Why P-Town is My Camelot

Magical (It’s a cliché, but it’s true) Provincetown

“Camelot” is often used to describe a place of beauty, peace & idyllic happiness.  Unfortunately it is also often just a legend.  But, for many LGBT travelers Camelot exists at the very tip of Cape Cod in the little resort town of Provincetown (P-Town).

“Little” may be a bit of a misnomer.  Although P-Town only has about 3,000 full time residents, on popular summer weekends it can swell to over 100,000 seasonal residents and visitors.  There are several popular theme weeks and parties such as Bear Week, Women’s Week, Family week and Carnival that change the vibe of the community.  You can have a quiet and relaxing experience or a wild party weekend in P-Town.  But, it helps to know what’s going on while you’re there to best enjoy your vacation.

Many gays and lesbians came from small towns, but left to find community and acceptance elsewhere.  Plus the big city does offer more diversions and culture than a small town.  Somehow P-Town manages to meld the best of both.  It offers all of the charm and quaintness of a small New England town, but also the nightlife, restaurants and culture of a city hundreds of times its size.  There are few things more enjoyable than walking down the main drag of Commercial Street among historic clapboard cottages and seeing drag queens, muscle boys, women of all types, the boy next door and families of all types strolling around and taking it all in.  People watching may be an even more popular activity than chowing down on lobster rolls, and we recommend both.

Speaking of culture and entertainment, P-Town has it in spades.  There are all of our favorite regular performers such as Miss Richfield 1981, Varla Jean Merman and Well Strung.  But, every summer also brings in national acts; especially from Broadway.  The performers often love and pay special attention to their P-Town audiences.  Plus it’s wonderful to see stars performing in a cabaret, or at the Town Hall, instead of in an auditorium or major theater.  Some of the performers who’ve been in town in the last year include Kristin Chenoweth, Cheyenne Jackson, Kathy Griffin, Megan Hilty, Billy Porter, Neil Patrick Harris, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kate Clinton; just to name a few.

In addition to the performing arts, Provincetown has a top notch visual arts scene.  You could spend days browsing the dozens of galleries and attending their events.  Provincetown was a major artists’ colony and summer home of several well-known artists including Jackson Pollock, Hans Hofmann, Mark Rothko and Edward Hopper.  All of whom came for the beautiful light and to be surrounded by other creative types. The Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM) is a small, but impressive, facility that houses works by several of these well-known artists as well as others by current artists and is worth a visit.

If art and music aren’t your thing, there are countless other options to keep you occupied.  Climb the ramp of a 252 foot tall tower (Pilgrim’s Monument) for views of the cape all the way to Boston, visit a museum covering local history and the whaling industry, take a bike ride through the dunes, visit the beaches, whale watch, go deep sea fishing, eat at dozens of restaurants, drink at over a dozen gay bars, or just read a book and watch the world go by.  There really is no reason to be bored in Provincetown.

While Plymouth Rock may be famous as the site where the Pilgrim’s landed, their first stop in 1620 was actually the site of present day P-Town.  They stayed five weeks, wrote and signed the Mayflower Compact, and then moved on to Plymouth.  Considering their dour and judgmental reputation, it is probably best that they left.  They would be mortified by the free spirited, tolerant, fun and come as you are place that Provincetown is today.

One of my favorite stories that describes the P-Town character involves Edouard, a minor hurricane.  Although the stores and guest houses were boarding up in preparation for the storm, the boys were still out shopping at “hurricane sales”.  During the worst part of the storm people kept busy inside (in several ways).  One crafty resident managed to quickly sew a Dorothy outfit and the moment the storm had passed was in the streets yelling “Auntie Em, it’s me Dorothy”.  P-Town is a wonderful place to be yourself, or anyone else that you want to be.

Contact us for more information and to help you plan your trip to this magical destination.  We love it so much we’ll be there again this summer.