Nantucket or the Vineyard?

Parent Cafe
1

H and I will be flying to Boston on the Wednesday before Memorial Day and plan to be in New Hampshire Friday afternoon/evening for a family event. Thinking about driving to the Cape and taking a ferry to either Nantucket or Martha’s Vineyard on Thursday morning and staying over Thursday night. We have been to the Cape before, but never to either of the islands.

So any suggestions? Which island? (I have always wanted to see both, but we just don’t have time). Suggestions on places to stay? Anything we should know about taking the ferry? Is this feasible at all?

2

See where you can get reservations and go there. For the Memorial Day weekend, you may find you don’t have a choice!

3

Are you planning to take your car over on the ferry?

4

@thumper1 - we will be there before the weekend so hopefully it won’t be that much of an issue.

@ams5796 - we will have a rental car, so yes we would likely take it.

Another option is to stay somewhere on the Cape and just take the ferry over (with or without car) for the day. Might be more feasible given our timeline.

5

Nantucket is very doable with a bike (weather permitting, and May isn’t really summer on the Cape) if you are so inclined. That would allow you to go without the car.

6

It is quite expensive to take your car over to Nantucket or the Vineyard. Maybe $150-$180+ R/T to MV and $400-$450+ to Nantucket. Trip to MV is 45 minutes vs two hours to Nantucket.

You can pay to park your car ($15/day) at the ferry terminal and stay overnight. Since you only have one day, you will either want to take the Fast Ferry to Nantucket or the regular ferry to the Vineyard. There is a beach quite close to town.

You can bike everywhere easily on Nantucket, and all commercial activity is centered on where the ferry comes in. (Except 'Sconset, but you could fill a day without traveling out there.) The Vineyard is larger with several distinct towns. I believe there is some sort of bus system but have never used it so cannot advise. There are definitely taxis and Ubers, if you wanted to see another area.

7

Not taking your car opens up a lot of options. Car reservations are much harder to get than people reservations.

If the ferry is half the fun, go to Nantucket - longer ride, ocean conditions, not as crowded. MV is an easy day trip, more ferry options. If you can find a nice hotel, you can stay but it is just as easy to go, stay all day and come back and sleep on the Cape. If you need to head out to NH early Friday, I’d probably do that. Traffic will start to pick up (in both directions and through Boston) on Friday.

I don’t think I’d stay on Nantucket and then try to head out to NH on Friday morning. Check the schedule, but there might not be an early enough ferry to get you on the road before noon.

8

P.S. Steamship Authority runs the car ferry to both islands. There are a number of fast ferry options, so just google the term fast ferry if you want to go to Nantucket without your car.

9

This is no basis to make a decision but I’m reading some fiction right now that involves both - it makes it sound like Nantucket is more stuffy and the Vineyard is more relaxed - but that could totally be wrong! :slight_smile:

@Bromfield2 might have some good advice if I’m remembering correctly?

10

IMO, that is not wrong.

11

BINGO!

Day trip to the Vineyard. You’ll want to leave the Cape by 10 a.m. to beat Boston traffic. MANY people go north to the Lakes Region of NH for holiday weekends. As the unofficial kick-off to the summer season you can expect people to leave early for the weekend.

12

The islands are well worth a visit and yet with this time frame, there may be some challenges.

In case it helps, there are fast people-only Sea Streak ferries to MV (45 minutes to 1 hour trip) and Nantucket (2 hr trip) from New Bedford MA. with pay parking lots near dock. New Bedford is not on the Cape. May be worth checking it out and using ubers on-island. The ferry is a 40 minute drive from TF Green airport in RI; just over an hour from Logan if light traffic.

Agree with others that traffic north to NH on Friday will be very dense. Those fast ferries may make a day trip possible, allowing for a smoother drive up on Friday if that is important.

All the best with your trip.

13

So fiction IS sometimes the truth! :wink: Sounds like a wonderful opportunity either way @FallGirl

14

I’m partial to MV - we go every year. But there is so much to see and do that for a quick trip I would choose Nantucket. Yes, it is more stuffy but very quaint and really only one main “village.” Would not take a car. Ferries likely booked, at least to MV. Not as many options for lodging so you want to get right on that.

15

A quick tripadvisor search for that night shows that accommodations can still be had with plenty of choices on Nantucket. It’s been awhile since my last visit to the island but we enjoyed our stay at White Elephant which offers a nice harbor view and easy walking distance to the downtown shopping and dining areas.

16

We love MV. We never take a car. They have a wonderful bus that gets you wherever you want to go. We enjoy the western side of the island, which is quiet and rural. But then we’ll take a bus to one of the towns on the eastern side for dinner and shopping. People are so friendly! More than once we’d be walking along and people would stop to offer us rides.

17

You may have some trouble in either case finding accommodations that don’t require a two or even three night minimum.

18

You can also fly from Hyannis to Nantucket. It’s a 15 minute flight. No car, of course, so you’d need to take a taxi to your accommodation and rent a bike.

19

I would choose Nantucket, but I have a vacation home there, so I’m not objective. It is an amazingly beautiful island that is 30 miles out to sea. There are many places to stay and sights to see on island, depending on what activities you enjoy.

One thing to know—Memorial Day is the weekend of the Figawi Regatta (a sail boat race from Hyannis to Nantucket). Google Figawi and read the story of the name. It’s funny.

Anyway, the point is that this weekend will be really crowded. There will be many, many young people partying on the beaches and in town. Since you are arriving on Thursday, you will avoid most of the crowds and you will have options if you act quickly.

IMO your best bet is to fly from Boston to Nantucket on Cape Air. If you are just going overnight, you will probably spend as much money flying as you would to take your car over or renting a car on island. If you drive to the ferry, you will also pay for parking in Hyannis. Plus, you will have the cost of ferry tickets. That means, in addition to the cost of taking the car (which is probably $250) you also purchase passenger tickets. You can take a fast ferry (1 hour) or a slow ferry (2 hours). The slow ferry is cheaper and it will be easier to get a reservation.

It is 70 miles from Boston to Hyannis, add to that the mileage from your NH destination to Boston plus ferry time and you’ll realize that just getting to the island will eat up a big chunk of the time you could have on island. The flight from Boston to Nantucket is about an hour (it’s a small plane). If you had more time and if you were coming on another weekend, I would take the ferry.

Stay at one of the hotels in town—the White Elephant or the Nantucket Hotel. If you want to stay on the beach, go to the Wauwinet. It’s far out of town (same company that owns the White Elephant) and you can sit by the beach or pool and stay away from the crowds. I think the hotel arranges a shuttle/car to town and you can probably get a ride from the airport to the hotel.

Another reason to stay at one of the hotels is that the concierge can arrange for anything you need—have bikes delivered to the hotel, arrange tours or reservations for dinner, etc. There is also a shuttle bus service on island that goes to most beaches.

PM me—I am happy to make recommendations about the beaches to visit, places to stay, what to see, where to eat, etc. Consider staying another day—there is lots to see and do. My daughter got married on island and we created a family guide to the island that we have updated every year. I would be happy to send it to you.

20

Thanks to everyone for your comments/suggestions. This has been very helpful. At this point we have pretty much decided not to take the car. We are also considering staying in New Bedford or flying from Boston (we will arrive at Logan Wednesday afternoon).

I wish we had more time…but this is being squeezed in between D’s MBA graduation in the midwest (Monday night) and and my niece’s boarding school graduation in NH on Saturday, thus the timing.

@Bromfield2 - I will PM you.