The Tour was totally entertaining, detailed, and eye opening--even for us locals. Omar was…read moreincredibly well informed, and careful to find stops where everyone could sit and listen. Walking was at a reasonable pace. Definitely a good value and a great experience.

Such a fun tour! Our guide Tom was hilarious and had amazing stories. Definitely recommend going!read more

I found Hocus Pocus Tours while seeking things to do in Salem on Yelp and TripAdvisor. Fellow…read moreYelpers' rave reviews did not disappoint! In messaging Hocus Pocus Tours with a couple questions about the tour and travel to and from Salem, the owner Susan replied immediately and suggested that I call her. This led to a one hour phone conversation where Susan was so gracious with her time, knowledge, and suggestions, not just about how to make the most of the tour, but how to appreciate a day in Salem. I can see why those who had the opportunity to take the in-person tour with Susan really enjoyed it. Covid changed the business model and Hocus Pocus now offers a self-guided tour by purchasing one of two tour apps. I opted for the $19.99 grand tour and it was well worth it. It has 37 points of interest. The app is user friendly and well designed. It provides a map of all stops, tracks where you are, and guides you to the next stop that you select on the tour. When you get to your stop, you can confirm you're at the right spot by comparing a photo of the site with what you see. Then you click on a 2-3 minute audio recording that provides a great snapshot of the significance of the site. As Susan had pointed out to me, there is much more to Salem than the historic witchcraft trials. It includes author Nathaniel Hawthorne's The House of Seven Gables, America's oldest candy company, and other interesting sites. Of everything I visited, I experienced a very deep emotional connection with the 1692 Witchcraft Memorial with 20 stones dedicated to each of the victims of the witchcraft trial. The tour includes brief descriptions of some of the victims including those written about in Arthur Miller's The Crucible. If you plan to visit Salem, I highly recommend this tour. All sites can be visited on the outside and some on the inside at no charge. Some sites, such as The House of Seven Gables, charge separate admission fees. If you want to travel to Salem and don't have a car, the ferry from Boston offers a nice, scenic, and entertaining 50 minute ride. The commuter trains run more frequently and can come in handy if the ferry schedule coming or going doesn't meet your needs. There are plenty of good places to dine at to break up the tour. We had lunch at FINZ and really enjoyed it (I'll post separately about that).

This was legit SO much fun! The name Hocus Pocus kinda throws you off because you may be thinking…read moreabout the movie, but this tour really is amazing. Start off with the tour guides, extremely friendly and beyond knowledgeable. They really know their history for Salem. The tour itself was a few hours and you walk to all of the sites in Salem with historical significance. There is so much to learn from Salem. So much history and heartbreak. It really is eye opening to hear the stories oof the witch trials and how the witch trials began and who all was wrongly persecuted. The tour guides were so nice and explained everything with such great details. This tour was definitely the highlight of our trip in Salem. I highly highly recommend Hocus Pocus Tours, I learned so much regarding Salem, the witch trials, the history behind the two, and a little bit of Hocus Pocus and Bewitched. So much fun!

This was my first time in Salem, and I booked this tour with 8 of my coworkers--we had an absolute…read moreblast. From the moment it started, it was spooky, fun, and incredibly entertaining. Our tour guide was great: super knowledgeable, hilarious, and very interactive. They kept everyone engaged while sharing tons of fascinating and spooky history. The Hocus Pocus and Bewitched references were a huge bonus and added such a fun, nostalgic vibe. Seeing the Witch House in person was especially cool and definitely a highlight. For the price, this tour was 100% worth it. $37 for a 2.5-hour tour felt like a steal for how much you see. The only downside was the other group that was paired with ours. They were loud and kept interrupting the guide, which took away from the experience at time but that had nothing to do with how great the tour itself was. Overall, we still had an amazing time and would absolutely recommend this tour, especially for first-time visitors who want a spooky, fun, and memorable Salem experience

We chose Witch City Walking Tours to introduce us to Salem. Aurelia was our guide and she was a…read morewealth of information. Unfortunately we started the tour in Derby Square and it was very loud. It was very hard to hear Aurelia and the noise was very distracting. Aurelia was a lifelong resident of the Salem area and clearly very invested in the city. Before arriving in Salem I thought it was a small town. Salem is a much larger town located just north of Boston. The tour covered about 1 1/2 miles and the walk was easy. Much of the focus was on the witch trials and the mark it left on the city of Salem. The tour ended at the memorial for the victims of the witch trials and it was very solemn. This tour gave me a new perspective on Salem and its history.

Perfect combination of history and fun! Pointed out so many more things than we would have…read morelearned on our own. Well worth it! TY for a great tour!

