Salem's Best Ghost Tour is a night walk through downtown Salem run by an independent operator listed as The Salem Night Ghost Tour, booking from $24 per person at our July 30, 2026 check. The operator bills it as a 75-minute walk after dark, and the listing gives an evening band with no clock time. Its route treats both of Salem's jail sites as separate stops, the 1692 gaol on Federal Street and the 1813 granite jail on St. Peter Street, which most Salem walks do not do. It carries 4.6 stars across 4,352 reviews, the second-largest review count among the eighteen Salem products in our research, and it suits a first night in town when a two-hour walk is more than you want.
Viator retitled the listing after this page was built: it read The Salem Night Tour, and now reads Salem's Best Ghost Tour.
| Detail | What the listing shows |
|---|---|
| From price | $24 per person (checked July 30, 2026) |
| Duration | About 75 minutes, as the operator bills it |
| Departures | Evening only, per the listing. No clock time verified. |
| Minimum age | None published. Age bands run infant through senior, so all ages are bookable. |
| Group size | Not stated on this listing. No cap verified. |
| Accessibility | Not wheelchair accessible, per the listing. Strollers listed as accessible. |
| Cancellation | Free cancellation up to 24 hours in advance, per the listing |
| Rating | 4.6 from 4,352 Viator reviews, the second-largest sample of the eighteen Salem products we banked |
| October check-in | October only: check-in begins 30 minutes before your tour time at Remember Salem, 127 Essex Street |
| Operator | The Salem Night Ghost Tour, an independent. We do not run this tour. |
What you will see
The Salem Witch Trials Memorial at 24 Liberty Street was designed by Maggie Smith and James Cutler, presented by Arthur Miller on November 14, 1991 and dedicated by Elie Wiesel on August 5, 1992 (Salem State Archives, Voices Against Injustice). Twenty granite benches each carry a name, a date and a manner of death, and the threshold is cut with the victims' protests of innocence from the 1692 court records, every line running into the wall and stopping mid-sentence. Two corrections worth having: twenty benches against nineteen hangings, because Giles Corey was pressed rather than hanged, and nobody is buried here or in the graveyard beside it. Wiesel dedicated the memorial; he did not design it.
That graveyard is Charter Street Cemetery, the Burying Point, in the town record as early as 1637 (the National Register file, the City of Salem). No victim of 1692 lies here. Two of the men who sent them do: John Hathorne, magistrate of the 1692 examinations and Nathaniel Hawthorne's great-great-grandfather, buried in 1717, and fellow Oyer and Terminer judge Bartholomew Gedney. It is one of the oldest burying grounds in the country, not the second oldest in America, and the city bans rubbings, standing on stones and climbing. Salem Old Town Hall at 32 Derby Square dates to 1815 or 1816, in a district listed on the National Register in 1972 (the National Park Service). Nothing of 1692 happened in it, since it did not exist yet. Its exterior is the adults' Halloween party in Hocus Pocus (1993), though that interior was shot in Los Angeles (Movie-Locations), and History Alive has staged Cry Innocent: The People vs. Bridget Bishop upstairs from the 1692 court documents since the mid-1990s (History Alive).
The route runs the Essex Street pedestrian mall, closed to traffic in 1976 (Streets of Salem, the West End Museum), and passes Salem Armory Regional Visitor Park. Those cobbles are a 1976 treatment, so nobody here walks stones the accused walked, and the 1692 courtroom was not on Essex Street: it sat in the Town House on what is now Washington Street, gone by about 1740. Turner's Seafood at 43 Church Street occupies Lyceum Hall, where Alexander Graham Bell gave the first public demonstration of long-distance telephony on February 12, 1877 (Salem State Archives, the Library of Congress). The ghost story here belongs to the wrong woman: the tavern, the shovel-board and the red bodice are Sarah Bishop's, not Bridget Bishop's, a conflation traced to Charles Upham in 1867 and corrected by David L. Greene in 1981. Bridget Bishop lived near what is now 71 Washington Street, and no trial, jailing or execution happened on this spot.
