Cape Cod Area Information

Falmouth is a classic New England town, complete with church steeples encircling the town green and a walkable and bustling Main Street. It offers a variety of activities and summer events, from the beautiful beaches and bike paths, to weekly outdoor band concerts and a summer theater. Founded in 1660 by Quaker sympathizers from Sandwich (where congregationalists considered theirs the one true path), Falmouth proved remarkably arable territory: By the 19th century, it reigned as the strawberry capital of the world. Today, with over 32,000 year around residents, it's the second largest town on the Cape, after Barnstable.

After more than a century of catering to summertime guests (it was the first "fashionable" Cape resort, served by trains from Boston starting in the 1870s), Falmouth residents have hospitality down to an art - a business, too, but people are so genuinely welcoming, you'll tend to forget that. The area around the historic Village Green (given over to military exercises in the pre-Revolutionary days) is a veritable hotbed of Bed and Breakfasts, with each vying to provide the most elaborate breakfasts and solicitous advice.

West Falmouth (which is really more north of town, stretched alongside Buzzards Bay> has held on to its bucolic character and makes a lovely drive, with perhaps an occasional stop for the more alluring antique stores. Falmouth Heights, a cluster of shingled Victorian summerhouses on a bluff east of Falmouth's harbor, is as popular as it is picturesque; its narrow ribbon of beach is a magnet for all, especially families.

With 55 miles of shoreline and 12 miles of public beaches, Falmouth is generally considered the nautical and tourist center of the upper Cape. The second largest town on the Cape, Falmouth boasts 14 harbors and more than 30 ponds.

If there is one dominant acre that has characterized Falmouth over the years, it is the Village Green that was set aside by the town fathers in 1749. This trianangler green, at the west end of Main Street, is the town's most attractive feature today. So much of Falmouth's history is taken place on or around the Village Green that the area has been designated a historic district to insure that this setting will be preserved intact.