Dark Tourism in Salem: Witch Trials, Haunted History, Pirates & a Stay at the Hawthorne Hotel

Hello, spooky cats!

Welcome to Salem, Massachusetts, a place where you can walk from the home of a Salem Witch Trials judge to a pirate museum, make your own witch's broom, eat lobster rolls, shop for witchy stuff, wander through a seventeenth-century cemetery, and then return to a hotel where people claim ghosts wander the hallways.

Basically, Salem was made for us.

Salem calls itself the Witch City, and today witchcraft and Halloween imagery are everywhere. But underneath the broomsticks, psychic shops, black cats, ghost tours, and witch-themed souvenirs is a much darker true story.

In 1692, fear and accusations spread through several Massachusetts communities. Twenty innocent people were ultimately executed during the Salem Witch Trials. Nineteen were hanged, while Giles Corey was pressed to death after refusing to enter a plea. Bridget Bishop became the first person executed by hanging, on June 10, 1692.

So while modern Salem embraces witches as part of its identity, it is important to remember:

The people executed in 1692 were not proven witches. They were victims of a witch hunt.

That distinction matters.

And it is one reason Salem is such a complicated—and fascinating—dark tourism destination.

Staying at the Supposedly Haunted Hawthorne Hotel

We stayed at the Hawthorne Hotel, one of Salem's most recognizable historic hotels.

The Hawthorne opened on July 23, 1925, after local business leaders raised money to give Salem a modern hotel. It was named for Salem-born author Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the hotel celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2025.

Naturally, it also has a reputation for being haunted.

The hotel itself takes a refreshingly cautious approach. Its official FAQ says paranormal activity has not been confirmed, although some guests have reported experiences they interpret as hauntings.

Perfect.

That's basically how I feel about it too.

People have reported strange sounds, unexplained sensations, and other unusual activity over the years, with the sixth floor often appearing in modern ghost stories.

We stayed.

We listened.

We waited.

No footsteps.

No mysterious bangs.

No phantom witches.

Nothing.

We slept fine.

Apparently the ghosts had plans.

No, the Hawthorne Hotel Was NOT Built on Bridget Bishop's Orchard

This is an important correction to something said in our original video.

A popular Salem ghost story claims that Bridget Bishop's apple orchard once stood where the Hawthorne Hotel is today, supposedly explaining why her spirit haunts the property.

That isn't historically accurate.

According to the Salem Witch Museum's historical research, Bridget Bishop lived on property she had inherited from her second husband, Thomas Oliver. Her house stood approximately at what is now 71 Washington Street, on the southeast corner of Washington and Church Streets.

Her orchards extended eastward along present-day Church Street, past the area where the Salem Lyceum building—today Turner's Seafood—stands. The museum places the approximate orchard location around 43 Church Street.

The Hawthorne Hotel sits at 18 Washington Square West, several blocks away.

Even more interesting, the Salem Witch Museum identifies the Hawthorne Hotel property as the approximate site of the home of John Higginson Jr., not Bridget Bishop.

So:

Bridget Bishop's house: approximately 71 Washington Street.

Bridget Bishop's orchards: approximately 43 Church Street.

Hawthorne Hotel: not Bishop's property.

That doesn't prove the Hawthorne isn't haunted.

It simply means Bridget Bishop's orchard should not be used as evidence for the haunting.

And this is exactly why I like researching ghost stories.

Sometimes a spooky story gets repeated so many times that eventually everyone treats it as history.

Then you look at the records.

Oops.

Who Was Bridget Bishop?

Bridget Bishop deserves more than being reduced to "the witch who haunts the hotel."

She was a real woman.

She had been married three times and was living with her third husband, Edward Bishop, when she was accused in 1692. She had already faced a witchcraft accusation years earlier. During the 1692 hysteria, neighbors accused her of everything from appearing spectrally to making poppets and harming people through witchcraft.

Bishop denied the accusations.

She reportedly insisted that she was innocent and didn't even know some of the people claiming she had harmed them.

It didn't matter.

She became the first person tried by the newly created Court of Oyer and Terminer and was convicted.

