Nantucket Off Season and On

On Nantucket in the summer, the thing to do is go to the beach. Many hotels and B&B's provide beach towels to their guests--a good thing if you're trying to pack light. Since it's an island, beaches aren't in short supply, but I personally liked the bike ride out to the 'Sconcet beach at the far end of the island.

In the winter (or on a cool, rainy summer day) check out the Nantucket Whaling Museum in the center of Nantucket town a short walk from the ferry landing. Kids will like seeing the giant whale jaws and the boats (only slightly smaller) in which the whalemen hunted their prey. Don't worry--even though the museum includes artifacts from the whaleship Essex (whose story inspired parts of Moby Dick) you won't have horrible high school lit flashbacks.

Quick Tips:

On Main Street there are two old-fashioned drug stores, Congdon’s Pharmacy and Nantucket Pharmacy, one next door to the other. Each has a soda fountain and lunch counter inside. Stop by for a vanilla or a lemon Coke.

Best Way To Get Around:

You can take your car over on the ferry from Hyannis, but don't. It's expensive, and once you arrive in Nantucket, there aren't many places to park. Transportation isn't a problem, though. Nantucket town is compact and easily walkable, and the island is small and flat enough to make biking fun even for the terminally out of shape. You can rent bikes from a shop next to the ferry landing.

Seven Sea Street Inn is conveniently located three blocks from the ferry landing in Nantucket town. It's a small but comfortable newer post-and-beam house. You enter into a country-styled common room with pine beams and a fireplace where breakfast is served in two seatings each morning.There is also a common room on the second floor, with comfy chairs, a wood stove, and a small selection of books.

For a good view of Nantucket Sound and Nantucket town, climb the stairs to the widow's walk on the roof. There's an indoor hot tub, too, located off the downstairs common room.

Rooms are moderate-sized with canopy beds and simple Shaker-style furnishings. All rooms have their own bathrooms--ours had a shower.

Breakfast is continental and includes granola, yogurt, english muffins, and a choice of home-made coffee cakes and muffins, coffee and tea.

Martin House is within walking distance of the ferry landing in Nantucket town (though we were glad we had our bikes with us to balance our bags on as we walked there). It's a large clapboard house with a comfortable porch off the side.

You can get rooms with or without private bath here--my parents were the ones who got the room with the private bath (and a lovely canopy bed and fireplace) on the first floor. My sisters and I shared a large room under the eves on the third floor, with the bathroom (shared with one other room) next door.

The rooms were comfortable and cozy, decorated with old-fashioned prints. Our room had two queen beds, a wicker night table complete with fresh flowers and glossy travel magazines to read, and a rocking chair nestled in a dormer. It was like visiting your grandma's house, if your grandma happens to have a large, rambling, quaint, flowery house on Nantucket.

There is a large continental breakfast each morning, which includes juice, coffee and tea, really good homemade granola, fruit, and homemade baked goods. Grab your food from the sideboard in the dining room and head out onto the porch to eat if the weather's fine.

The Tap Room at the Jared Coffin House is a cosy pub carved out of the Coffin House's basement. In the winter, it's popular with locals (though that may be in part because it's one of the few resturants that's open year-round).

On an island where eating is almost universally expensive, the Tap Room provides a good value--my friend and I had two beers, two steak dinners, two coffees and split a dessert. The steaks were tasty and perfectly cooked to order, the apple crisp a'la mode was warm and comforting with a crumbly strusel topping, and the total bill came to $55--not horrible in a town where a burger can easily top $9.

The decor tends to dark woods, with an overall colonial feel, and the staff is efficient and friendly.

The Rose and Crown is in the heart of Nantucket Town on Water Street between Main St. and Broad St.

It's a bar as well as a resturant (as a crowd of cheerful revelers around the bar attests), but there are also plenty of families who visit for lunch and dinner.

The decor is eclectic, with old-fashioned advertising signs and local memorabilia on the walls, sort of like a non-prefab TGI Friday's.

The menu runs to bar food and has something for everybody, from spicy buffalo chicken sandwiches and burgers (around $8), to pasta and seafood($15-$20). There's a kid's menu for families, and gooey chocolatey desserts for kids and adults alike.

After the dinner rush, the Rose morphs into a night spot (at least in the summer), so families might want to shoot for an early dinner and miss the partying 20 and 30-somethings who file in at night.

I've been to Nantucket in the summer and in the winter. Each season has its virtues.

In summer, Nantucket is a bustling hive of beach-vacationing-tourists and the young people who pour into town to serve them as resturant and hotel staff. There's always someplace to go at night in the summer--especially if you have money--summertime Nantucket isn't cheap. The beaches are lovely and the town is quaint, with streets of modest Quaker shingle houses next to rows of grand Federal and Greek Revival mansions.

In winter, things are much, much quieter (read--nearly dead). Many of the island's hotels, b&b's and resturants are closed for the season, and the nightlife is--er--not very lively, but this lack of options is made up for by the severe drop in prices, and the feeling that you have the island all to yourself. I love Nantucket in the winter. It's peaceful, and you can linger in the little shops, then return to your b&b to curl up with a book and a cup of tea by the fire.