Falmouth Town Profile

Falmouth is a Laboratory for Cape Cod Life

Falmouth, in the southwest corner of Cape Cod, is home to the world’s largest nonprofit ocean research and teaching center, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, as well as the Marine Biological Laboratory. The town’s Main Street area offers a small-town feel, with great shopping and dining possibilities. The town also has a mall and four grocery stores and the Nickelodeon movie theater. Residential neighborhoods with large yards are common, and commerce has a solid presence in the downtown area.

The picturesque village of Woods Hole offers beautiful scenery and the bustling port for the Woods Hole, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority, as well as research vessels and commercial and recreational boat fleets. Catch a ferry to Martha’s Vineyard or charter a fishing boat.

Falmouth’s south-side beaches offer warm water temperatures and white sand beaches. The beaches along the western coast run along Buzzards Bay. Sippewissett, Saconesset Hills and Sippewissett Great Marsh offer some of the most sweeping and beautify marsh and seascape views on Cape Cod. The Shining Sea Bike Path runs through this area; it now connects Woods Hole with the center of Falmouth, and eventually will extend to Bourne. Several ponds in town offer a freshwater beach alternative.

The Barnstable County Fair is an annual summer event held at the fairgrounds on Route 151, just before the Mashpee border.