Vacation Ideas… Cape Cod (Take 2!)

A few years ago, I planned a summer family vacation to beautiful Cape Cod, Massachusetts. We enjoyed our week long stay so much, that we decided to return back to the small town of New Seabury (Mashpee, MA) this summer for a second go round…with new and exciting places to explore throughout Cape Cod! You can view our last Cape Cod adventure in my blog post, click here Start Planning Your Summer Vacation : Explore Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard With Your Family

Cape Cod is a perfect location for a fall, spring or summer getaway! Continue reading for more fun and exciting tips in planning your next weekend getaway or vacation to Cape Cod. Here in New England, we have been experiencing summer weather even in mid-September!

Cape Cod … Take 2!

• Explore the quaint town of Provincetown. Take a drive up the National Seashore to Provincetown. Take your time strolling through the town and visit local shops, the public library, art galleries, and The Pilgrim Monument (Did you know that the pilgrims first landed in Provincetown before settling in Plymouth?). Enjoy excellent crab cakes, lobster rolls and harbor views at Pepe’s Wharf Restaurant. Visit The Donut Experiment for a unique way to order a donut…fill out your order form and watch your donuts being made right in front of you! Provincetown is very pet friendly – dogs are welcomed in many of the shops, restaurants, and beaches. Make sure to visit the Pilgrim Bark Park before you head home !
• Enjoy a wine tasting at Truro Vineyards… kids and dogs are welcome! On our way to Provincetown, we took a pit stop at Truro Vineyards and made time for a wine tasting and tour of the facility. They allowed both our dog and children to hang out with us while we sampled their unique local vineyard. (Please drink responsibly.)
• Try something new… Paddleboarding Lessons in Mashpee. The last time we vacationed on the Cape, my son and I kayaked in Ockway Bay, while my daughter and husband paddle boarded. This vacation, we all signed up for paddle boarding lessons and took a guided 1 -hour tour of Ockway Bay in Mashpee! Rentals and lessons available at Mocean Cape Cod located in Mashpee Commons.
• Take on the beautiful views while playing 9 holes of golf in East Falmouth. Cape Cod offers many  beautiful public golf courses. Cape Cod Country Club offers free golf for children after 3 pm and discounted rates for adults after 2pm.
• Tennis anyone? Pack your tennis rackets for a family-friendly tennis match. Check out the local high school courts in Falmouth or any local town for availability.
• Family Bike rides (with dog in tow) to Popponessett Marketplace. We chose to stay in New Seabury again, which was a perfect location for our family. It was near shopping, restaurants, beaches, bike paths, tennis, golfing, and entertainment. It was located near a small town of Popponessett. Riding bikes through the town and on the bike paths would lead us to cafes, shops, entertainment and mini golf. To learn more about vacation rentals in New Seabury, visit http://www.newseaburyrentals.com.
• Visit lighthouses on the National Seashore. Check out the lighthouse photo below, look familiar? It is the Nauset Lighthouse, which is pictured on all bags of Cape Cod Chips! Cape Cod has many historical lighthouses, we visited a few while driving up to Provincetown. (Tip: We took a tour of Cape Cod Chips Factory on our last visit, visit http://www.capecodchips.com for hours and directions for this free tour in Hyannis.)
• You’ll never run out of Ice Cream and Food options. Using the Yelp App, we discovered many ice cream shops and restaurants while visiting Cape Cod. We were never disappointed on this vacation and on our last trip to Cape Cod. Here are a few suggestions from our most recent trip. For breakfast or coffee: Cape Cod Coffee (Mashpee), Moonakis Cafe (East Falmouth), Coffee Table (Popponesset). For lunch or dinner:  Siena (Mashpee), Pepe’s Wharf Restaurant (Provincetown), Wicked Restaurant and Wine Bar (Mashpee), Sesuit Harbour Cafe (Dennis), The Black Cat (Hyannis), Burger Shack at Corporation Beach (Dennis), Bobby Byrnes (Mashpee), Trevi Cafe and Wine Bar (Mashpee).  For ice cream: Polar Cave (Mashpee), Emack & Bolio (Popponesset), Ice Cream Smuggler (Dennis) , Cape Cod Creamery (East Yarmouth).
• Beach hopping, and seal searching!  Cape Cod has many great kid-friendly beaches to offer. Each one was unique in what it offered, from finding starfish and sand dollars, to seeing seals swim so close to shore, lighthouses to tour, to great waves for boogie boarding… Here are a few beaches that we visited and enjoyed: Corporation Beach (Dennis), Mayflower Beach (Dennis), South Cape Beach (Mashpee), Nauset Lighthouse Beach (Eastham).

 

Summer Vacation Ideas: Glamping (yes, that’s fancy camping!)

---

Our glamping vacation last summer was added to my list of favorite family vacations because it was not like any other trip we had ever experienced!

