Affiliate Disclosure
The short version: when you book a tour through a link here, the site earns a small commission and you pay the same price. No operator can buy a better position. Exploring Boston's graveyards and haunted streets on your own earns it nothing.
Independent, Not A Tour Operator
Boston Ghost Tours compares haunted walks, trolleys and pub crawls, and that is all it does. No story is told in person here, no lantern is carried, no pint is poured. The companies behind the nine cards, US Ghost Adventures, Ghost City Tours, Tours by Foot, ExperienceFirst, Historic Tours of America and Nightly Spirits, are separate businesses. Reservations and payments are handled entirely on each operator's live booking page.
How This Site Makes Money
Each book button on a tour card points to a live listing that carries this site's partner code. The nine tours compared across these pages, from the Ghosts and Gravestones trolley to the walking tours and haunted pub crawls, are booked through live listings on Viator and GetYourGuide. When a reader reserves a tour through a tagged link, the platform shares part of its commission with this site. Your price stays where it was: the amount at checkout matches the figure you would see by finding the same listing yourself. No hotel links, display ads or other income streams are in play on these pages.
Affiliate commission is the only revenue here. When a booking comes through a tagged link, the network pays a small percentage and the tour price stays the same for you. There are no banner ads, no paid placements and no sponsored write-ups anywhere on these pages. The networks currently used are Viator, GetYourGuide and Expedia via Travelpayouts, and any new one gets named in this paragraph before its first link appears.
Boston Sights That Cost You Nothing
Much of Boston's haunted scenery costs nothing to see. Walking the Freedom Trail, pausing at Copp's Hill Burying Ground or drifting through Beacon Hill's lamp-lit streets is free, and the tours largely show these same exteriors from the sidewalk. Where a site charges admission, that purchase is between you and the attraction alone. Tours with no live listing to check against never earn a card here, and when a free option genuinely beats a paid one, the free option gets the mention.
What Money Cannot Buy
- Inclusion. A tour only gets a card if it is bookable tonight, run by a company that actually operates in Boston, and described with the same rating and review count its own live listing shows.
- Ordering. Position is not for sale. Tours sit in their categories by review count, which is why the Ghosts and Gravestones trolley, with 2,645 reviews, leads the trolley section. No operator can pay to move a card up the page.
- What we say about them. The Ghosts and Gravestones trolley carries 2,645 reviews and the Haunted Boston Common walk carries 12, and both figures appear exactly as the live listing publishes them. Where a listing does not state an operator, the card says so instead of inventing one.
- What gets cut. Duplicate listings wearing different names, brand-new tours without enough reviews to judge by, and anything rated too poorly to recommend in good conscience. What remains is a deliberate shortlist of nine.
Where Every Number Comes From
Ratings, review counts and durations are taken from each tour's live listing exactly as it displays them. No figure is rounded, weighted or nudged to flatter a favorite. Prices shift with dates and ticket options, so the live listing is the place to check the current price before booking.
Booking Direct, With No Link Clicked
Every operator is named on its card, from US Ghost Adventures to Nightly Spirits, so any tour can be found and booked directly. The FAQ and the guides stay useful whether or not a link gets clicked.
Found a mistake or want to make a case: email us. How the picks are made is on the about page.