Experiencing Salem At Halloween – This Is What It’s Like

Magical or mad – witch would it be?

With my parents joining us on our road trip from mid-September to mid-October in Maine and Vermont, Shae and I decided to stick around in New England for an additional couple of weeks so that we could spend Halloween in Salem, MA.

Salem is best known for the Witch Trials that took place from February 1692 to May 1693. It’s a horrific piece of history in terms of how people were treated, but in recent decades the city has embraced that part of its history and has become the place to visit for all things witchy, especially over Halloween.

That approach has led to a huge increase in the city’s popularity during Halloween and the weeks leading up to it. In fact, in both 2023 (when we visited) and 2022, more than 1 million people visited Salem during the month of October. To put that into perspective, Salem normally has ~45,000 residents which means more than 20 times that many people visit.

We were therefore a little concerned about what it would be like. Would the sidewalks and roads in Salem be packed, making it an unpleasant experience? Would it be a fun and magical experience with everyone dressed up and having a great time? Or would it be something else entirely?

Here’s what we found when visiting Salem at Halloween in 2023.

Logistics – Getting To And/Or Staying In Salem At Halloween

We’d heard some nightmare stories about trying to visit Salem during Halloween, from long lines of cars getting into the city to there being no parking and more.

As a result, we decided not to stay elsewhere and drive in each day as we could picture that being an exercise in frustration. That meant one of our only options was to stay downtown so that we could walk everywhere. As you might expect though, that decision doesn’t come cheaply.

We booked three nights at the Hampton Inn Salem (you can read my review here) which was charging more than $750 per night. That’s ridiculously expensive, so there was no way we were paying that. Thankfully we had some Hilton free night certificates and points we could redeem so that we wouldn’t have to pay anything out of pocket other than the $22 per night parking fee.

The hotel was charging 70,000 points per night. Hilton frequently sells its points for 0.5cpp (cents per point), so during those promotions you could buy 70,000 points for $350 – that’s how many points they were charging per night. That’s still extremely expensive, but it’s much more reasonable than the $750 per night cash rate for that same room.

In hindsight, driving in to Salem might not have been too bad. When driving into the city the day before Halloween, there was a little bit of traffic but nothing that seemed out of the ordinary considering it was rush hour. I imagine driving in on October 31 itself would be different, but when we were walking around it didn’t feel like there was as much traffic as we’d expected. The bigger problem would likely have been finding a parking space once getting to the city.

If you can’t afford to stay downtown, the best option would probably be to stay in Boston and get the train in. That takes ~30 minutes and arrives at the Salem Train & Bus Station on Bridge St. It’s then only a 10-15 minute walk to everything downtown, so it wouldn’t matter that you didn’t have a car. I’m not sure how late trains run though, so you’d want to check on your transportation options back out of the city if you’re planning on staying late for a ghost tour or other festivities.

What The Vibe Was Like

The general vibe in Salem at Halloween wasn’t quite what I anticipated. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure what I expected it to be like and it’s not like there was a bad vibe.

For starters, it didn’t seem as busy in the city as news reports had made things out to be. Sure, there were lots more people milling around than when we’d visited Salem a couple of times in the past, but it didn’t feel slammed. If you hate large crowds where you can’t move but don’t mind busy cities, I think you’d be fine experiencing a Salem Halloween.

Everyone was good natured and no one seemed to be getting impatient. People in cars weren’t driving ridiculously which was a pleasant surprise considering Massachusetts drivers are known as Massholes for a reason.

So why wasn’t it quite what I anticipated? I think it’s because it didn’t have the energy that I thought it would. When we visited New Orleans during Mardi Gras in February 2020, there was something special about the energy throughout the city. Even though we did our own thing then rather than going all-in on the experience, there was a buzz in the atmosphere and it was a fun place to be.

Salem on the other hand seemed a little more subdued. That’s not necessarily a bad thing – I’m a fairly chilled person who’s somewhat of an introvert, so not having everything be completely hectic is a good thing. There just wasn’t much of a vibe.

