Attention witches, warlocks, and those who love Hocus Pocus and History! Salem, Massachusetts during Halloween NEEDS to be on your bucket list. Let’s waste no time ghouls and let’s dive right into your complete Salem Halloween time guide.
This post may contain affiliate links, included those from Amazon and Travelpayouts. As an Amazon Associate, and user of Travelpayouts, I earn from qualifying purchases and bookings. This means that if you purchase through one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Please see my full disclosure statement here.
First, grab your witches hat! I bought a cool knit one while in Salem, but if you want to purchase a similar one ahead of time, and for a cheaper price – this is a very similar replica of the knit hat I purchased, as well as the one you’ll see walking around Salem quite often. It also comes in many more colors when purchasing online.
Where to Stay During Halloween
Hotels + Airbnbs in Town
Biggest advice: Book as ahead of time as possible. Accommodation fills up quickly around this time of the year, and the prices don’t really drop.
If you’re going to visit Salem on Halloween, like we did, or even in the month of October, prices are going to be very high to stay. Unfortunately, businesses and property owners know that they can hike up prices. People are going to visit no matter what. The good news is that there are other options. What we did to combat high accommodation prices was to stay just outside of town.
Hotels + Airbnbs outside of Town
So like I said above, to combat high accommodation prices inside Salem itself, we looked at surrounding areas. Some areas that made our list were Boston, Peabody, Rockport, and Gloucester. All three locations offered both airbnbs and hotels, and were no more than about 40 minutes away from Salem.
After all the research we did, which included hotel + airbnb prices, as well as distance from Salem, we landed on an airbnb in Gloucester. Gloucester is only roughly a 30 minute drive from Salem if you were to plug it into a gps. However, from our airbnb to where we parked our car, it took us less than 30 minutes to get there. And about the same amount of time to get back.
We particularly liked this option because it allowed us to explore another part of Massachusetts, and Gloucester is a cool little fish town. The movie The Perfect Storm is actually based on a fishing crew from Gloucester.
Because Salem, Gloucester, and Boston were all close in proximity, we were even able to spend a day in Boston. If you also have time for a quick trip to Boston, be sure to check out our quick trip Boston guide here.
Accommodation Conclusions
Pros of booking outside of town vs in town is accommodations will be cheaper. Cons are that, unless you drove your own vehicle there, you will have to rent a car in order to drive to Salem. We still found it cheaper to rent a car and stay outside of town vs in town at the time of planning our trip.
Transportation in Salem
Do you need a car?
This is dependent on where you stay. If you choose to stay in town, Salem is very walkable. In that scenario you most likely do not need a car unless you plan on visiting surrounding areas. If you drive to Salem, I do believe hotels and airbnbs would be able to direct you on where to park your car.
If you choose to stay outside of town, we highly recommend having a car.
Is there parking?
We did see street parking, as well as, parking lots available in the heart of Salem to park your car. However, we did notice that these filled up very fast. So you would either have to get to Salem pretty early, or drive around for a bit to find parking.
What we did find, was a parking garage, only about a ten minute walk to the heart of Salem. The best part? It only cost us $2 for the whole day to park! This is weekend rate, so Saturday and Sunday. If you plan on parking here Monday through Friday, you’ll have to pay a rate of $5. This included Halloween day! What a steal! It’s called the Salem Station Parking Garage. We highly recommend parking here if you don’t mind walking. To give you an idea, a walk from the parking garage to the Witch House is 8 minutes.
We got to the parking garage at 8 or 9 am, and there was plentyyy of parking. The one thing to keep in mind though is, if you plan on parking here on Halloween day, you can’t leave the parking garage until 11:30 pm. This is also the stop for a lot of rail and buses coming to and from Salem.
Is there public transit?
There is! We did not end up taking any public transit this trip, but Salem and surrounding areas offer local shuttles and express shuttles. Just look into those around the area that you’re staying. Remember to keep in mind the times it runs, as you don’t want to get stuck.
Rail trains are also available. This is the Newberry/Rockport Line. Again make sure you look into run times. As stated above, both come in and out of the Salem Station Parking Garage.
Things To Do When Visiting Salem During Halloween
Now onto the fun part – all the fun things Salem has to offer to do! There’s something for everyone. Here’s all the things we suggest and were able to fit into our Salem itinerary. We spent two days and two nights exploring Salem.
Walking Tours
There are SO many options for walking tours in Salem. Both during the day, and at night. Tours to fill those souls that love the scary stuff, and those historians.