On June 10, 1692, she was taken to Proctor's Ledge and hanged. Eighteen more people would eventually be executed by hanging during the trials.

Today, Bridget Bishop's name is attached to ghost tours, attractions, shops, and legends.

But before all of that, she was a woman killed because her community decided supernatural accusations counted as evidence.

That's the real dark history.

And What Was Up With Those Blue Trees?

This was driving me crazy while we were walking around Salem.

Why are the trees blue?

Are they naturally blue?

Did Salem decide normal trees weren't witchy enough?

Nope.

We actually found the answer.

The trees were part of The Blue Trees, an environmental art installation created by artist Konstantin Dimopoulos and presented around the Peabody Essex Museum.

The trunks were covered with a temporary, non-toxic, water-based blue colorant intended to draw attention to deforestation and climate change. The color gradually disappears as weather and rain wash it away.

The artist deliberately chose blue because trees are not naturally that color.

So if some of the trees looked only partially blue when we visited, that makes sense.

They weren't being repainted.

Nature was slowly removing the artwork.

Mystery solved.

No blue-tree witchcraft required.

Witch City Mall

We wandered through Witch City Mall, right in the middle of downtown Salem.

Salem is an interesting mix because genuinely historic sites sit next to extremely modern witch tourism.

You might spend half an hour learning about religious persecution in 1692...

...and five minutes later be shopping for witch hats, horror merchandise, crystals, T-shirts, monsters, spells, or a souvenir that says something ridiculous about being a witch.

That's Salem.

And I kind of love it.

The modern witch culture is separate from the people accused in 1692, but both identities now exist beside one another throughout the city.

The First Church in Salem

We also stopped at The First Church in Salem.

The congregation dates to 1629, making it one of the oldest churches organized in North America. The church describes itself as the first in North America organized under congregational governance.

But here's another useful historical distinction:

The building we see today is not the church building from 1692.

The current granite Gothic-style meetinghouse was dedicated in 1836. It originally served the North Church, which later reunited with First Church in 1923.

The congregation itself, however, has direct connections to the witch trials.

Rebecca Nurse and Giles Corey were full members. Both were excommunicated during the hysteria and later killed. The congregation formally reinstated their memberships during the 300th anniversary commemorations in 1992.

Rev. Nicholas Noyes, one of First Church's ministers, supported the prosecutions.

That makes this one of those places where the connection isn't necessarily the physical building.

It's the institution.

The people.

The history.

The Witch House

Then we came to one of Salem's most important historical sites:

The Witch House.

The dark seventeenth-century building looks exactly like something you would expect to find in a town famous for witch trials.

But unlike many Salem attractions, this one has a genuine direct connection to 1692.

The house belonged to Judge Jonathan Corwin, one of the magistrates involved in the Salem Witch Trials. Corwin purchased the property in 1675 and was living there when the witchcraft crisis erupted seventeen years later.

Destination Salem describes it as Salem's only surviving building with direct ties to the witch trials.

That makes it one of my must-see dark tourism stops.

Inside the Witch House

The Witch House isn't a haunted attraction.

No actors are jumping out at you.

Nobody needs to hide Freddy Krueger behind a Puritan cupboard.

Instead, the rooms are interpreted with period furniture and household objects to help visitors understand seventeenth-century domestic life and the social environment surrounding the trials.

And I think that actually makes it creepier.

These events didn't happen in some fantasy world filled with witches and monsters.

They happened in houses.

Around dinner tables.

Inside churches.

Between neighbors.

People who knew each other accused one another of committing impossible supernatural crimes.

Then a government executed people for them.

That is horror without needing a ghost.

The Ropes Mansion

A short walk away is the beautiful Ropes Mansion.

The house was built between 1727 and 1729, meaning it came after the witch trials rather than being part of 1692. It remained associated with generations of the Ropes family and was dramatically renovated in the 1890s.

Horror movie fans may also recognize the exterior.

It was used as Allison's house in the 1993 movie Hocus Pocus. The interior seen in the movie was not filmed inside the actual mansion.

So we now have historic-house tourism AND horror movie tourism.

Excellent.

The Ropes Mansion Garden

Behind the mansion is a beautiful garden that you can visit without touring the house.

