Ever heard the saying "like a kid in a candy store"? That's what it's like being a beach lover while living on Cape Cod. I seldom stay put in my hometown of Mashpee, although we have a few wonderful beaches. I like to change it up and visit spots all over the Cape, which takes planning to maximize my budget. So, where do you go if you have a week to spend on Cape Cod and want to do it right? Here's my advice on how to maximize your budget and take in the Cape's best kid-friendly beaches.
The first thing i do when planning my day at the beach is check the tide chart. (OK, maybe this is second, after checking the weather forecast!) And I do this the day before (sometimes days before) my planned day at a particular beach. Listening to the tides on the local TV station doesn't do a bit of good unless you know what beach the station is referring to (or region, anyway, and with our local stations, that's pretty vast). I usually go by the U.S. Harbors tide chart (http://ma.usharbors.com) and pull up the particular harbor or region of the Cape I plan to visit. With very young kids, low tide is often the best time of day to visit for many of the Cape's beaches. Why? Because unless you are a resident and have a parking permit, you will be spending upwards of $25 just for parking. To get your money's worth, you'll want to spend as much time there as possible. For my kids, digging in the mud, making drip castles, skim boarding and mucking around is the best part of the day, best done at low tide. Obviously, you'd want to adjust your timing for the older wave surfing crowd. And if you are lucky, you can visit a beach that gives you the best of both worlds--I'll get to that in a minute. Some beaches offer very little blanket surf-side real estate at high tide, in which case spending big bucks to park at a beach where you'll be crammed like sardines in a can makes for a bad beach experience. You are always rewarded for doing your tide and beach research before heading out.
So which are my favorites? I've been to so many, but I have several favorites depending on my needs and car full of kids. On the upper Cape, my hands-down favorite is Old Silver Beach in North Falmouth. Here it definitely pays to check the tides, because at high tide on a hot day, the beach blanket real estate is minimal. I've seen folks arrive past the 10 a.m hour (week days of course, because no one in their right mind shows up there after 9:30 on a weekend expecting to get parking) only to find an inch or two of available sand for their blankets, buckets and shovels. But at low tide, there is ample room to spread out (although on crowded days it's still tight) and enjoy the fine white sand and crystal clear water. I hang with some pretty picky beach goers and they will concur that OSB offers the best swimming around, with warm water, a sandy, rock-free bottom (once you get past the shoreline), a wonderful sand bar and a swimming area that stretches out forever (well, not really but you know what I mean!) At low tide there is a channel and jetty that separates the public from the town beach, offering great mucking and crabbing fun, stretching across the street (under a bridge) to the marsh side of the beach. Some folks prefer to set up on that side as it is a bit quieter and secluded. No matter the tide, the swimming at OSB is always great, sometimes offering high surf and great wave riding. Boogie and skim boards are allowed, but floats are not. OSB has a great snack bar and mostly clean restrooms, outdoor showers for rinsing, and glorious sunsets. I know some frugal folks who come after 3:30 (about the time they stop charging for parking) to enjoy the cooler part of the day, dinner and a sunset that can't be beat. A pizza place up the street--151 Drive-In-- delivers right to the beach,and their offerings are great!. rte151drivein.com/ Some very important advice about eating at OSB: Beware of the seagulls! They are expert sandwich and snack snatchers (say that three times fast). Falmouth has many other great beaches to explore. Wood Neck Beach, while not open to the public, accessible to residents only with a beach sticker, is also highly recommended for those with young children. Visit www.falmouthmass.us/depart.php?depkey=beach for more information on fees, parking and other information.
Another favorite spot for our family in Falmouth is The Knob. (saltpondsanctuaries.org/the-knob/) Aside from it being breathtakingly beautiful, the best part about it is it's totally free. Located in the Woods Hole village of Falmouth, The Knob is much more than a beach (for many who visit, the beach is secondary to its other natural elements). For the truly budget-minded visitor, this is my favorite beach. The trick is the on-street parking, which is very limited. This is also not the kind of spot where you would lug a ton of beach gear, as the walk in to the beach area is through a short to longish (depending on the amount of stuff and age of your kids) wooded path (the trek in, alone, is a great part of the visit!).There are no life guards or facilities, the surf can be rough, but the water and sand are similar to that of Old Silver's. This is my pick when I want a short visit to the beach, especially at sunset, although the walk back gets dark and kind of creepy when the sun goes down. I generally pack a light cooler, a small bag and a camera for the wonderful photo opportunities The Knob offers of Quisset Harbor and Buzzards Bay. I wrap up my visit with a stop in Woods Hole for ice cream or to pop in at the aquarium, another free activity (you can read more about this on my Activities on a Budget page). Did I mention this area is dog friendly? It is.
