Skaket Beach

The bay-side gem of Orleans. Massive tidal flats at low tide create warm, ankle-deep pools — like a natural water park for little kids. Sunsets here regularly stop traffic on Route 6A.

Skaket Beach is Orleans' bay-side family beach and one of the great tide-flat experiences on Cape Cod — at low tide the bay pulls back nearly half a mile to expose a vast warm-water playground of ankle-deep pools, sandbars, fiddler crab colonies, and hermit-crab-dotted shell beds that small kids spend entire days exploring. The sand is soft, pale, and warm; the water at the swim line is among the warmest on Cape Cod Bay by mid-August because the sun bakes the tidal flat all day before each new high tide rolls in. The Orleans-sticker lot is large and well-organized with a full bathhouse, but it fills by mid-morning on summer weekends, and the gate manager turns cars away when capacity is reached. The west-facing sunset is the other reason to come — locals time their visit for the back end of the afternoon, watch the sky go pink over the bay, and stay until dusk. Skaket and Mayflower in Dennis are pretty clearly the two best family bay beaches on Cape Cod.