Excellent site to visit! Beautiful views! We had a great docent lead tour. Our guide shared lots…read moreof details and did a great job trying to answer our group's many questions! Learning about the different architectural phases of this property was very interesting. The Secret Staircase is special! Gift Shop was a fun stop! Friendly staff. They have their own parking lot with ample and FREE parking while you visit. Now that's a plus. Everywhere else in Salem is paid parking, including the Peabody Essex Museum (park and hike!) Highly recommend visiting The House of Seven Gables if you are in the area.

What a great experience!…read more We had the tour to ourselves. The snow turned everyone away. The house is super interesting and our guide was great! If you are in the area, highly recommend a tour. Side note: we used our library card and received 50% off of admission.

I had dinner at The Bell Inn & Tavern with my mom for an early Mother's Day celebration since it's…read morewhere she wanted to go. She and much of my family really like this place and rave about it, but my overall first impression was definitely a mixed bag. My mom made the reservation for Saturday at 4:45pm in the dining room. We arrived a little early, so she showed me around the beautifully renovated building. When we checked in with someone, they redirected us to the bar area downstairs as they were holding a private event in the main dining area. Okay, not a big deal to us. However I could understand if someone else might get a little annoyed at being told they had to go to the bar area when they specifically asked for the dining room on their reservation. I have to say that I do love the downstairs bar area, it's classy and has a vintage speakeasy vibe. We were quickly greeted by one of the guys working the bar who was super nice and did a great job. For a drink I started with their version of an espresso martini, which was a good start to the food experience and gave me high hopes. They brought us out some popovers which to me were just okay. For an appetizer we got some buffalo chicken dip, which was quite delicious. For dinner my mom got a Caesar salad (which I tried a little bit of and thought was good) and a flatbread pizza that was on special. I decided to be a little bougie and went with the braised short ribs, and I regret to say that the dish fell flat for me. The short rib did come apart okay when I stuck my fork in it, but it was kind of chewy, bland and overall really didn't have much flavor. The menu also states that the short rib is served with broccolini (which is a milder, sweeter version of the green vegetable) but it came with regular plain broccoli instead, which I was also quite honestly disappointed by. With all that being said the polenta was my favorite thing on the plate. I'm a little conflicted. The place is beautiful and the staff is so nice. But with how much it was hyped up to me, I was a little let down. I'm kind of thinking that I should've went with another dish? I really want to truly love this place, so I'm sure I'll be back with family at some point to give them another chance.

Likely the worst restaurant meal I have ever had…read more I ordered the short rib and I am still not sure what they did to it to make it so dry, hard, and rubbery. I looked like part of a shoe or wood. As it was placed on the table, one of my co-diners leaned over to whisper to me that it looked disgusting. I am guessing it was cooked, frozen, and then WAY over microwaved. (Who microwaves short rib?!) Regardless, it was awful. The polenta was runny and had big lumps of cheese all in one corner. I assume that was supposed to be mixed through. And the broccoli was so over cooked as to be a disintegrating mush. I cannot believe this left the kitchen. I didn't complain because I did not want to disrupt everyone else's dinner. I should have listened to all the other one-star reviews. Bell Inn service was friendly, lively, and casual and the building is really something special.

I grew up on the north shore and remember visiting Brooksby Farm when I was a kid…read more I visited on Sunday with my 2 kids for storytime and wow has it impressively changed - all positive!!! 1) There's stuff for kids now! Storytimes, playground with views of the animals, a hayride, and more! I highly recommend the storytime. They read 2 stories, sang hello to every child, had songs/rhymes, played with a parachute, crafts, and even apples, donuts, and cider - all amazingly free!!! The playground was fun for my 2 year old son and 7 year old daughter, but best for the 1.5-6 age range. There are rest rooms beside the farm store, but they're medal toilets with no seats, so my daughter refused to use them. (I don't blame her.) That's the only thing that kept this from a 5 star experience. We'll be back soon. Worth the hour drive from where we live on the south shore.

