Salem, Massachusetts, was put on the map by the Salem Witch Trials, a dark moment in history when innocent people were accused of witchcraft. Today the city is home to pagan witches and rides a wave of witch tourism popularised by films like Hocus Pocus and Practical Magic. In October, Salem is a riot, hosting the month long Haunted Happenings festival.
Salem is an easy 30 minute train ride from Boston’s North Station, and October is its wildest month thanks to Haunted Happenings. Visit in late September or on an October weekday to enjoy the Halloween build up with smaller crowds, and book tours and tickets well ahead.
Haunted Happenings began as a low key weekend event in 1982. The tri-centennial of the Salem Witch Trials in 1992 and the release of Hocus Pocus in 1993 (filmed in Salem) raised the city’s profile as a tourist destination, and the festival grew with it.
Now Haunted Happenings is a month long festival running through October. The city is awash with witch themed celebrations: decorated houses, over the top shop window displays, elaborate costumes, crazy parades and witch parties. Pretty much everyone wears a witch’s hat as standard attire.
All that excitement means crowds, and lots of them. Around one million tourists flood into Salem in October alone, with high numbers spilling into September and November. In fact Salem has become a year round hot spot.
If you visit during Haunted Happenings, be prepared for long queues, and pre-book accommodation and activities well in advance.
We visited on 29 September, 48 hours before Haunted Happenings began. It was quiet for the first half of the day and filled up a little in the afternoon, but it was never too bad. It was a Monday!
Salem is a North Shore seaport town about 35 km (22 miles) northeast of Boston, and it makes a perfect day trip from Boston.
Avoid driving: The city is small, parking is limited, and during Haunted Happenings the roads into Salem are often stationary. Salem is very walkable once you arrive, with a trolley bus if you want it.
Train: The double decker train from North Station takes 30 minutes and brings you straight into the centre of Salem. Buy tickets in advance on the MBTA app. During Haunted Happenings the trains fill up, so catch an early one if possible.
Ferry: With more time, you can catch the Boston to Salem ferry for travel with a view. The crossing takes 50 minutes plus check in time (the ferry company suggests arriving an hour before departure), so it eats into your day, but it is an option.
Massachusetts · One day
Start with a hearty breakfast or brunch at Reds Sandwich Shop (15 Central Street), housed in a red wooden building that served as a Patriot meeting house before the American Revolution, when it was the London Coffee House.
Reds serves American classics: blueberry pancake stacks with bacon and maple syrup, pumpkin spiced lattes and much more. We walked straight in, but expect queues during Haunted Happenings.
Across Central Street from Reds, Emporium 32 sells wonderful witch and ghost related items, including witches’ hats, so you can choose one to wear for your day in Salem. You will be in a minority without one.
Taking a walking tour of Salem is the best way to get to grips with the city’s witch history, and there are lots to choose from. We booked the History & Hauntings Guided Tour through GetYourGuide, a two hour walk through the city’s darker chapters.
Some people on our tour were as interested in Hocus Pocus filming locations as the history. Interestingly, the film flopped on release but has become a cult classic since the 300th anniversary of the Salem Witch Trials. You will see two Hocus Pocus sights on the walking tour; the main Hocus Pocus House sits just outside downtown on Ocean Avenue, so visit that separately.
Setting the scene: Europe had been gripped by witch fever for two centuries, with thousands accused, tortured and executed. As it faded in Europe, it crossed the Atlantic to the small Puritan settlement of Salem.
Belief in God here was absolute: you accepted the word of God wholeheartedly, or you were of the devil. Against a backdrop of harsh winters, neighbourly disputes and intense rivalries, the atmosphere was one of anxiety, paranoia and suspicion, with everyone looking for monsters in their community.
When two 11 year old girls began acting as if possessed, and more girls followed, Salem’s fire and brimstone new Reverend declared them under an evil hand and pressed them to name who had cast the spell. Women who did not conform, or did not attend church, were put on trial as witches, and some men were accused opportunistically through rivalries with the powerful. In total, more than 200 people were accused.
The Salem Witch Trials took place in 1692 to 1693. Twenty people were executed: nineteen hanged on Gallows Hill, and Giles Corey pressed to death under heavy stones. Four more died in prison awaiting trial. When the hysteria subsided, all were confirmed innocent.
