The Dublin Ghost Bus Tour

This is more comical than scary, a touch informative but no more than that .
There is a time when the host turns off the lights to do a skit and throws water about, not a good thing when it lands in your face, ruins your hair and makeup
Ruined the tour, got off midway and took the taxi home

I love ghost stories, dark histories, and good stories. This had all of that and more. Vinnie, our guide for the night, was absolutely amazing. He was charming and had all of us on the edge of our seats with the stories he told. Nothing was cheesy or over the top to scare us, he used his sense of story telling and some effects to get us into the mood of the dark history that Dublin had.
We got to explore the crypts of Christ Church Cathedral, explored a cemetery and abandoned church, and discovered that there were tunnels to a brothel now turned pub in the city and a mysterious murder case in the dark ages of a mad man writing a prophesy in his own blood before his execution and a strange creature murdering women just as the prophesy mentioned.
Vinnie was a doll and I wish he could be my tour guide for everything. He called me «gothic girl» the whole trip due to my deep love and knowledge for the subject and gothic novels such as Dracula and Carmilla (due to Dracula’s author being a Dublin native when he was alive).
The downstairs part of the bus is an interactive museum and I highly encourage you to explore it. It has small references to famous Irish authors, stories, and the dark history mentioned before. Whether you’re a fan of the occult, a scaredy cat, or a non believer… sign up. You won’t be disappointed. Even my mother, who is not a fan of these things, adored the tour and would do it again.

I went on this tour with three of my cousins last November and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I feel terrible that I cannot remember the name of our tour guide, but he was just the right amount of dramatic and entertaining and he kept us all enthralled with his stories. I especially enjoyed the time we spent in the crypt of Christ Church Cathedral as well as the graveyard tour (in the rain, no less). It was just the right amount of spooky and informative and I certainly felt we got our money’s worth.
I don’t honestly know what the one-​star reviewers were expecting, a séance? Oh, and if you are looking for a general sightseeing tour of Dublin, for goodness sake go on a standard bus tour that operates during daylight hours! This is more of a mobile theatre with audience participation.
Oh, and the bus is super creepy inside. Bonus points for that! (Those dolls!!!)

I understand the mixed reviews, there seemed to be a small number of people in my tour group that didn’t quite click in to lighthearted ghostly mode (at least they didn’t appear to be particularly enjoying themselves). I, however, actually had a fun time and found The Dublin Ghost Bus Tour an entertaining way to spend a couple of hours in a Dublin evening.
The method of this tour was particularly beneficial to us as it all took place on a slightly chilly, slightly wet November evening. So being driven around on a bus — which may have been only a little warmer than the winter streets outside but warmer none-​the-​less — kept us not just out of the drizzle but also out and about in Dublin.
If you hope to see Dublin by bus, however, this will not be the ride for you as for a majority of the time the dark curtains are drawn to keep yourselves and the outside world apart. This is done so the tour guide can maintain your attention while he regales you with whimsically yet morbidly acted ghost tales. Our guide was very entertaining and although I gathered that he didn’t necessarily take the paranormal too seriously he still offered more than enough storytelling nous and kept us engaged throughout.
Every now and then the curtains are opened for you to see the buildings and graveyards in which the stories are set and there are a couple of stops on the way when, as a group, you’ll leave the confines of the bus and enter, firstly, a graveyard and a ruined chapel and, secondly, the grounds of a larger church. Both of these stops last for around twenty minutes and have a more traditional ‘Ghost Walk’ feel to them with the retelling of these tales done on location.
All in all I enjoyed The Dublin Ghost Bus Tour. I often go on a ghost walk/​bus ride when on holiday and this was a good one (believing the stories isn’t important, it’s all about the entertainment). This is on the expensive side though (€ 28, I think), so as well as deciding if a ghost tour is something you might want to do you should also consider if a macabre bus ride is worth so many of your hard earned Euros.
TTFN,
Ian

Looking at the reviews, this tour seems to have a love or hate effect. I’m definitely in the «thumbs up» camp. Went with Vinnie and driver Francis and had a great time. I thought Vinnie was a brilliantly entertaining storyteller. He made it for me. If you take your ghosts too seriously (!), maybe this isn’t for you. It’s a bit of craic — exactly what you’d expect from a Dublin tour. I loved the bit in the Christchurch crypt, which was genuinely creepy in moments. But I went more for a laugh than a scare.

Really enjoyed this two hour tour on the Ghostbus. I’ve wanted to do it for a long time but just hadn’t got around to it. The tour is a theatrical style tour with a brilliant actor. The tour is a perfect mix of story-​telling, scariness, and is really informative aswell! I really like the two stops you get on the tour– loved the walk around St. Kevin’s Church and visiting the crypts in Christ Church Cathedral. Learned lots about Dublin that I hadn’t a clue of before the tour!
We booked tickets on
, it’s € 22:40 online AND we got a free Pat Liddy Walking Tour worth € 10, which we took the following day! Great alternative night out in Dublin.

