San Francisco Ghost Hunt Walking Tour

I read the negative reviews and it just gets me thinking, «oh, the entitlement generation. The technology generation. If an experience doesn’t have a ton of whizz-​bang light & sound-​effects, they just can’t even connect, let alone relate or enjoy.» And it’s very, very sad. Storytelling has become something of a lost art in our society. But kudos to Jim for doing his part to try and keep it alive! And really, what can you do? Haters gonna hate. But the majority of his reviews are quite good, and those are the ones you should trust.
I found Jim very personable, charismatic, articulate and enjoyable. The Queen Anne Hotel was beautiful; after exploring it, I’m racking my brain to find a suitable occasion to justify booking a room there in the near future! As I stepped from the top of the staircase onto the second floor landing, I passed through a cold spot and broke out in chills all over my body. Authentic paranormal experience, or just suggestivity at work? I don’t know, but whatever it was, it was cool! (No pun intended, haha)
The walking tour of the neighborhood was nice too. More ghost stories and some San Francisco history/​trivia and anecdotes thrown in. I mean, look at this guy — who wouldn’t want to follow him around SF after dark and hear ghost stories for a couple of hours? (Answer: only people who get withdrawal from prying their eyes off their cell phone screens for more than 15 minutes.) My companion and I had a really nice time.
And the price? Come on, it costs six dang dollars just to cross the dang bridge — $ 20 is not unreasonable for 3 hours of entertainment in The City. Totally worth it IMHO. I absolutely recommend the tour!

So much fun!!! Worth the $ 20, funny, a little cheesy but in the best and most appropriate way. History of all the stories so fun!

We started by going to the Queen Anne Hotel, which many ppl mention was the only interesting part of the tour. After waiting for a while in the dining hall for the tour to begin. We started with intros, etc. Then a brief history of the hotel, but 45 minutes into it my husband and I started to exchange looks because we were sitting and getting extremely bored with the tangent the tour guide was going on. Then after IDK like an hour some minutes he told us to explore on our own. OK, fine, didn’t see or hear anything obviously but after 30 minutes there’s only so much you can do when you’re not even allowed to have any tea or water from the lobby, and felt like a privilege to even use the restroom before we went outside. The rest of the tour consisted of random real estate facts, possible haunted homes which you better not take a picture of at night with flash because they’ll call the cops on you. You walk around in a small square route stopping after a block to hear him talk about something random and a story that’s supposed to be scary. Then after 20 mins of talking about a random looking property, the key comes out, a trick key that turns on its own. Ugh… I was chilly, felt a cold coming on and was close to leaving the tour because it started feeling like a chore to complete. I tried to keep my spirits up because I didn’t want my husband to have a bad time but I think by the end of it everyone was bored out of their mind. The best part was when it was over! I have been on many ghost tours now: Florida, Texas, and New Orleans. They all were different but each had something unique about it, either the guide was excellent n passionate, or they’d take you into a building and give you an E-​meter, or be full of interesting historical facts that would make you view the city differently. This tour offered nothing, except regret because I had to turn over my hard earned cash to a guy who obviously didn’t care to be there, with nothing interesting to say, and just wanted to do this gig and go home. Word of advice, just rent a horror movie instead if you’re in SF.

The perfect Halloween night activity! Come with an open mind and a sense of humor. While some suggest that this is corny and most demonstrations are magic tricks rather than the supernatural (I’m not actually sure myself), it was a lot of fun and pretty informative. I’ve always been a history buff so I enjoyed learning more about some of San Francisco’s oldest buildings and the people that used to live there. I also believe in ghosts and am super interested in paranormal activities so I was pretty eager to stay at the front of the group and hear everything (there was a pretty large group on Halloween, as expected). I volunteered to do a demonstration with a haunted key that was supposed to turn on it’s own — and low and behold it turned right in my hand! I’m a believer, but I was slightly skeptical since I’m pretty sure you can buy similar items at any magic shop. Regardless of the validity of these tricks, Jim is awesome! You can tell how passionate he is and how much he loves his job. He really knows what he is talking about and it was awesome to pick his brain. I definitely recommend this tour for anyone who loves history and the paranormal!

