Cape Ann’s greatest fame is arguably as the hallowed birthplace of the fried clam, thanks to Chubby Woodman’s vision back in 1916. Today, Woodman’s in Essex is a vacation ritual for the 2,000 people who show up on any given summer day. The red-and-white-striped Clam Box, a takeout in nearby Ipswich, opened in 1938 and maintains a friendly rivalry with the older eatery.
If you’re heading south toward Boston, don’t bypass Salem, perhaps better known for witches and Halloween than for its rich history, art, and architecture. The city, site of the infamous witch trials in 1692, abounds with “witch kitsch” and is home to a not-so-scary Salem Witch Museum. The Peabody Essex Museum is the city’s cultural centerpiece, the oldest continuously operating museum in the country (since 1799). Don’t miss the tour of the nearby rambling House of the Seven Gables, the setting for Salem native Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel of the same name.
WHERE: Gloucester is 36 miles northeast of Boston. VISITOR INFO: www.capeannvacations.com. EMERSON INN BY THE SEA: Tel 800-964-5550 or 978-546-6321; www.emersoninnbythesea.com. Cost: from $135; dinner $35. ESSEX SHIPBUILDING MUSEUM: Tel 978-768-7541; www.essexshipbuildingmuseum.org. WOODMAN’S: Tel 800-649-1773 or 978-768-2559; www.woodmans.com. CLAM BOX: Tel 978-356-9707; www.ipswichma.com/clambox. SALEM WITCH MUSEUM: Tel 978-744-1692; www.salemwitchmuseum.com. PEABODY ESSEX MUSEUM: Tel 866-745-1876 or 978-745-9500; www.pem.org. HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES: Tel 978-744-0991; www.7gables.org. BEST TIMES: late Jun for St. Peter’s Fiesta in Gloucester; mid-Sep for Gloucester Seafood Festival; Oct for Halloween in Salem.
New England’s Summer Playground
CAPE COD
Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Cape Cod National Seashore comprises a 40-mile stretch of rolling dunes and gorgeous beaches, from Chatham north to Provincetown. President John F. Kennedy granted the area federal protection in 1961, well over a century after Henry David Thoreau wrote this is where “a man can stand and put all America behind him.” Here lighthouses overlook wonderful wide beaches, sand bars, and salt marshes, and kettle ponds dot the woodlands.
The old sea captains’ town of Chatham is one of the Cape’s most desirable destinations, with handsome clapboard buildings set off by white picket fences, ice-cream shops, and flowering gardens. Built in 1839, the Captain’s House Inn has romantic rooms with four-posters and fireplaces, while the Chatham Bars Inn, a historic 200-plus–room oceanfront establishment, enjoys loyal return guests who come for the classic New England resort experience, complete with beach clambakes under the stars.
The two-lane Old King’s Highway (Route 6A) passes a plethora of antiques shops and inviting eateries on its way north to Provincetown. Known as P-town, this longtime fishing and whaling port is now also home to an artists’ colony and a vibrant gay community that throngs busy Commercial Street on weekend nights. The Mayflower landed here in 1620 before continuing across the bay to Plymouth (see p. 814). It’s also just 6 miles from the krill-rich Stellwagen Bank, which explains the almost guaranteed sightings of migrating whales from mid-April through October. A busy cultural scene revolves around the numerous art galleries and the Provincetown Theater, which has been attracting luminaries since the early 1900s.
Of the town’s host of seafood restaurants, the Lobster Pot is a perennial favorite for its award-winning clam chowder and Portuguese-inspired specialties. As for accommodations, the 1904 Land’s End Inn is famed for its location and Bay Tower suite with a 360-degree view from its wraparound deck. In the heart of town, the larger Crowne Pointe Inn & Spa encompasses a late-19th-century sea captain’s house and three renovated carriage houses, with a spa that is the best around.
Cape Cod National Seashore boasts miles of coastline and towering dunes.
WHERE: Chatham is 90 miles southeast of Boston. Provincetown is 35 miles north of Chatham. VISITOR INFO: www.capecodchamber.org. CAPE COD NATIONAL SEASHORE: Tel 508-255-3421; www.nps.gov/caco. CAPTAIN’S HOUSE INN: Tel 800-315-0728 or 508-945-0127; www.captainshouseinn.com. Cost: from $185 (off-peak), from $265 (peak). CHATHAM BARS INN: Tel 800-527-4884 or 508-945-0096; www.chathambarsinn.com. Cost: from $195 (off-peak), from $465 (peak). PROVINCETOWN THEATER: Tel 800-791-7487 or 508-487-7487; www.ptowntix.com. LOBSTER POT: Tel 508-487-0842; www.ptownlobsterpot.com. Cost: dinner $35. When: closed Dec–Mar. LAND’S END INN: Tel 800-276-7088 or 508-487-1145; www.landsendinn.com. Cost: from $170 (off-peak), from $330 (peak). CROWNE POINTE: Tel 877-276-9631 or 508-487-6767; www.crownepointe.com. Cost: from $100 (off-peak), from $240 (peak). BEST TIMES: May–Jun and Sep–Oct for pleasant weather and smaller crowds; mid-Apr–Oct for whale-watching; late Jun for P-town’s Portuguese Festival; Jul–Aug for best beach weather.
