Williamsburg Ghost Tour
Are you visiting Williamsburg and wish you could learn more about its history before you leave? Or perhaps you live in the city and have always wondered what some of the oldest buildings in the square were – now you can find out with Lizzie Borden Ghost Tours! We offer hauntingly fun historical tours in over 33 cities in America, Williamsburg included! Lizzie Borden Ghost Tours's Williamsburg ghost tour is ranked as one of the Top 10 Ghost Tours in America by US City Traveler and the Best Tour Operator Award in Williamsburg!
Get TicketsWhy You Need to Take Our Williamsburg Ghost Tour
Our tours are unlike any other, with knowledgeable local guides ready to show you the spookiest spots around town. If you’re looking for amusement park thrills, look elsewhere. Our tours are relaxed and focused on local history and lore – they’re even appropriate for kids! We offer an authentic experience that allows questions to be asked about some of your city’s most unexplainable happenings.
Our Tours
Colonial Ghosts Tour
Visit several haunted locations on this scary & fun one-hour ghost tour through historically haunted areas of Williamsburg. Discover Colonial Williamsburg’s chilling past on its historic streets to discover a hidden history and the hauntings that remain, covering the Colonial era, Civil War, & more.
Tour Meeting Location: 424 Duke of Gloucester Street, at the Statue of Thomas Jefferson on the bench
Tour Times: 8PM
Tour Length: 1 hr. across 1 mile
Ghost tours are held nightly, rain or shine!
Colonial Ghosts Ultimate Dead of Night Haunted Ghost Tour
INDIAN BURIAL GROUNDS. INSANE ASYLUM. WITCHES. MURDER. BETRAYAL. WAR. This Special late night ghost tour covers it all and takes you to even more terrifying, haunted locations after hours and reveals just what hides in the shadows in the dead of night in a colonial ghost town.
Tour Meeting Location: 428 W Duke of Gloucester St, Williamsburg, VA
Tour Times: 10PM
Tour Length: Approximately 1.5-2 hours
Ghost tours are held nightly, rain or shine!
Why is Williamsburg So Haunted?
Williamsburg was one of America’s first planned cities. Laid out in 1699 under the supervision of Governor Francis Nicholson, it was to be a “new and well-ordered city” suitable for the capital of the largest and most populous of the British colonies in America. A succession of beautiful capitol buildings became home to the oldest legislative assembly in the New World. The young city proliferated into the center of Virginia’s political, religious, economic, and social life.
Williamsburg ceased to be the capital of the new Commonwealth of Virginia in 1780 and declined, although not to the degree Jamestown had. Another factor was travel: 18th- and early 19th-century transportation in the colony was mainly by canals and navigable rivers. As it had been built on “high ground,” Williamsburg was not sited on a major water route, unlike many early US communities. The railroads that were being built in the 1830s also did not yet come through the city.
With its cobblestone streets and historically preserved homes, Williamsburg is steeped in history, some of it a little unexplained and just a bit spooky. One of those questionable locations is the public hospital in Williamsburg, Virginia. It was the first asylum in North America dedicated solely to the treatment of the mentally ill. Established in 1773, the building included 24 patient isolation cells and high walls surrounding the grounds. As the years went on, the building grew into a compound, able to house up to 300 patients.
When the institution was opened in 1773, the treatment of mentally ill patients was nothing if not crude and misinformed. It was assumed that patients were “choosing irrational behavior,” and treatments included electroshock, isolation, bleeding, potent drugs, and more. The mistreatment of patients in its early years of operation is the cause of the unusual events that have occurred throughout its history, from strange fires to ghostly visitations.
So, if you’re looking for a unique tour, a hauntingly fun date night idea, or a spooky day trip with the kids, Lizzie Borden Ghost Tours’s Williamsburg ghost tour is the plan for you!
Why should you tour with us?
“You travel to Virginia to do the things you love doing with the people you love doing” — that’s why the slogan stuck. Colonial Williamsburg has enough ghostly tales to fill up a library. It’s jam-packed with true accounts of spooks, specters, wild wraiths, and poltergeists. Some magazines and researchers even call it the most haunted city in the world.
You’ve done and settled that bucket list item — tasted authentic dishes once served to the likes of Jefferson and Washington. What better way to finish the night than by going on a stroll and unpacking all those calories? A nice moonlit stroll to sweat out the spirit and perhaps get to know a couple of new ones. Expand your taste for the macabre with a Williamsburg ghost tour!
It’s all roses and champagne in one of America’s best-known living historic towns. There’s a romance to it. A simpler period — one full of honor, debauchery, fun, and a sense that what you were fighting for had a purpose. But, once you scratch the surface, you start to see how everything turns bitter. You’ll need a guide to give you the real happenings of those long-forgotten days.
