WHAT IS “BOROUGHS OF THE DEAD?”
Boroughs of the Dead is a unique walking tour company devoted to the city’s dark secrets, hidden histories, ghost stories, and forgotten tales. Our expert guides are devoted to the craft of macabre storytelling and historical accuracy in equal measure. As for the name, it comes from the nickname for the borough of Queens (because it has so many cemeteries). But one can look at the entire city as a place where the dead outnumber the living, where uncanny tales cannot be explained, and where things go bump all night long… these are the Boroughs of the Dead…
WHO ARE YOUR GUIDES?
Please see the Our Guides page on our website for more information about our amazing guides!
DO YOU WEAR COSTUMES?
Nope! Whether clad in Victorian black or simply wearing those newfangled denim trousers everyone’s talking about, our guides wear whatever they would normally wear. We feel that sticking with our personal style keeps things true to our vision, so that’s what we do. While there are plenty of good tours featuring capes and costumes, that’s just not our particular preference.
ARE YOUR GHOST TOURS SCARY?
The goal of our tours isn’t to produce a momentary sensation of fear but rather to communicate deeply unsettling stories that will stay with you long after the tour is done. Our emphasis on strange-but-true stories and history means that, beyond a discussion of paranormal investigative techniques and concepts on the Ultimate Greenwich Village Ghost Tour, there is no active “ghost hunting” aspect to any of these tours. Simply put, our ghost tours consist of approximately 90 minutes to two hours of walking, talking, history, and ghostly and horrific tales — expertly told by passionate, intelligent guides.
WHICH TOUR DO YOU RECOMMEND?
If you’re interested in the history of the Spiritualist movement, or you simply enjoy strolling in cemeteries, you might like Spiritualists of Green-Wood Cemetery. If you have a literary bent or are a fan of Edgar Allan Poe, we can recommend Edgar Allan Poe’s Greenwich Village, a walk through the poet’s main stomping grounds in the 1840s.

If you do believe in spooks, we can recommend The Ultimate Greenwich Village Ghost Tour. Each stop has been carefully selected based on several years’ research and experience leading tours in the West Village and Greenwich Village. We’ve taken the highlights from all those ghost walks and melded them into one top-notch two hour ghost tour. Finally, Dark Histories of Lower Manhattan wends its way through Lower Manhattan — one of the oldest and most haunted areas in the city — and features a lot of history along with its ghost stories. Ghosts of the Titanic remains ever popular, though we only offer it once a year, on April 14th and/or 15th. If you just can’t wait til then, we do offer private tours of our Titanic walk, or any of our ghost walks.

