Walking & Hands-On Investigation Tours in Downtown GR
Lyon Square, 296 Lyon NW (meeting point), Grand Rapids, MI 49503
Age
All Ages for walking tour; ghost-hunt tour age restrictions vary
Cost
$$
Walking Ghost Tour $30/person (ages 6+, 5 and under free). Hands-on Ghost Hunt Tour $40/person (ages 6+, 5 and under free). Pricing per toursaroundmichigan.com.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved downtown Grand Rapids sidewalks; route is mostly flat
Equipment
Photos OK
Tours Around Michigan is a Michigan-based walking-tour operator with a Grand Rapids program built around the city's paranormal lore. The company runs both a standard ghost walking tour and a hands-on investigation tour aimed at participants who want to use equipment rather than just hear stories.
The standard Grand Rapids Ghost Tour departs from Lyon Square at 296 Lyon NW, behind the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel. The route covers roughly two miles through downtown's 19th and early-20th-century commercial and civic core, visiting buildings from the exterior while guides narrate the stories attached to each. Tours run daily at 11 AM and 7 PM, year-round.
The hands-on Ghost Hunt Tour operates as a guided introduction to paranormal-investigation methods, with EMF meters, spirit boxes, and digital recorders distributed at each stop. It meets at 40 Monroe Center NW, outside the Shinola storefront, and runs 1.5 hours over approximately one mile. Departures are offered multiple times daily — typically 11 AM, 2 PM, 4 PM, 7 PM, and 8 PM.
Tours Around Michigan also operates ghost tours in other Michigan cities and offers private group bookings.
Sources
Tour narratives focus on a small set of recurring downtown figures rather than long catalogs of specific addresses. Three are repeatedly mentioned by the operator and reviewers: a woman whose murder is said to have left a presence in her former building, an ill-mannered janitor whose footsteps and habits are reported in a downtown commercial space, and a pioneer figure tied to the early city.
The walking tour covers downtown's 19th- and early-20th-century commercial and civic core, with stops along the Riverwalk Promenade and adjacent to the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel. The Ghost Hunt Tour route, anchored at 40 Monroe Center NW, focuses on outdoor sites in 'the Haunted Valley of the Grand' where the operator has logged repeat equipment readings.
Guides distinguish between historical record and witness account, framing the paranormal material as cultural artifact alongside the documented history of the city.
A walking tour through downtown Grand Rapids covering the city's paranormal accounts and urban legends. Departs from Lyon Square. Routes vary; guides build the tour around documented witness reports rather than theatrical jump scares.
A hands-on paranormal investigation tour combining haunted-history storytelling with interactive ghost-hunting equipment use. Guides supply EMF meters, spirit boxes, and other investigation tools at stops along the route.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Madison, WI
American Ghost Walks is a multi-city tour operator founded around 2010, running guided storytelling walks across more than two dozen U.S. cities and territories, including five Wisconsin markets — Madison, Milwaukee, Waukesha, Lake Geneva, and Bayfield — plus stops in Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Louisiana, Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico.
Chicago, IL
Chicago Hauntings Ghost Tours, now operated under the American Ghost Walks brand, runs evening walking and bus tours through Chicago's Loop, Lincoln Park, and southwest suburbs. The company's flagship Original Chicago Hauntings Tour departs Saturday evenings from the Congress Plaza Hotel.
Chicago, IL
Ghost City Tours is a national ghost-walk operator with year-round programming in Chicago and several other historic U.S. cities. The Chicago tours cover documented haunted sites across the downtown core in three distinct format variants: family-friendly, adults-only, and pub-crawl.