Our summer of travel started with a great trip to Boston and Salem, Massachusetts. My cousin was getting married in Salem and I thought it would be a great opportunity to show my daughter and husband one of my favorite cities in New England and one of the top five aquariums in the country. However, I had never been to Salem and always wanted to visit it for the witch trial history. One of my friends taught at Salem high school in the past and spoke very highly of the city, except for the crowds during Halloween season.
We flew into Boston Logan Airport late Thursday night, so hubby and I could work that day, but be in Boston the day before all the wedding festivities started. We are late night people by nature, so getting into Boston after midnight didn’t faze us. After a minor luggage debacle at 2:00am, we were tucked into our airport hotel. Since we often travel to the East coast to visit friends and family, I don’t make my kids adjust to the time change, we just do everything 2 hours later and then they don’t have to readjust when we get back home to Colorado. My kids are good travelers, mainly they can go with the flow and will easily sleep on a plane, train or car and can handle schedule and time zone changes. If people start getting crabby, hubby and I included, we work a nap into the afternoon.
The next morning, we slept in and had a slow start to our day before ordering an uber to get to Salem. We decided not to rent a car and just take uber rides on this trip, even though there were a few far drives. Honestly, I didn’t want to deal with parking in either Boston or Salem. There were a few expensive uber trips, but it would’ve been just as expensive to rent a car, pay for parking and gas. This way our lives didn’t revolve around finding parking and it was the right choice. Salem is only about 20 miles from Boston, but it takes at least an hour with traffic. Our first uber driver was the best, he took extra time to show us all the beach towns on the way up. It was a much prettier drive than the highway and my daughter got to see how different the beach towns are up there compared to Florida.
We arrived at the Hampton Inn Salem after bumper to bumper traffic for most of the trip. I was expecting a similar chain hotel feel that we just had at the airport hotel we stayed in the night before, but this was the nicest Hampton Inn I’ve ever stayed at yet. It had only been open for a year, so things still felt fresh and new with an updated bathroom. The lobby was really rocking the Salem Witch theme with a beautiful picture of the House of Seven Gables and seating that matched the period. We had a quick lunch at a restaurant called Casa Tequila, typical American influenced Mexican food, but the service was great and the drinks were strong. I vowed to eat seafood at every meal for the rest of the trip and honored that commitment. Then hubby and Cassidy took naps to catch up on their beauty sleep, they just can’t hang when traveling like I can, I’m the energizer bunny of travel.
I decided to get out to see the town and learn the lay of the land. After looking over all the brochures and tour spots that the hotel leaves in the room, I quickly realized there are two types of people who come to Salem, the ones interested in the history of the witch trials and those who want to visit all the filming spots from the movie Hocus Pocus. After my years as an American History teacher and teaching the novel The Crucible, I am certainly in the first camp, but if your love of the Sanderson sisters is your main interest in Salem, get your cameras ready!
Traveling up Washington Street in Salem, there are lots of cafes, shops and restaurants with outdoor seating on the main road. At the cross street with Essex, the Bewitched statue is a big tourist destination and may have a bit of a line to get the perfect picture. Walking east down Essex Street, you will find a brick pedestrian walkway lined with souvenir shops, boutique stores and witch walking tours. Some of the stores are kitschier than others, with lots of Halloween decorations, shirts with brooms and crystals, gemstones & candles of every kind. As you walk down the street, the Peabody Essex Museum with their gardens is a go to for museum lovers. Make a left once you reach Hawthorne Boulevard, passing the Hawthorn Hotel named for the famous author of The Scarlet Letter, Nathanial Hawthorne. You will find yourself at Salem Commons, you can’t miss it. The commons is a large plot of land in this tiny town and is a great place to meet up with friends or family. There is a walking path around the perimeter and a playground for kids of all ages.
For history enthusiasts, there are a few witch trials and must see attractions. The Witch History Museum & Salem Witch Museum are two separate museums that take different approaches to telling the twisted tale of how 25 innocent people were put to death after accusations of witchcraft. A visit to the Witch Trial Memorial and taking a witch trial walking tour will round out your education of this troubling time period. For those into house tours, either for the history or real estate interest, Rebecca Nurse’s homestead, the Witch House and the House of the Seven Gables are all infamous dwellings and just a short walk from anywhere in town. If you are traveling with young or elementary aged kids, I highly recommend signing up for the afternoon Salem kids tour and visiting Pioneer Village for them to get a true feel for life in the 1600’s, without giving them nightmares. Pioneer Village will look familiar from Hocus Pocus, since it was the set for Salem Village in the Disney movie.
“Hocus Pocus, Everybody Focus” was the class attention getter I’d say when I was a 5th grade teacher during Halloween time. It was more for a laugh and novelty factor back in the day, but in Salem they take Hocus Pocus seriously! In addition to Salem Common and Pioneer Village, there are four additional filming locations that true fanatics flock to (typically dressed as one of the three sisters). Phillips Elementary School located Salem Common was Max & Allison’s school, the Ropes Mansion was Allison’s house and Old Town Hall was the setting for the famous Halloween party scene. A bit farther out from Salem, in Marblehead, is the Old Burial Hill cemetery. If you want to capitalize on time, you may want to consider a Hocus Pocus Movie location walking tour. Viator has a tour for $47.81 that lasts a little over 2 hours, promising its visitors 5 filming locations and lots of behind-the-scenes information.
