Martha's Vineyard vs Nantucket

BostonUrbEx

BostonUrbEx

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So, which has the better...

Village/Center/Downtown?

Beaches?

Lodgings/Hotels?

Restaraunts?

Views/Sights? (ie: light houses, historic buildings, or landscape views)

Transit? (I think they have some buses of some extent?

Bike-ability?

Anything else?



Just curious as to what popular opinion is. I've only been to the Vineyard once, and that was quite some time ago, so I can't recall all that much. Nantucket I know pretty much nothing about.
 
Martha's Vineyard has six towns, three of which have significant town centers: Edgartown, Vineyard Haven, and Oak Bluffs.

Nantucket is a single town with just one center. You do not want to ride a bike in the town center, because the streets are made of very rough cobblestones. (The rest of Nantucket is fine for biking.)
 
Never been to Nantucket for long, but Martha's Vinyard is very good for biking. I have stayed there for a week at a time multiple times. The buses run very late, and they are cheap and frequent. At points the biking gets a bit long between the towns, but not bad. There are paths everywhere. Edgartown is the nicest IMO.

Vinyard havens good too.
 
Transit is great on MV but alcohol drinking is more convenient on Nantucket
 
So sounds like MV might be a nicer pick (to me). Who has the better downtown as far as food and shopping go?

Ron Newman said:
Martha's Vineyard has six towns, three of which have significant town centers: Edgartown, Vineyard Haven, and Oak Bluffs.

Nantucket is a single town with just one center. You do not want to ride a bike in the town center, because the streets are made of very rough cobblestones. (The rest of Nantucket is fine for biking.)
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Legit cobblestones, or Belgian bricks or whatever?
 
I've always found Nantucket Village to be more attractive aesthetically. That said, I enjoy the crowd on the Vineyard much more (especially Oak Bluffs). Not quite so snooty.
 
They're pretty different. Martha's Vineyard is larger and more diverse than Nantucket, especially in the Summer. As people have said, Martha's Vineyard tends to have a more laid-back feel to Nantucket, but it does depend on where on the Vineyard you are. Each village on the Vineyard has a distinct character. Oak Bluffs has the most action, and has the most "urban" feel. The Tabernacle neighborhood in Oak Bluffs is very iconic to the area, as is the Flying Horses Carousel. Vineyard Haven has a great street fair, and a cute town center on the waterfront and the famous Black Dog Tavern. Edgartown has a very quaint center and is the home of the 4th of July Parade and its famous Yacht Club. Tisbury is fairly sparse, although it contains Vineyard Haven. Aquinnah/Gay Head features gorgeous clay cliffs. The Vineyard gets considerably more crowded in the Summer than Nantucket, but has a very well established system of busses, bike/moped rentals, and taxis. The beaches get VERY crowded, although there some diversity in surf depending on if you're on the sound side or the ocean side. There are ample accommodations around the island between the hotels, B&Bs, campgrounds, rentals etc.

Nantucket is much quieter and more outwardly affluent than the Vineyard. Nantucket Village has a lot of great shops and a lot of local charm. Nantucket Nectars is based there. Outside of the village it gets sparse quickly. There are plenty of places to eat and rent lodgings, but it has a much more relaxed and less party feel from the Vineyard. There is not nearly as much connectivity with transit on Nantucket, due to the Village being the only built up destination. Bike rentals are popular, although the aforementioned cobblestones are murder to ride on (and drive on for that matter). The beaches are varied depending on how far out you go. Jetties is the major beach near the Village. The hamlets of Madaket and Siasconset on opposite ends of the island are insular and very wealthy, but have a lot of character. Madaket offers some of the most beautiful sunsets (rivaling Aqiunnah on the Vineyard). The northeastern end of the island is very undeveloped.
 
If you're looking for an island vacation, there's one other you may want to consider: Block Island, RI.
 
It's really the only solution left. If you want to see NIMBYs in action try to do anything on MVY or ACK. The number of anti-Vineyard Wind signs next to midwit lib yard signs is an interesting sight on the island. Any amount of new housing is a serious battle, and arguably there's a point given the leisure/rural feel of the island. Hopefully more permanent institutions like the hospitals (and hotels) build more staff housing to avoid the 4AM ferry runs required now for so many workers.
 
Justbuildit said:
It's really the only solution left. If you want to see NIMBYs in action try to do anything on MVY or ACK. The number of anti-Vineyard Wind signs next to midwit lib yard signs is an interesting sight on the island. Any amount of new housing is a serious battle, and arguably there's a point given the leisure/rural feel of the island. Hopefully more permanent institutions like the hospitals (and hotels) build more staff housing to avoid the 4AM ferry runs required now for so many workers.
Click to expand...
Yeah but the Islands are the perfect place for them. Pioneer Valley too.
 
Edgar town is great…so is Nantucket. Both are outrageous price wise.
 
My personal opinion on this? The charm & draw of the Cape & Islands is that we *aren't* a uber commercialized space - the provincialness is the tourist draw, and we absolutely should not encourage significant density in the island "villages", nor should we want it to become the next Mrytle Beach or Atlantic City. But the islands need a support hub. Housing, stores, etc designed for folks working on the lslands does need to be built ,and there's no real reason why it shouldn't be dense if it's "screened" from the touristy bits.

Look at Cancun - a city designed around tourists. It's got the Zona Hotelera you're supposed to see and visit, and the master planned El Centro where locals actually live. The Islands need an "El Centro" - something like a single Everett Scale 5 over 1 vs the 48 units the hospital is creating. Granted, they're also providing 70 units of senior SNF beds, but simultaneously those occupy 5/7 buildings at the MVH project.

The problem partially is that the "villages" of Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, Vinyard Haven? They're full on towns - (Tisbury is mostly comprised of the VH). I've mentioned this before elsewhere, but on the islands especially, the fact that the 6 towns often are not working together on issues seems to lead to balkanization - the towns interests clash, so I doubt West Tisbury is eager to help Edgartown solve it's problems. MV has 6 housing boards, 6 zoning boards... but a singular planning board (MV Commission) that doesn't have much ability to do much other than oppose developers.
 
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