I had a great experience! I came here for PYO peaches and blueberries. The blueberries were $4 for…read morea small carton or $6 for a large one. The peaches were $20 for a bag that fit about 20. There were lots to pick from and the employees were friendly. This farm is very big I would definitely consider coming back for some of their other picking seasons.

I had my wedding here in May, so this will be a long but all encompassing review of all different…read moreaspects of the Hawthorne. When I was looking for venues, I wanted all inclusive and one location. I spoke with Christine Madigan via email and then over the phone. She assured me that the Hawthorne did weddings well. We booked, signed contracts, set up a room block and everything. The room block: 3/5 stars I originally worked with Beth who set everything up for me and then was transferred to Rob as positions changed. I initially had 15 rooms in my block which we filled pretty quickly, but I saved one for my husbands grandmother so she could stay onsite. She called to book a room and was told there were no rooms. There were rooms so I called and spoke with Rob because she was pretty upset. He assured me we had rooms and for grandma to call him directly. Evidently the folks at the front desk didn't understand how the room block was intended to work. This happened over and over and over again. I really wish they would have set it up so my guests could book online because I heard from nearly half of my guests that either they couldn't get the days we were promised or the room type they wanted. I even had 3 couples stay at another hotel because of this so Hawthorne lost out on money because they couldn't get their booking system organized. One of my couples ended up in a room with a TWIN BED for 2 people. How is that even possible? Meanwhile I had a single person in a room with 2 queen beds and 2 bathrooms? Like I get accommodating people's requests, but a little critical thinking and communication would have gone a long way for comfort here. I doubt those people will come back to this hotel for this reason, which is sad because its such a lovely place. The menu tasting: 5/5 stars We were invited to a tasting of hors d'oeuvres, dinner selections, wine, cocktails and wedding cake. It was amazing to be able to sample items we wanted to serve without doing so blindly. Their food is phenomenal so we were excited to be able to share this with our guests. Wedding planning: 5/5 stars I received packets of information before booking Hawthorne as my venue, so I was aware of the pricing up front. I was even able to create a quote using their pricing sheet so nothing was a surprise. Christine was available to answer all of my questions throughout the process. As we got closer, she gave us homework to complete so we were ready for our big day. We created a signature mocktail, filled out place cards, went over our timeline, dropped off welcome bags, etc. Everything leading up to our wedding day (outside of booking guest rooms) was super smooth and easy. Pretty much everything was provided by the venue. I only had to book a photographer, content creator, photo booth, DJ and HMU on my own. The rest was handled for me which really made things so much smoother. We ended up well under budget, too! Wedding day: 3.5/5 stars If I could go back, I would hire a dedicated day of coordinator who worked specifically for me and not the venue. Christine was great, and did her job well, but she wasn't dedicated to me the entirety of the evening. And she and my mom were butting heads over things we were promised and not delivered. My mom did my wedding florals. We asked in advance if we could have refrigerator space and a private room to set up in. We were told we could have both, and on the day of, there was magically no fridge space, access to water, or a secure room to work in. It was extremely frustrating to be promised things and then not have those promises fulfilled. We were able to pivot and adapt, but that added so much stress to me on a day where I should not have added stress. The room she was working in was also being used as storage for a wedding the following weekend. The hotel has tons of space so I'm not sure why it had to be there but it seemed at that point it was a battle of wills more than anything. My photo booth company arrived right at the time we were about to start our ceremony, which was planned in advance, but the way the rooms were set up he ended up being in the lobby. This turned out to be really fun for wedding guests and random hotel guests to watch, but it was a bit awkward at first. Some of the items we brought for our reception were not brought down and we had to track people down to retrieve those. There was a room upstairs that was dedicated for us to hide away in and eat our appetizers, but I wanted to be with my guests and the appetizers never made it to me and my husband so I was told they were good but I didn't get to try them all. Dinner was absolutely amazing. However, I heard SO MANY complaints afterward about our bartender. I guess he was rude, and terrible at making drinks and when people tried to go to the other bar they got turned away. Overall I had the best day ever and would do it over again with a few tweaks :)

