Paranormal Pub Crawl Pairs Mystic’s Haunted History With Three Pints

Paranormal Pub Crawl Pairs Mystic’s Haunted History With Three Pints on select Friday nights, when Seaside Shadows leads a 21-and-over walking tour through downtown Mystic with stops at three pubs, three included beers, and stories about the people who supposedly never left.

It’s essentially two Mystic experiences rolled into one.

Part of the evening is a pub crawl. The other part takes place between the drinks, as a Seaside Shadows storyteller leads the group through Water Street and downtown Mystic and connects familiar buildings with shipwrecks, deaths, local legends and reported paranormal encounters.

The result is deliberately more casual than a traditional historical walking tour.

Seaside Shadows calls it the “just a beer” ghost tour.

Three Pubs, Three Beers and About 2½ Hours

The experience runs approximately 2½ hours, beginning at 7:30 p.m. near Bank Square at the corner of West Main and Water streets.

From there, the group makes its way through downtown, stopping at three Mystic pubs over the course of the evening.

The current tour information identifies Harp & Hound, Friar Tuck’s Tavern and the Captain Daniel Packer Inne among its featured stops, although individual stops can be subject to change.

One beer is included at each of the three pub stops, with tax and gratuity for those drinks included in the ticket price.

The beer, however, is really the framework for the stories.

Between stops, guides dig into the darker side of Mystic’s history and the reports of unexplained activity associated with some of its older buildings. The company describes its material as a mixture of documented local history, legends and accounts of paranormal experiences rather than presenting every ghost story as established historical fact.

That distinction matters in a town old enough to have accumulated plenty of both.

The Captain Daniel Packer Inne Has Been Here Since 1756

Of the pubs associated with the crawl, none gives a ghost storyteller more historical material to work with than the Captain Daniel Packer Inne.

The building dates to 1756, when sea captain Daniel Packer constructed his home along the Mystic River.

Packer lived through the period when Mystic was developing into a maritime community, and the house survived while the village around it changed dramatically. Today, its downstairs tavern occupies a building that predates the American Revolution.

Over the years, employees, visitors and paranormal enthusiasts have reported unexplained sounds, apparitions and other activity inside the building. Those accounts have become part of the inn’s modern identity and have made it a natural stop for Mystic ghost tours.

Whether those stories are interpreted as evidence of something supernatural or simply part of the folklore that accumulates around a 270-year-old building is left to the people hearing them.

Either way, you’re drinking inside a genuine piece of colonial Mystic.

A Ghost-Tour Company Born in Mystic

Seaside Shadows has been telling these stories since 2013.

The company was created by historian and author Courtney McInvale, who grew up hearing family stories about paranormal experiences and eventually began researching the history and folklore surrounding Connecticut’s shoreline communities.

Her book Haunted Mystic was published in 2014.

Rather than operating only during Halloween season, Seaside Shadows turned the area’s haunted history into a year-round business, eventually expanding its walking tours into Westerly and developing specialty experiences including graveyard tours and multiple pub crawls.

The company has also received national attention. Seaside Shadows placed among the country’s top ghost tours in USA Today’s 10Best Readers’ Choice competition in both 2024 and 2025.

October, though, is when walking through downtown Mystic after dark feels particularly well suited to the subject.

This Isn’t the Cocktail Crawl

Seaside Shadows actually operates two different haunted pub experiences in Mystic, and the distinction can be easy to miss.

The Paranormal Pub Crawl is the simpler and less expensive version. It costs $65 through the organizer and includes three beers.

The separate Spirits of Mystic Cocktail Pub Crawl costs more and includes a combination of cocktails and local brews.

Both combine drinking with haunted-history storytelling, but someone looking specifically for Friday’s Paranormal Pub Crawl should make sure they’re purchasing the beer-tour ticket rather than the cocktail experience.

And because the drinks are built into the experience, this one is strictly 21 and older.

Walking Between the Spirits

Some of the best moments may happen outside the pubs.

Downtown Mystic is compact enough that the group can move between taverns on foot, and after dark the familiar tourist center changes character.

Water Street runs past buildings that have watched generations of sailors, merchants, innkeepers and travelers come through the village. The Mystic River is only steps away. Some structures date back centuries.

A guide can tell you what history records.

Then comes the other part: stories from employees who heard something after closing, people who believed they saw someone who wasn’t there, and generations of local folklore that attached itself to particular rooms and buildings.

Nobody has to believe in ghosts for that to be interesting.

By the third pub, you can decide for yourself.

And if something brushes past you on Water Street afterward, there’s always the possibility it was just the beer.

More information is available at the Event Website link below. To purchase tickets, click the Event Ticketing link below.

Details

Event: Paranormal Pub Crawl: Beer Tour
Organizer: Seaside Shadows Haunted History Tours
Upcoming October Date: Friday, Oct. 9; (other dates not available in their booking calendar)
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Duration: Approximately 2½ hours
Meeting Area: Bank Square, near the corner of West Main Street and Water Street in downtown Mystic
Admission: $65 per person through the organizer
Age: 21+
Included: Guided haunted-history walking tour, three pub stops and three beers; tax and gratuity on the included drinks are covered
Featured Pubs: Harp & Hound, Friar Tuck’s Tavern and Captain Daniel Packer Inne; stops may be subject to change
What to Expect: Walking through downtown Mystic between pub stops, historical storytelling, local legends and reported paranormal accounts
Weather: The experience includes outdoor walking between locations; dress for the evening conditions
Transportation: Participants should plan transportation accordingly after a tour that includes three alcoholic drinks
Advance Reservations: Recommended because tour capacity is limited

 

 

 

Featured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people, location, or activities shown.