Welshgirl

I'm going to be in Boston for a couple of days following a stay in New York & then have 5/6 days to tour around the area arriving back in Boston for my flight to UK.
How far is Cape Cod from Boston and how long will it take me to drive there?
Can I tour the area in 5 days or is that too long? If it is where do you suggest?

I've had great information from this site in the past and always check it out before making my trips from the UK!
Thanks

Anonymous

From Boston to Bourne, at the beginning of the Cape, is about 60 miles, one hour unless traffic is heavy. From Bourne to Provincetown at the far tip of the Cape is another 60 miles or a bit more, but will take closer to 2 hours because there's not a major highway.

clarkgriswold

What time of year?

buongiorno

Hi Welshgirl

With that kind of time you should consider going to Nantucket or Martha's Vineyard. You can get there by ferry with the Vineyard being much closer.

zootsi

A lot depends on the time of year, and your interests. The Cape is a beach lover's paradise, with beaches of every description. It's also great for lighthouses, whale watching and bicycling. You could easily spend 5 days here if these things interest you. Other options would be a few days on the Cape, and a few days in Newport RI.

buongiorno

Zootsi has a good idea with either staying or taking a side trip to Newport.

Welshgirl, sounds like your from the UK and while you may have seen a lot of castles, the "cottages" in Newport are just spectacular. My favorite is The Breakers, the summer home built by Cornelius Vanderbilt.

happytrailstoyou

It depends where on Cape Cod you are going. In any event, it will take longer to get there than you plan. Towns are joined by a highway that used to be known as "death alley."

Melissa

Its actually called "suicide alley", but I think we all get the point!

I do a commute from Yarmouth (mid cape) to Boston once a week. Takes me about 1 hour and 15 minutes door to door, not during Boston rush hour.

5 days is a good amount of time to get an overview of the Cape with a day trip to either Nantucket or Marthas Vineyard

Gene

Someone on this thread said that Cape Cod was only beaches, lighthouses, biking and whale watching and then suggested you go to Newport to finish off the rest of your 5 days.

There is plenty to do on Cape Cod, without taking a long trip to Newport.

People stay here for weeks, months or entire Summers. Here is just a sampling of things to do here during your 5 day stay:

Summer Theatre: Dennis Playhouse Falmouth Playhouse, Melody Tent.

Museums: There are more than a dozen museums on Cape Cod. Here are some of the more popular: JFK Museum - Hyannis; Cape Cod Museum of Natural History; Heritage plantation in Sandwich; Pilgrim Monument & Museum, Provincetown.

Other attractions: Fifteen unique towns with hundreds of sites and villages; Dune tours; Harbor cruises; Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, Woods Hole; Windmills; Scargo Lake; Cape Cod Baseball League; Nickerson State Park; Cape Cod Canal; Golf, Fishing; Hiking; Kayaking; Sailing and Shopping.

Newport: While Newport has attractions and is a destination vacation, on its own I don’t recommend leaving Cape Cod just to visit there.

The best of Newport is long gone: The Navy, Jazz Festival and America's Cup are no longer around and mansion viewing gets old pretty quick as well as the Cliff Walk which is crumbling.
Frankly, you can get a better idea of these places by watching videos of old movies such as “High Society” and “The Great Gatsby”.

Driving: Other posters gave you fairly accurate driving times. I’m sure you are aware that weekends in high season will be the worst. Since you have a lot of time, why not take routes 28 and 6A as alternatives

Anonymous

The Jazz and Folks festivals are still in fine health -- Jazz celebrated its 50th anniversary last year. Newport has a great waterfront site for festivals, which go on all summer long and this year include festivals that focus on chowder, Irish culture, and Japanese ships.

Larry1

"The best of Newport is long gone"

????????

Point one- immediately after the Navy left Newport (actually the main fleet, the station is of course still there in more of training/education role) The strip bars, prostitutes, and drunken sailors vanished from the city's waterfront. To say that today's tourist friendly Thames Street is not as nice as it was back when the Navy had a huge presence in Newport is frankly, absurd.

Point two: as the poster immediately above said the Jazz festival is alive and well (and Folk festival, too- I sat on a sailboat last year and caught CS&N's set-I'm sorry, what dates did they play on the Cape last summer?). I guess because there aren't national news stories about riots and tear gas Gene assumes these festivals are no lonbger there.

Point three: The America's Cup is no longer there- true, but there are actually more sailboats in the harbor than back in the 1970's and in fact, there are more 12 meter yachts sailing on Narragansett Bay on any given summer weekend today than there were during the heady days of Ted Turner and Alan Bond. And now average tourist can get a ride on them, unlike then. Perhaps Gene thinks it is more fun to watch a 12 meter race than actually sail on one?

But Gene is right that the Cape has plenty to do, just be prepared to be jumping in your rental car to drive to it every few hours. I have have said it before- no SINGLE town on the Cape comes close to Newport in terms of amount of stuff to do.