If you’ve ever been to Cape Cod you know just how beautiful the beaches are…and just how very expensive the parking can be. Choose a beach carefully, it’s an expensive mistake to make if you end up hating the place.
The town of Dennis in particular has pricey parking. $20 on weekdays and $25 on weekends and holidays. This is universal throughout all parts of Dennis. Dennis also has a reputation for being very strict about their parking, if you park in a lot designated for something else and use it as beach parking, they will tow you.
Even though Dennis sounds like an inconvenient place to relax, the beauty of their beaches will more than make up for the hassle. But with Dennis’s 16 ocean beaches and 2 more fresh water lake beaches, how do you know which one to choose?
Mayflower Beach, on the north side, is my favorite beach on Cape Cod. During the peak season the parking lot fills up fast, the general rule is to get there before 11am or the lot will be full. The lot is a decent size, so it holds a fair amount of cars but during summer months, there are so many tourists that it’s best to get there early.
This beach is fully equipped. It has full public restrooms (not Porta-Potties), a boardwalk, a food shack and is handicap accessible. It has more amenities than even Goosewing Beach.
The beach is big, especially during low tide. You can look to the left and the right and it goes on for quite some time. The most pleasant thing I noticed about this beach is that I didn’t see any rocks. You get none of those long shores of fist-sized rocks that are a painful to walk across and none of the hidden jagged edges on the ocean floor that cut your feet unexpectedly. This adds a lot more appeal to Mayflower beach.
The tides have an interesting way of proceeding. Long streams run diagonally up the shoreline. Gradually, they fill and get deeper. This creates unique sand island formations, they only last a few hours though. Catering to our inner 5-year-olds, we camped out on one of these sand islands and built a big sand mountain to see how long it would take the ocean to claim it. It probably wasn’t the best idea though as we had to walk through waist high water to get back behind the incoming tide, holding our towels and electronics above our head so they wouldn’t get wet.
Here’s some footage I took standing on the sand island as the tide was coming in:
There is a food shack that serves the usual beach food: deep fried deliciousness and frozen dairy treats. Unfortunately I did not have a chance to try it, have you? How is the food there? Let me know in the comments below
One concern about Mayflower Beach: it was very windy. It could have just been a windy day, but I got the impression that it was one of those locations that is always windy. A windy beach can be a pain in the butt!
All in all, it was a great trip to the beach. A very calm and relaxing day in a beautiful place where nothing went wrong. I highly encourage you to check out this beach the next time you take a trip to Cape Cod.
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