The Essential Guide to Cape Cod, Massachusetts

This geographic flexed arm jutting from the Massachusetts mainland is more than just a quirky shape on the map—it’s also a den of coastal charm and salty heritage.

Cape Cod’s sandy stretch of dunes and kettle ponds has long laid out its welcome mat for those in need of refuge and respite, from the early days of the Mayflower’s “saints and strangers,” who anchored in Provincetown Harbor, to generations of native Cape Codders and “washashores” (the term locals use for people are not from the area).

The spit’s relative isolation has helped preserve both its bohemian enclaves, like Provincetown and Wellfleet, as well as its statelier corners, such as Osterville, Hyannis Port, and Chatham. But the Cape is evolving. A wave of new full-time residents, drawn by remote work and a post-pandemic lifestyle shift, has sparked a transformation. 

“The cape isn’t a little sleepy resort town anymore. It’s really a thriving mecca for year-round living,” said Marc Sievers, a cookbook author and owner of Fête Among the Flowers in Osterville. “It really is starting to become a destination that people are seeing as more than just a quick weekend.”

Whether you’re chasing sunsets or getting lost in a hydrangea-lined village, let the good times of Cape Cod butter up your lobster roll.

Here’s what you need to know before planning a trip to Cape Cod.

Best Hotels & Resorts

Chatham Bars Inn

Longtime Cape luxury mainstay Chatham Bars Inn is home to the pinnacle of summer socializing, where oysters and rosé at The Veranda can cap a day of reading from a private beach cabana overlooking Aunt Lydia’s Cove. The ultimate splurge is a spa suite with a private steam shower and hydrotherapy tub.

Wequassett Resort and Golf Club

Wequassett Resort and Golf Club encompasses acres of hydrangea-filled gardens, and there are plenty of ways to pass a summer day, here—from kayaking to clandestine cocktails. Wequasset’s guest rooms, villas, and cottages recently underwent a renovation that was completed just in time for the resort’s 2025 centennial celebration. “When people think ‘luxury’ on the Cape, it’s probably the number one,” said Gayle Fee, a longtime Cape Codder and New England’s doyenne of dish, who cowrote the Boston Herald’s Inside Track gossip column for 25 years.

Awol Provincetown

There’s no better spot to catch sunset than at Awol Provincetown, located in the far West End overlooking the moors. Guest rooms and suites at this motel-turned-glam-retreat have a chic, minimalist vibe that carries outside to the fire pits and pool area, where neighbors for the week toast with cocktails from the guest-only bar.

Candleberry Inn

This Brewster bed-and-breakfast was named one of the best hotels in the world by Travel + Leisure readers in 2024. You’ll feel like a posh sea captain at this Georgian-style home that’s just a short stroll from Cape Cod Bay beaches. Breakfast is a decadent spread, but you’ll also find thoughtful touches like a personalized package of goodies awaiting you in the dining room each afternoon after a day of exploring.  

Bluebird Dennisport

Lark Hotels (the same parent company behind AWOL Provincetown) converted this former motor lodge into a contemporary, beach-y retreat that gives guests a chic, wood-paneled place to rest amid a summer sojourn to the Cape without all the bells and whistles—and exorbitant peak nightly rates—of some of the area’s more established luxury offerings.

Best Things to Do

Visit Cape Cod National Seashore.

This stretch of beaches, ponds, and wooded trails running from Chatham to Provincetown was established by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 and has some of the region’s most popular sandy stretches, like Ptown’s Race Point Beach and Nauset Beach in Orleans.

“The Province Lands, part of the Cape Cod National Seashore, are my favorite escape,” said Ken Fulk, an interior designer who splits his time between San Francisco and Provincetown. “Here you’ll find miles of bike trails, tidal pools in which you can float along like a lazy river, and vast stretches of often empty beaches—and don’t miss the chance to hike across the immense dunes out to the great Atlantic.”

Stroll through Heritage Museum & Gardens.

The Cape’s iconic hydrangeas are only a small piece of this 100-acre property, celebrating the rhododendrons initially hybridized by Charles Dexter, who experimented and produced hundreds of thousands of the flower varieties that still bloom on the property today. Flowers may be the main show, but the Heritage Museum & Gardens also has a vintage car collection and a working vintage carousel.

See the Pilgrim Monument.

