Halloween lands on a Saturday for 2026, which means Georgetown is going to be packed with costumed college students and a steady parade of people trying to get a spooky photo on the Exorcist Steps before midnight.
I’ve spent a lot of Halloween nights in this neighborhood, and the best way to experience it is with someone who actually knows the stories behind the buildings you’re walking past… ideally someone who has spent years reading the letters and newspaper accounts that explain why certain houses earned their reputations.
On October 31, 2026, DC by Foot is running two ghost tours at 8 PM, one in Georgetown and one in Old Town Alexandria. In Georgetown, we’re also teaming up with Andrew Huff and EventLightsUSA.com for a free haunted light show at the Exorcist Steps, which happens to be exactly where our tour ends.
Our Ghost Tours Are Led by Historians and Storytellers
Nobody is going to jump out of a bush at you on a DC by Foot ghost tour, and your guide won’t show up in a cape carrying a battery-powered lantern. Our guides are historians and professional storytellers, and the stories they tell come from the letters and journals left behind by the people who lived in these houses, along with the newspaper accounts of what happened to them. Real history turns out to be far more unsettling than anything a scriptwriter could invent, and it has the added bonus of being true.
I take this part personally, since I researched and wrote a good chunk of our Ghosts of Georgetown route and also wrote Wicked Georgetown: Scoundrels, Sinners and Spies for The History Press. When one of our guides tells you about a curse or a house with a very bad attitude, there’s a paper trail behind it. What you decide to believe about the ghosts is entirely up to you, although I’ll admit that a few of our guides have had experiences on these routes that they still can’t explain.
Ghosts of Georgetown on Halloween Night
Our Ghosts of Georgetown tour starts at 8 PM outside the Old Stone House at 3051 M Street NW. Built in 1765, it’s the oldest unchanged building in Washington DC, and the staff have reported seeing an 18th century woman and child wandering the rooms, so it felt like the right place to begin.
From there, we head uphill into the quiet residential streets above M Street, where some of Georgetown’s grandest homes served as hospitals during the Civil War and where the people living in those apartments today report things that are hard to shrug off. You’ll learn about a surprising connection between Abraham Lincoln’s family and Georgetown, and you’ll pass a house whose former owner refused to install electricity during his lifetime… keep an eye on the streetlights when you walk by that one.
The tour runs about 90 minutes, it’s family friendly, and it wraps up at the Exorcist Steps at 36th and Prospect Street NW, where your guide tells the true local story that inspired the book and the 1973 film.
On most nights that’s where the evening ends, but on Halloween you’ll be walking straight into a light show.
Spots on this tour go fast in late October, so grab yours early.
A Free Haunted Light Show at the Exorcist Steps
This year we’re partnering with EventLightsUSA.com on a free Haunted Light Show at the Exorcist Steps, running from 7 PM to 11 PM on Halloween night. The event is open to everyone, so you don’t need a tour ticket to come see it, and the organizers are encouraging people to wear a costume and bring their friends.
If you’re on our 8 PM tour, the timing works out beautifully because you’ll reach the steps around 9:30 with plenty of time left to take photos and enjoy the show.
If you’re coming on your own, you can approach the steps from the top on Prospect Street or from the bottom on M Street near the Key Bridge.
A word of caution about the steps themselves, since there are 75 of them and they’re steep, narrow, and a lot harder to manage in the dark while wearing a floor-length robe. Hold the railing and consider leaving the platform boots at home.
When the night is over, skip the surge-priced rideshare standoff on M Street and walk from the bottom of the steps across the Key Bridge to Rosslyn Metro on the Blue, Orange, and Silver Lines. It takes about 20 minutes, and the view of the Potomac at night is a nice way to end Halloween.
Ghosts of Alexandria on Halloween Night
f Georgetown on a Halloween Saturday sounds like a lot (it is), our Ghosts of Alexandria tour also starts at 8 PM across the river, meeting outside the Alexandrian Hotel at 480 King Street. Your guide is a historian who actually lives in Alexandria and has seen a few of the town’s ghosts personally, which makes for a very different kind of Halloween story.
Alexandria was founded in 1749, decades before Washington DC existed, and more than 275 years of wars and military occupation have left Old Town with plenty of residents who never quite moved on. You’ll hear about a colonial guard still watching out for George Washington, soldiers who don’t seem to know the wars are over, and murdered ladies of the night looking for revenge down Old Town’s darker alleys. Nobody on this tour dresses up or plays it for laughs, because the research behind these stories is unsettling enough on its own.
Fair warning that this is the scarier of our two ghost tours. It’s still family friendly, and the flat route works for strollers and wheelchairs, but if your kids already love Ghosts of Georgetown, this one turns things up a notch.
To get there, take the Blue or Yellow Line to King St-Old Town and hop on the free King Street Trolley down to the hotel. My real advice is to come early and have dinner on King Street, which will be full of people in costume on a Halloween Saturday. Parking in Old Town is also considerably less painful than in Georgetown, which might be reason enough to pick this tour. Reserve a spot on Ghosts of Alexandria before Halloween weekend fills up.
Plenty of Old Town ghost tours stick to the same handful of colonial legends, while our guides dig into the documented history underneath the cobblestones. Some of those stories are heavy, and our guides treat them with the care they deserve.
To get there, take the Blue or Yellow Line to King St-Old Town station and walk down King Street, which is lively on any Saturday night and especially fun on Halloween when half the people on the sidewalk are in costume. Parking in Old Town is also considerably less painful than in Georgetown, which might be reason enough to pick this tour. Reserve a spot on Ghosts of Alexandria before Halloween weekend fills up.
Which Halloween Ghost Tour Should You Book?
If the Exorcist Steps are on your list or you want to finish the night at the light show, Georgetown is the obvious choice, and it’s a great pick for families whose kids like a good story more than a good scream. If you’re staying in Northern Virginia or you’d rather avoid the Georgetown crowds entirely, Alexandria gives you a more atmospheric evening along some of the oldest streets in the region.
Both tours come with free cancellation up to 24 hours before, so there’s no risk in booking early. If your group wants a guide all to yourselves, we also run private tours, and you can browse the rest of our after-dark options on our night tours page.