Salem, Massachusetts is greatest recognized for the Salem Witch Trials which occurred on this Coastal Massachusetts city over 325 years in the past. Today, a couple of million individuals go to Salem annually, particularly throughout October, for all issues witchy. But this charming seaport city doesn’t must be spooky or creepy. In reality, there are many issues to do in Salem with youngsters that don’t have something to do with witches.
Personally, we aren’t into the macabre, spooky, or haunted; nor am I drawn to the Halloween-themed retailers or New Age and Wiccan boutiques scattered all through the city. However, we do benefit from the historical past of the city, the museums, the harborfront, the lovable retailers, and the great eating places. Together, these make Salem a fantastic day journey vacation spot.
Located simply half-hour north of Boston, Salem is a straightforward day journey from Boston, Portland, ME, Portsmouth, NH, and even our residence in Rhode Island. You can even mix it with a day in close by Gloucester.
What is the Best Time to Visit Salem, MA?
If you do like all issues spooky, Salem remains to be a fantastic Halloween vacation spot in the course of the city’s month-long “Haunted Happenings” in October, with occasions like parades, avenue gala’s, household movie nights on the widespread, lantern excursions, costume balls, haunted homes, reside music, and chilling theatrical performances.
Personally, we like to go to in September or early November, when the leaves are altering colour and the Salem Common is lined with yellow Ginkgo leaves. Just remember the fact that in the event you go to in the course of the low season, a number of the city’s prime sights, just like the Salem Trolley and harbor boat excursions on the Schooner Fame might be closed for the season.
Things to do in Salem with Kids
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Salem Maritime National Historic Site
One of our favourite issues to do in Salem with youngsters is spending time on the waterfront. I’d advocate stopping into the Salem Visitor Center if you arrive and join a tour of the Friendship of Salem, a duplicate of a 1797 East Indiaman crusing vessel now operated by the National Park Rangers.
They solely enable 25 individuals at a time onto the Friendship on guided excursions solely so it’s a good suggestion to make the Visitor Center your first cease in Salem to get signed up. You can even choose up a Junior Ranger booklet to finish and return for a Junior Ranger badge.
The Salem Maritime National Historic web site can also be a fantastic place for youths simply to run round and have enjoyable. We had been fairly bewitched by the wharf and ended up spending not less than an hour right here chasing pigeons, taking within the view, and exploring all the academic reveals alongside the wharf that designate the positioning’s historical past in commerce and cotton manufacturing.
Salem Witch Museum
Because Salem’s major draw is the witch trials, we’ve made the compulsory cease on the Salem Witch Museum. While there are a lot of museums in Salem devoted to the witch trials — the Witch House, the Witch Dungeon Museum, the Witch Trials Memorial, the Witch History Museum — the Salem Witch Museum is heralded as Salem’s most visited museum.
Not fairly a museum within the conventional sense, if you first enter you be part of a “presentation” that begins at common intervals. I’ve to say, it wasn’t in any respect what I anticipated. My assumption was that there can be some kind of film or interactive presentation that informed the historical past of witch trials with out sensationalizing or over-dramatizing the satan worship/witchcraft side because it was later confirmed to be all a falsehood began by a gaggle of ladies that had been both bored or caught up in mass hysteria.
Instead, once we entered the presentation we had been seated in chairs set surrounding a witch’s circle in crimson on the ground within the heart. The lights exit and the soundtrack comes on, lighting up a sequence of dioramas on the outskirts of the room. The presentation begins out by highlighting a statue of Satan with a creepy voice speaking about satan worship and witchcraft — dramatic and a bit a lot for youthful youngsters.
It then goes on to speak briefly about how they assume the rumors of witchcraft began, the trials, the situations within the prisons, and the way the accused had been tortured after which hung or pressed to demise. It concluded with a dialogue about how the accuser later recounted and the victims had been declared harmless.
After the presentation, the group moved to a second space the place we had been informed in regards to the historical past of witches and the perceptions of witches by the ages and reminded how “witch hunts” of varied kinds nonetheless happen immediately. After chatting with my daughter after our go to, we each agreed that we wouldn’t advocate it for youths beneath 10, relying on their maturity and the way simply they scare.
The Salem Witch Museum is positioned at 19 1/2 Washington Square North, Salem, Massachusetts and is open every day 10 am – 5 pm, with longer hours in the summertime and through Haunted Happenings. Same-day tickets are offered on-line solely starting at midnight.
Peabody Essex Museum
The Peabody Essex Museum needs to be in your “must-visit” checklist for our day in Salem with youngsters. The roots of this museum return to 1799 and the East India Marine Society, and far of the artwork discovered on the PEM displays these roots, with a wide array of maritime artwork together with mannequin ships, maritime artifacts, and artwork objects from Asia, Oceania, India, and elsewhere.
The Maritime artwork and historical past had been fascinating, however I actually cherished how nicely the Peabody Essex appealed to households. The Dotty Brown Art & Nature Center has hands-on actions, discovery drawers, video games and laptop stations, to interact and discover. Complimentary Gallery Discovery Kits sends youngsters on treasure hunts all through the museum. Plus, youngsters beneath 16 are free and there may be even a room for nursing moms.
