Race Point at the tip of Cape Cod feels like the end of the earth. Beyond this long, thin crook of glacial sand lies the broad Atlantic, stretching all the way to Portugal. The Cape’s fishing fleets haul the sweetest scallops and richest tuna; virtually every cove harbors a hamlet founded by farmers whose grandchildren turned to the sea. Great Beach extends for 30 miles (48 km), from Chatham to Provincetown, comfortably accommodating the thousands of swimmers and sunbathers who flock here during the summer.
NEED TO KNOW
Cape Cod Welcome Center • Jct Rtes 6 and 132, Hyannis • 508 362 3225
• open daily during summer
Cape Cod National Seashore Salt Pond Visitor Center • Rte 6, Eastham • 508 255 3421
• open daily Sep–Jun: 9am–4:30pm; Jul–Aug: 9am–5pm • adm (beach and parking) •
www.nps.gov/caco
Nickerson State Park • Rte 6A, Brewster • 508 896 3491
, 877 422 6762
(camping reservations) • open daily; fee for camping •
www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/dcr
- For visitors who are traveling in the region with young children, it is a good idea to drive Rte 28 to take advantage of its rich array of mini-golf courses, ice-cream stands, and a variety of other engaging diversions meant to occupy the “are-we-there-yet?” set.
- Kream ’N Kone (Rtes 28 and 134, West Dennis; 508 394 0808) serves its customers some of Cape Cod’s best fried seafood.
1. Sandwich Boardwalk and Town Beach
Songbirds whistle as you walk the Sandwich Boardwalk over Great Marsh. The gentle waves and warm waters at Town Beach make it ideal for children.
2. Hyannis
Thanks to its airport and two ferry lines to Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, Hyannis is Cape Cod’s market town and transportation hub.
3. Cape Cod Canal
Dug to save ships from the perilous Nantucket Shoals, the canal marks the Cape’s sedate beginning. Bike down its paths or fish for bass and ferocious bluefish.
Cape Cod Canal
4. Cape Cod National Seashore Beaches
Beaches for swimmers, kite-flyers, surfers, and sunbathers stretch from Nauset Beach to Race Point, with its historic Life-Saving Station.
Life-Saving Station at Race Point
5. Nickerson State Park
Clear glacial kettle ponds dot this wooded parkland far removed, physically and ecologically, from the Cape’s shores. Canoe and fish the ponds, watch rare songbirds, and camp at over 400 sites.
6. Chatham
An iconic lighthouse marks the dangerous shoals off Chatham’s astounding and ever-shifting barrier beaches, where seabirds flock and seals bask in the winter sun. Home to the Cape’s main tuna fleet, Chatham is also a yachtsmen’s harbor.
7. King’s Highway
More shady lane than highway, Route 6A strings together the salty Cape Cod Bay villages filled with the mansions of Victorian sea captains, antiques dealers, and the studios of potters, glassblowers, and other artisans.
8. Cape Cod Rail Trail
This is one of the most invigorating ways to see Cape Cod. The 22-mile (35-km) Rail Trail begins in Dennis, crosses fields and forest, skirts a quaint fishing harbor, and then follows dune cliffs into Wellfleet.
9. Provincetown
It’s always party time in P-town. The Cape’s most colorful community is at once a Portuguese-American fishing village, a major art colony, and a leading gay resort destination.
Colorful street in Provincetown
10. Falmouth and Woods Hole
Marine researchers dominate tiny Woods Hole, a harbor of professors who look like pirates. Falmouth proper is a quintessential New England town of neat houses and tall churches.
Harbor at Woods Hole
