Salem Witch Museum
Salem Witch Museum
3
10:00 - 17:00
Monday
10:00 - 17:00
Tuesday
10:00 - 17:00
Wednesday
10:00 - 17:00
Thursday
10:00 - 17:00
Friday
10:00 - 17:00
Saturday
10:00 - 17:00
Sunday
10:00 - 17:00
About
Were the Salem witch trials caused by moldy bread? Was anyone burned at the stake? What is a witch cake? Get answers to these questions and more, and immerse yourself in a key piece of American history at the Salem Witch Museum. Life-size stage sets, actors, and narrators recreate the drama of that dark time, while the Witches: Evolving Perceptions exhibit explores the evolution of the witch and the phenomenon of witch-hunting. Same-day tickets are available online; plan ahead for heavy traffic and limited parking during peak seasons in the summer and fall to avoid missing your time slot. – Tripadvisor
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3.0
3,968 reviews
Excellent
762
Very good
844
Average
1,137
Poor
627
Terrible
598
nataly02
Columbus, OH247 contributions
Oct 2024 • Couples
You have to get tickets for this event the day of and you can start at midnight. So I stayed up till midnight to get my tickets for the day. I paid $17.50 a ticket. When you get there you get in line to be ushered into a dark room with a red circle in the middle and small stools around it. There are also benches on the walls. (FYI you want a stool to see everything). It’s a free for all once the doors open if you get a stool your good if you are on a bench you see about half the show. The lights go down and you watch a 15 to 20 minute telling through mannequins around the top of the ceiling in the room. So if you are on a stool you can rotate on a bench you can’t. After the show 1/2 the group goes to another room while the other half goes to the gift shop. We went to gift shop first. After 5 or so minutes we were then ushered in to a room with plaques on the wall to read and a guide gave us a 10 minute talk about the trial. So not worth the time or money. Not to mention with the $$ they are making you would think they would spruce up the mannequins.
Written 6 October 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Georgia W
3 contributions
Oct 2024 • Couples
Coming from the UK and having had to buy tickets at midnight the day of our visit the anticipation was high! The website crashed multiple times. Managed to get tickets after half an hour of trying using two separate phones.
When we arrived the anticipate further built with the queues!
The first room was good ( recommend sitting in the middle as best as possible) but the mannequins look like they are melting and in huge need of a good clean and dusting! It would take very little effort to tidy them up!
Very disappointed at the quality.
The second room was a bit pointless. I would have preferred to be able to walk around myself and look at the exhibits. So I didn’t get a chance to properly see the timeline and other things they had.
Considering this is the main museum in Salem that everyone aims for we had expected far more history and not just a talk about witches in popular culture. The gift shop was the best part and the only place in Salem I found which sold postcards. Had we just been able to turn up and buy tickets we probably wouldn’t have been so disappointed. But because of the anticipation built we felt it was over hyped for what it was. The walking tour we took gave us far more history of Salem and the witch trials.
When we arrived the anticipate further built with the queues!
The first room was good ( recommend sitting in the middle as best as possible) but the mannequins look like they are melting and in huge need of a good clean and dusting! It would take very little effort to tidy them up!
Very disappointed at the quality.
The second room was a bit pointless. I would have preferred to be able to walk around myself and look at the exhibits. So I didn’t get a chance to properly see the timeline and other things they had.
Considering this is the main museum in Salem that everyone aims for we had expected far more history and not just a talk about witches in popular culture. The gift shop was the best part and the only place in Salem I found which sold postcards. Had we just been able to turn up and buy tickets we probably wouldn’t have been so disappointed. But because of the anticipation built we felt it was over hyped for what it was. The walking tour we took gave us far more history of Salem and the witch trials.
Written 27 October 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Kris A
Chicago, IL64 contributions
Oct 2024 • Friends
Skip this. Seriously, skip it. I guess we got caught up in the tiktok hype of hopping online at midnight to make sure we secured tickets that we did no research on the reviews. This was not great. I would liken it to a puppet show but these creepy puppets don’t move when they talk. If you know even just a small amount about the witch trials, you already know more than what you can learn from this museum. The highlight of the museum is the entry way where you are shoulder to shoulder with about 50 other people awaiting to get into the theater. This is where the names of the accused and victims are listed, kind of interesting to see but it was all downhill from there. After everything was over, I left a little annoyed that I wasted money on this nothingness. I overheard several others comment on how they wish they could get a refund. Skip this all together and buy yourself an ice cream instead.
Written 16 October 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Arthur M
Hamilton, Canada1,800 contributions
Oct 2024 • Family
The tickets were incredibly hard to secure, and we had to do it in the stroke of midnight from the official site. Undersrandably this is because the attraction is too popular, especially durijg our visit in October.
We were able to line up 30 minutes in advance and the groups are sorted based on their showtime. Upon entering the first room, everyone sits around a red circle featuring all the victims who wee accused of witchcraft. The show featured the stories of each victim. The red circle did not hold any significance at all so even though people were unable to see the red circle, it served no purpose.
The exhibits and the show were clearly dated and the audio system is also just as dated. It is defnitely overdue for a renovation and overhaul of the attraction, and new ways of retelling the story of the witch trials.
We were able to line up 30 minutes in advance and the groups are sorted based on their showtime. Upon entering the first room, everyone sits around a red circle featuring all the victims who wee accused of witchcraft. The show featured the stories of each victim. The red circle did not hold any significance at all so even though people were unable to see the red circle, it served no purpose.
