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Martha's Vineyard in January 2027: 14 Steamship sailings each way between Woods Hole and Vineyard Haven on the days we checked, highs near 40°F, sunset at 4:23 PM on New Year's Day, the fare-free bus, beaches open to everyone, and the restaurants that take the month off.
An Edgartown street at dusk after a snowfall, plowed down the middle, with the lamps already lit.
January is the island at its quietest. The holiday visitors leave on the first weekend, every ferry runs between Woods Hole and Vineyard Haven, and several of the restaurants that stayed open through December take their own vacation. What stays is a working island: plowed streets, a bus that costs nothing, beaches open to anyone who walks on, and some of the longest nights of the year for looking at stars. Below is January 2027 on Martha’s Vineyard: the ferry times, the weather, what stays open, and what has not been announced yet.
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The Steamship Authority is the only ferry in January, and every crossing lands in Vineyard Haven. Its printed timetable from January 6, 2027 is not posted yet, but the booking system already shows the month: on the days we checked (Tuesday the 12th, Friday the 15th, Saturday the 16th and Monday the 18th), the two passenger ferries make 14 sailings each way, from 6:00 AM until 9:45 PM out of Woods Hole and 9:30 PM out of Vineyard Haven. Reservations are open for travel through May 17, 2027.
The 2027 fares are not final. In 2026 an adult walk-on ticket is $11 one way, including a 50-cent town fee, and walk-ons need no reservation. The Steamship Authority’s staff has proposed next year’s rates for a board vote: 50 cents more on an adult ticket, and a car under 17 feet going from $73.50 to $77.50 each way from January to March.
There is no parking at the Woods Hole terminal. The Palmer Avenue lot in Falmouth is $20 a day in the off-season in 2026 (the proposal for 2027 is $21), with free shuttles to the boat, and Peter Pan buses run from Boston to the Woods Hole terminal. Our Woods Hole parking guide has the lots, and the Boston guide has the bus and the other routes.
The other boats are seasonal. The Island Queen from Falmouth is closed until May 28, 2027, Hy-Line runs its Hyannis boat to the island from May through October, and the Seastreak from New Bedford runs in season and over Thanksgiving weekend. Cape Air flies to the island’s airport all year, from Boston Logan, New York’s JFK, White Plains and New Bedford; the other airlines fly only in season. Taxis wait at the curb in front of Gate 4.
The Oak Bluffs Steamship Authority terminal on a bright winter day in 2026, snow banked along the lot. In winter every crossing lands in Vineyard Haven instead.
NOAA’s normals put Edgartown’s average January high at 40°F and the low at 26. Snow comes in short spells, about 8.8 inches in an average January with only two or three days of an inch or more, and the ocean around the island keeps most of it from lasting more than a day or two. The water is about 38°F.
Big storms still come. On January 25, 2026, the Martha’s Vineyard Times reported a forecast of eight to 12 inches of snow and delays and cancellations to transportation, and the Vineyard Gazette called it the largest snowfall in years. For the ferry, the wind is the thing to watch: at the island’s airport the average January wind is about 11 mph, and most Januaries have between two and seven days with gusts of 40 mph or more. The Steamship Authority sends delay and cancellation alerts by text message, and signing up before you travel saves a wasted drive to Woods Hole.
Five Corners in Vineyard Haven, the intersection everyone crosses, quiet in January with plowed snow piled on the corners.
January is when the island’s restaurants take their own holidays. The pattern from January 2026, from the Martha’s Vineyard Times’ year-round list as summarized in our Thanksgiving to March guide: Alchemy in Edgartown closed from January 1 to February 11, Rosewater through January 19, Sweet Life Cafe in Oak Bluffs for the month, The Attic in Vineyard Haven for part of it, and Wicked Burger until February 2. Most of the places on the year-round list stayed open, several on shorter weeks. The January 2027 dates are not posted yet, so the what’s open year-round guide is the page to check before you count on a table.
Cronig’s Market lists only Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas as its closed days. At the Martha’s Vineyard Museum in Vineyard Haven, the Menagerie of Marvels exhibition of Eleanor Hubbard’s paintings runs to January 17, 2027.
The beaches belong to whoever shows up. Chilmark’s Lucy Vincent Beach is open to non-residents from September 16 to May 31, and Squibnocket once its season ends, so the beaches you cannot get near in July are open to walkers now. Seals haul out on the Chappaquiddick side of Wasque, and in years when snowy owls come south they turn up on the Katama plains. With the leaves down, the island’s trails have their widest water views of the year, and at Felix Neck the winter ducks are on the pond.
The nights are long and, away from the towns, dark. Our stargazing guide has the places to go and the Chilmark library’s telescope you can borrow. The state’s winter deer season runs in the island’s hunting zones from January 1 to February 13, 2027, never on Sundays, and the hunters wear blaze orange, so some bright color on a weekday walk in the woods is a good idea. Deer ticks are active on any day above freezing, so a tick check after a walk is still a good habit.
The clay cliffs at Aquinnah with snow in the folds.
The month opens with New Year’s Day; our New Year’s guide has the evening before and what is open the day after. Martin Luther King Jr. Day is Monday, January 18. The indoor winter market at the Agricultural Hall had not announced its dates for this winter when we last checked, and the libraries, film nights and talks post their programs a few weeks ahead; our events calendar adds them as they are announced.
Snow on the gingerbread cottage porches in Oak Bluffs.