The current garden was designed in 1912 by Salem botanist and horticulturist John Robinson. The Peabody Essex Museum keeps the one-acre Colonial Revival garden open to visitors from dawn to dusk without an admission charge.

It is surprisingly peaceful.

Which is slightly disappointing if you came hoping for spectral screaming.

But it's gorgeous.

The Tragic Death of Abigail Ropes

The mansion also has its own darker history.

Abigail Pickman Ropes died in 1839 after her clothing caught fire while she was carrying hot coals from one room to another.

This isn't a ghost-tour invention.

The Peabody Essex Museum has documented Abigail's death through family objects and contemporary material, including the mourning jewelry commissioned afterward by her sister Sally.

Over time, ghost stories have developed claiming that Abigail remains in the house.

That's where I separate the pieces.

Abigail's terrible death is documented history.

Abigail's ghost haunting the mansion is folklore.

Could something paranormal happen there?

Maybe.

But one does not automatically prove the other.

Old Burying Point Cemetery

Of course we went to the cemetery.

The Charter Street Cemetery, commonly called the Old Burying Point, dates to 1637 and is Salem's oldest surviving cemetery.

This is one of those places where Salem's colonial history suddenly becomes physical.

You are surrounded by old stone.

Deaths from centuries ago.

Family names connected with Salem's history.

Weathered carvings.

Skulls and mortality imagery.

Basically my kind of sightseeing.

Are Any of the Executed "Witches" Buried Here?

This is another Salem misconception.

No known victim executed during the Salem Witch Trials is buried at Old Burying Point.

The victims were not given ordinary honored burials in this cemetery.

What you will find are people connected to Salem's colonial society and the witch trials.

That distinction is important because tourists sometimes walk through the cemetery assuming they're standing over the graves of the accused.

They aren't.

The Salem Witch Trials Memorial, located beside the cemetery, is the appropriate place to remember those victims.

The Real Salem Is Darker Than the Ghost Stories

This is where Salem works especially well as dark tourism.

You don't need to invent stories.

Innocent people were imprisoned.

Families were destroyed.

People accused their neighbors.

Judges accepted spectral evidence.

Religious fear mixed with local disputes, suspicion, reputation, and social tension.

The result was lethal.

The spooky merchandise is fun.

I buy it too.

But I think every Salem trip should include at least a few places that help explain what actually happened.

Otherwise the real victims disappear underneath plastic broomsticks and witch hats.

Time for Lobster

After all that history, we needed food.

We stopped at Longboards.

And I completely failed at being a travel vlogger because I forgot to film the food.

Oops.

I had a lobster roll.

I personally prefer my lobster roll warm with butter, but this one was still good.

Salem is a coastal New England city.

If I can work lobster into the trip, I'm going to.

Those are my rules.

A Brief Visit to the Bunghole

We also encountered one of Salem's wonderfully named businesses:

Bunghole Liquors.

Yes.

That is the name.

And yes, I laughed.

Sometimes sophisticated historical travel requires standing outside a liquor store giggling at the sign.

Balance.

Taking a Break From Witches for Pirates

Eventually we decided we had talked about witches long enough.

So we switched to pirates.

Because Salem's dark history is much bigger than 1692.

We visited Real Pirates Salem, a museum focused on pirate captain Samuel "Black Sam" Bellamy and the wreck of the Whydah Gally.

And unlike a lot of stereotypical pirate attractions...

The artifacts here are real.

Black Sam Bellamy and the Whydah

Samuel Bellamy captured the Whydah, a former slave ship, in 1717 and turned it into his flagship.

He had an extremely successful—but very short—career as a pirate, capturing dozens of ships before sailing north toward New England.

Then nature ended the adventure.

On April 26, 1717, the Whydah was caught in a violent nor'easter off Cape Cod and wrecked. Bellamy and nearly everyone aboard died.

The wreck was rediscovered centuries later by underwater explorer Barry Clifford.

Artifacts recovered from the site include coins, jewelry, weapons, cannons, and personal objects. Real Pirates Salem displays actual material recovered from the wreck.

Real Pirate Treasure

One of the coolest things was getting to interact with genuine pirate treasure.