Over the next few months,  I will share family road trips, day trips and vacations that we have taken that may inspire you to plan a new memory for your own family this summer!

My daughter has been a Girl Scout for 7 years. She has always loved the camping events more than any other activities they participated in. Now, me on the other hand, I have never actual been “camping”. The closest I came was about 15 years ago, while sleeping in a cabin tent (a tarp tent on a wooden deck) while chaperoning a white water rafting trip with teenagers. Although a fun experience, I just knew it wasn’t something that I would want to plan again in the future. Fast forward 15 years,  my daughter had been asking me to plan a family camping trip. I decided to meet her half way with her request and began researching RV rentals (something that was on my vacation wish list). My quick research turned out to require more planning than we had time for, including renting an RV, reserving campsites, pet policies, etc. My husband’s summer vacation was approaching and I needed a vacation plan. His friend just happen to mention if we considered “glamping” as alternative option. What is glamping you ask? And this is where my blog post begins…

Glamping… Yes, that’s fancy camping! It is having the ability to experience what family camping has to offer, while still experiencing the comforts of home (or a hotel!) …running water, electricity, and bathrooms! Some camping enthusiasts may say that we didn’t really go “camping” and my response is, I know that we didn’t to camping, we went “glamping” and I am completely fine with that!

I literally googled ” glamping” in my surrounding living area and found local campgrounds within a 4-hour driving radius. I researched housing options available : on site RV rentals, cabin rentals, and YURT rentals (Year-round Universal Recreational Tent). I was not ready for popping up my own tent! The winning vacation destination was a YURT rental at a family campground only 45 minutes from our home. As close as we were, it seemed like we were far away in the woods as can be.

What  is a YURT? A YURT is a year-round universal recreational tent. Our YURT had a full bathroom, electricity, a small kitchen, including a microwave and 2 stove top burners, and refrigerator. It had a queen bed, 2 pull out futon chairs and a pull out sofa, a flat screen tv, gas fireplace, and even fans! It was the most unique living arrangements I had ever slept in! This particular YURT had a wrap around deck and patio furniture, picnic table, fire pit, and grill. Besides our clothes, the only items we needed to bring were food, linens, towels, fishing gear and bikes.

What to look for in a Glamping Campground? Our campground was a standard campground, that just happened to offer glamping housing options (3 YURTs and 4 cabins). The rest of the campground offered hookups for RV’s and tents. It offered many amenities such as pools, a fishing pond, bike trails, soccer fields, disc golf, playgrounds, dog park, softball fields, basketball courts, yoga classes, hiking trails, cafeteria dining, ice cream and sandwich shop, planned family activities, such as basketball competitions, kid olympics and scavenger hunts, a game room, bocce court, and a general store.

Other tips:

• Booking Your Stay – The 4 finalists for our glamping adventure all required a 7-night minimum stay for the housing rentals. Since it was a new experience, I was looking to stay for only 3-4 nights. Most campsites advised us to check in with Reservations 2 weeks prior to our desired vacation time and we may be able to rent the YURTs or cabins for shorter time periods. We called 2 weeks prior and were able to book our YURT for 4 nights over the 4th of July holiday weekend, which was perfect.
• Local Events – Research your campground’s surrounding area for other local activities and events. We just happen to be located near Gillette Stadium (Home of the New England Patriots). Due to the 4th of July weekend, there were many family events planned including a 5k Finish at the Fifty Yard Line race that my husband ran in and fireworks in the evening. All an added bonus to a fun-filled weekend. Other than our visit to Gillette, we never left the campground, there were so many things to occupy us. As for food, since we lived so close to the campground, we packed a cooler before our arrival and cooked on the grill or visited their sandwich shop. I packed deli meats, hamburgers and hotdogs, pre-made dips and salads, breakfast foods, snacks and bottled water (and adult beverages too!).
• Outdoor Fun –  I am not a camper (yet!), but you can make your glamping experience as outdoors-y as you would like. We did not allow any electronics (such as iPads, TV’s, video games or laptops to be used, only phones for weather, map and phones calls, if needed). You can bring a tent and set it up outside of your cabin or YURT. Pack sleeping bags for bedding instead of standard linens. Don’t forget your s’mores supplies for the fire pit (or just visit the campground’s general store). We also brought our bikes for fun and it ended up being an easy way to travel throughout the campground.
• Read Reviews – We relied on online reviews when we were finalizing our campground options, such as YELP. They gave additional information, such as suggested items to bring, when to visit, pet policies, etc.

Our glamping vacation was truly a fun-filled family experience, one that I am sure we will plan again. There are many campgrounds that offer glamping all throughout the United States. We just happen to find one in our backyard (well, 45 minutes away)!

Happy Glamping!

Note: This blog is my own opinion and I was not reimbursed by the campground we visited. If you live in the New England area and want to experience the campground we visited, visit http://www.normandyfarms.com/ .