If you're the one in the group chat who ends up planning Halloween’s hang-out, a private ghost tour will save the day (or the night). One reservation, one guide, one route, and a night your friends will bring up a year from now. American Ghost Walks runs private group ghost tours across 10+ U.S. destinations, including Chicago, Milwaukee, Lake Geneva, Stillwater, and Minneapolis, you can book a private tour in any of our destinations and at any time (as long as we have a guide available) starting at just the price of ten tickets.
We've guided more than 100,000 guests since Mike Huberty started the company in Madison in 2010, and roughly half our annual bookings land in September and October. That gives us a specific view of which Halloween group plans hold together and which ones fall apart around 9 PM.
What Should You Do for Halloween With a Group of Friends?
The best idea is to do something spooky, fact-checked, guided and private. A private ghost tour gives your group 90 minutes to two hours walking through documented haunted locations with a local expert running the whole night: route, pacing, stories, atmosphere. Nobody plans, nobody hosts, nobody gets lost between stops.
Logistics are where most Halloween group plans die. Haunted attractions mean hours of waiting, whether to get in, find parking, or navigate public transportation. Bar crawls mean five separate decisions and one person who wandered off after the second stop. A house party means you buying decorations on a Tuesday. A private tour is one confirmation email, one meeting point, and a guide who already knows how the evening runs.
What Stories Will Your Guide Tell on a Private Halloween Ghost Tour?
Our guides research their own cities and tell those stories standing in the places they happened. Here's what that sounds like.
Tony Szabelski, who has appeared on the Biography Channel, Fox News, and the CBS Chicago Hauntings series, stops his group outside Glessner House on Prairie Avenue, once the richest street in Chicago:
"Ask any staff member that works here and they'll all give you the same answer. They've all seen what looks like the shadowy figure of a large man roaming the hallways of this house."
Dangerous Linda opens Spirits of Summit Avenue in St. Paul in front of the Griggs Mansion, often cited as the most haunted house in Minnesota:
"Visitors report seeing a tall man in a dark suit in the bedroom. Sometimes at the door, sometimes at the foot of the bed, sometimes close enough they feel the pressure of him climbing into bed with them."
And in Madison, Lisa guides at the Masonic Temple and tells one on herself:
"This is one of the few places where I actually had a ghostly experience while ghost hunting. We were up in the attic on the fourth floor where sometimes the chairs roll across the floor by themselves. All four of us were up there in the same place and we all heard a whisper from the same area, yet none of us was there."
Lisa knows the maintenance history of that building down to which radiator a mason died working on. She still can't explain the whisper, and she says so on the tour instead of dressing it up.
What Happens on a Private Halloween Ghost Tour
Your group will cover roughly 1 to 1.5 miles on foot, stopping at about 10 documented sites over 90 minutes to two hours. Every story traces back to primary research: city archives, newspaper records, court and coroner documents, firsthand interviews. If a claim can't be sourced, it never makes the route.
Because the tour is private, the guide builds the night around your group. Twelve people who want jokes between stops get a different pace than eight people who want the heavy history. Dinner reservation at 9:30? The route ends near the restaurant. Tours run in light rain, the walking is casual, and 13 is the recommended minimum age.
Where Can You Book a Private Halloween Ghost Tour?
- Chicago: our deepest bench. Lincoln Park was the city cemetery before it was a park, and not every grave left when the cemetery did. Remains still turn up during construction. The Lincoln Park ghost hunt runs four nights a week over that ground, and the neighborhood holds plenty more, including the unmarked site where the St. Valentine's Day Massacre happened in 1929. Content developed by Ursula Bielski, host of WYCC PBS's The Hauntings of Chicago.
- Milwaukee: the Bloody Third Ward and Shadow of City Hall routes, built by Allison Jornlin, 2016 Wisconsin Researcher of the Year. Compact and easy to pair with dinner downtown.
- Lake Geneva, WI: the girls' weekend pick. Baker Street landmarks and lake legends with lifelong local Rita Moore, in a town small enough that nobody needs a car.
- Stillwater, MN: St. Croix riverfront and lumber baron ghost stories, in a historic downtown that photographs absurdly well in October.
- Minneapolis: the ghost bus format, which is the right call when the group is large and it's 40 degrees.
How Much Does a Private Halloween Ghost Tour Cost?
Private walking tours are available for groups of any size, with a minimum charge of 10 tickets and a maximum of 20 guests. There’s no additional fee for opting to have a private tour, so if your group has fewer than 10 people, you’ll simply pay for 10 tickets.
Some exceptions apply to bus tours, which have different pricing because they require a bus rental. New Orleans is another exception, where private tours for up to 6 people are available for $200 plus tax.
The same format covers Halloween-weekend birthdays, friend reunions, girls' nights, and work outings, plus dedicated bachelorette tours in Chicago, Lake Geneva, Stillwater, Hollywood, and Minneapolis.
How to Book a Private Ghost Tour for Halloween Weekend
You could book the haunted house again. Or you could be the person who found the thing nobody in the group had done, in a city they thought they knew.
Halloween weekend is the busiest window of our year. For dates between October 24 and November 1, treat it like a restaurant reservation, not a walk-up. Pick your city and request a private group tour at americanghostwalks.com. Real history, spooky secrets, local legends.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good Halloween activity for a group that has already done haunted houses?
A private ghost tour. Unlike a haunted house, the stories are real, nobody's jumping out at you, and the group stays together the whole night. American Ghost Walks runs private tours across 10 destinations, capped at 20 guests, starting at $34.99 per person.
How far in advance should we book a private ghost tour for Halloween?
As early as you can. September and October account for roughly half our annual bookings. For dates between October 24 and November 1, book several weeks out. Other October weekends usually work with two to three weeks' notice, though availability varies by city.
How many people can go on a private ghost tour?
Up to 20 guests, which keeps the tour conversational. Larger groups can often be split across back-to-back departures or moved onto a bus tour format in Chicago and Minneapolis. Send us your headcount and we'll sort it out.
Can we customize the route or the stories for our group?
Yes. The guide adjusts route, pace, and storytelling to match your group and your schedule, whether that means leaning into the true crime material, keeping it lighter for a birthday, or wrapping up near a specific bar.
Is a Halloween ghost tour actually scary?
It's atmospheric rather than horror-movie scary. No actors, no jump scares, no gore. The unsettling part is that the accounts are documented and you're standing where they happened. Most groups laugh as much as they get chills.