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-   -   P town (https://www.fodors.com/community/united-states/p-town-557675/)

klvaughan1 Sep 11th, 2005 08:24 AM

P town
 
Is it crazy to think I can make plans to travel to P town at the last minute. We want to go Oct. 6-11 for Womens Week. Where are some nice places to stay?

Judy24 Sep 11th, 2005 09:33 AM

OK, I'll admit I'm curious. Just what is "P town?"

P_M Sep 11th, 2005 09:36 AM

Thank you for being the first to ask, Judy. I was wondering the same.

capecodshanty Sep 11th, 2005 09:40 AM

Google Provincetown, and you will find many sites to excellent B&B's, guest houses, and indeed, condo's to rent for that time frame. I'm sure there will be some openings still.

Curious Sep 11th, 2005 09:47 AM

I thought it might be Pawtucket, or Pittsburgh, or ??????????

Pretty useless header.

Curious

Judy24 Sep 11th, 2005 09:51 AM

I originally thought it might be Portland, but wasn't sure which one.

CAPH52 Sep 11th, 2005 10:00 AM

Frankly, I thought maybe it was a troll post!

P_M Sep 11th, 2005 10:09 AM

Thanks for clearing up the confusion. My first thought was Philadelphia, but that already has a nickname--Philly.

I think it would be wise to repost this question with a better title.

Patrick Sep 11th, 2005 10:21 AM

While I'm normally of the "put a city name in your post title" camp, I'm not sure that it makes any difference in this case. Anyone who has stayed in Provincetown knows it's called P town. Those who don't won't have any imput for the question. Those who do have the information are even more likely for P town to catch their attention than if the title said Provincetown.

Nimrod Sep 11th, 2005 10:33 AM

No, you're not crazy to think about going but you had better get on the ball and start seriously looking for lodging to book. I bet you can find someplace in the area.

Try this site for starters.

http://www.womeninnkeepers.com/stay.html


You could also check craigslist to see if anyone has a place listed.


Hope it works out -- have a fabulous time.

ps - No need whatsoever to re-post -- everyone who is apt to help with your question knows full well that there is only one <i>P'town</i>. Not confusing at all.

ElendilPickle Sep 11th, 2005 01:11 PM

I thought perhaps the original poster was referring to the musical &quot;Urinetown,&quot; but didn't want to spell the name out. :-)

Lee Ann

socialworker Sep 11th, 2005 01:48 PM

Curious, Patrick and Nimrod are right. It is not a useless header--altho the nature of the query *could* include more info--but rather a &quot;targeted&quot; header, b/c it is completely clear to those who know the place, and they are the only ones who might be able to be helpful or offer an opinion...

We have not stayed there in years, but I am sure there is a general lodging website--try &quot;Provincetown lodging&quot; on Google and see what comes up. Maybe you will get lucky....Have fun!!

gyppielou Sep 11th, 2005 01:48 PM

Funny, just returned from and amazing weekend in P'Town and North Truro. It was a wonderful beachside wedding at a private home with a good old clambake to follow......Very Good Times!

Anyway, we had a rough time finding a room. Stayed at Blue Seas on Shore Rd, simply because it was the only 3 rooms I could book and they were clean, cheap at $65-75 wknd.

Klvaughan1.....google p'town and truro. If you have a car, which I'm assuming you do, anything on Shore Rd/6A will have you beach front and a short drive into town.

We're heading back to the wedding party tomorrow and staying at the Outerreach with our dog, Max, the Viszla who will still be quite a catch walking the dogfriendly streets of P'Town. Great sunset view overlooking National Seashore and P'Town!!!!!

Search and you'll find something. It's the best time of year to visit!!!!! Wherever you land will be fine!

Go for it!
Good Times
Gyppielou

Patrick Sep 11th, 2005 02:48 PM

Very funny, Lee Ann.

starrsville Sep 11th, 2005 05:29 PM

You should be able to find an online site for Women's Week info, including accomodations. If you will be there 6 nights, I'd look into rentals.

capecodshanty Sep 16th, 2005 05:27 AM

Goodness gyppielou, come the weekend after Labor Day, for Wellfleet's Oyster Festival!! Fun weekend, and great food. How is Adrian's this year??

