We begin our journey into America's distant past at the Cape Cod Visitor Center. Prepare to dive into the Pilgrims, the nation's origins and the long history of the Cape. As we begin our drive through picturesque Massachusetts towns, we'll learn about the Nauset tribe, their legends and traditions, and why they were wary when strange ships appeared on the eastern horizon. Note: The tour is over 77 miles long, with more than 64 audio stories, and takes about 3-4 hours to complete. New, Lifetime access, no expiry. Use it anytime, on any trip, as many times as you want.
An optional detour takes us past the fish-shaped Scargo Lake. According to Nauset legend, this lake was built by a great chieftain to comfort his daughter, who could not stop weeping over three dead fish. We'll also learn about the Nauset party who first spotted the Mayflower, and the fears they had about its approach.
Another optional detour takes us to Harwich, a quaint Cape town known for its numerous beautiful beaches. If you fancy a swim, this is one of the best places on the Cape for it!
While in Harwich, we'll visit the Cape Cod Lavender Farm, a secluded estate that's just as gorgeous and fragrant as it sounds. Walk any of the woodland trails for free, soak up the smell of lavender, and pick up a few souvenirs!
Next, our Harwich detour will take us to Bank Street Beach, the perfect place to relax or dip your toes into the Atlantic.
As we continue our drive, we'll enter Eastham, a perfectly picturesque little Colonial town. We'll also hear about the embattled first encounter between the Pilgrims and the Nauset, the daring assistance offered by Squanto, and the very first Thanksgiving, where the Pilgrims and Nauset celebrated a truce.
Continuing down the Cape, we'll arrive at First Encounter Beach, where that dramatic skirmish between Nauset and Pilgrims took place. The beach now bears a plaque commemorating the encounter and the eventual truce.
A little farther on, we'll arrive at the Salt Pond Visitor Center. This miniature museum is the perfect opportunity to catch up on some extra Cape history, use the bathroom, or just stretch your legs.
As we continue our drive up the Cape, we'll spot the Nauset Light, the quaint little lighthouse that features in every quintessential Cape Cod photograph. We'll also learn about its importance, and how the Cape's rough waters earned the nickname of "ocean graveyard" before the lighthouse was built.
As we continue our drive up the Cape, we'll spot the Nauset Light, the quaint little lighthouse that features in every quintessential Cape Cod photograph. We'll also learn about its importance, and how the Cape's rough waters earned the nickname of "ocean graveyard" before the lighthouse was built.
Continuing our drive, we'll come to three squat white lighthouses called the Three Sisters Lighthouses. What's peculiar about these lighthouses is that they're not on the coast at all! They're actually nestled among a thicket of trees pretty far inland. Hear about why that is, and how they came to be there. We'll also learn about how the Cape transformed from Nauset land to Colonial fishing towns, and then from fishing towns to a tourist hotspot.
Another optional detour takes us to the Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary. With five miles of trails through four different biomes, and more species of birds and other critters than you can count, this stop is bound to delight nature enthusiasts, bird watchers, and avid hikers alike.
As we continue driving, we'll pass Marconi Station, the first radio station to ever send a wireless message across the Atlantic! The station also played a pivotal role in an infamous oceanic tragedy: the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. Learn how a radio station hundreds of miles away saved lives on that fateful day!
The next optional detour takes us to the Atlantic White Cedar Swamp Trail, a perfect spot for hikers of all experience levels to stretch their legs and take in Cape Cod's varied terrain. Within a single, short mile lies a beach, a freshwater marsh, a deciduous forest, and a salt plain! Continuing our drive, we'll also hear about Cape Cod's former whaling industry.
As we continue driving, we'll pass the Pilgrim Spring Trail, a short hike which leads to one of the first places the Pilgrims came after landing on the Cape. Here, the weary travelers found their first freshwater spring--an essential find in helping them survive. Afterward, we'll continue on toward Provincetown.
As we drive through P-Town, we'll arrive at Macmillan Pier, where thousands of ships have launched over the years. Here, we get to see how past and present really intermingle on the Cape. These days, the pier is mostly used to launch whale watching expeditions.
Our penultimate stop is the Pilgrim Monument: the tallest all-granite monument in the entire country! Every year since its completion in 1910, thousands of tourists climb the steps of this 250-foot colossus to get a panoramic view of the ocean from the top. It's well worth the trek! Next, we'll hear about the Mayflower Contract, the rough set of laws the Pilgrims set for themselves upon landing in the New World.
Finally, we'll end up where it all began: the site where the Mayflower first struck land. Explore the park and imagine what it must have been like for the settlers, after ten harrowing weeks at sea, to step onto Nauset soil right here on November 11th, 1620. Our tour officially ends at this historic stop.
