Want to experience these haunted sites up close instead of just reading about them? Join our Haunted Pub Crawl in the French Quarter and hear the stories where they actually happened, drink in hand.
The Most Haunted Places in New Orleans
New Orleans is the most haunted city in America — and it earns the title. Beneath the jazz, the beignets, and the neon glow of Bourbon Street lies three centuries of yellow fever, fires, duels, voodoo, and violence, and the city’s oldest neighborhood is said to be crowded with the spirits left behind. Come fall, when the nights cool and the fog rolls off the river, the French Quarter feels less like a party and more like a séance.
If you want to meet the ghosts of New Orleans, start here. These are the eight most haunted places in the city — the real buildings where the horrors happened. Several are stops on our Haunted Pub Crawl, so you can hear the stories with a drink in your hand and a licensed local guide doing the talking.
Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop
Built around 1722, Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop is one of the oldest structures used as a bar in the United States — and one of the most haunted. Legend ties it to the pirate Jean Lafitte, whose spirit is said to linger near the fireplace, watching over rumored buried treasure. Patrons report disembodied eyes glinting in dark corners, candles that relight themselves, and a sudden chill that has nothing to do with the drinks. You’ll visit Lafitte’s on our Haunted Pub Crawl — the halfway stop, and one of the eeriest bars in the country.
The LaLaurie Mansion
Perhaps the single most infamous address in New Orleans, the LaLaurie Mansion on Royal Street was home to socialite Madame Delphine LaLaurie — until an 1834 fire exposed the horrors she’d inflicted on the enslaved people trapped inside. The discovery drove a mob to her door and Madame LaLaurie out of the city. The mansion later became a centerpiece of American Horror Story: Coven, and actor Nicolas Cage once owned it before, arguably, losing his fortune and his footing. The LaLaurie Mansion is a featured stop on the Haunted Pub Crawl.
St. Louis Cemetery No. 1
Opened in 1789, St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 is the oldest cemetery in New Orleans and the model for the city’s famous “Cities of the Dead,” where a high water table forces above-ground burial in stone tombs. It’s the reputed resting place of Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau, whose tomb still draws offerings and “XXX” wish marks. Visitors report cold spots, whispers, and figures that vanish between the vaults.
The Beauregard-Keyes House
This stately 1826 mansion once housed Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard, and locals swear he never fully left. The most famous haunting is a phantom reenactment of the Battle of Shiloh — spectral soldiers said to materialize in the ballroom in the dead of night, the room filling with the sounds and smells of a battle that ended over a century ago.
The Old Ursuline Convent
The oldest surviving building in the Mississippi Valley, the Old Ursuline Convent is ground zero for New Orleans’ enduring vampire legend. In the 1720s, the Ursuline nuns escorted young French brides — the “Casket Girls,” named for the casket-shaped chests they carried — across the Atlantic. When some arrived pale and sickly, whispers of vampirism spread, and to this day the convent’s third-floor shutters are said to be sealed with blessed nails.
The Saint Germain House
Royal Street is home to the legend of Jacques Saint Germain, a charming 19th-century aristocrat rumored to be the centuries-old Comte de Saint Germain — and a vampire. The tale took hold after a woman leapt from his balcony to escape him, claiming he’d tried to bite her throat. Saint Germain vanished before police arrived, leaving behind a home with no food in the pantry — only bottles of wine mixed, it’s said, with blood.
The Sultan's Palace
The Gardette-LePrete House on Dauphine Street hides one of the Quarter’s grisliest legends. As the story goes, a mysterious man calling himself a “sultan” filled the mansion with wealth and excess — until one morning the residents were found slaughtered and the sultan himself discovered buried alive in the courtyard. Neighbors still report screams, the scent of incense, and faint music drifting from the empty rooms.
The Bourbon Orleans Hotel
Once the grand Orleans Ballroom and later a convent and orphanage, the Bourbon Orleans Hotel is one of the most actively haunted hotels in the city. Guests and staff report a lonely ghostly dancer beneath the ballroom chandelier, a Confederate soldier roaming the halls, and — most heartbreakingly — the laughter and footsteps of children who died in a 19th-century yellow fever epidemic, still playing on the sixth floor.
Whether you are a believer, skeptic, or just looking for a unique way to explore New Orleans, these haunted places will give you plenty to think about long after the night ends. Reading about them is one thing, but walking the streets and stepping inside the bars is another experience altogether. Our Haunted Pub Crawl brings the history and the hauntings to life in a way you cannot get anywhere else. Tours fill quickly in October, so secure your spot now and see the haunted side of New Orleans for yourself.
What are the Most Haunted Places in New Orleans?
- Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop
- Lalaurie Mansion
- Saint Louis Cemetery #1
- Beauregard-Keyes House
- Ursuline Convent
- Saint Germain House
- Sultan’s Palace
- Bourbon Orleans Hotel
The LaLaurie Mansion is widely considered the most haunted place in New Orleans, thanks to the real horrors uncovered there in 1834 and its fame from American Horror Story. You can see it on the Haunted Pub Crawl.
New Orleans’ reputation as the most haunted city in America comes from a genuinely dark history — epidemics, fires, slavery, and duels — layered over its voodoo and Catholic traditions. Believe in ghosts or not, the history behind the hauntings is very real.
The best way to experience haunted New Orleans is with a licensed local guide who knows the real stories. The Haunted Pub Crawl takes you through the most haunted bars and buildings in the French Quarter — with a drink in hand along the way.
Fall — especially October — is peak season, with cooler nights and a Halloween atmosphere the city leans all the way into. Tours book up fast, so reserve early.