Provincetown – Cape Cod, Massachusetts

Provincetown is a wonderful gay meca at the tip of Cape Cod in Massachusetts. When I was coming out, 27+ years ago, I had to make a business trip to Boston in December. I had never been to Boston before so I planned on spending the weekend, and asked around to get some ideas of where to go and what to see.

One of my friends at the time mentioned that all the gays hung out in Provincetown so I would want to steer clear of there… I quickly looked the place up and got on the phone to book a B&B for Friday and Saturday night.

This was not the Provincetown of scantily clad boys and wall to wall dancing every afternoon at the Boatslip. I was going in the middle of December and the weather was picture perfect pre-holiday bliss. The streets were quiet and the temperature was cold enough to keep snow glistening in yards and on rooftops.

I spent that weekend dancing with locals, since they seemed to be the only ones around. I was young and pretty new to the gay scene and I was really only interested in dancing and talking. The locals were, for the most part, friendly and not too pushy. One man I danced with for most of one evening was a waiter at the Red Inn. I gave him a ride home the first night. I turned down his offer to share his bed, but I did go and eat dinner with him (as he was waiting tables the next evening, lol). I ate some of the best seafood I had experienced in my life so far. This was the first time I had eaten simple, fresh lobster, straight from the tank (hopefully from the ocean prior to that??) to the boiling pot, to a plate with a large butter dipping dish in front of me. I gave him a big tip and then, of course, never talked to him again. This was before the days of e-mail, twitter, facebook, four-square, etc.

I still have many pleasant coming out memories of that trip, as well as some really cool hand made Christmas decorations I purchased as mementos.

Since that trip I’ve been back about twelve times and enjoyed each time as much as the first. Even though P-town is small, there is lots to do, plenty of great places to eat (Cafe Heaven and Red Inn being my favorites), artists of every media type, great beaches, parties going on all the time and a plethora of friendly GLBTQ and straight, but not narrow, people. There are also places to stay that would please every need. We have almost always stayed at Land’s End Inn because it is like a giant old English Manor house full of antiques and wondrous vistas and views.

However, if you wanted to stay jammed in with as many young gay guys as you could shake a…fist? at you could try the Boatslip

and there are also “clothing optional” options…which I’ll just let you imagine.

If this makes you want to book your trip to P-town, well, get at it! Check out the Provicetown Tourism Office site and travel gaily along!