1. Many directions to turn given too late, causing me to make many u-turns. 2. Very little information on the numerous historic homes and churches i passed. 3. If I went off the tour to see something not mentioned, often extremely difficult to get back on the tour even with the information on the next stop.
You really need to follow their itinerary, but there are so many other things along the way difficult to set up, but once it’s got going on, it was fine.
Great directions they were easy to follow - turn by turn. Wonderful commentary, learned something new at each stop. Stop when you want - if you want. Seen enough lighthouses - skip the upcoming one and continue on uninterupted.
Needed to have a map. More driving directions. I wanted to know I was on the right road……………………………….
This guided GPS driving car tour was fantastic for covering the whole Cape! It provided deep historical insights as we drove, making every mile educational and scenic. Perfect self-paced journey.
Could not find where it was supposed to start at a Visitor's center. I ended up at many other Visitor centers, but not the right one. Perhaps an address would have been a thoughtful item to provide. When I finally did end up at the right one, the worker there said the woman before me had the same issue. He said he wished the company would send them what they're telling people because they're missing out on main attractions which he told me about. The first one I would have missed that he told me about was one of the best ones I saw in Cape Cod. If you don't go exactly the way the audio tells you, it's very confusing to find your way back to where they start to pick up. We wasted so much time that day. After a while we just said forget it and would try to do it on the way coming out of Cape Cod. When we left Cape Cod, we were able to get it started but it talked so much about things we weren't interested in and just rambled on and on. After about 45 minutes or so we just turned it off and did what we wanted on our own. Clearly I don't recommend it. Not only was it a waste of money, it was a waste of time and stressful. I would have been better off to get information and maps before I left so I knew where to go and what to do instead of relying on the audio tape.
Boring. Difficult to download and access. Was not given a starting point. Tried for almost 2 hrs to get a starting point and access the tour. We did not know whether to access the tour from the east side or the west side. Very confusing.. we lost a lot of time and a lot of the light of the day trying to find a starting point on the tour. Maybe what happened was we changed from the day before to this day, receive many codes and had to call the tour guide and wait for a call back and try and try to access the tour without success. But nevertheless., we tried to give it a chance and followed the tour to Dennis, which is a town in Cape Cod and it was very boring. Didn’t hold our interest at all, didn’t take us by any city attractions just a lot of woods and leaves and bare trees and driving by homes along the highway!!! nothing really very interesting or memorable. Not worth the money.
Didn’t seem to keep up with our vehicle. Had to turn around numerous times to get the narrator back on track
This audio tour seemed to have trouble keeping up with where we were. If we stopped to see something, it would repeat the last section of the narrative we heard before we stopped. It would also sometimes tell me to turn after I had already passed a street. I have used a different vendor for other audio tours in the past, and those were much better.
The stories were wonderful! However the narrative would repeat it self before or after the supposed location. Also, we missed, somehow the various points in Ptown. Not sure why.
We thought this was a great little app to guide you round the cape on a rainy day when going to the beach was not an option. We visited lots of things we wouldn’t have picked up on and found it was an easy to use fun app.
The experience was eye opening. The history of the area was fascinating and kept us wanting to see places and know more. We were able to take great photos and it sparked a lot of conversation. Two comments the voice needs to sensitive to where and when turns are coming up since people do not know the area. Plus it should include instructions on how to get back to the starting point.
Turn by turn directions. Map that shows / follows you. Stops that you might not know about. Great narrator and nice history lesson. You can get out and explore and then hit start to pick up where you left off. Would definitely buy these types of drives again.
What I enjoyed most about this audio driving tour was the ability to stop and continue on your own. The information provided was greater than a stop at a visitors center. Although we only did 1/2 of round trip it was worth the value.
The voice was not loud enough for us senior women. We could not understand what was being said but the idea was great. We had fun seeing new areas and did get out to explore. I would suggest using a stand alone Bluetooth to hook up to the car speakers if available.
Historical info was interesting. Not an enormous amt of sights. Intermittent directions talked over/cancelling audio 😔. I’m a local, it was a nice drive on a cold sunny day. If you are a traveler and stop at the sites and took it all in or used it to help map a trip and augmented it in other ways it would be helpful. Note: the beaches highlighted are not accessible to nonresidents June-September.
The drive back from a weekend away on the Cape was very interesting, we learned things along the way thanks to the self-guided tour we bought. It was very user friendly and we will do it again next time we travel.
The audio kept cutting out and most of it was old information it stopped midway and I could not get it back. needs updating
Wonderful tour of Cape Cod! Very interesting and informative narration. As I did this tour alone, it was nice having a pleasant and informative voice in the car with me.
Loved the ability to go along at our own pace and enjoy the sights. It was relaxing and a great way to see the sights if you have limited mobility especially.
