The Cape Cod town of Harwich, between Dennis to the west, Brewster to the north, and Chatham and Orleans to the east (map), was settled in 1670 and incorporated as a town in 1694.

Today, it is a quiet resort town of private homes, vacation homes, condominiums, and a few hotels.

The town has seven villages: Harwich Center, North Harwich, South Harwich, East Harwich, West Harwich, Harwich Port and Pleasant Lake.

Most of Harwich's beaches are on the south shore on Nantucket Sound. Although the beaches are open to the public, parking at most of them is reserved for permit holders—meaning town residents, so in effect they are pretty well closed to those who do not own or rent property in town.

Harwich Port, the town's main population center, has the town's three small, pretty harbors for private boats: Allen, Saquatucket and Wychmere. Also here are the Harwich Chamber of Commerce and its Information Office, a historic church, cafés, restaurants, and shops.

Hawksnest State Park is here, as is Long Pond, Cape Cod's largest body of fresh water—big enough to be the favored landing-place for sea planes.

Harwich boasts that it is the birthplace of Massachusetts's cranberry industry, having begun to harvest the tart red berries in 1846.

If you're meandering along MA Route 28 between Dennis and Chatham, you may want to stop for a little while in Harwich Port; but if you don't own or rent property there, it has little to hold you.

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