A Williamsburg Winery Ghost Tour

A haunted walking tour with added spirit.

She wore a silly hat. A dad hat. Black. With a little ghost. A silly ghost. And she had another silly ghost on her black polo. That’s how we knew she was the ghost tour guide.

I believe in ghosts. Take my paranormal experiences as profoundly genuine. Having moved past the maybe, maybe-nots a long time ago, I am often diving into deeper disquisitions of the unexplained.

And I like ghost tours. I can explore a haunted tour any time of year, but M and I have a fondness for being touristy around All Hallows' Eve. Lifting our spirits with the spirits through wandering around strange places with strangers in the dark hours.

This spooky season we treated our afterlife urges with a couple of tickets to The Ghosts of Williamsburg Winery Ghost Tour. We booked two nights at the adjacent Wedmore Place, a favorite staycation getaway. which included our planned evening with the undead. We didn’t plan on our gal with the hat. 

The tour began in the Wedmore lobby. Though built in this century, the building has a delicious old world European charm offering perfect frame for setting a ghostly mood. The two-hour program planned for wandering Wedmore, the grounds the between the Inn and winery, and exploring inside the winery. Including a favorite place: the wine cellar.

And there was wine. The tour included three tastings along the way.

We expected something special. A savored subject in a favorite place. The winery grounds always seduce with quiet once the sun has gone. The paths low lit. The vineyards sprawling in moon shadow. Without crowds, we would have the darkened winery to ourselves.

Thankfully, our group was an intimate eight, guide included. But Silly Ghost Gal didn’t like it. She wanted numbers and the first minutes felt the evening might be on the edge of cancellation. It all turned around when she whipped out a pocket lighter to set a real candle to flame in her little lantern.

I’m a tough tourist. And an even tougher haunted tour tourist. Especially when I drop 60 bucks per ticket. Toss in the tax and fees and this was nearly thrice the price of taking one of the many ghost walking options through the historic Williamsburg village. I’m difficult to please because I’m an Interpreter. A Storyteller. A Guide. And for eight years of my museum life, I told ghost stories. Some of them were true.

Decent storytelling is a craft of curation. Curating the stories to find what will resonate. Shaping the tale into a beginning, middle and end. Digging, tilling the soil of language to discover a memorable mix of meanings, mindful of maintaining sonorous tones, and daring an occasional rhyme for theatrical flair. Most guides can manage a decent beginning. The ending is a trap door. Silly Ghost Gal fell through every time by closing with the classic, “Isn’t that scary?”.

No. It’s not scary. Choosing a star bright end point that hangs it all in suspense, and then creating quiet by saying nothing. That moment of stillness. Precious seconds when I’m left asking myself about what I just heard. That’s scary.

All the stories were missing a genuine middle. And the middle matters most. On a tour with multiple stories in different locations, those middles need careful attention. Whether a sentence or a paragraph of narration, the middle is where the story turns. A good storyteller turns it hard. Our tour bordered on babble.

As you can sense, I’m not going to recommend The Ghosts of Williamsburg Winery Ghost Tour. The low quality is too distant from the high price. With the average guide came a lack of communication between the Tour Operator, The Original Ghosts of Williamsburg, and the accommodation.

The staff at Wedmore had little idea of what to do, with the guide giving directions to the desk instead of to us. When we showed up for the outdoor portion, to be held on the lovely, raised deck at the winery’s Gabriel Archer Tavern, the tour stopped because nothing had been prepared. Silly Ghost Gal apologized and ran off seeking help.

The Winery staff who arrived seemed as ill-prepared as Wedmore’s. Instead of enjoying the deck, we were corralled inside to the tasting room to listen to stories accompanied by the sounds of end of shift cleaning. And along the way the Operator kept bad mouthing the other ghost tour operators. It all felt a bit draining.

But the wine was good.

The three glasses, a white, warm mulled spice, and red, helped the night feel more acceptable. Especially the sumptuous red to close in the delicious moody dim of the wine cellar tasting room. Hanging out with the hundreds of cellar kegs saved the evening from being a total loss.

So, cheers to another fun, or kind of fun, Halloween adventure. We will always return to the beautiful Wedmore Place and Williamsburg Winery. Next year, we’ll save our money and simply wander the grounds alone. And listen to the ghosts tell their own stories.

1. Cover photo by Author. The Williamsburg Winery wine cellar, Williamsburg, Virginia.

2. On the Williamsburg Winery Ghost Tour at The Wedmore Place center courtyard, Williamsburg, Virginia. Photo by Author.

3. The wine cellar tasting room, Williamsburg Winery. Photo by Author.

4. The wine cellar, Williamsburg Winery. Photo by Author.

© Copyright William Hazel, 2025