Multi-City Storytelling-Driven Walking Tours
Madison, WI
Age
Most tours recommended 13+
Cost
$$
Tickets typically $26-$30 per person plus tax in Wisconsin (Madison and Milwaukee $30 + tax; Waukesha $26.52 all-in); pricing across the network ranges roughly $20-$59 by city.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved sidewalks; routes vary 1 to 1.5 miles depending on city
Equipment
Photos OK
American Ghost Walks describes itself as a 14-plus-year operation, placing its founding around 2010. The company operates a hub-and-spoke model: a central booking platform manages a network of city-specific walking tours, each led by local storytellers trained in the company's research-forward style.
The Wisconsin portfolio includes Madison, Milwaukee, Waukesha, Lake Geneva, and Bayfield. The Madison program runs two routes — a King Street and Capitol Square loop, and a State Street and University of Wisconsin campus walk. Each ties documented venue history to first-person guest accounts collected by the company's tour staff.
The broader network spans Illinois (Aurora, Chicago, Naperville, Woodstock), Minnesota (Minneapolis, Red Wing, Stillwater, St. Paul), Maine (Bar Harbor, Boothbay Harbor, Kennebunkport, Portland), Louisiana (New Orleans French Quarter), California (Hollywood Boulevard), Alaska (Ketchikan, Juneau), Hawaii (Kailua-Kona, Hilo), Puerto Rico (San Juan), and the U.S. Virgin Islands (St. Thomas).
Tours are typically 90 minutes, cover roughly one to one and a half miles on paved sidewalks, and depart from clearly posted public meeting points. Tickets in Wisconsin are listed at $25 per person; pricing across the network ranges from roughly $20 to $59 depending on city and route. Booking is handled through TripWorks widgets embedded on each city page.
Sources
The company's marketing distinguishes ghost walks from ghost hunts. Routes are scripted around verified building histories — fires, infectious-disease outbreaks, named murders, and political-era tragedies — and the paranormal layer is presented as folklore and witness reports rather than as confirmed activity.
Across the Wisconsin programs, recurring categories of report include phantom footsteps in upper floors of historic hotels, unidentified voices in stairwells, and equipment irregularities (camera battery drain, audio interference) noted by guests during nighttime tours. The Madison Capitol Square route foregrounds taverns and lodgings tied to the city's territorial era; the Waukesha route is anchored to the springs-era hotel district.
Guides do not carry investigative equipment and do not promise contact. The format is closer to a curated history walk with paranormal context than to a ghost hunt — a positioning choice consistent with the company's promotional materials.
A 90-minute guided walk around Madison's King Street and Capitol Square. The route covers documented sites tied to the city's earliest hotels, taverns, and political history. Meeting point is across from the Great Dane Brewpub at 125 S. Webster Street.
Evening walking tour through historic downtown Milwaukee, covering venues with documented 19th- and 20th-century histories of fire, crime, and industrial-era tragedy.
1.5-mile guided walk along the Waukesha Riverwalk and downtown core, anchored at 973 N. Barstow Street. The route covers springs-era history and reported phenomena tied to the city's 19th-century hotels.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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.
Alton, IL
Alton Hauntings Tours is a paranormal-tourism operator founded by author Troy Taylor in Alton, Illinois. Taylor has published more than 100 books on American hauntings and operates the Alton tours April through November alongside year-round Dinner and Spirits events.