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Trip Planning GuidesMartha’s Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard in November: sunset at 4:40 after the clocks change, foliage that peaks weeks after the mainland, resident-only beaches open to walkers, free gardens, bay scalloping, the winter ferry timetable (Vineyard Haven only, 14 crossings a day), what stays open, and how Thanksgiving week works, from the holiday dinners to the Artisans Festival.
Circuit Avenue on a November night in 2025: parked cars, a few lit storefronts and one car heading off down the street. In August this street is nose to tail until last call.
November is the month the island stops performing. The clocks fall back on the first of the month and sunset drops from about 5:40 to about 4:40 in a single night, the seasonal hotels have shut, the last of the summer boats stopped in October, and by the second week the towns are down to the people who live here. That is the quiet side. November also has everything the summer crowd never sees: the foliage, which peaks here two or three weeks after the mainland, the resident-only beaches open to anyone who walks, the gardens that go free, the bay scallops coming out of the ponds, and Thanksgiving week, which is the one week between Columbus Day and Christmas when the island fills up again. Below is what November on Martha’s Vineyard looks like, what is open, and how to get here when there is only one boat.
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Know Before You Go
The ocean holds the island warm, so the foliage begins in mid-October and peaks from late October into early or mid-November. Middle Road in Chilmark for red maples and stone walls, Felix Neck for color in the salt marsh, the Correllus State Forest for miles of oak.
Every beach is free and walkable in the off-season, and the summer resident-only beaches, Lambert’s Cove and Lucy Vincent, open to anyone on foot. Long Point is reached by its winter road, Deep Bottom Road; walking in is free, and a car is $25 for non-members.
Mytoi on Chappaquiddick is free from November through April. Polly Hill Arboretum drops to $5. Island Alpaca is free for everyone from November 2 to April 30, open daily 10 to 4.
From October, island families wade the ponds with dip nets for bay scallops, and visitors can join with a permit from the town whose water they fish: Edgartown’s family season opened October 1, dip net only in the ponds, one bushel a week (non-residents need the $350 annual license for scallops, since the $100 weekly one leaves them out), Chilmark’s on October 7, 2026 ($50 plus a $100 scallop endorsement, a bushel and a half a week), and Tisbury’s opens October 31 for Lagoon Pond and November 21 for Lake Tashmoo; there only the $400 annual permit covers scallops. Aquinnah’s $45 weekly permit runs May to September under its posted rules and leaves scallops out, so a call to the harbormaster comes first.
For dark skies, try the Aquinnah overlook, Lobsterville and South Beach. In Arctic irruption years the snowy owls arrive on the south-shore beaches from late November. Sunset at Menemsha still gets its applause, just at 4:20.
Fall color across Vineyard Haven Harbor, with the Lagoon Pond drawbridge in the distance and no boats on the moorings. From October 23 to spring, every ferry lands in this harbor.
Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26, 2026, and the week around it is the busiest the island gets between Columbus Day and Christmas in Edgartown. Families who own or rent in summer come back for the long weekend, the Woods Hole lots fill on the Wednesday, and the year-round restaurants that serve a holiday meal are booked by the middle of the month. The pattern below is mostly how the week worked in 2025. The first 2026 listings are already up (the Harbor View’s Thanksgiving buffet and the Oak Bluffs Turkey Trot), and our winter guide adds the rest as they post.
Know Before You Go
For 2026, Bettini at the Harbor View has posted a Thanksgiving buffet from noon to 7 PM (last seating), $165 for adults and $75 for children 12 and under, paid when you book. In 2025 the Black Dog Tavern ran four seatings, at 11:30, 1:30, 3:30 and 5:30. Both book out, so reserving by mid-month is the safe move.
