If you’re ever in or near Massachusetts, I can definitely recommend taking a roadtrip to Cape Cod.
Cape Cod is a peninsula near Boston and a popular holiday destination for both young and old. Whether you want to spend a quiet family holiday with the kids at the beach or want to party with your friends. And really just about everything in between those two, Cape Cod is the place to go!
Provincetown, Cape Cod
Right at the top of the peninsula of Cape Cod you’ll find Provincetown, or P-town as the locals say. A laid-back but busy and popular coastaltown. The city is, among others, famous for its art galleries and whale watching cruises. It was the latter that most sparked our interest. And I can tell you right away we weren’t disappointed.
Getting to Cape Cod
There are several ferries running between Boston and Cape Cod between May and September. This cruise will take about one and a half hours. But because our homebase was Providence, Rhode Island, it was easier to rent a car and drive.
So that’s what we did. We took the I-195 E and the 6A to Provincetown. You can also take route 6 instead of 6A, which is quicker, but it is also less scenic. According to my trusted friend Miss Google Maps the drive would take us 2 hours and 15 minutes.
But be warned that most of the route has only one lane, so you can’t overtake any slow drivers. For example on a busy summer day or during a holiday weekend, when it can get extremely busy. In which case the drive up there can take you up to 6 hours! It’s therefore recommended to leave at the crack of dawn.
We, being unaware of these facts, left on a Saturday morning around 11 a.m…. My friends’ neighbour shook his head in disbelief when he heard where we were going and hoped we would get there before dinner! Luckily, it wasn’t as bad as he predicted. In fact, it only took us about 3,5 hours! And that’s including making stops at beautiful beaches like these:
Our hotel in Provincetown
We had booked our hotel through hotwire.com and we weren’t disappointed with the lovely Cape Colony Inn. It’s a really nice hotel on the East side of the city, just outside the busy city centre with all of its (tourist) shops, art galleries and restaurants.
Hotels on the West side are usually a bit more expensive, because they are closer or right in the middle of the small city centre. But from our hotel it was less than a 10 minute stroll to the heart of P-Town.
Love lobster?
Cape Cod, but basically all of New England, is (as you may well know) famous for its lobsters. So on our first day there we had to have a lobster roll. We went to the Lobster Pot, and it was delicious!
I would recommend making reservations for this place, as it is a popular spot. We didn’t, so we had to wait for a bit. But we didn’t mind, because that meant we could have a beer on the terrace and enjoy an amazing view of the harbour! Unfortunately ,it was a bit too chilly to eat outside, so as soon as our table was ready we hurried back inside to order.
Cape Cod whale watching
On our second day, we went on a four hour whale watching cruise and saw not just one, not two, but a whopping amount of five whales! We spotted one minke whale (which autocorrect totally thinks should be kinky whale, by the way), three humpback whales and one fin whale. The guide at one point shouted “shark alert!”, but unfortunately we couldn’t locate the animal…
More lobster
On our second day, after our amazing whale watching cruise, we headed over to the Red Shack for a quick but yummie bite: mac and cheese AND lobster, of course!
Unfortunately I just found out as I was searching for a link to post here, that sadly this location has been permanently closed. According to a post on Yelp, the shack burnt down last May, and this happened only 5 days after we were there! I am so sorry to read this and I really hope they can rebuild the place!
After that delicious snack, it was time to head back to Providence. Again with hardly no traffic. I guess we were just lucky!