We opted for a night time ghost tour and our guide was PHENOMENAL. It was the Salem Night Ghost Tour. Pretty simple name. But, our tour guide went over so much history dating back to the witch trials as well as other fun tidbits of ghost sightings and other historical events and people of Salem. She was great. The tour was just over an hour long, and was reasonably priced. We booked ours on trip advisor and this is the exact tour we booked. We won’t go into too much detail here, as we don’t want to ruin anything…just know you have to experience this walking tour, or any walking tour.
Salem Witch Museum
If you want a cool presentation on the Salem Witch Trials, we recommend visiting here. Tickets are less than $20 USD per adult. Tickets are available online only, and only can be made day of. So at midnight the day you want to visit, is when tickets become available. If you’re visiting on or around Halloween, we do recommend setting your alarm for midnight. The first day we went to purchase them early in the morning when we woke up, they were already sold out. So, we had to retry the following day, at midnight, and were able to purchase tickets.
You will have a check in time with your tickets, especially in October, be sure to show up on time. You will have to wait in a line at the front for some time, but it all goes very smoothly.
Chestnut Street
Chestnut street is a wide street with beautiful homes. Think like probably 3 cars wide. This street has the most exquisite brick homes and is treelined which makes for some beautiful fall foliage. It is actually very much low key decorated for halloween. We noticed this when we walked down during the day. But when we returned on Halloween night, everyone was out handing out candy and it was so lively. With residence and trick or treaters alike, it truly felt like a halloween movie. Like the trick or treating scenes in Hocus Pocus. We even got candy from a few very friendly residence just as passerby-er’s. If you have a chance to walk down this street on Halloween night, DO IT. Grab a cup of coffee before hand, throw on your witches hat, and just take it in, you won’t regret it.
Coffee Shops + Shopping
There is definitely no shortage of coffee shops and store for those caffeine addicts (hello, us!) or those who love to window shop and buy a few cool souvenirs (hello, also us!).
A few of our favorite coffee shops we visited were:
- Dunkin’ Donuts: Of course, this is a New England staple. It’s also my favorite coffee chain, and I was very pleased that there was no shortage in any place we visited.
- Spells Coffee Shop: This coffee shop isn’t really in the heart of Salem, where you’ll most likely be doing most of your walking. But, it is on the way. They had really good coffee, and quite a few breakfast items and pastries. We purchased a maple cinnamon latte, a brown sugar toffee latte, and some avocado toast. The coffee shop is quite small, but it was super unique.
- Kakawa Chocolate House: This is a speciality chocolate house, located on Essex street. More into Salem. Much bigger than the Spells Coffee Shop, they serve coffee, or chocolate elixirs, and various types of chocolates. A good place to stop in to warm up with a warm drink and sweet treat. As October can be beautiful weather wise, but also can be quite rainy and cold. Here we got just a black coffee and a mocha, and both were perfect. They do also have locations in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
- Jaho Artisan Coffee: There are a few of these locations in Salem – as well as in Boston, Cambridge, and Tokyo. Two locations in Salem are open later until 11pm, while one location is only open until 5pm. The location we visited was the one on Derby Street, their original location. This one is open late, and we did go late, as we wanted to get out of the rain. It was very lively, and they served coffees, teas, alcoholic drinks, and a wide array of foods.
Witch House
The witch house was home to Judge Jonathon Corwin who lived in the late 1600s and early 1700s. This house is one of the only structures still tied to the Salem Witch Trials. This makes it a pretty cool part of history. Pictures of the house can be taken outside, but none can be taken inside. You do need tickets to enter the Witch house. These can be bought online, and in fact, have to be if you’re visiting in October. The self guided adult tickets are only $12, so it’s pretty reasonable. The house is also fairly small – so it won’t take up to much of your day when visiting.
Hocus Pocus Film Sites
So if Hocus Pocus is your favorite Halloween movie, like mine, you’ll absolutely love visited all the film sites of this great movie. Salem was, after all, where the film was based. We actually have a whole separate post on this, so if this is something you want to do on your next trip to Salem, be sure to check out our post on all the filming sites from the great halloween classic here.
Grave Sites + Walk Around
Walk around and find one of the many grave sites. With coffee in hand, stroll through and look at the tombstones – you’ll be amazed at how old they date back to! We also liked to walk around with no plan and check out all the Halloween decor.
Haunting Happenings
Check out all the happenings and special events that Salem hosts around Halloween time. Check out Salems website here for a full list of all the Salem has to offer during Halloween. Salem really comes alive Halloween night with live music, vendors, and everyone dressed up.
We hope you enjoy your Halloween season, whether or not it takes you to Salem. But we surely hope it does!
2 thoughts on “Salem, Massachusetts; Your Complete Halloween Time Guide”
Comments are closed.