Comeback Kids: Classic American Road Trip Motels Are Back

Cape Cod's Uncommoner Hotel in West Yarmouth is the new kid on the block, aka Main Street and Route 28, debuting in July as the whimsical, repurposed Tidewater Hotel.

This is not your grandmother's Cape motel. Owned by Reverie Boutique Collection, it gets its inspiration from "the charm of 1930s Marseille." Guestrooms have been completely redone and split into  four categories — Visionary, Madame, Moroccan, and Voyage. For instance, the Madame rooms invoke the aesthetics of "The Madame," Louise Debois, a Parisian debutante, for an elegant Old-World vibe thanks to elegant fringe chandeliers and artwork depicting iconic French sites like the Eiffel Tower.

There are two pools — a sunny outdoor pool with cabanas and a huge indoor pool. Tucked behind the motel is where you'll find a taste of old Cape Cod — a quiet lawn with water views and shade for picnicking and bird watching.

Next year, expect a tarot-inspired menu at the restaurant/bar Gypsy Sol and fresh brews, breakfast wraps, and pastries at the "mystic-inspired" Arcana Café, which will replace Tidewater's Helen's Diner that has been dishing out pancakes and corned beef hash for 50 years.

Sister property Freebird Motor Lodge, a 74-guest room spot in West Yarmouth, also landed on the Cape scene in recent years. The music-themed retro motel, named for Lynyrd Skynyrd's 1974 pop hit, is housed in the former Hunters Green Motel, which had been a Route 28 legend since the '70s.

Freebird's MO is a rebel spirit with fun-loving, whimsical décor at every spin. There's a lively pool area with pops of colorful décor and cabanas, and music is pumped everywhere throughout the property. The Dirty Birdie trailer bar serves fun margaritas and other cocktails.

The Treehouse Lodge is a nature-loving perch in Falmouth's Woods Hole that's home to the celebrated Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI). With its throwback motel vibe, the two-story property dates to 1959, when it was the Sleepy Hollow Motel. Fast forward to 2017, when it debuted as the renovated 23-room Treehouse Lodge — with a low-key gathering spot for cornhole, bonfires in the center of it all, and that desirable walkability to the village of Woods Hole, the beach, and the ferry to Martha's Vineyard. It's a fancy-free, laid-back spot with attractive tree-round shelves, curtains that mimic camping tent flaps, and no TVs in most guest rooms.

Red Jacket Resorts, a family-friendly collection of motel properties in Yarmouth, began in the 1960s as Blue Rock Motor Inn (now Blue Rock Golf Resort) and expanded to include Red Jacket Beach Resort, Riviera Beach Resort, Blue Water Resort, and Green Harbor Resort. Named for the Red Jacket Clipper, a 19th-century sailing vessel helmed by Cape native Asa Eldridge, in 2021, the portfolio was bought by EOS Hospitality. Extensive $40 million renovations were just recently completed on three of the flagship properties — Red Jacket Beach, Riviera Beach, and Blue Water Resort — and there are still hints of old Cape Cod; the neon sign that hangs at Blue Water Resort is the original, and the ocean views are still as timeless as a Cape sunrise.