As Halloween draws near, Grand Rapids comes alive (or is that undead?) with terrifying haunted houses, spooky corn mazes and other eerie entertainment. This is the season when the veil separating this world from the next is at its thinnest, and local legends of apparitions wandering city streets and bedeviling their old homesteads make us more aware of things that go bump in the night.
It's the perfect time to explore our haunted hot spots and learn the chilling stories behind them. But it’s not the only time – the tour operators below are fiendishly happy to guide you through the city’s ghostly history all year-round!
Explore the haunting legends of Grand Rapids during Halloween and throughout the year with expert-guided ghost tours.
Photo by Bryan Esler for Experience GR
Tours Around Michigan
The Tours Around Michigan team strives to inspire people to learn more about Grand Rapids through adventures and explorations, and their Grand Rapids Ghost Tour is the perfect way to start since it effectively blends history with spooky stories.
You’ll enjoy iconic sights on this walking tour alongside Tours Around Michigan’s mascot, #CreepyDollAmanda, and hear tales handed down through generations, set in the buildings you pass along the way.
For an even more immersive experience, take the Grand Rapids Ghost Hunt Tour, during which you’ll use professional ghost hunting tools to attempt communication with the spirits. You’re liable to discover why indigenous tribes referred to this area as the “Haunted Vally of the Grand.”
Tours can be booked daily throughout the year for groups of 4-20 people and last 1.5-2 hours while covering 1-2 miles. (Wear comfy shoes!) The Grand Rapids Ghost Tour begins in downtown GR’s Lyon Square (296 Lyon NW) and the Ghost Hunt tour at 40 Monroe Center NW, outside Shinola. These are public tours, but private and customizable tours are also available, like combining ghost stories or other topics with beer, wine, or distillery/cocktail tastings in haunted restaurants.
Tours Around Michigan prioritizes accessibility by offering tours that are wheelchair and stroller friendly, pet friendly (must be on a leash or in a carrier, able to stay quiet during the tour, and feel comfortable around downtown activity) and that welcome sign language and spoken language interpreters, who can join tours for free.
Grand Rapids Running Tours
Normally you run away from ghosts, but with Grand Rapids Running Tours, you run towards them.
Offering more than 80 unique moving tours, founder and Chief Tour Ambassador Caroline Cook has been encouraging people to “burn while you learn” throughout the 1,500 or so tours he has personally facilitated since establishing Grand Rapids Running Tours in 2013. Some of her most popular fall tours include:
- Fulton Street Graveyard: shares stories about the fascinating lives of the first generation of Grand Rapids settlers while visiting the first and oldest public graveyard in Grand Rapids, which was established in 1838.
- Grand Rapids Most Haunted: visits iconic locations where there have been multiple paranormal sightings and unusual activity while answering the questions: “Did someone suffer a tragic death here?” and “Is this story legend or real?”
- Heritage Hill Hauntings: explores the historic neighborhood and the many stories of ghostly activity therein.
- Saints & Spirits: explores the history of a piece of property that used to be a dairy farm, a proper estate, a business college, and is now Aquinas College, while investigating various landmarks on campus tied to superstitious traditions.
All tours, which generally last 60-90 minutes and take place rain or shine, can be scheduled as a run, walk, or step-on bus tour, and meet in the lobby of the JW Marriott Grand Rapids (unless otherwise noted).
If you’re unable to make a tour, but still want to experience the fun of Grand Rapids’ most ghastly past, Grand Rapids Running Tours uniquely offers half of its tours in a virtual presentation format – including Fulton Street Graveyard and Grand Rapids Graveyard.
Paranormal Michigan
Self-described as “the one-stop place for everything paranormal in Michigan,” this otherworldly outfit offers investigations, lectures, publishing, deliverance and seasonal Ghosts of Grand Rapids Tours. Led by authors who literally wrote the book on the city’s haunted history, the tours share only the most authentic, well-researched accounts of dreadful doings.
This Halloween, Paranormal Michigan is offering its Ghosts of Grand Rapids Walking Tour – West on October 18, 25 and 30. The tour begins at the Grand Rapids Public Library , covers just over one mile, and take approximately two hours – so wear your walking shoes and keep the weather in mind since the tours are completely outside. The final leg of the tour passes through the Downtown GR Social District, where you can enjoy spirits from local businesses as you stroll the spirit-filled streets.
Tours Around Michigan's Ghost Tour provides an informative and eerie journey through Grand Rapids' historical and haunted locations.
Photo by Bryan Esler for Experience GR
Wraiths and Witches Ghost Tour
US Ghost Adventures hosts the Wraiths and Witches Ghost Tour, which uncovers the homicidal maniacs, victims of misfortune and macabre mysteries of Grand Rapids. You’ll visit such legendary haunted locations as the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel, Michigan Bell Building, Peck Building, Grand Rapids Public Library and Veterans Memorial Park to learn about the city’s darkest, deadliest secrets. This tour is offered year-round and lasts about an hour across a walking distance of one mile.
Ghost Light Tours
Betka-Pope Productions, a Grand Rapids company that works to provide new opportunities to local artists, invites guests on a Historic and Haunted Tour of Grand Rapids Civic Theatre this Halloween season. One of the nation’s oldest and largest community theatres, the Civic is comprised of four historic buildings built between 1878 and 1903 – and together, they’re known as one of the city’s most haunted locations. The tour is 1.5 hours long, with two sessions available on both October 24 and 25, 2025.
Betka-Pope also offers private walking tours throughout the year, including a GR Haunted Tour that uncovers the ghost stories, urban legends and paranormal secrets hidden in the shadows of downtown GR, and a GR Crime Tour that covers stories of true crimes in and around Grand Rapids.
Walking Ghost Stories
Student artists, animators and sound designers from downtown GR’s Kendall College of Art and Design at Ferris State University created this self-guided tour exploring the city center’s creepiest ghost encounters. Walking Ghost Stories is available via the PocketSights app, available for download on the Apple Store and Google Play.
You’ll start the tour at Kendall College and make your way to 20 additional downtown landmarks, accompanied by audio and video clips that convey the scary stories surrounding each location. Be sure to wear headphones or ear buds to enhance your experience.
Ghostly history tours and Halloween happenings lead a huge lineup of fun fall things to do in Grand Rapids. Visit our Halloween and Fall pages to plan your itinerary!