Another favorite upper Cape beach is Scusset Beach, located at the Scusset Beach State Reservation in Bourne. www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/dcr/massparks/region-south/scusset-beach-state-reservation.html. While the water there is pretty cold, on a hot day even the wimpiest swimmers will take a dip. The $15 entry / parking fee is well worth it, with its natural beauty and amenities. Regardless of the tide, there is ample room to stretch out and still have privacy. A snack bar and bath house is available during the beach season (although I don't generally order food there, being on a budget I always bring my own). Scusset is located at the eastern entrance of the Cape Cod Canal, and offers great views of boats and ships coming and going past the jetty. The jetty itself is worth exploring, home to starfish and assorted critters. We always park at the far left side of the lot, way down by the campers, and hoof it through the dunes to the jetty side of the beach where there is so much open space and room to explore. At low tide, the water is COLD, crystal clear and shallow, making for great sand dollar collecting and skim boarding. Yearly parking passes that are good at all state beaches are available at the visitor's center upon entry, and worth the investment if you travel a lot or plan to visit South Cape Beach in Mashpee (www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/dcr/massparks/region-south/south-cape-beach-state-park.html ), which is a state reservation as well. Living in Mashpee, I have purchased this state pass instead of my local beach sticker. South Cape is a beautiful beach in itself, although my kids don't like swimming there as much as OSB or Scusset (they have sadly become beach snobs) due to its depth, rocky bottom and abundance of seaweed. They do, however, like its ice cream truck and its marsh, which offers great birding and tidal exploration. It's a gorgeous spot.
I can't ignore my own favorite local hometown spot--the Popponesset "Poppy" Spit. This "private" beach is accessible by foot traffic via Popponesset Beach in Mashpee, but many folks (like our family) take a boat. (savepopponessetbay.org/) To be budget conscious, for us, this is an option as we own a boat and have a trailer / recreation parking sticker for the local launches. For those without that luxury, the only way to get here on a budget is to find someone local to give you a lift or offer you parking in the quaint beachside village of Popponesset (and walk in). Ok, so for most it isn't budget friendly or even possible, but it is a pretty special place especially when the Ice Cream Boat comes around! It's who you know, you know, when it comes to getting to The Spit by boat.
For the mid Cape area, there are dozens of great beaches from which to choose. The town of Dennis has so many amazing beaches you simply can't go wrong; just pick one! My favorite, however, is Mayflower. Like Old Silver Beach, if you don't get there early, you will miss out on parking. On a weekday, plan to be there no later than 9:30 or you'll be out of luck. And at $20 per weekday/ $25 weekend day, you'll want to make a whole day of it, so check the tides to maximize your time on task! (Ok, thats teacher-speak...) My GPS brought me to the town portion of Mayflower Beach where a sticker is necessary, but the attendant was quick to tell me how to get to the paid side. This added five minutes to my ride, and I came close to getting the last parking sport at 9! So far as blanket real estate goes, that's not so much an issue, but low tide at Mayflower is nothing short of magical. When the tide goes out, the mud flat goes on forever, and even on the busiest beach day there is ample space to set up shop. stretch out and bask in its glory. And the swimming! Crystal clear water, sandy bottom (no seaweed or rocks once past the shore line) and glorious views. My girls swam all day regardless of the tide; it barely went over their heads (they are ten and six) which offered me some comfort seeing as the lifeguards didn't look too close by. Actually, I recall seeing just one all day on a packed beach, but to be quite honest, at low tide, it didn't phase me one bit. As I am always on a budget, I packed a cooler and was thrilled to see that I didn't have to walk far with all my stuff to claim a great spot on the beach! As the tide went out, I moved our belongings right onto the tidal flats and stayed parked for hours, as the tide would stay out for the entire day (which I knew because I planned ahead--low tide was at 12:15 pm., making our visit at the ideal time to get our money's worth). The snack bar offered frozen lemonade and all sorts of treats (a pricey Two-Ball Screw Ball cost me $4.00). Small bathrooms are available, and an outdoor shower for rinsing. I left feeling like I got my money's worth for sure after a full day of swimming and mudding.I
When we have a lot of time to kill, we pack the whole family up in the truck with our bikes and head down Cape to Provincetown to visit Race Point Beach. It generally takes as long to get there as it would Providence (or Boston without hitting traffic on a good day), so this is not a trip we do often. Biking along this stretch of the Cape Cod Rail trail is a fun and hilly paved trek through sand dunes, offering great views of the natural elements. It is, however, not all that easy for pulling a bike trailer (I learned that the hard way, or maybe it was I was incredibly out of shape at that point in my life!!) My kids, however, had a blast riding there and stopped to enjoy the beach several times. The beach at Race Point is beautiful and kid-friendly and like many of the lower Cape beaches, offers glimpse of whales (bring your binoculars). Because we usually bring our bikes, and because we still want to hit P-town for some sightseeing and shopping, we don't generally make a whole day out of Race Point beach, but you could. Parking, facilities and food are all available. Visit www.capecodbikeguide.com/provincelands.asp for biking and parking info, and ptownchamber.com/on-the-water/beaches/ for beach info.