A Gorgeous Setting for a Smorgasbord of Culture
BERKSHIRE SUMMER FESTIVALS
Lenox, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
When warm weather sets in, musicians from all over the world head to the Berkshires’ rolling, wooded hills and the Tanglewood Music Festival, its marquee event. Summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Tanglewood’s lush 500-acre estate encompasses four performance venues as well as the Lawn for picnicking under the stars. The concert-studded season culminates in early September with the Tanglewood Jazz Fest.
In nearby Becket, the internationally acclaimed Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, with more than 200 free performances (from ballet to flamenco), is held at The Pillow, a 163-acre National Historic Landmark.
Shakespeare & Company focuses, not surprisingly, on the Bard, but also hosts contemporary works. The venerable Berkshire Theatre Festival in nearby Stockbridge takes place in the 1888 Stockbridge Casino, designed by Stanford White. In town, the Norman Rockwell Museum houses the largest collection of works by the beloved American artist, who lived here until his death in 1978.
Anchoring Stockbridge’s Rockwell-perfect Main Street is the ever-popular 19th-century Red Lion Inn. More sumptuous accommodations await in surrounding mansions, harking back to the Gilded Age building boom that peaked in 1885. More than 70 of these “cottages” survive, including the 1902 Elizabethan-style Blantyre, presiding like a Scottish castle over 117 acres. Its friendly rival Wheatleigh, an Italianate palazzo built in 1893 has a fine restaurant and views of the 22-acre grounds designed by Frederick Law Olmsted of Central Park fame. Less baronial but no less comfortable, the 18th-century Old Inn on the Green in New Marlborough is a former stagecoach stop, welcoming guests with a candlelit dining room.
WHERE: Lenox is 130 miles west of Boston. VISITOR INFO: www.berkshires.org. TANGLEWOOD: Tel 888-266-1200 or 617-266-1492; www.tanglewood.org. When: late Jun–early Sep. JACOB’S PILLOW DANCE FESTIVAL: Tel 413-243-9919; www.jacobspillow.org. When: late Jun–late Aug. SHAKESPEARE & COMPANY: Tel 413-637-1199; www.shakespeare.org. When: mid-Jun–Nov. BERKSHIRE THEATRE FESTIVAL: Tel 413-298-5576; www.berkshiretheatre.org. When: late May–Dec. NORMAN ROCKWELL MUSEUM: Tel 413-298-4100; www.nrm.org. THE RED LION INN: Tel 413-298-5545; www.redlioninn.com. Cost: from $135 (off-peak), from $240 (peak). BLANTYRE: Tel 413-637-3556; www.blantyre.com. Cost: from $600. WHEATLEIGH: Tel 413-637-0610; www.wheatleigh.com. Cost: from $715; tasting menu $165. THE OLD INN ON THE GREEN: Tel 413-229-7924; www.oldinn.com. Cost: from $225; dinner $65.
Island Charm off the Coast of Cape Cod
MARTHA’S VINEYARD AND NANTUCKET
Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Cape Cod’s two celebrated islands float just off its southern shore. The 100-square-mile Martha’s Vineyard is the larger and more serene, a place of beautiful beaches, woods, cranberry bogs, and charming inns, distinguished from its neighbor Nantucket by its proximity to the mainland and its variety of landscapes.
The offbeat, fun village of Oak Bluffs is one of six on the island, distinguished by its colorful Victorian homes and 1876 working carousel, said to be the oldest in the country. Vineyard Haven is known for the Black Dog Tavern, purveyor of ubiquitous T-shirts and tasty pub grub. In West Tisbury the Norman Rockwell–style Alley’s General Store is a proud “Dealer in Almost Everything.” The dramatic cliffs of Aqu
innah (aka Gay Head) and its landmark lighthouse are the island’s Land’s End, while in Menemsha you’ll find the hilltop Beach Plum Inn and Restaurant. It has an excellent water-view restaurant and access to some of the island’s best beaches, perfect for sunset watching.
In Edgartown (the largest of the Vineyard’s villages and the one with the most buzz) is Atria, a restaurant in an 1890s sea captain’s house with a lively bar and famous burgers. The 19th-century Charlotte Inn is the finest hostelry on the island, with a fine Italian restaurant, Il Tesoro, and 23 antiques-filled guest rooms in five buildings enveloped by flowering gardens.
