Sun, sea, sand and sailing all go to make Cape Cod a famous summer playground, while its summer isles of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket have a charm of their own.
Shaped like a flexed arm, the Cape Cod peninsula is lined with over 310 miles of sandy beaches including the Cape Cod National Seashore, a 27,000 acre protected nature reserve. Come the summer time, the ‘Escape to the Cape’ is the thing to do for thousands of people from Boston and elsewhere and if you’re visiting in July or August, expect the Cape to be packed out.
Strictly speaking the Cape is an island (thanks to the building of the Cape Cod Canal in 1914) joined to the rest of America by the Sagamore Bridge and is characterised by three distinct areas. Upper Cape, the area nearest the mainland, Mid Cape from Barnstable to where the arm of the Cape bends at Orleans and Chatham and Lower Cape reaching up to Provincetown. While the peninsula’s two main hubs are the ports of Provincetown and Hyannis.
A little known historic fact about Provincetown – it was here that the Pilgrim forefathers of New England first set foot on American soil before heading off to Plymouth when they were chased away by hostile natives. No doubt the puritans would do the same if they arrived there today, for Provincetown or P-Town as it is known, is home to a very loud and proud gay community and the P stands for party not peaceful, so don’t expect any early nights! As well as a gay capitol, Provincetown is home to a long established artist community and among the many B&Bs you’ll find quaint little galleries and studios housing works from local artists, photographers and sculptors such as Michael McGuire, Joel Meyerowitz, Paul Bowen and Paul Resika.
Hyannis, overlooking the Nantucket Sound, is certainly more conservative and is the stop off point for trips out to Martha’s Vineyard, playground of the Kennedy’s, the glitterati and film location for Jaws, and Nantucket, the former whaling port turned tourist getaway, that Herman Melville made famous in Moby Dick. While in Hyannis visitors flock to the JFK Hyannis Museum, exhibiting Kennedy family photos spanning the years 1934 to 1963 and the family’s time spent summering in the Cape.
For beachcombers the Cape Cod National Seashore runs from Provincetown along the full length of the Atlantic coast to Chatham and is famed for its lighthouses and sand dunes, while Cape Cod Bay offers lagoon like tranquillity.
One of the best ways to get around the peninsula is to ditch the car in favour of two wheels. Cape Cod’s old rail way has been transformed into the Cape Cod Rail Trail with 25 miles of scenic cycle paths that make for a much more relaxing way of getting around the Cape than being stuck in traffic on Route 6.
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