Louisville Haunted Downtown Self Guided Ghost Tour

One of the ten ghosts in downtown Louisville is lying to you, and by the end of the night you'll have to say which. That's the job in this self-guided ghost hunt, played with the Questo app on your phone. The route starts at Fort Nelson Park on West Main Street, a block from the giant Louisville Slugger bat, and loops past Metro Hall, City Hall, the Cathedral of the Assumption and Fourth Street before coming back to Main. At each stop a ghost is stuck on whatever killed it, and you catch it by solving a puzzle: a code buried in an actor's monologue, a list of antiques with forgeries hidden among them, a hotel fire you have to evacuate on paper. Every ghost you catch leaves a clue. The ghosts and their stories were invented for the game. About 1.4 miles, roughly 90 minutes, and you start whenever you want. Hints are in the app if you need them, and support is open 24/7. A good one for Halloween, or any evening downtown.

1. 1

   21c Museum Hotel

   15 min

   Fort Nelson Park, on West Main Street, is where the app connects you and checks that you have the sight, using a glowing circle with one numeral gone. Your first ghost is a few steps away by the 21c Museum Hotel: Elena, poisoned by a flower slipped into her own wedding bouquet.

2. 2

   King Louis XVI Statue

   15 min

   South on Sixth Street, by the statues of Louis XVI and Thomas Jefferson outside Metro Hall, a flu-ward doctor from 1952 needs the right blood type read off his chart, and an actor killed by a falling spotlight hid a four-digit code in his final lines. A block on, by City Hall and Jefferson Square, you'll rebuild a senator's corruption case from five evidence folders dated only against each other.

3. 3

   Cathedral of the Assumption

   15 min

   On Fifth Street, beside the Cathedral of the Assumption, a teacher's ghost keeps writing a pupil into her registers who never sat in her class. You'll go through four years of class lists to find the one boy who was real.

4. 4

   Fourth Street Live!

   15 min

   The next stretch takes you up Fourth Street and back along Market. You'll unmask the forgeries in an antique dealer's stock, find which book holds the key to a librarian's locked closet, line up a professor's artifacts from oldest to newest, and decide who should have left a burning hotel last.

5. 5

   Evan Williams Bourbon Experience

   15 min

   Back on West Main, near the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience, your tenth ghost is a priest who disappeared in 1984 after spotting a cult's carving on his church organ. Since then, people say, the organ has been playing on its own.

6. 6

   Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory

   15 min

   You'll finish in Fort Nelson Park, a block from the Louisville Slugger Museum and its giant bat. The app lays out the ten clue cards you've collected, and the last puzzle asks you to name the liar among your ghosts before it slips away again.

• Service animals allowed
• Public transportation options are available nearby
• Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
• Suitable for all physical fitness levels
• A charged smartphone with internet is required to play the game in the Questo app
• Comfortable walking shoes are recommended

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.