Thirty miles off the coast of Cape Cod, 49-square-mile Nantucket exists in its own insular world. Though its population of 10,000 swells to five times that every summer, the island retains a world-apart atmosphere. Stringent zoning laws help maintain the traditional New England appearance of the “Little Gray Lady of the Sea,” whose historic district includes more than 800 Georgian, Federal, and Greek Revival houses. Nantucket was once the whaling capital of the world (part of Moby Dick was set here) and its Whaling Museum illustrates the island’s importance in the “blubber-boiling” industry.
The posh, weathered-shingled Wauwinet stands in romantic end-of-the-world isolation adjacent to 26 miles of protected shoreline, with sweeping ocean vistas from most of the simply furnished, spacious rooms. At the inn’s restaurant, Topper’s, you’ll find creative takes on regional favorites. The Wauwinet’s sister property, The White Elephant, brings the same style and charm into town on the waterfront.
In the 19th century, Vineyard Haven was one of New England’s busiest ports.
WHERE: Seasonal ferries for Martha’s Vineyard depart from Woods Hole, New Bedford, Hyannis, and Falmouth; ferries for Nantucket depart from Harwich Port and Hyannis. VISITOR INFO: Martha’s Vineyard: www.mvy.com. Nantucket: www.nantucketchamber.org. BLACK DOG TAVERN: Tel 800-626-1991 or 508-693-4786; www.theblackdog.com. Cost: dinner $30. BEACH PLUM INN: Tel 508-645-9454; www.beachpluminn.com. Cost: from $195 (off-peak), from $295 (peak); dinner $65. When: closed Nov–Apr. ATRIA: Tel 508-627-5850; www.atriamv.com. Cost: dinner $60. When: closed Dec–Mar. THE CHARLOTTE INN: Tel 508-627-4151; www.charlotteinn.net. Cost: from $325; dinner $70. WHALING MUSEUM: Tel 508-228-1894; www.nha.org. When: closed Nov–Jun. THE WAUWINET: Tel 800-426-8718 or 508-228-0145; www.wauwinet.com. Cost: from $350 (off-peak), from $550 (peak); prix-fixe dinner $85. When: closed mid-Oct–May. WHITE ELEPHANT: Tel 800-445-6574 or 508-228-2500; www.whiteelephanthotel.com. Cost: from $225. BEST TIMES: in Martha’s Vineyard: mid-Jun for A Taste of the Vineyard; Jul for Edgartown Regatta. In Nantucket: late May for Figawi Sailboat Race; 1st weekend in Dec for Christmas Stroll and Dec for Nantucket Noel.
A Taste of History at America’s Symbolic Doorstep
THANKSGIVING AT PLIMOTH PLANTATION
Plymouth, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
At Plimoth Plantation, it’s always 1627. The living museum and its costumed “residents” re-create New England’s first successful European settlement as well as a Native village. Thanksgiving dinner has its roots in a harvest celebration that 52 Pilgrims shared with 90 members of the Wampanoag tribe in 1621, one year after the settlers sailed from England. It included fowl (probably ducks and geese rather than turkey), venison, corn, and most likely fresh and dried fruits and vegetables. Every fall Plimoth Plantation re-creates a harvest meal from that period as well as serving a classic American Thanksgiving dinner.
Make your way to the downtown waterfront to visit (the surprisingly small) Plymouth Rock and Mayflower II, a 106-foot-long replica of the ship that carried 102 Pilgrims (with their livestock and worldly goods) and took some 66 tempestuous days to cross the Atlantic.
Learn of the area’s role in the whaling trade—which peaked in the mid-19th century—in New Bedford, a 45-minute drive southwest of Plymouth. The New Bedford Whaling Museum, the world’s largest, displays a wide variety of artifacts, as well as an 89-foot half-scale model of the fully rigged whaling bark Lagoda, built in 1826, and Kobo, a 66-foot skeleton of a juvenile blue whale.
Mayflower II was completed in 1957.
WHERE: 40 miles southeast of Boston. Tel 800-262-9356 or 508-746-1622; www.plimoth.org. Cost: dinner from $65. When: closed late Nov–late Mar. NEW BEDFORD WHALING MUSEUM: Tel 508-997-0046; www.whalingmuseum.org. BEST TIMES: selected dates in Oct and Nov for harvest and Thanksgiving meals.
Road Trip Filled with History and Culture
THE MOHAWK TRAIL
Williamstown and Deerfield, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
The Mohawk Trail (Route 2) unfurls for 63 miles through a rural corner of Massachusetts, Vermont, and New York. Originally a Native American footpath, it became the main route connecting the British colonists in Boston to the Dutch in Albany and is the only active motor road in the country that predates World War I. It twists and turns through gorgeous countryside and appealing towns, such as picturesque Williamstown, home to Williams College and a lively cultural scene. The Williamstown Theatre Festival has hosted prominent names from Broadway and Hollywood since 1955. The small but impressive Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute (“the Clark”) houses works by Renoir, Monet, Degas, and Pissarro as well as English silver and early photography.