Our most recent P-town excursion (full of the usual food, souvenir shopping and people-watching) ended with a stop at the Head of the Meadow beach. www.nps.gov/caco/planyourvisit/head-of-the-meadow.htm My good friend MJ Haynes (also the best hair stylist in Bourne, check her out at The Mad Cutter salon) recommended we visit and view the seals there. We were not disappointed! Just outside of P-town, in Truro, the Head of the Meadow beach offers sweeping views and inviting dunes for great photo opportunities. We arrived late in the day, so there was no fee to enter (check the times), and pulled in to the left-side lot (it looked less crowded). We pulled in and parked way down on the left side of that lot, and saw folks walking down from the dunes. It simply looked more remote, and as they were carrying a great deal of stuff (chairs, coolers, etc), I figured it wasn't too far of walk for my young ones--if they could maneuver all that. I was right! We ambled up and down through the dunes to a spectacular sight: crashing waves, fine white sand, an inviting sandbar, surfers off to the right and dozens of Gray's seals playfully swimming just off the shoreline. Further down there were even more (my friend says when she went there were hundreds) so we ventured as far as we felt comfortable and sat and watched. While we didn't swim (you know...sharks and seals don't mix but can be found together!), there were many swimmers down further on the more public side of the beach, manned by life guards. The water was refreshingly cold, seaweed free (a prerequisite for my kids to swim, the beach snobs that they are). You could easily spend a whole day at this beach. It's less crowded than the other spots on the National Seashore, but equally beautiful and, according to the website, offering some interesting glimpses of the old shipwrecks at low tide.
Our trips to P-town have always been memorable and fun, albeit exhausting! Maybe someday as adults my husband and I can spend a day there without kids and see the other side of life the famous community has to offer!
The first thing i do when planning my day at the beach is check the tide chart. (OK, maybe this is second, after checking the weather forecast!) And I do this the day before (sometimes days before) my planned day at a particular beach. Listening to the tides on the local TV station doesn't do a bit of good unless you know what beach the station is referring to (or region, anyway, and with our local stations, that's pretty vast). I usually go by the U.S. Harbors tide chart (http://ma.usharbors.com) and pull up the particular harbor or region of the Cape I plan to visit. With very young kids, low tide is often the best time of day to visit for many of the Cape's beaches. Why? Because unless you are a resident and have a parking permit, you will be spending upwards of $25 just for parking. To get your money's worth, you'll want to spend as much time there as possible. For my kids, digging in the mud, making drip castles, skim boarding and mucking around is the best part of the day, best done at low tide. Obviously, you'd want to adjust your timing for the older wave surfing crowd. And if you are lucky, you can visit a beach that gives you the best of both worlds--I'll get to that in a minute. Some beaches offer very little blanket surf-side real estate at high tide, in which case spending big bucks to park at a beach where you'll be crammed like sardines in a can makes for a bad beach experience. You are always rewarded for doing your tide and beach research before heading out.
