San Diego Ghost Tours

We went on this tour last night. While I don’t really watch or had interest in ghost hunting, my wife has always been fascinated. She was so excited to go on this tour but she was also pretty nervous. Michael did a great job in reasssuring her everything would be fine. We had a private tour of 4. The rain added to the experience and all 4 of us had a great time. My wife and brother in law heard someone breathing while sitting at the table at the Cosmo Hotel. Creepy! Was a great way to end our San Diego getaway. Give it a try. I did and loved it! Happy Hautning!!!

Private tour was really cool. All six of us experienced activity. Worth the money and time. Got to feel and hear unexplainable things. The activity in the cosmopolitan hotel was that most intense. Vortexes at the Whaley house were felt as well.

My husband and I just got home from our tour & it was pretty great! We have taken tours before in several states as we move about but this was our first experience with EMF meters & we had a lot of luck. I’m not one to draw attention to myself or make a big fuss but I was definitely feeling ‘odd’ after being at the Cosmopolitan. I had to close my eyes and hold my breath as I had a major hot flash and felt as if I was going to throw up. After that sensation I just kept feeling things on the back of my neck and head. Coincidence? Who knows but it was a lot of fun. I would recommend this tour to anyone looking for something real & not theatrical. Nothing is forced & you aren’t being persuaded in anyway.
At the end I was asked about my grandfather, my anxiety kicked in and I didn’t ask him (our guide) to elaborate and now I wish I would have! Either way, take this tour!

I did this tour with a group of friends, and it was amazing. We all had so much fun, and learned a lot of history, and we were intrigued by Michael’s encounters/​experiences.
It was not CORNY OR TACKY. It was just scary enough… Good for kids too! We had a 9 year old in our bunch! (He is a little brave though).. .
My friends and I, all recommend this ghost tour!

Long time San Diego visitor, first time on a ghost tour. Michael was professional and knowledgeable. He shared his experiences and gave much insight about the history of San Diego. All 7 of us both mixed believers about the reality of ghosts enjoyed the experience. We would recommend him for anyone looking for a non fluffed time– he also shared pictures and video of phenomenal objects and possible people!

I agree with Viridiana P. bought the tickets had an appointment and he didn’t show up never answered his phone when my fríend called him and a group that was Also waiting called him and when he finally answered he was rude he said he was in a tour and hung up so i want a refund ir the damm tour.

Attended this tour yesterday and it was pretty awesome. My boyfriend and I love to visit haunted places like this and we enjoyed all the information he provided. He makes a point to ask you if you want to know more at each location so don’t feel like you aren’t getting alot. We also went into the Cosmopolitan Hotel and viewed some of his recordings and findings. Lastly, if you are a newbie to this kind of stuff and are looking for a cheap gimicky spook, DON’T come here.

My first experience ghost hunting in cosmopolitan hotel in old town, it was exciting, bit spooky at some points an very informational bout the history, this is a must tour that everyone should try!

Totally worth every penny! Had a great time and learned a lot. This guy knows his stuff and every time I go down to San Diego I will be doing this tour! Michael is very professional and has so much experience and knowledge.

Great fun! Lots of interesting history and facts. Michael was very informative. We learned about the paranormal and felt a vortex! Very interactive!

I guess I do not know much about ghost tours, but I thought I would get to learn a little bit of history and hear horror stories. I tagged along with some work colleagues so didn’t really look into what would be in this ghost tour. It is essentially a guy who is a ghost hunter telling you where he walked and where he saw ghosts. There was a teeny bit of history when we walk by the cemetery and whaley house. At the end of the tour, he shows some pictures of orbs and some sounds that he captured. Overall, I was not a fan and this was really not for me.

