cape, martha's or nantucket house rental
 

We are just starting to look at renting a house next summer. We (my wife and six daughters) are hoping to find a house on the water for a week in July. We envision a clean place with water that is swimmable, a beach that invites laying out in the sun and fairly close proximity (five miles or less) to a cute town for walking with good food, maybe some typical resort town shopping and a great waterfront. Any help with specific properties or a service or website that can help us with the decision would be greatly appreciated. I have already looked at many rental websites but the pictures don't always tell the whole story and there is no information on the suitability of the surrounding area given what we are hoping to find. Thanks for any help.

I hope you have a good-sized budget as houses ON the water on the Cape in July for eight people will be quite pricey. But worth it. Just to give you an idea, our home which has 4/5 bedrooms and is six houses from a private beach (but has no view) will go for $3400 a week in July. But maybe you realize that already.

Have you tried www.weneedavacation.com? It's the website we use to rent our Brewster home and I find it very interactive and accurate (at least our house is).

I don't know how easy it is to find waterfront places on Martha's Vineyard or Nantucket--they'd be higher in price I would think than the Cape itself. Your criteria make me think that Eastham (near ORleans a good walking around town), Chatham or Harwichport might be the order of the day. Orleans has very few houses actually on the water.

Why don't you see what you can find on some website and give us Cape Codders some details and we'll try to help you figure out if it's a good spot, good depiction.

we go to the vineyard every august and our cousins from california visited this year and so loved it,
they wanted to rent a house themselves for next summer - they found one on the water for $3500 a week in August for two weeks. That's about the ballpark for cost on the vineyard.

A friend of mine from CT rents every year on the vineyard, she has always used Sandpiper Realty (I think the girls name is deborah, but they do sales and rentals and she has been happy with them for over 10 yrs; she is sometimes on the water and sometimes a short walk away- likely they have a web page if you try and google them just to explore and see what's there.

. the vineyard has lots of lovely beaches and several
'towns' or areas - (oak bluffs, vineyard haven, edgartown, chappy, etc) go to mvonline and look at what the vineyard has to offer, do the same for nantucket and the cape and see which area appeals most to you and want you want to do.

While MV has good public transport on a bus system that is inexpensive nad stops at all the towns, if you want to be able to explore, hike, visit out of the way beaches, instead of just the public access main entrance ones, you would need a car - but you could also just rent a jeep for a few days to do that also.

You would need to buy the off road beach permit, which can be pricey, but this year they were offering one day passes (at a price) and you'd have to add it up if just a few days makes sense or to get the season pass if you would use it enough times while there, depending on how much you'd want to drive out on those beaches to more secluded spots.

I would also plug into the search bar here on fodors martha's vineyard, nantucket, cape cod and see what threads there are on things to do and again, which area has more of what appeals to you and your family most for activities, etc.

I would say you should do this sooner than later, esp ifyou end up on one of the islands and want your car, b/c you will have to make car ferry reservations online as soon as they open to the public.

I am most familiar with MV, so if you end up with any possibilities there and want to know more about the particular location/area of a house you find if that is what you end up considering, and post it at a later date, if I see it I will be happy to give you my opinion of the location.

Escargot-
Glad to hear that MV will have waterfront properties to rent in that price range. Feared it would be much higher.

I prefer MV to Nantucket for some of the reasons you mention. We like the more diverse topography (including some rural areas) and the different towns. But to each his own!

I use cyberentals.com to rent our beach front property in Truro, capecod. Although I'm not sure how many bedrooms you need I'm guessing that you could easily find a 4 bedroom on the water for at least 3500. Truro will fit the bill for your requested desires.
Look and try to rent by Jan. 07. I know most of my weeks are gone by then then.

