Free & Cheap Things to Do in Salem

History & Culture

A 1.7-mile self-guided walking trail marked by a red line on the sidewalk — similar in spirit to Boston's Freedom Trail — the Salem Heritage Trail connects 30 of Salem's most historically significant sites, from the Salem Common and the Witch Trials Memorial to the Peabody Essex Museum exterior, the Derby Wharf National Historic Site, the Charter Street Cemetery (one of the oldest in New England), and the Old Town Hall. The entire trail is free to walk, with informational signs at each stop telling the story of Salem's complex history from Puritan settlement through the maritime era to the present.

Address: Salem Heritage Trail, Salem, MA (start at Salem Visitor Center, 2 New Liberty St)

Tip: Pick up a free map at the Salem Visitor Center on New Liberty Street. The Charter Street Cemetery is one of the oldest burying grounds in America — the Witch Trials Memorial is adjacent and deeply moving. Allow 2 hours for the full trail. October is Salem's peak season — crowds are intense and prices spike. Visit in spring or fall (outside October) for the same atmosphere with far fewer people.

History & Culture

Opened in 1992 on the 300th anniversary of the Salem Witch Trials, this small but profoundly affecting memorial designed by James Cutler honors the 20 people executed during the hysteria of 1692. Twenty stone benches protrude from a granite wall — each inscribed with a victim's name, the date of their death, and their manner of execution — set within a simple enclosed space of grass and locust trees. The memorial is free to visit and open year-round. The adjacent Charter Street Cemetery, dating to 1637, holds the graves of several prominent figures connected to the trials, including Judge John Hathorne.

Address: Salem Witch Trials Memorial, 24 Liberty St, Salem, MA 01970

Tip: The memorial is open 24 hours — visiting at dawn or dusk adds a somber atmosphere that feels appropriate. The adjacent Charter Street Cemetery closes at sunset. The Peabody Essex Museum is just a short walk away (paid admission but one of the finest art and culture museums in New England). Derby Street nearby has excellent cheap restaurants and the waterfront is a pleasant walk.

History & Culture

Salem was once one of the wealthiest cities in America, its fortunes built on a global maritime trade network that stretched from the Caribbean to the Far East. The Salem Maritime National Historic Site preserves that legacy along the Derby Street waterfront, with the historic Derby Wharf — a 2,100-foot granite pier extending into Salem Harbor — free to walk, along with historic warehouses, the Custom House where Nathaniel Hawthorne once worked, and the tall ship Friendship of Salem (small boarding fee when docked). The NPS Visitor Center has excellent free exhibits on Salem's maritime history.

Address: Salem Maritime National Historic Site, 160 Derby St, Salem, MA 01970

Tip: Walk to the end of Derby Wharf for beautiful views of Salem Harbor — it's one of the most peaceful spots in the city. The Custom House where Hawthorne worked is free to enter and has informative NPS ranger programs. The Friendship of Salem tall ship completed major repairs in 2025 and should be returning to Derby Wharf — check the NPS site before your visit to confirm it's back in port. When docked, boarding is free. Pickering Wharf just west has waterfront restaurants good for a cheap lunch.

Parks & Nature

Salem Common — one of the oldest public parks in America, used since the early 1600s for militia training and public gatherings — is a beautiful six-acre green space at the heart of Salem's historic district, surrounded by Federal and Greek Revival architecture on Washington Square. Free to enjoy year-round, the common hosts summer concerts, fall festivals, and winter events, and serves as a peaceful gathering place at the center of the Heritage Trail. The surrounding Washington Square neighborhood features some of the finest preserved early American architecture in New England.

Address: Salem Common, Washington Square, Salem, MA 01970

Tip: Washington Square North and East along the perimeter of the Common have some of the best-preserved Federal-period architecture in Massachusetts — worth a slow walk to appreciate the details. The Common is about a 10-minute walk from the train station, making Salem an easy day trip from Boston on the MBTA Commuter Rail ($8.50 each way). In October the Common hosts the Haunted Happenings festival.