The VTA buses run their off-season timetable through April 15, 2027, and rides are free through June 30, 2027. Route 1 between Edgartown and Vineyard Haven runs every 30 minutes, from 5:30 AM out of Edgartown until after 11 PM, and the up-island routes run less often. From December 27 to March 7 some trips do not run on Sundays and holidays, and on New Year’s Day and Martin Luther King Jr. Day the buses run their Sunday service, so it helps to check the trip you need. The Chappy ferry runs one boat all winter, continuously from 6:30 AM to 10 PM and again from 11 to 11:15 PM. Our without a car guide puts it all together.
The Jaws Bridge in winter, where Beach Road crosses into Edgartown. Off-season you can have the film’s most famous crossing to yourself.
Vineyard Haven and Edgartown make the easiest base: the boat and the bus are a walk away, and so is dinner. Our where to stay guide has the hotels and inns town by town, and since some places close for part of the winter, it pays to check an inn’s own calendar for your dates before you book the boat.
Walkers, birders, photographers, people who want a quiet room to write in, and anyone curious about the island as the people who live here know it in winter. It is not the month for swimming or for a first look at the island in full swing, and up-island most places are shut. Two or three nights in Vineyard Haven or Edgartown works well. Our February guide picks up from there, the Thanksgiving to March guide covers the whole winter, and the winter hub has the island town by town.
Step 1 · WhenMonth PickerTwelve months compared on NOAA numbers, crowds, prices and what is open. 
Step 2 · DaysDay-by-Day Trip PlannerMorning, afternoon and evening sketched for every day, events dropped in, emailed to you. 
Step 3 · CostTrip Cost CalculatorFerry, beds with the rooms tax, meals, getting around and activities in one price range. Our own footage from the island’s off-season.
For quiet streets, empty beaches and long walks, yes. Highs are around 40°F, sunset is at 4:23 PM on New Year’s Day, and some restaurants close for part of the month, but the harbor towns, the ferry and the fare-free bus keep running.
Yes. The Steamship Authority sails between Woods Hole and Vineyard Haven every day. On the January 2027 days we checked it made 14 sailings each way, from 6:00 AM to a last boat at 9:45 PM from Woods Hole and 9:30 PM from Vineyard Haven. Walk-ons need no reservation; cars do.
NOAA’s normals for Edgartown give an average high of 40°F and a low of 26°F, with about 8.8 inches of snow in the month. The ocean is around 38°F.
Many are, mostly in Vineyard Haven, Oak Bluffs and Edgartown, but January is when several take their vacation. Our what’s open year-round guide is the place to check before you go.
Yes. The VTA bus is free through June 30, 2027, and Route 1 between Edgartown and Vineyard Haven runs every 30 minutes. Up-island buses run less often, and taxis wait at the airport.
Ferry sailings are from the Steamship Authority’s booking system for January 12, 15, 16 and 18, 2027, and the reservation dates, 2026 fares and parking rates from its own pages; the 2027 figures are from its staff’s preliminary rate proposal of October 16, 2026. Sunrise and sunset times are from the U.S. Naval Observatory, temperatures and snow from NOAA’s 1991–2020 normals for Edgartown, water temperature from NOAA’s Woods Hole station and wind from NOAA’s records for the island’s airport. Bus times are from the VTA’s printed off-season timetable, the Chappy ferry hours from its own site, the other ferries from their own sites, flights and taxis from the airport’s site, the museum exhibition from the museum’s page and the deer season from MassWildlife. The January 2026 storm is from the Martha’s Vineyard Times and the Vineyard Gazette. All checked November 11, 2026. Dates that are not posted yet are marked as such, and we update the page as they go up.
From MV Vacation, written on Martha’s Vineyard · https://mvvacation.com/blog/marthas-vineyard-in-january · printed . Hours, prices and schedules change; the page online is the current one.
Martha's Vineyard in February 2027: 14 Steamship sailings each way on the days we checked, highs near 42°F, sunset moving from 4:58 to 5:31 PM, the fare-free bus, Presidents' Day and school vacation dates, and the restaurants that take their winter break.
Thanksgiving 2026 on Martha's Vineyard, taken from each organizer's own page: three restaurants serving dinner, four take-home menus with order deadlines from November 17, the Oak Bluffs Turkey Trot, the weekend's festivals and the Chowder Cup, plus ferries and buses.
Where Martha's Vineyard is, with our own maps: an island in Dukes County, Massachusetts, under four miles across Vineyard Sound from Woods Hole on Cape Cod, 75 miles from Boston and 70 from Providence by road. How big it is, the six towns, up-island and down-island, every way to get there and where the name comes from.
Martha's Vineyard in December 2026: First Friday on December 4, Light Up Oak Bluffs on December 5, Christmas in Edgartown December 10 to 13, 4:15 sunsets, one ferry into Vineyard Haven, and what stays open through Christmas.
All six town libraries on Martha's Vineyard, checked October 2026: hours and addresses, how visitors get a library card, free Wi-Fi, the concerts, art shows and programs, the Libraries of Things with beach chairs and stargazing kits, museum and beach parking passes, and a short history of each building.
Cell service on Martha's Vineyard town by town: towers down-island, no tower in Chilmark or Aquinnah and the named dead spots, what each carrier reports to the FCC, free Wi-Fi at all six libraries and on the ferry, the $10 xfinitywifi pass, prepaid plans and 911 when you have no bars.
Island tip of the day Timing No. 79 of 79 New tip at midnight, island time
Oak Bluffs is liveliest Friday–Sunday nights but most livable Monday–Thursday mornings. Want the scene? Go weekends. Want the neighborhood? Go weekdays.
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