First off, I want to start by saying Dr. Mike Vitka is such a nice guy. I was lucky to be near him during the tour while walking to the different locations and while walking we had some great conversations one on one about our opinions on different films that deal with either Salem or the puritan time period (The Witch, Lords of Salem, Hocus Pocus). It was fun to talk to someone that is a real historian on the subject, where my knowledge is more on the films themselves. His passion for the city of Salem and the witch trials was so refreshing, because so many tours can feel like a cash grab. At the end of the tour while everyone else was leaving he was nice enough to stay a little later to recommend some books to me that he felt dove deeper into the trials.
The tour itself is extremely informative, but on a realistic level. I appreciate that it was made clear that there was no witches during the Salem Witch Trials, and that innocent people did get tortured and died. This isn’t a fabricated tour, if you’re looking for a more dramatized tour where it’s more on an entertainment level I would look somewhere else. That being said if you truly want to go on a tour with someone that is going to tell real stories, while still doing it in a captivating way, this is the tour to go on. I saw some people in the reviews complaining because some of the sites were updated/don’t exist anymore, but I thought that made it better. It’s great to listen to someone who paints a picture of how Salem was back during the trials, and show us how much it has actually changed.
Thank you Spellbound Tours, and especially Dr. Vitka. It was a pleasure!