So you like the mystery channel? Love the supernatural? You love’d scoopy doo? You have a very open mind of the possibility of ghosts? You Love SF and don’t mind being on your feet for a few hours? Want to lear a tiny bit of history of Pacific Heights? Then this is the place for you, You will love meeting with the host of this ghost tour, meeting up at the Queen Anne Hotel in SF, gives a nice history of the former owners of a few of the most historic of real estate, as was as stories of ghost siteings and experiences. As far as a bucket list type thing, it’s fun, nice and entertaining, bring your camera if you like. For me though personally, I am not into ghost stories much, but he did do a great job keeping me interested for the most part,

The tour guide was very knowledgeable and even knew a few magic tricks. One of the better ghost tours that I’ve been on due to the fact that he was so knowledgeable and a great storyteller. The only thing that I would liked better is if we could go into the actual locations instead of standing outside of them. Other than that, I had a great time!

Great tour. WELL worth the price. Suggest for anyone interested in paranormal and historic values. Jim is great. Will do it again. BRING a dIGITAl camera. A great walk and the queen anne hotel is very cool. Give it a go if you are into paranormal or need something to do on a wednesday night in SF

I loved this tour. I’m not from the area and I really enjoyed seeing the gorgeous houses and hearing about their history. The ghost stuff was an added bonus. Jim is great. He’s funny and very knowledgable about the paranormal. I also liked getting to explore the Queen Anne hotel. I don’t exactly believe on ghosts, but it was great to pretend for a while.

my friend and i tried to go on this tour just before Halloween 2012. the crowd was massive and we were all encouraged to return at another time when the crowds died down. we decided to bail and take Jim up on his offer of 25% off our return to the tour. flash forward a year (since we got busy and didn’t want to go during the summer when it’s light during the tour) and Jim waffled about the discount. really? i take people for their word and there was no verbal expiration on (or anything on his site about) the discount. i’m not impressed and i’m not giving him my money no matter how many of your rave about his tour. word of mouth is a powerful thing!!!

Jim is a vibrant personality supported by extensive research and a science background. Paranormal enthusiasts will enjoy his wealth of specialized knowledge and SF history fans (myself among them) will get granular insights into the eccentric personalities that once peopled Pacific Heights.
Take-​away: you don’t have to be a believer to enjoy the walk, but endeavor not to be a douche.
Well worth the $ 20 and mile-​long walk. Bring oh so many jackets.

The bf and I decided to do this for a fun evening tour. It was a great way to see and learn about some of the historic homes and mansions in the San Fran Pacific Heights area. The tour guide makes it a lot of fun and is very animated. Definitely worth the 20 bucks.
Take a jacket because it can get kinda chilly. No pun intended.

Good ghost tour. Lots of paranormal moments to thrill teens and make skeptical husband a bit of a believer. Queen Anne Hotel definitely spooky. Lots of historical context for sightings — inspired me to go home to do more reading about history of SF and some of the characters we encountered on our tour. Definitely worth it.

So much fun! Best part of our trip! Thank you!

Pretty silly, but for 20 bucks I’d say it’s worth doing once. Just exploring the Queen Anne was fun. The tour can be a little slow, so I definitely recommend some discreet sipping on a flask. Spirits for the spirits.

had so much fun on this ghost tour! we met at the queen anne hotel which was kinda spoooooky. good for setting the mood!
our group for the ghost tour was pretty small, less than 10 people so it was a nice experience. jim, the guide was very knowlegable about the places we walked to. he really knows how to tell the stories and get you into it. we even got to go into one of haunted rooms at the queen anne!
jim even gave us all a little souvenir glow-​in-​the-​dark ghost and some candy after the tour was over. the tour was fun and jim was one a really great tour guide. definitely recommended if you like ghost tours and dont mind a little walking =)

I love a good ghost tour and this one had so many great elements to it! The first element: we met at the Queen Anne hotel and actually got to poke around inside the hotel and inside one of the most haunted rooms. Next we got to try out ghost finding gadgets throughout the hotel.
From there, we began a walking tour through Pacific Heights with a lot of macabre stories about high society. The guide had a «haunted object» that moved on its own outside the house that connected to its story. The final story of the night was about a voodoo queen and still gives me the willies when I think about it (but I won’t ruin it for you.) The walk had some slight hills but it wasn’t challenging (compared to some of the other hills in town!)
The guide may look somewhat unconventional but then most of the ghost tours I’ve been on have been lead by people in costume. (Although he wasn’t in costume — that’s just how he dresses.) He was personable, knowledgable, and does a great job of making you feel entertained throughout the tour.

