This realistic Winchester Mystery House Tour Review helps you plan your next visit to this mansion.

The Winchester Mystery House is a 1906 house in San Jose, CA. The 160-room mansion is a tourist magnet thanks to its uncommon elements and paranormal claims.

This post includes affiliate links that will earn us commission if you make a purchase via these links.

Winchester Mystery House

This Winchester Mystery House Tour Review follows a typical exploration path. If you arrive before your tour time, you can start with a walk around the house’s grounds.

The ticket office is also the entrance to the grounds. The office is at the intersection of Winchester Boulevard and Olsen Drive. It is near a bus stop and a parking lot.

You will start your visit from the courtyard. You could choose to walk around the house in any direction. It is a loop walk. Visit the Stables, Foreman’s House, and Fruit Drying Shed.

1. Central Gardens

You will arrive at the Central Gardens after passing the massive Tank House and Pump House. The Central Gardens have lots of flowers. Some of them will be in bloom if you visit in the summer.

The gardens have a good variety of plants and flowers. You could stop to admire the beautiful roses in front of the Gas Lighting Shop and Aviary.

The area around the Egret Fountain and Carriage House is home to a few orange trees. You could not confuse them for any other trees thank to the large fruit.

2. Garden House & Tool Shed

You will make it to the Palm Drive after a quick stop at the orange trees and the Egret Fountain. The Palm Drive was once the main driveway. It gets its name from 13 Palm Trees.

At least, its name is not the Thirteen Palms Drive. There is a town near Joshua Tree named Twentynine Palms.

The Drive houses the Garden House and the Gardners Tool Shed. Some visitors go to the Shed to take part in the Video Access Tour.

But the Shed has also a few gardening tools on display. They were once in use on the house grounds. Some of them have interesting shapes and forms. Just see this Segway looking tool.

3. Winchester House

The Palm Drive and nearby walkways are a great place to enjoy a clear view of the Winchester House.

You get to see many of the signature elements of the mansion from the outside. See if you could spot the Door to Nowhere on this picture.

You can see the Serpent Fountain in front of the Entryway and the Coal Chute. The loop walk will be coming to an end once you pass the main house entrance.

You can admire two cylinder shaped balconies in the Almond Courtyard. This courtyard is right next to the house entrance.

4. Staircase to Ceiling

This next section of the Winchester Mystery House Tour Review will walk you through the house rooms.

The tour will start with a brief introduction. The tour guide will then walk the group through the garage and stables.

You will quickly pass the Staircase to the Ceiling. This staircase is one of the highlights of the house. It does exactly what its name suggests. The staircase ends up in the ceiling.

It is unclear what prompted addition of this and similar elements in the mansion. But the guides attribute it to owner’s focus on paranormal activity.

The next chamber has a stained glass exhibit. It has a collection of stained glass door and window panels. You can expect a short light show with the stained glass panels.

Some of the glass panels have exquisite ornaments.

5. Easy-Riser Staircase

The tour will continue after a brief show. You will arrive at the first Easy-Riser Staircase. This staircase is another unique element of the Winchester House. The steps of the staircase are about a third lower than the usual steps.

The design of the Easy-Riser Staircase accounted for the owner’s medical condition. It was easier for Sarah Winchester to go up and down such stairs due to her arthritic feet.

You will pass a handful rooms as you continue with the tour. One of the rooms has a massive desk with a typewriter.

The next room is right above the Gas Lighting Shop. You will get a good view of the Central Gardens from this room.

But the view is not the only noteworthy thing to explore in this room. Four spiderweb glass panels are the real highlight of the room.

6. Inner Yard

The design of the house will make it difficult for you to keep track of your location. This view of the inner yard gives you an idea. The rooms and hallways of the Winchester House have bizarre angles.

7. Master Bedroom

You will arrive in the Master Bedroom about 15 minutes into the tour. This large room has a few noteworthy elements.

You can explore a massive wooden bed frame and a matching nightstand. There is also an elegant table lamp, clock, and antique fan.

