Visiting Salem | Massachusetts

Teenage Michelle would have loved Salem, and now almost 30 year old Michelle adored this town. Salem is filled with all the fabulous witchy stuff that an emo kid of the 00’s loved and much more. Visiting Salem is an easy day trip from Boston as it is less than an hour away. It is worth the mini road trip to wander around town even on a cold Sunday morning.

girl standing outside the witch house Salem in winter

TV shows and Films

Salem is steeped in history and is best known for the 1692 Witch Trials. 19 innocent people, 14 women and 5 men, were hanged, and one man was pressed to death. All sounds pretty grim to be honest.

In 1970 a series of Bewitched was filmed in the town and then in 1992/1993 Hocus Pocus was also filmed in parts of the town. You can do guided tours of theses spots. Of course we stopped off at the bewitched statue because never ones to turn down a photo opp. Thanks Steph for been my geeky friend and her poor husband that put up with us wandering around gift shops all day.

bewitched statue in salem Massachusetts

Independent Store

In-between all the filming locations and a mix of historical sights, there are endless independent stores and cafe. We spent hours pottering around magics shops, selling crystals and spells to the usual gift shops. Obviously I picked up a strawberry obsidian stone which is meant to bring peace and joy. It now sits on my bed side table. Me and Steph also picked up matching t-shirts from a gift shop that we promised never to wear on the same day.

wicked books store salem Massachusetts

I would love to go back to Salem in summer. Visiting Salem in early February, a lot of the tourist attractions were still closed for the season. This did mean that we did have the town to ourselves, we didn’t even have to queue for coffee right on the town square. I would also recommend taking wander around the thrift stores in town. $20 later I was the proud owner on two 1910 stereographs of medical photography.