New Orleans Ghost Tour

07/20/2008 Posted by DonnaDawson

My husband and I visited New Orleans over the weekend and decided to take a haunted ghost tour. We accidentally found Flanagan's bar, bought tickets there, and while awaiting the appointed time, pleasantly discovered we were in a "local's" hangout. As we are somewhat skeptical while keeping an open mind of the paranormal, we were very pleased with Randy Ping as our guide. Randy was considerate of the safety of the group, kept us out of the street, gave us a good vantage point for viewing the sites and blew us away with what turned out to be a wonderful way to spend our time in the French Quarter. We appreciated his humor, his obvious knowledge of the "behind the scenes" story, which we all know is the real story. He brought the characters and times alive for us with his witticism and apparently extensive knowledge of New Orleans history. We appreciated the fact that he did not try to sell some kind of voodoo, get us to buy trinkets, although the break at the pub for refreshments was nice, he did not guarantee that we would see a spirit, tell us we may have to have an exorcism as a result of the tour, and most certainly did not tell us if you take a picture you will bring home a ghost in the negative (no kidding, a friend of mine was told and believed that happened to her). We were impressed with his intelligence and the fact he did not insult ours, we found him to be engaging and we felt lucky to have met him. My husband and I visited his favorite bookstore and bought some of the books the shop keeper said he enjoyed. If you are not looking for an authentic history of how the legends of the ghosts, voodoo, vampires and magic potions came to be, are looking for a scare, or want to buy good luck charms I would not recommend this tour. We felt Randy was the "real deal", intelligent and a great story teller. I highly recommend this tour. Donna Dawson, Montgomery, AL

Pros: Great storytelling, was safefy conscious, witty and intelligent.

01/18/2007 Posted by racerflash

Our family usually takes one of these tours every year in October and have enjoyed previous tours very much! But, October 2006 we took a tour from "New Orleans Ghost Tours" and it was terrible. Our guide, Randy, talked more about the evil of New Orleans Politics and federal politics than he did about ghosts! He was very boring and even went so far as to dispell the existance of ghosts and said everything someone sees or photographs is fake! This on a Ghost Tour! How "un-scarey" and un-fun is that! We left half way through the tour. I called on Monday and left 3 messages for owner, Lisa Huber, with no return calls. I then emailed her and did get a response. She apologized and offered a free tour. I refused and just wanted my money returned. She agreed and took my address and would send a check. None ever arrived. I emailed again and she asked for my credit card info and she offered to issue a credit to my card. It never happened! After several more unanswered calls and emails I finally gave up! These tours are usually great, just not "New Orleans Ghost Tour". Thanks, Bob Gordon

Pros: Some Tour Guides were good in the past

Cons: Randy is terrible guide and owner unresponsive to problem, calls, etc.

06/30/2004 Posted by kalavh

You start off in a bar - where they get you to buy a drink - lead you on a long walk - 1st story was good - then walked some more - 2nd and 3rd stories very lame and you ended up back in a bar to buy a drink and then through a souvenier shop to the last and worst story of all - we ended up doing our own tour with the Frommer's book as a guide. SKIP THIS - TOTALLY A TOURIST TRAP AND WASTE OF MONEY!

07/09/2003 Posted by phillycheesesteak

This was the highlight of my entire trip! Randy was my tour guide and, let me tell you, this man rocks!!!! Not only is he handsome and really nice, but he also really knows his stuff. I was blown away by his knowledge of history and the paranormal. When I bought my tickets, they told me Randy is gonna be on the Travel Channel in October because they interviewed him as an expert...... I am not at all surprised!!!!

Pros: Randy Ping, fun bar it starts at, very entertaining

Cons: there are no con's!!!