Must-see attractions for an authentic Cape Cod experience

Cape Cod is a much-loved holiday destination, located to the south of Boston and perched on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. The Massachusetts coastline provides a spectacular setting for a vacation, with around 560 miles of inviting beaches. Cape Cod also has a scattering of charming, picture postcard towns – Chatham, Hyannis, Provincetown, Yarmouth and Falmouth, to name just a few.

The seafood, scenery, hiking and watersports all make Cape Cod an attractive location for tourists. Its restaurants and diners are famous for their lobster rolls, while its sandy shores and rolling waves are a hotspot for paddleboarding and surfing. The little islands of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard are within easy reach by ferry too.

If you’re planning a visit to Cape Cod, this guide will help you make the most of your time on this idyllic isle.

A place in history

Arriving anywhere on the Cape and breathing in the salt air, you’ll immediately savor its long connection with the Atlantic Ocean surrounding the peninsula. The many lighthouses that spread across its shores provide evidence of the Cape's fishing and whaling past. According to legend, Cape Cod played a central role in America's founding.

Many locals assert that 10th-century Icelandic Viking Leif Eriksson was the first European to make the voyage to America and that he landed at the Cape. Popular history dictates that Wampanoag Indians met the Mayflower when it anchored in Provincetown Harbor on the Cape's far north-eastern tip in 1620. If you’re an American history buff, you can learn more about Cape Cod’s earliest European explorers at the Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum.

One Cape Cod, four distinct regions

If you think of the Cape as an arm attached to a shoulder, imagine its four parts as separate regions with distinct personalities. Each has its own towns comprised of individual villages. You can choose countless activities in each of them, including catching hermit crabs or mussels, hiking dunes and chasing fireflies with the kids.

Check out the four regions below.

Upper Cape

The ‘shoulder’ is located far west, nearest mainland Massachuestts, and is home to Bourne, Falmouth, Mashpee and Sandwich – the Cape’s oldest and most historic town. Colonial charm abounds here, as does a love of nature.

Visit Woods Hole, the scenic seaport location of a thriving intellectual community with a famed oceanographic institute, aquarium, marine biology lab and a history museum. You can also take the ferry to Martha’s Vineyard or Nantucket from the Upper Cape.

Mid-Cape

In the middle of the peninsula, or ‘bicep,’ Mid-Cape is a getaway for visitors and a popular spot with the locals for shopping and dining. The towns consist of well-heeled Barnstable, Yarmouth, family-friendly Dennis and Hyannis, home of the Kennedy clan and the Cape’s largest city. Stop by the John F. Kennedy Hyannis Museum to learn more about US President JFK and the time he spent on Cape Cod.

Lower Cape

Located in the ‘elbow’ or ‘quieter Cape’ are Orleans, Brewster, Harwich and Chatham. This area is home to a 200-plus-year-old lighthouse and Chatham Marconi Maritime Center. Take the family to the Chatham Railroad Museum, or go on a guided boat, bike or biplane tour of Chatham's serene and beautiful beaches.

Outer Cape

On the peninsula's ‘forearm and fist,’ you’ll find the Cape's true vacation spots, Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro and Provincetown. To keep developers from spoiling this region's beaches, President John F. Kennedy created the popular Cape Cod National Seashore in 1961. So, the Outer Cape is 40 miles of mostly undeveloped beach and landscape on the Cape's Atlantic-facing eastern coast.

At its tip or fist is the nightlife hot spot Provincetown, a locus for the free-thinking creatives and the home of America's oldest continuous artist colony. Colorful cabarets, galleries, theaters and stylish hotspots are found throughout the area.

Discover endless activities

No matter what an authentic Cape Cod experience means to you, the Cape is a family- and pet-friendly place with as many alternatives to beaches as there are actual beaches. Play golf or walk, hike or bike to crimson cranberry bogs, freshwater ponds, interior marshlands, dunes and birch and beech forests. Go whale watching, visit a wildlife sanctuary or take a fishing excursion.

Cape Cod is your oyster. Build some lasting memories on the Cape, and then share your favorite experiences with us on Facebook.