The Maker and 9 Craft Kitchen in Vineyard Haven sold complete take-home menus in 2025, roasted and deboned turkeys with the sides and pies, in limited numbers through their websites. Morning Glory Farm takes pre-orders for its pies and sides and for Massachusetts-grown turkeys from Out Post Farm (turkeys by November 18, kitchen dishes by November 22), and the stand itself now stays open all winter. Black Sheep in Edgartown has its 2026 menu out too, ordered by 4 PM on November 17 for pickup the day before Thanksgiving.
The Vineyard Artisans Thanksgiving Festival, Friday and Saturday, November 27 and 28, 10 AM to 4 PM at the Agricultural Hall in West Tisbury, its 30th year. Much of the island’s holiday shopping happens here.
The Oak Bluffs Turkey Trot is a 5K on Thanksgiving morning, Thursday, November 26, at 8:30 AM, from in front of the police station to MV Chowder Co. on Oak Bluffs Avenue. Online sign-up is $22.20 with the fee and closes November 25 at 10 PM.
Felix Neck’s Fall Festival is on Friday, November 27, 10 AM to 2 PM, and free: hayrides, live music, wildlife demonstrations, wreath making and a bird call competition.
The Chowder Cup is on Saturday, November 28, at the Dr. Daniel Fisher House in Edgartown; the time isn’t posted yet.
The Wednesday before and the Sunday after are the two winter days when the Vineyard Haven boat and the Woods Hole lots feel like August. A car crossing needs a reservation, and arriving an hour early helps.
Nearly everything closes, including the supermarkets in recent years, and the restaurants above are among the very few open. The rental-house turkey needs to be in the fridge by Wednesday afternoon.
An island beach with nobody on it, clear water running up the sand. Every beach is free and open to walkers from now until spring, including the ones you cannot get near in July.
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The month opens with the clocks: daylight saving ends Sunday, November 1, and the 4:40 sunset arrives that afternoon. The 32nd Barn Raisers Ball, which celebrates the 1994 raising of the Agricultural Hall, is Saturday, November 7, from 7:30 to 10 PM at the hall in West Tisbury, with Johnny Hoy and the Bluefish and a suggested $10 at the door. Featherstone Center for the Arts opens its Holiday Gift Show the same day and keeps it going daily from noon to 4 PM until December 16, except Veterans Day and Thanksgiving Day. There is no First Friday in Vineyard Haven in November; the series resumes December 4. Then the lit month starts: Light Up Oak Bluffs is set for Saturday, December 5, 2026 (times not posted yet), Vineyard Haven’s First Friday is December 4, and in past years that evening has kicked off the town’s ’Tis the Season weekend (the 2026 program is not posted yet), and Christmas in Edgartown runs December 10 to 13. If you can only come once in the off-season, the Thanksgiving-to-Edgartown stretch is the one to pick. Our December guide has the whole month. Our events calendar has every date, and the fall guide and October guide cover the weeks before.
Heirloom pumpkins and squash spread under the trees at Morning Glory in October: warty, pale, striped and the classic orange.
Bare dock pilings in the cold season, the water flat and the boats gone. Katama Bay is one of the scallop ponds.
By November the regular seasonal ferries are done: the Island Queen and Seastreak made their last regular runs on October 12, Hy-Line on October 25, and the Falmouth boat to Edgartown after Labor Day. Seastreak comes back for Thanksgiving week only, with New Bedford to Vineyard Haven sailings from November 25 to 29. What remains is the Steamship Authority from Woods Hole, every day, roughly every 75 minutes, into Vineyard Haven only, and it runs more often than most people expect. Walk on for $11 and the fare-free VTA bus takes you on from the terminal. A car is $79 each way on the November rate and needs a reservation; general vehicle standby on the Vineyard route ended in January 2025, so there is no turning up and hoping. The boats run their full schedule on Thanksgiving Day itself, but the Steamship reservation office is closed that day, so the car crossing is easiest sorted out ahead of time. The VTA buses don’t run on Thanksgiving Day, though, so a walk-on arrival that day means a taxi or a ride. Cape Air flies year-round from Boston, about 40 minutes, with fares that vary by date. The ferry guide has the timetable and the parking lots, our after-Labor-Day guide explains the switch, and the flying guide covers the airport.
