Sarasota Ghost Tours

If you believe every speck captured on a digital camera is an orb and every time an electromagnetic field meter jumps it’s a spirit communicating, you will enjoy this tour. If you’re more skeptical, like me, then you will spend half the walk hoping you don’t get mugged.
I believe in ghosts, watch way too many ghost shows, and enjoy Sarasota history, so I had high hopes for the tour. I have attended a number of ghost walks throughout the country, and I expected Sarasota’s to follow the standard format: learn about the history of old buildings and then hear stories about the tragic events that occurred within and the subsequent ghost sitings.
This tour had some of that, but much more time than expected was dedicated to ghost hunting with the laser temperature detectors and EMF meters that we were provided. Personal camera use also was highly encouraged, and they urge you to download a ghost detector app for your smart phone – seriously.
Orbs have been debunked time and again as nothing more than dust or insects captured by digital cameras, and it’s hard to believe a surging EMF meter was picking up a spirit when a power line was 15 feet away. I have a bridge I would like to sell to the people who believe a smart phone can detect ghosts. Kids may find this interactive component fun, but the scariest part of the tour for me was the downtrodden people walking and lounging nearby. Most of the tour is within the Rosemary District, an up-​and-​coming area that is not yet a place you want to be at night.
The worst moment was when we stood outside the McCown Towers, a high-​rise public housing project, and were encouraged to photograph the building in hopes of capturing signs of a woman who jumped to her death a few years before. Not only did the location seem unsafe, but it was extremely distasteful and disrespectful.
The tour concluded in the Rosemary Cemetery, where many of Sarasota’s early leaders are buried. I enjoyed the atmosphere at night, but the homeless people walking through and hanging out along the perimeter reminded me that it really wasn’t safe to be there then.
My guide, Jackie, was decent. She was enthusiastic about the subject, and she was not theatrical, which I appreciated. Some of her information was erroneous, exaggerated, or downright ridiculous. For example, she suggested Elvis’ ghost roamed the parking lot of the opera house, even though he played there just once.
And that is the problem with the tour, that it required me to suspend so much common sense in order to fully partake. Plus, most of the route just isn’t safe at night. So unless you believe signs of the dead are everywhere and are OK with walking through sketchy areas, I would save your $ 16 ($ 15 if you pay by cash).