USA Guide
New England
Cape Cod
One of the most celebrated slices of real estate in America, Cape Cod boasts a dazzling, three-hundred mile coastline with some of the best beaches in New England. Unsurprisingly, this means that the Cape's main haunts are packed in the summer, and it's barely worth turning up on weekends, especially between June and August. The best strategy is to visit mid-week in May or September, when hotel prices are much lower, the crowds have thinned, and the weather is usually very pleasant.
Cape Cod was named by Bartholomew Gosnold in 1602, on account of the prodigious quantities of cod caught by his crew off Provincetown. Today, much of the land on the Cape, from its salt marshes to its ever-eroding dunes, is considered a fragile and endangered ecosystem – though this designation hasn't especially dampened the persistence of developers. Much of the worst beachfront development lies along the southern shore, and Hwy-28, running from Falmouth via Hyannis to Chatham, gets especially clogged. Only once you head north to the Outer Cape, past the spectacular dunes of Cape Cod National Seashore, do you get a feeling for why this narrow spit of land still has a reputation as a seaside wilderness. Provincetown, right at the tip, is the one town on the Cape that can be unreservedly recommended.
Just off the south coast of Cape Cod, the relatively unspoiled islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket have long been some of the most popular and prestigious vacation destinations in the US. Both mingle an easy-going cosmopolitan atmosphere and some of the best restaurants and B&Bs on the East Coast, with ornate mansions and museums harking back to the golden age of whaling. As on the Cape, be prepared for crowds in the summer; day-trippers can easily swamp both places, especially on weekends.
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