Enjoyed the tour, the optional recommended side trips and even a few side trips we chose on ourselves. We got thru whole tour from west to east. Also downloaded east to west and listened on return trip (narrative works better starting at visitors center in Barnstable than starting at Provincetown. I recommend more time in Chatham.
Easy to use, interesting points of interest . App was easy to return to anytime we went off course. We enjoyed listening to historical facts as we made our way up to the top of Cape Cod
We did not use the audio tour - we found it very frustrating to use the app - we would like a refund for the $16.99 we spent to purchase it!! Due to this we had to change our plans for the day!!! It was a horrible experience - I DO NOT recommend purchasing the Cape Cod Self Guided Audio Tour!!!
Took a little work to get the tour going after buying on Viator—had to download the Viator app and then the third party app and it felt like a lot of steps to get to the tour. Once it was up and running, it worked well. I didn’t have any problems with the app or the tour. In terms of the tour itself, it was good. We found a few places we probably wouldn’t have found or stopped at ourselves that were really fun and I’m glad we did it. I do wish there were more pieces of information along the way. It felt like we drove in silence a little bit too much. I would have appreciated more stories or history during those places and a couple of the stops were a little short on info. Overall, though, a well done tour that is very helpful to learn the Cape. A few tweaks would make it great.
Listened to this as we drove from Dennisport to PTown. Interesting facts. Only complaint was that the GPS with it was sometimes confusing and slow to point out whennwe needed to make turns. But glad we ised it on the drive. Saw things we might have missed.
Could not get this to work. Absolute waste of money Just kept asking to book after I had paid and followed the cryptic instructions
Overall, great audio tour...and I've been on many!! Easy navigation, solid narration, and interesting facts! There's 1 planned restroom break, which was necessary and thoughtful, altho I wish there were more. Having never gone to PTown, I got way more from this tour than I bargained for. It's the off season, so it was mellow and chill. I had no issues with parking and crowds. I couldn't imagine doing this tour in the thick of the season tho. I do wish there were recommended food and touristy venues included in the tour too. While the map showed a ton of places, was hard to know which to choose. The recommendations I'd give to other patrons doing this tour are 1. Beware of the traffic. Leaving the cape was a nightmare of traffic and slow moving. I didn't think it'd be that bad on a Sunday off season. 2. Plan for more driving time if you do any of the detours which are also nice. I started skipping a few because I wanted to get to the good stuff. 3. Take the Pilgrim monument tour, I missed out. It looked like it would be great. 4. If I had it to do all again, I'd do it over multiple days and really enjoy the beaches and what Ptown has to offer. Hope your experience is great! Highly recommended!
Let me start by saying that 2-3 hours is not accurate unless you don't do any of the detours. I did most of them and it took me about 6 hours. This was a pro for me because it filled my Sunday afternoon. And it was nice that there were additional narrations within the detours. However, this was two to three times more than I've paid for other self-guided tours, and therefore, I would've expected it to be pretty perfect. But there are a few things that need to be fixed. First, because I was doing this solo, it got tricky finding my way along the route and detours at times. Second, there was no "go to this stop" button like it said to get you back to Google Maps, which would've been incredibly helpful in finding my way back after the detours when I needed to keep my eyes on the road, especially on tricky/rural roads. Third, some of the narrations weren't timed well and a couple of them said to turn with no or almost no warning, and others cut off because the next stop approached and the narration changed. So, I'm glad I did it but I've done amazing self-guided that were much cheaper, so this one should be updated.
A really good app tour. It follows your course and locates where you are before starting each point/section. It can be a little glitchy sometimes and start the next section before finishing the previous one so you may miss a bit. Would recommend it less for solo travellers as trying to drive and keep control of the app can be a little difficult. Great way of exploring though. Oh, and allow a minimum of 4 hours!
The tour gives you a great chance to drive and get bits of history at the same time. First encounter between Pilgrims and Native Americans was truly awesome.
The audio tour was interesting and informative. The street directions were a bit hard to follow. We saw some great sights.
Things were not as expected. We ended up traveling by 6a instead of 6 so for the first part of the trip did not use. I used at later sites but things were closed or not there anymore such as Wydah Museum in Provincetown. Even though things such as beaches were supposed to be open restrooms were closed often.
This was a great tool to visit many spots on the Cape. If you don’t start from beginning, pre-recorded directions can get confusing as the navigation wants to take you back to start. However, if you follow the blue dot of where you actually are in real time on the map, you can figure it out (I was the co-pilot). Might be harder to do if your solo. The tour have interesting info and showed us great sites! Get started early if you want to hit all the spots- we did not and it was still worth the buy!
We knew very little about Cape Cod history and enjoyed learning about it without being overwhelmed by TMI (too much information). The downside is that we were in Provincetown and had to drive all the way back to start. It would be great if we could have taken the tour in the opposite direction!
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