Even something as simple as having recorded music and/or live bands playing would help bring more atmosphere to the festivities while simultaneously helping solve another problem. As you walk around downtown Salem at Halloween, pretty much the only thing you hear is street preachers on loud hailers telling everyone they’re going to hell. As soon as you’re out of earshot of one of them, you’re within earshot of another person telling you you’re going to hell. While that’s (sadly) something to be expected at an event like this, it would be useful to have loud music playing to help drown them out. Something similar happens at Mardi Gras in New Orleans and between the live music, parades, music from bars and general hubbub there, the fire and brimstone messages don’t have a chance to spoil the atmosphere.

Museums In Salem

Most of Salem’s main attractions are witch-related, with quite a few of them being museums. One that isn’t witch-themed is the Peabody Essex art museum; we didn’t visit there as we’re generally not big art museum people, but it’s highly rated and so it’s probably worth a stop if you do enjoy art museums.

Knowing how busy things would be at Halloween, Shae and I did a day trip to Salem from Boston in September to visit some of its museums. It was a rainy day too, so that helped reduce how crowded some of the “attractions” would be.

I put “attractions” in quotation marks though because there’s not much that’s attractive about them. They range from being a waste of money to probably being worth a visit but still being more expensive than warranted.

Salem Witch Museum

Salem Witch Museum falls into that latter category. I’m kind of glad we visited, but it feels like they overcharge you for what you get. Tickets were $17.50 for adults, $16 for seniors and $14.50 for children ages 3-14. Something important to note is that tickets are available online-only and you have to buy tickets on the day you plan to visit. They’re available from midnight of each day, so if you want to visit over Halloween you’ll likely want to be online at midnight to ensure you get a ticket.

When it’s your time slot, you enter an auditorium and take a seat. There are wax models in various scenes surrounding the room, with a recorded narrator sharing the history of the Salem witch trials.

To be fair to the museum, this part is done pretty well. It covers the witch trials fairly comprehensively and provides a lot of context about what happened during those fateful 15 months. It’s interesting and is good for people of all ages; I don’t think it’s too graphic for younger children seeing as the wax models don’t move (i.e. you don’t see any of the models swinging from a noose or anything like that). However, if your child is particularly sensitive to that kind of thing, you might want to visit yourself first in order to assess the content.

That part lasts 20 minutes, then you move on into a room which has a display about witchcraft over the course of history.

There was a guide in this room who shared some information about witchcraft over the years and how it had been portrayed in the media, but it wasn’t anything particularly insightful. She talked for about 15 minutes, then we were given a couple of minutes to actually look at the displays in the room before we were shuffled out.

Much of the information in that room wasn’t related to the Salem witch trials, instead consisting of photos from books, TV shows and movies like The Wizard Of Oz, as well as artefacts from the area that were tangentially related to witchcraft.

And that was it.

The 20 minute wax display and 20 minutes in a sparse room with very little information is what you get for your $17.50 ticket price. Seeing as they move you out of each room after 20 minutes, it’s not like you can even linger for longer to get more from your experience.

Salem Wax Museum

The Salem Witch Museum has wax models for half of the “experience”, but there’s a separate Salem Wax Museum. Tickets cost $12 for adults and $10 for young people and seniors, or you can pay $20 for adults and $18 for young people and seniors for a combo ticket which also includes admission to Salem Witch Village.

Please – save your money and don’t waste it on either of those attractions. The Salem Wax Museum in particular was laughably poor. The wax models themselves weren’t awful, but there was very little information about each scene and it’s just not a good museum. We spent 15 minutes there walking through and that was 15 minutes too long.

Salem Witch Village

We paid for that combo ticket which includes admission to the Salem Witch Village which is in a building opposite the Salem Wax Museum. The Salem Witch Village was a little better than the wax museum, but not to a large degree. It’s another attraction with wax models, but with this one you walk through different scenes with a recorded narrator sharing the story of the people you’re looking at.

The information was interesting enough and it felt more professionally done than its partnering wax museum, but it also felt rushed. That’s because the narration is on a timer, so once one scene has ended you have to hurry along to the next scene to get there before that next story starts.

With that narration being on a timer, our visit to the Salem Witch Village lasted 15 minutes. That means our $18 per person combo ticket got us a total of 30 minutes of “entertainment” at the Salem Wax Museum and Salem Witch Village – even less time than we spent at the Salem Witch Museum earlier that day. Sure, you could spend more time at the wax museum if you want, but you really won’t want to!

Free Things To Do In Salem

If you don’t want to waste your money on some mediocre museums, there are quite a few free things to do in Salem.

