When you think per­fect small town for a spooky fall trip, you might think Sleepy Hol­low or Ami­tyville, but we think Salem, Mass­a­chu­setts.  Home of the infa­mous Salem Witch Tri­als that plagued the tiny town in the late 1600s, today it’s quite pos­si­bly the most bizarre blend of quin­tes­sen­tial New Eng­land charm and over-the-top occult that you could ever hope to find.

My broth­er and sis­ter-in-law live in Salem, which is con­sid­ered a sub­urb of Boston, and their apart­ment is a beau­ti­ful­ly ren­o­vat­ed loft in what used to be the Salem Jail­house, if you can believe it.  Always in the mood for a good skin-tin­gling sto­ry, when they first moved in, I asked if it was haunt­ed.  My broth­er, ever the cyn­ic, rolled his eyes and told me I was crazy. 

We made a trip to vis­it them on Hal­loween last year, and we found the ener­gy of the bustling lit­tle town very bizarre, creepy and charming.

Look­ing for a fun, fam­i­ly-friend­ly fall trip to take this year? Salem is an awe­some option and these are the things that should def­i­nite­ly make your list! 

Salem Witch Trials Memorial

If you’ve spent any amount of time in a high school Eng­lish class then chances are pret­ty good that at some point or anoth­er you had to read The Cru­cible by Arthur Miller, a pop­u­lar play about the witch tri­als that Salem is so famous for.

It’s one thing to read about the tri­als, but it’s anoth­er to see the loca­tion where they hap­pened and the stone walls of the Salem Witch Tri­als Memo­r­i­al bear­ing the names of the 26 peo­ple who stood tri­al for witch­craft and were ulti­mate­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death. 

Per­haps not for lit­tle kids, it’s a must-see for fam­i­lies with old­er kids, if for no oth­er rea­son than to show that those crazy things you read about in Eng­lish Lit did actu­al­ly happen. 

The Burying Point

I know it’s a bit weird and morose, but I con­fess to being a suck­er for ancient ceme­ter­ies, espe­cial­ly those that have a lot of his­tor­i­cal sig­nif­i­cance to them.  The Bury­ing Point Ceme­tery (also called Char­ter Street Ceme­tery) is locat­ed just on the oth­er side of the Salem Witch Tri­als Memo­r­i­al and is one of the old­est ceme­ter­ies in the Unit­ed States.  It con­tains the final rest­ing place of many of the judges and mag­is­trates who over­saw the tri­als, along with oth­er notable fig­ures from the time.

We total­ly get it if star­ing at head­stones isn’t your thing.  But if you hap­pen to appre­ci­ate the his­to­ry like I do, the Bury­ing Point is worth a walk-by. And in the fall, with the sur­round­ing oak trees chang­ing col­or, the ceme­tery itself is haunt­ing­ly beautiful. 

How cute is this lit­tle lighthouse?

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Derby Wharf Lightstation

For those look­ing for a respite from all the mys­ti­cism and mad­ness, then the Der­by Wharf Light Sta­tion is a must.  Locat­ed down by the water, a safe dis­tance from all the ghouls and gob­lins, the small light­house is sit­u­at­ed at the end of a long spit of rocks and total­ly walk­a­ble.  Per­fect for a morn­ing or after­noon stroll, and if you walk all the way out to the end and turn and look back, the autum­nal view of Salem is noth­ing short of post­card perfect. 

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Bewitched After Dark Salem Walking Tours

If you’re look­ing for an enter­tain­ing and edu­ca­tion­al way to expe­ri­ence Salem, then we say skip the muse­ums and instead do a walk­ing tour of Salem with Bewitched After Dark.  Their inter­ac­tive walks are a per­fect way to learn about the town and also walk off any lin­ger­ing ener­gy the kids might have after that hot choco­late from Jaho.  Con­sis­tent­ly ranked in the top walk­ing tours of Salem, the tours are host­ed by locals who have an expan­sive knowl­edge not just on the witch tri­als, but also on Salem’s colo­nial and mar­itime his­to­ry as well (yes, that includes pirates).  Add to that a lit­tle bit of folk­lore and leg­endary haunt­ings, and you’ve got your­self the mak­ings of a wicked good time. 

For those that are maybe a lit­tle fear­ful of walk­ing the streets of Salem after dark or have lit­tle ones in tow who like­ly won’t make it past eight (go ahead, blame it on your kids), they have late after­noon walks as well. 

Could you find a bet­ter depic­tion of autumn?
Pho­to cour­tesy of Trav­el Channel

Salem foliage

Okay, so dead leaves might not sound like some­thing you would go out of your way to vis­it a town for, but trust me when I say that there is no autumn quite like a New Eng­land autumn.  There’s some­thing about the smell of the crisp ocean breeze cou­pled with the rich red, orange, and yel­low hues that is pure mag­ic.  With the fes­tive atmos­phere and Hal­loween decor all over the town, it’s quite pos­si­bly the most pic­ture-per­fect ver­sion of fall that we’ve ever seen.

