How to do spooky season the right way in Salem

In 2023, Salem welcomed 1.3 million visitors between mid-September and October. “We saw about 50 percent of our [annual] visitors for the year in 50 days,” says Ashley Judge, executive director for Destination Salem. It's a sign that the small coastal city is slowly becoming an overcrowded fall destination.

For this year, preliminary data indicates an uptick, with most visitors drawn by the explosion of tourist-friendly chills and thrills in Salem’s month-long slate of events, Haunted Happenings. 

“It’s like Mardi Gras on Halloween,” says Amy Aoude, a longtime Salem resident and owner of The Chocolate Pantry, a boutique that imports European chocolate. “You see everybody from age six to 96 in a costume. The vibe is amazing.”

We talk to residents who offer travel tips to help travelers plan their visit to Salem to explore beyond its increasingly popular haunts, and when possible, how to avoid the crowds of spooky season spectators.

Plan (way) ahead

The over-the-top Halloween number of visitors have caused consternation among some of the 42,000 people who live in the eight-square-mile of the city. Matthew Obey, who has lived there for 20 years and runs the popular @PurelySalem Instagram account, says that without tourists, the modern version of Salem wouldn’t exist. “It’s a benefit,” Obey explains. “When I first moved here, there was far less to do. Now I can walk to dozens of restaurants from my house and see great museums."

Visitors begin lining up early for Salem’s best-known attractions and its restaurants; most of the latter don’t take reservations in October. Hotels sell out a year in advance, Judge says, so look to nearby towns like Beverly, Peabody, and Marblehead for additional accommodations. All three have historic attractions, plus a variety of dining options.

To avoid traffic and parking headaches, visitors should consider taking public transportation. The Massachusetts Bay Transport Authority’s (MBTA) Commuter Rail offers frequent trains on the Newburyport/Rockport line throughout October. Its 435, 450, 451, 455, and 456 bus lines also service the city. For a fresh-air alternative—and a peek at Massachusetts’s handsome North Shore—take the ferry, which runs to and from Boston and Hingham.

(Related: These are the most haunted places in the United States.)

Spirits, specters, and witches

The witch hysteria of 1692 and 1693––which saw hundreds of people jailed and 20 innocent residents executed––accounts for less than a year of Salem’s history but remains one of the city’s most haunting chapters.

The Salem Witch Museum houses two exhibits about the trials. The Witch House, the circa-1675 home of trials judge Jonathan Corwin, is the only structure with a direct connection to the tribunals. 

More contemplative moments await at the Old Burying Point Cemetery on Charter Street, the oldest cemetery in Salem and the resting place of the city’s notable and notorious residents. Adjacent to it, the stirring Salem Witch Trials Memorial honors the victims through simple stone benches carved with their names, dates, and their means of death. Next door, the Charter Street Cemetery Welcome Center has a new trials exhibit. Meanwhile, the superb Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) examines the panic that gripped Salem through an ongoing installation of court documents and personal objects. 

(Related: Witch hunt tourism is lucrative. It also obscures a tragic history.)

A variety of walking and trolley tours highlight true crime, legends, and spectral sightings. Even some of the city’s seasonal boat tours, including a floating tiki bar—all of which depart from Pickering Wharf in Salem Harbor—get in on the fun with costumed crews or tales of high-seas malfeasance.

Purchase wiccan ritual objects or book a psychic reading in an authentic, modern-day witch shop like Pentagram. Maison Vampyre, Salem’s first vampire parlor, hosts spiritual readings, ceremonies, and an annual Vampire Ball. 

“My favorite thing to do is people watch,” Obey says. “Going downtown and seeing everyone’s costumes; it’s a lot of fun without having to wait in line for anything.” 

Visitors will find the greatest concentration of merrymakers along Essex Street, where you’ll stand cheek to jowl with pointy-hatted witches, comic book superheroes (think Wolverines and Black Widows), and the occasional larger-than-life partygoer, like the 12-foot-tall Optimus Prime that Obey spotted a few years back.  

(Related: What makes a witch? How villains like the Wicked Witch of the West set the standard.)

Visiting Salem beyond the witches

“I always recommend that upon arrival, visitors book the Salem Trolley,” Auode says. The hour-long narrated history tour gives you a lay of the land, especially around the walkable downtown. 

For families, Auode suggests a ramble or a picnic in 9-acre Salem Common, and a visit to the new Real Pirates Salem, which documents the story of the Whydah Gally, a booty-laden pirate ship that ran aground off Cape Cod in 1717.

At the Peabody Essex Museum, visitors can explore a chapter of Salem’s history that was much longer and more influential than the witch trials. The merchant trade, which began in the mid-1600s and lasted until about 1840, made Salem the wealthiest city per capita in the nascent United States. In addition to a maritime art display, visitors to Salem can also see a nearly 250-year-old Qing Dynasty merchant’s home. It was disassembled into thousands of pieces in China, shipped to the U.S., and painstakingly reconstructed onsite in Salem—with the permission of the merchant’s descendants. 

For a glimpse of Salem’s historic architecture, Obey recommends strolling Chestnut and Federal streets. Among the city’s two dozen homes that date back to the 1600s, the House of the Seven Gables, on Derby Street, is the most famous. Built in 1668 for a wealthy merchant, it inspired the eponymous novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, great-grandson of witch trials judge John Hathorne. 

“Most people don’t know that we have a lot of waterfront parks,” Obey says. On Derby Wharf, you can board a 171-foot replica of the Friendship, a merchant vessel that made 15 voyages to the Far East and Europe during trade’s golden years. Just over a mile from the city center, walk the trails and snap photos of a circa-1870 lighthouse at Winter Island Park. Nearby Salem Willows Park, built in 1858, is a sweet slice of Americana, with an arcade, food stands, and a seaside promenade. 

An October visit to Salem, Aoude says, requires equal parts planning, spontaneity, and patience. “Do a little research. Find the things you most want to do and book them in advance,” she says. “But save time to roam without a plan. There’s no way you can be disappointed.”