Staying safe on a night tour

Do this before you pay, not after. Two questions: where does the tour end, and what's running at that time?

Plenty of ghost walks end somewhere other than where they started. Most of the London ghost walks on our list end somewhere other than where they began. In Monteverde, the Cafe Ancestros night walk is about 15 minutes out of town, and most walks there don't include transport. The product page usually says. If it doesn't, the reviews will.

Then check the trains. They vary more than people expect:

• New York: the MTA says the subway runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. The easy one.
• London: the Night Tube runs only on Friday and Saturday nights, around midnight to 5:30 a.m., on the Victoria, Jubilee, Central, Northern and Piccadilly lines. Other nights it's night buses.
• Paris: RATP gives metro hours of about 5:30 a.m. to 1:15 a.m., and to about 2:15 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. After that, 47 Noctilien night bus routes run from about 12:30 to 5:30 a.m.
• Barcelona: TMB runs the metro to midnight Monday to Thursday and Sunday, to 2 a.m. on Fridays, and all night from Saturday into Sunday.
• Lisbon: the metro closes at 1 a.m. every day, weekends included. A five-hour pub crawl won't get you home on it.
• Tokyo: GO TOKYO says your last train will probably leave between 11:30 p.m. and 12:30 a.m. Miss it and you're in a taxi or waiting for the 5 a.m. first train.

Every city page on this site has a "getting back late" section with the local details. Read it. It takes a minute.

One more thing: put your phone on charge before you go out. Your map, your taxi app and your ticket are all on it, and night tours drain batteries with photos and the flashlight.

The rule is the same almost everywhere. Take a licensed taxi from a rank, hail one where that's legal, or book through an app. Don't get into a car whose driver walked up to you.

London puts it bluntly. Visit London says only black cabs can be hailed in the street, a lit yellow TAXI sign means it's free, and every black cab takes cards with no surcharge. Minicabs have to be booked in advance. An unbooked minicab that picks you up outside a club is unlicensed and uninsured. Clubs often have a licensed operator inside who can book one for you.

In Italy, the UK Foreign Office says to use only licensed taxis, which have a roof sign and the company's name and number on the side, and to call one, use an app or go to a rank. In Spain it says to stick to licensed taxis or companies you recognise, and that passengers in unlicensed ones can be fined up to $672 (€600).

Mexico City is the one where this matters most. The US State Department rates it "exercise increased caution" for crime and asks for extra caution at night outside the busy tourist areas. Its own employees in Mexico may not hail taxis on the street and must use dispatched cars, app rides or regulated taxi stands. That's a sensible rule for anyone. Book the ride before the tour ends.

Know the late-night pricing, too. In Singapore, the Land Transport Authority adds 50% to the meter from midnight to 5:59 a.m., and a $3.90 (€3.50; S$5) surcharge applies to taxis from Mandai, home of the Night Safari, until midnight. Leaving at 11:55 p.m. and at 12:05 a.m. are not the same price.

Most pub crawls are fine. They're also the one kind of night tour where the tour itself can be the problem, because by the fourth bar nobody, including you, is paying much attention.

The UK Foreign Office warns about drink spiking in several of our countries. For Italy: don't take drinks from strangers or leave yours unattended, and victims of spiked drinks have been robbed and sometimes assaulted. For Spain it names GHB and liquid ecstasy, and says to buy your own drinks and keep them in sight. For Thailand it says spiking happens in tourist areas, with male and female victims, and warns about methanol in alcoholic drinks, which you can't taste or smell. It also notes, for all three countries, that bar drinks are often stronger than in the UK. Pour accordingly.

Some practical habits. Eat first; most crawls don't include food. Decide how you're getting home before the first shot, not after the last one. Keep the guide's number. And if a crawl ends at a club at 2 a.m., you don't have to go in. Leaving at the last bar is allowed.

Street drinking is its own trap. In Spain, the Foreign Office says drinking alcohol in the street is illegal in some areas, with on-the-spot fines. Savannah's to-go cup ordinance lets you carry one drink in a paper or plastic cup of up to 16 ounces in the historic district, which is why so many tours there are "booze and boos". Ask before you assume either way.

If you want the bars without the crawl, a night food tour gets you a few drinks, a full stomach and a smaller group.

Falls are the injury nobody plans for. Cobbles, steps, tree roots, kerbs you didn't see. A Georgetown ghost walk in Washington, DC warns on its product page about hills, uneven brick and steps. The Goodsprings ghost hunt outside Las Vegas requires closed-toe shoes. Wear real shoes on every night tour. Sandals are for dinner.

Out of town, it's darker than you think. On rainforest walks in Costa Rica the operators hand out flashlights, but the walk back along the road to your taxi isn't on the tour. Carry your own light. In Gettysburg, the investigation tours mean driving dark country roads late. Our what to bring guide covers the gear.

Cemeteries close. Savannah's Colonial Park Cemetery, for example, is open to pedestrians from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the warmer months and to 5 p.m. in winter, per the city. A ghost tour that "visits" a cemetery at night usually means standing at the railings. The few that go inside, like the New Orleans cemetery bus, are selling exactly that access. Don't go back later on your own to climb a fence. You'd be trespassing, and the ground is worse than it looks.

Venice deserves its own warning. Alleys end in canals, and it's easy to get lost at night. Keep your phone charged and don't cut through a dark courtyard you don't know.

Some ghost walks take up to 50 people. That's a crowd standing still in a dark street, all looking the same way. That's a pickpocket's ideal audience. Keep your phone in a front pocket or a zipped bag, and your bag in front of you.

The Foreign Office describes the usual tricks. In Spain, thieves use distraction and often work in teams, and some pose as police and ask to see your wallet, which real officers won't do. In Italy, bag-snatching and pickpocketing are highest in city centres and at major sights, which is exactly where night tours gather. In Thailand, it advises care in open transport like tuk-tuks, which matters on the Bangkok tuk-tuk night tours at the top of our rankings.

Amsterdam is a special case. The city's rules for guided tours in the centre cap groups at 15, say tours must finish by 10 p.m., ban amplified sound, and forbid tours from passing prostitution windows. Guides must wear a badge. Anyone recruiting a "tour" in the street is breaking the rules, so walk past them. If the tour you've booked doesn't look like it follows these rules, that tells you something.

Check the age limit before you book. It's on the product page, and guides do turn people away at the meeting point.

From the tours we rank: Amsterdam's small-group Red Light District walk doesn't take under-14s. The New Orleans true crime and ghost walk is adults only. The St. Augustine pub tours and the Las Vegas club crawl are 21 and up. All five Mauna Kea stargazing tours are 13 and over, and the Center for Maunakea Stewardship advises that under-13s not go above the visitor station at 9,200 ft at all. In Puerto Rico, the main Fajardo bio bay kayak operators set a minimum age of 6.

The tours that work best for children are the ones where the night shows them something: frogs and sleeping birds in the rainforest, glowing water, a lit-up city from a boat. Ghost stories are hit and miss under ten. Our family list only includes tours the product page doesn't flag as unsuitable for children and whose stated minimum age is 8 or lower.

And plan for the late finish. An 8 p.m. start with a two-hour walk means a tired child at 10 p.m., a long way from the hotel. Pick early slots, or tours with hotel drop-off.