Some places become destinations. Others become traditions. White Village, a small collection of cottages tucked along Shore Road in North Truro, became one of those traditions for us.
Cindy and I found it almost completely by accident during our first trip to Cape Cod in 2011, only about four weeks after we first met. We had no idea that this wonderfully simple little beachfront place would become one of our favorite annual vacations. We returned every summer for roughly the next four years, eventually booking an entire week at a time.
By January we were already thinking about summer. Around the beginning or end of the month, we would call the older couple who ran White Village and reserve the coming summer before the best cottages and dates were gone. During those early years, some of the cottages were still available for well under one hundred dollars a night. They were not fancy, but that was never what we were looking for.
Many times, much of my Massachusetts family joined us, including Jody, Jenny, Sharlotte and the kids. Everyone rented a separate cottage somewhere along the property. We had our own spaces, but the beach, decks and walkways became one shared outdoor living room.
White Village at sunset. The cottages sat directly along Cape Cod Bay, with the beach only a few wooden steps away.
The Beach Was Our Front Yard
What made White Village truly special was its location. These cottages were not across the road from the beach or a short walk away. They were on the shore. A few wooden steps led directly to the sand, where we kept kayaks, paddleboards, chairs, umbrellas and everything else we needed for the week.
First thing in the morning, we sat outside with coffee and watched the water. During the day we swam, paddled, explored different beaches or simply relaxed in the sun. In the evening we could barbecue and grill directly in front of our cabins, sit in the Adirondack chairs with drinks and watch the light fade across the bay.
The rooms were small, which was perfect. There was no reason to spend much time inside except to sleep. Nearly everything we had traveled to Cape Cod to experience was waiting right outside the door.
Kayaks, beach chairs and the bay were always right outside the cottages.The beach and the water shaped the rhythm of every day.
A Piece of Old Cape Cod
White Village is more than a group of vacation cabins. It is part of the older Cape Cod tradition of modest cottage colonies that flourished after World War II. During the late 1940s and 1950s, families increasingly packed station wagons and drove to the Cape for affordable weeks by the ocean. Places such as White Village offered simple accommodations that put visitors close to the beach rather than separating them from it behind resort walls.
Many cottage colonies have disappeared over the decades, replaced by larger homes, condominiums and more expensive resorts. White Village retained the scale and feeling of a simpler era. Walking along the little row of white cottages, red chairs, decks and sandy stairs still felt like stepping into an older version of Cape Cod.
Shore Road had already been welcoming visitors for generations. The railroad reached Provincetown in 1873, helping transform the Outer Cape into one of New England’s classic summer destinations. Artists, fishermen, writers and vacationing families were drawn to the beaches, dunes, harbor and unusual character of Provincetown and Truro.
That history was part of the appeal. White Village did not try to separate us from Cape Cod. It placed us directly inside it.
The small white cottages were simple, practical and full of character.Family gathered outside the cottages before another Cape Cod evening.
Days were often spent exploring another beach before everyone met again for dinner.
Days at the Beaches, Evenings in Provincetown
Every day offered another piece of Cape Cod. We visited beaches along the Outer Cape, spent hours near the water and launched kayaks into Provincetown Harbor. On July 30, 2014, the family divided into shifts so everyone could paddle the harbor on a sunny, hot summer afternoon.
As afternoon faded, we usually headed into Provincetown. We wandered Commercial Street, looked through shops and galleries, listened to street performers, found seafood, ice cream or drinks, and walked toward MacMillan Wharf and the harbor. Provincetown was always lively, welcoming and unlike anywhere else in New England.
Those evenings were an essential part of the trip, but so was returning afterward to the quiet cottages beside the bay. To see more of my trips and memories from the region, visit my Cape Cod Adventures page.
The cottages were a place to sleep. The shore was where we lived.
The Kind of Vacation We Loved
Everyone vacations differently. Some people want a luxury resort with a beautiful pool, fancy rooms, room service, food delivered to the room and drinks brought to a chair beside the water. There is nothing wrong with that. Everyone has a different preference, and those places can be perfect for people who have only a short vacation or who mainly want to relax and be pampered.