The Peabody Essex Museum is positioned at 161 Essex St in East India Square.
The House of Seven Gables
Made well-known by American creator Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1851 novel of The House of the Seven Gables, this residence and grounds is now a National Historic Landmark District. Built in 1668 by service provider and shipowner John Turner I and his spouse Elizabeth Robinson Turner, you may be taught the total historical past and tour the rooms of this historic residence on a guided tour.
Officially known as the Turner-Ingersoll Mansion, same-day tickets can be found on web site when not offered out, or they are often bought upfront on-line.
The House of the Seven Gables is positioned at 115 Derby Street, Salem, MA
New England Pirate Museum
This small museum, positioned only a brief stroll from the harbor or the Peabody Essex Museum, tells the distinctive and little-known historical past of New England sea-robbers. Visitors can take a guided tour and discover pirate artifacts and genuine pirate treasures. You will stroll by a recreation of a colonial seaport, climb aboard a pirate ship, and discover an eighty foot cave.
Guests will find out about some 60 buccaneers on a 20- to 30-minute strolling tour. This museum is barely open from May by October thirty first.
The New England Pirate Museum is positioned at 274 Derby St, Salem, MA
High Tea at Jolie Tea Company
One of the particular issues I simply found to do in Salem with youngsters is to take pleasure in excessive tea on the Jolie Tea Company. This pretty tea store affords a wide array of tea and pastries to in-cafe eating or to go. However, the excessive tea arrange is just darling and such a memorable prime off to your time in Salem.
The Jolie Tea Company affords a Children’s High Tea at Jolie on Friday afternoons for youngsters 6-12. You can even make customary excessive tea reservations at different occasions.
The Jolie Tea Company is positioned at 316 Derby Street, Salem, MA
Salem Witch Memorial
Dedicated in 1992, the Salem Witch Memorial consists of 20 benches, every engraved with the identify, date of execution, and technique of execution for every of the wrongly condemned. Outside the memorial, you will see that a plaque with the phrases of the victims engraved on it. Nearby, you may stroll by the Old Burial Point and Charter Street Cemetary.
It generally is a bit spooky visiting right here at night time and I can see why individuals into ghost excursions would take pleasure in coming to Salem.
The Salem Witch Memorial is free to enter and is positioned at 24 Liberty St, Salem.
The Witch House
The Witch House, which was the previous residence of Judge Jonathan Corwin and is likely one of the few buildings you may go to in Salem with direct ties to the Salem witch trials of 1692. This can also be the place Roger Williams, founding father of Rhode Island, as soon as stayed earlier than being ousted from Massachusetts.
You can take a self-guided tour of the home, however what many individuals love to do is take a fall picture in entrance of the home because it offers these good spooky, hocus pocus vibes.
The Witch House at Salem is positioned at 310 Essex St, Salem, MA
Our day in Salem, MA undoubtedly bewitched us…nevertheless it was the Friendship, the Wharf, the Peabody Essex, and this quaint colonial seaside city that captivated us…not the witches.
If you’re visiting Salem with teenagers, they might have an interest within the Salem Witch Village, which is guided by a practising witch and covers the myths and the information surrounding legends of witches and their craft. You may additionally attempt the Salem Wax Museum. Personally, I discover all wax museums a bit creepy in order that isn’t my cup of tea.
You may additionally attempt a Salem ghost tour with teenagers or you can attempt a self-guided tour of Salem’s Hocus Pocus filming areas.
Where to Eat in Salem, MA
If you’re hungry for some seafood, head over to Pickering Wharf to Finz Seafood and Grill for a lunch of lobster mac n’ cheese, a lobster roll, calamari, or oysters. On the Wharf, it’s also possible to attempt Longboards Restaurant and Bar or Sea Level Oyster Bar, all of which provide some waterfront views.
If you’re in search of one thing a bit extra informal, cheap, and family-friendly, you can additionally attempt Witch’s Brew or Mercy Tavern for sandwiches, salads, and burgers. You can even attempt Notch Brewing and Biergarten for a vigorous ambiance.
Bit Bar is one other nice alternative with youngsters because it affords traditional arcade and pinball video games together with consolation meals, and a full bar.
For treats, cease into the Ye Olde Pepper Companie, America’s oldest sweet firm, close to the House of Seven Gables, or Goodnight Fatty, a cookie bakery close to the Salem Witch Museum.
Frequently Asked Questions
While Salem, MA is thought for the Salem Witch Trials and the Haunted Happenings which happen in October, there are many different issues to do in Salem with youngsters together with the Peabody Essex Museum, the Salem Maritime National Historic Site, the Pirate Museum, excessive tea at Jolie Tea Company, and video games on the Bit Bar. I’d advocate avoiding visiting in October when the city could be very crowded with guests in search of all issues witchy.
