Travel Guide: Orleans | Cape Cod

Nauset Beach, please.

In the effervescent shoreline at high tide, the ocean echoes a crash melody. Floating in the balmy breeze while morning fog escapes the horizon, the tide recedes. A cluster of treasures nestle in the wavy ridges. The flats are revealed, refreshing with a new sandbar, and another. Salty splendor lingers. Sun beams brisk along the golden tide pools and caress the beach grass.

This is Nauset Outer Beach in Orleans. Get here with an Over Sand Vehicle Pass. It makes sense if you’re: local, spending a summer on the cape, or spending enough weeks and weekends to justify a pass, which are only sold by the season. There are plenty of Off Road Vehicles (4-wheel drive) and Self Contained Vehicles (campers), on the outer beach, but, you won’t have to contend with a typical parking lot crowd. (Nauset Beach parking lot passes are sold by the day, week, and season).

In the summers of 2020 + 2021 Nauset was our beach-away-from-home. A respite from the pandemic. The early mornings would kick off with ocean side breakfast sandwiches + iced coffees from our beach chair perch; watching the haze rise off the Atlantic, checking the Sharktivity app, and musing about the tides. (When is high tide today? low tide?) Then, sunblock on, beach tent up, and beers cracked not a moment too soon.

After a day of adventures: grilled steak tips or haddock in a creamy dill sauce, whatever roasted vegetables feel tiny grill appropriate, with a side of pasta salad, for dinner.

Pack lots of sunblock, extra water, a beach tent or wind barrier, beach chairs, a trash bag, a sweatshirt or long-sleeved shirt, and sweatpants or casual beach pants. And the necessary OSV equipment: a shovel, tow rope, jack support, jack, spare tire and a tire gauge. You will air down your tires to 13 psi in the beach parking lot before heading out. (psi means pounds per square inch.)

There are marked area pathways to pull off, park at area 1 for a much sorter haul. The farthest is area 8 — where Pleasant Bay meets Chatham Harbor and funnels into the Atlantic. The drive out to area 8 is 45 minutes give or take. Long cruises through the dunes give new meaning to beach hair don’t care.

Depending on where you’ve landed, waves are powerful and the water is probably too cold for little, little kids to swim. Tide pool explorations + beach toys will entertain them! For the adults: a good book, bocce ball, paddleball or your beach games of choice.

I’ll wrangle all the crowd complaints and pass along this: the Nauset OSV Pass is a solid investment in a fun way to spend long, hot, summer weekends. We haven’t bought the pass in a couple years now, and I miss it after writing this!

Growing up my Dad would get a pass to a different Cape ORV beach each season. Him and my Mom inspired the explorations I took from my childhood, and made my own. We would caravan out with multiple families and cousins, kids pilled in the truck beds, coolers filled with all you can eat watermelon, turkey + cheese wraps with lettuce, avocado + mayo, complimented by the crunch of a Cape Cod potato chip. There were lots of adventures plus sunset charcoal grill s’mores.

Being out on Nauset is for sure one of the last great summer memories I’ll have with my Dad. He passed away in March 2021. He got to spend a little time, but certainly not enough, with Camden as a toddler out there. He never got to meet Ryder but I am certain he knows him well.

DINING OUT

Land Ho! — My Orleans GOAT is Land Ho! Their Cape Cod Reuben is a sandwich I dream about — fried fish, swiss cheese, tartar sauce + coleslaw on pumpernickel bread. Also try the Ho-Made Clam Chowder. Land Ho is a casual cape hangout with a pub like atmosphere decked out in in local paraphernalia.

Hog Island Beer Co. — local brewery with great beer, try the Outermost IPA or the Nauset Haze IPA, plus fun cocktails (think: painkillers + palomas!), convivial outdoor dining, live music, a full restaurant menu and a raw bar.

Hot Chocolate Sparrow — coffee + pastries, decadent iced drinks, smoothies, ice cream and candy shop. They are open early till late (6:30 am — 8 or 9 pm) everyday.

There are upscale dinner restaurants in Orleans (that I haven’t in recent memory visited, probably because I was grilling on the beach!) Ideas: Mahoney’s Bar & Grill // Rock Harbor Grill.

---

SHOP

Nauset Surf Shop // The Pump House // Homegrown Boutique // Adorn Cape Cod

---

HIKE

Kent’s Point — a conservation area with scenic trails including a 1.5 mile loop hike. Views of Lonnie’s Pond, Little Pleasant Bay, and Frost Fish Cove.

---

Orleans will feel very much like a Cape hub — you’ve got a Stop & Shop and a Shaw’s, a TJ Maxx and a bowling alley — that is to say, business and shopping plazas you won’t find in the serene the Outer Cape towns. Orleans will be busier!

Find the rest of my Cape Guides x Town.

Alright team! Thanks for indulging all my Cape family nostalgia. You can support this newsletter and me by subscribing, reading, liking, commenting and forwarding. (If you click the heart button every week, you know who you are: thank youuu!)

Locals: your Orleans favorites?

Until the next town…

xx,

Kristen