that I used to manage a few small inns in New Orleans and as a special treat, I called the owner of one of the inns that is a mansion off St. Charles Avenue and was able to show my family the inside of the inn at 10:00pm even though the inn is no longer an inn. (I even saw my old office and desk which backed up to the 'Real World New Orleans' 'Belfort Mansion' kitchen window. Fierce.)I really enjoyed that and am thankful that the owner whom I used to work for was able to do that.
On the right is an ad I designed way back in 2002 for a magazine about the hauntings at the Castle Inn. I have several others in that campaign, but that's for another time.
You can read an interview about when I had some paranormal investigators stay at inn HERE. (They used to all call and stay at the inn all the time.) (The Travel Channel even stayed there one time and did a Halloween special.)
I could go on and on about this and my own run-in's with the ghosts and sometime I may, but this is enough for now and this post.
My high school girl cousins didn't get to see any ghosts, but it sure was scary and fun at that hour. (I think the scariest thing was my hair. *wink*)
This photo to the right isn't even at the Castle Inn to go with the post. It's of a empty stage that was at the halfway point of the tour. We stopped at a familiar New Orleans haunt and bar called 'MRB's.' I sneaked off into another part of the bar I know about that was empty just to snag this photo. If you know me, you know how I live abandoned building and especially New Orleans, so that's enough right? *wink*Here are some other haunted New Orleans website you can check out if that interests you.