ccrosner: yes, you can find rentals for that - but thinking now maybe I should have been more precise about what type - clean, nice, but what some might consider rustic but is what I like in a summer place - I have been in several rentals of friends in this 3500 price range on water, but they are of the wood floor, linoleum floors, what i would call non-decorated, non-fancy decor style - kitchens clean but maybe not renovated recently (simple cabinets and appliances) bedrooms with simple bed, bureau - with tv and cable, but no internet, that type of thing -

there are rentals for 'decorated' homes with every amenity you could think of - for far more - but the type I mentioned, are lovely and clean and have what I think is important for the summer - an outdoor shower, a bbq and a view ! and a floor I can sweep clean quickly while on vaca :)

the one we found for my cousins sleeps 6, but only one full bath, but an outdoor shower and lovely porch and small private beach/area on a harbor

all depends on the style you are looking for, of course, if you want to spend 10,000 there are the fancier ones !

escargot - it's definitely true that decor and amenities can vary widely in rentals and the price will reflect that (or should!). And I agree that a real beach cottage can be the perfect fit for vacation.

cybor makes an excellent point about the timing of your rental. My Brewster home was completely rented for Summer '06 by January 20, 2006. And the rental company (weneedavacation.com) provided research later in the year that showed that the larger homes (4+BR) are rented by mid-winter, much earlier than smaller homes. I personally think it's because the larger homes oftentimes involve more than one family and that they can't wait to reserve.

Let us know what you decide, Maytoad. We'll be curious to know.

Another factor to add to the mix is ferry reservations to MV or Nantucket - every summer ferry space on weekend days corresponding to start/end of rentals fills up almost immediately upon becoming available. So if that is where you rent, research and lock up ferry space as early as plans are firm and ferry reservations are available.

Well being on MV I can only give you MV advice. Here's a few web sites that may be of help.
The chamber of commerce- www.mvy.com
All around web site- www.mvol.com
bus system- www.vineyardtransit.com

Any questions or want any honest opinions on a particular rental just ask and provide a link : )

You have received great website referals. I have used many of them for my searches over the years. I don't know if things have changed in the rental pool but do check about linens etc. I think most Vineyard rentals include your linens, but a lot of Cape rentals do not. Just something to be aware of.

Just adding my 2 cents...

I think you will find more opportunities on the Cape than on the Vineyard or Nantucket. Just its size and the nature of a cape alone create more waterfront properties that are available to rent.

If you do rent on the Cape, I would look at the specific beach location and get some info on it. Some beaches on the cape have very warm waters (by New England standards) that are great for swimming while others can stay rather frigid. It all depends on currents, depth of the water offshore, and mostly which side of the Cape you are on.

Finally, if choosing between the Vineyard and Nantucket, I would definitely pick the Vineyard. Many of the reasons have already been mentioned. I just find it to be more interesting and more fun. For me, it is not even close.

I would suggest, if you are looking for warmer water, try renting on the bay side of Cape Cod. It is not unusual for the the water temperature to be in the 50's in the middle of July. My crazy kids never minded but some times it's so cold you can't feel your feet.

Jersey--
When you say that you should look for bayside rentals you are right...the water is warmer than the Atlantic or Nantucket Sound sides. Atlantic (at Nauset Beach) is usually around 60 to 62 when we go in July and does hurt your feet. Bayside temps are usually in the low 70s.

The way your post was worded, it might have made it sound like the bayside water was 50!

Yikes, I should proofread better. I did mean 50's in the Atlantic ocean. Don't you love Nauset beach? Has the beach erroded any more? Last time we were there (about 2 years ago) there was hardly any beach left.

Nantucket Sound water is WARMER than the Bay Side water...Atlantic Ocean side is the coldest...

Jersey--

Nauset Beach is still beautiful but there has been more erosion. That section of the Cape experienced a terrible storm in December 06 (in some areas it was almost like a mini-tornado). It pushed the dune back quite a bit at Nauset. The boardwalk from Liam's now makes a left turn when you hit the dunes (actually that change came before the December 06 storm).

Milemarker--
You may be right about the water temps but I would guess they are similar between the Sound and the Bay. And I would guess that the Bay warms up sooner in the spring...but I'm no oceanographer so I'll defer to you :)

Wow, thanks for the info. Hopefully we'll be back in Cape Cod soon.