Ghosts, crimes, and legends. Halloween boosts interest in these routes. According to booking data from GuruWalk, the largest free tour platform in the world, on the night of October 31, 2025, one in ten Spanish free tours booked was for mystery, double that of September. This year, the 31st falls on a Saturday, and the company expects mystery tour bookings for that night to grow by around 20% compared to last year, adding tours in all languages and cities around the globe.
In 2026, the top spot in the ranking of the best-rated Halloween itineraries goes to the original Jack the Ripper tour in London, a tour that follows the crimes of 1888 through the streets of Whitechapel and has a rating of 4.94 out of 5 with over 2,560 reviews. "Don't come to hear about the case... Come to investigate it," warns the guide of this tour, inviting participants to engage in a participatory reconstruction of the events that took place in the historic neighborhood located in London's East End, famous for being the scene of Jack the Ripper's crimes.
In second place, Magical Roman Night: Legends and Hidden Treasures, which traverses illuminated Rome among spirits of emperors and tormented architects, and is the tour with the most reviews in the ranking (over 5,550). In third place, rounding out the podium is Legends and Curiosities at Sunset, in Prague, featuring the sleeping demons and heroes of the Old Town. This itinerary explores the less-traveled corners by tourists, recounting what once happened "amidst mists and fogs."
A mystery tour in Kyoto, in fourth place, achieves the highest rating in the classification (4.98), and Japan adds another in Tokyo, in 15th place. The one in Madrid, fifth, is the first from Spain. But the darker Madrid, one where there are no shortages of tortures, ghosts, crimes, and legends. It covers places like the Executioner's Alley and the Fallen Angel, and includes dramatized scenes.
Those from Zaragoza (8th) and Gijón (10th) complete the Spanish presence in the top 10. The Aragonese tour, who would have thought, is filled with gruesome stories of love and death, great tragedies that marked the lives of its citizens, and even paranormal events. This tour promises... but beware of the Asturian one. One should not trust that idyllic image of a delightful urban beach and picturesque Cimadevilla because, at nightfall, "the whispers of crimes that occurred in its streets, secrets, and magical beings" can be heard, assures the guide of the tour Myths, Crimes, and Legends of Gijón.
The rest of the list includes Valladolid, Oviedo, A Coruña, Cáceres, Sevilla, Barcelona, Málaga, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Logroño, and Salamanca.
Outside of Spain, Italy adds three tours and Portugal, two. Belén Casanova, Head of Supply at GuruWalk, explains what many of the best-rated routes have in common: "A large part of the most popular tours are based on documented facts. The witch trials of Zugarramurdi really happened, and hearing about it in Logroño, in the streets where it took place, is more impressive than any special effect. The legend is what attracts the group, but what they remember at the end is discovering how much of what they heard is in the archives."