LowCountryIslander

I'm going to NOLA in 3 weeks and have started looking into a couple walking tours. I'm most interested in a Garden District tour and possibly a Cemetery tour.

I came across several tour companies and the 2 that I'm interested in are Haunted Historic Tours and Historic New Orleans Tours. When I checked trip advisor the recent reviews for Haunted Historic Tours were overwhelmingly bad. There was only one recent (and that was from Jan. 2009) for Historic New Orleans tours. The prices are comparable but it seems like the guides for the "haunted" tour company are mediocre to bad. The other company had good reviews, although they were older posts.

Has anyone here used either of these tour companies and if so, what was your experience...good? bad? Would you recommend them and why?

Thanks!

ccolor

I can't help you with your question about walking tours, but can give you something to consider about your other plans. You might want to just take a streetcar ride through the Garden District - not only do you see plenty of wonderful houses, it's fun to ride the streetcars and only costs $1.25 each way. As for the cemetery tour - Gray Line tours offer a city tour that has a short stop at a cemetery. You can learn a lot of information about the city and still stop to see the tombs.
Enjoy the city!

uptowngirl2418

My friend and I took a cemetery tour with Haunted History Tours in September. Our guide, Ernie, was excellent. He was funny, interesting and well informed.

This company also offers a Garden District Tour.

LowCountryIslander

ccolor...thanks for the tip. My mom, who I am traveling with, has done the streetcar ride through the Garden District, so I thought it might be nice to do a tour and get some of the history behind that area.

uptowngirl...thanks...I think I read your trip report and based on what you had mentioned about the guide I thought it was a good choice, but then I started reading the reviews on trip advisor about that tour company. I know to take those reviews with a "grain of salt", and it helps to have your first hand experience! I guess it's just the luck of the draw with the guide that works each tour.

november_moon

We've taken two tours with the Historic New Orleans Walking Co - the Cemetery/Voodoo tour and the French Quarter tour. Both were great. The guides really knew their stuff and were great story tellers - we got a combo of history, legend, and tall tales. Each tour lasted a couple hours.

New Orleans is best seen on foot as far as I am concerned, so I definitely recommend taking a walking tour of some sort - whether guided or self-guided. The city is just so rich with detail that you miss a lot in a car or coach.