Halloween looks pretty different this year, but that doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate with a little socially-distant spooky sightseeing! To help you get in the hallow-day spirit, we’ve created a haunted Austin bus tour that includes some of our city’s most ghostly locations.
We designed this list to help you visit haunted spots around Austin that may be along your usual route, but you can also use our Trip Planner to outline a haunted Austin bus tour of your own. Simply enter your starting point and add any stops from our list that pique your interest!
Beware: some of these locations may be too spooky to enter! To keep you safe from supernatural and COVID-19 related terrors that may be hiding out, this tour is intended to take place outside the haunts.
Grab your mask, your CapMetro App and your bravest friend and prepare for a scare (or eight)!
West Campus
Littlefield Home
302 W 24th St, Austin, TX 78712
Closest CapMetro Stop ID: 599 and 5864
Served by routes: 1, 3, 19, 20, 801, 803
About this spooky spot: Located on the UT Campus, the Littlefield House is one of the most haunted spots in Austin and in academia! Civil War veteran George Littlefield and his wife Alice, for whom the home was built in 1893, were generous donors of the university. Reports claim that Alice can be heard rattling about the home and even playing piano. While some may find the hauntings spooky, some members of the university revere Alice as “guardian angel.”
Austin’s Inn at Pearl Street
1809 Pearl St, Austin, TX 78701
Closest CapMetro Stop ID: 498
Served by routes: 1, 3, 19, 20, 642
About this spooky spot: This vintage boutique hotel has it all: charming ambiance, ghost hauntings, and…bees? Well, not anymore, but the 1914-built Austin’s Inn at Pearl Street was renovated in 1993 when, according to the website, one of the “largest bee colonies ever found in a private residence” was discovered in the walls of the home. Whether or not you find bee removal spooky, guests of the inn have reported hauntings including apparitions, music and other noises from vacant rooms, flickering lights and a lingering feeling of being watched.
Downtown
The Paramount
713 Congress Ave, Austin, TX 78701
Closest CapMetro Stop ID: 6315
Served by routes: 2, 6, 7, 10
About this spooky spot: Old theatres have a tendency to be haunted (this isn’t even the only one on our list!), and The Paramount hosts its own spooky cast of spirits. The 105-year-old theatre is the home to at least three ghosts, including a woman in a white dress searching for her soldier husband, an elderly gentleman smoking a cigar in the left opera box and a candy-loving former projectionist of the theatre who died during a 2000 showing of “Casablanca.”
The Driskill
604 Brazos St, Austin, TX 78701
Closest CapMetro Stop ID: 5937
Served by routes: 2, 4, 6, 7, 10
About this spooky spot: Elegant downtown Austin hotel The Driskill is said to be one of the most haunted hotels in Texas. The supernatural rumors range from ghost brides walking the halls, a painting of a child that bears a sinister presence and even the spirit of the hotel’s own Jesse Driskill. The glamorous hotel is also said to have been President Lyndon B. Johnson’s favorite place in Austin and guests have claimed to see he and Lady Bird’s ghosts dancing in the ballroom.
Moonshine Patio Bar & Grill
303 Red River St, Austin, TX 78701
Closest CapMetro Stop ID: 4175 (Westbound) and 995 (Eastbound)
Served by route: 17
About this spooky spot: If you’d prefer to merge happy hour with the haunting hour, Moonshine Patio Bar & Grill is the spooky spot for you. The current restaurant resides in one of the oldest buildings in Austin and is said to be haunted by the spirits of flood victims from early 1900s. These old school ghouls have a sense of humor and have been reported to tap guests on the shoulder and cause other mayhem around the restaurant.
East Austin
Oakwood Cemetery Annex
1601 Navasota St, Austin, TX 78702
Closest CapMetro Stop ID: 4183
Served by route: 18
About this spooky spot: No ghost tour is complete without a cemetery! Oakwood Cemetery, Austin’s oldest city-owned cemetery, holds a number of famous graves including one of the few survivors of the Alamo, 1880s Austin city marshal Ben Thompson and victims of the Servant Girl Annihilator, one of America’s first serial killers. Aside from its notable residents, many believe that some who are buried at Oakwood Cemetery haven’t quite moved on from this world and haunt the burial grounds.
CapMetro Office
2910 E 5th St, Austin, TX 78702
Closest CapMetro Stop ID: 1368
Served by routes: 4, 300
About this spooky spot: If you’re friends with an old Austin native, you may have heard the story behind our own Capital Metro office building on the east side. In 1931, Austin’s municipal abattoir – AKA slaughterhouse – opened in the very spot where our office now sits at the corner of East 5th and Pleasant Valley. The building served as a modern and hygienic place for Austinites to bring livestock to be killed, inspected and prepared for sale. At the time, Austin’s abattoir was the largest in the United States!
South Austin
St. Edward’s University
3001 S Congress Ave, Austin, TX 78704
Closest CapMetro Stop ID: 5870
Served by route: 1, 801
About this spooky spot: St. Edward’s University is notorious for being one of the most haunted spots in Austin and St. Edward’s students and staff are notorious for sharing their close encounters with spirits from the other side! From a child spirit playing in the dorm rooms of Teresa Hall to the ghost of a hanged drama student haunting actors in the Mary Moody Northern Theatre, St. Edward’s lost souls are engaged members of the community, to say the least!
Which stop on our haunted Austin bus tour do you find most intriguing?