Ironically, SALEM is remembered less as the site where the colony of Massachusetts was first established, with the most elevated of intentions, than as the place where just sixty years later Puritan self-righteousness reached its apogee in the horrific witch trials of 1692. While the town itself was to prosper as a port - as evidenced by its fine old buildings - the witch scare did much to discredit the idea that the New World conducted its affairs on a different moral plane than the Old. Nineteen Salem women were hanged as witches (and one man, Giles Corry, pressed to death with a boulder), thanks to a group of impressionable teenage girls who reported as truth a garbled mixture of fireside tales told by a West Indian slave, Tituba, and half-digested scare stories published by Cotton Mather, a pillar of the Puritan community.

That this unpleasant history is now the basis of a child-oriented tourist industry - all black hats and broomsticks - makes Salem an unsettling place. The Salem Witch Museum in Washington Square (daily: July & Aug 10am-7pm; rest of year 10am-5pm; $6) draws parallels with modern racism and political persecution, but is at heart a rather tacky show of illuminated dioramas and prerecorded commentary. Innumerable other witch-related attractions in town are best ignored. Salem's later seafaring years are remembered in the Peabody Essex Museum in East India Square (April-Oct Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun noon-5pm; Nov-March closed Mon; $10), which since 1799 has assembled a remarkable collection of objects brought home by voyaging New Englanders. As well as extensive Japanese and Asian displays, it has one of only three existing breadfruit-wood idols of the Hawaiian god Ku, and details about the town's ships themselves.

Little of Salem's original waterfront remains, though the long Derby Wharf is still standing, together with the imposing Custom House at its head, where Nathaniel Hawthorne once worked. The House of Seven Gables at 54 Turner St, the star of his eponymous novel, is a rambling old mansion beside the sea (summer daily 10am-7pm; rest of year Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun noon-5pm; $8). Hour-long guided tours of the complex also take in the author's birthplace, moved here from its original site on Union Street.

Regular MBTA buses run to Salem from Haymarket Station in Boston ($2.75 each way), and hourly trains (every 2hr at weekends) leave from North Station. If you want to stay , the best-value motel rooms are at the Clipper Ship Inn , 40 Bridge St (tel 978/745-8022; $50-75), while the Salem Inn , 7 Summer St (tel 978/741-0680 or 1-800/446-2995, ; $100-130), a 39-room trio of Federal-style homes, is classier. Nick's Firehouse Coffee Shoppe , 30 Church St (tel 978/745-9432), is the best deal in town for breakfast or lunch, where a burger can still be had for under $3. Lyceum Bar & Grill , 43 Church St (tel 978/745-7665, ), is more elegant and expensive.

When Salem's witch-related attractions grow tiresome, head five miles south and east along the bay to MARBLEHEAD , a lovely waterfront village whose historic homes date back as far as the mid-1700s. Free walking tour maps are available from the information booth in the center (tel 781/639-8469, ) from June through October, while 250-year-old Fort Sewall , jutting into the harbor, gives pretty views. The Seagull Inn , 106 Harbor Ave (tel 781/631-1893, ; $130-160), has comfortable B&B rooms overlooking the water, and the Marblehead Inn , 264 Pleasant St (tel 781/639-9999 or 1-800/399-5843, ; $100-130) offers renovated two-room suites, some with fireplace; Flynnie's , 28 Atlantic Ave (tel 781/639-2100), serves fresh, inexpensive seafood and offers the same from an outpost at Devereux Beach, Flynnie's at the Beach , from May through October.