Haunted Houses & Ghost Tours in San Antonio, TX

The history

San Antonio has, as the San Antonio Current puts it, had more than 300 years to collect its ghost stories. Some of the places those stories attach to are documented landmarks. The Alamo is the city's most famous historic site. The Menger Hotel stands downtown, and its history includes two deaths the Current reports as fact: Capt. Richard King, founder of the King Ranch, died at the Menger, and Sallie White, a chambermaid at the hotel, was shot by her husband in the 1870s because he believed she was unfaithful. On the edge of the city, the Grey Moss Inn operated for more than 90 years under its original owner, Mary Howell; it was shuttered in 2020 and has since reopened under new ownership as a Mexican restaurant, according to the Current.

These are the documented bones. What San Antonians have built on them is the legend layer — and San Antonio keeps the two in constant circulation, through newspaper roundups, ghost tours and, each fall, haunted attractions that borrow the city's own folklore by name.

The legend

Local legend holds that the Alamo is very haunted: according to Texas Public Radio reporting cited by the Current, ghosts said to be seen there include soldiers and a small child who purportedly wanders the grounds. At the Menger Hotel, people say they see the spirit of Sallie White wearing a uniform and holding fresh towels, and the ghost of Capt. Richard King, seen wearing a bolo tie and black hat in the King Suite — sightings reported by the Current, not established facts.

The city's best-known piece of folklore is the Donkey Lady. As the Current tells it, the story goes something like this: in the 1950s, a young woman tried to save her children from a house fire — some versions say her husband lit it — and failed. The fire left her horribly disfigured, her fingers and toes melted into hoof-like shapes and her head warped into an elongated, donkey-like form. Banished to live in the woods, she is said to roam Bexar County crying out for her children. Legend says that if you stand on a stone bridge in the Medina River Greenway and call her name three times, she will appear. This is folklore — a story San Antonio tells about itself — and it is presented here as exactly that.

Haunted today

Hountix lists 8 places in San Antonio, TX. Seasonal attractions keep their own open dates, so check each business's own site before you go.

• 13th Floor Haunted House — haunted house, 1203 E Commerce St, San Antonio, TX 78205
• Emily Morgan Hotel — haunted place, 705 E Houston St, San Antonio, TX 78205
• Howl-O-Scream San Antonio — scream park, 10500 SeaWorld Dr #13, San Antonio, TX 78251
• Menger Hotel — haunted place, 204 Alamo Plaza, San Antonio, TX 78205
• San Fernando Cathedral — haunted place, 115 Main Plaza, San Antonio, TX 78205
• Sisters Grimm Ghost Tours & Oddities Parlor — ghost tour, 204 Alamo Plaza Suite #T, San Antonio, TX 78205
• Spanish Governor's Palace — haunted place, 105 Plaza de Armas, San Antonio, TX 78205
• The Alamo — haunted place, 300 Alamo Plaza, San Antonio, TX 78205

13th Floor Haunted House

The legend it borrows is the one the San Antonio Current collected in its roundup of the city's spookiest locations and urban legends. In the Current's telling, a young woman in the 1950s tried and failed to save her children from a house fire, was left horribly disfigured — fingers and toes melted together into hoof-like nubs, her head warped into an elongated, donkey-like shape — and was banished to live in the woods. Ever since, the story says, she has roamed the woods of Bexar County crying out for her children, and it is said she will appear at Donkey Lady Bridge, a stone bridge in the Medina River Greenway, if her name is called three times. That is folklore: the Current itself introduces it with "the story goes something like this," and no part of it is presented here as a documented event.

What is documented is the attraction itself. The business's own site bills 13th Floor as San Antonio's ultimate Halloween event and quotes USA Today calling it one of the "Top 5 Most Terrifying Haunted Houses in the USA." Its own site lists the season as select nights from September 12 to November 8, with tickets starting at $19.99 and sold online only — a fall-season attraction, not a year-round one. Its 2026 lineup, per its own site, is led by other walkthroughs, including a licensed Jason Universe attraction and a plague-city walkthrough built around a character called The Pharmacist; the site copy fetched for this story does not list a Donkey Lady attraction in the current lineup, so whether that legend returns in a given season is a question for the business's current page.

