Hotels in Salem

Salem is a harbour city of about 44,000 people on the Massachusetts North Shore, 24 km northeast of Boston, and it is known around the world for one year: 1692, when the Salem witch trials led to the execution of 20 people. The city leans into that history with museums, memorials and walking tours, and every October it hosts Haunted Happenings, a month of events that draws hundreds of thousands of visitors.

There is more to Salem than witches. Founded in 1626, it grew rich on the China trade in the late 1700s, and that wealth still shows in the Federal-style mansions of the McIntire Historic District, the wharves of Salem Maritime National Historical Park and the Peabody Essex Museum, one of the oldest continuously operating museums in the United States. The House of the Seven Gables, built in 1668, inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne, who was born in the city.

The compact downtown is easy to cover on foot, with the Essex Street pedestrian mall at its centre and the waterfront a few minutes away. Salem works as a day trip from Boston by commuter rail or seasonal ferry, or as a base for the rest of the North Shore, including Marblehead, Gloucester and Rockport.