Haunted Cleveland

I recently took their Halloween Ghost Tour after years of seeing it heavily promoted n the media (gets big writeups in the paper, ads on radio etc.) I’m giving this three stars for effort because I like going on tours where I get driven around instead of having to drive to all the locations on my own and find a parking spot (easy for some locations, not so easy for others) and also since the tour runs at night, driving to some of these locations and wandering around on your own at night would not be the greatest idea due to shady hoods or construction. The tour guides are nice people and reasonably entertaining. I have to agree though that for over 50 dollars per person, the Halloween tour this year did not quite deliver the value for money.
On the plus side, the tour is equally as much about history as it is about ghosts, so the ghost theme or horror theme isn’t pushed and there isn’t a big effort to be «scary» or any of that, which is fine with me. Also, this year they were pretty upfront about the tour participants not being able to enter Franklin Castle (although the website was still a tiny bit misleading in that regard — see below), and there was a stop to take pictures of it from the sidewalk. Some of the other stuff we saw, such as tunnels under the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, are only open at certain times so this tour is a good opportunity to see them at a time when you know for sure they will be open. There were also a lot of good photo ops on this tour if you like taking pictures of things like old cemeteries, monuments and the Terminal Tower at night.
On the minus side, the website is kind of confusing about what exactly is going to be on the particular tour that you yourself book. You will see all kinds of stuff that was on past tours and upcoming tours and tours that can only be booked by private groups. One page featured people in Franklin Castle claiming that was the tour’s «signature attraction», then you get to the page describing the tours and find out you won’t be going in Franklin Castle because it’s not open to the public. Once I found the page that seemed to describe what was going to happen on the tours on the dates I might book, that also turned out to be wrong in part because one of the attractions advertised turned out to be «not available» on the date I picked due to a conflict with some other event being booked there, and there was nothing explaining this on the website until after you had already paid for your ticket and got a written confirmation listing (somewhere about half way down a long wall of text on the page) the stops the tour would make. Since I was really interested in seeing this particular attraction, this felt a bit like a bait-​and-​switch especially since the other tour dates I could make were sold out by the time I realized there was going to be a change in itinerary. For upwards of 50 dollars a head, the tour company should make sure that whatever is advertised is what you get or that the website clearly states a change up front before you pay, especially when it’s a conflict with an event that was likely booked weeks ahead of time as opposed to some last minute act of God like a fire or flood.
They do several tours so I would still consider them for a non-​Halloween tour that had more off the beaten path stuff (like the murderers tours they do) but would definitely call and ask a lot of questions about the itinerary before I hand over my money for a specific date.

The tour sounds great on paper but doesn’t really deliver in person. The most glaring part that isn’t very obvious from their description: You don’t even get to enter Franklin Castle. Instead, you get to sit outside of it in a bus and watch a choppy VHS video while someone shines a flashlight on the exterior of the property. Rather than pay $ 50, just google map the address then go park next to the castle yourself and watch some YouTube videos for the price of gas to get you there and achieve the same effect. The other stops were interesting, but again, also free if you go on your own. The tour guides at times were entertaining but overall save your money.

The people were very nice and the bus was comfortable but the tour is way over priced! I was very upset to find we were not even able to get out of the bus at franklin castle even though they advertise this as their «signature attraction». The information on the videos were not accurate with historic fact in the city of Cleveland. At $ 50/​preson I would NOT RECOMMEND this tour. All the places it takes you (soldiers and sailors monument, Cleveland police museum and to see the «death car» are all free and open to the public anyway.