Even if your Scooby sense doesn’t feel sudden cold spots at the bottom of the stairs or unseen fingers clutching at your throat, a ghost tour can be an info-taining way to take in the history — or legend — of a city. I’ve taken numerous ghost tours in my travels — the best combination of story and storyteller was a Key West tour, hosted by a man whose gravelly voice could be mistaken for Robin Williams, but far scarier. The variety of spooktacular ghost tours held in the Washington area provide the ghost-hunter and the skeptic alike an opportunity to learn more about what some say is one of the most haunted cities in America.

Washington may not have anything comparable to the black double-decker elegance of London’s Necrobus tours, but this town still offers plenty of theatrics in the name of a haunted tale. None may be more theatrical than Historic Strolls, led by Greenbelt native Natalie Zanin and a rotating cast of specters. Zanin has given tours since 2001, and every year or two writes new scripts for herself and her actors, who are likely to pop up at any time and just as quickly disappear into the night.