Usually when I have more than 3 days for visiting a city, I try to also see the surroundings, where the locals escape from the crowds and the everyday routine.
During the summer my radar is focused on the beaches, I can’t help it. Boston has a lot of beaches nearby, at maximum 2 hours drive, so it was a difficult choice. After a bit of research, the Singing Sands beach from Manchester-by-the-Sea was the winner.Because of it’s funny name, because it hasn’t the whole shore full of shops or bars, and is not the most famous beach around, so not too commercial and busy. It was in concordance with my mood at that time.
On the community of Manchester’s site, the list of things not allowed on the beach is one of the longest ones I’ve ever seen, but nothing to bother me: no dogs during the high season, no alcohol (ok, no beer today), you can play ball games in designated areas only, no barbecues, and so on. Cool.
If you don’t want headaches with the parking, it’s very easy to reach the place by train from the North Station in Boston to Manchester-by-the-Sea in about 45min and walk 10min. Or for your comfort, you can drive for about the same time, defying the complains of all the angry drivers about the costs of the beach parking. We took the risk. The result was that we didn’t park front of the beach, but we enjoyed a 10 minutes walk in a nice and calm town, with beautiful residential areas (some of them with restricted access for the outsiders), a little yacht port, and a lot of forest.
At the end of Beach St. (of course…) and after you pay a small amount for the entrance, you’ll reach the destination.
Is the “what you bring is what you get” kind of beach. The only things you’ll find here are a small snack-bar, the changing rooms and washrooms, some free books to borrow during your stay (where you can also leave your read book, if you don’t need it anymore), and a very nice calm place. The only sounds you’ll hear are the sounds of the ocean and seagulls. Some very well intentioned seagulls in fact, having the size of turkeys, who are watching for your health and steal bags of chips from unguarded towels (I’m sure that’s why they are so big).
Clear water, clean beach, nice people and a sand that sings when you walk on it, because of the right size and roundness of its grains, perfect to create a musical instrument of almost 1km long. Ready to play it.
So if you are looking for a moment of peace and relaxation, this is a good place. Don’t forget to respect the others privacy 🙂
