My wife and I booked the walking tour of Downtown Raleigh. I made a reservation with Brad. We spent a delightful couple of Hours walking the streets of this very interesting City. Brad was very knowledgeable, interesting and informative. We enjoyed learning the history of Raleigh and North Carolina. It's amazing how much you can learn in just a few hours. We were very impressed. Arne and Lynn read more

We loved our ghost tour/pub crawl on Saturday night. It was a mixture of ghost stories, history of Raleigh and visiting bars and drinking. It was so fun. Our tour guide Brad was very knowledgeable and fun to be with. Our group was small and we got to know each other during the tour. We walked quite a bit but got to sit down often, so it wasn't very taxing. I would love to take another tour as we really enjoyed it. read more

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Waited for an hour just to be ghosted like a bad date. Also tried calling the number and it went straight to voicemail. Update: they responded to another review saying we were in the wrong spot. The odds of every single person on that tour going to the wrong spot is highly unlikely. Still does not excuse them not being reachable to clarify location if this was the case. Not one person was contacted by the guide. read more

I see why it's a "haunted ghost tour" our tour guide ghosted us. 12 of us waited for 40 minutes with no response. We called, texted, emailed, and Facebook messaged. EDIT: since the company responded, their confirmation email states "if lost or running late, please give us a call at 919-371-2653" so my first point is, why put a phone number if you clearly aren't going to answer it when over 10 people are calling you. Another notation, the "The confirmation email explains the specific address in addition it notates the ABC television news studios across the street at 316 Fayetteville Street" The confirmation email in fact does NOT state this. It says "Please meet us at: 316 Fayetteville Street, Raleigh, NC 27601 Plan on arriving early due to festivals & street closures. Your guide will be sitting on one of the long built-in benches. We suggest parking at Moor Square Garage on the corner of Wilmington and Martin Streets. Rates may apply, so make sure to have $5-$10 cash available. If lost or running late, please give us a call at 919-371-2653" The fact that the company does not take any responsible in their poor communication, and poor instructions is pretty disheartening. If it was just 1 group that "went to the wrong location" then sure, but there were 2 other groups there, a couple and a group of 4. And if the person was in fact at the other location that they are claiming to be, which our friends walked behind the buildings and through corridors looking for someone and there was no one, then why not do the due diligence and call since we all provided phone numbers to book this tour. I stand by my original post, this was not just 1 group that was stood up or left behind, this was 3 groups with people who didn't know each other. Do better. read more

We did a haunted pub crawl tour for my sister's batchlorette party and it was the most fun!! Our tour guide, Forest, was absolutely amazing. He was a great story teller. The bars we went to were fun also. Overall it was a blast and we would totally do it again!! read more

Great tour by Brad! He was very knowledgeable about the ghost history of Raleigh, and the history of the city in general. He arrived early and actually extended our tour from 1 hour and 45 minutes, to 2 hrs and 15 minutes. There were no tours scheduled for our day, but he created one for the 5 of us when we called. We had guests in from out of state, and were looking for something different to do with them. He was funny, candid and knowledgeable. We weren't rushed and he answered all of our questions. He even researched for the answers for a couple unusual questions we had. This was our 3rd different tour with Tobacco Road, and all were totally different and enjoyable! The tours are well worth the money, and we highly recommend any Tobacco Road tours. read more

I see by the reviews that some folks are granted a tour with this company and have a great time. I very much wish I could say the same thing. We have been on many walking ghost tours in different cities and loved them. I thought it would be a great birthday present for Husband, so I booked the Raleigh ghost tour, and a hotel room for the night. Friday night of the event, we got off work early and checked into the Marriott downtown, looking forward to our 7:30 tour that we were supposed to show up for ten minutes early. Cool, we could be there at 7:20. At 3:35 I got this email: Hi Lori, Your Raleigh Haunted Footsteps Ghost Tour on Friday, May 3, 2019 for 2 tickets has been cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances. We apologize for this inconvenience. We do have several options for our patrons. Join another tour that is running this weekend. Call or email us and we will review other tours that are currently running. Reschedule at your convenience and/or convert to a gift certificate which can be used for ANY TRT activity/event. No expiration date. Or, we can refund your ticket price. Our apologies about tonight's tour. We have refunded your purchase. Thank you for your understanding. Thank you for your understanding in the matter. Please call 919.------- or email tobaccoroadtours@gmail.com us with the best solution for you. So, I called to "review other tours that are currently running". Spoke with Brad. He apologized for the fact that nobody else but us was scheduled for the tour, so it was not economically in their best interest to conduct the tour. Wow. I explained it was a birthday present and we had just checked into a nearby hotel. Nope not important to anybody but us. And no other tours going on that night that we could do instead. He told us we should be able to find something else to do. OF COURSE we can, and we did, but this is no way to run a tour business, imho. The good news is they are refunding our money. My suggestion would be to wait until the last minute to book this tour, as that's the only way you will know for sure whether you can go on it or not. read more