If you love theatrics and TV-​esque paranormal researching, this is NOT the tour for you. If you are genuinely interested in the history of Old Town and real experiences, this IS the tour for you!
I thoroughly enjoyed Michael’s tour! He was extremely informative about the history of each location we visited and shared BOTH his personal stories and those of the people who work at each location.
He doesn’t claim to be a big-​shot ghost hunter nor does he boast about his experiences. He is genuinely passionate about paranormal research and openly admitted to everyone at the beginning of the tour that we would most likely NOT see a ghost during the tour because the experiences are very rare.
By sharing his personal experiences, it gave us insight into just how patient you must be in order to actually experience something over a period of time.
During MY TOUR, we actually DID EXPERIENCE paranormal activity. Towards the end of the tour, we went to the Cosmopolitan and walked around. It was quiet because they were closing up for the night. We went into the dining room and about 6 of us remained at the beginning of it, where the fireplace was. The six of us saw the door in the small corridor between the entrance and the dining room open and close on it’s own! One gentleman ran to the door and opened it to find no one there. Then we all heard creaking above us as if someone was pacing.
Michael didn’t try to discredit nor push that it was paranormal activity but did let us know which rooms upstairs are the most haunted.
We visited many locations around Old Town and were told of several other places (which I later visited) that Michael had spent time investigating.
The «vortex» that is listed on his site and that is mentioned is very real. There are actually many of them on the Whaley House property and we didn’t even need his instrument (which he showed all of us how to use and it’s not like they do on tv, they do it wrong!), to actually feel the energy change.
OVERALL, Michael did a wonderful job. We actually passed another popular San Diego Ghost tour that had a fancy van to go with it, but the poor man only had four people with him (we had about 30 in our group). What I appreciated most was that Michael didn’t try to be theatrical nor church anything up. He was a great tour guide and encouraged us to ask questions. He allowed us to spend some time wandering the locations a bit before jumping into his stories/​employee stories/​factual history of each location. He really wanted us to learn and experience instead of just trying to be scared.
TAKE THIS TOUR! You’ll learn a lot of fascinating material and you might even have a few unexplained experiences like our group did.

I am seeing so many negative comments on here and I just am wondering if they all were on the same adventure that we went on because I have one word… AWESOME!!! There were four of us in my group my mother my daughter and her friend, and I would highly recommend this to anybody that shares this interest we learned a lot and Michael was beyond nice and knew what he was talking about he made our experience wonderful, in fact we want to go back for the extended tour that starts at 11 p.m. Thank you Michael we had a great time!

Did this tour on a previous trip to San Diego and found it to be informative and fun. Lots of interesting history and the guides own personal experiences in all the years he has done ghost hunting. Not the typical Ghost and Gravestones tour, this was a little more personal and intimate as it was only 4 of use when we went.

Overall, a boring tour.
Pros:
— Enter Cosmopolitan Hotel and spend a bit of time exploring
— Wander outside Whaley House in search of vortex
Cons:
— No history of Old Town. This is a such a richly historical area, and to spend so little time discussing either fun and spooky stories is a disservice to the park.
— Over-​priced for what you get; walking around Old Town visiting spots that the guide has had «experiences», and 10 minutes of looking at pictures of orbs on a TV and listening to EVPs that he may have captured.
— Tour has no limit to the amount of people who could participate, upwards of 80 people, for example.
Depending on what you want out of a ghost tour, you may be happy. I was hoping to hear some stories of why a place may be haunted, not solely about the guides own experiences.

I went on this tour not to long ago and must say this guy is full of ****. I have been on many ghost tours all around the US and this has got to be the worst I have been on. Do the research, save some money and tour old town San Diego your self. Everything he talks about is in books of OTSD that you can buy at a shop by the Whaley house. One more thing, he said he’s the only one able to tour some of the places there, well he was dead wrong «no pun intended lol» my wife and myself had privite tours in many of the buildings in OTSD you either make a donation or just go in and talk to some people wherever u want to go.

