There are definitely interesting features to the house and I'm glad I finally saw it after hearing about it for years, but I came away a little disappointed in the presentation and felt like the experience could be greatly improved, especially for the price. This could be viewed at the beginning of the tour, or while waiting for the tour to begin. Winchester and her extreme superstitious nature and set the time period. They need to re-furnish these rooms with period-appropriate pieces to flesh out the feel of the house.Īlso helpful would be a video to set the mood, describe Mrs. Winchester's furnishings were auctioned off after her death. Sadly, many of the rooms were empty as Mrs. I would like to see the tour follow the additions in the order they were build along with some floor plans to illustrate how the house grew. Our guide provided information about the various rooms that we saw, but there was very little sense of how the house evolved or why certain rooms were added (assuming anyone knows). Its worth a stop just don't forget your mask or you might get barked at as well. Parking is free and they do take a souvenir photo of you for purchase in the gift shop. The cost for a regular house tour is around $40 or so and you can pay more for an explore more tour which we did not. Other than that little hiccup we had a great time. If you want people to wear them everywhere on the grounds you should adjust your website accordingly. The website clearly states we do not need to wear one outdoors. About masks.I really didn't appreciate being barked at to wear one while I was OUTSIDE. There is no way to social distance inside the house. I can see why they ask you to wear a mask on the tour. What we got was a unique old house that was built by an eccentric millionaire which was still pretty cool! Our tour guide Melanie was amazing and full of fun stories and information but it was a bit crowded. I've wanted to visit this house for a long time and I guess I was expecting more weird twists and turns and maybe even some haunted stories. Overall, really happy with the experience you really should go if you have the opportunity. That said, our tour guide was Jennifer, and we also very much enjoyed how informative and nice she was. You do get access to rooms you don't see on the house tour, but overall it wasn't QUITE our scene. Our second tour was the Spirits tour, and I'd thought it would mostly be about Victorian spirituality, and it was partially about that, but there was also a lot of ghost stories. That said, our house tour was with Freddie, and she was amazing - really lovely and informative we very much enjoyed her and the tour. So I'd say maybe don't depend on that number or email. I ended up buying a second set of tickets (totaling $200 for three people for two tours), and after four days of not hearing back, asked for the refund at the ticket counter, which they gave me without any problems. Well, I emailed and called 5 times each (plus reached out on Facebook and Twitter) and didn't get a response. I saw on the site and in the confirmation email that you could get a refund or rescheduled date by calling their number or emailing. One hiccup: We made a reservation for a Tuesday, but when an atmospheric river came through our area, it was too treacherous to drive (San Jose is more than an hour from our house). We took my mom on her 82th birthday, and overall we had a great time. So go, and ask for Victor! You will not be disappointed. The tours are meant to be taken back-to-back like I did today. The ghost tour goes places you don't get to go in the main house tour (like the attic and the basements), but if you only do the ghost tour, you miss out on almost all the main history of the house. Note for the pro traveler: do both tours if you really want to get a full view of the house. I was a little skeptical at around $70 a person for both tours after taxes, but after I was through with it I felt it was well worth it. It turned out that only my brother, my cousin, and I signed up for the ghost tour, so we got a personalized VIP tour where we got endless access to the guide, who was more than obliging toward our many queries. He was so insanely knowledgeable, had answers for pretty much everything, and was hilarious to boot. There were some legitimately creepy parts, but best of all was our tour guide Victor. After the main house tour, we went on the additional Walk of Spirits tour, which is their tour that focuses more on the ghostly aspects of the Sarah Winchester story. The house itself is a bizarro experience, with strange architecture at every turn. He was funny, with wry jokes and a well-rehearsed spiel that allowed plenty of time for questions. I went with a couple of family members in town, and on the main house tour we got Gene as our guide. The Winchester Mystery House is a lot of fun.
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