GO US:Without the ugly hotels, holiday homes and nightclubs that scar other beachside destinations, Cape Cod is a haven of calm with plenty of activites for all the family, from sport to drive-in movies, plus great seafood and serene spots for reading in, writes KATE HOLMQUIST
This is my perfect day: I awaken early with the breeze blowing through the muslin curtains by my bed in a cottage on Cape Cod. The birds are singing and the sun is peeking through the whispering pines that shade the house. I go out on the deck with my cup of tea while still in my bathrobe and listen to the rhythm of the waves for a peaceful 10 minutes before the kids bounce out of bed. Then it’s breakfast and off to the beach for a day of swimming, sailing and sunning, ending with a barbecue on the deck in the otherworldly evening light celebrated by Edward Hopper in his paintings of the cape.
This is my perfect meal: a clam bake, with whole lobsters, steamer clams, potatoes, corn on the cob and Portuguese linguiça sausage cooked together in a huge pot on the barbecue and served with the broth and melted butter. Dessert is always ice-cream cones, often eaten while strolling through the village. To work it all off, some days we cycle, some days we go fishing, or whale watching, or paddling through salt marshes.
Cape Cod has lots of hiking and cycle trails for when you get tired of the beach. Kayaks and Sunfish – small flat sailing boats – are easy to rent. In the evenings we usually read, though we always reserve nights for a drive-in movie and for the Friday Chatham Band concert – a Norman Rockwell scene that hasn’t changed since the 1950s.
After dark we often like to walk on the beach, counting the beams of the lighthouse that watches over us and telling ghost stories about the pirates and rum-runners that used out-of-the-way Chatham as a hiding place.
It’s still possible to find beaches where you feel almost completely alone; where you can appreciate the words of Henry David Thoreau, who wrote of the lower cape’s unspoilt seashore: “A man may stand there and put all America behind him.”
Cape Cod is a glorified sandpit shaped like a bent arm beckoning Europe. Every year it erodes by almost two metres, on average, and in a few thousand years it will have disappeared, making it all the more precious.
If John F Kennedy hadn’t protected the seashore from Orleans to Provincetown by turning the cape into a national park in the 1960s, this beautiful resource wouldn’t have survived. It would have been covered in hotels and concrete, like so many other seaside resorts in the US and around the world.
The Monomoyick people were the first to live on the cape. They were gradually chased away in the 17th and 18th centuries by settlers, who were probably sorry. Eking out a living on the cape involved fishing and “muckraking” – the New England word for digging for shellfish. It wasn’t until the 1930s that the cape became a holiday spot.
Even though it’s crowded in summer it’s easy to find your own secluded and peaceful spot thanks to conservative planning regulations. Ibiza it’s not, with pubs and nightclubs few and far between on the lower cape, between Harwich and Wellfleet. A beach chair and a book, a bucket and a spade are all you need to enjoy it. The place is so casual and low-key that most shops and restaurants have signs asking customers to wear shoes, as a lot of the time you don’t need them.
Fly into Logan Airport, in Boston, pick up a rental car (reserve it in advance) and head south on Route 3 for the cape, where you’ll pick up Route 6 and cross Sagamore Bridge.
Choosing where to stay depends on what sort of holiday you want. Falmouth is old money and a university town centred around Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, a research centre that is a bit like a funky Harvard-on-Sea. Families are welcome at the institution, which offers educational trips on its marine-research vessels.
To reach Cape Cod proper, you bypass Falmouth and head for Sandwich, an attractive historic village and the first town in the string of former fishing ports that are dotted along Cape Cod’s coast.
You’ll soon reach honky-tonk Hyannis, which is the only strip-mall culture you’ll find on the cape. If you want to shop, you’ll find bargains in clothes and shoes. Staying in Hyannis in a luxury hotel with a pool is popular, although it means you’ll be doing a lot of driving to find the quaint, old-fashioned Cape Cod, where, in tourist season, 25km can feel like 250km.
I prefer to keep on driving right to the elbow, to Chatham, the prettiest town on the cape and an official “heritage town” that was dirt poor before wealthy Bostonians began going there on holiday, early in the last century. Johnny Depp has a house there, and some of the real estate is spectacular – like walking into an ad for Ralph Lauren. But, unlike the Hamptons, on Long Island, Chatham and the surrounding towns of Harwich and Brewster still have affordable family houses that ordinary folks can rent by the week.
After Chatham comes Orleans, a sprawling town that boasts Nauset Beach, the beginning of Cape Cod National Seashore. If you weren’t planning to stay in Chatham, I’d advise you to head north for Eastham and Wellfleet, where the atmosphere is beachier and the houses cheaper to rent, though the traffic on Route 6 can be bumper to bumper in high season. Lighthouse Beach, which has great surfing, is regularly voted one of the finest in the US.
Think of what beach you want to be near when choosing a house and make sure you don’t have to use Route 6 to get to it.
At the fingertip of Cape Cod is my second- favourite town, Provincetown, an artists’ colony to which most of the West Village, in NYC, seems to decamp for the summer. Every time I visit I meet people I know and haven’t seen in years – some of them from Dublin.
The evening parade of residents and holidaymakers on the main street has a Mardi Gras atmosphere all summer, and if it’s tacky souvenirs you want, this is the place; there are also a dozen top-notch art galleries.