DO YOU OFFER PRIVATE, GROUP, OR CUSTOMIZED TOURS?
Yes we do! To book a private tour, please fill in this form and we will get back to you shortly. Private tour prices vary by group size; consult our current rate sheet on our Private Tours page for our most up-to-date pricing information.
ARE THESE TOURS SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN?
Unless otherwise specified, our tours are not recommended for children under 12. Those tours we consider Family Friendly will be designated as such, and are suitable for children 8 and up. Children’s tickets are $15. If you don’t see children’s pricing on a tour, assume we do not consider it Family Friendly. Here’s why: Boroughs of the Dead ghost tours and true crime tours cover topics that are “dark” and may be potentially disturbing in nature. Potential topics may include death, including  the death of children and animals; general violence; gang violence; riots; slavery; prostitution; murder; piracy and illegal/criminal activities; drugs, alcohol and illicit substances; rape; abortion; war; torture; dismemberment; insanity; disease; discussions of the afterlife and spirit world; and grave-robbing. Worse, they contain positively lethal amounts of history. Children under 12 will likely be bored, scared, or both bored and scared. Nobody wants that. Just think of these tours like a PG-13 movie and use your judgment before buying tickets.
HOW MUCH “WALKING” DOES THIS WALKING TOUR HAVE ANYWAY?
If you are elderly, injured, or have trouble walking, bear in mind that most of these tours entail about 1.2 miles of walking in a roughly two-hour period. Only take on what you can handle. The Green-Wood Cemetery and Central Park tours are not recommended for those who have trouble on steep or hilly areas, contain some stairs, and are not recommended for anyone with a stroller. All of our other tours take place on NYC streets and sidewalks and are wheelchair accessible (please be advised however that the Brooklyn Heights tour contains some steep hills and narrow sidewalks).
DO WE GO INSIDE ANYWHERE?
As with most city walking tours, all of our stories are told in outdoor areas in public places such as parks and sidewalks. Many of the stories told on our tours concern private homes, museums and historic houses, cemeteries, and other areas with limited public access; as such our stories are told on the sidewalks nearby or in front of these places. Very few ghost tours in the city actually go inside any of the locations for the reasons mentioned above. We never enter any areas illegally or without permission.
ARE THERE REST STOPS?
Most of our tours are under two hours, therefore there are no rest stops or breaks on the tour.
WHERE DO THE TOURS END?
*** Please note: end points are all subject to change, as routes may change unexpectedly during a tour for reasons beyond our control. All of the following end points are approximate. ***  The Weird West Village tour usually ends near 7th Avenue and Christopher Street; The Ultimate Greenwich Village Ghost tour ends near Washington Square; Haunted Brooklyn Heights ends near Court Street and Montague; Haunting Histories and Legends of Astoria ends near Astoria Park; and Forgotten Dark Histories of Lower Manhattan ends near City Hall Park. The best way to determine a more precise end point for your tour is to ask your guide.
HOW DO I BUY TICKETS?
Simply go to the Calendar of public tours, select the date and time of the tour you want, and click to register and purchase tickets.
DO I HAVE TO BUY IN ADVANCE? CAN’T I JUST SHOW UP?
Advance ticket purchase is highly recommended, as it is the only way to guarantee your spot on a tour. This is important to ensure you are not disappointed in the event you arrive to a tour that is already at capacity. (See below for more on our maximum allowable number of customers.) In the event you choose to pay on site without a reservation, you may do so only if a tour is not full. On-site prices are listed in individual tour descriptions.
HOW MANY CUSTOMERS DO YOU HAVE PER TOUR?
We keep our group sizes small. Normally our groups range from 10 – 15 people, with slightly higher numbers in October. We cap our group sizes at 20 people maximum (25 in park and cemetery tours) to ensure a high quality experience for everyone.
WHAT ARE YOUR INCLEMENT WEATHER AND REFUND POLICIES?

INCLEMENT WEATHER POLICY

Tours run rain or shine. We have a “walk-in-all-weather” policy at Boroughs of the Dead, so please be sure to dress for the weather and bring appropriate footwear and/or rain and snow gear if applicable. Tours may be amended in order to accommodate our guests comfortably in the event of unpleasant weather.

In rare cases, extreme weather makes it dangerous or impossible to run a tour as scheduled. In the event extreme weather conditions prevent us from running a tour as scheduled, you will be given a rain check to take any other regularly scheduled public tour at your convenience (subject to availability). Weather-related schedule changes are generally tied to National Weather Service alerts, but for our purposes “extreme” weather refers to any weather condition that makes outdoor touring dangerous to our staff and customers.

EMERGENCIES & DISASTERS

In the event other emergencies beyond our control (such as a terrorist attack or any other unforeseen and uncontrollable event) prevent us from running a tour as scheduled, you will be given a rain check to take any other regularly scheduled public tour at your convenience (subject to availability).

REFUND POLICY

Tickets are fully refundable up to 24 hours before the tour start time. In the event you cancel with less than 24 hours’ notice, we can provide you with a credit or re-book you to another tour. No refunds, credits, or exchanges will be given in the case of no-shows or late arrivals (defined as arriving more than ten minutes past the stated tour start time). As such we highly recommend you arrive 15 minutes prior to the scheduled tour start time, and utilize the maps provided with your ticket confirmation, to ensure you are at the starting point in time to locate and meet your tour. No exceptions will be made to this refund policy.

For information on our Private Tour weather and lateness policies, please visit our Private Tours page.

We thank you for respecting our company policies.

ARE YOU OPEN YEAR-ROUND?
We usually offer public tours year round, with reduced schedules during the winter months. Please note: we will be closed in January and February 2019. The only tour we are offering during that time is “Edgar Allan Poe in Greenwich Village” on January 19th. Regular public and private tours will resume in March 2019. We generally offer tours on Friday and Saturday nights; additional tours are added over the summer and in October.