Our Tours
This year's tour season begins May 2024.
Tickets are On Sale Now!
Stay tuned into our social media & this site for announcements about special events throughout the season as well.
You can also book private tours any time of year by sending us a message *here*.
*Special Event Alert* JUNE 8th @ 4pm
July 1901 . . . in the shadow of the glittering Pan-American Exposition lies a zone of darker pleasures: the notorious Tenderloin District, where vice is the main attraction. As the crowds and the summer heat oppress, women in prostitution begin turning up dead, their bodies carved with strange symbols. Has Jack the Ripper himself come to Buffalo?
Join No Illusions Tours and Special Guest Robert Brighton for an unforgettable exploration of the underbelly of Gilded Age Buffalo—the setting for Brighton’s gripping, award-winning novel ‘The Buffalo Butcher’. You’ll walk the streets and the back alleys of what was once Buffalo's Tenderloin, and see the locations where the Buffalo Butcher’s victims were found, learning things about your city that you probably didn’t know . . . but which you will never forget! The tour will also offer details on the time period to help contextualize the crimes.
At the conclusion of the ninety-minute tour, there will be an opportunity (but never an obligation) to acquire inscribed copies of Robert Brighton’s books.
Spots are incredibly limited for this one night event, so act fast to ensure you don't miss out on this unique opportunity!
Please note that due to content this tour will only be open to those 16 and older.
May 11th: Join us for a very special season opener at Buffalo's beautiful park-like cemetery, Forest Lawn. On this tour we'll celebrate No Illusions 5th Anniversary and start of the 6th season by telling the stories of some of Buffalo's most prominent women at their final resting places. You 'll hear all about The Mother of Detective Fiction, an early Civil Rights Activist, Art Nouveau Artists, the creator of America's 1st Childcare Center, the 1st Professional Female Architect in the U.S., and more! The ticket price will also include a $5 donation to the Family Justice Center of Erie County and a small treat from a local bakery to celebrate! Tickets on Sale Now. In our "Book Here" link.
Buffalo's Favorite Daughters
This is a three part series of walking tours showcasing Buffalo's storythrough the remarkable women that have lived and worked here. You'll hear stories of early trailblazers in business, art, charity and more. Our tour stars (or Badass Buffalo Babes as we like to call them) include a pioneer of the NAACP, America's 1st professional female architect, the "First Lady of American Theater", Buffalo's 1st WOC business owner, the creator of America's first childcare center, our youngest American First Lady, the author of the First American Best seller, and many more.
There is a 2 1/2 hour full length tour, and two shorter tours at 1 hour (Downtown) and 1 1/2 hour (Allentown).
Buffalo Lit
This walking tour tells Buffalo's story through the lives of five authors who lived here; how the city helped to shape them and their writing and how they in turn helped to shape the city.
Our stops will tell the story of William Wells Brown's introduction to the Abolition movement and his first forays in writing and lecturing in his nine years in the city and Mark Twain's time with a Buffalo newspaper where he ultimately decided novel-writing was his next step. You'll also hear about Marian deForest's career as one of Buffalo's first female journalists and a popular playwright, Anna Katherine Green's life as America's first best selling author and Mother of the Detective novel and F. Scott Fitzgerald's influential Buffalo childhood. This tour is about 1 1/2 hours.
Buffalo Anomalies
This October only walking tour tells the story of Buffalo through its strange and unusual events. We'll tell you the tales of Buffalo's oldest cemetery and the city and county's only public hanging. You'll also hear about the assassination of one president and inauguration of another as well as the invention of the electric chair and the crime and trial of the first person to succumb to it. There are also two ghost stories and a couple of lighter stops. The tour lasts 2 hours.
Buffalo Anomalies: Abridged
This shorter version includes three stories from the full tour as well as a brand new stop at the Statler.
