Things to know
Duration:
2 hrs 30 mins
Categories:
City Highlights, First Time Visitor, History, Spooky
Private Tour:
You and our own professional guide. 100% exclusive
Transport Mode:
Walking tour: no transportation is included
What's included:
A friendly, professional English-speaking tour guide for your own private group, Plenty of time to take photos of your favourite places
What's not included:
Hotel pick up and drop off, Food and drink, Gratuities
Meeting points: Your guide will meet you at Plaza Colón by the statue of Christopher Columbus, located at C. de la Fortaleza, San Juan, 00901, Puerto Rico
What makes this tour special
San Juan is known for its rich history and cultural heritage, but on this private tour, you will discover the spooky side of the city, and hear ghost stories, hauntings and legends when the sun goes down.
On your private ghost tour of San Juan, you will:
- Start your tour at Columbus square, a place with ghostly apparitions and supernatural occurrences that have been reported in and around the square;
- Learn of the Columbus curse and hear endless tales of deaths, accidents, bankruptcies, and natural disasters all rumoured to be linked to Columbus;
- See the largest fort constructed by the Spanish in the Western Hemisphere and hear tales reminiscent of a Shakespearean tragedy;
- Pass by La Fortaleza, the governor's mansion, which is said to be one of the most haunted places in San Juan;
- Hear the story of the ghost of a former actress who is said to haunt the stage of Teatro Tapia;
- Walk through the old town by prisons and hotels to hear centuries of spectral sightings documented;
- Stay alert for strange noises in the Hotel El Convento, haunted by the ghosts of former nuns who once lived there;
- Hear about many ghost stories associated with the cathedral, including the tale of a former bishop who is said to haunt the building to this day.
Your tour begins in Columbus Square, where your expert private guide will introduce you to the city’s tenuous relationship with the notorious explorer. In June 2016, the 362 foot of Columbus was unveiled 45 miles west of San Juan on a ceremonial site for the Taíno, a culture nearly driven to extinction by Columbus’s exploits.
Learn why islanders are wary of Columbus’s history on their island, and why they attribute centuries of disasters to his name, which they dare not utter in completion.
Next, see Castillo San Cristobal (external only), which was meant to protect the city from attacks by land, and remains haunted by one of the island’s tragic love stories, reminiscent of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet. Other tales include the disappearance of a Spanish soldier whose clothes and gun remained in the remote sentry box; to this day, numerous sightings of the lovers and the soldier are still being reported.
From the Castillo, continue on to several more haunted sites - theatres built on the site of 18th-century gallows, stories of human radiation tests performed in prisons, whose coverups go as high as the White House.
See Hotel El Convento - the oldest member of Historic Hotels of America, and hear the eerie tales known by the locals, of a wealthy widow who turned her home into a convent after her husband was killed, and listen for the faint sounds of robes across the tile floors.
Your private historic hauntings tour of San Juan is two and a half hours and is all done on foot. It is suitable for people of all ages, provided that adults are present with children. Be sure to bring water and stay hydrated throughout your haunted walk.
The San Juan National Historical Site (Castillo San Cristobal, El Morro, and La Fortaleza) is closed in the evenings and is not visited internally on this tour. If you wish to visit these sites on a ghost tour, please book our day tour instead.
