Parking in Salem

Although I did read up on this, I can’t explain to you enough how important it is to plan your trip accordingly if you are driving from out of state to Salem. Although I live in WV, I work in PA, I was vacationing in Maine when I decided to drive five hours into Salem, Massachusetts.

Luckily, I found a spot at the 10 Congress Street (Waterfront Garage). This is a multi level and was a little tight for my Santa Cruz. The larger pickups are forced to park at the tippy top in full sun, as the spaces are a little tight for wide cars.

I went in June which I would have thought would have been a busier tourist season than it was. I was lucky to have snagged the space all day on a Wednesday.

You take a ticket and pay at the end, and the rates were reasonable, for all day we ended up paying $5.25. The only complaint was the pigeons that sat on my truck all day and pooped all over. The space I parked in the corner must have been where they were nesting as it was pretty gross walking through their poop and feathers. I think people must feed them because they will dive bomb your car hoping for a bit of something to eat. Other than that, the experience was great.

There are other parking garages also in Salem and you can google them.

In Salem there are trolley tickets that you can buy and this will save you a lot of walking. Although one of the shop owners told me that the town is simply a rectangle, there is so much to do and see that we found ourselves walking and wandering outside of the rectangle, and our GPS not working so well. At the end of the day we had walked over five miles circling the city several times and zig zagging to see all the architecture and what Salem has to offer. The side streets have beautiful architecture and plaques on the historic homes to tell you whose house it was originally.

They say in October it’s no use trying to find close parking such as the many garages are filled with the most visitors coming in the month of October for the Haunted Happenings in Salem. In this case I would probably try to figure out how to go to other areas and park and take a train into Salem which I would not have to worry about parking ten miles away.

TAKING A TRAIN:

Here is some information from the Massachusetts Bay Transport Authority: “During the height of Haunted Happenings festivities, additional trains to Salem are added to the regular Newburyport/Rockport Line to accommodate increased ridership. Weekend passes are available for $10, and allow for unlimited trips on the Commuter Rail on Saturdays, Sundays, and select holidays. ” – Pulled from their website June 2025 and subject to change. So I guess for you vacation planners, someone can sleuth it out and find out what areas to travel to, what trains run on what days, and how to get one. I have heard that people take the trains from Boston on off days and within 30 minutes they are in Salem. I have not verified this , but here is a link to the official MBTA website.

Note: The parking garage we stayed in ups their rates for the whole month of October which would probably be way more expensive than taking a train, needless to say you may not be able to get a parking space.

I didn’t mind walking around Salem, we found things by accident we may not have found, but prepare to wear comfy shoes and take plenty of water.