Begin at the waterfront
Salem Maritime National Historical Park preserves Derby Wharf, the Custom House, historic homes, and the setting of a port connected to trade across the Atlantic, Indian Ocean, and Pacific. The surviving buildings and waterfront help explain how maritime wealth shaped the city. Responsible interpretation also examines exploitation, unequal power, and the people whose labor made that prosperity possible.
The museum reaches far beyond Salem
The Peabody Essex Museum grew from collections assembled through Salem's international connections. Its art, maritime material, historic houses, and Yin Yu Tang, a house reassembled from China's Anhui Province, make it more than a local-history museum. A museum-focused traveler could give it several hours without entering a witch-themed attraction.
Architecture and literature have their own pull
The House of the Seven Gables joins a 1668 waterfront house with Hawthorne's novel and the later settlement work of Caroline Emmerton. Elsewhere, brick commercial buildings, wooden houses, narrow streets, gardens, and harbor views let visitors read several centuries in a compact area.
What cannot be avoided
Witch imagery is part of modern Salem's public face. Shops, tours, costumes, and signs remain visible even if you skip them. In October, they become dominant and the crowds can make a maritime, architectural, or museum-centered visit harder. At other times, it is easier to let that culture remain one part of the streetscape rather than the organizing purpose of the day.
The decision
Go if you would enjoy a walkable historic port with a serious museum, old houses, literary associations, and a waterfront. Skip it if witch imagery itself will irritate you or if you want a coastal town defined mainly by beaches and open water. Gloucester, Rockport, or Marblehead may fit the latter expectation better.