For visitors, the practical facts are the seasonal ones: select nights in the fall, online tickets, and details confirmed on the attraction's own site before you go.

Sisters Grimm Ghost Tours & Oddities Parlor

Sisters Grimm describes its own offer plainly: an adventure that combines history, mystery and the legends of San Antonio. Its site says the company "celebrates San Antonio's rich history and chilling legends with a unique blend of storytelling, mystery, and fun," and lists a Ghost Bus Tour — billed as San Antonio's first and original ghost bus tour — a nightly Haunted History Ghost Walk, and a Haunted Pub Crawl version of the bus tour.

The best-known story in its territory is the Menger Hotel's. The San Antonio Current's account names the two most reported: Sallie White, a chambermaid who — as documented history in the Current's telling — was shot by her husband in the 1870s because he thought she was unfaithful, and whose spirit people say they see in uniform, holding fresh towels; and Capt. Richard King, founder of the King Ranch, who died at the Menger and whose ghost has reportedly been seen in a bolo tie and black hat in the King Suite. Both hauntings are reported sightings and local legend, not verified events; the deaths behind them are the history the Current reports.

Practical facts from the business's own site: the Ghost Walk runs nightly at about 1.5 hours for all ages, the Ghost Bus Tour runs daily at about 2.5 hours for ages 8+, and the pub crawl is 21+. Prices and booking are on the tour's own site, listed in the Sources.

Howl-O-Scream San Antonio

Howl-O-Scream is the seasonal Halloween event at SeaWorld San Antonio, and its story is park history rather than ghost lore — this attraction publishes no local ghost legend of its own, and none is invented for it here.

The documented history, per the Haunted Attraction Network's 2026 guide: Howl-O-Scream is United Parks & Resorts' Halloween event brand, which first ran at the Busch Gardens parks in the late 1990s and has since expanded across the company's SeaWorld and Busch Gardens portfolio. The guide records that 2026 marks the event's 25th anniversary in San Antonio, with five haunted houses and eight scare zones at the San Antonio park. It also notes a 2026 first: a licensed haunted house based on I Know What You Did Last Summer, which opened September 11 at SeaWorld Orlando, San Diego and San Antonio — per United Parks, the first time the film has been adapted for a major Halloween event.

SeaWorld's own event page describes the San Antonio edition as taking over the entire park with haunted houses, scare zones, shows and thrill rides running in the dark, and states the event is intended for a mature audience, with intense adult content such as violence, gore and blood. The same page lists the 2026 dates as select dates, September 11 to November 1, running Fridays to Sundays from 7 p.m. to park close, and says Howl-O-Scream is included with park admission, with no costumes allowed.

That seasonality is the practical core of this listing: this is a fall, select-nights event inside a theme park, not a standalone year-round haunt. Dates, hours and house lineups change by season, so the business's own event page — in the Sources — is the place to confirm the current year's details before visiting.

Sources

1. San Antonio Current, "San Antonio's spookiest haunted locations and urban legends" — https://www.sacurrent.com/news/san-antonios-spookiest-haunted-locations-and-urban-legends-29971798/ (fetched 2026-10-22; Donkey Lady, Menger Hotel / Sallie White / Capt. Richard King, Alamo, Grey Moss Inn).
2. 13th Floor Haunted House San Antonio, official site — https://www.13thfloorsanantonio.com/ (fetched 2026-10-22; season dates, ticket note, 2026 lineup, USA Today quote as published by the business).
3. Sisters Grimm Ghost Tours, official site — http://www.sistersgrimmghosttour.com/ (fetched 2026-10-22; tour formats, durations, age notes, address and phone as published by the business).
4. The Texas Bucket List, "Sisters Grimm Ghost Tours in San Antonio" (2021) — https://thetexasbucketlist.com/2021/10/the-texas-bucket-list-sisters-grimm-ghost-tours-in-san-antonio/.
5. Haunted Attraction Network, "Howl-O-Scream 2026: All 5 US Locations and Dates" — https://hauntedattractionnetwork.com/howl-o-scream-2026-guide-all-locations/ (fetched 2026-10-22).
6. SeaWorld San Antonio, Howl-O-Scream event page — https://seaworld.com/san-antonio/events/howl-o-scream/ (fetched 2026-10-22; dates, hours, mature-audience note, included-with-admission note).