Haunted Carriage Tour New Orleans: The Royal Carriages Mule Ride

In the Fare

Two things are included and the listing keeps it simple. You get the 1 hour mule-drawn carriage ride and a licensed tour guide. Guides in the city must be licensed. The small cap of 8 passengers is part of what you pay for, and the operator describes the ride as mixing history, culture and architecture with the ghost stories.

The listing names no entry to any building. It states no hotel pickup, no drinks and no food, and it names no museum stop.

What You May Pay on the Day

The fare does not cover tips, which are at your discretion. Parking is your own cost, and the listing names no validated garage. Food and drinks are not included and are listed as available to purchase.

The listing names no admission on this tour. If you want to go inside somewhere haunted afterwards, the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum at 514 Chartres Street charges $10 for self-guided adult admission, open Tuesday to Saturday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the Old Ursuline Convent museum lists tours on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Monday at 10:00, 11:00 and 1:00. Check the convent's website for its current hours and admission. The free cancellation window is 24 hours before departure, and the ride runs in rain, cancelling only for flooding or lightning, so dress for the weather.

Check in at the Red Umbrella, Jackson Square

You check in at least 15 minutes before your reservation with a Royal Carriages representative in a bright red company shirt, found near the start of the line of carriages under the red umbrella. Boarding can take 15 minutes or more, so the hour in the carriage sits inside a longer block of your day. Jackson Square itself was laid out in 1721 as the Place d'Armes and covers 2.5 acres, with St. Louis Cathedral on its north side.

The legend of Pere Dagobert says his spirit walks the cathedral aisles with his head lowered.

Haunted French Quarter Streets

The carriage rolls to and from haunted locations the operator does not name in advance. The listing does not say which of the stories below the ride passes. The city tourism board gives these reasons for the ghost lore: the fires of 1788 and 1794, yellow fever and the above-ground cemeteries. The 1853 yellow fever epidemic killed more than 8,000 people across Louisiana, and one August day that year saw 230 deaths reported.

The LaLaurie Mansion at 1140 Royal Street is the story most visitors want. Delphine LaLaurie bought the property in 1831 and the mansion was finished in 1832. A kitchen fire broke out on 10 April 1834, and rescuers found bound and mutilated enslaved people in the attic. The New Orleans Bee reported seven people, more or less horribly mutilated, suspended by the neck. A mob wrecked the house and LaLaurie fled to Paris, where she later died. The building is a private residence today and can only be seen from the street, which makes a carriage pass the natural way to hear the story. Modern retellings claim up to 100 deaths, but records document 12 deaths of enslaved people in the household between 1830 and 1834, and the gruesome details people repeat today come from later books with no primary source behind them.

Legends Along the Way

Depending on the route your guide takes, the stories may touch the Old Ursuline Convent at 1100 Chartres Street, completed in 1753 and called by the National Park Service the finest surviving example of French colonial public architecture in the country. Ghost tours claim its attic held vampires in the caskets of the casket girls, the young French women sent to Louisiana to marry from 1728 onward. The Ursuline order has denied the story and historians say little documentation exists for the tale as it is popularly told.

Another regular is the Gardette-LePrete House at 716 Dauphine Street, the so-called Sultan's Palace. The legend says a Turkish sultan's brother and his entourage were slaughtered there, but the house was built in 1836 and did not exist in 1792, the year the story is set, and no record of the murders exists. The earliest version appeared in Charles Gayarre's History of Louisiana of 1866.

After the Ride

The listing states no return point and no return time, and the whole ride lasts 1 hour. Photographs are encouraged. The operator tells visitors to bring a camera and says many take repeated photos hunting for orbs and strange shapes, and you can get a picture with your mule before or after the tour.

Anyone Watching the Budget

At $65 per person this is the priciest listing on the site. If the cost matters more than the mule, the French Quarter ghost, voodoo and vampire walking tour costs $33, runs 1.5 to 2 hours on foot. The Ghost and Vampire Walking Tour of the French Quarter costs $21 and runs 2 hours.

Travellers Who Want to Go Inside

You never leave the carriage on this tour, and no entry is included. If standing inside a haunted building is the point, the French Quarter ghost tour with interior visit at $37 includes a visit inside one private haunted location, seen from outside everywhere else.

People Who Want the Cemeteries

A carriage cannot take you into the cities of the dead. St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 admits visitors only with a registered guide, and the official way in is the St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 official walking tour at $25. For a night ride out to the graveyards, the ghost and cemetery bus tour at night costs $45 for 2 hours by air-conditioned bus.

Punctuality Skeptics and the Weather Averse

The rules are strict. All passengers must check in 15 minutes early, late arrivals miss the tour with no second ride and no refund, and boarding can take 15 minutes or more. The ride runs in rain, cancelling only for flooding or lightning.

If a hard no-refund rule for lateness bothers you, a walking tour is more forgiving, and the adults-only true crime and ghost walking tour opens check-in a full 30 minutes before departure.

What You Can Do Alone

The exteriors are free. You can walk to the LaLaurie Mansion at 1140 Royal Street and view it from the corner of Governor Nicholls Street, since it is a private residence closed to tours. St. Louis Cathedral, Pirates Alley and other street exteriors are free to see, and Faulkner House Books at 624 Pirates Alley marks where William Faulkner finished his first novel in 1925. Museums go further. The New Orleans Pharmacy Museum at 514 Chartres Street admits self-guided visitors for $10, open Tuesday to Saturday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the Historic Voodoo Museum at 724 Dumaine Street charges $10 for adults, open Monday to Thursday 10 AM to 6 PM and Friday to Sunday 10 AM to 7 PM.

One big exception is the cemetery. St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 is entered only with a registered guide, so you cannot wander in on your own. The guide to New Orleans cemetery tours explains who runs the legal visits.

What the Guide and the Mule Add

The carriage buys you a licensed guide, and the stories are the product. Standing outside the LaLaurie Mansion you see a handsome facade. With a guide you hear about the 1834 fire, the seven people the New Orleans Bee reported finding in the attic, and the mob that wrecked the house afterwards, with the legends kept clear of the documented record. The mule and the carriage also carry you between stories without walking, which matters in the heat or for anyone with limited mobility, and the ride is wheelchair accessible if you advise at booking.

If you are happy reading a plaque and walking a loop, do it yourself and save the $65. The pages on the LaLaurie Mansion and haunted places in New Orleans give you the stories and the addresses for a free self-guided evening.