Barnstable in Cape Cod

Can anyone tell me about the personality of the town? How far it is from the beach, etc.  We are trying to book a place and I can't get a feel for it online.

It is nice but not near the stuff you go to the cape for. Is this your first visit to Cape Cod? If so , I will post more info.

Been once before, but years ago and not for very long.

Meh.

what are going for? 

Have been going for 10+ years.

Have driven thru it on the way to other places. 

look at Orleans. 

Depends on what you look for for vacation. It is very quiet around Barnstable. We like the quiet.

I was also going to suggest Orleans.  There and Chatham puts you in the middle of the cape from where you can reach other sites.

We've been going to Eastham for over 20 years, and we're partial to the outer Cape (Orleans, Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro, P'Town) and hang out there.  Our favorite pond (the Great Pond), bay beach (First Encounter), and ocean beach (Coast Guard, with Nauset a close second), are in Eastham.  

If you're into biking, the Cape Cod Rail Trail runs about 20 miles from Dennis to Wellfleet.  Eastham is the beginning of the Cape Cod National Seashore, and the Salt Pond Visitor Center has some great programs like canoeing, clamming, birding, etc.  (Even though my three "kids" are between 19 and 23, I still torture them with the 15 minute short film about the Cape's formation (The Sands of Time) as the beginning of our vacation.)  

There's no little town in Eastham, as there is in Wellfleet, or the bigger P'town, but there is great light, a great smell in the air, and a big-sky feeling, as I think there is on the whole outer Cape.  Once you're on the Cape that far east, you're pretty much sticking out into the North Atlantic, on a progressively narrow strip of land divided by Route 6.  It's much more seashore-like than the upper Cape (Barnstable, Brewster, Dennis, etc.).    

No matter where you wind up, it's worth driving to Eastham to the family-run, homemade Nauset ice cream...