46 miles E of Sandwich; 10 miles S of Provincetown

Truro is a tranquil village between charming Wellfleet and rowdy Provincetown. With only 1,600 year-round residents (fewer than in 1840, when Pamet Harbor was a whaling and shipbuilding port), the town amounts to little more than a smattering of stores and public buildings, and lots of low-profile houses hidden away in the woods and dunes. Painter Edward Hopper lived in contented isolation in a South Truro cottage for nearly 4 decades.

A lot of money may be circulating in this rusticated community, but inconspicuous consumption is the rule of the day. The culmination of the social season, tellingly enough, is the late-September "dump dance," held at Truro's recycling center. For bigger kinds of excitement or cultural stimulation, Provincetown is only a 10-minute drive away.