Local Access is our ongoing series in which notable names in the cannabis community share insider travel tips for doing their hometowns right.
If you’ve ever driven between Boston and Cape Cod, your GPS likely took you through Massachusetts’ South Shore. While many travelers view this stretch of coastline as merely a place to pass by on the way to somewhere else, Blandine Jean-Paul feels blessed to call this beautiful beachfront enclave home.
As marketing director at Elevated Roots, a family of three dispensaries spread along the South Shore, Blandine knows the area inside and out. A longtime corporate marketing executive, she entered the cannabis space in 2021, lending her wealth of experience in everything from sales funnel strategy to digital growth to an industry she believes in.
“Cannabis is both my work and my wellness,” Blandine shares. “Working in this industry has made me a better advocate because I’ve seen firsthand how it helps people from every walk of life.”
Keep reading for Blandine’s expert recommendations for enjoying Massachusetts’ South Shore, from eating oysters in Duxbury to strolling the Plymouth waterfront—all after stopping at Elevated Roots, of course.
What makes the South Shore special?
The South Shore is where New England slows down. You get salt marshes, cranberry bogs, harbor towns, and some of the best beaches in the state—without Cape traffic or Boston prices. It’s the kind of place where the person behind you in line at the coffee shop knows your name, and probably your mom.
What’s a common misconception about the South Shore?
That it’s just a place you pass through on Route 3 to get to the Cape. People think the South Shore is a bedroom community with nothing going on. Meanwhile, we’ve got working harbors, a real food scene, world-class oysters coming out of Duxbury Bay, and 400 years of history in Plymouth alone.
How would you describe the South Shore’s cannabis culture?
Welcoming and refreshingly normal. Massachusetts has been legal since 2016, so the stigma has really softened here—our customers are teachers, nurses, retirees, fishermen, young professionals. It’s less “counterculture” and more “part of the community.”
What’s one restaurant, café, or food experience every visitor should try?
Oysters at Bluefish River Tavern in Duxbury. Eating oysters a few hundred feet from where they were pulled out of the water that morning is a South Shore rite of passage. And if it’s summer, you’re legally required to get a lobster roll somewhere with a harbor view.
What’s a place most tourists miss but absolutely shouldn’t?
World’s End in Hingham. It’s a peninsula of rolling hills and tree-lined carriage paths jutting into Boston Harbor, with skyline views that don’t feel real. Tourists flock to Plymouth Rock (which, bless it, is just a rock) and drive right past one of the most beautiful walks in Massachusetts.
If you could send visitors to just one neighborhood, attraction, or local experience, what would it be?
The Plymouth waterfront—but done right. Skip the Rock-and-run photo op, and spend the afternoon there. Walk the harbor, hit the shops and restaurants on Water Street, and catch a sunset over the bay. It’s history, food, and ocean in one walkable stretch.
If someone had only 24 hours on the South Shore, how would you tell them to spend it?
Morning coffee and a beach walk—Duxbury Beach, or Nantasket if you want more energy. Stop by Elevated Roots (I’m biased, but our team gives the best recommendations on the South Shore). Lunch in Plymouth on the waterfront, afternoon at World’s End, oysters and a lobster roll for dinner, and sunset over the harbor. You’ll be planning your next trip before you even hit the highway to go home.
What’s your favorite thing to do on the South Shore after consuming cannabis?
A beach walk at golden hour. There’s nothing like being a little elevated with your feet in the sand, watching the light change over the Atlantic. In the fall, swap that for a drive past the cranberry bogs at harvest—the flooded bogs turn crimson, and it’s stunning.
What’s one of the best cannabis destinations you’ve been to in your travels? Why?
While working on a Red Stripe marketing campaign, I invited our Miami-based agency partner to Jamaica. During the trip, we toured a hidden cannabis farm in the hills of Westmoreland, Jamaica—a stunning example of agricultural beauty on a mountainside.
What’s a memorable cannabis-related travel experience you’ve had (that you’re willing to share…)?
In Amsterdam, it was fascinating to see how cannabis culture exists within the café and coffee shop model rather than a dispensary setting. Although cannabis is not technically legal there, it was clear that cannabis use carries far less social stigma in the Netherlands than it does in the U.S.
🥊 Quick Hits
☀️ Sunrise or sunset? Sunset, preferably over a harbor
🏖️ Mountains, beach, desert, or city? Beach. I’m a South Shore girl, it’s not even a question.
✈️ Plane, train, car, or boat? Plane
🥤 Edible, flower, beverage, vape, or concentrate? Beverages for socializing, edibles for sleeping
🥔 Favorite travel snack? Chips
🇹🇭 Dream cannabis travel destination? Thailand
🪴 One destination every traveler should visit at least once? An indoor cannabis cultivation
What are your best Massachusetts cannabis travel recommendations? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
