Salem at Halloween!

[cooolio]

Yes, we've just watched Hocus Pocus 2 and now the kids want to go to Salem at Halloween. Not this year as we are already booked up.

Has anyone been? Should we aim to stay in Salem? Are there Halloween events on in the week leading up to it? We'd probably go for around 11 nights, Boston and Salem. Any tips welcome! 🎃

It is like a theme park. Halloween would be big in Boston! Why don’t you go further north into New England afterwards?

What is really interesting is to walk away from this gross commercialisation of murder of innocent people, down to the old harbour area of Salem, and do a tour of Nathaniel Hawthorn's house, and other historic houses in Salem

I agree. We visited Nathaniel Hawthorne's house and the Jonathan Corwin House.

Places we visted in New England in no particular order:
Plymouth - the replica of the Mayflower, Plimouth Plantation
Lennox
Hancock Shaker Village
Old Sturbridge Village
Weston, Vermont

I understand completely being from the place the Pendle Witches were tried and killed.

I walk past the place where the last Pendle "witch" was hanged probably at least twice a week. It is a quiet corner and if you didn't know what had happened there, you wouldn't know.

The commercial centre of Salem is dominated by witchcraft shops, "Museums," attractions - it's in such bad taste, like the attempt to set up a Jack the Ripper "Museum" in the area of East London where he murdered so many women.

The women (and mostly older women) & men killed in the Salem witch trials were not witches. That touristic part of Salem is built on an exploitative lie, and it's hugely distasteful.

Well, despite the poor taste of their shops and museums we will still go to look at the decorations in both Salem and Boston.

I'll look at New England, or we will possibly hire a car after all and work our way up the coast

We went to Salem at Halloween with young teens. It was fun, thronged, slightly tacky but the kids loved it. We stayed in Boston and did day trips to Cape Anne and Martha’s Vineyard. We also had 4 days in NYC- got the bus and it was the most beautiful journey I ever had - the colors were fab.
Best holiday ever.

@BirdinaHedge completely agree.
’Dark Tourism’ for sure. Tacky tourist attractions are not a form of remembrance, they’re monetising an appalling event.

New Orleans is meant to be fantastic at Halloween, although it's not where your children want to go.

I lived in Boston for 5 years and there are much nicer places than Salem to go. One day at the most in Salem. However, the coast up to Maine and Canada is beautiful even going the Vermont and lake Champlain, possibly upstate New York for the fall colours. And definitely include cape cod. You will find much more to do in the summer months so during autumn, you might not want to spend a full 2 weeks there.

Hello, I'm off to Salem on 26th October as a day trip from Boston. I'll let this thread (and you) know how it goes :)

We enjoyed a nice Halloweeny day trip to Salem from Boston a couple of years ago. Good Halloween decorations.
Loved our Martha’s Vineyard trip too. Stunning.

Are you on a port day from a cruise? We're stopping in Boston that day on our transatlantic and I know some people are planning on going to Salem.

@FFSandmoreFFS We are just going for a day trip from Boston :)

Following this thread. My brothers just moved to Boston and I’m thinking of going to visit him October half term next year with the kids.

I'm now planning a trip to Boston so watching with interest

I’ve visited Salem. It left me feeling really uneasy. New England has loads more interesting places. Visit Boston. Go whale watching. Visit Hancock and Shaker villages.
Its quite easy to scoot up and visit Canada too.