New Orleans Haunted Pub Crawl, Both Routes Compared

What Is A Haunted Pub Crawl In New Orleans?

A haunted pub crawl in New Orleans is a guided walking tour that pairs ghost storytelling with stops at bars reputed to be haunted, and on this roster it exists in exactly two bookable forms: the "21+ Pub Crawl, LaLaurie" from New Orleans Ghost Adventures at from $37, and the "Three Haunted Bars, Free Shot" from Big Easy Walking Tours at from $18. Both are adults-only, both run about two hours, and both meet in the French Quarter. The format is simple and it works: a licensed guide walks a group between three or more drinking stops, telling the documented and legendary history of each building while guests drink inside or outside it. The stories are the spine of the evening, and the bars are the venues.

The distinction matters because "haunted pub crawl" gets used loosely in New Orleans marketing. Some tours advertised under that phrase are really ghost walks that happen to pass bars, with no drink included and no bar entry. The two products on this roster are genuine crawl-format tours: bar stops are built into the route, a drink is included in the ticket on both, and the rest of the drinks are at your own cost.

Both crawls are honest about their limits, and so is this guide. The stories told on these routes, the LaLaurie Mansion haunting above all, are legend and operator narrative, presented as the tours tell them, not as settled history. The city rules that shape the evening, the 21+ age requirement and the go-cup zone, are real ordinances and are covered in full below. If you are still deciding between a crawl and a dry ghost walk, the French Quarter ghost walking tours guide compares the non-drinking formats, and New Orleans Haunted Tours covers the full fourteen-product roster across five formats.

One framing note before the comparison: the format runs year-round, every week, not only in October. Halloween season raises demand, but the crawls depart on ordinary Tuesday nights in February too.

The Two Haunted Pub Crawls, Side By Side

The cheaper crawl is the "Three Haunted Bars, Free Shot" from Big Easy Walking Tours, from $18, 4.7 from 79 reviews, meeting at The Rambler and visiting three haunted bars. The larger one is the "21+ Pub Crawl, LaLaurie" from New Orleans Ghost Adventures, from $37, 4.5 from 2,212 reviews, meeting at Bon's New Orleans Street Food and ending with a complimentary drink. Same duration, same age rule, very different scale and price.

Here is the honest head-to-head: two crawls, two very different nights out in the French Quarter.

Read the review counts honestly. The 4.7 rating on the free-shot crawl comes from 79 reviews, a small pool; it is a well-rated tour, not a proven heavyweight. The 4.5 on the Ghost Adventures crawl comes from 2,212 reviews, one of the largest pools on the entire roster. Price and proof pull in opposite directions here, and only you can weigh them.

The Complimentary-Drink Crawl: Lafitte's, The LaLaurie Mansion And A Last-Stop Drink

The "21+ Pub Crawl, LaLaurie" from New Orleans Ghost Adventures runs 2 hours from $37, meets at Bon's New Orleans Street Food at 620 Decatur St Unit 1B, visits Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop Bar, passes the LaLaurie Mansion, and finishes with a complimentary drink at the last stop. It is 4.5 from 2,212 reviews and books free cancellation up to 24 hours before. The listing flags it as booked three times today, which is a real signal for a tour with this much demand.

The route is the selling point. Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop Bar is one of the oldest bar buildings in the city, and as the tours tell it, the pirate Jean Lafitte used the smithy as a front for his smuggling operation. The LaLaurie Mansion at 1140 Royal Street is the other anchor: the crawl passes it, and the guide tells the story of Delphine LaLaurie as the operator's own narrative tells it. One thing the guide will tell you plainly, because it is true: the mansion is a private residence and the tour views the exterior from the street only. Nobody goes inside, on this crawl or any other. The full history of the house, its ownership chain and why the interior stays closed is covered in the LaLaurie Mansion tour guide.

The complimentary drink lands at the final stop, which turns the ending into a sit-down rather than a scatter. Every other drink on the route is at your own cost, so budget for two or three beyond the included one if you plan to drink at each bar. The operator also runs the "Ghost Adventures Interior Visit" ghost walk from the same meeting point, so if your group splits between drinkers and non-drinkers, both tours leave from Bon's at 620 Decatur Street and can rejoin afterward.

The $18 Free-Shot Crawl: Three Haunted Bars, Lowest Price On The Roster

The "Three Haunted Bars, Free Shot" from Big Easy Walking Tours is the cheapest tour on the entire roster at from $18, a 2-hour crawl visiting three haunted bars, meeting at The Rambler in the French Quarter. It rates 4.7 from 79 reviews, includes one free shot, and holds free cancellation up to 24 hours before. It is a small-pool rating and this guide will not dress it up as anything else.

What the small operator offers is intimacy and price. Three bar stops in two hours is a relaxed pace, and the free shot arrives early enough to set the tone for the evening rather than cap it. The listing names three haunted bars on the route without specifying which ones, so treat the exact stops as a decision you make on the night with your guide. Drinks beyond the shot are at your own cost, same as the bigger crawl.

Who should pick it: travelers on a budget, small groups who want to hear the guide rather than strain toward them, and anyone who wants the crawl experience without the $37 ticket. Who should skip it: anyone who wants the Lafitte's and LaLaurie Mansion anchors specifically, because those named stops belong to the Ghost Adventures route. Both tours enforce the same 21+ door rule, covered next.

How Old Do You Have To Be? The 21+ Rule And ID

Both haunted pub crawls on this roster are strictly 21 and over, and both require a valid government-issued photo ID at check-in. This is not operator whimsy: 21 is Louisiana's legal drinking age, and the crawls enter working bars that card every patron. A minor cannot join either crawl, even as a non-drinking tagalong, and the listings state the age rule directly. Leave the passport at the hotel if you have a driver's license, but bring something official: a student ID will not clear the door.