But that was never our style. A fancy hotel pool can look much the same whether it is in Provincetown, Cancún or almost any other city in the world. When most of the trip is spent inside the hotel, it can become difficult to know where you really are.
We wanted to experience the actual place we had traveled to visit. White Village was perfect because Cape Cod was never hidden from us. The bay was at our feet. The rooms were small enough that we had no reason to remain inside. We spent our time in the sun and water, on the beaches and in Provincetown, grilling beside the cabins, sharing drinks outside and talking with family as the day ended.
Luckily, not everyone wants this kind of place. That helped preserve some of the simplicity that made White Village so special. For us, the greatest luxury was not room service or a marble bathroom. It was opening the cottage door and finding Cape Cod waiting outside.
The cottages weren’t the destination. Cape Cod was.
Looking back, I remember the laughter, family, beaches, Provincetown evenings and the feeling that for one week every summer, life could not have been much better.
A Place Changes, but the Memories Remain
For many years White Village was owned by an older European couple who seemed to live for Cape Cod summers. Every autumn they would return to their homeland for the winter, always hoping they would both be healthy enough to come back in the spring, open the cottages again, and spend another season beside the water. They loved this little place every bit as much as the guests who returned year after year.
The familiar White Village sign that welcomed us every summer.
Since our visits, it appears the property has been renamed Oceana Cottages. The cottages are still there, the beach is still there, and hopefully families are making the same kinds of memories that we did. Names may change, ownership may change, but places like this continue creating unforgettable summers for new generations.
Today the property appears to operate as Oceana Cottages.
The Gift of Remembering
One of the coolest things about Facebook is the Memories section. It is one of the first things I look at almost every day after logging in, just to see what I was doing on that same date years ago. Sometimes it is a major adventure, and sometimes it is just an ordinary day with family or friends, but every so often a memory appears that brings back an entire trip like this week at White Village.
Unfortunately, Facebook compresses photographs so heavily that many of the images it shows are fairly low quality. The pictures may no longer be sharp, but they still bring back the people, conversations, laughter and places connected to that moment.
Luckily, I still have most of the original photographs stored and organized well enough that I can usually find them quickly by searching the dates shown in the Facebook memory. That is how many of these older pages on my website begin. Facebook reminds me of the date, I locate the original files, and the photographs lead me back through the story.
A single image can bring back the smell of the ocean, the warmth of the sun, family gathered outside the cottages, mornings beside Cape Cod Bay and evenings wandering through Provincetown. The screenshots below are not the best-quality photographs on this page, but they explain how this page came back to life twelve years later.
Facebook brought back the White Village photographs twelve years later and gave me the date needed to find the original files.
One of the nicest things about these reminders is that a simple notification can turn into an afternoon of rediscovering an old adventure. Once the original photographs are found, the experience returns with far more detail than the compressed Facebook images can show.
The following memory brought back our family kayaking day in Provincetown Harbor. It was a sunny, hot summer afternoon, perfect for paddling. Sharlotte, Thea, Jenny and I took the first shift. Cindy, Brynlin, Chandler, Jordan and Lucas paddled during the afternoon shift, while Jody took Charlie tide-pooling and swimming for much of the day.
The Facebook memory that brought back our family kayaking day in Provincetown Harbor.
These pages have become much more than collections of photographs. They preserve people, places, adventures and moments that might otherwise slowly fade with time. Dreams can disappear soon after we wake, but memories can last forever when we make the effort to preserve them.
Every page on this website begins with a memory, and every photograph helps tell a story that deserves to be remembered.
Sunset along the cottages.Golden hour beside Cape Cod Bay.Cottages and boats on the beach.Beachfront living at White Village; our morning view.The classic white cottages.Kayaks and the beach below the deck; sometimes an afternoon nap is in order.A busy Cape Cod beach day. A dozen different beaches to choose from each day.Tim and the guys with coffee for breakfast outside the cottages.Facebook memory of White Village.Facebook memory of Provincetown kayaking.
