A drive around Massachusetts' vintage Cape Cod serves up miles of beaches, restful resort towns—and, yes, lobster and clam shacks.

There are capes all along the New England coast, but when anyone talks of "the Cape," the meaning is immediately clear. This drive takes in virtually all of Cape Cod: the quiet villages along the bay side, the beautifully desolate dunelands of the outer Cape's national seashore, lively Provincetown, and the busy resorts that face Nantucket Sound.

Overview
You'll begin this 160-mile circuit at Cape Cod Canal, on the Cape's northern coast, and follow the contour of Cape Cod Bay to the Cape's "elbow." From there you'll drift north to Provincetown, then retrace your way back south to Orleans. You'll proceed farther south to Chatham, then head back west toward the mainland, cruising through Hyannis and Falmouth.

Start in Sagamore
Cross the Sagamore Bridge from the mainland to Cape Cod. The first town will be Sagamore, where the Pairpoint Glass Company carries on the local tradition of hand blowing lead crystal into functional and decorative items. Visitors can watch artisans blow, shape, and finish glassware.

Sandwich
Proceed east from Sagamore to Sandwich, the oldest town on the Cape. Settled by Puritans in 1637, this town flourished in the 19th century as a glass-making center. The many kinds of decorative and table glass—clear and colored, blown and pressed, cut and engraved—made Sandwich famous. The Sandwich Glass Museum preserves much of the best works from all different eras. Reproductions are available in the gift shop. Across Sandwich's tree-shaded village center stands the beautifully preserved Hoxie House, which dates from the 1600s and may very well be the Cape's oldest saltbox house. Also dating from the 17th century, the adjacent water-powered Dexter Grist Mill still turns out delicious stone-ground (organic) cornmeal, which can be purchased on site. On nearby Shawme Pond, the Thornton W. Burgess Museum honors the Sandwich native who wrote The Adventures of Peter Cottontail and other classic animal stories for children. The author's colonial-era home contains early editions, original Harrison Cady illustrations, and a gift shop filled with Burgess books. Set on the manicured grounds of a former estate just outside town, the Heritage Museums and Gardens of Sandwich showcase all kinds of reconstructed historic buildings. Among the many exhibits is a working 1912 carousel, Currier & Ives lithographs, military firearms, and one of the nation's finest collections of classic automobiles. A look at Gary Cooper's 1930 Duesenberg alone is worth the price of admission (and a good deal more).