Plymouth, Hyannis, Vineyard Haven, Nantucket Whaling — Cape Cod's ferry-free chain
A short chain across Cape Cod and out to the islands — three quick island hops you'd otherwise take a multi-hour ferry to reach. KHYA Barnstable Municipal in Hyannis serves Cape Cod's south shore and the Kennedy Compound. Plymouth and the Plimoth Patuxet Museums sit 25nm west across Cape Cod Bay — living-history villages of the 1627 English Pilgrim settlement and the contemporary Wampanoag homesite, plus the Mayflower II replica at the State Pier. South across Nantucket Sound to KMVY Martha's Vineyard: a 100-square-mile island of Edgartown's 18th-century captains' houses, the chairs of Black Dog Tavern, Oak Bluffs' gingerbread cottages, and the cliffs of Aquinnah on the western point. Continue 25nm SE to KACK Nantucket Memorial: from 1690 to 1840 Nantucket was the whaling capital of the world (89 ships at the 1843 peak), and the Whaling Museum on Broad Street holds Captain Pollard's logbook from the 1820 sinking of the Essex — the real ship-rammed-by-a-whale event Melville built "Moby-Dick" around.