It's a neat historic hotel with a GREAT location. We had 5 in our group with a double queen room…read moreand they brought up the roll bed and extra towels before we had barely opened the suitcases. The room was nice, no complaints. I loved the lemonade in the lobby. Bonus: free parking. Here's the kicker... I accidentally made the reservation for the day prior, so we didn't have one when we got there (we were on a 10 night trip in 5 different hotels so things got scrambled). To make a long story short they found us a mostly comparable room and credited the charges for the previous vacant night. That's pretty amazing and basically saved this working-class family's vacation from being a downer.

I have been at this venue many times and have always left with a very positive feeling. They pay…read moreattention to details. The food is always excellent as is their servers. They are at the top of the line. Very nicely done. Check out the website for themed dinners. We have been to several and as usual there, they aim to please. The latest dinner was a Patron tequila inspired dinner. No holds barred. Fantastic.

My first interaction with the venue was unfortunately not very positive. Tiffany's initial email…read morewas friendly, but there was zero personalization and it felt very generic. Not a big deal, I get it - they probably get a lot of inquiries every day and they're just trying to streamline. However, when we spoke on the phone she came across as quite short, which caught me off guard. Although the pricing was high given the time of year, that wasn't my main concern. I simply felt discouraged by how my questions were received, almost as though they were an inconvenience, despite this being my first time inquiring about the space. The space is beautiful and probably worth the money, but because of this interaction, I decided to pursue another venue. I genuinely hope this feedback is helpful for future client experiences.

I'm a big fan of the blue Marlin in Essex. Just phenomenal people food and atmosphere. The mission…read moreboathouse is the same thing. Just great people great food and great atmosphere. I really like to mix it up. And I'm so grateful that we have such hard-working owners and workers and our local community serving up fresh seafood and incredible food. Thank you for all your hard work.

The wife and I went for an early dinner to beat the crowd and we were the only ones in the dining…read moreroom so it was very quiet and nice. Great water view that is most likely even better in summer. Staff was very nice and attentive. Appetizers came out decently quick in which we had the buffalo cauliflower bites and crab cake. The cauliflower was cooked well but the buffalo sauce was very strong. It could have used a nice blue cheese dressing on the side for dipping. The crab cake was the highlight of the night. The one crab cake sat on a bed of pepper relish with the mango habanero aioli on top was a surprisingly good combo. My wife ordered the filet and ask for it medium. Looked good coming out the we find out the potatoes and spinach the steak were laying on were very cold and the steak was very rare. At a price of $48 you expect the meal to be at least warm and cooked properly. And now the churassco, I had zero idea what this was gonna come out as but it was just kind of a hodgepodge of stuff thrown on a plate. Yucca frites were very dry and stale tasting so it took a lot to chew. I didn't know the carrot was going to be shredded carrots cause unless it's in a salad I prefer actual carrot slices. Steak and plantains were cooked very well and were tasty. It came out on a skillet but there was zero sizzle. I don't really understand why they put onion rings on the rice it just made it harder to eat. I do hope the food got more consistent throughout the night cause the beginning was kind of a mixed bag.

I don't want to Salem short because this is a gorgeous building, so I'm gonna give 5 stars…read more This beautiful Old Town Hall in Salem has a bunch of costume people coming out of it around Halloween and it's really fun to watch. It's amazing even without that added bonus, but at that time of year it's great. It's a good place to get your picture taken and if you're a witch you should probably stay away from here because the witches were hung around here bro.

We came in to kill some time while we waited for our table to open up at a nearby restaurant…read more For three dollars, you get to see informational banners in a small room, lol. Nothing exciting, nothing fun.The best part of the museum is that you get access to use their downstairs bathroom throughout the day, if needed. Definitely not a place you want to come, unless you were in a situation like ours and just need to kill 10 minutes (if that).