Expect the smell of marijuana to be wafting throughout the town. In Massachusetts, both medical and recreational marijuana are legal for adults 18+ years old and there are at least ten dispensaries in the small downtown area alone. The Seagrass dispensary was located down the street from our hotel and offers a beautiful mural design on the building façade.
We enjoyed great seafood at Turner’s Seafood at Lyceum Hall, Village Tavern, Antique Table and the wedding was held at the Hawthorn hotel (they have a restaurant any tourist can book reservations) and all were delicious and heavily seafood inspired.. I had lobster rolls prepared both warm and cold and hubby had his first lobster bisque in New England (I had to convince him this was not ‘chowder’ despite him wanting to try out his Boston accent). The Ledger Restaurant comes highly recommended and in a historic 200 year old building that was the former Salem Savings Bank. This award winning restaurant boasts a progressive New England menu and would be great for a special occasion.
Nightlife in Salem seemed a bit quiet, upscale and bars closed pretty early, by midnight in most places. I’m the type of person who’s going to have a good time no matter where I go, so a hotel lobby, AirB&B porch or hanging by the water can all be fun spots too. We did hang out with my cousins at a place called Bit Bar, a bar with an original video game feel where the competitive side came out in my grown cousins like they were teenagers again. I hear there are a few places for nightlife such as Far From the Tree Cider, Deacon Giles Distillery, O’Neills Pub and Restaurant, Rekindled History, Shift Drink Salem and Let’s Roam Salem. Now I have a list to try next time we’re in town visiting.
Salem’s location on the water allows for many boat tours, especially in the summer and fall seasons. Seeing Salem by schooner, visiting lighthouses, Sunset boat trips and even haunted boat tours are all available from the harbor area. Another idea would be to go on getmyboat.com and rent any type of boat you’re interested in, from fishing to yacht or powerboats for water sports. Boating culture is big in New England, so experiencing it in some way during a summer trip is a must.
For those interested in nature or the marine sciences, I cannot recommend the Cape Ann Whale watching boat trip more highly! An early morning wakeup call, lots of layers of clothing and thirty-minute uber ride to Gloucester didn’t dampen our expectations. This was no tourist boat; this was a 2-story scientific vessel with numerous whale experts and naturalists teaching the passengers all about the amazing mammals we were about to experience. We traveled 12 miles from the shore and halfway to Cape Cod to a concentrated area where the Atlantic humpback whales come to eat every summer, after a long fast in the warm, but not highly nutritious waters of the Caribbean. Finback, Northern Right and Minke whales are also spotted grazing in this area regularly.
My daughter loves sea animals and especially whales, but first getting on the boat made her a bit nervous. She was convinced that she would spend the whole three-hour tour inside the first-floor cabin… until the first whale was spotted. Upon hearing the announcement and seeing people rushing to the starboard side of the boat, she forgot all her fears and watched in amazement. For the next hour, the boat moved to different locations spotting humpback whales swimming, breaching and showing their tail flukes. We spent most of our time observing a mother & calf pair swimming around our boat. The baby seemed interested in humans and the mother relaxed on the far side of the boat, allowing her baby to explore and show off for the crowd. The Naturalist told us that Humpback mothers are all very different, just like human moms. Some are nervous, keeping their babies close by their side and far from the eyes of human observers and others, like this mother, are happy to allow their babies some freedom to play and explore while they catch a rare moment to relax in the freezing waters. Cassidy certainly got her sea legs, running up and down the ladder to the observation deck and from side to side of the boat as whales were spotted and announced over the speaker.
Cassidy has talked about this whale watching experience all summer long and has made my husband jealous for sleeping in that morning. She asks weekly when we can go whale watching again and I’m already thinking of a New England trip next year, traveling up to Vermont and New Hampshire too. On the top of that list will be whale watching at Cape Anne’s again. Whale watching tours are all over Boston too, but I hear they are not as educational, more touristy. Cape Anne’s is worth the trip and next time I’ll add the Hammond Castle Museum to the Gloucester day trip as well.
Another spot in Salem I plan to spend more time at on our next trip is Dead Horse Beach & Waikiki Beach at Winter Island Park in Salem. The weather was cold and rainy during the early June wedding weekend, so these spots were less than desirable. But next trip, we will need to plan mid-summer so we can get out to Salem Willows and Winter Island. However, I can see them as huge attractions mid-summer, but book your trip early since summers are very busy. October is the busiest month in Salem and needs a full year of planning in advance, especially if you need accommodations. I booked our trip almost a year out, once I received the save the date and was already out of luck for the Hawthorn Hotel wedding block, but I am glad we stayed at the Hampton Inn (Hilton points) and would stay there again.
As we Ubered back to Boston, through Sunday afternoon gridlock traffic, I couldn’t help but reminisce on how sweet of a town Salem was, as my cousin referred to it as, “the perfect combination of coastal, historic and quirky.” She was spot on and I’ve already got a list going for our next trip. I’m starting to make plans to return next summer, mainly due to my daughter’s desperation to go whale watching again and to explore New England even more.
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