It is my favorite time of year and I am truly thriving. Pumpkin flavored everything, leaves candles from Bath & Body Works, Hocus Pocus binges, and all the fall activities are everything that I wait for all year long. I am very lucky to live in New England during my favorite time of year. One of the perks is being so close to Salem MA. A quick hour and a half drive away, Salem is the perfect day trip to take in October.

Now I have to warn you. Once October comes the quiet cobblestone streets of Salem become a mad house – literally. There are monsters on the street ready to take your picture with, booths lining the streets of vendors selling everything from crystals to t shirts, and big crowds. I would definitely suggest getting there earlier in the day and eating before you get there because the wait times at every restaurant and pub are crazy.

Despite the crowds we had a great day, so here are some of the highlights.

Since my boyfriend Jeff had never been to Salem before we knew we were going to want to do it all, so it made sense to buy a Combination Ticket (save $8!) to the land of witches and pirates. This included access to the Witch Dungeon Museum, Witch History Museum, and New England Pirate Museum. This worked out wonderfully because we did not have to wait in line to buy tickets to each experience. If you can only do one of the three I recommend the Witch History Museum. They start off with a live reenactment of a witch trial and then afterwards bring you into an exact replica of what the cells looked like that people had to endure while awaiting trial.

We both knew we wanted to do a walking ghost tour of Salem, and since we were only there for the day we were excited to find out that there was a Midday Ghost Tour. The stories were entertaining, but do not expect to be scared on this tour. Next time we go I definitely want to take the Haunted Footsteps Tour at night. The highlight of the tour for me was getting to see some of the places that Hocus Pocus was filmed. That white house was Allison’s house in the movie.

Our favorite experience of the day was Gallows Hill. It is a theater production where they tell the legends of Salem with special effects and a few jump scares. It was definitely entertaining, and you can tell they put a lot of effort into the attraction. They also have a haunted attraction called The Lost Museum which we did not do.

Two of the attractions that we did not get to do this time around were The Witch Museum and a tour of The Witch House. We will definitely have to add those to the list next year.

If you live in New England Salem is the perfect day trip to get into the Halloween spirit. They do a great job of balancing the line of being entertaining with teaching visitors about the awful things that happened there during the witch hysteria of 1692.

xx Casey