It is a land of parabolic sand dunes, 19th-century lighthouses, shipwrecks, pilgrims, and piping plovers. The Highland cliffs tower more than 100 feet above the Atlantic, as surf casters do battle with bluefish in the waves that pound the shore. Take off your shoes and wade barefoot in the calm waters of Pleasant Bay as fiddler crabs scurry over your toes.

There are some 365 freshwater kettles on Cape Cod created by giant blocks of ice left by the last Ice Age. These ponds now nourish Cape Cod's abundant freshwater marshes, and along with saltwater marshes serve as oases for waterfowl and shorebirds. These marshlands shelter swampy forests of red maple and white cedar that are best explored by kayak and canoe.

You can easily fly into Hyannis and Provincetown on regularly scheduled daily flights from Boston. The Plymouth and Brockton Street Railway provides daily runs from Boston to Hyannis and the Outer Cape (Provincetown).