Did We Come Back From The Historical Spooktacular Tour?

 

Or are we ghosts now? No, no corporeal. 

In its 2nd year, the Historical Spooktacular Tour gained our attention, so we headed out to Riverside to see how spooky it was. Why not try out horror experiences a little further out from LA? What we found was a tour to be a mix of ghost stories, heavy architectural interest and a fun bit of visiting its catacombs with hard hats. 

 

Historical Spooktacular Tour 

Thursday-Sunday 6pm 8pm

The Mission Inn Hotel & Spa 

3649 Mission Inn Avenue 

Riverside, CA 92501
$55 per Person 
$65 VIP 10pm, comes with a drink a the bar

40-45 minutes

*There's plenty of public parking within walking distance of the hotel

*Enter the lobby of the hotel and look for the Tour Ambassador at their own desk

*You'll have to sign a waiver to go into the catacombs 

 

 -We recommend going when it's actually night. It's still a little early to be starting at 6pm, so check when it's sunset. 
 

 

First off, shout out to our Tour Guide Valentin, he was spouting every ghost story with panache, told us about the architecture's history of the hotel with style and reminded us to keep it safe. Always watch your step! You don't know who you might be stepping on.

 

The tour, that is spooky, mainly shows you around the hotel and various places perfect for getting married at. Adding, bits of stories of passing dead daughters and to watch out for plates in the kitchen flung by ghosts. More of a history lesson on the hotel, it keeps it a bit scary by adding complaints of certain rooms and ghost sightings on where you walking past.

 

Some guests on the tour say they stayed in one of the "haunted" rooms talked about on the tour, but didn't even know it. Nothing scratching on their door in the middle of the night, no lights flickering when they tried it out. 

 

This somewhat spooky, historical tour, has a nice bit of gab on areas of the inn you might never venture too. Never were we bored as we didn't expect so many hidden features from the outside. Honestly, this is just a good place to grab a nice dinner.

 

The best kept secret on our course would be the catacombs or tunnels beneath the hotel. Just past a wedding or some sort reception, we crept into the Earth. Donning hard hats and handy flashlights we made our way through the darkly lit tunnels with a few surprises hidden here and there. Wandering around it, there's nothing quite like being in your on horror movie and being there feels like it. Another lesson on most of the tunnels being boarded up in the 80's, but reaching all over town; it was the scariest place of the whole tour. It's where you want to grab your photos and they gave you plenty of time to do so.

 

Afterward, we went to grab some coffee nearby, though you can enjoy one of the many different restaurants or bars at the inn. We ended up at Back To The Grind and they were holding a fundraiser show, we headed out to the back to see what it was about, but found out we also had to venture below. Yes, like many restaurants and buildings around town they have a basement of secrets. It looks like so much of Riverside is buried, but it needs to be dug up to enjoy it.