This room also has a matching chest of drawers with a mirror. If this is not enough to keep you interested, there are a few pieces of art in this bedroom.

8. Hallways

The Winchester House Tour will continue further after a stop in the bedroom. The guide will bring you through a handful of other rooms.

You will pass through this small sitting area in one of the hallways. Two diamond shaped windows are an interesting addition to this sunlit room.

A few hallways and rooms in the house have fireplaces. The fireplace tiles differ from room to room.

The tile is different from the East Coast’s House Museums, like Nichols House and Gibson House in Boston, MA. In fact, it is most similar to Bishop’s Palace and Moody Mansion in Galveston, TX.

The next room on the tour has a bamboo like furniture set. Such furniture is made of other types of wood. But it has a bamboo like appearance.

A few other house museums in the US have similar pieces of furniture. The Gibson House comes to mind right away. This room also has a collection of table and floor lamps.

9. Conservatory

Two conservatories will the next rooms on the tour. The first one is fairly small. But it has something very few single family houses have. You can see a working elevator.

The other conservatory attracts a lot of sun. This room is home to a few indoor plants. It is one of the brightest rooms in the whole house.

This next room gives you a better idea of the lighting conditions in the majority of the mansion.

But even this dark room gives you something to explore. You can take a look at a stained glass door panel. A lace curtain instead of a door is also an interesting element.

A lace curtain is a common door treatment in the Winchester Mystery House.

10. Most Expensive Window

Your next stop will be at another stained glass panel. This window is the most expensive window in the entire house. It is easy to see why. It has exquisite elements and patterns.

11. Daisy Bedroom

You will arrive in the Daisy Bedroom roughly at the halfway mark of the house tour. This room has a few interesting elements.

The stained glass panels are the first thing to explore closer. Each panel has a clear oval in the center. A mirrored symmetrical pattern surrounds the centerpiece.

You could see a similar pattern on the door panels in the Daisy Bedroom.

This bedroom has some of the best views from the house. This is hardly a surprise. Most other rooms have small windows or face inward.

But even the rooms that face the street often have disappointing views. Multi-story apartments and office buildings surround the Winchester House from nearly every side.

12. Door to Nowhere

The Door to Nowhere is another key element of this room. There are no rooms that this second floor “door” leads to. It looks more like a window.

You can get a good view of the Palm Drive and Gardeners Tool Shed. The door is hidden behind a glass panel for safety. It is also a popular spot for wedding photos.

13. Unrestored Room

The Daisy Bedroom leads to the Unrestored Room. This room displays the condition of the house right after the 1906 San Fransisco Earthquake.

You can get a good idea from the damaged ceiling, floors, and walls. There is also a short video about this earthquake.

The guides might start to rush through the rooms after the Daisy Bedroom. If this happens to you, you will pass through a few rooms and staircases very quickly.

14. Tower

Their goal is clear: to reach the tower and make room for the next tour group. The tower has a good view of the Central Gardens from above.

But the rest of the view is disappointing. Modern buildings come very close to the grounds of the Winchester House. They are in the way no matter where you look.

You will take a few normal sized staircases from the tower to the lower level. You will barely stop on the way to the ground floor rooms.

15. Dining Room

The last ten minutes of the tour will bring you through the main rooms of a typical house. You will visit the dining room, kitchen, and ballroom.

These rooms would have been a centerpiece of any other house museum tour. But this is not the case in Winchester House.

You might spend at most a few minutes in each room before going to the next one. It is easy to miss a lot of details when exploring the mansion at such pace.

16. Grand Ballroom

The Grand Ballroom is one room that deserves a longer exploration. It is one of the most memorable rooms in the whole house.

It has a wooden bookcase, a fireplace, and a grand piano. You cannot miss the massive light fixture and exquisite door panels.

The last few rooms on the tour have few memorable elements. You will see a few lamps and furniture pieces. The Winchester House Tour finishes right where you started it an hour ago.

Continue with this Winchester House Tour Review. You will learn more about ways to get to the sights, entrance requirements, and places to stay.