Salem Witch Trials Memorial / Charter Street Cemetery

It’s not known where the people convicted of being witches and who were subsequently hung are buried. They’re not buried in Charter Street Cemetery which is downtown and can be visited during daylight hours.

Although they weren’t buried there, the Salem Witch Trials Memorial has been set up along the walls outside the cemetery.

The memorial honors those who were unjustly killed during the Salem Witch Trials.

East India Square Fountain

Essex Street is a pedestrian thoroughfare in downtown Salem. Between the Peabody Essex Museum and Witch City Mall is the East India Square Fountain. The fountain was designed by John Collins and shows the changes in the topography of Salem over time.

Bewitched Sculpture

A few episodes of the classic TV show Bewitched were filmed in Salem and almost 20 years ago a Bewitched sculpture was unveiled in Lappin Park downtown.

The Witch House At Salem

One of the most popular photo ops in Salem seemed to be The Witch House At Salem. The home dates back to the 1600s, but wasn’t the site of any witch activity. It was however the home of Jonathan Corwin who was one of the judges during the Salem Witch Trials.

We didn’t do it as it was sold out, but you can take a self-guided tour of the house for $9 for adults and $5 for children ages 6+.

Other Things To Do In Salem

Ghost Tour

A paid-for activity that can be worth doing in Salem is a ghost tour. Shae and I went on one together on Halloween night, while Shae went on an additional one with a slightly different theme the night before.

The first tour Shae did was the Mysteries and Murders of Salem Guided Night-Time Walking Tour which she booked through Viator for $45. The tour we did together was History and Hauntings of Salem Guided Walking Tour which we also booked through Viator and was a similar price.

While not cheap, the tours were both interesting and provided a lot of information and context about both the Salem Witch Trials and the city’s history. The tour guide on the History and Hauntings of Salem Guided Walking Tour was excellent – fun, enthusiastic and knowledgeable. I should also note that I think the cost of the tours was increased due to it being Halloween – it looks like they’re cheaper at other times of the year.

Food & Drink In Salem

Passage To India

The night we arrived in Salem we ordered dinner from Passage To India using Uber Eats. We both love Indian food and it was only a short walk from our hotel to pick it up.

We shared a chicken tikka masala and garlic naan, while I also got a couple of meat samosas. All of the food was delicious, so I can highly recommend getting dinner from there if you like curries.

East Regiment Beer Company

Seeing as we had our dog Truffles with us, we wanted to find as many pet-friendly things to do as possible. East Regiment Beer Company has a pet-friendly patio, so we stopped there for a drink at lunchtime on Halloween. Ordinarily it would’ve been too cool to sit outside, but their patio is enclosed and has heaters, so we were nice and cozy. In fact, the heaters worked so well that we had to take off our jackets.

They had a pretty good selection of different beers available, with something for pretty much everyone’s tastes.

As is usually the case, I went for a flight. While I normally like to pick my own beers, I went with their seasonal flight which consisted of:

• Harvest Sipper – an apple & cranberry seltzer
• Reggie Pump(kin) – a pumpkin hefeweizen
• BAF Porter – a porter
• Mosaic Reloaded – a double IPA

The pumpkin hefeweizen and porter were my favorites.

Couch Dog Brewing Co

While taking Truffles out for a walk one day, we happened to go past Couch Dog Brewing Co which was around the corner from our hotel. They had a sign outside saying you can BYOF (Bring Your Own Food) and that they’re dog-friendly, so Shae and I returned later that day with Truffles to have a drink.

It was fairly quiet when we first arrived, but quite a few more people came to grab a drink soon after, including several other pup parents.

I’m not a big fan of chai, but I was curious about their chai stout as I do like stouts. Unfortunately they were out of that and their five spice wheat beer.

There were several other good-sounding beers though, so I got a flight of four of them (clockwise from the top):

• Portergeist
• Snob of the People IPA
• APA Sneak Attack
• Session Rice Ale w/ Yuzu

The porter was my favorite, but their IPA was good too.

Final Thoughts

If you’re a big fan of Halloween, you’ll have a great time visiting Salem at the end of October. Even if you’re not a huge Halloween person, it can still be a fun experience – just give some of their museums a miss and don’t expect a Mardi Gras-link atmosphere.