The two jails are the reason to take this particular walk. 10 Federal Street stands on the site of the 1692 witch gaol, built on Prison Lane in 1684 and one of four jails holding the accused; Giles Corey was taken from here to be pressed (Salem State Archives, the Salem Witch Museum). The gaol itself stood at number 4, demolished in 1956. The Old Salem Jail Lot at 50 St. Peter Street is a different century: Rockport granite, built 1811 to 1813, closed by court order in 1991 and converted to housing in 2009 and 2010 (the National Park Service, History of Massachusetts). It is not the witch jail, and Corey was not pressed in Howard Street Cemetery next door, which did not exist until 1801. St. Peter's-San Pedro, founded in 1733, sits on land deeded by Philip English, accused of witchcraft in 1692 and never tried; building the present church in 1833 and 1834 disturbed graves including Jonathan Pue's, the disinterment Hawthorne wrote into The Custom-House before inventing Pue's ghost (the Salem Witch Museum, History of Massachusetts). The walk closes at the Gardner-Pingree House at 128 Essex Street, where Captain Joseph White was killed in an upstairs bedchamber the night of April 6, 1830 and found the next morning, ten wounds counted about the heart that morning and three more some thirty-six hours later (the 1830 trial report). It is a Peabody Essex Museum property, so treat it as an outside stop.
Who it suits
About 75 minutes on foot after dark, from $24, free cancellation to 24 hours out, run by an independent rather than a national chain. It is for a first night in Salem, or for a reader who wants both jail sites and the Essex Street murder house on one route.
- Skip it if you need step-free access: the listing says not wheelchair accessible. Strollers are listed as accessible.
- Skip it if you want 1692 in daylight, or a start time you can plan around. The listing gives only an evening band.
- Children can be booked. Age bands run infant through senior with no minimum age published, but it is a walk after dark.
- Book longer if 75 minutes reads thin. Several Salem walks cover related ground in two hours or more.
- Confirm group size and the meeting point when you book. This listing carries no cap and no year-round address.
How it compares
This tour's position is scale, price and brevity. Its 4,352 reviews are the second-largest sample among the eighteen Salem products in our research, behind History and Hauntings of Salem Guided Walking Tour at 4.9 across 15,335. That one is $36 for two hours fifteen and lists wheelchair access. Salem Voodoo, Vampires, and Ghosts also rates 4.9, across 2,000 reviews, costs $28 for ninety minutes, caps groups at 40, and overlaps this route at Lyceum Hall, 10 Federal Street, Old Town Hall and the Burying Point.
For 1692 in daylight, Best Salem Witch Trials Historical Walking Tour is the only daytime-anchored walk we banked, departing 10 am, 1 pm and 4 pm with check-in at 8 Central Street, though at 4.2 across 790 reviews it rates below this one. This is not the cheapest Salem walk: the seasonal Magic Lantern Tour now sells dates only for an October 1 to November 4, 2026 window at our August 3, 2026 check and lists no out-of-season fare, Salem Ghosts: Witches and Wicked Whispers is $23, and two self-guided phone tours book lower still, one at $7.75. Among guided walks with a live fare, only Witches and Wicked Whispers undercuts it. See our Salem city guide and our guide to the best ghost tours in Salem.
Questions people ask
How does check-in work in October?
In October the operator runs a check-in window rather than a single meeting time. The listing reads, verbatim: "Salem in October is magical but busy. Check in begins 30 minutes before your tour time at Remember Salem, 127 Essex Street". Read the October note on the booking page before you plan around it, and confirm your departure time with the operator.
How long is it and what does it cost?
About 75 minutes, from $24 per person at our July 30, 2026 check, with free cancellation up to 24 hours in advance. Confirm the rate on the booking page.
Where does it go?
The listing names eleven entries. Researched stops: the Witch Trials Memorial, Charter Street Cemetery, Salem Old Town Hall, Turner's Seafood at Lyceum Hall, 10 Federal Street, the Old Salem Jail Lot, Saint Peter's Episcopal Church and the Gardner-Pingree House. The Essex Street mall and Salem Armory Regional Visitor Park are pass-bys.
Is it accessible?
Not wheelchair accessible per the listing; strollers are listed as accessible. Salem's brick sidewalks and uneven surfaces are documented across the city's walking tours, so book a tour that does list step-free access if you need it.
Can children come?
Age bands run infant through senior, so all ages are bookable and no minimum age is published. The operator gives no guidance beyond those bands, and it is a walk after dark.
Who runs it, and do you?
An independent listed as The Salem Night Ghost Tour, not a national chain. We do not run it. We are Arizona guides who research haunted history in other cities.