History & Culture

Founded in 1637, Charter Street Cemetery is the oldest burying ground in Salem and one of the oldest in the United States. The grounds hold the graves of Mayflower passenger Richard More, judges from the 1692 witch trials, and many notable Salem residents from the colonial period. The 17th-century Pickman House next door has been restored as a free welcome center with interpretive material that puts the cemetery and the adjacent Witch Trials Memorial in historical context. The thin slate headstones with their winged-skull and cherub carvings are some of the finest examples of early American funerary art anywhere in New England.

Address: Charter Street, Salem, MA 01970

Tip: Open during daylight hours — dawn or late afternoon light is dramatic across the slate stones. The Witch Trials Memorial is directly adjacent, so plan them as one stop. The Pickman House welcome center is free and worth the 10 minutes for context before you walk the grounds. Be respectful: this is an active historic burial ground, not a Halloween prop. Stick to marked paths and don’t lean on the stones — many are over 350 years old.

Parks & Gardens

The Ropes Mansion Garden — a Colonial Revival garden laid out in 1912 by John Robinson and managed today by the Peabody Essex Museum — is open free to the public 365 days a year, dawn to dusk. Nearly 5,000 annual flowers are planted each season, alongside heritage perennials, a historic greenhouse, and a potting shed tucked behind the 1727 Georgian mansion. The exterior of the Ropes Mansion itself is one of Salem’s most photographed buildings: it played “Allison’s house” in Disney’s 1993 cult-classic Hocus Pocus, and every October PEM dresses the front to match the film. The mansion interior is occasionally open seasonally for self-guided tours.

Address: 318 Essex Street, Salem, MA 01970

Tip: The garden is open every day from sunrise to sunset, and dogs are welcome — it’s one of the most peaceful free spots in downtown Salem. Skip the October crowds: late spring and early summer are when the annual plantings peak. If you’re a Hocus Pocus fan, the front of the house (across Essex Street from the garden entrance) is the famous filming exterior — it’s a free photo stop, no need to enter the property.

Arts & Culture

Punto Urban Art Museum is an open-air mural museum spread across roughly four blocks of “El Punto” (The Point), Salem’s historically Latino neighborhood. It features more than 75 large-scale murals by 30 internationally recognized and 25 local artists, painted on the walls of homes, businesses, and community buildings. The murals address themes of immigration, identity, and social justice, and the project is run as a community development program by North Shore CDC. The result is one of the densest concentrations of public mural art in New England — and unlike a museum, it costs nothing to walk around and see.

Address: 96 Lafayette Street, Salem, MA 01970

Tip: Self-guided viewing is free and best done in daylight — download the free mural map from puntourbanartmuseum.org before you go. Allow 60–90 minutes to walk the loop comfortably. Guided 75-minute tours led by museum staff and local Mural Ambassadors have a small fee that funds community work in the Point neighborhood — worth it if you want context on the artists. The neighborhood is a 10-minute walk from downtown Salem.

Parks & Nature

Salem Willows is a 25-acre seaside park that has been a public gathering spot since 1888. It occupies a long, narrow stretch of coastline on Salem Neck, with views across Beverly Harbor and the Danvers River out to the Atlantic. The park features a small public beach, a historic tree-lined promenade, picnic areas, an old-school arcade and snack stands along the waterfront, and a fishing pier. Locals come for summer concerts, festivals, and movie nights — visitors come for the cheap chop suey sandwiches, salt-water taffy, and ocean views that have barely changed in a century.

Address: 165 Fort Avenue, Salem, MA 01970

Tip: Free public park — no admission and parking lots on-site are free. About a 10-minute drive (or short bus ride) northeast of downtown Salem. The Phase II renovation is wrapping up in spring 2026; most pathways and the new pier are open, with final landscaping continuing through Memorial Day 2026 — check the city site for any short construction closures before going. The arcade and snack stands run seasonally, roughly Memorial Day through Labor Day.

