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Cape Cod has miles and miles of coastline,which leaves you no shortage of option for endless beach days. The Cape has an overwhelming number of lovely beaches, but the vibe can vary a lot between the different beaches.
The single most useful thing to know is which side of the Cape you’re on, bay side or ocean side. It impacts the water temperature, the waves, the crowds and even the shark conversation. Here are my seven favorite beaches on the Cape, what each one is actually best for, and the parking situation you need to plan around.
Jump To:
- Bay Side vs Ocean Side
- Mayflower Beach, Dennis
- Cahoon Hollow Beach, Wellfleet
- Coast Guard Beach, Eastham
- Nauset Beach, Orleans
- Breakwater Beach, Brewster
- West Dennis Beach
- Old Silver Beach, Falmouth
- Best Beaches on Martha’s Vineyard
- Cape Cod Beach Parking
- Sharks & Beach Safety
- Cape Cod Beach Map
Disclaimer: This article contains some links where I earn commission through booking. There is no extra cost to you, and I only recommend things I’ve used and love or places I’ve stayed and enjoyed!
Bay Side vs Ocean Side
Cape Cod has water on both sides, and they behave completely differently.
Bay side and Nantucket Sound — the inner curve of the Cape, plus the south-facing beaches near Falmouth. Calm, shallow, noticeably warmer water, dramatic tidal flats, and very few seals. This is where you go with kids, or if you want to actually stay in the water rather than get thrown around by it. Dennis, Brewster and Falmouth sit here.
Atlantic-facing outer Cape — the long forearm from Chatham up through Orleans, Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro and Provincetown. Big waves, colder water, enormous dunes and a lot more space. It’s the more dramatic, more beautiful side. It’s also where the seal colonies are, and where the great whites follow them.
Neither is better — I’d do both on a week-long trip.
Mayflower Beach, Dennis
Best for: the tidal flats
Mayflower is the most famous beach on the bay side, and it’s all about the tide. At low tide the water pulls back to reveal hundreds of feet of rippled sand flats, and you can walk way out into what was ocean an hour ago, wading through warm tide pools the whole way. Kids lose their minds over it and honestly so do adults. I find this one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever been to.
It has everything you want for a full day — lifeguards, restrooms, a snack bar — which is exactly why it’s so popular. Check the tide chart before you go, because the flats are the entire point and they’re only there at low tide. The lot fills by around 9am in peak summer. Dennis charges $35 a day for non-residents, or $100 for a weekly sticker that’s valid at all the town’s beaches — worth it if you’re staying in the area. Fees apply Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day, 8am–5pm.
Cahoon Hollow Beach, Wellfleet
Best for: waves, dunes and a drink afterwards
Cahoon Hollow is the beach I’d take someone to if I wanted to show off the outer Cape. You come over the top of an enormous dune and the whole Atlantic opens up below you, with proper surf and a steep drop of sand down to the water. It’s genuinely dramatic. The hill down is no joke, fully sand and steep, so pack light and be prepared for the walk back up.
It also has the single best perk of any beach on the Cape: the Beachcomber sits right on top of the dune in an old lifesaving station, so you can go straight from the water to a painkiller without moving your car. That combination is unmatched anywhere else on the Cape.
Parking is $15 a day with a Wellfleet sticker, or $20 for the daily entrance without one. A weekly sticker is $50. The lot is small and shared with the Beachcomber, so it goes early on nice days.
One quirk worth knowing: Wellfleet also charges $5 per person to walk in or be dropped off at Cahoon Hollow between 9am and 5pm in summer — so you can’t dodge the fee by getting a lift.
Coast Guard Beach, Eastham
Best for: the classic National Seashore experience
Coast Guard Beach is part of the Cape Cod National Seashore and regularly turns up on lists of the best beaches in the country — which is so deserved. Because it’s federally protected there’s no development behind it at all, just marsh, dune and sky, so it feels wilder and emptier than beaches a few miles away. Sunrise is absolutely incredible if you’re an early riser
The parking works differently here, and only in peak season. From mid-June through Labor Day the beach lot is closed to general parking and you park at the Little Creek lot on Doane Road instead — from there you can hop the free shuttle (every ten minutes, 9am–5pm) or just walk down. You can also bike or hike in on the Nauset Trail from the Salt Pond Visitor Center, about 1.8 miles each way. Outside that peak window the beach lot is open to everyone, it’s just small — so in spring or September you can drive straight up and park.
Because this is a National Seashore beach the fee is federal rather than municipal: $20 per vehicle for the day, $3 if you walk or cycle in, and $60 for a seashore annual pass that covers all six National Seashore beaches — worth doing if you’re planning more than three beach days out here.
Nauset Beach, Orleans
Best for: big waves and endless space
Nauset is a huge stretch of Atlantic coastline and one of the best beaches on the Cape. The waves are real here — good for bodysurfing, less good for a gentle float — and because it runs for miles you can always walk far enough to find your own patch of sand, even in August.
There’s a proper beach concession and lifeguards in season, and the town of Orleans behind it is quieter than Chatham, which makes this an easy full-day beach.
Orleans charges non-residents $35 for a daily hangtag at the gatehouse, or $165 for a week and $420 for the season. It’s one of the pricier daily rates on the Cape. Enforcement runs weekends from late May, then daily from around June 20 through the first week of September, 7:30am–4:30pm.
