Popular searches:
The Oak Bluffs waterfront on a busy summer day, the ferry in at the pier and people at the picnic tables along the water. The boat lands here from mid-May to October 22, and the town starts the moment you step off.
Oak Bluffs or Edgartown: where to stay on Martha's Vineyard, compared on the ferry (the summer boat lands in Oak Bluffs), room rates ($200 to $400 vs $250 to $450 in August), nightlife (Circuit Avenue to 12:30 vs a 10 PM bylaw), restaurants, beaches, parking, children and couples, with the honest middle answer.
Six miles of bike path separate them and the free bus does it in thirteen minutes, so you will see both. The question is where you sleep, because that decides what your evenings are and how much the week costs. Oak Bluffs is the lively one: the summer ferry docks in town, the carousel and the gingerbread cottages are a walk from the boat, and it has the island’s only real bar scene. Edgartown is the polished one: whaling captains’ houses, the harbor and the lighthouse, the deepest bench of good restaurants and upscale rooms, and evenings that end with a drink on a deck rather than a band. The rates below are the ones we use in our own guides.
Table of contents [Show]
Circuit Avenue in the off-season, the lamp posts wrapped in holiday lights and the street nearly empty. In summer it is the one street on the island where the evening goes late; a few blocks off it, you hear the harbor instead.
Know Before You Go
The boat docks in town. The Surfside is across from the pier, the Oak Bluffs Inn and the Pequot are a few blocks up, and nothing needs a taxi.
The Ritz, Offshore Ale, the harbor bars and the Sand Bar are all on one loop. Elsewhere on the island most evenings wind down early.
Mid-range rooms usually cost less than in Edgartown, the Victorian inns come with breakfast, and the cheap pleasures (the cottages, the carousel for $5, the Inkwell) are here.
Carousel, ice cream, a calm beach and the Campground lanes, all on foot. Grand Illumination Night in August happens here; our guide has the date.
One of America’s oldest Black resort communities and the Methodist campground share the same few blocks, and both are still very much in use.
Before you book
What Martha’s Vineyard really costs, free
Ferry fares by the day of the week, the room tax every town charges and four whole trips added up. Free with the island letter, together with our Beach, Fall and Where to Stay guides.
One-click unsubscribe, and we never share your email.
Know Before You Go
Most of the island’s formal dining rooms and the Harbor View’s deck are here, and the good tables book up weeks ahead in summer.
Edgartown is quiet by ten and the streets empty early.
The Charlotte Inn, the Harbor View, Faraway and the Hob Knob are the island’s most formal places to stay, and North Water Street is a lovely walk.
South Beach is a free bus ride away and the 90-second Chappy ferry leaves from Memorial Wharf; our Chappaquiddick day starts here.
Edgartown’s Christmas weekend in December is one of the island’s biggest winter events, and the Harbor View and several inns stay open through the winter.
Edgartown Harbor from the water side: boats at the docks and the shingled waterfront behind them. Dinner on this stretch means a reservation.
Most first-time visitors are happiest sleeping in Oak Bluffs and eating one good dinner in Edgartown, or the reverse for couples: sleep in Edgartown, spend one evening on Circuit Avenue, take the last Route 13 bus home. The two towns sit at the two ends of the State Beach bike path, so getting between them is easy. Vineyard Haven, the year-round town with the year-round ferry, is the practical third answer, and our where-to-stay guide covers all three with rates by season. For a house rather than a room, the rental guide explains the Saturday-to-Saturday rhythm in both towns.
Edgartown houses under a pink evening sky. By this hour the town is winding down; in Oak Bluffs the bands are tuning up.
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, filmed on the island.
Oak Bluffs in summer, because the ferry docks in town, the rooms cost less and the carousel, the cottages and the beach are on foot. Edgartown if the trip is a couple’s occasion or built around restaurants.
Oak Bluffs. August mid-range rooms run about $200 to $400 a night against $250 to $450 in Edgartown, and Edgartown’s luxury tier starts at $600. Both towns are fully wet with bars and package stores, so the drink costs the same.
About six miles along the State Beach bike path, flat the whole way, or thirteen minutes on the free Route 13 bus. You can sleep in one and eat in the other every night.
Edgartown, which is quiet by ten. Oak Bluffs’ Circuit Avenue runs to 12:30 last call, and a room a few blocks toward Sea View or Pequot Avenue gives you both.
Only on the seasonal Pied Piper from Falmouth (Memorial Day to Labor Day) to Memorial Wharf. Otherwise land in Oak Bluffs or Vineyard Haven and take the free bus.
Room bands are from our where-to-stay research, compiled from property sites and booking engines in August 2026 and re-checked in September; ferry landings and dates are the Steamship Authority’s 2026 schedules; bar hours are from the venues as published in September 2026. The opinions are ours, from living here.
Island tip of the day Shopping No. 31 of 86 New tip at midnight, island time
The Chappy Ferry costs $5/person round-trip and $17 for a car with driver. Cards work at the Edgartown-side kiosk; bring cash for the boat itself.
A family reunion on Martha's Vineyard: what a whole-family house costs with the 11.7 percent tax and cleaning fee, why bedrooms decide how many it sleeps, the cheaper alternatives, walking twenty people onto the ferry instead of bringing cars, feeding the group, the one restaurant night to book a year out, and the free week.
Who summered where on Martha's Vineyard, and what a visitor can actually see: Eisenstaedt's Menemsha, Benton's Chilmark, Cronkite's Edgartown harbor, Styron and Buchwald in Vineyard Haven, McCullough and Katharine Graham in West Tisbury, Belushi's grave at Abel's Hill, and the Onassis farm in Aquinnah that opened to the public in 2025. Public places named, private homes left alone.
The Martha's Vineyard honeymoon guide from a local: the best month to come (September), the eight inns that are actually romantic with 2026 rates, a five-day plan from Edgartown to the Aquinnah cliffs, the dinners worth a Resy reservation, the catboat and tall-ship sails, the dry-town bottle rule, and a worked budget for five nights.
How renting a house on Martha's Vineyard actually works: agencies versus owner sites, the January booking rush, weekly rents by size with the 11.7 percent tax on top, which town suits which week, what the lease leaves out (linens, keys, trash, air conditioning), the 2026 town rules on short-term rentals, the scams, and the beach passes that come with a lease.
Martha's Vineyard has exactly one campground: the Family Campground in Vineyard Haven. Complete guide to sites, prices, booking, glamping options, and the Cape Cod camp-and-ferry strategy.
Where to stay on Martha's Vineyard in 2026. From $40 hostel bunks to $1,000 luxury inns, plus vacation rentals and camping across all six towns.
The free island library · 2026
Beach reports, events worth a day, ferry heads-ups. Sent when there is something worth telling. The Beach Guide, The Vineyard in the Fall, Where to Stay and What It Really Costs arrive with your welcome email.
Get the free guides
Island prices, hours and details change often. Please verify with businesses before you go. Full disclaimer
The island right now
7:12 PM island time
Four free downloads · 2026
The island guides, in your inbox
The Beach Guide, The Vineyard in the Fall, Where to Stay and What It Really Costs. No spam, one-click unsubscribe.