Cry Innocent: Try to catch this acclaimed reenactment of the trials by History Alive at the Old Town Hall, where you, the Puritan jury, hear the testimony against Bridget Bishop and decide the outcome.
Read: Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible (1953), based on the Salem Witch Trials.
Our tour began in Derby Square outside the Old Town Hall, built in 1816 to 1817 and the oldest surviving municipal building in Salem. The upper floor was a public hall with a market below, much like Faneuil Hall in Boston.
Hocus Pocus note 1: You might recognise the Old Town Hall from the film’s school dance scenes.
310 Essex Street
Next came The Witch House, once home to Jonathan Corwin, one of the judges who found the innocent guilty. He held a privileged position in society and believed the supernatural had pervaded the village. You can pay to enter, but it was fully booked on the Monday we visited, so book early.
318 Essex Street
A striking white Georgian Colonial mansion from the late 1760s, bought by Judge Nathaniel Ropes. He died of smallpox the day after colonists attacked his house with mud, stones and sticks; his daughter Abigail later died here when her dress caught fire. Both are said to haunt the house.
Hocus Pocus note 2: This is Allison’s house in the film.
The tour continued along Botts Court Lane to leafy, affluent Chestnut Street, where the doorsteps of the grand houses were bedecked with wonderful autumnal Halloween displays. Look for the plaque marking where Nathaniel Hawthorne lived; he wrote The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables. Across the road stands Hamilton Hall, the imposing red brick venue named after Alexander Hamilton, who spoke there.
Liberty Street
The last stop is a simple but moving memorial to the innocent people who were executed. Etched into the ground at its entrance are direct quotes from their testimony.
“God knows I am innocent”
“I am wholly innocent of such wickedness”
“Oh Lord, help me”
The names of the dead are carved on stone benches beside the old burying ground, where, deliberately, the judges lie just over the wall, facing those they condemned.
The Witch Trials were not something Salem was proud of, and for a long time the city distanced itself from witchcraft entirely. Three things changed that.
In 1970, eight episodes of the American TV series Bewitched were filmed in Salem, and its followers began to visit. A statue of Elizabeth Montgomery, who played Samantha, was erected for the show’s 40th anniversary; we passed it on the walking tour.
The Salem Witch Museum opened in 1972, chronicling the trials and the wider story of witches. In 2023, USA Today voted it the second biggest tourist trap in the world, so we chose to learn the history on the walking tour instead, brought to life by a guide.
Laurie Cabot opened Salem’s first witch shop in 1971, started a coven, and practised the pagan religion of Wicca. The story goes that in 1976 the Red Sox, on a losing streak, took Laurie to an away game and won, after which Governor Mike Dukakis dubbed her “the official witch of Salem”. Today many practitioners of Wicca call Salem home, and every second shop seems to be selling crystals.
A couple of places in Salem offer aura readings, where your electromagnetic energy is photographed as colours and interpreted for you. We booked the Personal Rainbow Relationship Aura Package at HausWitch on Main Street: a retro photobooth, hands on metal plates, and polaroid photos of our individual and joint auras, followed by a thoughtful interpretation from an aura technician. Our friends’ colours were completely different to ours, as they should be.
Note: Personal Rainbow appointments are released one month in advance. Booking is advised.
Beyond the festival itself, there are plenty of witchy things to do in Salem:
Witch Pix Photography Studio: Dress up with friends and pose with cauldrons and broomsticks.
The Witchery: Decorate your own broom to hang over your doorframe for protection.
Essex Street and the Witch City Mall: Shop for wands and (stuffed) black cats in a retro themed centre where everything is witchy.
Diehl Marcus & Company: Wonderful themed candles and perfumes.
The Ouija Board Museum: A private collection of hundreds of boards and movie posters.
Tarot and clairvoyant readings: Widely available around town.
Gallows Hill Museum Theatre: Immersive theatre plays.
Candlelight ghost tours: A change from the witch activities.
During Haunted Happenings and holiday periods, book activities in advance..
October is the main event, but it comes with the crowds. Our late September Monday gave us the Halloween build up, the decorated stoops and the window displays with hardly any queueing. If Haunted Happenings itself is the draw, aim for October weekdays, book everything ahead, and catch the earliest train you can manage.
In closing
Somehow, from a dark past, Salem has built a whole tourist industry around witches, despite the irony that the accused were never witches in the first place.
Today, self proclaimed witches make their homes here, with the difference that we have nothing to fear from them.
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