Discover Cape Cod Tour

Private Tour Available

Join Shawnie Kelley, author of Discover Cape Cod and Wanderlust Tours owner, for an exclusive, private tour-de-Cape Cod, beginning in its oldest village of Sandwich and ending at the colorful “sandy fist” of Provincetown.

Cape Cod is celebrated as the forbearer of our country’s heritage. Massachusetts’s windswept peninsula is a sensory driven place, a living landscape full of history and legend. Like her book, Shawnie’s Discover Cape Cod tour brings history and travel together in ways that make exploring the Cape a rich, educational, and active experience.

Cape Cod’s 400-year history is brought to life as our intimate tour visits important historical sites and museum collections, beaches and lighthouses, harbors and restaurants. We visit one of the country’s oldest homes and windmills; get up close to an unprecedented pirate ship’s treasure; and experience Cape Cod’s Portuguese heritage first hand. Shawnie shares stories of maritime disasters, the Kennedy family, and the economic rise and fall of Cape Cod’s whaling, cranberry, and glass making industries. Guests also receive a copy of Discover Cape Cod and a if you are in Columbus, a pre-travel seminar is included.

Wanderlust Tours specializes in small group cultural and culinary travel. The Discover Cape Cod tour welcomes six to ten guests for a seven-day, fully guided excursion around the Cape. It includes luxury accommodations at boutique hotels or historic inns; private transportation around the Cape; admission to attractions, museums, and historic properties; a harbor boat tour; and you’ll learn all about Cape Cod through its architecture, food, history and in-depth walking tours with Shawnie or other local experts. Most meals, snacks, and some drinks are included. Free time is built into the itinerary to explore or dine on your own.

Contact us at travelwithus@wanderlust-tours.com

“Ms. Kelley engages the reader with her historical anecdotes which illuminate and intrigue. Her ability to bring history to life by telling the story of the people behind the events is what makes her perspective special to me.  I am always pleased to be able to take away a new nugget of information about Cape Cod for truly it is here that the beginnings of the United States gained ground and flourished.”

Stephen Borkowski, Chairman, Provincetown Historical Commission

Trip Cost $2,300

Single Supplement: $500 per person, Airfare not included, Attractions, Meals and some Wine included

Features & Attractions

  • Fully guided tour with author and architectural historian, Shawnie Kelley
  • Walking tours of Hyannis, Chatham, Wellfleet and Provincetown
  • *Optional* Oyster Farm Tour
  • Traditional Clambake or seafood boil, fish market tour
  • Tour of “Old Gaol”, the country’s oldest wooden jail
  • Hyannisport Harbor Cruise
  • Visits to Marconi Station, Highland (Truro) Light, Judah Baker Windmill
  • Sandwich Glass Museum and glass blowing demonstration
  • Hoxie House, Dexter Grist Mill and other colonial homes
  • Whydah Pirate Museum
  • Coast Guard Museum
  • Cape Cod Maritime Museum
  • Visit to the National Sea Shore
  • Wine Tasting
  • Boutique travel- only six to ten guests on any trip allows for personal and fully immersed experiences
  • Full-time services of two Wanderlust Tours travel guides
  • Accommodations at boutique hotels and inns of historical interest
  • All meals, snacks, and drinks as noted in itinerary
  • Limited wine with meals and cocktail meet and greet
  • Food or drink tastings
  • Wanderlust Tours swag bag
  • Copy of Discover Cape Cod and pre-tour Cape Cod seminar in Columbus, Ohio
  • Luggage transfer between destinations
  • All ground transportation as noted in itinerary (private coach between sites.)
  • All taxes and gratuities at hotels and included restaurants

Itinerary

Meet at the historic Dan’l Webster Inn in Sandwich. After a welcome cocktail meet and greet at the inn, Shawnie leads a walking tour of through the heart of Sandwich, sharing stories of Cape Cod’s oldest town settled in c.1637 (incorporated in 1639). It ends at the Sandwich Glass Museum where collections showcase America’s early cutting edge glass industry. Afterwards, we make a quick stop at the famed Sandwich boardwalk and marsh for a view over Cape Cod Bay and the mouth of the Cape Cod Canal. Then we are transported to Chatham where we share an early dinner together at a wonderful restaurant, ending the night with an optional nightcap in a local tavern.

Our first full day is spent exploring the villages along scenic Route 6A- “Old King’s Highway.” Colonial Cape Cod at its best. A leisurely drive through picturesque villages ends with lunch at Old Yarmouth Inn– Cape Cod’s oldest eatery. On the return trip to Chatham, we stop to tour the country’s oldest wooden jail in Barnstable village and pop in to the Coast Guard Heritage Museum. Dinner is on your own in Chatham. Walk to a restaurant, eat at the inn, or join us as we head to one of the local restaurants for oysters.

Today, we make our way to Hyannis and Yarmouth, making a few stops for photo-opportunities and spending part of the afternoon in Hyannis. After a visit to the Cape Cod Maritime Museum and a boat tour around Hyannisport harbor (yes, we will see the Kennedy Compound), take some time to explore and have lunch on your own somewhere in walkable Hyannis or one of the many marina eateries.We arrive back at our hotel in Chatham late afternoon. After some free time, we share dinner together at one of the town’s fantastic seafood restaurants. Anyone still feeling social can join join for a drink at another local haunt.

The Lower Cape is calling! A trip to Provincetown is never anything less that fun and occasionally eye-opening. If you forego an early breakfast on your own in Chatham, we will have morning snacks during the journey to Cape Cod’s “sandy fist” for a few days. During this beautiful drive along the National Sea Shore,  we will dig in to some po’ boys and fish sandwiches for lunch at an iconic seafood shack in Wellfleet, the Oyster Capital of America. We will climb up Cape Cod’s first commissioned lighthouse, and visit the historical Marconi Station- site of the first wireless trans-Atlantic message. We arrive in P-town just in time to settle in to our hotel and hit the town for happy hour. Enjoy dinner on your own in Provincetown.

After breakfast on your own, join one of Shawnie’s historical society colleagues for an architectural walking tour or spend free time wandering the colorful sides streets of P’Town on your own. For lunch, we will carry out pastries from the famous Portuguese Bakery and boxed lunches for a whale watching excursion into the protected whale sanctuary. Use your free time to walk the tidal beach or go for a bike ride. For dinner we’ll enjoy a clambake style meal at another iconic Provincetown restaurant.

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After breakfast on your own and checking out of our hotel, our driver takes us back toward Hyannis, where we spend our last night. Along the way, we will make several stops for “classic Cape Cod” photo-opportunities, quick visit to a historic windmill, and share lunch together at the Skipper Restaurant, famous for their award-winning clam chowder. In Hyannisport, feel free to visit to the other sites of interest and dinner is on your own somewhere, however we will have an organized group dinner should you want to partake. The final morning includes a farewell breakfast, after which you can carry on to Martha’s Vineyard or Nantucket or say good-bye to Old Cape Cod. We can help to arrange transportation back to your respective airports or ferries to the islands.

** This itinerary is subject to change slightly, based on availability and weather.

Location

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