Perhaps one of the most iconic locales in the area, and the second-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, The College of William & Mary is a must-see for every visitor that comes to Colonial Williamsburg. But did you know that it is overflowing with hauntings? So much so that some of the houses, used as dorms, have been vacated numerous times by their ghostly inhabitants.
With over 50 attractions and covering more than 130 acres, Busch Garden Williamsburg has the honor of having two record-setting roller coasters. Well, once the park closes you simply can’t go cold turkey — you’ll need to keep the adrenaline rush up. What better way than with a creepy Williamsburg ghost tour in a town that is considered one of the most haunted in America?
We love to slip back into the past. Colonial Williamsburg gifts us that opportunity. On the daily tours, on the normal tours, you’ll learn about the tangible, the things that drove this city, its practical aspects. On our tour, you’ll learn about its true nature, its wild passions, its darkest secrets, and the things and aspects its past tries to shrug off.
THE MOST HAUNTED PLACES IN Williamsburg, VA
Bruton Parish Church
Thomas Jefferson and George Washington attended services here and Martha Washington's great-grandfather once served as Reverend. It’s also the place where god-fearing folks flocked to and whet once, a Preacher’s wife - the love of his life - grew deathly ill and passed away. What made her come back to the land of the living? What trespass by her husband commanded Mrs. Jones' spirit to haunt the church ground?
Peyton Randolph House
The Peyton Randolph House is another old structure from the early 1700s. Today, it has a reputation for being one of the most haunted sites in Virginia. The home belonged to the late politician Peyton Rudolph, and several famous revolutionary-era figures visited the home regularly.
Like the Bruton Parish Church, it also served as a hospital for wounded soldiers. Throughout the years, various tragedies occurred, which gave the site its haunted reputation.
Wythe House
The Wythe House was a residence known to house the elite members of Williamsburg. George Wythe was a law professor and a mentor of Thomas Jefferson. As General Washington’s headquarters during the Revolutionary War, the house played an essential part in the birthing of America. Strategists drew up many battle plans for the Battle of Yorktown right here at the site. A few untimely deaths supposedly occurred at the home, potentially leaving some ghostly spirits behind. Visitors can tour the home and experience the creepy phenomena themselves.
FAQs
Please see your booking details for meeting location. There are neighboring parking garages and street parking that are available in the area.
Group size varies based on time of year and demand. We can keep everyone in your party in the same group. We’ve been doing this for years, and manage group size to ensure guests have a great experience. In the event you can’t hear your tour guide, let them know, or move closer to them.
Pets are welcome as long as they do not disrupt or distract from the tour
The arrival time will be listed on your confirmation email and in the available tour times when you click the book button
Please do not call us, the best way to reach us is by email using the contact form on this website
An extended tour takes you to a few additional locations when the regular tour ends. This adds about four new places and 30 minutes to your tour- highly recommended
Book a tour and check the +1 box for each person in your group where it says “Extended Tour” at checkout to add an extended Ghost tour.
Please contact us directly for pricing and availability. We do not do private tours under 30 persons. If you have a group under 30, please order directly from the website’s book now option.
Tours are held rain or shine. We will contact you if the tour is cancelled.
Please only attend the tour for the day and time you are booked, as another day or time may not be available. If you need to reschedule, please contact us by email first. There is a $10 per order (not person) rebooking fee for each schedule change.
As it is unfair to other guests, we do not wait for late or no show parties. Please remember to arrive to the correct location on time! We do not grant refunds to guests who fail to arrive to the appointed place on time and miss their tour.
No, but some of the locations you can visit during the day for free. We simply wouldn’t have the time to focus on as many stories as we do if we were to enter each one, and we wish to focus on the stories, and leave the exploring up to you!
15 minutes before the start of your tour
No.
No, this is a walking tour.
Most of the tour is not stroller or wheelchair accessible.
Yes, you are welcome to take photos of the locations we visit!
No, videos are not allowed
No, there is no smoking allowed on the tour
We do not allow intoxicated guests or drinking on the tour- we will promptly ask those in violation to leave
Lizzie Borden Ghost Tours
America’s most infamously haunted house delivers the most terrifying scares from all across the nation. We’ve compiled an extensive list of notoriously haunted locations and packaged them into spooky, entertaining tours available throughout the nation. Discover the true, unfiltered stories that created these hair-raising scares in only the unique and engaging way our expert guides can bring them to you. From the ghosts of unsolved murders and tragic accidents to disturbed spirits unable to find peace, there’s no limit to what we expose on our authentic ghost tours. Join us as we take you on an unforgettable, chilling journey through your city’s dark past and uncover the sinister secrets that put these places on the otherworldly map.
The Lizzie Borden House is home to the infamous murders that captivated the nation and made Lizzie Borden a macabre household name. Guests can explore the house via a variety of tours and, for those brave enough, stay in this notoriously haunted home. We aim to provide you with a memorable experience as well as deliver the best ghost tours, haunted pub crawls, and a variety of other experiences in over 100 cities.
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