A Road Trip to Cape Cod
On a road trip to Hyannis, Mass., we almost pass our motel by —despite admonitions from our global positioning system—because it looks just a bit like a car dealership. We know we are in the right place when we enter the lobby and right there on the wall is a portrait of President Kennedy.
We are staying on Ocean Street in Hyannis because the Brawny Sherpa thought he had stayed here at some distant point in the past. Motor hotels—they do have a tendency to look alike. Big on parking lot with their direct-to-room convenience and on external staircases and with just a floor or two, accessing them is easy and you just can’t help but start talking to your fellow travelers as you make one more trip out to the car to retrieve something you’ve forgotten. We are fortunate in that the Hyannis Holiday Motel is across the street from the Hyannis harbor, is near the ferry to Nantucket, and is in the neighborhood of a number of seafood restaurants, a coffee bar, and some quaint little shops. In short, it’s the perfectly priced and located place for a quick getaway.
We’re not in Cape Cod to go to the beach all that much; we just need a reprieve from our workaday world. The youthful adventurers with us on our journey are old enough to do their own thing: they use the outdoor pool on sunny days and the indoor one when the weather is not as cooperative. The most ambitious item on our agenda is whale-watching.
Being a motor hotel, the Hyannis Holiday makes it easy for guests to just jump in their cars and ride to their next destination, but this place is so well situated that visitors should get out and explore on foot. I find the post office and even more good restaurants and cute shops and the John F. Kennedy Museum while walking around, and the youthful adventurers quickly become well-acquainted with the coffee bar just down the street, where they can be persuaded fetch coffee for a fee.
There are plenty of places to stay on Cape Cod. Why we like this one: it faces Hyannis Harbor, it’s reasonably priced, it’s clean, it’s convenient to the water, restaurants, and shops.
Note from the Brawny Sherpa: Best lobster roll in Hyannis is at Spanky’s. The Black Cat was good, too.
Hyannis Holiday Motel, 131 Ocean Street, Cape Cod, Mass. 02601
—Lori Tripoli
