San Antonio has a long history of ghosts, and heading into Halloween weekend, downtown and the historic districts are leaning into it. The most famous haunt is the Menger Hotel on Alamo Plaza, widely considered the most haunted hotel in San Antonio and Texas. It sits on the site of the 1836 Battle of the Alamo, and the building itself opened in 1859, designed by John M. Fries. Over the years it has worn many hats: a Civil War hospital for the sick and wounded, a fifty-room hotel that grew to ninety, and the home of a 1924 fire that took out the third and fourth floors. It earned a state historical plaque in 1980 and a place on the National Trust for Historic Preservation list in 1989.
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The guest list reads like a history book. Sarah Bernhard, Lillie Langtrey, General Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Mae West, Babe Ruth, and Roy Rogers have all stayed here, along with eleven presidents. The ghosts are said to outnumber them: estimates put the specters somewhere between thirty-two and forty-five. Teddy Roosevelt, who set up his Rough Riders recruitment headquarters in the courtyard in 1898, is often spotted in the Menger Bar, sometimes recruiting employees. Sallie White, a waitress murdered by her husband in 1876, is said to wander the third floor with towels or sheets. Captain Richard King, founder of King Ranch, died in his private suite in 1885, and a red orb is said to appear there. There's also the 'Ghost Boy' playing near room 306 and a 'Tall Bandit' who died in the lobby in 1959. If you go, the hotel asks you to keep your voice low, skip the flash and the spirit boxes in public areas, and save the Menger Bar for between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m., when the Rough Riders are most likely to show up.
For a guided look, Sisters Grimm Ghost Tours has been running since 2011 and is one of the most decorated in the business, named the top ghost tour in Texas by USA Today in 2024. Their Ghost Bus Tour runs daily, lasts 2.5 hours, and costs $55 for ages 8 and up, with exclusive access to the inside of the Menger Hotel and about half an hour among the graves of San Antonio's most historic cemetery. If you'd rather walk, their Haunted History Ghost Walk is nightly, an hour and a half, and runs from $25, stopping at the Alamo, the Old Bexar County Jail, the Spanish Governor's Mansion and the Menger, all outdoors. There's also a 21-and-over Haunted Pub Crawl for $60 and a custom private tour if you want to build your own.
US Ghost Adventures runs a more compact hour-long tour, the San Antonio Apparitions, which covers six or more haunted spots including the Alamo, the Menger, the Majestic Theater, the Emily Morgan Hotel and the Gunter Hotel for $26, with an optional Phantom-X EMF detector for anyone who likes a gadget in their hand. For a group with younger kids, Nightly Spirits puts on a daytime haunted history field trip from Alamo Plaza, with costumed guides and a flat rate for schools and youth groups. And if you want the real thing, the Alamo After Dark tour is an exclusive after-hours walk led by senior curator Ernesto Rodriguez, who has spent over two decades researching the site, taking you through the Church, the Long Barrack and the Convento Courtyard before ending inside the exhibit.
Published Date
29 October 2026