Booked a haunted ghost tour of Raleigh. Our guide, Carolyn was very knowledgeable about the history of Raleigh and she did tell a few ghost stories. But it did not come close to being an engaging ghost tour. It was very slow paced and more of a history tour. The kids were bored and we left early. It was very disappointing as this was our grandkids first ghost tour. read more

Our guide Mary was wonderful! She was engaging, down to earth, knowledgeable, and friendly.

It's hard to imagine a tour company that doesn't return phone calls, especially one that really tells you to call them to book their tour on their own website. But that is what tobacco road tours did. We not only call them once, but twice, and left messages both time. But we never got a call back. Hard to imagine they stay in business with such lousy customer service. read more

Went on a ghost tour of Raleigh as a guest. Our guide Brad was entertaining, personable, and friendly. His storytelling was charming, amusing, and fun. I was 100% unfamiliar with Raleigh and Brad's walking tour was my first introduction to the city. Brad noticed details about the people in the tour, got people personally involved in the tour, and was great at keeping everyone on the same wavelength. I'm not really a "believer" in ghosts or whatever, but this was an entertaining evening. I'd recommend it to anyone who's in Raleigh. read more

We did the haunted tour and pub crawl. I brought my parents with me as they were visiting me in Raleigh. Since they love history, spooky things, and enjoy having a drink I figured this would be a great fit. Oh wow, how I was wrong. The tour started off with I don't really like going to all the bars because you don't get to see the history. She then tells us that some of the stops aren't her favorite either. Then proceeds to tell us she's not putting on her microphone. We begin walking. Summary : Instead of telling the facts she would tell us her personal opinion on the place and tell us she doesn't really like going to this place because it's not active. She also believed this was a comedy tour as she kept trying to make jokes instead of capturing the feel of spooky. She decided we needed to know of her erotica voice over background, cut out a bar due to time, took us to a gay bar instead of the regular one because it's fun and abruptly ended the tour at the last bar at 9:13 when the tour should be running to 10. Full review: What went right: She was on time. What went wrong: She didn't wear a microphone so you could hear her. She couldn't set the mood or the tone due to her constant personal opinion or need to try to make jokes. She remembered none of the dates and barely any of the history even asking us to Google it and would use the word interesting to try and capture our attention. She wasn't sure where Hargrove was so our TOUR GUIDE asked us to Google directions. In the middle of her story on the haunted haunts tour her phone rang and she had to check it (yes you read that right in the middle of the story her phone with ringer on full blast she stopped to check her phone because it was of the utmost importance and it was her boyfriend). She decided to cut out a bar because it was too soon but she'd add in more stops (which she didn't.) We were then informed of her resume as a voice over for erotica books and for Adam and Eve. Also how her daughter walked by as she was moaning for the read. She then felt the need to take us to a different bar than the scheduled one because it's fun. It was a gay bar. Even though multiple people said go to the next bar she decided to stick with it. Once inside she decided to tell us the tour has concluded please tip me as the tour ended 45 minutes early. We had cut out a bar because there wouldn't be time and then abruptly finished early. We had already cut out one bar on the stop so we went from 3-2. Then she decided we should go to a gay bar because it would be fun instead of the originally scheduled bar. So we ended up going to one of the scheduled stops on our tour. read more

I loved their walking historic and ghost tour. Our spirit guide, Jean, is wonderful. She is knowledgeable, professional, and most importantly, fun! She knows her stories and her history. I'm a local that was looking for something fun to do with my nieces, but I recommend it to anyone, local or tourist. Great family fun! Please be nice and be sure to tip your guide once the tour is over. Several stingy people in our group didn't and that is just wrong. Jean earned that tip. She took great care of us and made sure we all had a good time. read more

Tobacco Road Tours - Party & Event Planning Near Me - Raleigh, North Carolina

There were 12 of us waiting for the tour guide and they never showed. I posted a review on google and the business blamed us for being in the wrong spot. We went to the address they gave us. Walked around the entire building and asked randoms on the street if they were the guide. I verified with Apple Maps, google, and Waze on the address and it had me at the right place. Their email states that we can call or email at anytime but they don't answer because they're out of the office at 6pm when their tour is at 7:30pm. Make it make sense. Save your $20 and go find another ghost tour. Read the reviews. Tobacco Road tours suck. read more