Extremely disappointed. My husband and I decided to gear our anniversary trip around going on the San Diego Ghost Tour. On August 24^th I contacted Michael through e-​mail to assure we had a spot in the 11 PM tour:
(my original e-​mail)
«Hi Michael,
I have been trying to purchase tickets for your 11 PM tour. The only dates that come up are Aug 29 and 30^th which your website says that there are no tours on those dates. I have booked a room at the Cosmo for my anniversary with the purpose of taking your evening tour. I would like to purchase 2 tickets for Aug 28^th OR if not available then Aug 27^th.
Michael confirmed that no reservation was needed through his reply:
«Aug 28^th is open just show up by 1045 pm.»
The day of the tour there was a sign up on this billboard stating that there were no tours being held. I called the number listed for Michael and his voice mail recording stated that the date was August 27^th and that he is not holding any 11 PM tours as he is now on his winter schedule. I then proceeded to e-​mail him as he directly confirmed with me 4 days prior:
(my e-​mail)
«So. … approx 6 hours of driving and 500.00 in hotels, gas, food, etc with the focus of doing your ghost tour PER YOUR REPLY THAT THE 28TH IS A GO just to find out the day of that you’ve canceled them, is really messed up.
Michael’s email response:
«I am sorry but I fell off my roof while fixing some tiles. I am not going to be able to do any tours for a while
I am sorry»
Now, I don’t like hearing about people getting hurt but I find it funny (NOT) that his voice mail recording was dated for the previous day and the cancelation of tours was done that day. I witnessed Michael doing his 9:00 PM tour on the 27^th… so according to the date on his voice message he must have gone home and around 11PM decided to do roof repairs and fell??? C’mon…Really???
This trip cost us a lot of money between time off work, car rental, hotel accommodations, food, etc. Michael was successful in ruining our anniversary trip. There are many other places that we could have gone instead. I will visit old town San Diego again but MICHAEL, San Diego Ghost Tours will be far from any plans we make.

Lame! Best way to describe this Ghost Tour. I’ve been on a few others and knowing they are cheesy is half the fun. The Ghost Tour that I went on when I lived on Oahu was so much better than this one… despite the cheese.
The guide seemed like a serious former/​current military person who came across as knowledgeable… but unbelievable. I seriously doubt he did the stuff he claimed he did to ‘catch’ ghost/​orb sitings. I kept saying to myself: Really?
I have to agree with everything that Angela R. said in her review. Glad I bought the tickets from LivingSocial and not full price. I am also glad there wasn’t a ‘natural progression’ to tip the dude. After showing his lame pictures with the 3-​D glasses, we were able to just get up and walk out… and walk we did. I won’t waste another guest of mine’s time. 90 minutes of wasted time… even getting a Pineapple Chile Shot before the tour didn’t help. My friend took my photo with the head in a jar at the Cosmopolitan Hotel… and that was the highlight of the evening :-)

DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS TOUR!
We met our tour guide Michael in front of a water fountain. The «tour» consisted of us following him around & stopping every 2 – 5 minutes to discuss his «encounters.» He would begin by saying «One time I was sitting here & thought I heard/​saw…» At the end of the tour we sat on some old rickety benches while he wheeled out a tv & other equipment & passed out 3D glasses (that he probably got from a movie theater). He showed us some pictures with spots that were obviously from a camera flash which he claimed were ghosts. At this point we were falling asleep.
Not worth the $ 19!

I think I give pretty fair and impartial comments and say what I think and feel despite other comments. That being said:
I highly recommend this tour. Totally worth the price. I got some exercise, learned local history, learned some paranormal investigating techniques and experienced some interesting stuff. Why?
I took this tour with my daughter and her friend and their family. We are big Ghost Adventure, Ghost Hunters and yadda yadda yadda fans. They done their own ghost hunting tours at the Stanley Hotel and Moundsville Penitentiary. So, I think our bar was set pretty high. I think I am a skeptic believer (I disprove, rather than readily accept) and I am VERY wary of «charlatan snake oil dealers.»
We loved the tour! One lady took a series of photos (3 consecutively) and two had anomalies. Another lady’s cell phone camera began acting up. It’s display started jilting and shaking as if she was running but she was standing still. Michael used his K-​2 meter and found fluctuations in electromagnetic fields. The tour was pretty hands on. At the end, we got to get personal with an «entity.» Obviously, I don’t know what it was but when the air feels electrical (like that static from the TV screen or like licking a 9-​volt battery but with your fingers) and no where else, it is interesting.
If you watch any of the shows or what ever, you know not always you get something or not everyone experiences the same thing. I walked into the tour not knowing what to expect (actually, I was expecting a side show with no action). I did not take any ghost pictures or hear any voices or see things (other than feeling the weird electric spots in the air).
Michael was informative. He has his tour script, but if you want to know more, just ask him. He’ll let you. I liked him. You have to think about something, those who dabble with spirits or dead things are different. I don’t expect a mortician to be all smiley and hugs. I don’t expect the same from ghost hunters either. Heck, Zak Bagans is a little off too. So, that being said, I thing it was spot on and it was educational. I really enjoyed the pictures, the video and electronic voice phenomenon (EVPS) he had. Again, I highly recommend this tour!