The museum currently allows visitors to touch real pieces of eight recovered from the Whydah wreck site.

I touched pirate treasure.

Therefore I am now a pirate.

I don't make the rules.

The museum describes the Whydah material as the world's only fully authenticated pirate treasure recovered from an identified pirate wreck.

For dark tourism, I love this stop because this isn't fictional pirate history.

These people existed.

The ship sank.

People died.

And objects that went down with them more than three hundred years ago are now sitting in Salem.

Cannon!

There was also a cannon recovered from the wreck.

Naturally I was excited about the cannon.

Historical interpretation:

This is an important artifact illustrating maritime warfare and piracy during the early eighteenth century.

Spooky Cat Lady interpretation:

CANNON!

Both can be true.

Salem Isn't Just About the Witch Trials

The pirate museum also highlights something visitors sometimes miss.

Salem has an enormous maritime history.

The city's identity didn't begin and end in 1692.

It became a major seaport.

Ships sailed around the world.

Fortunes were made through maritime trade.

Privateers operated from the region.

There is colonial history, literary history, architecture, piracy, maritime trade, and plenty of uncomfortable history connected with slavery as well.

The witch trials lasted months.

Salem's history stretches across centuries.

Making a Witch's Broom

Naturally, after our pirate break, we returned to being witches.

I made my own witch's broom.

Mine was red and black.

Obviously.

This is one of the things I like about modern Salem.

You can spend part of your trip confronting genuine seventeenth-century tragedy and another part simply enjoying contemporary witch culture.

Broom making isn't pretending the accused people of 1692 were practicing witches.

It belongs to Salem's modern identity.

And it was fun.

Flying Saucer Pizza Company

Eventually we headed to Flying Saucer Pizza Company.

Now we had witches...

Pirates...

And aliens.

A complete vacation.

The restaurant had plenty of science-fiction references, including Doctor Who decorations.

I ordered blue milk.

Because if a beverage is blue and attached to science fiction, apparently I need to know what it tastes like.

We also had meatballs and pizza.

The pizza was good.

Again:

Salem understands my demographic.

Back to the Haunted Hawthorne

Eventually we returned to the Hawthorne Hotel.

We listened.

We waited.

Still nothing.

No mysterious bumps.

No footsteps.

No woman appearing at the end of the hallway.

No Bridget Bishop—although now we know there wasn't a historical reason to expect Bridget Bishop there anyway.

The hotel's own position is basically that some guests tell ghost stories while plenty of others experience completely peaceful stays.

We apparently joined the second group.

Does That Mean the Hawthorne Isn't Haunted?

No.

It means we didn't experience anything paranormal during this particular stay.

That's all.

Absence of evidence during one visit doesn't prove a location isn't haunted.

But I also won't manufacture evidence because a hotel has a spooky reputation.

If nothing happens...

Nothing happened.

And I still enjoyed staying there.

Salem in October vs. Salem in May

We visited in May, and I think that was one of the smartest things we did.

Salem becomes incredibly busy around Halloween.

October is effectively its own tourism season. Destination Salem describes Haunted Happenings as filling the city with special events throughout the month, including tours, markets, cruises, costume events, and the famous Grand Parade.

That sounds fantastic.

It also means crowds.

Big crowds.

During our May trip, we could wander.

We didn't need every second planned.

We could decide:

"Let's go see pirates."

And then go see pirates.

Halloween at the Hawthorne Hotel

The Hawthorne takes Halloween very seriously.

Its annual Halloween Ball began in the early 1990s and remains one of the hotel's signature events. The 2026 ball is themed Phobia, and the hotel currently reports its guest rooms for that weekend as sold out, although cancellations occasionally occur.

That illustrates how early you may need to plan if your dream is specifically:

Sleep at the Hawthorne Hotel during Halloween.

When we visited in May, we heard people already struggling to find October accommodations.

So if Halloween Salem is on your bucket list, do not assume you'll casually book something a few weeks before.

Why I Recommend Salem Off-Season

If your main priority is Halloween atmosphere, go in October.

That's the full Witch City experience.

But if your priority is actually seeing the historic sites, museums, shops, houses, and cemeteries without spending half your trip standing in lines...