We have done the raleigh historical tour before and had a blast but did the Durham haunted pub crawl tour this weekend and was fairly disappointed. The group was over 25 people which made it difficult to order and get your drinks on time at each bar...apparently they had considered breaking up the group but decided not to. There were only 3 ghost stories throughout. Most of the time was spent waiting on drinks and then chugging them due to lack of time. I am giving the company 3 stars and not 2 because I think they are a good company. They offer a wide variety of tour options and just this recent one was a flop. read more

This was such a fun tour! We opted for the bus tour, and the guide we had (Brad) was amazing; he brought the history to life with his storytelling techniques and shared all sorts of fun little tidbits. I also appreciated that he made an effort to get to know each of us and made us all feel welcome. He even made his own posters to help enhance some of his stories and gave prizes for a few trivia-type questions! I thought the tour did a good job of highlighting the important places that make Raleigh, well, Raleigh. For a 3 hour tour (including a few bonuses), I'd say this tour was money well spent. I'm leaving with a better understanding of the city, some of it's hot tourist attractions, and some of its history. Aim for a day with good weather. While it is a bus tour, you do go outside and walk around to explore a few places. It would have been a bummer to take this tour on a rainy day because you'd lose out on the full experience. Wear comfortable clothes and definitely bring a camera. I think the only minor con (not even a full con, just something that made me laugh) was that it says a meal and a drink are included with the tour, but don't expect anything fancy. You stop at a little hot dog spot and get a homemade taste of one of the city's claim-to-fame drinks in a dixie cup. With that said, though, I highly recommend this tour! read more

Raleigh really needs to improve its "touristy" type attractions, Tobacco Road Tours included. My husband and I went on the Haunted Pub Crawl tour in Raleigh. Our guide, though friendly and knowledgeable, wasn't exactly a great story-teller. He'd forget certain parts of the stories and go back, start again, etc. It's a shame because Raleigh has some really great ghost stories! There were ppl from out of town on the tour and I didn't feel like they were getting the impression that Raleigh is the interesting city that it most definitely is! The way you tell the story matters and unfortunately, our guide missed the mark. I did enjoy the bars that we stopped at on our bar crawl - London Bridge, Coglin's and Isaac Hunter's are all great spots. Isaac Hunter's has a great story! It would have been interesting to hear stories about the buildings that the other bars are located in, even if they weren't necessarily ghost stories. Though I am only giving 2 stars, I definitely want to give Tobacco Road Tours another shot. I love the variety of tours that they have available. Hopefully, I will update my review with more stars at a later date. read more

Wow! What a great way to discover and explore the history of Raleigh! (Raleigh Sightseeing City Bus Tour & Tasting) There are many interesting historic sites and events buried in Raleigh's past, and Brad really brought them to life! This tour gave us all a new appreciation for all that Raleigh has to offer, past and present alike. The tour lasts about three hours, and includes a few stops along the way, including a visit to a "hole in the wall" landmark restaurant. read more

I purchased tickets for my son and his best friend to take this tour in August. We have tried two different weekends to book a Raleigh Tour only to get an email that afternoon that "The tour has been canceled for unforeseen reasons." These last minute cancellations have ruined any all plans that were made for that Saturday and most any other opportunity to do something else that evening as well. I read many outstanding reviews about your tours and "knew" my son and his friend would thoroughly enjoy this experience. Originally, we were going to Wilmington for their Ghost Walk but then I found your tour which was much closer to home. I now regret not making the trip to Wilmington. The first cancellation, we just requested a code and rescheduled. This time, my son and his friend (both aged 17) spent the afternoon eagerly awaiting a tour only to get a cancelation about 2 hrs prior. As both boys are 17, I am not comfortable having them drive from near Smithfield to Durham (over an hour) alone yet. Nor am I interested in attending any of the events myself. I have also contacted the owner 3 times now to try and get a refund. The owner agreed to send a check refund in early September. It is now pushing mid-October and still no refund. I don't even get an email response any longer. I understand that they may not be able to provide a cash refund, but I paid with my VISA credit card and would appreciate a refund to that card. It now appears we lost $30. I'm appalled that they cannot provide the service I paid for OR return my payment. read more

Jacquelyn and Brad were absolutely phenomenal! My husband and I enjoyed Jacquelyn's haunted pub crawl through a few historic sites of Raleigh whilst having some local adult beverages in between. We loved it and will recommend it no matter what! read more

If I could give this tour a 0 I would, not only did I pay for a dang T shirt, but did we end up Ditching it. It was not a good fit for our bachelorette party like planned. Showed up at the Mexican restaurant and it was closed then the guide talked for 45 minutes and took us back to the dang place we started out at. Terrible. read more

We did the haunted pub crawl in Durham and it was soooo cool! Our tour guide, Maxine, was awesome!! She shared some really creepy stories with us, history of the city and great cocktail bars along the way. Totally worth the money and time! read more

Great tour of the downtown Raleigh area.

