1. Honeysuckle Hill
City: West Barnstable, MA
Category: Accommodations
Telephone: (508) 362-8418, (866) 444-5522
Address: 591 Rte. 6A
Description: Built in 1810 in the Queen Anne style by the Fish and Goodspeed families, this inn, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, is surrounded by verdant lawns and English gardens. The guest rooms are laden with antiques, white wicker, featherbeds, and Battenburg lace. Each room is air-conditioned, equipped with wireless Internet access, a flat-screen TV and a DVD player, and has an oversize marble shower, complemented by English toiletries and fluffy terry robes. This comfortably renovated house has all the grace of its heritage: wide-planked floors, ship’s captain’s staircase, wonderful ceiling angles, and narrow halls. At Honeysuckle Hill you’ll enjoy your morning coffee, complimentary newspaper, and a full breakfast in the dining room. The menu changes daily and offers such gourmet specialties as eggs Benedict or Grand Marnier French toast, accompanied by fruit and freshly baked muffins. Then you can retire to the front porch to plan your day or just sit and soak in an outdoor hot tub surrounded by flowers.Your hosts, Freddy and Ruth Riley, are very gracious and take pride in offering excellent accommodations. The inn is open year-round and welcomes children age 12 and older.
2. Cape Cod Community College
City: West Barnstable, MA
Category: Education
Telephone: (508) 362-2131, (877) 846-3672
Address: 2240 Rte. 132
Description: Set on 116 acres a few miles from Hyannis, Cape Cod Community College (known as 4Cs) offers both day and evening classes to its 4,000 students. Two-year programs lead to associate degrees in several areas, including the arts, humanities, and sciences, as well as in nursing, hotel and restaurant management, dental hygiene, and criminal justice. The academic programs are organized into two divisions with seven departments: business, health, social sciences, arts and communications, natural sciences and life fitness, mathematics, and languages and literature. The college has a particularly strong communications program. Opened in 1961 in the building that is now the Barnstable Town Hall, Cape Cod Community College was established as part of the community college system in Massachusetts. One hundred and sixty-three students from 33 communities enrolled during its first year. Outgrowing space quickly, the college moved in 1970 to its current location in West Barnstable, making it the first community college in the state to build a new campus.
3. Cape Cod Conservatory
City: West Barnstable, MA
Category: Education
Telephone: (508) 362-2772, (508) 540-0611
Address: 2235 Iyannough Rd.
Description: The conservatory’s main facility has been teaching music, art, dance, and drama since 1956, and also offers classes at the Beebe Woods Center. The conservatory has about 1,200 students, mostly from the Cape. Dance classes for adults and children include ballet, tap, and jazz. Drama and art are also offered. Adults may take courses in oil painting, monotype, and music instruction in all instruments. High school students make for about 60 percent of the music classes, which are open to all ages.
4. Ymca
City: West Barnstable, MA
Category: Parks & Recreation
Telephone: (508) 362-6500, (800) 339–9622
Address: 2245 Rte. 132
Description: The Cape’s only YMCA has water exercise, water jogging, lap swimming, and lessons as well as special fitness programs for seniors. The club also has fitness equipment, saunas, and aerobics classes. Three-month memberships are available.
5. Claire Murray
City: West Barnstable, MA
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (508) 375-0331, (800) 252-4733
Address: 770 Rte. 6A
Description: Claire Murray offers beautiful, distinctive, handmade rugs; needlepoint; gift items; home accessories; and cotton throws in its shops both here and in Mashpee, Dennis, Chatham, Nantucket, and Martha’s Vineyard. Also available are rug-hooking and cross-stitch kits, as well as lessons. Open daily.
6. West Barnstable Tables
City: West Barnstable, MA
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (508) 362-2676
Address: 2454 Rte. 149
Description: Stephen Whittlesey and Richard Kiusalas produce handmade custom furniture in a primitive style that retains and emphasizes the color and texture of the natural wood, much of which is about 100 years old, salvaged from New England houses, barns, and boats. The shop also converts antique windows into frames for mirrors. Trestle, Shaker, farm table, and pedestal legs accent the distinctive tables. They display unique folk art cupboards created from antique wood and found pieces such as ship portholes. The large, year-round showroom is open daily.
7. The Whippletree
City: West Barnstable, MA
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (508) 362-3320
Address: 660 Rte. 6A
Description: Housed in a beautiful, 18th-century barn, the Whippletree is filled with gifts and home accessories with a country flavor, including cotton coverlets, dried flowers and wreaths, greeting cards, candles, and hand-carved birds. Some popular collectible lines include Christopher Radko, Charming Tails, and the Boyds Collection. You can also select gifts for the holidays and items for children and babies. The Whippletree is open seven days a week from June to Dec and Thurs through Sun, with a gradual return to a seven-day schedule, in the spring. The Whippletree is closed in Jan, Feb, and Mar.
8. Coastal Dance Company
City: West Barnstable, MA
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (508) 362-3111
Address: 49 John Maki Rd.
Description: This company produces a Nutcracker gala each Dec; recently the production was a joint venture with the Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra at the new performing arts center at Barnstable High School in Hyannis. A second major performance of each year is staged in the spring. Ticket prices range from $15 to $25. A dance academy is also associated with the company and gives lessons to students of all ages.
9. West Parish Meetinghouse
City: West Barnstable, MA
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (508) 362-4445
Address: 2049 Meetinghouse Way (Route 149)
Description: When the first Congregationalists arrived to the settlement of Barnstable in 1646, they set to work on building a meetinghouse on Cobb Hill at Barnstable Village. Though this original building no longer exists, the West Parish Meetinghouse, built in 1717, attests to a flourishing congregation that divided itself into east and west parishes. Paul Revere cast the bell, and the 1723 gilded cock weather vane earned the church its nickname the “Rooster Church.”
10. Ymca Camp 132
City: West Barnstable, MA
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (508) 362-6500
Address: 2245 Rte. 132
Description: The Y offers a weeklong summer day program for children ages 5 to 10 at its well-equipped facility. Children participate in arts and crafts, archery, sports, swimming (including lessons), and Friday field trips (to the Boston Aquarium or to whale watch, for example). Tuition is $198 per week, and overnights are offered to 7-to-10-year-olds for an extra fee of $30 per night. YMCA membership is not required, but you save 5 percent by belonging to the association.
11. Sandy Neck Beach
City: West Barnstable, MA
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (508) 362-8300
Address: 425 Sandy Neck Rd.
Description: This bayside beauty has pebbly brown sand, low waves, and a very gradual drop-off. The kids will dig the critter-filled tide pools and you’ll dig the expansive vistas of Provincetown in the far-off distance. This is also a great walking beach, providing nearly a 6-mile run of endless beach for your daily constitutional.