So which are my favorites? I've been to so many, but I have several favorites depending on my needs and car full of kids. On the upper Cape, my hands-down favorite is Old Silver Beach in North Falmouth. Here it definitely pays to check the tides, because at high tide on a hot day, the beach blanket real estate is minimal. I've seen folks arrive past the 10 a.m hour (week days of course, because no one in their right mind shows up there after 9:30 on a weekend expecting to get parking) only to find an inch or two of available sand for their blankets, buckets and shovels. But at low tide, there is ample room to spread out (although on crowded days it's still tight) and enjoy the fine white sand and crystal clear water. I hang with some pretty picky beach goers and they will concur that OSB offers the best swimming around, with warm water, a sandy, rock-free bottom (once you get past the shoreline), a wonderful sand bar and a swimming area that stretches out forever (well, not really but you know what I mean!) At low tide there is a channel and jetty that separates the public from the town beach, offering great mucking and crabbing fun, stretching across the street (under a bridge) to the marsh side of the beach. Some folks prefer to set up on that side as it is a bit quieter and secluded. No matter the tide, the swimming at OSB is always great, sometimes offering high surf and great wave riding. Boogie and skim boards are allowed, but floats are not. OSB has a great snack bar and mostly clean restrooms, outdoor showers for rinsing, and glorious sunsets. I know some frugal folks who come after 3:30 (about the time they stop charging for parking) to enjoy the cooler part of the day, dinner and a sunset that can't be beat. A pizza place up the street--151 Drive-In-- delivers right to the beach,and their offerings are great!. rte151drivein.com/ Some very important advice about eating at OSB: Beware of the seagulls! They are expert sandwich and snack snatchers (say that three times fast). Falmouth has many other great beaches to explore. Wood Neck Beach, while not open to the public, accessible to residents only with a beach sticker, is also highly recommended for those with young children. Visit www.falmouthmass.us/depart.php?depkey=beach for more information on fees, parking and other information.
Another favorite spot for our family in Falmouth is The Knob. (saltpondsanctuaries.org/the-knob/) Aside from it being breathtakingly beautiful, the best part about it is it's totally free. Located in the Woods Hole village of Falmouth, The Knob is much more than a beach (for many who visit, the beach is secondary to its other natural elements). For the truly budget-minded visitor, this is my favorite beach. The trick is the on-street parking, which is very limited. This is also not the kind of spot where you would lug a ton of beach gear, as the walk in to the beach area is through a short to longish (depending on the amount of stuff and age of your kids) wooded path (the trek in, alone, is a great part of the visit!).There are no life guards or facilities, the surf can be rough, but the water and sand are similar to that of Old Silver's. This is my pick when I want a short visit to the beach, especially at sunset, although the walk back gets dark and kind of creepy when the sun goes down. I generally pack a light cooler, a small bag and a camera for the wonderful photo opportunities The Knob offers of Quisset Harbor and Buzzards Bay. I wrap up my visit with a stop in Woods Hole for ice cream or to pop in at the aquarium, another free activity (you can read more about this on my Activities on a Budget page). Did I mention this area is dog friendly? It is.
Another favorite upper Cape beach is Scusset Beach, located at the Scusset Beach State Reservation in Bourne. www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/dcr/massparks/region-south/scusset-beach-state-reservation.html. While the water there is pretty cold, on a hot day even the wimpiest swimmers will take a dip. The $15 entry / parking fee is well worth it, with its natural beauty and amenities. Regardless of the tide, there is ample room to stretch out and still have privacy. A snack bar and bath house is available during the beach season (although I don't generally order food there, being on a budget I always bring my own). Scusset is located at the eastern entrance of the Cape Cod Canal, and offers great views of boats and ships coming and going past the jetty. The jetty itself is worth exploring, home to starfish and assorted critters. We always park at the far left side of the lot, way down by the campers, and hoof it through the dunes to the jetty side of the beach where there is so much open space and room to explore. At low tide, the water is COLD, crystal clear and shallow, making for great sand dollar collecting and skim boarding. Yearly parking passes that are good at all state beaches are available at the visitor's center upon entry, and worth the investment if you travel a lot or plan to visit South Cape Beach in Mashpee (www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/dcr/massparks/region-south/south-cape-beach-state-park.html ), which is a state reservation as well. Living in Mashpee, I have purchased this state pass instead of my local beach sticker. South Cape is a beautiful beach in itself, although my kids don't like swimming there as much as OSB or Scusset (they have sadly become beach snobs) due to its depth, rocky bottom and abundance of seaweed. They do, however, like its ice cream truck and its marsh, which offers great birding and tidal exploration. It's a gorgeous spot.
I can't ignore my own favorite local hometown spot--the Popponesset "Poppy" Spit. This "private" beach is accessible by foot traffic via Popponesset Beach in Mashpee, but many folks (like our family) take a boat. (savepopponessetbay.org/) To be budget conscious, for us, this is an option as we own a boat and have a trailer / recreation parking sticker for the local launches. For those without that luxury, the only way to get here on a budget is to find someone local to give you a lift or offer you parking in the quaint beachside village of Popponesset (and walk in). Ok, so for most it isn't budget friendly or even possible, but it is a pretty special place especially when the Ice Cream Boat comes around! It's who you know, you know, when it comes to getting to The Spit by boat.