I’d not advocate the Salem Witch Museum for younger kids beneath 10 or these which are delicate to scary film scenes or material. Most of the museum will not be scary however the preliminary dramatic presentation about satan worship and sorcery is a bit a lot. We went when my delicate daughter was 10 and he or she didn’t like that in any respect and didn’t discover the remainder of the museum notably fascinating both.
Salem makes an ideal day journey from Boston or neighboring areas. Unless you needed to take a night ghost tour and also you had been coming from far-off, you don’t want to remain in a single day until you wish to go to greater than three sights. In a weekend, you may simply see all Salem has to supply. If you do determine to remain in Salem, it’s also possible to go to close by cities of Gloucester, Rockport, and even Newburyport.
In 1692, 20 harmless women and men had been put to demise as a result of they had been believed to be witches. While this short-term outbreak of hysteria and witch searching was tragic, it pales compared to the variety of “witches” burned on the stake or tortured in Europe in the course of the early Modern Period, but it’s a stigma and a historical past that has hung over the city ever since. These witch trials, which had been portrayed in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, overshadow the city’s wealthy historical past as an vital seaport.
Where to Stay in Salem
If you determine to remain in a single day in Salem, the Hawthorne Hotel is a good possibility in a central location inside simple strolling distance to all the primary sights. Another good possibility for waterfront views and quick access to the Maritime Site, House of Seven Gables, and the seaport space is the Salem Waterfront Hotel & Suites.
Books to Read Before You Go
What Were the Salem Witch Trials? (What Was?)
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Something depraved was brewing within the small city of Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. It began when two women, Betty Parris and Abigail Williams, started having hysterical suits. Soon after, different native women claimed they had been being pricked with pins. With no scientific rationalization out there, the residents of Salem got here to 1 conclusion: it was witchcraft! Over the following 12 months and a half, nineteen individuals had been convicted of witchcraft and hanged whereas extra languished in jail as hysteria swept the colony. Author Joan Holub offers readers and inside have a look at this sinister chapter in historical past.
I Escaped The Salem Witch Trials: Salem, Massachusetts, 1692
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Orphan-girl Hannah True battles unusual happenings, suspicion, and indignant villagers when her city believes it is beneath assault by witches.The Survival Series that celebrates the superior historical past of us.
From bestselling creator Scott Peters and Salem Witch whiz Juliet Fry comes a gripping retelling of the Salem Witch Trials for contemporary younger readers.
The Salem Witch Trials: An Unsolved Mystery from History
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When a gaggle of ladies got here down with a horrible, mysterious bout of sickness, they pointed the finger at individuals of their group they claimed had been witches. Soon, the entire city was satisfied they had been at risk from supernatural forces. Today, we’ve particulars in regards to the accusations, trials, and those that misplaced their lives, however the query stays: What brought on the mass hysteria?
Become a detective, research the clues, and see in the event you may also help resolve this chilling thriller from historical past!
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
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Sixteen-year-old Kit Tyler is marked by suspicion and disapproval from the second she arrives on the unfamiliar shores of colonial Connecticut in 1687. Alone and determined, she has been pressured to depart her beloved residence on the island of Barbados and be part of a household she has by no means met.
Torn between her quest for belonging and her want to be true to herself, Kit struggles to outlive in a hostile place. Just when it appears she should quit, she finds a kindred spirit. But Kit’s friendship with Hannah Tupper, believed by the colonists to be a witch, proves extra taboo than she may have imagined and in the end forces Kit to decide on between her coronary heart and her responsibility.
The House of the Seven Gables (Dover Thrift Editions: Classic Novels)
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A dark New England mansion supplies the setting for this traditional exploration of ancestral guilt and its expiation by the love and goodwill of succeeding generations.
Nathaniel Hawthorne drew inspiration for this story of an immorally obtained property from the position his forebears performed within the Seventeenth-century Salem witch trials. Built over an unquiet grave, the House of the Seven Gables carries a dying man’s curse that blights the lives of its residents for over two centuries. Now Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon, an iron-hearted hypocrite and mental inheritor to the mansion’s unscrupulous founder, is making an attempt to railroad a pair of his aged family out of the home. Only two younger individuals stand in his method — a visiting nation cousin and an enigmatic boarder expert in mesmerism.
Hawthorne envisioned this household drama of evil, revenge, and backbone as a microcosm of Salem’s personal historical past as in idealistic society corrupted by greed and delight. His enduring view of the darkness on the coronary heart of the nationwide soul has made The House of the Seven Gables a landmark of American literature.
Miller, Arthur’s The Crucible Paperback
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In the inflexible theocracy of Salem, rumors that girls are practising witchcraft provoke the city’s most simple fears and suspicions; and when a younger lady accuses Elizabeth Proctor of being a witch, self-righteous church leaders and townspeople insist that Elizabeth be delivered to trial. The ruthlessness of the prosecutors and the eagerness of neighbor to testify towards neighbor brilliantly illuminate the harmful energy of socially sanctioned violence. Written in 1953, simply after Miller obtained a Pulitzer Prize for Death of a Salesman, The Crucible mirrors the anti-communist hysteria impressed by Senator Joseph McCarthy’s “witch-hunts” within the United States.
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