Let’s just say too theatrical and not enough seriousness to enjoy. I’ve been to great shows in New Orleans and China town and okay ones in Hawaii but while this one in Ireland uses great locales (cemeteries, crypts, churches, etc.) The content is too playful and corny. It’s too bad though because there is so much history to use in the presentation.

The most entertainment we had on this tour was watching a drunk guy walk over O Connell St bridge, slapstick comedy he was, but I digress.
But the tour was not value for money at all. Unless we were at one of the stops, we were asked not to peek out the windows and to keep the curtains drawn.
As for the stops and the stories, I couldn’t tell you what they were about.
The guide, bless him, could talk for hours. I honestly don’t know how he keeps his enthusiasm for every tour!
My advice is to save your money for something else.

Was it cheesy? Ohmigod you bet.
Was it a good way to see the city? Not at all, there were curtains involved.
Would it be a pretty stellar time if totally drunk and with a big group? You bet.
The late daylight hours and soberness of my crew weren’t giving the tour any favors, but that being said I really don’t think I’d recommend it. Our guide was 90% lame and the other 10% didn’t come till the end of the tour when we were leaving early to hit up a pub. Come with little kids or the severely intoxicated around Halloween for a decent couple hours, but otherwise I’d avoid.

Boo!
God I’m funny.
So apparently there is something wrong with me as I am going against the tide of popularity with this tour.
I really thought it was awful value for money. An amateur cheesy tour that could be so much better. All is needed is a bit more imagination and props that don’t come from the euro value shop.
At one point when we went in a grave a furry head of a gorilla swung ‘scarily’ down from the archway… It was a rather pathetic sight.
I got sick of them telling us to take pictures of nothing so that we could see the ‘globes’. Please give me a break.
Admittedly there was tourists that got really into it and then there was tourists and locals like me who just frowned in disbelief at getting ripped off.
To be fair, the tour guide had moments where he held my attention, that was when he shunned the cheesy slap schtick comedy and was serious but those moments were few and far between.
I thought that because I did it during the height of summer maybe the bright evening took away from the fright… Apparently not, as other friends have done it in the winter and reported the same disappointment… But again it seems like I am an oddity compared to all the 5 star reviews.

This tour was four stars fun! It was a great introduction to Dublin’s haunted sites plus our tour guide was very entertaining (Very flamboyant and totally hilarious). The stories were so interesting and came with a lot of tidbits of this city’s history. I went on this tour in October, so it was nice and chilly outside. I was instantly excited when I went on the bus because the creepy music was playing. The downstairs was also dark, and the windows were all blacked out. To add to the spookiness, it was the night of Hollow’s Eve. Fun! On the journey, you only get off the bus at two stops and then you go on a walking tour. One was at St. Kevin’s Graveyard where he told us stories about body snatching. The next stop felt like there was a presence here that I couldn’t explain. Maybe it was the quiet, eerie silence, the misty weather and the gnarly looking trees. We went through the haunted steps and some old buildings. The tour wasn’t very scary at all because our guide kept making us laugh to lighten up the mood. I did learn a lot about Dublin’s Ghost history as well as having a laugh. On the way, he points out some major attractions, like the cathedrals. A few things that I would like to point out though is, If you don’t like being picked on or are looking for a seriously scary tour, then this is probably not for you. Personally, I thought it lightened up the mood as I’m sure we were all surprised when he started jumping up on people. Also when the lights went out on the bus, he started throwing water over us. But the highlight of the tour was the two drunk hecklers inside the bus. They were trying to ruin the good vibe in the bus, so the tour guide finally kicked them out. Good riddance!

The only problem with this tour is how long it took me to review it. We went on the day AFTER Halloween, because it was booked for that evening, so we had to settle for the Sunday evening tour.
This was a great tour with good atmosphere and fun stories about the various ghosts and goblins of Dublin’s city, and it wasn’t overly dramatized, like another tour I took that weekend. The guide was very knowledgable, and the audience was fully engaged the whole time, with audience-​participation activities like the name-​that-​tune for horror movie soundtracks.
The bus is tricked out with black black-​out curtains and just enough haunted-​house décor to do the trick without being too over the top, and the guide, suitable dressed in basic black, did a good job of telling the stories about the area, and was particularly good while taking us off the bus at St. Kevin’s park (Complete with the haunted ruins of a chapel) and teaching us body snatching techniques.
We were also off the bus near the end at the 40 Steps just inside the old city walls where we looked for the ghost of Darkie Kelly searching for her lost child. Lots of opportunities to take pictures, look for scary images, and ask questions.
There was a suitable level of campiness, with a staffer letting out a blood curdling scream while hiding just out of sight at St. Kevins, and a costumed Darkie Kelly moving through the crowd at the 40 Steps. But I didn’t feel it was over done, in fact, it was just clever enough to put a litle edge on the night. At one point in St. Kevins, my wife said to me «I know who screamed, but what’s over THERE!!!», pointing at a mysterious shadow that neither of us cared to investigate, then we hustled to form back up with the group.
The bus could have done with an upgrade to the speakers for the soundsystem, there was a fairly tinny hiss the whole time the guide was talking and the remote controlled Ipod that provided the soundtrack could have been a little smoother in changing from track to track, but that’s about all I would change about the experience.
Bottom line: if you like ghost stories and don’t mind a little camp, this is a must-​do while you’re in Dublin. Also, if you have several options for ghostly tour bus experiences, this is the best value for the money.

