Orleans, Cape Cod

Courtesy Coleen Bevacqua

As the year-round commercial and retail hub for most Outer Cape communities, Orleans, Massachusetts is the past outpost of bustling activity as the journey to the end of this peninsula begins.

West of town are Skaket Beach and Rock Harbor on Cape Cod Bay. To the north, east and south are Town Cove, Nauset Harbor, and Pleasant Bay.

Nauset Beach, the “big beach,” is the town’s greatest attraction, where the Atlantic surf rolls in and the spindrift curls and foams on the long barrier beach.

Orleans is subtle and low-key: her tree-lined sidewalks lead to fashion boutiques and to purveyors of Army-Navy surplus, to fish-and-chip establishments and to candle-lit dining on nouvelle cuisine.