This is an entertaining way to spend three hours in San Francisco in a way you probably never had.
We started the day with my Favorite Relative, who has watched many of those paranormal cable TV shows, and thus has an interest in the paranormal. I guess her getting that free iPhone app that is called Ghost Radar also helped.
So we started out at Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park, because there is a ghost story associated there. But that is another review. So we followed up that with this tour the same evening, and let me tell you, it’s better than hiking around Stow Lake a few times.
Jim Fassbinder is the host, dressed in his 19^th century night watch man garb, which is a leather top hat and trench coat, with long grayish hair and glasses reminiscent of Ebineezer Scrooge.
The tour is every night except Tuesday, at 7pm, starting in the room behind the lobby of the beautifully restored Queen Ann hotel bed and breakfast. The tour is $ 20 for adults, half priced for kids, and children under 8 are not recommended. It is on rain or shine.
JIm has an entertaining style, with humor and dramatic pauses that he has honed over 12 years of creating and giving this tour.
It is a fascinating historical perspective of old San Francisco, and the key mysterious personalities that have somehow become ghosts, including in the Queen Ann hotel. He encourages pictures where it is allowed.
Someone in our group who had taken the tour before knew where to find a cold spot of a spirit, and captured an orb of it on her camera, which i saw! Cue Twilight Zone music!
You will learn some interesting facts about San Francisco, see some great Victorian architecture and old mansions, probably freeze your butt off if you aren’t dressed warmly, and have a good time.
You will most probably see a ghostly artifact, and witness this inanimate object move on its own! We did, and it was stupefying!
You also get a small parting gift. Even if you’re a local, give this a try and learn about your city’s history. I used to live in Pacific Heights where all the ghosts are, and I learned a lot and enjoyed this adventure!

Ugh — what a complete waste of Sunday night! I was entertaining out of town guests and thought the SF Ghost Hunt would be a fun and different activity to do w/​them. I went into this with an open mind but it was a waste of $ 20 and the 3 hrs we spent walking 4 whole blocks. The only good thing that came out of that night was the exercise I got walking up and down slight hills around Pac Heights (we took the least hilly route possible to accommodate those who may not be used to the hills). Although, given the very slow pace we were walking, I wonder if I would have burned off the same amount of calories sitting on my couch watching Khloe and Kourtney Take Miami re-​runs.
Admittedly, Jim is an entertaining and passionate guy who loves what he does (I mean… who wouldn’t at $ 20 per head… 15 people per night… 6 nights a week… all in CASH). He’s a great story-​teller, which is why he’s so good at his job. BEWARE: while most of the stories he tells you do have historical relevance, the tricks he shows during the tour are completely fake. The «turning key» is a magic trick. You an buy the key trick online! Lame!
Throughout the night, Jim kept saying «oh last night, a girl on the tour saw this…» or «a few days ago, the ghost of the Queen Anne hotel was spotted here», but isn’t it funny that no one in my group (or anyone on this Unilocal board) saw much of anything that resembled a ghost?!

At first i was hesitant to believe of supernatural forms and ghoulish stories, thinking it was only childish or invoked through imagination… but now it seems much more surreal and by this account certain that I felt and saw something out of the ordinary. When i was introduced of the SF ghost tour by a friend who wanted to check it out (two days ago), I promptly did my research and checked out the site provided. The site gallery provides photos of eery white orbs, my first intuition was they were either photo-​shopped or brought upon moisture from the lens or glare. So of course being skeptical, i was excited and open to explore and be adventurous about it.
After Jim, our entertaining and comedic host dressed in vintage attire gave us a brief history of the hotel and the friendly accounts of ghost stories, we were allowed to browse and take photos through out the hotel. SNAP! SNAP! FLASH! FLASH! While a few of the girls with cameras came walking down the stairs in light disappointment that no orbs appeared in their photos, I sat reviewing each photo witnessing a form of white spherical shapes in most of my photos… Maybe they appear in the same place? So i did a test shoot of the same spot, sometimes it would appear in the photo, in different shapes, or none at all ;T Creepy? Comforting? you could decide for yourself on this journey of SF ghost hunt.

A totally hilarious and fun way to spend an evening on foot. I just wished I’d gotten more of the ghost vibe! It’s a wonderful walking tour of the pac heights/​lower pac heights area and the main residences and hotels that are historically known to be haunted. The host is awesome! He’s super animated and fun and if I were 12 I’d be totally stoked.
This is an ideal thing to do with a guest from out of town who likes a good two-​hour walking tour of a nice, historical area.
As for seeing a ghost… maybe you will, maybe you won’t! Wooohooohaaahaa…
Then again, you could just move in to the Presidio area, plenty of ghosts there!

Pretty good