I had a great All Hallows’ Eve, not spent with the fine folks at the Dublin Ghost Tour (DGT), but a good time nonetheless. Should one spend Halloween Eve at the on the Ghost Tour? No, probably not. However, it would be a fine way to pass a few hours on All Saints Day-​Eve, or in my pueblo which is significantly nearer the Mexican border, Dia de los Muertos (and that strikes me as very cross-​culturally appropriate pairing).
The DGT is 2 hours of campy fun. It is not scary but it is informative and entertaining, with a heavy dose of cheese. Although it would be best experienced by tweens or teens, the tour provides enough entertainment and historical ghastliness for the entire family. One rides in a double decker bus, with velvet curtain-​lined windows and sees/​learns of the resurrectionists engaged in body snatching, Draculian bachelor pads, mobilization of lepers, the Walking Gallows in addition to other local macabre tales. For me, the scariest part was walking down the haunted steps in pitch-​black, thinking that I might any any point in time take a tumble and some how end up as part of the tour-​narrative.
My favorite parts of the tour were the moments when the audience got to shout out answers to trivia. Did you know that an Irishman wrote the second most popular book ever sold (can you guess which one it was and who are the others on the top three)? To further add to my amusement, the tour guide choose an audience member (the ~40 year old woman seated in front of us) at random to answer a list of questions related to horror movies. Much to his surprise, this woman had never before seen a movie. Although she was from a modern, English speaking country (New Zealand), she had neither grasp on nor mastery over cinema references, let alone a genre as specific as horror or suspense. So, the guide would pose a question to her, I would lean forward and whisper an answer, and she would parrot back what I had said. At one point in time, during our exchange, she actually said under her breath, «hmmm…Hitchock, his name sounds familiar.» I found that exchange fascinating and after some consideration, rather mind blowing. How could one live forty something years without ever hearing of of Alfred Hitcock… or in her case, Jaws?! It boggles the mind.
Overall, the tour is a bit pricey at 25 Euro a head (tip: book online and you can save up to 20%!) but, they were monies spent un-​begrudgingly (which for me is a feat of some significance).

If I could, I’d seriously give this tour no stars! I thought it was horrible. It was neither scary nor funny! First off, when we got on the bus, they were playing Paramore. I don’t know if this was supposed to scare us, but I felt like I was trapped in a Hot Topic store!
The «scary» stops the bus made were just plain stupid. They took us to a small graveyard in a residential area where the tour had already planted some cheap, tacky props. Next, we went to a church and were told to take some pictures on our camera to see «paranormal activity» in the form of fuzzy bubbles of light and ghostly images. No paranormal activity in my pictures, just used needles and condoms. Gross! Going to a sketchy church laden with used drug paraphernalia was probably scarier than the tour itself.
To top it all off, the tour guide told the worst tales in an even further attempt to scare us. He made us close our eyes and then proceeded to squirt us with his sports drink, which left a sticky film on our skin. Needless to say, this was the biggest waste of money. I was thoroughly disappointed.

The Ghost bus Tour is the worlds oldest ghost bus! This tour introduces you to the dark romance or a city of gaslight ghosts and haunting and chilling legends.
To be honest it doesn’t really matter where this bus takes you as it is the tour guide and his commentary and stories that make this tour really special, cool and memorable!

Great craic, and surprisingly informative. Going around all the forgotten scary bits of Dublins past; like Kevins Park or the Gates of Hell at the Forty Steps. Not really scary, unless like me, you have to walk through these places late at night on a regular basis.
But who wants to be scared anyway? This tour is hillarious!

My ma came to visit so I took her on the Ghost Bus Tour for a laugh a little lesson on some local haunted history.
Our tour guide was absolutely hilarious… best laugh was when he thought we were on Dame Street but had us open the windows and we were stuck in traffic on the O’Connell bridge and he made a crack about the terrifying traffic in the city (maybe you had to be there), as well he took the piss out of some very reactive girls the whole time.
With stories of resurrectors bringing bodies to the College of Surgeons and going to St Kevin’s graveyard and St Patricks, the tour ends at the haunted steps which is a creepy part of the tour. Very entertaining, I would even do it again if I was looking for a laugh one night.

The world’s only ghost bus tour is a mobile theatre that takes it’s passenger on a tour of Dublin as the story teller weaves tales of fellons, fiends and phantoms. It’s a pretty odd concept. I went as part of a work christmas party last year and it was pretty funny, although not in the least bit scary. To make this work, you’ll need to be with a well oiled group, including some characters — the tour is best when there’s interaction between the passengers and story teller. The horror stories aren’t that horrible, or interesting. A lot of the tour involved the story teller theatrically running up and down the bus and siaying ‘boo’ to unexpecting passengers. It’s funny the first time but can get a bit tiring. The fact that ‘Dracula’ author Bram Stoker was born in Dublin is constantly reiterated. Certainly good for a laugh and perfect for something like a birthday party or work outing.