Touring history

Explore the Cape & Islands on these historical walking tours

A good pair of walking shoes and an appetite for history are all you’ll need for these enriching town tours.

There’s no better way to get to know Cape Cod than by taking a leisurely walk or drive. It’s like a little adventure. You never know what you might discover along an unassuming side road.

You can tell a lot about a Cape Cod town and its people simply by looking. How many churches are there, and what denominations do they represent? Is there a “downtown” and if so, what is it like? How wide are the streets? How big are the houses, and what are they made of? How old are the trees?

You can discover even more if you travel with a local guide, preferably one brimming with stories and fun facts about the winding streets and crooked buildings. In the summer, several Cape Cod history museums offer tours of their host towns to engage the community and advance their mission of historic preservation. Here are three popular museum-sponsored tours—in Falmouth, Brewster and Nantucket—that illustrate how the past continues to inform and shape life on the Cape today.