Consider spring.

May worked extremely well for us.

The weather was pleasant.

We could move around.

We could make last-minute choices.

And Salem is still Salem even when it's not October.

The Witch House doesn't become less historical because someone isn't dressed as Beetlejuice outside.

Salem Is an Interesting Problem for Dark Tourism

Salem has done something unusual.

It took one of America's most infamous historical injustices and eventually transformed itself into a celebration of witch culture.

That's complicated.

The people killed in 1692 were innocent victims of a judicial and social catastrophe.

Modern Salem, meanwhile, has become welcoming to practicing witches, alternative spiritual communities, horror fans, paranormal enthusiasts, historians, goths, Halloween lovers, and people who simply enjoy weird things.

I actually think both stories can exist together.

But only if we remember which is which.

The Witch Trials Were Not a Cute Halloween Story

This is the part worth saying clearly.

Nineteen people were hanged.

Giles Corey was pressed to death.

Others died in jail.

Families suffered.

The victims were accused of a crime that could not possibly be proven through legitimate evidence.

First Church's own history acknowledges the role members of its congregation played in the hysteria and the executions of Rebecca Nurse and Giles Corey.

That's the dark history.

The broom-making, witch shops, ghost tours, Hocus Pocus locations, psychic readings, and Halloween celebrations came much later.

They're fun.

But they're not 1692.

Is Salem Good for Paranormal Tourism?

Absolutely.

You will find ghost tours everywhere.

Historic houses carry ghost legends.

Hotels have paranormal stories.

Cemeteries attract people interested in ghosts.

And the entire city seems designed to put your brain into paranormal mode.

That last part is important.

If you arrive in a place called Witch City, stay in a supposedly haunted hotel, spend all day hearing stories about death and witchcraft, walk through cemeteries, and then hear a floorboard creak at 2:00 a.m...

Your brain is ready.

Ghost.

Could it actually be something unexplained?

Sure.

But expectation is a huge variable.

Salem might be one of the best places in America to study how expectation influences paranormal experiences.

Our Salem Experience

During our trip we explored:

The Hawthorne Hotel.

Witch City Mall.

The First Church in Salem.

The Witch House.

Ropes Mansion and its garden.

Old Burying Point Cemetery.

Salem's witch shops.

Real Pirates Salem.

A broom-making experience.

Restaurants.

Science-fiction pizza.

And plenty of random weird things in between.

That's a lot of spooky tourism packed into a very walkable city.

What Was My Favorite?

The Witch House is probably the most important historical stop from this particular day.

It is a tangible connection to 1692.

The Ropes Mansion is beautiful and comes with both a documented tragic death and a Hocus Pocus connection.

The Old Burying Point provides that dark colonial atmosphere Salem does so well.

And Real Pirates Salem surprised me because seeing genuine artifacts from the Whydah gave us a completely different kind of dark history.

But honestly?

The best part is having all of these things together.

Final Thoughts on Dark Tourism in Salem

Salem is probably one of the easiest places in America to recommend to someone who loves dark tourism.

You don't even need a car once you're exploring the historic center.

Walk a few blocks and the subject changes completely.

Witch trials.

Ghosts.

Historic houses.

Pirates.

Cemeteries.

Literature.

Halloween.

Modern witchcraft.

Horror movies.

Lobster.

Aliens.

Blue trees.

It's wonderfully strange.

Just remember that the most famous story underneath all of it is not supernatural.

It is about ordinary humans.

Fear convinced people that invisible attacks were real.

Courts accepted impossible accusations.

Neighbors testified against neighbors.

And innocent people died.

That story is far more frightening than any ghost.

We didn't find paranormal evidence at the Hawthorne Hotel.

Bridget Bishop's orchard wasn't underneath our room.

But we did uncover a better version of the story—the historically accurate one.

And that's something I want to keep doing with our dark tourism travels.

Enjoy the legends.

Look for the ghosts.

Buy the witchy stuff.

Eat the lobster.

But also ask:

What really happened here?

Because sometimes the truth is darker than the haunting.

Until the next spooky adventure...

Stay spooky, cats!