Traveling wave solutions have played a vital role in demonstrating the wave character of nonlinear problems emerging in the field of mathematical sciences and engineering. To depict the nature of propagation of the nonlinear waves in nature, a range of nonlinear evolution equations has been proposed and investigated in the existing literature. In this article, solitary and traveling periodic wave solutions for the (2 + 1)‐dimensional modified KdV‐KP equation are derived by employing an ansatz method, named the enhanced (G′/G)‐expansion method. For this continued equation, abundant solitary wave solutions and nonlinear periodic wave solutions, along with some free parameters, are obtained. We have derived the exact expressions for the solitary waves that arise in the continuum‐modified KdV‐KP model. We study the significance of parameters numerically that arise in the obtained solutions. These parameters play an important role in the physical structure and propagation directions of the wave that characterizes the wave pattern. We discuss the relation between velocity and parameters and illustrate them graphically. Our numerical analysis suggests that the taller solitons are narrower than shorter waves and can travel faster. In addition, graphical representations of some obtained solutions along with their contour plot and wave train profiles are presented. The speed, as well as the profile of these solitary waves, is highly sensitive to the free parameters. Our results establish that the continuum‐modified KdV‐KP system supports solitary waves having different shapes and speeds for different values of the parameters.