The cross-bay rivals of Plymouth and Provincetown lovingly spar over who has a better claim as the Pilgrims’ initial arrival destination. Visitors will find something a bit more impressive at the nearly 253-foot granite Pilgrim Monument that lords over Provincetown. It was built in the early 20th century to honor the Pilgrims’ five-week stint on the Outer Cape, and it’s a good alternative to the (rather infamously) underwhelming Plymouth Rock. Plus, you can climb to the top and take in sweeping bayside and Atlantic Ocean views.

Catch a show at The Cape Playhouse.

This Dennis, Massachusetts, stage can feel like Broadway’s summer camp, given that everyone from Bernadette Peters and Julie Andrews to Humphrey Bogart and Henry Fonda has performed here since its 1927 inception. Today, you can expect to find locally orchestrated productions of hits like “Rent” and “Waitress.”

Watch the sunset at Chapin Memorial Beach.

Deciding which Cape Cod beach is the best for taking in a sunset with a sip of something fabulous can feel like picking a favorite child. But the expansive tidal flats and seclusion of Chapin Memorial Beach can feel truly otherworldly. “If you can catch low tide at sunset, your head will explode,” said Adam Dunn, who co-owns The Pheasant restaurant in Dennis with his wife. “There’s this jaw-dropping view out there.”

Best Shopping

Cuffy’s

Sure, there are shops hawking Cape Cod-emblazoned t-shirts and merchandise throughout the entire peninsula, but Cuffy’s is a local institution that now has a boardwalk-themed flagship packed with all the swag needed to outfit you, your family, and any friend back home that needs a thank-you gift for checking your mail.

Fête Among the Flowers

Those looking for a little Cape design inspiration will find just the right home accents at this Osterville specialty food and floral shop that also sells throws, candles, and other small goods. It’s the perfect place to find that treat-yourself splurge. 

Sandwich Antiques Center

Whether you’re looking for a Tiffany lamp or a framed final menu from the Queen Mary, odds are you’ll find it (and a slew of other vintage treasures) at this 5,000-square-foot emporium of eccentric finds. You may also need to pick up a vintage suitcase to cart your goods back home.

Browse Commercial Street in Provincetown.

It’s hard to pick a specific gallery, boutique, or coffee shop to visit on Commercial Street, but we’ll try.

“A few of my favorite shops include The Captain’s Daughters for the perfect t-shirt, Clove and Creek for the best gifts, and the hidden John Derian shop tucked in an impossibly charming shed behind his house—you’ll want everything,” Fulk said.

Other locals in the know always swing by for beach provisions at Pop+Dutch, the town’s go-to spot for sandwiches and sass. You’ll find dinner party staples at Perry’s Fine Wine & Liquors, an it’s-an-insult-to-just-call-it-a-wine-shop kind of establishment hawking everything from hard-to-procure champagne and caviar to charcuterie and dips (plus, there are complimentary treats for the many four-legged visitors that come to town).

Nightlife

Wellfleet Beachcomber

Dune erosion means you never quite know what the parking lot is going to look like each Memorial Day opening weekend at the Wellfleet Beachcomber, but the good times are always the same. Imbibing with a rum-forward Goombay Smash to the sounds of a local rock band performance is practically a rite of passage for a Cape Codder’s summer Saturday night. “I must have been a teenager when they first opened it, and they’ve been pumping out dance music and oysters ever since,” Fee said.

The Atlantic House

The Atlantic House, or the A-House, has been Ptown’s most iconic watering hole for more than 200 years—and has one of the best-known LGBTQ+ dance floors for a good chunk of that span. The drinks are strong, and the ceilings are low (not to mention the lopsided dance floor). But the line snaking down an alley and up the main road is an indicator that this is the place to spend a raucous night all year long.

Best Restaurants

Ceraldi

The seven-course tasting menu at Ceraldi is a celebration of locally sourced ingredients and staples from the sea with an Italian twist (think: beef shank with Cape Cod blueberries and polenta arriving after a lobster risotto course). Maintain a hawk eye on availability, as an open seat at this Wellfleet chef’s table doesn’t come around often.

Sal’s Place

An extra plate of meatballs or platter of cauliflower Caesar salad always seems to appear while diners debate who has the best entrée (chicken carbonara or lobster alla vodka, anyone?) en route at this candlelit Italian treasure in Ptown’s West End. “It’s the clubhouse for the town’s luminaries and washashores alike,” Fulk said.

The Pheasant

Fried seafood baskets have long been Cape menu staples, but the arrival of The Pheasant in Dennis played a major role in elevating the reputation of the local dining scene. Caviar service can kick things off before indulgences like lamb osso bucco and blood orange cheesecake.