An orange sky over the water. The specks on the horizon are offshore wind turbines, which show on clear days from the south shore.
Walkers, birders, people who like a fire and a book, families with a summer house and a turkey to cook, and anyone who wants the island at its cheapest with the restaurants still open in the harbor towns. It is not for swimmers (55 degrees is wetsuit water), for anyone who needs a choice of up-island dinners, or for a first visit if you want to see the towns running. Three or four days works well, based in Edgartown or Vineyard Haven so dinner is a walk, with a warm jacket, a hat and the days planned around a 4 PM sunset. Our winter guide covers the trails, the year-round restaurants and the nor’easter rules, and the what’s open year-round list has the full inventory. If the fire and the book are the draw, our video below is a pellet stove burning on a winter evening, sound and all.
Filmed November 2025
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 walking, foliage, quiet and low prices, yes. Highs are around 54, the ocean is about 52 and unswimmable, sunset is about 4:40, and many seasonal businesses are closed. The harbor towns keep a core of year-round restaurants and hotels; up-island is very thin.
The year-round restaurants (the Black Dog Tavern, Offshore Ale, the Barn, the Newes, State Road), the year-round hotels led by the Harbor View, every beach and trail, Mytoi and Polly Hill, Island Alpaca, the libraries and the museum. The seasonal hotels, most shops and nearly all up-island dining are closed until spring.
Yes, every day. From October 23 the Steamship Authority runs its winter timetable from Woods Hole to Vineyard Haven only, roughly every 75 minutes, first boat 6:00 AM and last 9:45 PM from Woods Hole (9:30 PM from Vineyard Haven). The seasonal passenger ferries have stopped for the year, except Seastreak, which runs New Bedford to Vineyard Haven over Thanksgiving week (November 25 to 29).
Yes: it is the busiest week between Columbus Day and Christmas in Edgartown. The Wednesday before and the Sunday after fill the Vineyard Haven boat and the Woods Hole lots, the holiday dinners book by mid-month, and the Artisans Thanksgiving Festival at the Agricultural Hall runs the Friday and Saturday.
Yes, and November is often the peak. The ocean keeps the island warm, so the color runs two to three weeks behind mainland Massachusetts, from late October into early or mid-November. Middle Road in Chilmark, Felix Neck and the State Forest are the drives and walks to take.
Ferry timetable and fares are the Steamship Authority’s published winter schedule for October 23, 2026 to January 5, 2027; weather figures are our month-by-month climate table from NOAA normals; sunset times are calculated for Edgartown; the Thanksgiving-week details are from the restaurants’ and farm’s own 2025 announcements and the Vineyard Artisans and Oak Bluffs Association postings for 2026; garden, farm and preserve fees are from the organizations’ sites, checked September 2026. Some Thanksgiving 2026 menus and dates are already posted and the rest go up as the holiday gets closer, so it helps to check before you book.
From MV Vacation, written on Martha’s Vineyard · https://mvvacation.com/blog/marthas-vineyard-in-november · printed . Hours, prices and schedules change; the page online is the current one.
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.
The twelve things that catch first-timers on Martha's Vineyard, from car reservations and the two ferry terminals to resident-only beaches, the last bus from Aquinnah and cash for the Chappy Ferry, each with an easy fix, plus the fall and winter dates.
EV charging on Martha's Vineyard: about 34 public stations, nearly all Level 2, listed town by town with ports and prices (the Edgartown Park and Ride, town halls, libraries, the airport, the Aquinnah cliffs), two fast-charging ports at the VTA, the Chilmark plans, no Supercharger, the ferry's EV rules, and how to run an electric week on a 20-mile island.
Island tip of the day Timing No. 73 of 79 New tip at midnight, island time
Lambert's Cove Beach is resident-sticker in summer (open to everyone from 5 to 9 PM); from mid-September it opens to everyone.
The free island library · 2026
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