Nantucket or Martha's Vineyard
 

We were wanting to take a day trip out to either Nantucket or Martha's Vineyard. Which one should we choose? We have distant relative in MV but have been there before.

Sara

Nantucket. In my opinion, much more quaint.

Another vote for Nantucket. Particularly if it's just a day trip. The island's unique.

I think your decision depends on your interests and what you want to accomplish in one day. And, if you want to get off the ferry and concentrate on the one area it drops you off and not have to rely on other forms of transportation or if you are inclined to rent bicycles, mopeds or a jeep for a day - or take the shuttles from town to town.

To me, a day trip to Nantucket can mean walking the wharf area and adjacent shops, the boat basin docks (which also have shops along the main strip on either side with galleries, stores), a stroll up and down Main St and the side streets, lunch in one of the wharf restaurants outside on the decks, and you can do the museum, a ligthhouse and even walk towards jettie's beach, and of course, eat ice cream.

You can also take the shuttle if you wanted to to another area, like out to the Summer House or Madaket, or if you have a special interest, like lighthouses - there is a lighthouse tour available.

The Vineyard has several towns, Oak Bluffs is likely where you would get off the ferry. It has several attractions, not knowing your interests they would be; the old carousel, the gingerbread houses and walking through the campground, which is quaint and delightful, the main shopping street which has some shops and restaurants, but not what I would consider high end like Main St on Nantucket - there is outdoor dining and there are a few beaches you could walk to. Other than that, you would need to use the island shuttle, bikes, mopeds or a jeep rental to get to Vineyard Haven (small, one street really with some shops and a few restaurants), Edgartown (which has higher end stores, galleries, restaurants on the harbor, you could see Chappy from there and the lighthouse) and if you had bikes or some form of transport, you could take the Chappy ferry across and go to the Mytoi Gardens and the beach - but to me the beauty of the Vineyard is up island and seeing Aquinnah, the lighthouse and clay cliffs, hiking trails and beaches.

There are of course, also tours on the vineyard where you can sign up and a bus will take you out to Aquinnah if you wanted to break up your day that way.

You say you have a distant relative in MV, and if that meant you had transport, that would make a difference as you could do a nice drive around the island for the day stopping in the different towns and seeing different things - and you could even go over to Chappy on the one minute ferry by car -

so I guess it depends on what you would choose to do that day - what you are looking for - shopping;/eating/beaches/etc.

Hope this helps. You can't go wrong either way, they are both an enjoyable day trip and lovely islands.

Thanks for the replies. We love to bike so we were thinking about biking on either island. And yes if we were on Martha's Vineyard we would have transportation.

I have heard that the ferry to Nantucket is really long and makes the day on the island fairly short. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

We really like to see the sights and learn history so Nantucket sounds like it may be a good option.

I haven't taken the ferry as transportation to Nantucket in years, although we were there in early July, so I couldn't speak exactly to times - but the boat ride is longer - you can check times and schedules on steamshipauthority.com and hy-line, as I am not sure which port you are going from

Nantucket

This question is asked frequently. Here are previous answers

http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...p;tid=34776678

Some of the decision I guess depends on timing and from where you're starting. If you've been to MV but never Nantucket, why isn't this an easy decision?

The "fast ferry" can get you to Nantucket in one hour. The times are listed on the website for the Steamship Authority. You can also take your bike on board. If you want to rent bikes instead, there are several places on the wharf right up from where the Steamship ferry comes in. I don't know when you are planning to go, but I would make reservations on the fast ferry (if that is what you decide) as they can fill up quickly. Nantucket is great for biking. There are several bike paths that will show you the Island. We like the loop that takes you out to Sconset along Milestone Road and then back along Polpis Road. It's about 15-16 miles roundtrip. There are also shorter bike paths to the beaches at Madaket and Surfside.

Thanks guys. The reason it is still a hard decision is because it was a long time ago and with Nantucket being a longer ride out I just wasn't sure if it was "different enough" from Martha's Vineyard to head out there. I think we are going to go out to Nantucket to see what it is all about.

In general I prefer Martha's Vineyard, but I think Nantucket is best for a day trip. THe stuff that is there to be seen is easier and more concentrated.

It doesn't really take any longer to get there on the fast ferry than the vineyard does.

So for a week I'd go to the Vineyard, and for the day I'd go to nantucket. But there is no bad choice

I've been to both once, and I really preferred Nantucket.....it seemed like a more quiet, quaint island to me. I've only been to each island ONCE, and only for a day each....so my opinion may be skewed, but I felt that MV was more crowded, and Nan. was less commercialized. I do believe that it took longer to get to Nantucket, but I still felt like we had a nice long day there to explore. We did a few of the cobblestoned streets, looked at the residences and lodgings, ate lunch at a restaurant and also some chowder later as a snack before getting back on the ferry. We also took a shuttle to one of the beaches on the southern side of the island (??Sunset Beach??). It was gorgeous, beautiful waves, beautiful sand beach.....probably spent 2 hrs. or so there. We loved our day on Nantucket. We were just there last summer (Aug), and I think I was at MV about 10 yrs. ago. From my experiences, I'd choose Nantucket.