8 Most Haunted Places in New Orleans: Real Ghost Stories You Can Visit
New Orleans does not hide its ghosts. It sells them tickets, pours them a drink, and rents them a room.
Three centuries of yellow fever, fire, flood, and violence left the French Quarter with more restless dead per square block than almost anywhere in America.
We pulled this list from our directory of haunted places across Louisiana. Every location below earned its place through decades of consistent, independently reported activity.
Here are the 8 most haunted places in New Orleans, the spirits that linger there, and exactly how you can visit.
Why New Orleans Is So Haunted
The city buries its dead above ground because the water table will not allow anything else. Whole streets are lined with tombs.
Yellow fever epidemics killed tens of thousands in the 1800s, often faster than bodies could be interred. The French Quarter absorbed all of it.
Add slavery, duels, fires, and a living tradition of Voodoo that never treated the dead as gone, and you get a city where the supernatural is simply part of the address.
1. LaLaurie Mansion
The LaLaurie Mansion is the most infamous address in the French Quarter, and the darkest entry on this list.
In 1834 a fire at the home of socialite Madame Delphine LaLaurie exposed a hidden chamber where enslaved people had been tortured. A mob drove her out of the city.
Residents and passersby report screams from empty rooms, figures at the upper windows, and an atmosphere of dread that visitors feel from the sidewalk. This is a private residence, so the exterior is as close as anyone gets.
2. St. Louis Cemetery No. 1
St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 opened in 1789 and is the oldest surviving cemetery in the city.
Its narrow alleys of above-ground tombs hold thousands of the city’s dead, including the reputed tomb of Voodoo queen Marie Laveau, still the most visited grave in New Orleans.
Visitors report being touched, followed, and photographed alongside figures nobody saw at the time. Access is restricted, so you must enter with a licensed guide.
3. Hotel Monteleone
Hotel Monteleone has anchored Royal Street since 1886 and is probably the most investigated hotel in the Quarter.
The fourteenth floor draws the most reports, along with the slowly revolving Carousel Bar downstairs.
Guests describe children laughing in empty corridors, elevator doors opening on floors nobody selected, and cold spots that move through occupied rooms. You can book a room and judge for yourself.
4. Bourbon Orleans Hotel
The Bourbon Orleans Hotel began life as a grand ballroom, then spent decades as a convent and orphanage before becoming a hotel.
Yellow fever swept through the orphanage repeatedly, and the children who died there are the spirits guests most often describe.
Reports centre on a child chasing a ball down the sixth-floor hallway, a woman in white on the ballroom balcony, and a lone dancer beneath the chandelier.
5. Arnaud’s Restaurant
Arnaud’s Restaurant has served Creole cuisine on Bienville Street since the early twentieth century.
Its founder, the theatrical Count Arnaud Cazenave, is said never to have left the dining room he built.
Staff describe a man in an old-fashioned tuxedo standing quietly by the windows, and a woman in a large hat who appears in the main dining room before vanishing. It is one of the easiest haunted spots in the city to visit, since you simply book dinner.
6. Hotel Provincial
Hotel Provincial sits on Chartres Street on land that served as a Confederate military hospital.
Building Five draws nearly all the activity, and it is the wing guests ask for by name.
The signature report is startling and consistent: guests step out of an elevator into a corridor of wounded soldiers and bloodied cots, which disappears when they look again.
7. Lafitte Guest House
Lafitte Guest House is a small 1849 townhouse hotel at the quieter end of Bourbon Street.
Room 21 is the focus, tied to the death of a young girl during a yellow fever outbreak.
Guests report a child crying through the wall, the smell of perfume with no source, and a woman in period dress reflected in mirrors. The staff are refreshingly open about all of it.
8. The Mortuary
The Mortuary on Canal Street is exactly what the name says: an 1872 mansion that operated as a funeral home for most of the twentieth century.
Tens of thousands of bodies were embalmed and waked inside the building before it became a haunted attraction.
Investigators report shadow figures in the embalming rooms, disembodied voices on recordings, and doors that latch on their own. It runs as a commercial haunt but also opens for genuine paranormal investigations.
How to Visit Haunted New Orleans Safely
New Orleans is the most accessible haunted city in the country. Most of this list is a hotel, a bar, or a restaurant you can simply walk into.
The Monteleone, Bourbon Orleans, Provincial, and Lafitte Guest House all let you sleep on site. Arnaud’s just needs a reservation.
St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 requires a licensed guide, and the LaLaurie Mansion is private property where you must stay on the public sidewalk. Respect both rules.
If you want to document your visit, bring the right gear. Our ghost hunting equipment guide covers the EMF meters, recorders, and cameras that actually capture evidence.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most haunted place in New Orleans?
The LaLaurie Mansion is widely considered the most haunted building in New Orleans because of the 1834 discoveries inside it, though St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 is the most visited haunted site.
Can you stay overnight in a haunted New Orleans hotel?
Yes. Hotel Monteleone, the Bourbon Orleans, Hotel Provincial, and the Lafitte Guest House are all working hotels with well-documented paranormal reputations, and none of them hide it.
Do you need a guide to enter St. Louis Cemetery No. 1?
Yes. After years of vandalism the Archdiocese restricted access, and visitors must now enter with a licensed tour guide or as a family member of someone interred there.
Plan Your New Orleans Ghost Trip
Every location on this list sits within walking distance of the French Quarter, which makes New Orleans the rare haunted city you can cover in a single weekend on foot.
Start with the cemetery in daylight, work through the hotels and restaurants after dark, and save the LaLaurie Mansion for late, when Royal Street finally goes quiet.
For everything beyond the city, browse our full directory of haunted places in Louisiana or read our roundup of the most haunted places in Louisiana.
