On a hot Miami Beach night, tour guide Emma Dilone was halfway through a ghost tour when the air suddenly turned cold. Not just for her, but for everyone listening.
“It was a little bit paranormal,” said Dilone. “I started to feel like this strange freezing cold, [and] when I actually told my tour, every single person on the tour said, ‘I felt that too’.”
This experience didn’t scare her away from continuing these tours. Every week, she leads groups through historic buildings across Ocean Drive.
U.S Ghost Adventures takes people on supernatural experiences all over the world. They recently started offering the service in Miami Beach, taking groups throughout historic buildings such as The Tides, The Betsy Hotel and Club Deuce.
Guides like Dilone share local mysteries still unsolved from the first settlers of Florida to figures from the prohibition era. And with it being Friday the 13th, the company says interest in its haunted tours often increases.
“To this day, a lot of people think that the stories are a conspiracy theory, which is the best part because they actually are true,” said Dilone.
For many locals and tourists, these tours blend entertainment with history, adding a new way to experience the city.
“Miami Beach is an older city, and it has a lot of very beautiful architecture, but it also has a lot of stories from the past,” said Michael Robert Green, who traveled all the way from Seattle. “It’s nice to hear about because it adds a little bit to the overall experience.”
U.S. Ghost Adventures offers these tours daily with different experiences such as “Boos and Booze Haunted Pub Crawl” and “Miami’s Extended Haunted Tours.” Ticket prices for the tours range from $26 for adults to $17 for children.
Next time someone visits Ocean Drive, they might leave with a different perspective on the history hidden behind the neon lights.
“I love to see the reactions on people’s faces,” said Dilone. “I love to just kind of like to have something to say that will be something new to them. It’s just exciting.”