Aqua67 Sep 16th, 2005 08:15 AM

KLV1, I recently went to P'town for a weekend without reservations and got a decent room at the Outer Reach, which is just outside the town limits. It's up the hill right on Rte 6 as you enter P'town. the accomodations were completely fine, I had a king sized bed with a water view, all without the noises that come with staying in the town. And it's only a three minute drive to town. I'd never suggest it over someplace like Crowne Point or the Ampersand Guesthouse, but it comes in handy when the rest of town is full.

FainaAgain Sep 16th, 2005 10:10 AM

LeeAnn, you're bad! ;)

I wonder if P'town residents dislike this nickname as much as we, San Franciscans, dislike &quot;Frisco&quot;.

Gene Sep 16th, 2005 10:42 AM

KLV1 = Try the Boatslip Resort right on Commercial St. in the middle of town. Most of it's 45 rooms have balcony's overlooking Cape Cod Bay and their spacious Oceanfront Deck.

FainaAgain - No, people who live in Provincetown don't call it P-town and generally dislike the nickname.

Even worse I have heard some people refer to it as Providencetown.

cigalechanta Sep 16th, 2005 10:45 AM

You will need reservations. So many of the guest houses have been turned into condos and there is concern that the regular visitors will no longer have lodgings. Residents do say P-Town.

stellaluna Sep 16th, 2005 05:50 PM

fabulous place in P-town: The Benchmark Inn on Dyer Street (off of Commercial).

Patrick Sep 16th, 2005 05:54 PM

I had never heard the term P-town until heard it being used by local residents. It certainly does seem to be THEIR term for it.

socialworker Sep 16th, 2005 07:40 PM

I cannot speak for the natives of the town itself, but the people in MA commonly use the term Ptown interchangeably w/Provincetown. This includes references to it in Boston newspapers and TV as well. You will often hear a TV anchor refer to &quot;Ptown.&quot;

On a related note, many probably know that people here tend to use the term &quot;the Cape&quot;, and almost never refer to that part of MA as Cape Cod....

cigalechanta Sep 16th, 2005 09:38 PM

As a young woman, I summered in P-town.
Back in those days Almost every dining place run by a Portugeese resident of the town, . Ciro and Sal come along and opened a restaurant together. called &quot;Ciro and Sal's&quot; They had a falling out and sal opened &quot;Sal's Place.&quot; So many famous poets and writers and painters lived that and still do.

Intrepid1 Sep 17th, 2005 03:05 AM

You might try looking at PlanetOut

http://www.planetout.com/travel/dest...uides/?key=439

or Out &amp; About

http://www.outandaboutravel.com/

At least you might get some listings of places to contact.

Have a great time.

Patrick Sep 17th, 2005 01:48 PM

Anyone who insists that locals would never call Provincetown PTown have obviously never been there. There are a number of businesses which use the phrase in their name. &quot;PTown Bikes&quot; for rental bikes comes immediately to mind. You can google and look at business after business that says things on their websites like &quot;PTown's best place to stay&quot; or &quot;the best fresh fish in PTown&quot;. And if you really don't believe me, just go check out the Provincetown Chamber of Commerce website and do a bunch of links. Oh, and by the way, guess what the Chamber's website is --www.ptownchamber.com -- does that give you a clue?

What makes some people such false experts that they have the nerve to INSIST others are wrong about something so basic as calling Provincetown PTown?

cigalechanta Sep 17th, 2005 02:00 PM

I know Norman Mailer who still lives there and he calls it P-Town.
As does our famous Poet Stanley Kunitz, now almost 100, God Bless Him!
And still tends to his beautiful Garden.

cigalechanta Sep 17th, 2005 02:07 PM

For those who like like to more about P-Town:
A Little History

Where should we begin when describing Provincetown (usually called P-Town)- a most unique and eccentric town located at the tip of a 70 mile-long stretch of sand jutting out from the coast of Massachusetts?