Breakwater Beach, Brewster
Best for: little kids
If you’re travelling with small children, Breakwater is the one. It’s on Cape Cod Bay with mild, shallow, genuinely warm water, soft sand, gentle dunes and the same tidal flats and tide pools that make this stretch of coast so good — but on a smaller, calmer scale than Mayflower.
Daily parking is $20, or $150 for a season permit, and Brewster sells these online only. Permits are required from mid-June through the first week of September, 9am–4pm. The lot is small, so arrive early.
West Dennis Beach
Best for: a long, lazy, do-nothing beach day
West Dennis is long, wide and faces Nantucket Sound, so you get warm south-side water without the outer Cape waves. It’s the kind of beach where you set up in the morning and don’t move, and because it’s so big it never feels as crowded as the parking lot suggests it should.
It’s also reliably breezy, which makes it popular with windsurfers and kitesurfers — good for watching, and good for staying cool on a hot day.
It has one of the largest beach parking lots on the Cape, so your odds here are better than most. Dennis sells non-resident passes valid at most of its town beaches, which is worth it if you’re staying in the area for a week.
Old Silver Beach, Falmouth
Best for: sunset
Old Silver is in North Falmouth facing west across Buzzards Bay, which makes it one of the best sunset beaches on the Cape — and the water is warm and calm enough that you can still be in it while the sky goes pink. There’s a sandbar that keeps the water shallow a long way out, so it’s easy with kids too.
Being close to the bridge, it’s also the most realistic beach for a day trip if you’re not staying on the Cape.
Old Silver is the priciest of Falmouth’s beaches at $30 a day for non-residents — the town’s other beaches are $20. If you’re around for a while, a one-week non-resident sticker is $85 and covers all of them. Note that non-resident permits have to be bought in person at the Ellen T. Mitchell Bathhouse on Surf Drive, not online.
Best Beaches on Martha’s Vineyard
If you’re taking the ferry over for a day or two, these are the island beaches worth your time — and my 3 days in Martha’s Vineyard itinerary covers the rest of the island:
- Aquinnah Public Beach — for the clay cliffs, which are genuinely unlike anything else in New England
- South Beach — the island’s big Atlantic surf beach, near Edgartown
- Norton Point — long, wild and undeveloped, connecting Katama to Chappaquiddick
- Joseph Sylvia State Beach — calm, warm and easy, right between Oak Bluffs and Edgartown
- Menemsha — not really a swimming beach, but the place everyone gathers to watch the sun set over the water
Cape Cod Beach Parking
Parking is the thing that decides where you actually end up on a busy day, so it is worth factoring in when you pick a base — I break the towns down in my where to stay in Cape Cod guide.
This is the thing that catches people out, so plan for it. Almost every Cape beach charges for parking, the fees are set by each town separately, and non-residents pay considerably more than residents.
- Daily non-resident rates for the beaches in this guide: Dennis (Mayflower, West Dennis) $35 · Orleans (Nauset) $35 · Falmouth (Old Silver) $30 · Brewster (Breakwater) $20 · Wellfleet (Cahoon Hollow) $15 with a sticker or $20 without · Coast Guard Beach $20 per vehicle as a National Seashore fee.
- Weekly and seasonal passes exist and are worth it if you’re staying more than a couple of days in one town — most towns sell a pass valid at all their beaches.
- Lots fill early. On a hot July weekend the popular lots are full by 9am. Arrive early or come late afternoon, which is a nicer time to be on the beach anyway.
- The National Seashore is a separate system. Coast Guard, Nauset Light, Marconi, Head of the Meadow, Race Point and Herring Cove are all federal, so a town sticker won’t get you in. A $60 seashore annual pass covers all six and pays for itself in three visits.
- Rates above are for the 2026 season — towns reset them every year, so it’s worth a quick check on the town’s website before you go.
Sharks & Beach Safety
Worth addressing directly, because it’s the question everyone asks. Great white sharks are genuinely present off the outer Cape — the Atlantic-facing beaches from Chatham up through Orleans, Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro and Provincetown. They’re there because the seal population is there, and seals are what they’re actually interested in.
The bay-side and Nantucket Sound beaches — Dennis, Brewster, Falmouth — have far fewer seals and correspondingly far less shark activity. That’s the single biggest factor if it’s a concern for you.
Wherever you swim, the standard advice applies: stay close to shore where you can touch the bottom, swim near a lifeguard, don’t swim at dawn or dusk, avoid swimming near seals, and pay attention to the beach flags and any posted closures.
Cape Cod Beach Map
Every beach in this guide is pinned on my Cape Cod map below, along with the towns, bars and restaurants.
More Cape Cod Guides
- Cape Cod Travel Guide: Beach Towns, Fried Seafood & Painkillers with a View
- Where to Stay in Cape Cod: Best Towns, Hotels & Classic Beach Motels
- 3 Days in Martha’s Vineyard | Oak Bluffs, Edgartown & Everything Between
- Provincetown Day Trip from Boston: The Perfect Summer Escape
- 15 Best Bars in Cape Cod: Best Spots in Every Town
- Best New England Summer Getaways
- Massachusetts Travel Guide
