Cape Cod

Beaches are why most people come, and the Cape has an unusual range of them. The outer shore of the National Seashore, from Nauset to Race Point, has long open sand under dune cliffs and real surf, but the Atlantic there rarely gets above 18°C and has strong currents and seals offshore, which bring sharks. For comfortable swimming, the south shore on Nantucket Sound is the place: Falmouth, Craigville, Harwich and the beaches around Chatham warm to about 22-23°C by August, with gentle water. Cape Cod Bay is calmer still, and at low tide near Brewster the sand flats stretch out for a long way.

The freshwater kettle ponds around Wellfleet and Truro add clear, warm lake swimming among the pines. The season is short. The water is properly swimmable from early July to mid-September, and June is bracing. Parking at popular beaches fills early on summer weekends.

Eating here means New England seafood close to where it comes out of the water. Wellfleet and Barnstable oysters, steamers and fried clams, lobster rolls, chowder and local scallops are the core, served at counter-service clam shacks with picnic tables, at harbour-side places in Chatham and Hyannis, and in more ambitious dining rooms in Provincetown and Orleans. Summer adds ice-cream stands, farm stands selling corn and tomatoes along the back roads, and a few small breweries and a vineyard.

Beyond seafood the range is narrow, and many kitchens close or cut back between late autumn and spring. Provincetown has the broadest and most cosmopolitan choice, helped by its Portuguese fishing heritage. Expect simple food done well rather than a dining destination.

The Cape's heritage is in its villages more than its museums. The Old King's Highway (Route 6A) along the bay shore passes through Sandwich, Barnstable, Yarmouth Port and Brewster, lined with sea captains' houses, white churches and old cemeteries. Sandwich has a glass museum and Heritage Museums and Gardens. Provincetown, where the Pilgrims first landed, is marked by the granite Pilgrim Monument and has a long history as an artists' colony, with an art museum to match.

Elsewhere the sights are small and scattered: the lighthouses at Chatham, Nauset and Highland Light, the site of Marconi's transatlantic wireless station in Wellfleet, the JFK museum in Hyannis and the oceanographic village of Woods Hole. They make good stops between beaches rather than a reason to come.

Going out on the Cape is concentrated in one place: Provincetown in high summer. Commercial Street fills in the evening, the day starts with afternoon tea dances on the waterfront, and the town has gay and lesbian bars, dance clubs and a crowded street scene that runs late by local standards, with themed weeks through July and August.

Elsewhere, nights are low key. Hyannis has a strip of bars and a few clubs near the harbour, Falmouth and Chatham have pubs and raw bars, and most villages go quiet after dinner. Last orders come early by big-city standards, and outside summer even Provincetown winds down.

The Cape's landscape is sand, water and light: the dunes of the Province Lands, the cliffs above the outer beaches, salt marshes, cranberry bogs and pine woods around the kettle ponds. The National Seashore protects most of the outer Cape, with short trails such as the Atlantic White Cedar Swamp and the long walk out to Long Point. Whale watching from Provincetown to Stellwagen Bank is among the best on the Atlantic, with humpbacks reliably seen from spring to autumn, and grey seals gather in large numbers off Chatham and Monomoy.

The Cape Cod Rail Trail and the Shining Sea Bikeway give long, easy cycling. Kayaking the marshes of Wellfleet and Barnstable, sailing on the sound and birding in the autumn migration fill out the offer. There is no high ground at all.

The islands are the classic outing. Ferries from Hyannis and Woods Hole reach Nantucket, with its cobbled whaling town, and Martha's Vineyard, with Edgartown's captains' houses and the gingerbread cottages of Oak Bluffs. Both are full days out, and the fast boats make them easy. Across the canal, Plymouth, with its waterfront and living-history museum of the Pilgrim colony, is under an hour from the upper Cape, and New Bedford's whaling museum and historic district are close too.

Boston is about one and a half hours from the canal without traffic, and on summer weekends the drive over the bridges can take much longer. In season a ferry from Provincetown makes the trip by sea. Newport's mansions are a long but possible day from Falmouth.

This is one of the archetypal American family summers. The bay beaches around Brewster and Dennis have shallow, calm water and wide tide flats for crab hunting at low tide, while the warmer sound beaches at Falmouth and Harwich suit young swimmers. Freshwater ponds, flat bike paths and rented cottages with outdoor showers make days simple to organise.

There is no big attraction built for children. Instead there are small pleasures: the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History, the science aquarium at Woods Hole, whale-watching boats, mini-golf, ice cream and fireworks on summer nights. The outer beaches have rough surf and should be chosen with care for small children. Travelling with them in high season mostly means planning around traffic and beach parking.

A car is the practical way to see the Cape. Distances are modest, about an hour and a quarter from the canal to Provincetown, but the two bridges over the canal and the main roads clog badly on summer weekends, and village parking is tight. Local buses run along the main routes and a seasonal shuttle serves the outer Cape, but they are too infrequent to build a trip around.

Within a base, getting around is easier. Provincetown is best on foot or by bike, and the rail trail links several lower-Cape villages for cyclists. Summer ferries from Boston to Provincetown and from Hyannis and Woods Hole to the islands make car-free trips possible if you choose your base carefully.

Shopping here is about art, antiques and village main streets. Provincetown's Commercial Street and the small town of Wellfleet have a long run of galleries rooted in the area's artists' colony tradition. The Old King's Highway through Barnstable, Yarmouth Port and Dennis is lined with antique shops, and Chatham and Falmouth have tidy main streets of clothing boutiques, bookshops and nautical homewares.

Pottery, scrimshaw-style crafts, beach-plum jam and cranberry products make the local souvenirs. For anything more, Hyannis has a regional mall and outlets sit near the canal, but there is no fashion or luxury shopping to speak of.

In high summer the Cape is expensive. Rooms and rental cottages carry peak-season prices and are often rented by the week with long minimum stays near the best beaches. Lobster and seafood meals, island ferries and daily beach parking add steadily to the bill. The mid-Cape around Hyannis and Yarmouth has plainer motels that cost less, and clam-shack meals and picnics keep food spending down. June and September cost noticeably less while still being pleasant.

Summer brings a real performance season. The Cape Playhouse in Dennis, one of the country's oldest professional summer theatres, stages musicals and plays, and smaller repertory companies work in Chatham, Harwich, Orleans and Wellfleet. Provincetown, with its theatre history, fills its stages nightly in July and August with drag, cabaret and comedy, often by well-known performers. A summer-in-the-round tent in Hyannis brings touring bands and comedians, and there are free band concerts on the green in Chatham.

The Cape Cod Symphony performs through much of the year. Outside summer, though, the theatre programme thins sharply.

The Cape's restorative quality comes from its pace, not from spa culture. A week in a shingled cottage in Truro or Brewster, early walks on empty sand and long evenings on a porch are what people come back for. Resort hotels in Chatham, Brewster and Falmouth have spas, and yoga and massage are easy to find in Provincetown and the larger towns. There are no thermal baths or bathing traditions, and in July and August traffic and crowds can unsettle the calm. September and early October are the quietest and most restful months.