A town, where almost ninety percent of its land mass is included within the Cape Cod National Seashore, and one with an unusual blend of history, fishing and culture. In fact, once dubbed &quot;hell town&quot; it was inhabited by smugglers, outlaws, pirates, escaped indentured servants, raucous mariners, &quot;filles de joie&quot;, heavy drinkers and an assortment of other misfits, who openly had a reputation for flaunting authority.

Rich in history, since the time the Meeshawns, one of the six sub-tribes of the Wampanoag Indian federation first inhabited the area, Provincetown has always had a kind of quirkiness that has seduced individuals from diverse lifestyles to either visit or make Provincetown their home.

A free spirit reigns in P-Town, welcoming all comers representing many faces. If you are into people watching, you will notice gays, lesbians, transvestites, cross-dressers, and drag queens, attracting little or no attention, while they meander along the town's streets. Everyone is made to feel accepted, no matter what his or her sexual orientation may be.

For centuries fishermen have seasonally used its harbor, and incidentally, its harbor is the third deepest natural harbor in the World after Rio de Janeiro and Acapulco. It was the third largest major fishing and whaling port during the 18th century after Nantucket and New Bedford, Massachusetts. As a result, many Portuguese from the Azores, the Canary Islands and Cape Verdes had immigrated here due to the abundance of employment in the whaling industry. Today, you will still find descendants of these families living in Provincetown.

The one hundred and two Pilgrims, who set out from Plymouth England on the 7th of September 1620, initially landed in Provincetown on the 21st of November, of the same year, and not in Plymouth, Massachusetts, as many of us were led to believe.

One of the most important American documents, The Mayflower Compact, the first agreement whereby free people would self-govern, was signed during the time the Pilgrims had stayed in Provincetown for five weeks.

Artists Charles Hawthorne, founder of America's first plein-air art colony, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Robert Motherwell, and celebrated authors and writers as Eugene O'Neill, Norman Mailer, Tennessee Williams, Sinclair Lewis, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Stanley Kunitz, Mary Oliver, Michael Cunningham and Robert Pinsky, John Dos Passos, Truman Capote, Gore Vidal, Edmund Wilson have all at one time or another lived here.

In fact, on any one day you may just bump into some well-known personality walking along the main drag, Commercial Street.

Whatever the season, it is difficult to forget Provincetown the first time you visit and stroll along its narrow streets-a town that surely will delight you with its colorful past and its present day vibrancy. Where there is an abundance of art galleries, boutiques, and restaurants, fishing boats, whale-watching boats, sand dunes and one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, Race Pointe Beach. In fact, one of the most romantic attractions is to eat oysters with a bottle of champagne on the beach.


starrsville Sep 17th, 2005 02:45 PM

I agree it is ridiculous to say that locals don't use &quot;Ptown&quot;.

I also agree that the title of the post if fine. As someone said earlier, if you have something to share about Provincetown, you'll recognize the title of the post. If you don't, you won't.

My best tip about October in Ptown? Rent a bike and ride on the bike path through the dunes. Absolutely gorgeous. I had no idea one would see such &quot;fall colors&quot; admist the low growing vegatation. We had beautiful weather and a beautiful time.

Enjoy!

PS - My hairdresser joked that she and her husband had the last heterosexual marriage at City Hall in Ptown in the 60's! :-)

kasperdoggie Sep 17th, 2005 03:22 PM

As a Mass resident, I can assure you that P'town is used by locals on a regular basis.

Snce we own property on the Cape (and stay there), I can't recommend a hotel to stay, but I just wanted to mention that vacation rentals for a group of larger than 2 might prove an economical alternative to a hotel. The prices and minimum stay requirements drop significantly after Labor Day, so you may end up having more space for less money.

gyppielou Sep 18th, 2005 09:42 AM

I;ve come up with a new word for fodors

Pompassity: those who know oh so much better than the locals about what is local, because they have BEEn there... they are pompous assities acting pompously.

P'Town is glorious in the off season. I hope Klvaughan will return to this post and book her wild Women's Week adventure. If she does......Chesters' was amazing for our big night out. Tera Luna in NTruro was fantastic with a lower price tag.....ceasar and mushroom ragu kept me quite happy...

Love P'Town. Know a dozen property owners, and a quick survey tells me they ALL call it P'Town....??????


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