The exhibits and the show were clearly dated and the audio system is also just as dated. It is defnitely overdue for a renovation and overhaul of the attraction, and new ways of retelling the story of the witch trials.
Written 3 December 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Cabrett S
3 contributions
Sept 2024 • Family
This is a place that takes itself way too seriously, and it has absolutely no right to. What you get is not worth what you pay for. You have to buy midnight tickets, and wait in a claustrophobic waiting room for what seems like an eternity, only to see a few mannequins and a voice over reading about the trials. They rush you from room to room, like you're doing something so important, and all the while you're thinking "really?" I took time out of my day for this? They also don't let you take pictures. They claim it's because their dilapidated puppet show is copyrighted, but I think the real reason is so there is no photo evidence of how pathetic this thing really is. Save your money and don't waste it on a place that just hammers you with petty rules and gives very little entertainment in return.
Written 21 October 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Linda W
London, UK54 contributions
Nov 2024 • Couples
I can only echo the previous negative reviews. Money should be spent immediately to bring the exhibits into the 21st century - very amateurish displays and guide. We felt herded and dismissed as paying clients. A very bossy attitude from the many members of staff who were very good at telling us what we were not allowed to do in this fairly simple museum. Very disappointing all round.
Written 25 November 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Travelers-Be-We
Florida65 contributions
Sept 2024 • Friends
While the tableaus in the first room are a bit dated and most likely from the opening of the museum, however, it was still a very unique story-telling experience! The second portion of the exhibit was a bit rushed as you listen to more tableau stories, which left little time to peruse the rest of the artifacts. I would definitely go back!
Written 14 September 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Mirella R
21 contributions
Oct 2024 • Family
This show was terrible. You’re better off reading about the witch trials than paying for this. And if you’re made by staff to sit in the back rows once inside you can barely see the wax figures telling their stories. The building inside and out is intriguing but it’s just wax figures telling you their story and i felt like it was a complete waste of money. I will never go there again and would not recommend!!
Written 19 October 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
IanofMelton
23 contributions
Jun 2024 • Couples
The first part was a presentation of the history of the witch trials, illustrated by a series of tableaux that were illuminated sequentially. That was quite informative, but the experience went South from there...we were split into two groups for the second part, and while one went on to the next "presentation," our group went through a different door for an "intermission". That door led to the gift shop, which was rammed with our group and a previous one. After about 10 minutes we swapped places with the first group and were subjected to a presentation of the history of witchcraft, again illustrated by rather childish tableaux and this time featuring character voices with comical attempts at regional accents. After that, we were ejected to the gift shop once more.
Two low-budget 10-minute "presentations" and an enforced visit to a gift shop. Not really a museum, more of a cheap attraction, except it isn't exactly cheap.
We were told at the start that the museum's purpose is to honour the innocent victims of the witch trials. However, I found a certain irony in the fact that the shop was stocked almost exclusively with cheap tat glorifying witchcraft.
The place seems to be operated on the basis of getting as many people through the doors and into the shop to spend more money. Take a tip from me, and save yours.
Two low-budget 10-minute "presentations" and an enforced visit to a gift shop. Not really a museum, more of a cheap attraction, except it isn't exactly cheap.
We were told at the start that the museum's purpose is to honour the innocent victims of the witch trials. However, I found a certain irony in the fact that the shop was stocked almost exclusively with cheap tat glorifying witchcraft.
The place seems to be operated on the basis of getting as many people through the doors and into the shop to spend more money. Take a tip from me, and save yours.
Written 11 June 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Mk31
Pompano Beach, FL803 contributions
Oct 2024 • Friends
It is an informative presentation and tour. It’s nice that the presentation has plenty of seating and dim lighting, after touring Salem all day this was a nice reprieve.
Make sure to purchase tickets online after midnight the day of, they typically sell out by 1am. I especially enjoyed that the second part of the museum had a cool timeline of events and different comparisons of types of “witches” and witchcraft.
Make sure to purchase tickets online after midnight the day of, they typically sell out by 1am. I especially enjoyed that the second part of the museum had a cool timeline of events and different comparisons of types of “witches” and witchcraft.
Written 1 November 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Yes. The big room has stairs to access but you can come in through another door that has a ramp.
Written 1 October 2019
There is no dedicated parking for the museum. We found parking about a block or two away. And the walk was enjoyable.
Written 13 August 2019
Will there be a long line/wait if we get there at 10am on a Sat in October with tickets purchased online?
Written 30 September 2018
There are always lines and in October that will be an even bigger problem.
Written 13 August 2019
About how long does it take for all the presentations?
Written 17 February 2018
About 40 minutes then a walk through the rest of the exhibits. An hour and a half should see you in and out. I found it interesting but each to their own.
Written 18 February 2018
Do you have to take a tour or can you just go in and walk around?
Written 16 February 2018
You can walk around the gift shop, but the museum is all group presentations. The first part covers the facts surrounding the witch trials; suitable for children ages 8 up and adults. Second part covers the changing perceptions of "witches" through the ages; more suitable for adults. The third and final part draws parallels between the Salem witch trials and other hysterias that have gripped various cultures at various times; adult. We found it definitely worth the cost of admission.
Written 17 February 2018
Are their any tours going on in Feb. I can't seem to find anything for 2018
Written 12 August 2017
BPM
Salem, Massachusetts
Yes absolutely, we are open seven days a week in February from 10 am until 5 pm with presentations running every half an hour.
Sincerely,
Faxon M.
Written 24 August 2017
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