The rule is confirmed on both live listings, and it is consistent with how every bar on the routes operates. The city's tour-guide licensing system, which paid guides in the city are required to satisfy, is a separate matter covered below, but the age rule is the one that will actually turn someone away at 8 PM on a Friday.

If your group includes anyone under 21, the honest answer is that neither crawl works, and no bar-stop product on this site will. The dry alternatives are the walking ghost tours, all-ages formats from $30 to $37, or the vampire-themed walks at from $21 and $22. Families planning around this should read the ghost tour with kids guide before booking anything.

Go-Cups And The French Quarter Open-Container Zone

New Orleans allows open alcoholic drinks on public streets inside a defined French Quarter zone, but only in plastic or foam "go-cups": glass containers are banned outright by city code, and the allowance stops at the zone's boundaries, upriver of Canal Street, lakeside of Rampart Street, downriver of Esplanade Avenue and the river. It is a real ordinance, not a folk custom, and it is what lets a pub crawl move between bars with drinks in hand. The specifics live in the city's Code of Ordinances, and the open-container provisions of the city code state them directly.

The zone is smaller than people assume. Here is what it covers and what it does not.

For a crawl route that stays inside the Quarter, the go-cup is what makes the between-bars walking legal. Finish your drink before any vehicle leg, and keep it in plastic. Public intoxication remains illegal regardless of container, and the crawls' guides will say the same.

One adjacent warning worth its own sentence: the drinking culture of the Quarter after dark is its own subject, and it is not all go-cups and ghost stories. The what happens on Bourbon Street at night post covers the scene honestly, including the parts a first-time visitor should know before 10 PM.

Do The Crawls Run Year-Round Or Only At Halloween?

Both crawls run year-round on regular evening schedules, not only in October. Halloween season raises demand and October departures fill fastest, but the tours operate on ordinary nights in every month, and the listings show ongoing availability across the calendar. The honest planning advice is to book one to two weeks ahead in October and a few days ahead the rest of the year. There is no evidence of special Halloween-only routes on either product.

The Halloween context is still worth knowing, because late October is when the Quarter is at its most costumed and the crawls are at their most atmospheric. The Krewe of Boo parade, the city's official Halloween parade, rolls on Saturday, October 24 at 6:30 PM through the French Quarter, per the krewe's official site, and that weekend compresses tour demand sharply. If your crawl falls on parade night, expect crowds on the route streets and book well ahead.

If Halloween-night prices or crowds push you toward a different format, the best time for a New Orleans ghost tour guide breaks the calendar down month by month, including the weather trade-offs.

Your Guide Is Licensed: What The City Requires

Every paid tour guide walking these crawls holds a city-issued tour guide permit from New Orleans, which requires being 18 or older, passing a written history and culture exam with a 70 percent minimum score, clearing a federal background check and paying a fee. The permit is valid for two years and the badge must be worn while conducting tours. This is a real municipal requirement under the city code, administered by the Ground Transportation Bureau, and the city's tour guide permit page lists the requirements in full.

Why this matters to a pub-crawl buyer: the person telling you the LaLaurie story over a beer has been tested on the city's actual history to get that job. It does not mean every story is documentary fact, and this guide keeps the haunting claims attributed to the tours that tell them. It does mean the guide has a verified baseline of New Orleans knowledge that a random volunteer storyteller would not.

The exam detail is a good thing to know on the route itself. The recommended study text for permit applicants is a standard history of the city, and the test covers points of interest as well as dates. When a crawl guide says a building's documented past differs from its ghost-story past, that distinction is trained, not improvised.

What To Wear, What To Budget And Where To Meet

Plan on $18 to $37 for the ticket, roughly $10 to $15 per additional drink in French Quarter bars, and comfortable walking shoes for a two-hour route on uneven old sidewalks. The complimentary-drink crawl meets at Bon's New Orleans Street Food, 620 Decatur St Unit 1B; the free-shot crawl meets at The Rambler in the French Quarter. Arrive 15 minutes early with your photo ID ready. Both tours cancel free up to 24 hours before, so booking ahead costs nothing if plans change.

The budget table below is a planning allowance, not an operator promise: drink prices vary by bar and by order.

Clothing is a night-walk question more than a bar question. Evenings are warm most of the year, but the Quarter's side streets stay humid in summer and the crawl stands outside at stops like the LaLaurie Mansion, where there is no interior to retreat to. The what to wear on a New Orleans ghost tour guide handles the seasonal breakdown in full, including the summer heat-index problem.

Meeting-point logistics deserve one honest flag: both meeting points are in the French Quarter, but they are not next to each other. Bon's at 620 Decatur Street and The Rambler are a real walk apart, so confirm which crawl you booked before you set out, and check the live listing that morning for the exact meeting spot.

If you want the crawl experience but the 21+ rule excludes someone in your group, the closest all-ages alternative on the roster is the "Voodoo and Vampire Themes" walk from The Witches Brew Tour Company, from $33, 4.5 from 3,221 reviews, the most-reviewed walking tour on the site. It covers the same legendary French Quarter ground, dry.

That dry walk is also the sensible fallback when a crawl date is sold out, and the same logic applies in reverse: if you booked the voodoo walk and the whole group turns out to be 21+, either crawl upgrades the evening for $18 to $37 more. Whichever direction you move in, the comparison above holds: the Ghost Adventures route for the named anchors and the big review pool, the Big Easy route for price and intimacy.

Common Questions About Haunted Pub Crawls