Cape Cod Travel

One of the most popular tourist destinations in the United States is beautiful Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Shaped like an arm jutting into the Atlantic Ocean off the eastern coastline of the state, the Cape’s year-round population of 230,000 swells to nearly 700,000 during the annual tourist season.
Originally settled by the Wampanoag, a Native American tribe noted for their farming and fishing skills, it’s easy to imagine travelers from distant lands during that day and age looking forward to a Cape Cod travel destination after a long, cold Northeastern winter.

Cape Cod travel might not have been known by that specific name by the next travelers who found the Cape intriguing. Norse records dating back to 985 and continuing for decades prove the Vikings included Cape Cod travel in their far-reaching explorations of the North American continent. Their maps led the way to the “Promontory of Vinland,” their name for the distinctive peninsula now known as the Cape.

The next wave of people to be delighted, and relieved, to see the peninsula as their Cape Cod travel destination at long last was the Pilgrims, near the end of their grueling voyage across the sea in the Mayflower. Not seasoned seafarers like the Vikings, the English Pilgrims enjoyed a brief but ever-so-welcome respite from ocean travel after sighting land at what is now Provincetown on November 11, 1620. After a few days rest and the signing of the Mayflower Compact, thereby establishing their laws for their new land, the travelers went on to Plymouth, where they set about establishing the permanent settlement of Europeans in the New World.

Today’s travelers undoubtedly find their Cape Cod travel destination much easier to achieve. Airports in Boston, Massachusetts, and Warwick, Rhode Island, each just over an hour’s drive from the Cape Cod Canal, provide easy access to the Cape for tourists arriving from all points of the globe.

Smaller regional airlines touch ground at several of the Cape’s towns and islands, putting Cape Cod travel right at the fingertips of locals and tourists alike.

Once on the Cape, Cape Cod travel can be accomplished quite easily and efficiently by bus services that run from the mainland, or “off-Cape” in the lingo of the local Cape Codders, to various towns along the peninsula. The area’s highways and scenic roads make travel by automobile and bicycle quite enjoyable, too.

Of course, the peninsula is surrounded by water and Cape Cod travel options just wouldn’t be complete without the opportunity to enjoy a cruise on a ferry or steamship that runs from the islands to the Cape and the mainland.

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