Salem Ghost Tour/in October
October is the month Salem is built for and the month it is hardest to book. The walk to take, on any date in it, is the History and Hauntings Guided Walking Tour: 4.8 out of 5 across 819 reviews, the most of any tour in town, 2 hours from Derby Square, from $36. Everything below is when to come and what the month does to the booking.
Two things separate an October booking from any other. The first is light: sunset drops from 18:24 on 1 October to 17:37 on the 31st, so the same seven o’clock slot is dusk at the start of the month and full dark by the end. The second is capacity — the town runs at its limit on October weekends, and the evening slots go first. For the walks themselves compared on their own terms, the ghost walking tour hub does that.
Cheaper alternative: Salem Night Tour: Haunt and History, from $30
what to book in October
Every tour in Salem runs through October and most of them sell out on the weekends. These seven are the ones worth a date in the month: the best-evidenced walk, the most-booked evening, the daylight trials walk for the crowds, the film locations, the pub crawl, an indoor hour for the weather, and the one day trip built for the season. Figures are from the listings.
Walk, stories + history
from $36 · rated 4.8 · 819 reviews
storieshistoryOur pick. The most-reviewed ghost walk in Salem and the best rated of them, with the stories and the 1692 record in one walk. Downside: it covers more ground than the rest, so for a short first evening take the Salem Night Tour instead.
Kids Not statedAdults Not statedRain Rain or shineStroller Not statedOn foot Not statedEvening walk, stories
from $30 · rated 4.5 · 711 reviews
nightstoriesThe shorter evening, and our pick for a first night. Stories first, and it ends downtown. It is also the busiest, so October dates go early; History and Hauntings is the longer walk over the same streets.
Kids Not statedAdults Not statedRain Rain or shineStroller Not statedOn foot Not statedDaylight walk, side streets
from $35 · rated 4.5 · 207 reviews
historyhiddenVerdict · Side streets and lesser-told episodes. Assumes you know the outline; first-timers start with the 1692 Walk.
Kids Not statedAdults Not statedRain Rain or shineStroller Not statedOn foot Not statedDaylight walk, film sites
from $50 · rated 4.7 · 274 reviews
filmVerdict · Our pick on screen. Walks the Salem locations used in the film. No ghosts, no trials; add either separately.
Kids With an adultAdults Not statedRain Rain or shineStroller Yes, but brick and cobbleOn foot About 3 milesVerdict · Stories between bars. Adults only, so a family evening needs the Night Tour; a group of friends needs nothing else.
Kids 21+Adults 21+ onlyRain Rain or shineStroller Not statedOn foot Not statedVerdict · Indoors, hands busy, a broom to take home. Not a tour at all; pair with a walk before or after.
Kids Not statedAdults Not statedRain IndoorsStroller No, stairs to enterOn foot Not statedDay trip, October
from $385 · rated — · 0 reviews
bostonoctoberVerdict · Built for the October crowds, small group. Seasonal only; outside October take the History Tour.
Kids Not statedAdults Not statedRain Not statedStroller Not statedOn foot Not statedSelf-guided · dusk or daylight
Free · no guide, no booking
Verdict · The memorial, the old burying ground and the Witch House exterior are open air. Go at dusk and you have the mood for free. You do not get the stories, the order, or a guide who knows which door to stop at.
Kids YesRain Your callStroller Brick sidewalksOn foot As far as you likeKids, adults-only, rain policy, stroller access and distance on foot come from each listing and are shown as written there. Where the listing is silent, we say so on the review page rather than guess.
Walk, stories + history · best for Value, mixed group
The strongest listing in Salem on the numbers: 4.8 out of 5 across 819 reviews, more than any other tour in town. Two hours from 32 Derby Square, nine stops, and the listing states it never enters a building — which in October means dress for two hours outdoors.
Against it: it is outdoors only and it runs rain or shine, so a wet October evening is a wet two hours. Being the best-reviewed walk also means the October weekends go first; if your date is gone, the Salem Night Tour is the most-booked evening.
Evening walk, stories · best for A first night in Salem
The walk most people mean when they say a Salem ghost tour. Ninety minutes, stories told rather than staged, and a route that comes back to where it started, at 127 Essex Street, rather than leaving you at the edge of town. It carries more reviews than any other after-dark listing in Salem: 711.
Against it: it is the busiest, so October dates sell out first and the group is rarely small. If you want a quieter evening, the Haunted Footsteps walk covers the residential streets instead.
Indoor workshop · best for A rainy hour
The answer to a wet October afternoon: an hour and a half indoors at Old Town Hall making a broom you take home, rated 4.9 across 156 reviews — the best rating of anything in Salem with more than a hundred reviews behind it. The listing includes the handle, the broom corn and the instruction.