Goodnight Fatty

We nev­er actu­al­ly got to go to Good­night Fat­ty’s because the line was so long it wrapped around the block — that’s how good it is.  But my broth­er and sis­ter-in-law and their friends all rave about the week­end pop up joint that sells the most amaz­ing cook­ies and soft-serve ice cream.  And judg­ing by the smell alone, their cook­ies must be noth­ing short of heaven. 

Part of their charm is that they’re only open on the week­ends, and only in the evening (after 5 on Fri­day and Sat­ur­day, after 2 on Sun­day), sell­ing rotat­ing con­coc­tions you can’t get any­where else, like frost­ed ani­mal crack­er cook­ies, peanut but­ter and Reese’s Pieces cook­ies, and your tra­di­tion­al cook­ie staples.

Wicked Good Books

We’re book peo­ple in my fam­i­ly.  And by that, I mean that I’m a book per­son and the rest of my fam­i­ly begrudg­ing­ly allows me to drag them into every cozy lit­tle book­store we hap­pen to cross in our travels. 

So when we passed Wicked Good Books, as we were walk­ing around town, I was instant­ly hooked and had to duck inside, to the audi­ble groans of my kids and hus­band.  But it was one of the more adorable book­stores I’ve ever been in, and I con­sid­er myself a connoisseur. 

As the name sug­gests, the book­store sells all sorts of dark thrillers and spooky spell books befit­ting its locale and also boasts a large sec­tion ded­i­cat­ed specif­i­cal­ly to books about Salem and New England.

Even if you’re not a read­er or in the habit of buy­ing phys­i­cal books (I get it, I’ve got a Kin­dle too), it’s def­i­nite­ly worth a stop, if for no oth­er rea­son than to expe­ri­ence the fun and cozy atmosphere. 

Brick on brick on brick!
Pho­to cour­tesy of Salem.org

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Walk Around Salem Proper

Part of the charm and mys­tique of Salem are the many wind­ing alleys and side streets that, around Hal­loween, can only lead to dou­ble, dou­ble, toil and trou­ble.  For the Har­ry Pot­ter obsessed among us, it remind­ed my kids of Diagon Alley, though maybe a lit­tle bit brighter and more wel­com­ing.  Around Hal­loween, the quaint cob­bled streets are teem­ing with all man­ner of ghoul­ish and masked fig­ures, for­tune tellers offer­ing to read your palms, magi­cians trick­ing crowds with sleight of hand.  The colo­nial brick store­fronts are bedecked with fake cob­webs, witch­es’ brooms, and black cats. And the local cafes and cof­fee shops sell all the fes­tive fall treats — apple cider, can­dy corn, and pump­kin-spiced everything.

I’m not a big Hal­loween fan (I’m more of a Christ­mas and Thanks­giv­ing kind of gal) but even I found myself get­ting in the spir­it in this lit­tle town.  The ener­gy is tru­ly infec­tious and noth­ing short of magical. 

When you go

Get­ting from L.A. to Boston is real­ly a piece of cake.  It’s pret­ty easy to find a direct flight on one of the major car­ri­ers.  From there, you can rent a car, take the MBTA com­muter rail train out to Salem, or catch the Salem fer­ry.  The fer­ry takes just under an hour and affords great views of down­town Boston.

We stayed at the Hawthorne Hotel, an his­toric hotel right in the mid­dle of Salem and real­ly enjoyed it.  It was walk­a­ble to every­thing, and though the hotel was old­er, it was very well main­tained and cozy.  There’s also a brand new Hamp­ton Inn near­by, and if you’re look­ing for a place to stay with all the bells and whis­tles, we rec­om­mend the Mer­chant, a styl­ish bou­tique hotel in the heart of the town.  There are also sev­er­al charm­ing B&Bs and fam­i­ly-owned inns around town as well, if that’s more your style.

If you’re need­ing a good fall trip that the whole fam­i­ly will enjoy, Salem can’t be beat.  Just go pre­pared for some chills and thrills mixed in with your quaint New Eng­land charm.

Mor­gan is a brand design­er and writer who splits her time between man­ag­ing her cre­ative stu­dio, Atlas + Anchor, and writ­ing about her life­long love affair with trav­el. A wan­der­lus­ter at heart, she’s a big pro­po­nent of explor­ing the roads less trav­eled because they often lead to amaz­ing views, mem­o­rable sto­ries, and the most unas­sum­ing but life-chang­ing restau­rants. Orig­i­nal­ly from Ohio, Mor­gan now lives in the heart of Chica­go with her fam­i­ly and is quite pos­si­bly the only per­son with­in city lim­its who hates deep dish pizza. 

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