Pp - in terms of vibe and culture, the cape is touristy / beach vacationers / beach town feel; Boston is a major city; Cambridge is similar with a lot of the culture related to Harvard being there, and Western Mass has more farms and mountains. As you get to Western Mass, there are some small, struggling towns along with college towns.

I went to Williams and when my friends and I drove to the Cape (only as far down as the Hyannis area more or less) it was probably 5 hours. Maybe a little less?

I grew up in a Boston suburb. While there are plenty of parts of Mass I’m not familiar with, as others said Concord / Lexington are pretty towns; tide pooling in the North Shore is fun, the Cape can be quite beautiful (route 6a for history / old buildings, National Sea Shore and / or the dunes for nature) and I think the Berkshires are beautiful too. In Boston walk the Freedom Trail, visit old graveyards, the old North Church, and eat in the North End.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in Western Mass (Springfield area). In my experience, it is very culturally similar to Eastern Mass. The main difference is that Western Mass has fewer narcissists and strivers.

By strivers do you mean people who want to do something with their lives? That is what striver means.

In much of Massachusetts the greatest aspiration is to live in the same town your family has been in for generations, do the same jobs and associate with the same people. Any deviation from that is suspect.

Massachusetts has the highest QoL, best education system, and best health care in the US.
There are worse things in life than wanting to remain there in adulthood.