Los Angeles Hauntings Ghost Bus Tour

The Formosa Café was founded by 1920s prize-fighter Jimmy Bernstein in 1925, and in the decades that followed it build up a loyal clientele. The Samuel Goldwyn movie studio used to sit opposite the cafe, and stars including James Dean, Clark Gable, and Humphrey Bogart are among the famous names to have regularly enjoyed a drink and a meal here. Read more on this iconic Hollywood cafe in our Haunting of the Formosa Café blog.

This 100-acre cemetery is the final resting place for some of the brightest lights of stage and screen. It opened at the turn of the 19th century, and over the years parts of the grounds have been sold off – most notably 40 acres went to Paramount Studios. Famous stars including Mickey Rooney, Dee Dee Ramone, and Cecil B. DeMille are all interred here. Because this is a night tour, we do not go in Hollywood Forever.

The story of LA itself begins here, a corner of the landscape that the invading Spanish forces first saw from the sea in the 1700s. To keep the area now known as California out of the clutches of the Russian Empire – who had already claimed Alaska as their own – the Spanish sent 11 families from the Sinaloa region of Mexico to settle here in 1781. The Mexican marketplace on Olvera Street is enduring proof of the social and cultural mark that was made here.

The Ávila Adobe was constructed in 1818 by Don Francisco Jose Ávila, a wealthy ranchero and mayor of the pueblo of Los Angeles in the early 19th century. It’s the oldest residence in the entire city, and takes pride of place by historic Olvera Street.

This historic house was LA’s first Mexican restaurant, and first opened its doors on April 30, 1930, for the opening night party of Olvera Street. The cafe brought traditional Mexican flavors to the neighborhood, along with lively mariachi bands and colorful dancers. More recently, the cafe is said to be haunted by the ghost of La Golondrina – a figure usually seen moving around the upper floors.

Construction began on Pico House in 1869, with the goal of creating the most luxurious hotel west of the Mississippi River. The man behind the building was a successful businessman by the name of Don Pío de Jesús Pico – the last governor of California under Mexican rule. In its heyday the hotel was a fine and well respected establishment, but its location at the site of the bloodiest riot in Los Angeles history meant it wasn’t all smooth sailing.

The Cecil Hotel is widely thought to be among the world’s most haunted hotels, with a string of unexplained accidents, deaths, murders, and suicides to its name. Perhaps the most famous is the story of 21-year-old Canadian student Elisa Lam, whose body was discovered in the hotel’s water tank, two weeks after her planned check-out.

Once the pride of Los Angeles, the Biltmore Hotel has a markedly troubled past – it's the site of some of LA’s most gruesome murders and unexplained hauntings. Few have captured the public’s imagination more than the story of Elizabeth Short – better known as ‘the Black Dahlia’. She headed out for an evening at the Biltmore in 1947, and was discovered the next morning in a field outside town, her torso sliced in half and drained of blood. The case remains unsolved to this day.

The Hollywood Tower Hotel is said to be the inspiration behind the popular Disney theme park ride, The Tower of Terror. The tower's colorful reputation includes gangsters throwing their enemies from the high windows, Los Angeles Mafia connections, disgruntled mob bosses, and illicit murder-for-hire deals.

Mystery surrounds this impressive old hotel, built in 1929 and opened as the Hollywood Knickerbocker Hotel. Over the decades famous faces came and went including Laurel and Hardy, Frances Farmer, and even Elvis Presley – who stayed in room 1016 during filming of 'Love Me Tender’ (1956). Renowned Hollywood costume designer Irene Lentz notoriously committed suicide here by leaping from her 11th-floor room window, though the hotel’s backstory isn’t all bad... This is the place where Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio would sneak to during their secret affair. Following their marriage, they even returned to the Knickerbocker to celebrate their honeymoon.

The annual Academy Awards ceremony regularly ticks over the 3-hour mark these days, but in its early years it lasted 15 minutes, and took place here at the Roosevelt. The hotel was built by Louis B. Meyer, Sid Grauman, Douglas Fairbanks, and Mary Pickford - the latter two being Hollywood’s first power couple. Stories of hauntings here include guests splashing around in the apparently empty swimming pool, the swing and crack of ball-player and ex-resident Babe Ruth in training on the rooftop, and the ghostly reflection of Marilyn Monroe in her own bedroom mirror.

Once just a lemon grove, the land that the Charlie Chaplin Studios sits on was bought by the actor in the earliest days of Hollywood’s rising fame and fortune. From 1917 to 1953 the studios produced classics including ‘The Kid’ (1921), though today the property is owned by Jim Henson Studios. Keen-eyed visitors will spot Kermit the Frog atop the studio tower, dressed in Chaplin’s famously ill-fitting suit as a fond nod to the original owner.

With a fascinatin g dark history, The Golden Gopher and The Bristol Hotel are worth a visit for their unique stories and atmosphere and we'll stop at the Gopher for a drink and ghost stories!