Todd and I recently took an epic Fall Foilage roadtrip through New England. If you follow me on Instagram, chances are you have been able to see parts of our adventures! Our trip was 10 days and we visited 8 different cities.
I plan on doing a separate blog post that goes into detail about each stop, and then an overarching one that will talk about the roadtrip as a whole! So be on the look out for many more travel posts!
Our first stop on our epic Fall New England roadtrip was Salem, Massachusetts.
Why Visit?
Salem, Massachusetts is most often known for it’s sad dark history of the Salem Witch Trials. As you can guess, many people flock to the area in October, as it becomes a bit of a Halloween mecca. One website actually has a schedule of all the festive Halloween activities going on during the month of October!
T-shirt
Long Cardigan
Pants (similar)
Mules (similar)
Hat
Where to Stay?
Because of Salem’s popularity during the month of October, it is very hard to find a place to stay in Salem for an affordable cost. We used Airbnb for our trip because all of the hotels that I checked in Salem were booked! We stayed in two Airbnbs near/in Salem.
If you have never used Airbnb, you really should give it a try! Often times I find it is cheaper to stay in a house than it is a one bedroom hotel room! Also, you often get to stay in the quaintest and coolest houses out there. If you would like to give Airbnb a try click on this link to get $40 dollars off your first booking!
The first Airbnb we stayed in was actually in a neighboring town named Marblehead, MA. Marblehead surprised us because of how beautiful it was! We seriously regretted not being able to explore the area more, and in the future I could see us spending a whole week just in Marblehead.
Not only was the town cute, but so was our Airbnb. We had a private Loft style home. It was definitely in our top 3 Airbnbs of the trip. Not only was the inside beautiful, but there was a lake to enjoy (and canoes!) right outside the door.
Our second Airbnb we stayed in the night before we went to Boston (Boston is super pricey to stay in), but it was also in Salem, MA. It was our first time at a private room rather than a private house/apartment, and it turned out great! We had a nice room in a beautiful historical house that was right in the heart of Salem! Definitely a great pick if you want to be super close to the action.
Where to Eat:
We started our morning in Salem off with coffee & breakfast at Gulu- Gulu Cafe. They had a wide amount of options and my nutella waffle was quite delicious! The environment is also super cool and one that you will probably want to hang out in for awhile.
We also needed a mid-afternoon pick-me-up so we stopped at my favorite coffee shop of the whole trip: Jaho. Everything about this place was seriously so cool: the pink lids of the cups, the atmosphere, and not to mention my maple caramel apple cider was absolutely delicious.
We didn’t eat lunch or dinner in Salem, but these are a few others that sounded good/had good reviews!
Other recommendations:
New England Soup Factory
Ugly Mug Diner
Boston Burger Company
Maria’s Sweet Somethings
What to Do:
Shop Downtown on Essex & Visit Bewitched Statue
One of the easiest tourist attractions to find is the Bewitched statue. It is pretty hard to miss if you are busy shopping around the area. Make sure you snap a quick photo with her.
The Downtown area is very walkable. There are many stores in the area that we had fun browsing in. We weren’t really about all the witch craft stores, but we enjoyed the cute gift shops as well as a cozy book shop.
P.S. be prepared to pay for parking (most likely with cash) in the downtown area because of the busyness!
Visit the Ye Olde Pepper Candy Companie
The Ye Olde Pepper Candy Companie was one of our favorite stops because of its rich history! It is still family owned, and are home of the first commercially made candies in America. They have a mix of vintage candies and modern treats, as well as many festive items for Halloween/Fall (I got a caramel apple truffle!)
The Candy Companie is easily within walking distance, and is actually fairly close to Jaho!
Go on a Historial Tour of the Town
Our absolute favorite thing we did in Salem, was go on a guided historical walking tour of the town. Now, this may not be for every one, but if you enjoy history then I think this is something you have to do!
The tour we went on was with a guide named Kenneth. The tickets were very reasonable, and we learned a ton of information. He definitely talked about the witch trials, however he also talked about the general history of the town as well. If you want something more specialized there are tons of other tours out there that a quick Google search will show you!
Other Recommendations:
Salem Witch Museum
The Hawthorne Hotel
The Witch House tour
Hocus Pocus sites (visit the sites where Hocus Pocus was filmed)
House of Seven Gables
Salem Trolley
Friendship of Salem
As you can tell we barely scratched the surface of what there is to do in Salem, MA! It was such a fun area to visit for Fall/Halloween time. If you want further information on Salem, make sure to check out the resources I used to plan our trip on my Pinterest Fall Foilage Trip board!
Also, I have created a Google Map of our stops to help you plan!
Lastly, I created a Fall Playlist for our trip that was awesome to listen to during all the driving! You can check it out here.
Check out the rest of our trip here!
Thanks for stopping by!
-Kasey
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