Some historical sights include a complimentary guided tour in the price of admission (Edinburgh Castle, Tower of London, Castillo De San Marcos, Ernest Hemingway Home), while others require a separate charge (Louvre). If your planning on visiting a site and have your heart set on a guided tour, make sure you check first to see if one is included. Most historical sites also include a self guided option or the ability to rent an audio guide, connected to location sensors that will relay information as you approach items/paintings. Audio guides tend to also require an additional charge, but not always. Make sure to check the website or brochure to find out what is included with admission.
Ghost walk versus Historical/haunted/macabre walk
There is a vast distinction between "Ghost" walks and the more historical haunting/macabre story walks. The ghost walks tend to focus on the existence of ghosts and other spiritual phenomena and encourage the capture of entities using your cameras. The historical haunting/macabre tours trend more towards relaying the gruesome history of a locale, leaving the possibility of haunting or existence of ghosts up to the observer. Often times, the tour guide may dress in garb and speak in a manner reflective of the time period they are trying to portray.
It can often be difficult to distinguish between the two types of tours from promotional/websites alone, instead the content of the tour can be determined by reading reviews of the tour. I've taken both types and definitely enjoy learning more about the historical side than listening to an argument regarding the presence of ghosts or seeing "staged" ghosts. On one such ghost tour, more than 50% of the time was spent taking pictures of haunted sites and analyzing if our pictures contained any energy balls. This was not fun to me, but it may be to you so choose accordingly.
When looking for tours, keep in mind the old addage "there is no such thing as a free lunch..." The same holds true for tours, while they may be advertised as a free, you will be pressured into tipping. In some cases, the guide may need to actually "pay" for you out of their tips, because their sponsering group will charge them a fee based on how many people signed up. That being said, free does not mean bad either. Some of the best tours I have taken were free tours, where the guide gave us a shpeel at the end with recommended tip amounts and the sale of a brochure or book. Also keep in mind, just because you pre-paid for a tour does not me you will not be hit up for a tip at the end. My recommendation is the same as all other tours, do your research first and you will end up with a more enjoyable experience.
So how do you go about finding tours for the cities/areas you will be visiting? As with most my recommendations, online. If you enter "guided tour," "ghost walk," or "history walk," plus the name of the city into a search engine, you should end up with quite a few options. Another strategy is to check on Viator, which also includes some reviews. Since Viator is a bulk tour consolidator I also like to try to cost compare, so I use a search engine to find companies directly and see what their rates are and if they offer any discounts (students, youth, senior, etc...). Many cities/areas of interest also have tourism sites that will link you to tours and activities. These websites can provide a plethora of information, when it comes to lodgings/accommodations, food, and sites.
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