The "Other Cape" on Boston's North Shore is Home to Stunning Mansions, Insanely Packed Lobster Rolls, and Virtually No Other People.

The "Other Cape" on Boston's North Shore is Home to Stunning Mansions, Insanely Packed Lobster Rolls, and Virtually No Other People.

Cape Cod, a classic maritime locale that has captivated politicians and celebrities for more than a century, attracts the majority of summer tourists to the Massachusetts coast. During the busy summer months, however, it is not uncommon for drivers to be forced to sit in their vehicles for upwards of an hour simply to cross the Sagamore Bridge from the mainland. The laid-back option for native New Englanders like me is Cape Ann (also known as the "Other Cape") and the neighboring North Shore, which encompasses a dozen or more communities ranging from Boston to the New Hampshire border. I've spent a lot of time getting away to the North Shore's boulder-strewn beaches and little ports over the years. Here is my formula for a wonderful stay, which I road-tested one beautiful July weekend.

Friday

I started at Gloucester, which is around an hour's drive north of Boston and is the oldest harbor in our country. Samuel de Champlain, a French explorer, first landed at what is now known as Gloucester Harbor in 1606. He referred to this location as "le belle port." After this, English immigrants settled the area, and by the beginning of the 19th century, the fishing and shipbuilding businesses in this region were thriving. This maritime history is documented in the Cape Ann Museum, which can be found online at capeannmuseum.org. The museum also has an excellent collection of works by Luminist artists like as Winslow Homer and Edward Hopper, who investigated the effects of light on coastal landscapes. (Because of the granite's reflecting characteristics, the light is reported to have a quality that can only be described as ethereal.)

I spent the night at the Beauport Hotel, which has 94 rooms and a rooftop bar and pool that have both just undergone renovations (doubles start at $199 at beauporthotel.com). This hotel has one of the greatest views in all of Gloucester. After I had checked in, I went into town for lunch at the Seaport Grille (seaportgrillegloucester.com; entrées $16–$36). While there, I had a tequila-and-lemonade drink, a zesty, filled lobster roll, and crunchy onion rings with the distinct taste of hops.

That afternoon, before boarding the 64-foot schooner Thomas E. Lannon (schooner.org; cruises lasting 90 minutes start at $33), I took a walk along quordle Wingaersheek Beach. We sailed by Hammond Castle, which was constructed by the inventor John Hays Hammond Jr. between the years of 1926 and 1929 in the style of a medieval European fortress, as well as the Eastern Point Lighthouse, which has been directing ships through the perilous ledges of Gloucester Harbor for more than a century.

Saturday

The town of Ipswich and the historic Castle Hill on the Crane Estate may be reached in a very short amount of time by car (thetrustees.org). The 2,100-acre beachfront property has had several lives, but it is most generally linked with the Chicago entrepreneur Richard T. Crane Jr., who acquired it in 1910. The property has various gardens, a Stuart-style home, and a tree-flanked lawn that slopes down to Ipswich Bay. Both Steep Hill Beach and Crane Beach, which are both protected habitats for the endangered piping plover, are accessible by paths that you may walk. After a little while, I found that I was becoming hungry, so I drove to the adjacent town of Essex to visit the Great Marsh Brewing Co. (thegreatmarsh.com; entrées $15–$28), where I had a delicious shrimp po'boy and hand-cut fries.

My hotel, the Emerson Inn, was constructed in 1871 on a cliff in Rockport that overlooks Sandy Bay. It can be found online at theemersoninn.com, and double rooms start at $269. Staying at the newly renovated residence with its 36 keys was like paying a visit to the home of a rich and eccentric aunt. It was charmingly cozy, replete with swishy bed sheets and freshly made cookies, and it felt like a home away from home. During the early hours of the morning, lightning flashed across the sky. The wind tore at the inn's flag as it flew against the pole in the midst of the rain that was falling over the waves. I remained seated on my bed as I listened to the oncoming and receding of the waves.

Sunday

Even around ten in the morning, Rockport's downtown was only starting to come to life. As I strolled through the rain-soaked streets, I munched on a strawberry pastry that I had purchased at Helmut's Strudel (69 Bearskin Neck; 978-546-2824) I passed residences that were painted in a variety of colors, including weathered gray, butter, apricot, and lilac. I was captivated as I saw a bufflehead dive into the water in search of food near "Motif No. 1," a delightful red fishing shack that is considered to be the structure that is painted the most by artists in the United States.

The last place I went was Salem, which is the city on the North Shore that is the most misunderstood because of its association with the notorious witch trials that took place in 1692. However, current-day Salem is a city that is contemporary, intellectual, and cosmopolitan. One of the highlights is the Peabody Essex Museum (pem.org), which has a wonderful collection of Asian art, including Yin Yu Tang, which is a 200-year-old Chinese merchant's house that was disassembled into thousands of pieces, brought to Massachusetts, and painstakingly reconstructed on the property. You can learn more about the museum by visiting their website.