Martha's Vineyard

Beach life is the main reason most people come in summer, and the island has two quite different shores. On the Nantucket Sound side, the long strip of State Beach between Oak Bluffs and Edgartown and the small town beaches nearby have calm, shallow water that reaches about 21°C to 23°C in August. The south shore, around Katama's South Beach, faces open Atlantic surf. The water there is cooler, the waves are bigger and the currents can be strong. Up-island, the clay cliffs at Aquinnah and the sand at Menemsha are the most scenic places to spend a beach day.

The swimming season is short. The sea is pleasant from July into September and too cold for most people outside those months. Some of the finest beaches in Chilmark and West Tisbury are reserved for residents and renters in summer, so day visitors staying in the down-island towns mostly use the public beaches along the Sound and the south shore. Most of the island's sand is soft and clean, and there is a lot of it.

Eating here means New England seafood at its simplest: lobster rolls, fried clams, chowder and oysters from the island's ponds. The best of it comes from the fish markets and shacks at Menemsha harbour, where people buy steamed lobster and eat it on the docks at sunset. Inland, the farms of West Tisbury and Chilmark supply roadside stands and a long-running farmers' market with produce, baked goods and cheese.

The restaurant scene is small and highly seasonal. It centres on Edgartown, Oak Bluffs and Vineyard Haven, and much of it closes outside summer. There are some polished dining rooms, but nothing like the range of a city, and eating out is expensive throughout. Some of the up-island towns have limited alcohol licensing, so bringing your own wine to dinner is a familiar habit.

The island's heritage is in its townscapes rather than its museums. Edgartown's white whaling captains' houses, with their picket fences, lead down to a small lighthouse at the harbour mouth. In Oak Bluffs, the Wesleyan Grove campground is a ring of brightly painted gingerbread cottages around an open-air iron tabernacle, a survival of the Methodist camp meetings of the nineteenth century. Nearby, the Flying Horses Carousel is among the oldest operating platform carousels in the country.

At the western tip, the Gay Head Lighthouse and the clay cliffs of Aquinnah sit on Wampanoag land, and the island's long history as a summer resort for African American families is traced along a heritage trail. The Martha's Vineyard Museum in Vineyard Haven covers the island's story. Together these make two or three pleasant days of looking around, but there is no major collection here.

Going out on the island mostly happens on Circuit Avenue in Oak Bluffs, where a few bars stay busy on summer nights, and in the harbour bars of Edgartown. The crowd is mostly visitors and seasonal staff, and things wind down well before the small hours. The rest of the island, especially up-island, is quiet after dinner. Outside July and August there is very little going on in the evenings.

This is a low, gentle landscape of moors, oak and pine woods, salt ponds and stone walls. It is at its most dramatic at the coloured clay cliffs of Aquinnah. Conservation land covers much of the island. The trails at Cedar Tree Neck and Menemsha Hills lead down to the north shore, and the Felix Neck sanctuary is good for watching ospreys and shorebirds. Across a short ferry hop, Chappaquiddick's Cape Poge is a wild barrier beach best explored by four-wheel drive or on foot.

Cycling is the classic way to see the island, on paved paths linking the down-island towns and through the state forest. Sailing, kayaking on the ponds and surfcasting for striped bass fill the rest of the outdoor calendar, and autumn brings a long-running fishing derby. It is lovely, easygoing country, but there are no mountains or wilderness.

Some outings stay on the island. Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, Vineyard Haven and up-island Menemsha and Aquinnah each feel different enough to fill a day, and Chappaquiddick is a two-minute ferry ride across Edgartown harbour. In summer, a passenger ferry from Oak Bluffs crosses to Nantucket, whose cobbled whaling town and grey-shingled lanes make the best day out. Another summer ferry from Oak Bluffs reaches New Bedford in about an hour. Its old whaling district of cobbled streets and counting houses is a national historical park, and the city has a fine whaling museum.

Cape Cod is also within reach. A summer ferry runs from Oak Bluffs to Hyannis, and the year-round boats to Woods Hole land you at a small harbour village with a famous oceanographic institution. From there, Falmouth's village green is close by and Sandwich, the Cape's oldest town with its glass museum, is under an hour's drive. Provincetown and Boston are too far to do comfortably and come back the same day. Most crossings to the mainland and Nantucket run only from late spring to early autumn, so the off-season choice is much narrower.

The island works best for families who want a simple beach summer. The calm, shallow water along State Beach and the small harbour beaches in Oak Bluffs and Vineyard Haven suits young children. The towns are safe and easy to walk, and families can cycle the flat paths between Oak Bluffs and Edgartown together. Children love the antique Flying Horses Carousel, ice cream on Circuit Avenue, crabbing off the docks and the nature trails at Felix Neck.

There is nothing built on a large scale for children, no aquarium, zoo or rainy-day museum of note, so a run of wet days can drag. Getting a family and its luggage onto the ferry, and finding a rental house in high summer, takes planning. Most families base themselves in a rented cottage near one of the down-island towns.

You reach the island by ferry, most often the short crossing from Woods Hole on Cape Cod to Vineyard Haven or Oak Bluffs. Bringing a car across in summer takes planning, and many visitors leave theirs on the mainland. Once there, the down-island towns of Vineyard Haven, Oak Bluffs and Edgartown are compact and walkable. They are linked by an island bus network that reaches as far as Aquinnah and runs most often in summer, and by paved bike paths.

The up-island villages and beaches are further apart, along winding two-lane roads that clog in July and August, so trips to Aquinnah or Menemsha take longer than the distances suggest. Outside summer the buses run less often and a car becomes more useful.

Shopping is a gentle part of a summer afternoon here. Edgartown's Main Street and harbour lanes have preppy clothing boutiques, home-goods shops and art galleries. Vineyard Haven has a quieter Main Street with bookshops and island-branded clothing that has become a souvenir in its own right. Up-island, summer artisan fairs and a weekly flea market in Chilmark sell pottery, jewellery and paintings by local makers. There is no luxury shopping or real retail depth, and many shops close outside the season.

In summer this is a very expensive place to stay. Hotel rooms and rental houses cost a great deal, and much of the accommodation is booked for whole weeks, often months ahead. Eating out is pricey even at casual seafood shacks, and the ferry adds to the bill, especially with a car. The island buses and a bike keep transport costs down, and picnics from the farm stands help, but there is no budget way to spend a July week here. Late spring and autumn are noticeably easier on the wallet.

The island's performing life is small and comes in summer. The open-air Tabernacle in Oak Bluffs hosts concerts and community sing-alongs. A small playhouse in Vineyard Haven stages theatre, and a few bars in Oak Bluffs and Edgartown have live bands on summer nights. Outdoor shows and chamber concerts appear around the island in July and August. There is no opera, orchestra or regular major venue, and visitors who come for performances will find a short local programme rather than a scene.

The island's wellness offer is its pace rather than its spas. Up-island, around West Tisbury, Chilmark and Aquinnah, days settle into a rhythm of farm stands, quiet roads and long evenings. Late spring and early autumn are calmer still, and the season around September is the most restorative time to come. There is no bathing tradition, and spa treatments mean a handful of inn and hotel spas plus yoga classes and massage therapists in the main towns. In high summer, traffic and crowds in Edgartown and Oak Bluffs cut into the calm, so people who come to unwind tend to stay up-island.