4 to 5 hours (approx.)
Daily Tour
4 people
English
Experience the best of Cape Cod in your own time without overlooking any sights with this self-guided driving tour. Download the app with its GPS map, audios and text, and hit the road from the Cape Cod Visitor Center. Follow the route to see and learn about the peninsula's lighthouses, beaches and sights, and take optional detours to relax, hike or delve deeper into the cape's history. For the entire year, you can dip in and out whenever you wish.
We begin our journey into America’s distant past at the Cape Cod Visitor Center. Prepare to dive into the Pilgrims, the nation’s origins and the long history of the Cape. As we begin our drive through picturesque Massachusetts towns, we’ll learn about the Nauset tribe, their legends and traditions, and why they were wary when strange ships appeared on the eastern horizon.
Note: This 65+mile-long tour covers the essentials of Cape Cod in 2-3 hours.
10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
An optional detour takes us past the fish-shaped Scargo Lake. According to Nauset legend, this lake was built by a great chieftain to comfort his daughter, who could not stop weeping over three dead fish. We’ll also learn about the Nauset party who first spotted the Mayflower, and the fears they had about its approach.
10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
Another optional detour takes us to Harwich, a quaint Cape town known for its numerous beautiful beaches. If you fancy a swim, this is one of the best places on the Cape for it!
• Admission Ticket Free
While in Harwich, we’ll visit the Cape Cod Lavender Farm, a secluded estate that’s just as gorgeous and fragrant as it sounds. Walk any of the woodland trails for free, soak up the smell of lavender, and pick up a few souvenirs!
10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
Next, our Harwich detour will take us to Bank Street Beach, the perfect place to relax or dip your toes into the Atlantic.
10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
As we continue our drive, we’ll enter Eastham, a perfectly picturesque little Colonial town. We’ll also hear about the embattled first encounter between the Pilgrims and the Nauset, the daring assistance offered by Squanto, and the very first Thanksgiving, where the Pilgrims and Nauset celebrated a truce.
10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
Continuing down the Cape, we’ll arrive at First Encounter Beach, where that dramatic skirmish between Nauset and Pilgrims took place. The beach now bears a plaque commemorating the encounter and the eventual truce.
10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
A little farther on, we’ll arrive at the Salt Pond Visitor Center. This miniature museum is the perfect opportunity to catch up on some extra Cape history, use the bathroom, or just stretch your legs.
10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
As we continue our drive up the Cape, we’ll spot the Nauset Light, the quaint little lighthouse that features in every quintessential Cape Cod photograph. We’ll also learn about its importance, and how the Cape’s rough waters earned the nickname of “ocean graveyard” before the lighthouse was built.
10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
As we continue our drive up the Cape, we’ll spot the Nauset Light, the quaint little lighthouse that features in every quintessential Cape Cod photograph. We’ll also learn about its importance, and how the Cape’s rough waters earned the nickname of “ocean graveyard” before the lighthouse was built.
10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
Continuing our drive, we’ll come to three squat white lighthouses called the Three Sisters Lighthouses. What’s peculiar about these lighthouses is that they’re not on the coast at all! They’re actually nestled among a thicket of trees pretty far inland. Hear about why that is, and how they came to be there. We’ll also learn about how the Cape transformed from Nauset land to Colonial fishing towns, and then from fishing towns to a tourist hotspot.
10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
Another optional detour takes us to the Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary. With five miles of trails through four different biomes, and more species of birds and other critters than you can count, this stop is bound to delight nature enthusiasts, bird watchers, and avid hikers alike.
10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
As we continue driving, we’ll pass Marconi Station, the first radio station to ever send a wireless message across the Atlantic! The station also played a pivotal role in an infamous oceanic tragedy: the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. Learn how a radio station hundreds of miles away saved lives on that fateful day!
10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
The next optional detour takes us to the Atlantic White Cedar Swamp Trail, a perfect spot for hikers of all experience levels to stretch their legs and take in Cape Cod’s varied terrain. Within a single, short mile lies a beach, a freshwater marsh, a deciduous forest, and a salt plain! Continuing our drive, we’ll also hear about Cape Cod’s former whaling industry.
10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
As we continue driving, we’ll pass the Pilgrim Spring Trail, a short hike which leads to one of the first places the Pilgrims came after landing on the Cape. Here, the weary travelers found their first freshwater spring–an essential find in helping them survive. Afterward, we’ll continue on toward Provincetown.
10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
As we drive through P-Town, we’ll arrive at Macmillan Pier, where thousands of ships have launched over the years. Here, we get to see how past and present really intermingle on the Cape. These days, the pier is mostly used to launch whale watching expeditions.
10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
Our penultimate stop is the Pilgrim Monument: the tallest all-granite monument in the entire country! Every year since its completion in 1910, thousands of tourists climb the steps of this 250-foot colossus to get a panoramic view of the ocean from the top. It’s well worth the trek! Next, we’ll hear about the Mayflower Contract, the rough set of laws the Pilgrims set for themselves upon landing in the New World.
10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
Finally, we’ll end up where it all began: the site where the Mayflower first struck land. Explore the park and imagine what it must have been like for the settlers, after ten harrowing weeks at sea, to step onto Nauset soil right here on November 11th, 1620. Our tour officially ends at this historic stop.
10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
On that corner, you’ll notice the beautiful town hall with its striking clock tower right away. I’ll come to that in a minute. If you look farther to the right of the town hall, you’ll see the most striking tower in the entirety of Cape Cod: the Pilgrim Monument.
10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
In service from 1875 until 2009, the Pharmacy was the oldest business operating in the same Provincetown location. With twirling stools and a soda fountain, this joint didn’t just dole out prescriptions — it was also a popular hangout spot. Allegedly, the pharmacy’s most famous customer was playwright Tenneesee Williams. If you’ve heard of “A Streetcar Named Desire”, you’re heard of Tenneesee Williams.
10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
Through this entrance is a collection of fun souvenir shops and local restaurants. If it’s not too crowded and noisy, you should walk through as you listen. It actually leads all the way out to the beach. *
10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
This is a historic Freemason lodge! Paul Revere, the mythic American revolutionary, established this local charter of Freemasons in 1795. He was grand master at the time.
Now, Revere didn’t use this building back in 1795. The story really begins in 1826, when the town turned against them. Let’s turn back the clock….
10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
As you can likely guess from its name, this is the location where the Mayflower first touched land after its journey across the Atlantic. Proud descendants of the pilgrims paved the memorial circle in 1917, and P-town residents have found other ways to mark the space since.
10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
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