I've been on the tour with both Maxine and Chris and had wonderful experiences with both. The tour is a great way to learn about the history of Durham and meet new people. I highly recommend it! read more

We loved the Raleigh historic tour! Learned so much which I always wanted to know about this great city I live in. I brought my grandparents who are American history buffs and they were impressed too. It was also a good mix of history & raleigh development + fun in pullen park, a few snacks and beverages to sample that were really nice surprises. Brad was personable, knowledgeable, accommodating and precessional. Definitely recommend! read more

We did the haunted pub crawl in Durham and it was great! Evelyn was our guide and she brought so much drama and enthusiasm to each ghost story as well as the historical stories! Spot on dramatic pauses and captivating story telling through the whole tour! Definitely recommend! read more

This tour company is unreliable, and you can't trust what tours are listed on the website. They cancelled our tour an hour and a half before the event. There are other alternate tours in the area that are wonderful and value your business. read more

Looking for a fun way to spend your Friday or Saturday night? Looking to meet new friends? Looking to sample great drinks from various bars? Like hearing ghost stories? Then the Haunted Pub Crawl is for you. Maxine, our tour guide was wonderful and had a way of telling ghost legends associated with various buildings that we saw on the tour. She was hilarious and scary at the same time! We had a great time. I highly recommend this tour and Maxine for a fabulous time!! read more

Went on a pub crawl ghost tour in early March (not ideal weather conditions) and the tour was fantastic! Maxine was our tour guide and she was very enthusiastic and clearly really enjoyed her job! I'm hoping to do her history tour soon! read more

A friend and I decided to take the Haunted Raleigh Pub Crawl to learn about the areas of Raleigh that are known to have a shady history and therefore haunted. Learned a lot about areas that I pass by all the time. Between the stories there were visits to the various pubs for a drink. Learned about areas and pubs I hadn't previously visited. David was our enthusiastic tour guide who was friendly and very knowledgeable. There are even some prizes for answering trivia questions about Raleigh. I enjoyed this tour and it was different that the usual things to do in downtown Raleigh. It's probably geared towards a younger crowd. I am closer to 50 and those patronizing the bars were probably no older than 30. Nevertheless I had a good time. Bring some cash to tip the guide at the end. read more

We will be in Raleigh for a short weekend. And since it is our first time there, we decided to take a tour of the he city. We found Tobacco Road Tours and they had a good selection of tours to choose from listed on their website. We picked a tour called Buzz' n go because it encompassed a lot of things including: historical, sight seeing, food and drink. It appeared to a good mix of things that would give us a good feel for the city. Also it was the only tour available on a Friday afternoon. We booked the tour through their booking site and it said there were spots available. We were excited to go. Unfortunately, the next day we received an e-mail telling us that they had moved us to the Thursday afternoon group. No other reasoning to why. Unfortunately that didn't work for us since we aren't arriving until Friday morning. Emailed them back telling them that with our departure date of Sunday. Response to that was we could do tour on Sunday afternoon (after our flight) or Saturday at 3:00 PM (which didn't work because we already had event Saturday afternoon--the reason we would be in town). Responded to the company that didn't work for us. Never heard anything back from them via e-mail. Waited a few hours with no response and so tried to call them, unfortunately the phone number on the website turned out to be a fax number. Tried again in case I misdialed....still the fax number. Thought maybe, the phone and fax shared a line. So waited and tried a few hours again. Still fax machine. Sent another e-mail and waited all day. No response. Tried calling late at night to see if they had an answering machine but still got a fax machine. At this point thought we were screwed out of the money So called the ticket place (Zwere), they indicated that hey could not give us a refund without company's permission. Asked them to verify contact information and they had the same phone and e-mail I had been using. The young man agreed to call the company to see what the issue was and he could not get ahold of them either. Sent another e-mail to them one last time and finally got a response saying that they would CANCEL OUR THURSDAY RESERVATION. We never agreed to be put on the Thursday tour so that made us upset. They did refund us the money in the end which was a plus. But low stars because it took forever for them to respond to us about availability, and a non-functioning phone number. Also, because of the website saying the tour was available when in reality it was not due to not having a guide to do the tour. Why would you list it as available when it was not on the website. I would call (if you can) the company before you book a tour just to make sure it was really available. Otherwise you may get a hassle. read more