Getting to Winchester Mystery House

The Winchester House, or Winchester Mystery House, is at 525 S Winchester Boulevard in San Jose. The mansion is just a block away from Interstate Highway I-280.

The Winchester House is close to both Downtown San Jose and San Jose Airport. It takes under 15 minutes to reach the house by car from either of these locations without traffic. The Winchester Mystery House has two parking lots for those visiting the mansion by car.

There are also a few options to reach the Winchester Mystery House by public transport. Yet, all of these options involve a bus.

• You could take VTA Route 60 bus from Winchester Light Rail Station, Milpitas BART station, or the airport.
• VTA Route 25 bus stops about a block south of the Winchester Mystery House.
• VTA Rapid 523 bus connects the mansion with the Downtown area.

A single bus ride costs $2.5. An express bus ride is $5. It takes about 30 minutes to reach the house by bus from either Downtown or the airport.

Where to Stay in San Jose

The Winchester Mystery House is in San Jose. Thanks to this location there are a lot of places to stay you could choose from. Your budget, transport mode, and other preferences are the only limiting factors.

There are a couple of hotels in the walking distance from the mansion.

If you venture to the Downtown Area or the Airport you could greatly increase your options. There are also a lot of hotels along the El Camino Real. This area is a bit north of the house.

You could also venture north along the BART/Caltrain lines. Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Milpitas are the areas to consider in this case.

Entrance Requirements & Passes

The Winchester Mystery House is open from 10am to 4pm (7pm on weekends) throughout the year. But you can only visit the house and its grounds on a guided tour.

This Winchester Mystery House Tour Review provides a summary of available tours:

• Guided Mansion Tour is a house tour that also provides gardens access.
  • It costs $44.99 ($41.99 and $3 in fees) per adult.
  • The tour brings you through 110 rooms and takes about an hour to complete.
  • It runs every 20-30 minutes.
• Walk With Spirits Tour is a tour focused on the house’s paranormal encounters.
  • The tour’s price and duration is identical to the Guided Mansion Tour.
  • But you will visit fewer rooms in the house.
  • This tour is less frequent but runs about every hour.
• Flashlight Tour, Holiday Tour, ADA Tour, and Immersive 360 Degree Tour run on select days and time slots.
• Guided Garden Tour is an option for visitors looking to just explore the gardens. It costs $22.99 ($19.99 and $3 in fees) per adult.

This Winchester Mystery House Tour Review would like to make a few notes on the tour policies.

• The prices fluctuate based on the season and day of the week.
• Depending on the tour and your circumstances, you can refund or reschedule your ticket.
• The trade-off is the $3 per ticket convenience fee.
• You can take photos without flash on daytime tours.
• You cannot take any videos.

The tours often sell out on the weekends and in the summer despite a large number of daily tours. It is best to purchase your tickets in advance.

You can secure your preferred time and pay extra for it. Or you could purchase the tickets onsite and risk a few hours of waiting till the next available tour.

Takeaways: Winchester Mystery House

This Winchester Mystery House Tour Review documents a tour experience in this museum in San Jose. The mansion’s 160 rooms make it one of the largest houses in the United States.

The elements like Door to Nowhere, Staircase to the Ceiling, Easy-Riser Stairs, and stained glass panels are worth a visit.

But it easy to feel that the tour is too scripted, superficial, and rushed.

• New groups enter the house every 15-20 minutes. Therefore, you would not get to explore any room for more than a couple of minutes.
• The mansion’s focus on paranormal activity might help attract more visitors. But it gets quite boring after a while.
• The admission price of $45 per adult is very steep.

The Winchester Mystery House is not a usual house museum in the United States. It is most similar to Biltmore in Asheville and Casa Loma in Toronto.

You could think of the Winchester Mystery House as a combination of a house museum and an amusement park. And the latter often takes precedent over preservation.

Video is not allowed in Winchester Mystery House. As a result, there is no Winchester Mystery House Tour Video Review.

Frequently Asked Questions

Safe realist travels!