Apart from people-watching, whale-watching is Provincetown’s other tourist attraction, and you are almost guaranteed to see whales – sometimes a few, sometimes 20 or more – and the scenery on the boat trips is stunning. But the best way to enjoy the cape is to not pack too much in. Find a nice hotel or cottage within walking distance of a beach and you won’t want to venture far.
- massvacation.com
Where to stay, where to eat and where to go if you’re in Cape Cod
Where to stay
ShoreWay Acres Resort Inn. 59 Shore Street, Falmouth, 00-1-508-5403000, shorewayacresinn.com. Dorie Dineen Ketterer runs an old-fashioned hotel where families are treated to games on the lawn and Ketterer's famous clam bake, as well as indoor and outdoor pools. Within walking distance of the beach and historic Falmouth.
Cape Codder Resort and Spa.1225 Iyannough Road, Hyannis, 00-1-508-7713000, capecodresort.com. Self-contained resort with an indoor wave pool. It's on the Hyannis strip-mall road, but once you're inside you wouldn't know it. Could be an option if you are spending only a few days on the cape and don't want to rent a house. Self-catering apartments available.
Wequassett Resort and Golf Club.Pleasant Bay, Chatham, 00-1-508-4325400, wequassett.com. One of the best beach resorts in the US. You'll feel like you've walked into a Ralph Lauren ad. Residents lie by the pool within sight of the ocean, having raw tuna served to them on blocks of ice as they refresh themselves after playing tennis. Nauti Jane's, the resort's water-sport centre, offers sailing, including lessons, and powerboat cruising around Pleasant Bay.
Surfside Hotel Suites. 543 Commercial Street, Provincetown, 00-1-508-4871726, surfsideinn.cc. Pet- and family-friendly beachside hotel ideal for those who want to be in the centre of the action. Has standard rooms as well as suites with kitchens, dining areas, livingrooms, balconies and private beach. The new first-floor suites have Jacuzzis.
Lighthouse Inn.1 Lighthouse Road, West Dennis, 00-1-508-3982244, lighthouseinn.com. Classic Cape Cod family resort of small cottages with views and wood-burning fireplaces. It has a private beach, a heated pool, tennis and a children's activity programme – the floating trampoline is a Highlight.
Where to eat
Mac's Seafood. Wellfleet, Truro and Eastham, 00-1-508-3499611, macsseafood.com. You need to reserve a table.
Napi's.7 Freeman Street, Provincetown, 00-1-508-4871145, napis-restaurant.com. There are usually queues, so make a reservation.
Impudent Oyster,15 Chatham Bars Avenue, Chatham, 00-1-508-9453545. Five-star seafood at one-star prices. Book for Friday nights, then go to a Chatham Band concert, within spitting distance.
Arnold's Lobster & Clam Bar.3580 State Highway, Route 6, Eastham, 00-1-508-2552575, arnoldsrestaurant.com. The ultimate clam and lobster shack, with minigolf and fabulous food. No reservations, but queuing is worth it.
Where to go
Beaches.Most require a daily permit, at €15. Weekly permits cost €45 to €60.
Dolphin Fleet Whale Watch.307 Commercial Street, Provincetown, 00-1-508-4876458, whalewatch.com. You're almost guaranteed to catch sight of some whales.
Family Fishing Funwith Captain Ken Eldredge. 00-1-508-4325730, familyfishingfun.net. A fishing trip by boat, at a cost of €450 for up to six people.
Bicycle rental.Pick up bikes at Chatham Cycle (193 Depot Road, 00-1-508-9458981, brewsterbike.com) and head out along the cycle trails. Stop for ice cream at the Schoolhouse, in South Chatham. In Eastham try
Little Capistrano Bike Shop(30 Salt Pond Road, 00-1-508- 2556515, capecodbike.com), for the Nauset National Seashore trail. Stop for lunch, dinner or ice cream at Arnold's. Or use the 35km Cape Cod Rail Trail through the towns of Dennis, Harwich, Brewster, Orleans, Eastham and Wellfleet. Expect to pay about €22 a day or €75 a week. In Falmouth, try Holiday Cycles (465 Grand Avenue, 00-1-508-5403549), and cycle to Woods Hole along the 20km Shining Sea Bikeway, which winds close to the ocean and borders hundreds of hectares of conservation land.
Cape Cod National SeashoreSalt Pond Visitor Center (Nauset Road and Route 6, Eastham, 00-1-508-2553421, nps.gov/caco) has salt-pond paddles in canoes with a guide. Find crabs, shellfish, birds and lots of other cool stuff.
Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge. Wikis Way, Morris Island, Chatham, 00-1-508-9450594, fws.gov/northeast/ monomoy. See varied habits of oceans, dunes, freshwater ponds and salt and freshwater marshes. There is a hiking trail (bring a picnic and take a swim), but most of the refuge is accessible only by boat.
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.86 Water Street, Woods Hole, 00-1-508-5481400, whoi.edu. Exhibits on whales, dolphins, the Titanicand the ocean floor.
Wellfleet Drive-in Theater.51 Route 6, South Wellfleet, 00-1-508-3497176, wellfleet cinemas.com. Sit in your car to watch first-run movies.
- Aer Lingus (aerlingus.com) flies to Boston from Dublin and Shannon.