For the mid Cape area, there are dozens of great beaches from which to choose. The town of Dennis has so many amazing beaches you simply can't go wrong; just pick one! My favorite, however, is Mayflower. Like Old Silver Beach, if you don't get there early, you will miss out on parking. On a weekday, plan to be there no later than 9:30 or you'll be out of luck. And at $20 per weekday/ $25 weekend day, you'll want to make a whole day of it, so check the tides to maximize your time on task! (Ok, thats teacher-speak...) My GPS brought me to the town portion of Mayflower Beach where a sticker is necessary, but the attendant was quick to tell me how to get to the paid side. This added five minutes to my ride, and I came close to getting the last parking sport at 9! So far as blanket real estate goes, that's not so much an issue, but low tide at Mayflower is nothing short of magical. When the tide goes out, the mud flat goes on forever, and even on the busiest beach day there is ample space to set up shop. stretch out and bask in its glory. And the swimming! Crystal clear water, sandy bottom (no seaweed or rocks once past the shore line) and glorious views. My girls swam all day regardless of the tide; it barely went over their heads (they are ten and six) which offered me some comfort seeing as the lifeguards didn't look too close by. Actually, I recall seeing just one all day on a packed beach, but to be quite honest, at low tide, it didn't phase me one bit. As I am always on a budget, I packed a cooler and was thrilled to see that I didn't have to walk far with all my stuff to claim a great spot on the beach! As the tide went out, I moved our belongings right onto the tidal flats and stayed parked for hours, as the tide would stay out for the entire day (which I knew because I planned ahead--low tide was at 12:15 pm., making our visit at the ideal time to get our money's worth). The snack bar offered frozen lemonade and all sorts of treats (a pricey Two-Ball Screw Ball cost me $4.00). Small bathrooms are available, and an outdoor shower for rinsing. I left feeling like I got my money's worth for sure after a full day of swimming and mudding.I
When we have a lot of time to kill, we pack the whole family up in the truck with our bikes and head down Cape to Provincetown to visit Race Point Beach. It generally takes as long to get there as it would Providence (or Boston without hitting traffic on a good day), so this is not a trip we do often. Biking along this stretch of the Cape Cod Rail trail is a fun and hilly paved trek through sand dunes, offering great views of the natural elements. It is, however, not all that easy for pulling a bike trailer (I learned that the hard way, or maybe it was I was incredibly out of shape at that point in my life!!) My kids, however, had a blast riding there and stopped to enjoy the beach several times. The beach at Race Point is beautiful and kid-friendly and like many of the lower Cape beaches, offers glimpse of whales (bring your binoculars). Because we usually bring our bikes, and because we still want to hit P-town for some sightseeing and shopping, we don't generally make a whole day out of Race Point beach, but you could. Parking, facilities and food are all available. Visit www.capecodbikeguide.com/provincelands.asp for biking and parking info, and ptownchamber.com/on-the-water/beaches/ for beach info.
Our most recent P-town excursion (full of the usual food, souvenir shopping and people-watching) ended with a stop at the Head of the Meadow beach. www.nps.gov/caco/planyourvisit/head-of-the-meadow.htm My good friend MJ Haynes (also the best hair stylist in Bourne, check her out at The Mad Cutter salon) recommended we visit and view the seals there. We were not disappointed! Just outside of P-town, in Truro, the Head of the Meadow beach offers sweeping views and inviting dunes for great photo opportunities. We arrived late in the day, so there was no fee to enter (check the times), and pulled in to the left-side lot (it looked less crowded). We pulled in and parked way down on the left side of that lot, and saw folks walking down from the dunes. It simply looked more remote, and as they were carrying a great deal of stuff (chairs, coolers, etc), I figured it wasn't too far of walk for my young ones--if they could maneuver all that. I was right! We ambled up and down through the dunes to a spectacular sight: crashing waves, fine white sand, an inviting sandbar, surfers off to the right and dozens of Gray's seals playfully swimming just off the shoreline. Further down there were even more (my friend says when she went there were hundreds) so we ventured as far as we felt comfortable and sat and watched. While we didn't swim (you know...sharks and seals don't mix but can be found together!), there were many swimmers down further on the more public side of the beach, manned by life guards. The water was refreshingly cold, seaweed free (a prerequisite for my kids to swim, the beach snobs that they are). You could easily spend a whole day at this beach. It's less crowded than the other spots on the National Seashore, but equally beautiful and, according to the website, offering some interesting glimpses of the old shipwrecks at low tide.
Our trips to P-town have always been memorable and fun, albeit exhausting! Maybe someday as adults my husband and I can spend a day there without kids and see the other side of life the famous community has to offer!