We did the Durham Dark & Mysterious Ghost Walk, and it was superb! Sandee was our guide, and she is a truly talented storyteller. Spooky stories, fun stories, and historical information were all packed into this ghost walk. Thanks, Sandee, for such a terrific experience! I would highly recommend this tour, and I would add that folks should *always* tip their guides. read more

Our guide, Kelly, was so great - he really made the experience. I had done this tour before but without the drinking - they have a version that just wanders Durham and does ghost stories and another that throws in some pub visits along the way and ends a bit later in the evening. We started with drinks if people wanted at Tyler's while we waited for everyone to show up, then headed north through Tobacco and talked ghosts for a bit until we got to our first stop - The Atomic Fern - extremely cool spot with games, church pews for seats, etc. We then headed out again and did some more stories, then stopped at Alley 54, and finally ended up at Bull McCabe's where he bid us farewell. It did get a bit pricey with the cost of the tour + drinks at each location, but you could also opt to not drink, or could do the tour without the bar stops if you wanted. Kelly was exceptional - super friendly, incredibly energetic, and an amazing story teller. Highly recommended, it was a fantastic time to spend the night! read more

Our group had a wonderful time on the winery tour! Our tour guide was David and was great. Prior to the trip, I dealt with the owner, Brad, who was very professional and charming and answered all my questions. Trip was to begin at 9:30 and David arrive around 9:05 to make sure that everything was ok. Brad called to make sure to inform me that David was in route. Communication was top notch! We visited three wineries, with the last one Raffaldini Winery being the best. Weather was ideal in Raleigh. While en route, David made sure to make bathroom breaks (traveling with 13 women can be difficult). Would definitely recommend Tobacco Road Tours. Everyone had a great time! read more

I was very excited for the Dark and Mysterious tour because I have a love for learning about the weird and strange things that happen, especially in my local community. When I arrived, I felt like my guide was adequate, however, I made the mistake of believing that this tour would be similar to a "haunted history" tour. There was some history sprinkled into each story, usually related to a closing or opening of a landmark, but the dates and concrete clues were not included. Many of the details of each story were nonspecific and it felt like gossip or your friend's campy ghost story rather than a truly haunted tour of Durham. Usually, stories are at least google-able, especially when prominent buildings are involved, but none of these stories could be verified. In fact, the Carolina Theatre is located in downtown Durham, I had found a little ghost story online, and it wasn't even a stop of the tour. Overall, I enjoyed our time on the tour, but I would not recommend it to others. I was excited to consider doing the Raleigh Tobacco Road tour, but not after the mediocre tour I just experienced. Many reviews I read here are about the bar crawl, so I would potentially try that but my friends often do bar crawls and find guides unnecessary. read more

Brad gave us a great tour of Durham, with several stops along the way finishing with a flourish of muscadine. This was a business group of international travelers on a Saturday afternoon. Perfect way to introduce them to the area. read more

Great tours and interesting facts the pub crawl and haunted tour was fun but not scary like I had thought it would be the puns were fun though read more

Thank you, Chris, for being our guide! Good group of people on tour. Nice to explore the 'back alleys' of other fun, and unique bars/restaurants in Durham. read more

We had a great time on the Durham Haunted Pub Crawl! Brad was an excellent tour guide. A few of us on the tour live in Durham, and he did a wonderful job of making sure we learned something new and checked out places we had never been before! We heard some great stories and were able to check out some really cool spots in Durham that we will definitely go back to. Thanks for the great time, Brad! read more

The absolutely worst tour. We went on the Haunted Pub Crawl and it was a complete waste of money and time. Take my advice and go with a different tour company or just walk to the bars yourself and enjoy time with your friends. The tour guides even left us at one of the bars since they did not check to make sure they had all the group or even tell people they were leaving. All of the "ghost stories" that were told were not even spooky (much less haunted) and could have been made up or found on wikipedia. Their FAQ page says that you may even have a ghost encounter, that is the farthest from the truth unless a ghost is going to come to you in the middle of the street in all the bright street lights. One of the tour guides even made inappropriate comments. read more