Against it: from $135 is the most expensive thing in Salem that is not a day trip from Boston, and the listing states the building is not wheelchair accessible, does not allow mobility scooters, and has stairs to the workshop. No sandals or flip flops.
Daylight walk, film sites · best for Fans of the film
The one with the reviews: 4.7 out of 5 across 274, against 3.8 across 72 for the other. Two and a half hours and about three miles, with a licensed guide, movie trivia, candy and a swag bag in the price, and entry to Pioneer Village on the weekends it opens.
Against it: it finishes at Pioneer Village rather than where it started, and the listing says you arrange your own way back downtown. It is called strenuous, it never goes indoors, and the listing lists wheelchair users, people with mobility, back or heart problems and anyone with a low level of fitness as not suitable.
Day trip, October · best for October from Boston
The only listing built for the season: a small-group Halloween-period day trip from Boston, eight hours, with pickup available. If you are coming for October specifically and do not want to sort the logistics of the busiest month, this is the one product aimed at you.
Against it: from $385 a head, and no reviews at all — nothing has been said about it by anyone who has been. That combination is the hardest sell on this site, and we would want to see it run a season before recommending it.
One listing is built for this month specifically: From Boston: Small-Group Halloween Season Day Tour, eight hours from Boston with pickup available, from $385 a head. If you are coming for the season from Boston and do not want to think about trains, closures or parking on the busiest weekends of the year, it is the product aimed exactly at you.
It also has no reviews at all, which at that price is the hardest thing on this site to recommend, so we are telling you rather than selling you. The alternative most people should take is the train and a local walk — History and Hauntings Guided Walking Tour is the strongest of those — or one of the cheaper guided days on the from-Boston hub.
the month, date by date
Haunted Happenings runs 1–31 October. The Grand Parade is Thursday 1 October, 18:30 to 20:30, free to watch, from Shetland Park to Salem Common. Salem400’s Witch Hats on the Wharf record attempt is 17 October at 11:00. Halloween itself ends with a Finale and Drone Show at 22:00 on 31 October, with marketplaces at Derby Square and Salem Common from 10:00 to 21:45 and a food court at Old Town Hall from 11:00 to 20:00.
The Charter Street Burying Point — the oldest burial ground in Salem, and the one beside the Witch Trials Memorial — needs a free digital reservation in October. Slots are fifteen minutes from 10:00, it closes at 17:00, and there is no limit on how long you stay once you are in. Reservations open 18 September and are same-day only. It is free, and no tour on this site includes it as a ticket.
The city had not published its 2026 street closures, satellite lots, shuttle hours or October garage rates when this page was written, and we will not invent them. For the pattern: in 2025 Essex Street and Front Street shut to through traffic 09:00–22:00 on October weekends, free lots with free shuttles ran from Salem State’s O’Keefe Center on Canal Street and from Salem High School, and the MBTA garage closed to entry at 18:00 on Halloween. The train is the way in: the MBTA adds weekend service to Salem through October.
If nothing above changed your mind, this is the one to book, and in October the thing that matters is booking it early rather than choosing perfectly. It is the best-rated walk in Salem with the most reviews behind it, and it runs all month. If your date is gone, Salem Night Tour: Haunt and History is the most-booked evening in town over much the same streets.
from $36 · rated 4.8 · 819 reviews
Or the cheaper alternative →Sunset falls from 18:24 on 1 October to 17:37 on the 31st, with full dark about half an hour after each. So a seven o’clock evening slot is dusk in the first week and properly dark by the last. On 1 November the clocks go back and sunset drops to 16:36 — which makes the first weekend of November the darkest cheap week of the year in Salem.
Yes, and earlier than you think for the weekends. Evening slots go first, and our pick’s own listing says space is limited and advance booking is strongly suggested. Weekdays in the first half of the month are the easy booking; the last two weekends and Halloween itself are the hard ones.
The Grand Parade on 1 October and the Halloween Night Drone Show on the 31st are both free to watch. The Witch Trials Memorial is free and open dawn to dusk. The Charter Street Burying Point beside it is free too, but in October it needs a free digital reservation — fifteen-minute slots, same-day only, opening 18 September.
The city had not published its 2026 closures, satellite lots, shuttle hours or garage rates when this page was written, so we are not going to give you numbers we cannot stand behind. In 2025 the pattern was: Essex and Front Street closed to through traffic on weekends, free satellite lots with free shuttles at Salem State and Salem High School, and the MBTA garage shut to entry at 18:00 on Halloween. The commuter rail from North Station is the answer that does not depend on any of it.
Pictured · History and Hauntings Guided Walking Tour review →