Nate in character (Christopher Shultz) was a terrific engaging and knowledgeable guide for our…read moreFreedom Tour Trail. He brought the history of Boston's role in the Revolution to life and kept the interest of both the kids and adults in our small group. Good sense of humor and was happy to answer both good and dumb questions. Tour was well paced. Highly recommend Freedom Trail Tours and Christopher as a guide.

Yesterday morning, a friend and I went on a 90 minute Boston by Foot tour " Slavery and Abolition…read morein Massachusetts." It was excellent. The tour guide was Liam and was extremely knowledgeable about American history. There were 18 people on the tour from age 10 to senior citizens. He had to speak very loudly as there were lots of visitors to Boston given that it was Juneteenth holiday and FIFA Soccer fans were all over the place. I learned a lot and absolutely recommend this tour. In the afternoon, we went on another excellent 90 minute Boston by Foot tour "Black Voices: Writers for a 19th Century Revolution" which I highly recommend. The tour guide (can't remember her name) was expertly prepared with snippets for tour attendees to read out loud (if you wanted to) from each writer discussed. Then, she put the reading in context with Boston and African American history and the site we stopped at on Beacon Hill. I learned a lot on this tour and live in the Boston area. There is a lot of walking up and down tiny streets so wear comfortable walking shoes!

I've done a few tours with this company and they were good but the one I did today with Mike…read morecovering Chinatown was outstanding! I learned so much about the history of the area in a very engaging way. I couldn't believe that I walked the same streets so many times before and I missed so many interesting points of interest. I also learned that the guides for this company are volunteers so you will learn from someone who is passionate about history and culture and do it because they love it!

Fantastic Tour guide. She was very knowledgeable and friendly. It's a difficult subject and she…read moregave some made it educational and enjoyable.

Great tour guide. She controlled the chatty Cathy in our group asking off the wall questions with…read morekindness and d a firm redirect. The tour was a tad long because of this but the guide was knowledgeable and I learned more about Salem than just the witch stuff. It seems like you walk around town all Over but then after the tour I realized we were actually in a pretty small area and everything was actually pretty close together

We had a great North End tour with David today. In spite of the rain throughout the tour David kept…read moreus entertained along with providing great and interesting detail throughout the tour. David's appreciation for food made the tour that much better. We were definitely ready to eat some great North end food by the end of the tour. Along with David's entertaining stories he also shared a very moving story when telling us about the beautifully designed Holocaust memorial. Free Tours and David are highly recommended.

4.5 stars. We…read morejoined the Free tours by foot in NOLA/ Garden District back in Feb, had a great experience and was glad to find out there is one in Boston as well. Signing up for the tour was easy enough though I don't really like the idea of paying the (optional) fee via PayPal. For some reason when I did that in New Orleans, it automatically created a new PayPal account for me, based on the email address I used. (Even though it says you don't need a PayPal account...) But this time when I attempted to use the same email to pay, it just wouldn't go through despite resetting the password and what not. Ended up asking hubby to pay with his PayPal. Quite a hassle. Other than that, our guide, Brian, was hilarious and passionate about educating us and I had a great time. We took the tour on Mother's Day and half of the 25 or so customers were from Europe. I think maybe there is a little language barrier as not everyone laughed at Brian's jokes. Plus it was a super windy and cold day and some just wanna go back to bed I guess. The tour was about 1 hour 45 mins. It really didn't walk far, maybe 1-1.5 miles. But I truly enjoyed the story telling. Highly recommend.

So much fun! While attending work conferences some coworkers and I booked this tour with our…read morespouses to try something new. Amber was our tour guide and she was wonderful! She incorporated just the right amount of humor into a tour that was otherwise creepy, educational, thrilling, and entertaining. We ended the tour at the Omni Parker Hotel which was also great to explore and grab a night cap.

My boyfriend and I were in Boston for a couple of nights and since we're always up for a…read moreghost/haunted history tour, we chose to do this. Our guide, Jake, met us a bit early in the appointed spot. He handed us the ghost plushies we bought (a nice souvenir) and the EMF meters we rented, and since there were only four of us on the tour, he began early. I didn't find him very engaging and felt he was going for "jump scares" when telling the stories. Since it was evening, we could only stop outside or across the street from places we visited (except for the Boston Common, where we met). I did like the three extra stories on the extended tour. I recommend not renting the EMF meters, as we weren't really encouraged to use them. It seems Jake forgot about them as soon as he gave them to us. I turned them on a few times, but didn't get much of a result. It is a fairly short tour; we began around 7:45 and were done by 9:15. Wear comfortable shoes. You will be doing quite a bit of walking, including up a hill (that Jake joked was the scariest part of the tour). Whether or not you take the extended tour, you end up in a different location, so be mindful of that. It's not a must-do, but if it works with your schedule, it's a nice way to spend an evening.