“It’s this fabulous old structure with plank floors, shiplap walls, and old oil paintings, but then they have an absolutely killer wine list and an absolutely over-the-top, creative but still earthy menu,” said Sievers.

Sesuit Harbor Café

Obviously, one can’t go to Cape Cod without splurging on at least some fried seafood. Sesuit Harbor Café serves heaping piles of fried whole belly clams, shrimp, scallops, and oysters (plus lobster rolls, of course) with waterfront views from picnic tables. Plus, it’s BYOB. “We’ll bring a tablecloth, glassware, wine, and make it a thing,” said Erica Dunn, who’s married to Adam Dunn, and co-owns The Pheasant with him.

Sundae School

Picking a favorite ice cream shop on the Cape is as heated a debate as anything you’ll find on Capitol Hill. Sundae School offers all the classics (don’t miss the ice cream pies or the oh-so-popular banana splits) at locations in both Harwich Port and Dennisport.

Best Time to Visit

The summer season runs between Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends and is best for those who want the convenience of more frequent ferry service from Boston or airline service into Cape Cod Gateway Airport (HYA) in Hyannis, Massachusetts. Some seasonal restaurants and shops do not stay open outside this timeframe, but the shoulder season from Labor Day through Halloween is an increasingly popular time to visit. Most retailers and restaurants remain open, hotel and Airbnb rates are lower, and sunny beach days are still possible.

How to Get to Cape Cod

Driving to Cape Cod over its two main access points (the Bourne and Sagamore bridges) and the ensuing summer activity is part of the “charm” and easily the most popular way to get to vacation. But 90-minute ferries from Boston—which has the nearest major airport, Boston Logan International Airport (BOS)—are an easy way to eclipse the Outer Cape traffic. Cape Cod Gateway Airport in Hyannis has seasonal service on select major U.S. carriers, plus year-round Cape Air service. The Hyannis Transportation Center has weekend rail service to Boston in the summers and year-round bus connections.

Towns to Visit

Provincetown

The Cape’s longtime haven for the bohemian, the eclectic, and the LGBTQ+ community has also become one of its toniest—while still maintaining the charm that draws people in the first place.

“Provincetown is as close as I ever feel to being a kid again,” Fulk said. “We ride bikes recklessly down the narrow street, jump with abandon into the chilly harbor, then nap like a baby curled up with wet dogs. Could there be more joy?”

Chatham

This lace-curtained enclave of the posh and fabulous also has boutiques for fashionable post-beach dinner garb and housewares as well as jaw-dropping waterfront real estate for those looking to really splurge on a summertime home.

Wellfleet

This artist community beckons those looking for galleries to peruse, waterfront cocktails, and even a round of nine-hole golf with a waterfront view.

Dennis

Dennis is a beach lover’s dream, and it has ample spots to dip your toes in the sand on both the Cape Cod Bay side (just mind the occasional oyster farm) as well as the Nantucket Sound side.

Hyannis

The Cape’s transportation nexus, Hyannis, is also the last stop for big-box shopping if you’re heading onward to the Outer Cape. Hyannis Main Street has a mix of souvenir shopping and fun bars and restaurants, while neighboring Hyannis Port is where the Kennedy clan’s compound served as a major backdrop to Camelot.

Falmouth

One of Cape Cod’s largest communities, Falmouth is a major connecting point for those looking to hop on a ferry to explore Martha’s Vineyard or Nantucket. 

How to Get Around

Depending on what part of Cape Cod you’re heading to, you can reach it by land, by sea or by air.

• Ferry: 90-minute fast ferries are a convenient way to get from downtown Boston to Provincetown. They typically run during the summer or shoulder seasons with Boston Harbor City Cruises and Bay State Cruise Company. Round-trip services are $100 with Boston Harbor City Cruises, while Bay State service is $128.
• Train: CapeFlyer train service connects Boston’s South Station to Hyannis on the weekends in the summer.
• Bus: Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority runs bus service within Cape Cod; Peter Pan Bus Lines connects Hyannis to Boston’s South Station; and the Plymouth & Brockton Bus Company connects Hyannis to Boston Logan International Airport.
• Air: Cape Cod Gateway Airport is the largest airport on the peninsula and sees seasonal service from major airlines like American Airlines and JetBlue, while Cape Air serves the airport year-round. Provincetown Municipal Airport (PVC) has seasonal Cape Air service in the summer.
• Rideshare: Service is limited, especially on the Outer Cape from Orleans north to Provincetown, but you can occasionally hail Uber or Lyft drivers. If you can’t catch a ride share, Cape Cab is one of the biggest taxi providers in the area.