Had a reasonably ok time on this tour. The tour guide was experienced and seemed to be knowledgable, though I later fact-checked some of his claims and it appears he got a number of things wildly wrong...like the 1918 Flu Epidemic infection and death rate being orders of magnitude lower in Asheville than anywhere else because of...um, quartz? I mean, it's patently bs - I couldn't find a single mention of that anywhere on the internet.
Maybe it's all part of the hype machine? I can appreciate that some believe in ghosts or other paranormal activity of which I'm skeptical, but if you're going to make historical claims, they should be accurate...otherwise it's just disinformation and conspiracy theory. I would have preferred just the actual history without the mystical embellishment.
That aside, the group was unmanageably large, too big to cross any street without losing the back half. The guide explained that our group of 40 or so was actually on the small side, and repeatedly reiterated how this tour is the most popular of its kind in the country...which I understood as justification for the overcrowding.
But the real money-grab aspect of this operation became clear to me when the tour guide briefly addressed the issue of masks (for which there is currently a state-wide mandate requiring them in all public places), but refrained from asking the roughly 1/3 of the group not wearing masks to put them on. He actually encouraged everyone to pack together tightly in a semi-circle at various points...I find it highly irresponsible, bordering on criminal, to blatantly ignore the law and knowingly expose the rest of us to potential illness and death, so as not to scare off business from the minority of pathologically selfish, maskless idiots carelessly breathing down our necks...just so the company can keep the money rolling in. Haunted Asheville can and should do better.
Réponse de l'hôte
Oct 2020
Our tours are entirely outside, in public spaces, and we follow whatever mask guidelines are legally required, the day of the tour, by the government.
To properly inform yourself, please visit the NC State website on this: https://www.nc.gov/covid19
Joshua P. Warren
Owner