How to spend a day and a half in Cape Cod

Where in the cape? Like what towns?

Thinking of heading up there soon to get out of this heat

Early breakfast when the 4yo wakes up
Get in the car
Second breakfast in Hyannis or Yarmouth
Pack something that approximates a light lunch
Stop at Cape Cod National Seashore for an hour
Bitch about how much the "sand" sucks and the water is freezing
Drive to P-town
Bitch about traffic and finding a place to park
Eat real lunch in P-town
Wander around for a few hours
Eat dinner in P-town
Drive back

Screw these haters. You’ve got 1-1/2 let’s try to make the best of it.

I would suggest picking a beach on the inner cape side so it’s not super rough water or too windy.

Likely the tide will be out. Set up on the elevated soft sand of beach and let your kids play in the tide pools. As a parent of younger kids you’ll enjoy this as you can see them for days and the water isn’t deep enough to worry about.

Take an umbrella, some food and chairs if you can.

Once you’re done there go take some showers nap for the little one if needed and head into a town. I liked Chatham, can watch a baseball game if playing that night (playground next to the field) Lots of walkable restaurant and town shops. Ice cream shops are great. Just be outside and enjoy the weather.

Ocean Edge resort has a large outdoor seating area with yard games. All good and drinks are counter order - you might like this but it is expensive

Eat at skippers chowder house in Yarmouth . Drive out to national seashore and check out a few diff beaches to play around and look. Cruise around shore drive in Chatham and see some of the most amazing houses you’ve ever seen. Catch a drive in movie in wellfleet. Play some putt putt at the pirates cove in Yarmouth. Ice cream at cape cod creamery (also in Yarmouth ) . Idk what order I’d do all that but just throwing some suggestions out there. I love the cape.

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I'll have 3 kids (4-11). What are the best beaches, drives, lighthouses, hikes, casual seafood shacks etc...

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We were there last August for the 1st time. We stayed in Barnstable/West Yarmouth and drove to up to Provincetown one day.

I would stop at both National Seashore Visitor Centers; one is the Salt Pond VC on Hwy 6 near Eastham and the other is Province Lands VC near Provincetown. They both have short videos about the cape and the one at Salt Pond has a small museum. The Rangers can recommend hikes.

From the Province Lands VC you can drive to a parking lot and it's a short walk to the beach. You may see whales blowing; can't really see the whales from the land. There is a lighthouse near the VC but we didn't drive to it; may have needed 4X4, don't recall.

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We booked a dune tour with Art's Dune Tours which is located in Provincetown. They use Suburbans and we carravaned in those for about an hour. We had a knowledgeable driver that told us about the history of that area, the vegetation etc. Vehicle access to that part of the Nat. Seashore is very restricted however you can walk through it.

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This is a tower in Provincetown that you can climb to the top but it was closed the day we were there, Tuesday I think. Kids might like that if you're there when it's open.

We planned to eat dinner at Skippers in West Yarmouth when we got back from P'town but it was a 2 hour wait at about 6:00. The next place we went had over an hour wait. We ended up at a crappy sports bar. Plan accordingly.

Went last summer. The entire cape is easy to explore and that’s what we did, going from beach to beach. Our favorites were the beach by the Chatham lighthouse and there’s one going up the cape that was known for having seals. Had to pay and take a tram to that one but we did see a few seals and the kids loved it.
There’s also a Treehouse brewery in Sandwich that is very picturesque and the kids climbed on the rocks on the seashore - you need to make a time and day reservation for that though. We ate at a few of the seafood restaurants like Macs Chatham fish and lobster but weren’t too impressed. Lots of fried foods.