So I must back up a bit to July of 2018 when I decided on a whim to throw together 4 girls who didn’t really know each other at the time and hop in one vehicle to Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard with zero plans. I am a sea side girl at heart and loved the New England summers after visiting Gloucester MA as a teenager.
First things first, don’t let the GPS fool you. Seven hours? No problem! In reality, plan for 9-10 with traffic and pit stops. I will say I was impressed that 5 women fit luggage, beach gear, food, and of course wine into one vehicle. We picked an Airbnb online that backed up to a small lake in Falmouth, had 5 bedrooms and an ample kitchen to get dirty in, and put us in close proximity to everything we wanted to see.
With driving we really only had 3 full days to work with, but we managed to make the best of our time. Our first day we took a sailing excursion from Cape Cod to Martha’s Vineyard on the Liberte Schooner, a Hout Bay 70, two masted gaff-rigged schooner. It was a heavy but fast offshore cruiser captained by Chris Tietje. Sailing has always been one of my dreams, and Chris was kind enough to let me sail this bad boy and turn it against Martha’s coast and cut back towards Cape Cod. I highly recommend this excursion. It’s well worth the cost for a 3 hour ride with a bar! Even better.
Liberte Schooner
The second day we took some time to tour Falmouth, hit the grocery store for some things to make a big meal at the house, and in the afternoon hit Old Silver Beach. Word of warning. Cape Cod beaches are packed and there is little parking at any of them so plan to get their early. We didn’t plan ahead and spent a good chunk of our day waiting to get in a parking lot, but the view was worth the wait.
On our last day we caught the ferry over to Martha’s Vineyard which is about a 50 minute ride on the open waters. We grabbed a quick Lobster Roll at the Seafood Shanty and spent the day touring Oak Bluffs gift shop, art galleries, historical museums and soaking up all the sunshine we could. Oak Bluffs is home to the famous Gingerbread Cottages. They have their own depth of history so I have included a link on them below. As far as the vineyards themselves, apparently the locals don’t like the tourists milling through the area so we never got a glimpse of them. We did partake in plenty on their outputs though!
Gingerbread Cottages in Oak Bluffs
This trip was short and sweet, the area is gorgeous, the weather was 80 and breezy the entire trip, and all the points of interest are in such close proximity. The people were amazing and friendly. I would definitely make this trek again for a longer stay.
The Roaming Roths 