Parks & Coastal Views

Winter Island is a 54-acre peninsula at the mouth of Salem Harbor with a remarkable layered history: pre-contact Indigenous archaeological sites over 6,000 years old, the masonry and earthworks of Fort Pickering (established 1643), a former U.S. Coast Guard air station, and the 1871 Fort Pickering Lighthouse still standing watch at the harbor entrance. Today it functions as a city park with a small public beach (Waikiki Beach), a multi-use trail along the western shoreline, picnic spots, and a working campground. The lighthouse and harbor view from the easternmost tip is one of the most photographed scenes in Salem.

Address: 50 Winter Island Road, Salem, MA 01970

Tip: The park itself charges no admission — the only fee is for parking ($10 weekdays, $15 weekends and holidays). Bike, walk, or take the Salem Trolley to skip the parking charge entirely; bike racks are available. Walk to the eastern tip past the Coast Guard hangar for the best lighthouse view. Sunrise here is exceptional. Avoid swimming at Waikiki Beach without checking water-quality status posted at the beach.

Historic Sites

Built around 1675, the Witch House is the only structure still standing in Salem with direct ties to the 1692 witch trials. It was the home of Judge Jonathan Corwin, who conducted some of the early examinations of accused witches inside this house. The dark First Period timber-frame architecture — steep gabled roofs, leaded diamond-pane windows, massive central chimney — has been carefully preserved and is itself one of the best-surviving examples of 17th-century Puritan domestic building in New England. Inside, period rooms with original furnishings give you a tactile sense of the world the trials happened in.

Address: 310½ Essex Street, Salem, MA 01970

Tip: Open daily April 15–November 15 (10am–5pm, last entry 4:45pm); winter hours Thursday–Sunday noon–4pm. Tickets sold day-of at the gift shop behind the house — no online sales — so arrive early in October when lines are longest. Allow 45–60 minutes for the self-guided tour. The exterior is a free photo opportunity even if you don’t buy a ticket.

Quirky Landmarks

A six-foot bronze statue of Elizabeth Montgomery as Samantha Stephens — the witch she played in the 1960s sitcom Bewitched — sits on a crescent-moon pedestal at Lappin Park on the Essex Street pedestrian mall. The cable network TV Land donated the sculpture to Salem in 2005 to mark the show’s 40th anniversary; the connection is that several Bewitched episodes were filmed on location in Salem in 1970 after a fire shut down the show’s Hollywood set. It’s a kitschy, beloved photo stop that captures the town’s sense of humor about its complicated relationship with witch history.

Address: Lappin Park, 235 Essex Street, Salem, MA 01970

Tip: Right on the Essex Street pedestrian mall — you’ll pass it walking between most of the downtown attractions. Visible and photographable 24 hours; early morning is best to avoid the queue of October selfie-takers. Combine it with the Witch House (3-minute walk west) and the Bewitched Statue’s nearby benches make a good rest stop while planning the next attraction.

Markets & Food

Founded in 1806, Ye Olde Pepper Candy Companie is recognized as the oldest continuously operating candy company in America. The small Derby Street storefront still produces traditional New England confections by hand, including Salem Gibralters — hard lemon and peppermint candies considered the first commercially produced candies in America — and Black Jacks, a chewy molasses sweet. Walking in is a sensory snapshot of a 19th-century confectionery: marble counters, glass jars, the smell of boiled sugar. It’s steps from the Salem Maritime National Historic Site and Derby Wharf, so easy to combine with other free stops.

Address: 122 Derby Street, Salem, MA 01970

Tip: Free to walk in and browse — no admission, no pressure to buy. Open 10am–5pm daily. A quarter-pound of Salem Gibralters is the cheapest way to try the historical specialty (it’s an acquired taste — sharp lemon or peppermint hard candies, the original American candy). One block from Derby Wharf, so plan it as part of the Salem Maritime walk.