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Massachusetts, USA · North America · northern hemisphere
Cape Cod & the Islands is at its best for lakes & coastline in May to June and September to October. Good but not prime in April, July and August. Crowds peak in July and bottom out in December.
| J | F | M | A | M | J | J | A | S | O | N | D | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Swimming | 13 | 13 | 13 | 15 | 42 | 66 | 91 | 89 | 68 | 16 | 15 | 13 |
| Lakes & Coastline | 14 | 15 | 42 | 58 | 86 | 94 | 76 | 76 | 94 | 87 | 42 | 14 |
| City & Culture | 14 | 15 | 42 | 58 | 86 | 94 | 77 | 77 | 94 | 87 | 57 | 14 |
| Crowds |
Swipe the table sideways for the rest of the year.
Two coasts and two holidays — the bay side is shallow, calm and genuinely warm by August, the Atlantic side is cold, open and has the better beaches
Driving onto the Cape on a summer Friday afternoon or off it on a Sunday. The two bridges are the bottleneck and the queue is measured in hours.
July and August, and Friday afternoon traffic onto the Cape from late June
Easy. The bay-side beaches shelve so gently you can walk out a quarter of a mile at low tide, which is exactly what small children want.
The Outer Cape — Wellfleet, Truro, Provincetown — has the National Seashore beaches and the best food. Mid-Cape is cheaper and closer to the bridges. Nantucket and the Vineyard are ferry rides and a different price bracket entirely.
Nor’easters close the bridges and knock power out; most of the Outer Cape shuts for the season anyway.Jan · Feb · Mar · Nov · Dec
Rarer than further south, but the Cape sticks out into the Atlantic and takes the occasional direct hit.Sep
Kept out of the score on purpose. Averaging a rare catastrophe into a monthly number would tell you something false; the warning is the honest form.
0 is this destination’s own quietest month and 100 its busiest. The scale never compares one destination to another. Source: Wikipedia — Provincetown, Massachusetts