Visit Provincetown for a Unique Fall Experience

Sponsored by Provincetown Tourism Office

The essence of Cape Cod’s outermost town reveals itself each fall when its free-wheeling cultural life continues unabated with festivals and one-of-a-kind holiday activities. Provincetown’s artists, authors, and actors exhale with everyone else, but the town’s creative scene assumes new energy with the arrival of crisp autumn air and less crowded streets.

Visually, Provincetown is equally as romantic as any fall foliage destination in New England—something its resident artists realized long ago. The scarlet of the turning oaks, the brilliant red cranberry bogs and the aptly-named burning bush exhibit layers of color paired with stunning ocean views.

Savor the feeling of being in a place the crowds have left behind. Stroll shops and galleries without rubbing elbows and sample delicious fall menus without waiting in line. Take a walk on an empty beach that stretches to the horizon, savor a Herring Cove sunset and sip a glass of wine from Truro around a fire pit at one of the many Provincetown establishments offering shoulder season discounts.

Every bit the quintessential New England town, Provincetown is so much more in fall. Provincetown’s unrivaled reputation for being playful and provocative means you never have to just go back to your inn and sip wine—unless you want to, of course.

Provincetown’s Fall Events Feature Art, Theater, and Holiday Festivities    

A visit to Provincetown in late fall and early winter can have its quiet moments, but planning a trip around one of the town’s many holiday events (aka parties) means you’ll have plenty of fun, too.

Halloween’s “altar”-party is the annual Provincetown Day of the Dead Festival, a community event inspired by the Mexican traditions of El Dia de los Muertos that honors life and death through art. The two-week event culminates Nov. 2 with drumming, face painting, stilt-walking, and other festivities including a procession that ends at the Provincetown Theater with an ofrenda (Spanish for offering) in honor of the deceased.

Provincetown’s year-round LGBT scene remains lively with Mr. New England Leather Weekend Nov. 16-18 featuring fetish films, dances, and the titleholder contest.

The iconic 252-foot-tall Pilgrim Monument and the Provincetown Art Association and Museum are in charge of plans for Provincetown’s 2020 quadricentennial celebrating the first landing of the Mayflower on Nov. 11, 1620. Feel the stirrings of history and the start of the holiday season with the Annual Lighting of the Pilgrim Monument on Nov. 21. More than 3,000 lights festoon the monument, a year-round beacon of tolerance and hope since its completion in 1910.

The Nov. 24 Lighting of the Lobster Pot Tree is a cherished Provincetown tradition and a labor of love for the family of its founding father, the late artist Julian Popko. One hundred-plus lobster pots borrowed from local lobstermen are stacked two stories high in the shape of a tree and decorated with thousands of lights and a giant tree topper of theatrically lit lobster buoys. The tree stays up through the holidays in Lopes Square.

The festive annual LGBT Holly Folly takes place Nov. 30-Dec. 2 with plenty of nice and some slightly naughty events. See why Provincetown is New England’s top LGBT destination with the Jingle Bell Run and Champagne Brunch, the Holly Folly Inn Stroll, ice skating, ‘Tis the Season Holiday Revue, Drag Bingo, and a concert by the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus.

Celebrate the Arts 

A lack of chain stores and commercialism is a point of pride in Cape Cod’s quainter corners. That’s certainly true of Provincetown, which boasts one of the oldest artist colonies in the country with galleries to match. Holly Folly features special sales and discounts in shops and galleries you won’t find anywhere else. Friday night gallery strolls are an unofficial tradition and continue through the fall with weekly openings and off-season art deals.

Artists and artisans display their holiday best for the month-long Canteen Holiday Market, Dec. 1-Jan.1. Sip hot wine or mulled cider as you stroll the impressive variety of pop-up booths interspersed with live music and performances. Art shows, nightlife, music, and dancing perpetuate December’s festive spirit and culminate with the First Light Weekend (Dec. 28-Jan. 2) and a magnificent fireworks display.

Whether it’s in the streets or on stage, performance art is a Provincetown specialty. Known as the “Birthplace of American Theater,” Provincetown Theater stages “The Laramie Project” through Oct. 28. Hailed by the New York Times as one of the 25 Best American Plays since “Angels in America,” the story of the 1998 murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming, is directed in Provincetown by original creator Leigh Fondakowski. Opening Nov. 29, “Always . . .  Patsy Cline” is inspired by the young country singer’s correspondence with a fan until her tragic death in a plane crash at age 30. Local flavor takes the stage Dec. 21-23 with the Townie Holiday Show, a variety show of music by local performers.

Get There Fast, Then Take It Slow  

Provincetown is closer than you think. Two hours driving from Boston or three from Hartford rewards you with a trip on Cape Cod’s Route 6 (which goes all the way to California from Provincetown). Fast ferries from Boston take just 90 minutes with three daily departures through Dec. 2, though be prepared for high seas and possible cancellations in fall and early winter. Flights from Boston take just 20 minutes.

If you’re worried about being without a car, rent a bike to explore the charms of Commercial Street and the waterfront. Or set out for one of many longer scenic rides like the Province Lands Trail, an eight-mile loop through windswept dunes that connects to Bennett Pond, Herring Cove Beach, and Race Point Beach.

Tour the dunes with a guide to learn about dune restoration and preservation efforts, life-saving stations, famous shipwrecks,and the fabled dune shacks that have inspired generations of creative thinkers including writers Eugene O’Neill and Norman Mailer, and painters Mark Rothko and Robert Motherwell.

Much of Provincetown lies within the Cape Cod National Seashore, a 40-mile stretch of sandy beaches, marshes, kettle ponds, and uplands optimal for fall hiking. Three lighthouses—Race Point, Long Point, and Wood End—rise above the windswept landscape and offer opportunities for hiking and exploration. On foggy days, nothing evokes the romance of autumn in Provincetown more than the long, low sound of a lighthouse foghorn.