Southerners on Cape Cod: The Beach

In my head, I had built up a sort of mythical place called Cape Cod. Maybe this shows my ignorance, but I envisioned a large strip of land with beach houses everywhere, sand and coastline visible in all directions, and everything quaint and New England-y as quaint and New England could be.

With the exception of Provincetown, I was very wrong. 

First of all, Cape Cod is much bigger than in my head. There are many towns and regions that make up the Cape. They have school systems and police jurisdictions and highways, which is very different than the "beach town" that my imagination created. I guess I was projecting my concept of the beach (Orange Beach, Destin, Panama City) onto the Cape and expecting it to be a self-contained area. Not so. The Cape is divided into four main regions: Upper, Middle, Lower, and Outer. Here's a map (from here):

(The purple island is Martha's Vineyard and the blue is Nantucket.) Interesting thing to note about the layout of the Cape: the regions are not necessarily labeled intuitively. The orange region is actually the Upper Cape, green is Middle (that one makes sense), dark purple is Lower, and yellow is Outer. The four regions are fairly distinct in what they have to offer, which is good to know when planning a trip.

We stayed in West Yarmouth at the Holly Tree Hotel, which is in the green part of the map, although we did things all over the Cape. It's about 45 minutes from West Yarmouth to the tip of the Outer Cape (Provincetown); we made that trek easily. 

For any Southerners (or non-Southerners, I guess) who are used to going to the beach in the Southeast, you should know that doing the beach in New England is a very different ballgame. Very different. My personal experience with the beach has been centered around staying in condos or hotels (usually condos with kitchen facilities) that are beachfront. Beaching in the Southeast, we would make a lot of meals in the condo, spend entire days on the beach with breaks to go inside and come back out at will, and we would play in both the sand and the water. Planning for a New England beach trip took a bit of a mental overhaul.

There are not very many beachfront condos/hotels in West Yarmouth (I didn't notice a lot of them in other towns either...again, with the exception of Provincetown. But y'all, even those were not the same as what I grew up with.). The bulk of visitors stay in hotels or cottages that are usually a few miles from the beach. There are a few beachfront places for rent, but that is not the norm. And I will also mention that most of the accommodations are older, unlike what you typically come across along the Gulf or lower Atlantic beaches. When it comes to the beaches, not all beaches are public; quite a few are reserved for residents only. I can understand that; if you live on Cape Cod, you probably don't want to have to jostle with all the tourists to enjoy the beach. I wouldn't. Well, maybe sometimes, just to keep things interesting. But probably not regularly.

It's wise to know a few things before you head off to the beach. Things like how much is parking (you will pay, oh yes you will)? is there a good amount of parking or will you be competing for a spot? are there bathroom facilities (never had to think about this one growing up)? I found this site that was incredibly helpful. It allows you to choose which city and then presents all of the available beaches with information about amenities (parking, bathrooms, food, lifeguards). That helped us narrow down our search considerably: we wanted one with parking and bathrooms. In many cases, it will also give insight into how much parking is available and how much it will cost. We picked out a few that we were interested in, and then narrowed it down, based on the fact that our hotel had discount parking passes for a few on our list! Woooo! On top of that, Brad's parents found a little stretch of beach that had about 15 free parking spots! We spent one of our beach days hanging out there. The other day, we went to Parker's River Beach, which had lots of parking (we used our hotel discount pass), bathrooms, a food stand, and a playground area. We liked it a lot!

If you don't have your own beach gear, like chairs and umbrellas, you'll either need to buy them or rent them from this place. There aren't options to rent right there on the beach, so we were really thankful to have stuff to take with us. We took two beach chairs, a huge, sand-resistant blanket (thanks, Breanne!!), a big umbrella, and a baby cabana. We had a great set-up! We also loaded up our cooler with lunch and snacks. The sand was pretty and soft, and the water was calm. The only this is...this water is cold. Even in August. Claire, who has proven to be a water-lover, cried when we dipped her toes in. It was sad. But, we had a great time hanging out together, soaking up sun (Claire didn't do that part, obviously), reading, snacking, and watching the passing parade. Definitely days well-spent.