A walker circles the lighthouse at Ned’s Point Park in Mattapoisett.

The Providence Journal / Glenn Osmundson

A street lined with historic New England Capes and Colonials… A wharf busy with masts being stepped and sails hoisted beside a classic harbor… An array of inviting shops… A café with great homemade chocolate chip cookies... A harbor-front Irish tavern to try for dinner.

Such are the simple pleasures of a day trip to the beautiful and unspoiled coastline of Massachusetts’ Buzzards Bay between New Bedford and Cape Cod. The easy-to-explore region is about a 50-minute drive from Providence, yet a daytrip there can feel like a real getaway vacation.

To many Rhode Islanders, this part of the Bay State is a virtual blank slate. If we’re headed to Cape Cod, we’re often in such a rush to cross the Bourne Bridge before the traffic backs up that we wouldn’t think of venturing off Route 195 to explore these small coastal towns that turn out to be, in many ways, more Cape-like than the Cape is nowadays.

Boaters know Mattapoisett and Marion for their excellent harbors, and many residents spend a good part of their summers sailing around Buzzards Bay and participating in regattas and races.

Gallery

See more of
Mattapoisett and Marion

In the early 1800s, Mattapoisett was a famous producer of whaling ships, and Marion had salt works that exported to the whole East Coast. Then in the late 1800s, new roads and railroads brought summertime visitors as Americans began to discover New England as a vacationland. They stayed in inns and dined in taverns that have since been turned into some of Mattapoisett and Marion’s loveliest private homes. Ironically, today’s superhighways — Routes 195, 25, and 495 — bypass both of these towns in favor of getting vacationers to the Cape as quickly as possible.

MATTAPOISETT is about 40 miles from Providence, so you can easily make the trip in under an hour. Get off Route 195 at Exit 19A, which puts you on North Street heading into town. At Route 6 — which is this region’s main artery and happily far less congested here than in Rhode Island — you can’t miss the giant seahorse statue set in a little park on the north side of the road. At 38 feet high and painted in soft pastels with a blue glass eye, the seahorse is a kitschy but much beloved landmark that has stood at this spot for 50 years, ever since gift shop owner Henry Dunseith erected it to draw the attention of passing motorists. It still does that today.

Straight across Route 6, you enter the village, arriving at Water Street in the area of the Town Wharf in Shipyard Park, a lovely waterfront spot to take a stroll or sit in the gazebo and watch the boats coming and going.

Across Water Street is the 1799 Kinsale Inn, www.kinsaleinn.com, formerly the Mattapoisett Inn, which specializes in Irish favorites and traditional New England fare. (Open for lunch and dinner daily.)

For more casual options for dining, continue on Water Street out to Route 6: An excellent choice is the old-fashioned Oxford Creamery (98 County Rd., Route 6, (508) 758-3847, closed Mon.). A simple and old-fashioned place located in the point where Water Street meets Route 6, the Creamery has won countless accolades over many decades for its superior lobster rolls, which are served in a buttered and toasted hot-dog bun, with fries and slaw, for $10.45, which is a bargain these days. The Creamery is also known for its fried clams and scallops, coffee frappes, and a local innovation called the Coffee Fizz: coffee syrup, cream, and soda water.

A left turn from Water Street onto Route 6 takes you to the Shipyard Galley, www.shipyardgalley.com. Unprepossessing from the outside (it looks like a dentist’s office building, directly opposite from the police station), the Galley is a nice surprise inside, with a friendly and helpful staff serving up a wide range of prepared foods and breads and pastries, as well as fresh-made sandwiches, good coffee, and some of the best homemade cookies you’re likely to encounter anywhere. (Closed Monday)

You can order food to go from either the Galley or the Creamery, and take your picnic to one of the prettiest spots around: Ned’s Point. (To get there, follow Ned’s Point Road from Old Marion Road in Mattapoisett.) At the end of the road, a white stucco lighthouse (built in 1837) is the focal point of a waterfront town park with picnic benches and a gazebo. It’s a good spot to watch windsurfers and parasailers.

MARION can be reached on Route 6 East, turning right onto Main Street to get into the town. Here you’ll find several options for food, plus a fine bookstore, an old general store, and some attractive gift and antique shops.

Main Street brings you to Front Street, the main road through Marion village. At one end of Front Street is pretty Silvershell Beach (for residents only except off hours and off season). Silvershell is a calm-water beach on Buzzards Bay, good for children.

Going in the other direction on Front Street takes you into the village center, where the docks at Island Wharf Park and Barden’s boatyard are good spots for strolling and sightseeing around the harbor. Near the traditional Marion General Store, look for The Bookstall bookstore and the Serendipity By The Sea gift shop.

Here also are China Trader Antiques and the Sippican Historical Society, www.sippicanhistoricalsociety.org, open Mon. to Sat. 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sippican was the Wampanoag name for Marion

To see some of Marion’s beautiful old summer estates, with their plush lawns and gardens running down to the harbor, turn onto tiny Hiller Street (opposite the Marion General Store) to Water Street. (Turn right at the end of Water onto Lewis to return in a loop to Front Street.)The campus of the prep school Tabor Academy is along Front Street past the village center and the wharves.

Once you pass Tabor, you’ll soon arrive back at Route 6. Continue straight across Route 6 to get back onto Route 195 (at Exit 20).

kimbrie@projo.com