On Deerfield’s mile-long main street, 13 historic homes and a contemporary building make up an engaging museum complex devoted to the town’s architectural history and American decorative arts. The 1884 Deerfield Inn has 24 rooms and the popular Champney’s Restaurant & Tavern, featuring a market-driven menu and 101 types of martini.
No other erstwhile manufacturing community has reinvented itself quite so creatively as North Adams. Opened in 1999, MASS MoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art) is the largest contemporary arts center in the country. Housed mostly in converted 19th-century textile mills, it features specially commissioned pieces, revolving exhibits, and a dynamic performance schedule. Across the street, the homey Porches Inn blends high-tech amenities with flea-market touches.
WHERE: Williamstown is 153 miles northwest of Boston. VISITOR INFO: www.mohawktrail.com. WILLIAMSTOWN THEATRE FESTIVAL: Tel 413-597-3400; www.wtfestival.org. When: Jul–Aug. THE CLARK: Tel 413-458-2303; www.clarkart.edu. DEERFIELD INN: Tel 800-926-3865 or 413-774-5587; www.deerfieldinn.com. Cost: from $170 (off-peak), from $250 (peak); dinner $40. MASS MOCA: Tel 413-662-2111; www.massmoca.org. THE PORCHES INN: Tel 413-664-0400; www.porches.com. Cost: from $150. BEST TIMES: Jul–Aug for Williamstown Theater Festival and the Berkshires’ full range of cultural offerings; mid-Sep–mid-Oct for foliage.
A Victorian Relic in the Great Lakes
MACKINAC ISLAND
Michigan, U.S.A.
The gilded Victorian era is preserved on Mackinac Island, with horse-drawn carriages clip-clopping down vehicle-free streets and pedestrians stopping in ice cream parlors and cafés. It can seem a bit touristy, but Mackinac (MAK-i-naw) is also irrepressibly charming, especially when you leave downtown’s cluster of trinket shops (only after sampling the fudge, an island specialty).
Mackinac Island lies in the Straits of Mackinac, where Lakes Michigan and Huron meet, and where the immense Lower and Upper Peninsulas of Michigan are linked at their closest point by one of the world’s longest suspension bridges, the 4-mile-long Mackinac. Wealthy urbanites began arriving in the late 19th century and built the grandiose “cottages” you see today; farsighted locals banned the automobile almost as quickly as it arrived. Today more than 500 horses are stabled on the island and, aside from bikes, are the only way to get around.
Hike up to Fort Mackinac or wander the other 80 percent of the island that is protected as a state park. Mackinac’s most famous landmark is the sprawling Grand Hotel, a white Greek Revival palace built in 1887 that movie fans will recognize as the setting for the 1980 cult classic Somewhere in Time. Perched on a bluff, the time-weathered dowager boasts a magnificent main dining room and expansive lake views to enjoy from a rocking chair on its 660-foot-long veranda.
Another of the isla
nd’s architectural charmers is the Chippewa Hotel, a lovely Victorian landmark overlooking the marina. Its Pink Pony Bar & Grill enjoys a certain fame as the “finish line” of the 333-mile Chicago-Mackinac Yacht Race (“the Mac”), which has been a cause for celebration every July since 1898.
A true summer colony, the car-free island has just 500 year-round residents.
WHERE: 280 miles north of Detroit. VISITOR INFO: www.mackinacisland.org. GRAND HOTEL: Tel 800-334-7263 or 906-847-3331; www.grandhotel.com. Cost: from $500, inclusive. When: May–Oct. CHIPPEWA HOTEL: Tel 800-241-3341 or 906-847-3341; www.chippewahotel.com. Cost: from $95 (off-peak), from $155 (peak). When: May–Oct. BEST TIMES: early Jun for the 10-day Lilac Festival; mid-Jul for the Chicago-Mackinac Yacht Race; early Sep for the Bridge Walk.
Paddling—and Sledding—Through Paradise
BOUNDARY WATERS CANOE AREA WILDERNESS
Ely, Minnesota, U.S.A.
More than 1,000 lakes—ranging from 10 to 10,000 acres each—are scattered throughout the piney woods along the Minnesota-Ontario border. On the Minnesota side lie a staggering 1 million protected acres of land known as the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCA), the largest U.S. wilderness preserve east of the Rockies. Cross the border and another 1.2 million acres are yours in Ontario’s Quetico Provincial Park.
Free of cars, largely free of motorboats, and with more than 1,500 acres of mapped canoe routes, the BWCA was first used by the Ojibwa and later by the French, Dutch, and British fur traders of the 17th century. Today it draws canoers who paddle and portage for days or weeks, camping on forested shores and pulling in walleye or pike for dinner.
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